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inkdemonapologist · 1 year

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Yknow if were talking about rarepairs/crackships….how about Sammy/Grant? Listen hear me out- i think I started shipping them a few years ago back during the og fandom days, but since my interest in bendy has been reignited, so has my interest in this ship lol. And im ngl, have you ever noticed how similar Grant’s office is to Sammy’s Sanctuary? They both play that same whispering effect when you enter them, they both have an ink pipe in them, they both have a bendy item in them (sammys bendy plushie and grants bendy clock), both have writing on the wall…

Even just beyond that, its implied they died the same way too, from drinking ink? And how they both seem to put the blame on others for joeys mistreatment (sammys whole “useless sheep” bit in that newspaper and grants “STOP THE WASTERS!!” bit on his office walls). and even though theres like, BARELY ANY GRANT CONTENT IN CANON, he does have a minor connection to the ink demon, as one of the flashbacks in chapter 1 is of the ink demon on level S near his office, and although this probably doesnt mean anything, the fact that the first time we see sammys cult is when we open the door to the archives via a handle we had to get from grants office specifically….👀

Plus just the miscellaneous stuff like grants va being a musician, one whose song was specially placed in sammys office- idk, *marge voice* I just think they’re neat! :)

THATS AN INTERESTING ONE… I’ve seen it around a fair bit lately but it feels recent??

Before I dive in, I do wanna address the ink-drinking – I’m a little biased, since I tend to headcanon the ink-drinking as unique to Sammy, but I feel like Grant also drinking ink is not something that’s implied so much as a headcanon that got popular? We can pretty easily accept that Grant transformed at SOME point, and the shared whispers imply that they were both under some inky influence, but that doesn’t tell us that ink-drinking was to blame. The note in BatDR about Grant looking ill could certainly be used for an ink-drinking headcanon, too, but as far as Evidence I think all it tells us for sure is that Grant was Very Stressed. [also trying to merge BatDR Grant and BatIM Grant into one entity seems messier the longer I think about it but I CANT GET DISTRACTED BY THAT NOW, THATS FOR ANOTHER POST]

ANYWAY, all the little things about this one having a valve in that one’s office and this one being voiced by a guy who did a song that’s in the other one’s office are neat but ultimately I feel like that stuff isn’t want sells a ship, for me – the biggest thing is a compelling dynamic between the characters.

There’s so much between these two that complicates them –

-- good money and hiring his own people were Sammy’s two big asks when he took the Music Director job, so he could easily be a source of financial strain and seen as one of the “wasters” Grant is so frustrated with, and it’s also not hard to imagine Sammy blaming Grant as one of the useless sheep who can’t do his job right once paychecks start coming in late. Add to that Grant being described as having no creativity at all in the Employee’s Handbook, and trying to imagine what he would relate to in Sammy “my special interest is music” Lawrence. Though I don’t know, that one could be fun. Does Grant like music despite not “getting” it? Can Sammy and Grant relate to each other through the intersection of music and math? Or does Grant just conceptualise music as a kind of math, which Joey thinks is boring but Sammy knows is not far off, and Sammy with his partially jazz background is INTRIGUING to Grant because what he’s making sounds good but isn’t following the rules…? IDK, Grant and Sammy learning to understand each other through understanding each other’s work is a neat thought.

On the surface they’re both frustrated men who want things to be under control and are frustrated with Joey’s spontaneity, but while Grant is having a meltdown over WHAT WILL JOEY SAY?, Sammy is screaming about pleasing a god rather than a man and certain that he’s found the one who will Set Them Free. Grant’s characterisation could be taken in a lot of directions, but it’s not hard to imagine him as the phobic to Sammy’s counterphobic.

Which is INTERESTING, because you get a dynamic that seems to work, as Sammy gives the impression of a leader who can offer certainty and something to depend on – and you CAN depend on him – but he’s actually a follower at heart who desperately needs someone to answer to, someone to believe in, and I don’t know if Grant can be that someone. Sammy and Grant BOTH want to be the one behind the scenes with someone else in the spotlight. On the other hand… we know Grant’s massaging numbers and fudging things and illegally hiding assets. It wouldn’t be hard to characterise him with a bit of ruthlessness as well, someone who’s not afraid to break the rules when he feels he has to; while Sammy seems frustrated, overstimulated, and perpetually at odds with a system he doesn’t fit in, Grant is willing to learn the system well enough to bend the rules to his advantage and know how to get away with it.

If you go with this take, you get a pair that could be dangerously effective but also dangerously fragile. I don’t think they would challenge or change each other so much as just reinforce each other’s ruthless caution – as long as they’re in cahoots, they’d be loyal to each other and value no principle above each others’ well-being. But the instant either of them mistrusts the other, they’d combust.

#this one's hard to talk about concisely b/c there are just a LOT of options for how to characterise Grant #but it's a neat concept...#grant x sammy #i'd say there was magic there #i know you have questions you always do

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d1stalker · 22 days

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hii 🫶🏻

this may be a weird question but, as someone who’s been inspired by your writing and now really wants to get back into writing again even though it’s been years, do you have any advice on how you come up with such creative ideas for your fics?

like not only do you come up with unique ideas that are so interesting and exactly what your readers yearn to read, but you’re also able to make them deliciously lengthy which is such an impressive goal that many writers would love to achieve! so i would really appreciate any tips you may have on how you do that (and maybe also any tips on writing dialogue because your dialogue is so incredibly realistic, meanwhile mine has always been disastrous because of how much i struggle with it… lol) 🥲

but yeah, feel free to just ignore this ask! i don’t mean to dump my struggles onto you. i’m just such a fan of your writing and never fail to be impressed by you, so i thought i’d ask <3

anyway i hope you have a great day / night! thank you for writing and sharing your fics with us!

Another amazing message yawl are gonna make me cry 🥺❤️

I'm so happy I had a role in reigniting your interest in writing! I've always had a really active imagination, ever since I was really young I'd just think you know? I know that isn't helpful at all so here is some stuff i do that gets me thinking:

listen to music (specifically film scores - so I can imagine scenes that go with them)

sit down and write a list of what ifs - these can serve as possible au ideas!

read other stories! the more you read, the more ideas can merge into eachother, creating something completely unique

I primarily do the first and last. I also listen to music as I write to really get into the mood, and I find the ideas just come to me that way. Also, this is no shade to anyone because everyone loves a good trope, but I feel like there are a lot of stories with similar plot points, so I try to actively choose something else to write about.

Length wise, it's all actually a bit accidental. I mean, there are some stories that I know will be long based on how much detail in the plot I include, but for the most part, I think it's just because I cannot stop writing. This goes back to what I do to get ideas, and when I have a good idea, I am able to flesh it out and write a lot!

For dialogue, I say what I write out loud! If I cringe, or like physically cannot bring myself to say it, then it's getting scrapped. I kind of just write what I would say, and go from there! (this is terrible advice I'm sorry)

You didn't dump any struggles on me! I'm so glad you messaged and I hope you post something soon - I'd love to read it :)

#d1:mail

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truebluewhocanoe · 10 months

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Any particular Dr Nyarlathotep headcanons/musings pertaining to the second and fifth doctors? What you've written so far is fantastic and It's interesting to see what people think would fit the traditionally more unassuming doctors

Oooh, that is an excellent question! Actually, I've got a Dr Nyarlathotep-y Fifth Doctor one-shot in the works right now. I won't give too much detail but my headcanons for him boil down to two ideas: 1. A lot of Nyarlathotep Five art has angelic or 'biblically accurate angel' vibes. I like this a lot and would also add onto the white/gold color scheme and general aesthetic of the Sin Eaters and Lightwardens from Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

Here's two examples to get the vibe:

The other Nyarlathotep vibe idea I have for Five is that he's still got bits leftover from the Watcher in him. My specific headcanon for the Watcher is that he's a future version of the Doctor from a timeline where the entropy destroyed the universe, just clinging onto existence becaues Nyarlathotep (and also maybe Timeless Child). The universe already having been destroyed means he had nothing to lose by going back in time and rewriting events, but, paid the price in that he- the focal point of the two timelines- would merge back into his original self, which would be lethal and cause a regeneration. So, 4 didn't die of fall damage at all, he died to the entropy effects in the Watcher. Here's some more on that idea in this fic, and how it might manifest in 5, in this post. And stay tuned for that one-shot I'm writing- it'll hopefully go up today or tomorrow!

I don't really have any specific fleshed-out ideas for 2. I really like his "oooh I'm just a little guy (who's going to out-maneuver you at the last second when you least expect it)" dynamic but I'm not 100% sure where to go for a full Dr Nyarlathotep headcanon for him. I'll have to think on it! I do know I'd like the monochrome visuals of the 1st and 2nd Doctors' eras to be incorporated into their form somehow. Maybe when 2 unfurls his Nyarly form he just kinda, folds out like an origami. Get back to me later on that one

Thank you thank you thank you for coming into my ask box, I love talking about Dr Nyarlathotep stuff (or anything with the show really, it doesn't have to be Nyarly related) and this helps me get my creative juices flowing!

#doctor who #second doctor #fifth doctor #dr nyarlathotep #sorry to everyone who's watching my feed for all the star beast stuff im reblogging #no just kidding im not sorry #gotta watch more second doctors episodes i know

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chaoshomeschooler · 4 years

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1/26/2021

a personal note:

I did not get a n y studying done at all yesterday and I probably won’t get much done today. That’s bc my sleep schedule is insane right now - I was up til 4:30 cleaning my sewing room so I can finally start on commissions. For the record, it’s not my fault that it was a mess - my parents use it as a storage room so all their stuff was encroaching on mine.

I’ve been sleeping when I should be studying because I have to go to my more intense job after this. I think I’ll be able to watch a lecture before I have to leave tho. Since I’m gonna be so tired all day I think I’ll be able to get to sleep as soon as I get home from work - then my sleep schedule will be normal and I’ll be able to do school all day tomorrow.

It’s kind of nice that I have like 5 followers rn so I can keep using this blog for whatever crap like this until I can actually figure out what I’m doing. I do actually have a studying tips post in the works so that’s exciting. I’ve been considering making it a youtube video but I’m not so sure about showing my face.

stu-dna challenge day 26:

what’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make?

Letting go. I can’t give a specific instance but I remember there’s been several times in my life when I’ve had to let go of something or of a person or a dream. Especially when I was younger and I was even more confused about my future - I would get it stuck in my head and heart that I wanted to do One Specific Thing as my career for the rest of my life - one of those dreams was being a composer. My mom kept telling me that I wouldn’t make any money and that it wouldn’t work out. I honestly didn’t have any natural talent for it but for some reason I was convinced that I was going to make it and like be the next Hans Zimmer or something.

I actually got the opportunity to try my hand at composing around that time. I was taking some kind of online masterclass in composing (I was in like 6th or 7th or 8th grade and this was designed for adults) (also I’m pretty sure the class was a scam) but my library had a recording studio - so I went in there, having done relatively minimal research on how to use the DAW and having no one to help me. But damn it I locked myself in that room for several hours a week until I had finally managed to kind of make something. If I remember correctly it was like 16 bars? or 8? I just know it wasn’t any longer than 3 minutes. That whole process was one of the hardest things I’ve done - partially because I was tiny and had no skills and no idea what I was doing but also because I was so. freaking. depressed. I think my grandfather who I was super close with had died earlier that year and I was in a really deep depression until November.

But yeah so basically once that whole process was done I was so drained and I had less than no hope - like my hope was in the negative if that’s possible. But I still wanted to be a composer so so badly even though what I had just went through was like the worst thing ever. I remember when I was going through the process of realizing I h a d to give up my dream even though it was the last thing I wanted to let go of.

Looking back on it like, I’m obviously not going to be great at My Future Career TM in 8th grade so I could have just tabled the idea and focused on the present. I think it worked out in the long run tho. I’m happy with my current creative abilities in other mediums. And if I ever want to indulge 8th grade Pineapple I can always go take a basic composing class and try again.

spell studies challenge day 2:

2. Tue. Jan 26: What classes are you taking this semester?

Death and Dying

Technical writing

Trigonometry (I think I’ve been on trig for three years bc I always put math on the back burner. I can’t believe I actually have to finish it. I think I was supposed to be in calc by now)

Personal Finance

Them Bookz™ - idk what to call this but my mom assigns me a different self help/finance/networking book per month. so far I’ve read:

How to Win Friends and Influence People (9/10 - very good advice, pretty easy to understand and super interesting anecdotes. Would recommend to anyone no matter their age or career aspirations.)

Rich Dad Poor Dad (7.5/10 - pretty good but I read most of it all in one night so I don’t remember much of it and it was hard to summarize the main point/points - still has some good advice tho - just read it in a normal amount of time and during waking hours so you can actually understand. Also spoilers: he didn’t actually have two dads who refused to merge their finances despite being partners - the poor dad is his real dad and the rich dad is his friend’s dad)

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (3/10 - there’s a bit of good advice in the first three habits but don’t waste your time - just look up a summary online. I hate the author. Full post on this book here.)

I know this isn’t a course but all my college apps and scholarship essays take up as much time and effort as 2 or 3 courses so I would like to give myself credit for that

wow another apology:

This was excessively long. I have to figure out a new format

#study challenge #spring quarantine fall challenge #SpringQuarantineStudyChallenge #stu-dna challenge #high school #college applications #homeschooler #homeschooling #home school studyblr #homeschool studyblr #home school #homeschool #studyblr

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unsurepotatohooman · 5 years

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The Perfect Color

Fandom : TS Sides

Characters : Patton, Logan (Roman and Virgil are mentioned like once)

Genre : Fluff :))

Warnings : None

Word Count : 1884

Summary : Logan loves poetry, and Patton loves Logan. The moral side decides to mix the two.

A/N : I finally finished this story! It took about two hours to write after procrastinating for two and a half weeks and then I edited it a lil. I specifically wrote this fic for @dragonsaphirareads writing contest (who y’all should totally check out btw if you haven’t already). The song used is “Perfect Color” by SafteySuit which I happened to come across not too long ago and I loved it! It sounded so much like Patton so I had to give this a try!! Anyways, enough rambling. I hope you guys enjoy!

Work:

Patton gripped the paper in his hands as he made his way down the hall. He tried his best to keep from shaking but nerves were getting the best of him.

Everyone who knows Logan knows he loves poetry, but you would never know truly how much unless you paid attention. Patton always paid attention. He would observe Logan’s eyes and the way they sparkle like the stars. He would listen to the sound of Logan’s voice as his eyes scanned a particularly interesting piece, and he could hear the wall that Logan held his emotions behind break a little. He would giggle at the tone of Logan’s voice when he would assure Patton that he never sings, and that he only reads the poems. Though, he has rapped to Patton a few times on occasion before and after the video where he battles against Roman. Finally, Patton’s heart would swell as he saw the small smile adorn Logan’s features as he shared something so close with him to Patton, and the proud face he wore when Patton would reference something about poetry. Every time Patton got Logan to talk about poems, he would fall even harder for him.

This is why he decided to ask Logan for poetry lessons. They would visit the class room in Logan’s dream space and would write for hours every Sunday afternoon. Patton took a little while to catch on, and Logan got a little frustrated, but lesson after lesson Patton was finally understanding the concept of it, and had even written a few practice pieces for Logan. Logan was always pleased with Patton’s willingness to learn, and Patton found himself wishing the week away so he could see that smile on Logan’s face again.

It had been about four months since they had started those poetry sessions, and Patton finally admitted to himself that he had feelings for a certain tie-clad side. After a lengthy conversation with Roman, and another conversation with Virgil to help filter out the more... “extreme” suggestions from the creative side, Patton was ready to finally read his secret poem to Logan. He had begun writing it at about their third month in, and finally finished it last week. It took a whole week for him to work up the courage to even mention it to the logical side.

Patton walked up to the indigo colored door and eyed it with a timid expression. He closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths and tried to imagine that the situation wasn’t as intimidating as it seemed. Finally, he opened his eyes and knocked as cheerily as he could before he could put this off any longer.

There were a few long strides from inside the room. Patton heard a lock click and the door slid open to reveal Logan, standing with his usual attire.

“Good afternoon, Patton.”

“Hey Lo lo!” Patton said happily even as the nerves were tearing him up from the inside.

Logan raised an eyebrow at the high pitch in Patton’s voice, but moved aside nonetheless.

“Actually Logan,” Patton started, “I was wondering if you could join me in my dreams space for this lesson.”

Logan gave Patton a skeptic look. “I don’t believe that will be a problem. Give me just a moment.” Logan walked back into his room and returned with a few notebooks and a journal full of his own poems.

“Oh!” Patton exclaimed, “You won’t need those. I’ve got us covered for today.”

“Oh?” Logan questioned, and Patton nodded.

“Yeah, I’ve got it! Don’t you sweat it!”

Logan looked down to his books and back to Patton. “Alright, I trust you Patton.” He then walked back in his room, placed the books down and joined Patton back in the hall.

“Ready?” Patton asked as Logan closed the door firmly behind him.

“Certainly.”

Patton took Logan’s hand and tried to ignore the color growing in his face. The two sunk down together and reappeared in Patton’s dream space, which at the moment, was pitch black.

“I must ask,” Logan started. “Why the sudden change? I know that change tends to not sit very well with you sometimes.”

“I just needed to try something new.” Patton smiled. He took his hand back from Logan, which helped his face to cool down, before snapping his fingers.

In an instant, the whole room around them began to change. Trees merged in from the darkness. In the branches there were fairy lights similar to the ones in Patton’s room. Their shoes disappeared revealing the ground underneath them as it turned to grass with various shades of different color flowers. Patton’s usual fatherly attire changed to a light blue, knee length dress. The rainbow trim matched the many different colored flowers in his flower crown. Logan had also gained a flower crown too of the same kind. Patton couldn’t help but feel a little self conscious when he saw color come to the logical side's face.

“P-patton, what’s going on?” Logan stuttered.

The moral side took a deep breath as he calmed the last bit of anxiety before finally speaking up. “I want to read you a poem.”

Logan had an intrigued but confused look on his reddening face. “You do?”

“Mhm.” Patton hummed, taking Logan’s hands again, “But I have to sing it to you.”

Logan didn’t even sigh at the fact that he was going to listen to another song, which Patton took as his que to begin. Music came from a record player that spawned near the tree line on the edge of the clearing as Patton began to sing.

Yellow nice to meet you

Do you know that you just blue my mind?

It was the perfect conversation, I think that I red about one time

I told a white lie when I told you, I’ve never been green with envy you,

You are the perfect color

Logan rolled his eyes at the very obvious word play, but immediately stopped when Patton pulled Logan to him and began to dance. The moral side’s voice filled the air as he led Logan through the flowy movements as they followed the song.

Ooh, ooh, ooh

The two sides spun around awkwardly, slowly sinking more and more into the music. Patton and Logan’s faces were both bright red as Patton moved into the verse.

To the misfit and the freaks,

To the outcasts and the geeks,

To the weird kids that don’t care

Cause you feel like you’re not there

To the ones who won’t look in

To the mirror because you’re scared

Don’t let the haters hate become your own, oh, no, no

The logical side focused on the lyrics as he looked down at their feet. Patton knew that Logan, like everyone else at some point in their life, had struggled with being the odd one out. With being the weird, nerd character in Thomas’ videos. Just like everyone else, Logan struggled with his own image and feelings on a daily basis. Patton knew he did even though it was difficult for many to see through Logan’s walls.

Now there is going to always be someone who thinks that art has no meaning

Who looks up at the Sistine Chapel and only sees a ceiling

But you, you you

Well you know what I would say to you?

You know what I would say to you?

Logan met Patton’s eyes as the moral side’s voice grew stronger with the emotion of the song. Their feet swept across the blades of grass as Patton led them along a little faster.

Yellow nice to meet you

Do you know that you just blue my mind?

It was the perfect conversation, I think that I red about one time

I told a white lie when I told you, I’ve never been green with envy you,

You are the perfect color

Their gaze broke as Patton’s face melted into a mischievous smile. Before Logan knew it, he was being twirled around by Patton.

Ooh, ooh, ooh

Patton pulled Logan back to himself allowing a small giggle to escape his lips during a pause in lyrics. Logan looked at him with wide eyes, but he didn’t say anything. The moral side took Logan by both of his hands and pulled back as he looked him in the eyes.

And in a perfect world

I’d get to say

It’s just black and white

There’s no room for grey

And there’s a color scheme inside every heart

Ours won’t be complete until we have yours

So yellow nice to meet you

Patton’s volume rose before falling into almost a soft whisper as he pulled Logan back in and the two began to slow dance, rocking side to side. The flowers in their crowns brightened as the song went on, the music fuling their vibrant shades.

Yellow nice to meet you

Do you know that you just blue my mind?

It was the perfect conversation, I think that I red about one time

I told a white lie when I told you, I’ve never been green with envy you,

You are the perfect color

Ooh, ooh, ooh

The music came back in full force, Patton’s voice rising back up with the volume as he poured his heart and soul out to the man he was holding and who was holding him.

Yellow nice to meet you

Do you know that you just blue my mind?

It was the perfect conversation, I think that I red about one time

I told a white lie when I told you, I’ve never been green with envy you,

You are the perfect color

Ooh, ooh, ooh

As the song came to a close, Logan spun Patton around before bringing the shorter of the two back in. Both of them were out of breath after all of the movement. The air filled with their breathless laughter as they clung to each other's arms. They slow danced for a while, even as the song faded out leaving them with the chirping of crickets and a light, blowing breeze.

“Logan?” Patton finally broke the silence.

“Hm?” Logan hummed, his eyes flickering to Patton as the moral side pulled away to look him in the face.

“I love you, so much. I had no idea how else to tell you.” He smiled sheepishly. “What do you think?”

Logan smiled. He smiled that smile that Patton loved so much that was reserved for the precious things in Logan’s life. The look that the taller of the two repressed to keep up his serious persona. He let down his walls to Patton, and Patton couldn’t ask for anything more as the words left Logan’s lips.

“I think we do make the perfect color.”

They pulled each other close and met in the middle as their lips touched. It was short and new but still filled with so much anxious passion that got both of their thoughts across quickly. When they pulled away, Patton burrowed into Logan’s chest as the two hugged, swaying from side to side as they enjoyed the last few moments of their Sunday afternoon together.

It’s safe to say that this became their new spot for their poetry meets.

#ts sides #logan sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #logic sanders #morality sanders #creativity sanders #anxiety sanders #romantic logicality #logicality #perfect color #SafteySuit #writing contest #potatohoomanwrites

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recentanimenews · 4 years

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REVIEW: The Eizouken Live-Action Movie Takes a Hands-Off Approach to the Source Material

A note on safety: The following movie review undertook the strictest of safety procedures to watch the anime film in cinemas in Japan, including washing hands with disinfectant before and after, sitting in seats apart from others, going to a cinema outside of the busy metro area, and wearing a mask during the entire runtime of the movie. We strongly urge everyone to follow the recommended safety protocol in your country and always wear a mask when in public — not just for your sake, but everyone else’s as well.

Let’s talk about faxes.

I promise that it will make sense soon.

To this day, faxes are huge in Japan. A lot of people, especially small business owners and freelancers, use them to send out invoices and the like, which must also be stamped with their personal seal known as a hanko. It’s an inescapable part of the giant, slow-to-change bureaucratic machine that permeates everyday life in Japan. Japan’s new administrative reform minister, Taro Kono, recently declared war on hanko and faxes, but it’ll be an uphill battle because Japan is basically the DMV if it became a country, with endless forms, applications, stamps, etc. It would actually be a pretty good topic for a satirical anime or something. But it’s not really the right topic for an Eizouken movie. Yet that’s what Tsutomu Hanabusa's live-action adaptation, which premiered on September 25, is ultimately all about.

The original Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! manga and anime had a pretty straightforward story: a trio of high school friends start a club to make traditional, hand-drawn anime. There was, of course, much more to it under the surface — like a look at how an artist’s environment influences their work, the very specific details that make anime feel more real, the delicate balance between creativity and realistic time/resource management necessary in any kind of artistic production, etc. The original story admittedly also had its flashier moments, though most of them took place in the imaginations of the three main characters: Midori Asakusa, Sayaka Kanamori, and Tsubame Mizusaki. On the whole, Eizouken is a celebration of the artistic spirit and a goofy, energetic love-letter to an industry that rarely loves animators back with its long hours and creative compromises.

The Eizouken live-action movie, on the other hand, has combat scenes, tactical police raids, elaborate battles, and, if I understood it correctly, a typhoon in a box. None of those are from the anime produced by the Eizouken club. They all happen within the movie’s “real” world and their goal is to push forward the idea that bureaucracy is bad.

Let me explain. In the manga and anime, the Student Council at Asakusa, Kanamori, and Mizusaki’s school was mostly an occasional roadblock they had to overcome to get some money for their club or to screen their finished anime. They did have a more prominently antagonistic role in the Culture Festival episode where they utilized their own security force, but to call them the villains would be really missing the point of the story. So anyway, the Student Council is 100 percent the villain of the Eizouken movie.

In the live-action film, the Student Council runs the school with its own paramilitary force that they use to enforce the ideas of Total Bureaucracy. They intervene in afterschool activities, merging existing clubs according to their whims, even if it doesn’t make a lick of sense. They can only be fought with signed forms and the like. They hate Eizouken because they represent disorder and because their existence challenges their rule-obsessed … rule. All of this was definitely a small part of the manga and anime but here, it’s been dialed up to 11 and given center stage, all to create an easily-recognizable Big Bad for the Eizouken girls.

Image via Amazon Prime

All of that doesn’t make the movie bad. On its own, it’s a semi-enjoyable story about insane high-school girls so obsessed with their administrative duties that they organize an armed police raid on their friends while yelling: “Don’t let them make that anime!” It’s a bit funny. But it’s not Eizouken.

An interesting thing about the live-action Eizouken movie is that it was supposed to premiere back in May (but got pushed back because of COVID-19) so it could follow the live-action series that aired before it. The series covers the events from the first chapter/episode up until the Student Council budget review, while the movie cuts down all that story into about 40-45 minutes and fills the rest of its runtime with new footage concluding with the screening of the Robot Club anime. This really hurts the movie because it was written with the assumption that the audiences have all seen the series, so a lot of crucial context is missing. Why do Asakusa, Kanamori, and Mizusaki have a problem with the Student Council? Covered in the series. How did they get their dilapidated clubhouse? Covered in the series. Why is there a cheerleader rebellion happening on the school grounds? Covered in the series.

If you’ve read the manga or seen the anime you won’t have trouble following it, although you probably will have trouble recognizing your favorite characters. Literally, the entire main cast is wrong. You remember how Mizusaki could flawlessly switch between her geek and model persona? Well, now she gets a bit flustered when people ask for her autograph. Also, there are no traces of the detailed-obsessed aspiring animator left in her (the film as a whole focuses very little on the actual act of making anime which is definitely ... a choice.) She’s not annoying or a bad influence. It’s not a terrible direction. It's just different. In the movie, Kanamori has exactly one scene where she can demonstrate her producer and money-and-resource-procuring skills and it happens off-screen. The rest of the time, she mainly yells at Asakusa and Mizusaki for not focusing. She did get a few more character-building scenes in the TV series but movies are meant to be as self-contained as possible so it would have been nice to see that here.

Image via Amazon Prime

Asakusa is probably the worst. In the manga and anime, she was an adventurer, a dreamer, a hard worker, a fully-rounded person. She had trouble with crowds or public speaking but she was brave in other areas, and she knew exactly what she wanted. The live-action Asakusa has a violent physical reaction when strangers talk to her. She also cries A LOT. She constantly has the look of a lost kitten about her, afraid of the world and what it might do to her. The animated/drawn Asakusa loved the world. She was fascinated and inspired by it to create anime. The live-action Asakusa does design to escape the real world because it scares her. Maybe this type of character could’ve worked in another series, but this just doesn't feel like Eizouken.

A lot of the choices in the movie are weird like that. The recap of the TV series happens in the form of a parody of samurai movies like Rashomon. There’s another parody of a Japanese variety show after that. A few American movie spoofs are also thrown in later. That’s possibly a commentary on modern entertainment, which would make sense in a story titled Eizouken (lit. “motion picture studies”), but the point of the anime and manga is that these girls aren’t making or studying general “motion pictures.” They make anime. Hand-drawn anime. They hammer in the difference between regular cinema and anime a lot. It’s one of the themes of Eizouken. But not in the live-action film, because, apparently, when the screenwriter read the name Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, they took it as a suggestion to stay as far away from the source material as possible.

Have you seen the live-action Eizouken movie or TV series? What did you think of them? Let us know in the comment section!

Cezary writes words on the internet. You should follow him on Twitter.

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zenosanalytic · 5 years

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4/20/19 HSE 8

Ok back at it

MEAT 15

Cool Fight; Not terribly surprising.

MEAT 16

Dirk’s as much Rose’s father as Rose is his Mother. I guess maybe it’s more convenient, psychologically, to choose a causative direction and stick with it, rather than accept the Mobial nature of their genesis, but for some reason it bugs me this keeps getting overlooked.

Dirk’s over here talking about how right he is all the time and I dont think he was ever right about anything even once in canon(aside from certain aspects of his talk with Dave, and choosing not to kill Hal) XD The only “plan” of his to work was the one re: entering the Session, and 1)he outsourced it to Hal and 2)it only worked because he managed to improvise his way through every aspect of it failing to go the way he thought it would, and even that probably had more to do with their entry being part of HiC’s plan to use them, so she wasn’t trying to wipe them.

Another Thing: I dont think the Ascent Differential is Aspect so much as Personality.

Another Another Thing: That Rose, when discussing her life-long fear of knowledge as a corrupting and ruining outside force(this being a person who always felt her mother wasn’t her mother, in some sense, and responded to that fear by rejecting emotional intimacy with said mother), doesnt see the connection between that life-long fear and her fear that Ascending will be bad, damaging, and corrupting, is Notable. Perspective continues to be important, and lack of self-awareness continues to hamstring ppl in this narrative.

MEAT 17

I feel like this new narrative belligerence on Dirk’s part isn’t going to work out too well for him with a person as aware and recalcitrant to narrative meddling as John. It’s going to be John and WV all over again. This is also a wonderful example of how personal flaw and specificity isn’t solved by Godhood in HS, and can really trip you up; basically all of this, including the “impotence” applies to Dirk, too, when others disagree with the direction he’s trying to push them in, and this whole rant may be meant, ironically, as an example of dramatic irony: basically, that Dirk’s rant about total control and knowledge reveals the limits of his knowledge and will be followed by examples of how limited his control is, which he can’t be aware of, but which the “impotent” audience will.

MEAT 18

...And, almost immediately, John’s objecting to the narration and doing things before Dirk “writes” him doing them(the sigh).

MEAT 19

“So yeah, I’m gonna allow it” Notice how he asserts power over situations he does not, in fact, have power over.

Which is kind of an interesting dynamic to bring up in the context of authorship? I mean: in the realm of nonfictional works an author can’t “make” things happen, only alter for their audience what DID happen. In some respect this is being written as equivalent to that dynamic; the simple admission in M17 that Dirk is misrepresenting events also admits those events happened another way than he’d prefer, meaning it’s also an admission of his lack of power over actual events. And, of course, all the other things I’ve been talking about, and the fact that everyone’s “character” is rooted in natures established in the original work. But in a fictional work an author’s creative power is absolute, and this is a fictional work; though I suppose a derivative or transformational one, which accounts for the shortfall. Another interesting aspect of this is that the “Author” is presented as a Narrator; Narrators merely describe what happened, they don’t create it. I was going somewhere more concrete with this but it popped out of my head >:T >:T

Ok so other aspects of this: I agree that Jane’s been established as a pretty ambitious person, but she was also always a pretty moral person and the way she’s going about this so far doesn’t seem to be in keeping with that part of herself. And also: she literally wants to create shortages, and thus the suffering shortages will cause, for... what? Nostalgia? Because she think she can run Capitalism better than the adults from before all this?? Because Hierarchy is Neat??? Seems like a whole handful of really petty, selfish, and juvenile reasons to me. Also one guaranteed to cause social conflict; I doubt a civ that’s never known material want is going to react too well to sudden starvation and financially-manufactured forced-labor(which, lbr, is what most work in our world is).

Obvsl, as a snake and member of the storied gens Atheris, I agree with Roxy&Calli that patriarchal human concepts of gender are not the end-all-be-all of identity, but what really jumps out to me here is Roxy’s description of the nature of their love for, and previous sexual interest in, Dirk which I find really True. Like: the sentiment of wanting to see children of a person because you really like that person and think they should continue, or of thinking having the kids you might have with another person would be pretty interesting. Also that loneliness is a hell of a drug 8T

I’m trying to figure out why this conversation would be circumstantially simultaneous with The Furthest Ring being “destroyed”, but I got Nothing :T :T :T

MEAT 20

So yeah, Jade’s merging with her Alt!Selves, not too surprising since it was heavily foreshadowed in Endgame.

Given that Sessions are located IN the Furthest Ring, and Sessions MAKE new multiverses, I find it being made out of “negative potential. The absence of a future” pretty ironic :p I wonder if the tentacle hair bit is a nod towards the Horror-Terrors, and theories about them being Players? Rose and Dirk’s view of Ascension would seem to suggest HTs might be SUCCESSFUL players who eventually abandoned their universes out of fear of the damage they’d do misusing their godhood(as it doesnt solve your personal problems), rather than the old HC of them being failed Players.

MEAT 21

My theory about “The Economy” being code for sex doesn’t stop feeling ever more confirmed by this narrative :|

Dirk’s anger at the idea of anyone not thinking he’s right about everything is Palpable on this page. Also I’d just like to note that This:

Is being said by a person currently in the middle of metaphysically manipulating a friends towards her worst impulses(and also potentially some amounts of self-hatred, give her thoughts re: femininity) for the sake of establishing a dictatorship through which she, as his agency-dimmed puppet, will enforce his personal politico-philosophical preferences regardless of what anyone else thinks and he’s saying it about people who just said This:

which is to say: a bunch of political pluralists who are NOT seeking to impose their morality on anyone but rather to establish a system where EVERYONE can SHARE their moral understanding of policy issues and come to a consensus decision on them, within the context of a political society DEFINED by the equality of all as political actors. There’s just so much that’s wrong, weak, and easily dismissable about Dirk’s argument here. Not to mention his obvs, undisguised, physical disgust for trolls >:T

And he’s doing all this Purely because, given his fixation on “Winning”, he wants to Win. Like: he’s not actually even pursuing what he considered good policy; he is, literally, doing this all for Pure Ego, which he has the gall(and lack of self-awareness) to accuse others of acting from. And this self-deluding buffoon is a person who believes himself “Ascended” and therefore possessed of a “higher” and “clearer” perspective on matters above their “petty” concerns about, oh non-humans being allowed to live as they like, or practice any political agency at all, and all ppls being spared unnecessary and pointless suffering due to entirely manufactured shortages. So much (real, actual)Irony, of so many types, in all of this, all at once.

An aside: I am really liking the political-mindedness of these Epilogues so far; really playing to my Interests uwu

The bit about Hybrid babs and shipnames is funny, and it doesn’t read like a shot at the fandom to me at all; it’s more a joke at Dave’s expense given the obvs distress Kanaya’s in and his inability to stop making the situation more awkward(itself prob the result of Bro’s neglect/abuse)

Oh hey look: it’s Dirk the “Omniscient” being distracted, caught unawares and off-guard by the actions of others, unable to handle the role&work he’s chosen for himself(ie “out of his depth”), unable to split his attention between even just two conscious ppl at once, and not knowing what others are thinking. Given this and his handling of Jade’s thoughts in the last section, I kinda feel like it’s less he can actually sense the thoughts of others, and more that he gets some kind of inkling or hunch, or maybe that’s it’s purely just him guessing(that’d fit real well with his comments on Roxy being “inscrutable” to him), or even just having an awareness of the plot he is narrating(and thinks he’s writing). Of course it could also be some kind of Heart thing; not really even access to their thoughts at all, but a sort of awareness of their Agency? Like: Heart is The Self and The Self is expressed through Agency, so he has, in some way, developed an awareness of “Self-Action”, which is to say, Agency? Kinda like how Dave “feels” Time and Jade “feels” Space and Rose “feels” Relevance. Which, just as an asnide, would be something super-basic powers-dev wise, since Dave started having a sense of Time way back in the early Acts, long before godhood. Though I can see how Dirk developing an awareness of OTHERS intentions(and feelings, potentially, given Heart’s other associations) would seem like a big step for him, given how self-absorbed he is.

Ok that’s it for this one I think. I know I’m not being terribly kind to Dirk in all this but, tbf, he’s being kind of a huge snide Dick in basically every respect, and I also don’t have a lot of Chill in me when it comes to 1)arrogant people or 2)manipulators (:T

#Homestuck #HS Epilogue #Homestuck Spoilers #zA Opinions #analytic posts

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fanresearcher-blog · 5 years

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My Criticism of Planet Puto

You know, just in case HC never finds about my criticism...

“Hello HC! My original criticism was lost…unfortunately but I`m determined to get my message to you. I wrote it on Word first before posting it in your submit. If you managed to get my old submission, then I`m glad that it worked, but if it didn`t then that`s why I have this. So HC, I wanted to do this for a long time but I needed to be composed of my thoughts first. Now I`m ready.

In this submission, I want to talk about the character development of your personification characters and character design. I`ll also talk a little bit of the lore by the end of the post. It is not intended for hate, it is just criticism. I am also aware that Planet Puto is more like random posts instead of comics or something. The reason I feel like giving criticism is for HC`s improvement in some stuff and to voice my concerns. Before I write my criticism, I would like to praise HC for her/his dedication to creating that group of Actor AU (I don`t know their names but it`s the Aswang lady and her Spanish-y husband and they had twins). I love your work since it has good art but mostly it`s because you post so often. Reading your posts become a part of my everyday routine.

So before we get to the specific criticism and tips, I`ll talk about my general problems with the personification characters. It appears to be, that the characters are used for meaningless fanservice. When I`m scrolling through the Planet Puto archives, once in a while I will see characters drawn with sexy poses or they have ship tease with someone. If it is part of their character, then that would make sense. So is everybody…smutty? It seems like whenever there is a major foreign country, they would be shipped with Elena or Emilio. There are entire pages filled with random pick-up lines from Emilio and all the art of Elena with the guys.

I`m not saying that shipping is bad. I think it is perfectly fine for some countries to be attracted to Emilio or Elena. What I don`t understand is…why? Why do those countries find Emilio or Elena attractive? What do they see in them? Please don`t say, that they love the Phils because Emilio is pogi and Elena is maganda. If that is the reason, why they love those twins, then that is not real love at all. Also…they can`t just be compatible because of politics! It is like shipping someone with another person just because they had a good business deal. It also makes me wonder if a country can even decide who to love instead of who they are told to by their bosses. It`s sad no?

It would be best that you create the character before the ship. If you create the ship before the character, they may end up not being their own person. Also pair the ones, who are naturally compatible. It`s like food combos, there are basics like cheese and tomato go so well but when you experiment you will also find out that green mango tastes great with bagoong. Relationships, like food combinations, should be compatible. When people talk about food combos, you hear “The tomato`s freshness balances out the saltiness of salted egg” or “A bit of chili actually brings out the flavor of vinegar”, so characters should be like “He has a great mind but sometimes he can be really tough. She quite emotional but she can be the best friend you can ever have. Together, his heart softens and he learns how to get along with other people. She learns how to keep cool and keep things together now.” Characters by themselves are great, like peanut butter bread and jelly bread, but when you put them together, they are even better.

Be careful of red flags! If the relationship is starting to break boundaries, border on abuse, and toxic behaviors, please stop. It will just give the wrong message to the audience if you ship something like that. After all, in a food combo, if one of the ingredients are rotten it would make you sick. The pair should not be toxic to each other. You can still portray abusive relationships, but please don`t romanticize or encourage it because it`s not okay. It will never be okay.

You must develop them first, though. After you got their character, then you can start thinking about shipping. They must care about each other. That is the bare minimum for a good ship. In psychology, people are more likely to be attracted to someone they have in common with but not too much in common. The thing they have in common could be anything like background, motivation, interests, etc… After that, be careful not to make them too similar or too different. To add special garnish, if the work has a theme, then it would be best if that ship reflects opposite or different sides of the theme. That would make everything really juicy. Remember to not force it, if they can`t match no matter how hard you try, then they weren`t meant to be. Move on. The best ships will just come into place.

Summary for writing ships:

-They must care for each other

-It must be natural

-They must have something in common but different enough

-Experiment

-Avoid Red Flags

My other general problem is random sadness. I`m okay with sadness, but the sadness in Planet Puto is very random. Everything is happy then boom! Sadness. I don`t understand what it is supposed to mean, what am I supposed to know here? There is a pattern of using historical events for angst. It would be much better if the angst was more built up and more meaningful if the characters had character.

Let`s start with the protagonist, Emilio. Of all of the characters, he is the one I have problems with the most. I find it hard to discern a characteristic to him other than a pabebe, a flirt, and a pushover. I`m sorry if that is insulting, but that is my own impression. He may not be like that, but the way he is portrayed gave me that vibes. So what makes a protagonist likable and memorable? They should:

Struggle: Hmm…does Emilio struggle? I have been searching all the pages with Emilio in them to know. None of those posts indicate really big things. I try to dig deeper like a Language Teacher but it is hard for me to see the meaningful struggle. All I see is meaningless angst. The problems that Emilio faces are politics, love life, and history. Politics, I understand that it is hard to live with such a corrupt government. What I need to know is…how does this affect Emilio personally? Normally, citizens of this country will not feel affected by politics. Sometimes they will be affected, but most of the time they would live most of their lives without worrying about this. It would be best to show how it affects Emilio on a personal level, so I can feel why.

Love life, it is now a more human problem. I wonder why personifications aren`t marrying each other by now. So many feelings and ship tease! Are they forbidden? If that is so, then that would be impractical. There are so many countries in the world, so at least one government permits a country to marry another country. I also wonder why Emilio only dated Brunei. I remember you said it is because of the union of the Kingdom of Tondo and something Brunei. So does that mean, whenever a country is joined by political alliance or merging of kingdoms, are they are automatically in love or dating? Heartbreak happens, it is a human thing but I hope it isn`t too much of a problem. There is such a thing as move on, right?

History, now that could have a lot of potential. I think there is a lot of creative potential with this. The problem is…how do you portray it properly? The best thing to do is to look in history books and determine what he would be doing at a place in time. Give him a backstory based on the things taught in history. I know you are doing that, but I think it is unrealistic that Emilio is everywhere at once. How is he in a lot of historical events!?! There has to be an explanation. I think it could be answered by knowing his occupation exactly. What is his skills? What are his abilities? Does he have powers to help out? What does being a personification mean? These things could really help me understand how the plot works.

(Out of topic: What is being a personification? How immortal is he? What if we cut off a personification`s head? Would they die? What if we chopped off their fingers? Would they be crippled or would their limbs grow back eventually? In your WWII drawing, Elena asks Japan to finish off her useless brother, so are you saying he can die? What if no one saved Emilio?

Do personifications get paid for being personifications? Can they resign? Do they have insurance or vacation days? Do they get a bonus? Do they get senior citizen`s discount, after all, they are older than our grandparents? Why do countries have a girl and boy version? Let`s say Emilio resigns from being Phil, would Elena have another twin?

What jobs do personifications do? Are they immediately conscripted to be a soldier, kind of Captain America? Captain America is a super soldier and also used for propaganda. Do they go in missions assigned to them by their presidents? I remember your Brunei and Phil post, that countries might be super spies by their governments. Is it really something like that? Are countries allowed to have other jobs? I remembered a post, I asked if personifications can have jobs. Emilio answered that he wanted to be a general, so he is not allowed to? He is the amang bayan after all, can he use his influence to get the job that he dreams of. Why can`t he be a general? I also heard your answer that being a personification means that you help people, how do they help people? Do they work in social services? Military? Education? Counseling? Psychology? NGO?

Can they have superpowers or are they as strong as an average person?

PLEASE ANSWER THIS, EVEN IF IT TAKES TIME. I CAN WAIT. You don`t have to make a drawing for it. Just type or draw if you like, I just really need to know. What if you randomly gave the characters abilities out of thin air? That would be really confusing. You might risk yourself with plot holes. We would be left out with the information needed to know what their life is like. If they have more detail what is their job exactly, then I would feel like they are more relatable because they actually have a life of their own other than being a mascot.)

Not whine: Back to one of the general problems, random sadness. Emilio is the one with the most random sad posts, so he has that main problem. I don`t know about you but if you put it in real life. It would sound like whining (I`m sorry). What is whining? It is a negative connotation of complaint. Complain is to express grief, pain, or discontent. It is okay to show strong emotion possibly even required but it would be weird to hugot it a lot.

I already talked about the struggle part, not whining is the combo for struggle. Why? When someone suffers and they whine, suffer, whine, suffer, then more whining, then it would feel like handling an annoying baby. I know that they have pain but I would not respect them if they whine. They would be just like an average person to me, “That sucks, but the way you reacted made me not like you.”

Struggle makes the audience root out for the protagonist because it is natural human behavior to root out for the underdogs and struggle is what everyone goes through so it`s relatable. Not whining is what makes the protagonist respectable. Who has more virtue, a person that complains whenever there is something inconvenient vs someone who endures it instead?

A protagonist should be relatable hence, struggle, but they should also have something admirable because if they are so painstakingly average it is not any more interesting. We did not ask for reality to be displayed, we already live with that every day. What we want is to be entertained, learn, or feel something. A protagonist is someone we should admire, respect, and relate to.

In my opinion, Emilio in the Yandere!Adam event actually shows a bit of character and for the first time, I find myself surprised to actually care about a fictional character even if it is a little bit. What I am talking about, are the normal posts before that.

Be active: This is what makes an ordinary protagonist, entertaining. An active protagonist is a protagonist that shapes the plot while a passive protagonist is pushed by the plot. Why I believe that Emilio, isn`t an active protagonist, he is controlled by events. I have never seen an event that Emilio started because of his actions. For example, Yandere!Adam event, Yandere!Adam is the one that sets the events in motion, while Emilio just watches. I can understand since it is a Yandere!Adam event, it has to focus on Yandere!Adam. I just wish that there is an event of Emilio`s own doing.

(Out of topic: I feel like Emilio and Elena`s relationship isn`t that strong when I looked at the Yandere!Adam event. Letting your own twin die?! It affects me a little bit personally because I have a twin of my own. I would never imagine killing my own twin or letting that happen. According to research, boy-girl twins are even closer than same-sex twins, so they should be closer but they are not. Maybe it is because they were separated for so long, so that is why they aren`t that close.)

So in totality, I think Emilio needs a lot of work in his character.

IN SUMMARY:

-Please elaborate in his struggles

-Tone down the hugot

-Have an event focused on Emilio

-Add more to his backstory

-Tell us more about him

So that is all with Emilio. The other main characters like Elena, Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, Manila, Cebu, and Davao don`t get enough characterization. They feel like caricatures and stereotypes sometimes. I don`t get who they are supposed to be like. Cebu as INTJ really? As a fan and deep researcher of MBTI, it is hard to see why Cebu will be that. In a nutshell, my impression of them are:

Elena: Oh I`m going to help Emilio, get shipped with so many dudes, and do most of the country work.

Luzon: I`m Miss Serious who is kind of like Manila by design. I`m also the boss and hate insubordination.

Visayas: I`m the guy that has such a peaceful life and brown streak of hair. (Apparently, I also betrayed my countrymen by siding with Spain.)

Mindanao: ….

Manila: I hate probinsyanos! Especially Cebu. I`m swimming in the trash and I have problems…with Cavite. #ampalaya #lifesucks #dacapital

Cebu: I hate Manila! (Hehe I speak Bisaya so he can`t understand) I also don`t get along with Iloilo.

Davao: Yay! (Anime hair).

(Out of topic: I get confused with the glasses on capitals. You said that it was a sign of progress and you put the capitals of other nations with it. It feels quite the opposite. People need glasses to see, so when someone becomes a capital do they become visually impaired? Or they don`t really need it. Does that mean that glasses on capitals are like crowns on royalty? It gets quite confusing to theorize over simple stuff like that. It seems to be too much of a coincidence.)

I`ll talk more about character design later which involves the main characters.

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While writing this, I realized that foreign personifications were more developed than the main characters. They show more personality in a page than Emilio or Elena can show in 10 pages. For Adam, I thought his character design immediately gave me the vibes of someone who would be America. He tries to keep his reputation so he hides his brown eye with contacts and he hides issues to show that he is strong. When it came to struggling, I feel like that is implied. He seems admirable at some aspect and he sets the story forward as a colonizer.

His character design also gives an implication of his character. He has blonde hair and blue eyes (something that is associated with America), he has a blue business suit, red tie, and white underneath. That is the colors of the American flag! Colors like that are usually associated with heroes. I immediately saw a developed character in him. I wonder why that can`t be the same for Emilio or Elena.

Emilio`s outfit is a Filipino barong, he has sun-kissed brown hair, tan skin, and really, really light brown eyes. He is basically brown all the way through. While Elena has similar eyes, black hair, and light tan skin. Their outfits are traditional Filipino clothing. Luzon has a yellow tie and female business suit. Visayas has a red shirt and brown pants. Mindanao has a white robe with blue highlights. It seems like the island groups are wearing the colors of the Philippine flag.

Their character designs are okay enough. It could possibly do better but it`s okay. When I mean to do better, I think you should modify it a little bit so it can look better. Like add detail to the clothes, use a different shade of color perhaps (the current colors aren`t bad on its own but I think it is best to experiment), and I think that is basically it. I get that you gave them really unusual eyes, to give them an anime feel (Personally I don`t like it, but I would not criticize that. It is your own personal aesthetic decision.). Maybe give Emilio and Elena an alternate casual outfit, the traditional clothing makes them seem like they can`t move on from the past (unless that is what you are going for).

The provinces are what I have a problem with. I can see that you tried, but some of them need work. They look unique but not unique enough. Sorry but, I think they look like branded food from the grocery sometimes. The Mindanaoan personifications are the most unique, Visayan personifications vary in quality but mostly unique, and the Luzones personifications have the most problems. I think you should do a bit more work in Ilocos Region, Cagayan Region, Central Luzon, CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, a bit in Western Visayas, and Zamboanga Peninsula.

Ilocos Region:

Pangasinan. Despite being part of Ilocos Region, he isn`t exactly Ilocano. He is Pangasinense. That means he has a different ethnicity than the rest of his fellow region mates. His economy and some of the way he acts is a bit different from the Ilocos. In all means, he is different from the other members. So he should look a little bit different. His fashion sense isn`t that good either. Come on! That collar shirt looks too long and does nothing to improve the figure. The hair is all levels baduy.

Ilocos Twins. They seem too similar to each other. It seems like the only difference is how they tuck their shirts and belts, and that Ilocos Norte is wearing a fake mustache. The minuscule detail is that Ilocos Norte has his pants tucked in more neatly while Ilocos Sur has slightly loose pants. You can differentiate them a bit unless you like it that way.

In general, they are kind of plain. It would be best to add more variety and fashion sense. (Unless you intended it that way)

Cagayan Region, Zamboanga Peninsula, MIMAROPA, and Western Visayas:

Make them a bit more varied.

Central Luzon:

Pampanga. My DEAR province would never wear something like that! It`s like he didn`t move on from the past. Bro, it is the modern days not revolution. Besides, Pampanga would wear a uniform during that period of time. In reality, Kapampangans like to dress well to the point it is a stereotype. Whenever there is an event or casual life, we always like to dress up. I think it would be best if he has a more fashionable outfit or you add something to the outfit to make it more fashionable. The most fashionable ones always seem to be the Metro Manilenos. It would be good if there are provinces that are really, really fashionable. Fashion is a really big deal.

What feeling are you trying to invoke when you made him?

Bulacan. Really baduy. This outfit is something I imagined to be in a cheap fantasy project. The upturned collar according to historical events was a trend because it was “preppy”, so okay then I guess since it indicates character. The shirt is really plain and does not catch the eye. It feels like it was cheaply done. The color of mint green or light green used for the shirt does not add to his character. Light green is used to indicate the more positive aspects of green like growth or healing. Quite ironic, since his eyes were turned grey due to fireworks.

The outfit is even worse than Pampanga`s, at least Pampanga`s outfit is something that someone would wear but that is something I don`t see in a traditional outfit or normal clothes.

Others. Bataan`s outfit is also baduy as well as Nueva Ecija. Why do the girls always have to wear traditional clothing? What is Zambales ordinary outfit? He does not dive all day, you know.

CALABARZON:

I have fewer problems with these guys but...does Cavite have to always wear the uniform. I`ve seen him in a different outfit before. I wonder what his signature normal outfit would look like. Laguna wearing a baro`t saya…a classic for Planet Puto women. What does Quezon have that is different from QC? They are pretty similar.

GENERAL CHARACTER DESIGN

Character design is of utmost importance because it can determine first impressions and show personality. What I`m looking for in character design is Personality, Color Scheme, and Symbolism. Personality is displayed by the little details like a business suit to indicate the character`s work-like personality or a suspenders to indicate a person`s old-fashioned/gangsta/a cop/compliments the figure of a muscular body. Colors have multiple symbolisms, blue can indicate dependability but can also give a depressing feeling. Light blue has more positive connotations but dark blue indicates the darker aspects. Little things like the wear the clothes are worn can indicate if someone is a slob or a neat person. Clothing can also indicate the standard of living, fashion style, personal preferences, and attitude. After all, you are what you wear.

Of course, character design is not just clothing it could also be a hairstyle, how the body is built, and stuff like gesture can add a push of characterization. Do they wear their hair in a neat manner or they have long hair? Things like that can indicate the beliefs of the person or attitude. Are they muscular? It might indicate that they workout, part of the military, or some physically demanding work. Are they thin? It could indicate that they don`t eat much, but why? See, that adds more character.

IN SUMMARY:

-BE FASHIONABLE (unless it is part of their character not to)

-MAKE THEM STAND OUT

-ASK “Why would they wear this?”

-COLOR IS IMPORTANT (research their meanings)

-COLOR SCHEME IS ALSO IMPORTANT (make it still look good, unless it is part of the character to clash)

Optional:

-Give each character a signature color that fits their personality

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for listening to my character design and characterization criticism. The lore is really difficult to get into. The only lore I can theorize perhaps is the Yandere!Adam with his eyes. That is basically it. I want to know where personifications come from, how immortal are they, and their origins. How was Emilio made? Did he have parents? Or he just appeared into existence? How are Elena and Emilio twins? How are they related to Mindanao, Visayas, and Luzon? You know, questions like that.

I`m sorry if I was offensive or anything. I really mean the best.”

#planetputo emildaphilz criticism tips

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talkereritome · 6 years

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For the ask meme: 1, 5, 7, 8, 23, 27, 50, and 9 & 26 for Heart in the Basket. Don't answer everything if it's too much! Sorry, i'm a bit curious, and i love what you write ♥

Thank you so much for the ask, Anon, I’m more than happy to answer to all your questions :)

1) How old were you when you first starting writing fanfiction?

I only started to write last year, in March to be precise, so I was 22.

5) If you had to choose a favourite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be and why?

I’d say Heart in the Basket because it’s the only long multichaptered story I have. Before that, I only wrote one shots or stories with max 4 chapters, but with Heart in the Basket I wanted to create something longer and have more themes in it. I’ve spent a lot of time writing it and even if I felt a bit discouraged sometimes, it holds a special place in my heart and I’m quite happy with how it’s coming.

7) When is your preferred time to write?

Right after dinner when it’s dark outside and I know no one will bother me. I also write right after lunch sometimes but the sun annoys me, I don’t know why, so I tend to procrastinate more.

8) Where do you take your inspiration from?

Literally anywhere. Heart in the Basket was inspired by a fanart, but once I got inspired by looking at two apartment buildings while I was on the bus. I still haven’t written that fic because it would touch some sensitive topics and I’m not ready for it right now, but it goes to show that even the most random things are able to stimulate my creative vein.

23) Do you prefer listening to music when you’re writing or do you need silence?

I usually prefer silence, but when there are other noises around me or I’m not feeling very motivated I tend to put some music on, even if when I edit what I wrote when listening to music I find a lot of mistakes and I get easily distracted by the songs.

27) Do you make a general outline for your stories or do you just go with the flow?

When I start writing I have a general idea in my mind of where the fic is going and what I’m going to write, but if often happens that I end up writing things I hadn’t planned at the beginning, especially with longer fics. It also happens that I change some events or put them in a different chapter from where I had thought. I don’t like to commit to something that might not fit the story anymore, so I tend to be pretty flexible.

50) If you could write only angst, fluff or smut for the rest of your writing life, which would it be and why?

I don’t like writing angst, so it’s a tie between fluff and smut, but they often merge together when I write so I could get away with both of them.

9) In your xxx fic, what’s your favourite scene that you wrote?

If I had to choose only one, I’d say when Levi and Eren finally get together. I think it’s a good mixture of fluff, smut and humor and I’m also oddly proud of the Justin Bieber quotes I inserted, I know they’re a bit outdated, but they fit so well and I still think they’re super funny.

26) Which part of your xxx fic was the hardest to write?

I don’t have a specific one as there aren’t any harrowing or super angsty moments, but I tend to find the basketball games quite hard to write because there are a lot of people to keep track of, I have to make sure I’m using the right terminology and I’m as accurate as possible while also being entertaining. It also doesn’t help that I’m not a basketball expert and all my knowledge of it comes from watching Kuroko no Basket, but it’s exactly for this reason that I tend to spend more time on those scenes and make sure they’re as good as they can be.

This was a long one but I had a lot of fun replying to all the questions :)

Ask me more stuff

I was also doing these asks at the beginning of the month and I’d be more than happy to reply to some of those as well if anyone’s interested :)

#ask game #answered #thanks again for the ask

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aslanbct-blog · 5 years

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Reflective Journal

For the first BCT studio project, I joined a group that created the Card Ass project. Card Ass is the name we gave to our product because it is silly and wacky, and it is a shortened version of “Card Assistant”. Card Ass was a product aimed at, but not limited to, young creatives. The aim of the experience is to assist and inspire creativity amongst artists especially when they are stuck at creative blocks. To take part in the experience the user draws three cards, a character card, a setting card, and a wild card. The character card gives the user a character they must interpret and draw, Setting Card provides the situation or place the character must be drawn in, and finally the wild card gives the overall drawing/artwork a bit of a twist, an example is that you must draw a girlfriend for your character or your character will die in this drawing.

At the beginning of the project, I was initially in a group of 3. We decided to merge with another group of 4 to create a larger group of 7. This group of 7 then became Card Ass. We wanted to join groups because we felt that there weren’t enough ideas just amongst us 3 and thought creating a larger group could provoke more ideas and concepts. Initially, the group was looking at basing our product on creative writers and authors. We wanted to encourage more people to begin writing and we were trying to create a very enjoyable way for people to get interested in writing. However, as a group we realized that none of us were very interested in writing, so we didn’t have a lot of interest in the topic and thought it would be a better idea to look at a different topic. As a group, we were stuck and couldn’t think of any new ideas. The final week before the submission date arrived and everyone started to panic. We did an activity to brainstorm ideas and one of our members, Ella, thought it would be a good idea to keep the same idea we had for the creative writing but, aim it at artists and young creatives. The group really liked this idea and we concepted, tested, and designed our final product all in the final week.

Looking back at the process we went through, the group seemed to be doing a lot of work but the topics we were researching and looking at basing our product experience on just was interesting to us. We mistakenly spent a lot of time on something we didn’t like, instead, we should’ve come together as a group sooner and discussed what we are interested in and find if there were any mutual interests earlier on so we could spend more time on that, so we potentially could have made a better product and experience in the end. I noticed that at the beginning of the process there were a lot of ideas by members that were just shut down too quickly or weren’t considered very much at all. This is sort of disappointing to look back at as I realize the creative drawing and young creatives topic was originally brought up right at the beginning of the process and as a group, we should’ve researched it more and realized that it was a really good idea. If we did that it would’ve saved so much time and would have improved our product because we would’ve had more time to work on it. From this, personally, I learned that instead of coming up with one good idea right at the beginning and only focusing on that, we should put it to the side, research other ideas and topics to see if there is anything better or more interesting and if nothing can be found then we can come back to the original idea and focus on it from there, but since we only focused on the one idea for most of the process, we missed out on many opportunities that would’ve benefited us. As a group, we learned that we should be more open to different ideas and that we should brainstorm our ideas and interests more often.

However, also looking back at the process there are a lot of positives. When doing the testing we did it on both classmates and the public and it was great to see that our product provided the experience it was intended to as everyone enjoyed our product and praised the experience and how it triggered creativity. The group had very good chemistry as well which meant we all got along and worked well together. I think this is because we all have very similar personalities and interests which meant that we could feed off each other’s energy and ideas to produce even better ones.

My understanding of the experience and the process we went through to complete our project can be related to James Webb Young. In his book “A technique for producing ideas” he explains that people shouldn’t figure out where to look for new ideas but instead train our minds to generate new ideas naturally. I feel like that related to our group project as we spent a very large amount of time on one idea and looking for ideas online when instead we should have done what we did at the end of the project and went away and came up ideas on our own without external help and with doing that we were able to create a very good idea and project. I think it may be a good idea to investigate a different process for the next project. SmartStorming.com studied the question “what makes a good idea, good?” and according to the website, there are four specific things your idea should have to make it good. It needs to be different or an improved version of an existing idea, it needs value, it needs to be physically possible and doable, and it needs to have acceptable cost-benefit. Looking at these key ideas. Personally, I would like to follow these steps or at least consider this way of idea creation in the next project. This is because I want to test out another method of idea creation and find which versions suit me best. I also want to follow that criteria because some of the techniques we were taught during the process of our project didn’t necessarily benefit us or help us but having this criteria to look back at and follow will help give us a good basis for the project.

In the future, I would like to work with this group again as they provided a very good product but also the process was very enjoyable, and the group worked well together. However, I would like to look at other ways of researching ideas or maybe follow a different process to the one we did. Instead of all looking at one specific topic, we could split up as a group and brainstorm and create on our own and then come back as a group and mix and match and find the best aspects of everyone’s idea and turn it into the best idea we could make. Also, when I look back at the process I often ask myself “did I contribute enough”? and if so “what aspects were specifically inspired by me or my actions”? for the future projects I would like to contribute more at a higher level, providing more impactful ideas or strategies that could help shape our overall project a bit better.

James Webb Young. A Technique for producing ideas. Chicago: Important Books, 2012

“What Makes A Good Idea, Good?” SmartStorming, 19 Sept. 2018, https://www.smartstorming.com/what-makes-a-good-idea-good/

#ctec502

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kristamead · 6 years

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In 2019, I want to bring more books to the blog! For starters, it’s about time I compiled a list of some of my personal favorites that I think everyone should read.

What are your must reads? Favorites? Current books?

Leave a comment at the end of this post!

I’d love to hear from you (:

From fiction to non-fiction, music to manga, personal greats to graphic novels. Creating a general book recommendations list was difficult to narrow down, but I think I’ve got something for everyone. There’s definitely more where this all came from and I’m excited to continue posting about everything books.

For my (first) ~must reads~ I wanted to pick the books that I find the most compelling choices for anyone and everyone. If you’re looking for a new read, here are 15 titles and blurbs explaining why they’re worthy of your time.

I made sure to create this little notebook attachment if you want to save it for when you hit the bookstore (;

✽ I couldn’t make a list of my must reads without including this. Hands down one of my absolute favorites. In Americanah, you’ll meet Ifemelu – a student leaving university strikes in Nigeria for university in the US. As she grapples with her new life in the States, she starts what soon becomes a very popular blog illustrating the differences of being black in Africa and being black in the States. Throughout the book you’ll also follow Ifemelu’s school sweetheart, Obinze, and their stories together, apart, and… well you’ll see.

✽ Not too much to say here, because who hasn’t heard of Frankenstein. Of all of the assigned readings throughout school, this one has always been my favorite. There’s something about gothic literature that has a special place for me – all the dark spooky drama, I love it. I feel like everyone knows about Frankenstein, but hasn’t necessarily read the book so here’s a little nudge.

✽ Whether you’re looking for a quick read, an aesthetically pleasing page-turner, a cool artsy graphic novel for your shelves – this one is perfect. Cartoonist Barbara Stok’s Vincent van Gogh addition to the collection of autobiographical Art Series novels is super cool and worth checking out.

✽ If you’re in the mood to read something fascinating, you won’t want to put this down. In Brain on Fire you’ll hear the telling of Susannah’s mysterious true story as she recounts the frightening events as she rapidly descends in to madness and what it takes to work out her life-saving diagnosis.

✽ When I first really wanted to start making a habit out of reading, I was after something that would really make me feel something. I didn’t think it was possible for me to really laugh or cry when I read a book. Long books seemed like things that wouldn’t hold my attention for very long – I’d probably get bored and forget to finish it. Then I heard about A Little Life. This book had me on an emotional rollercoaster. I didn’t just cry, I was weeping by the time I finished it. I really got invested in Jude and his three best friend’s stories. Some of the scenes in this book are pretty traumatic and aren’t for the faint of heart so proceed with caution.

✽ Hotel Silence is an Icelandic novel about Jónas who’s at a point in his life where he feels unfulfilled, like there’s really nothing left to live for. When he decides to leave everything behind and do something about it, he reaches Hotel Silence where he finds reasons to keep going. I picked this up initially intrigued by the cover and finished it really appreciating the story and the message it left me with.

✽ This book turned my life upside down. I had heard plenty about Girls to the Front prior to finally picking it up. The Riot Grrrl movement was revolutionary in itself, but reading in to Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy, Bratmobile, Sleater-Kinney, and more really inspired me. Maybe it was good timing, but this book really helped me put things in to perspective.

✽ Pretend I’m Dead is one of the weirdest books I think I have in this mix. I never really jumped at this book on my shelf. It was another one of those that I picked up because I thought it looked pretty cool and the blurb on the back seemed interesting enough. This book is strange in all the right ways. You’ll meet 24-year-old Mona, who cleans houses and volunteers at a needle exchange. Throughout the book we meet different people that help Mona find her place in the world. This one is purely entertaining from start to finish.

✽ The hype surrounding this book checks out. Normally I’m not a huge fan of stories that follow families through the generations, but this one proved me wrong. In Homegoing, we follow two Ghanaian sisters as they’re separated at birth and brought up in different villages. One sister will marry into a fortunate, luxurious life in the Cape Coast Castle and the other will be imprisoned in the same castle – ultimately sold into slavery. Through eight generations you’ll read of “slavery’s troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed [and] how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.”

✽ If I didn’t already love Carrie Brownstein watching Portlandia, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl made me idolize her even more. Following Girls to the Front, I’ve become increasingly fascinated by all of the women in music throughout the nineties and early two thousands. Reading about Carrie’s experiences in music and her many words of wisdom made this book hard to put down. I would highly recommend this book to anyone in the mood for a really great music memoir.

✽ Speaking of music memoirs, Girl in a Band is Kim Gordon’s. It seems like the music memoirs I gravitate toward kick off at some sort of an end for the person who wrote it (this one being Sonic Youth’s final show). However, Kim takes us back to her childhood in the sixties/seventies – to the NYC art scene – Sonic Youth – to her marriage and split with Thurston Moore – motherhood – Body/Head – and more. Tons of familiar names are dropped in this one which make it all the more interesting.

✽ Next, the first and admittedly only manga I’ve ever read – Solanin. This was recommended to me as a music/band/gig lover. Reflecting back on it, this book is totally relatable and thoroughly enjoyable. You’ll meet Meiko who felt stuck in her day job, so she quits in hopes for something more. She convinces her boyfriend to do the same and start up his old band which she inevitably joins. This book will be a pleasure to read because I feel we all have been in the same spot as Meiko sometime in our life. Definitely a manga that showed me no genre is off limits.

✽ I found myself contemplatively stopping multiple times with Too Much and Not the Mood. Durga Chew-Bose’s writing really creatively inspired me and my writing. It’s the sort of book that made me feel really close to the author, like we were akin to each other. A lot of things really made sense in this one and I didn’t want it to end. It’s hard to really go in to detail with a collection of essays, but each essay had something notable to offer. Even if you don’t necessarily relate to what Durga has to say – I love this book so much I would recommend it to anyone.

Saving some of the best for last – I have two favorites by Robin Sloan. I completely feel his writing would be enjoyable for anyone. I normally don’t really gravitate toward fantasy or magic-filled books, but these two are exactly the kind of magical realism I can immerse myself in. Everything that takes place in both stories are more imaginatively entertaining than a far-fetched reach into make-believe. Both are situated in the Bay Area (San Fransisco/Silicon Valley), which was bonus points for me because I always fantasize living around there.

Mr. Penumbra follows an out-of-work Clay Jannon as he picks up the night shift job at an eccentric bookstore with some curious clientele with rather bizarre purchasing patterns. Clay is inclined to track these books and ultimately uncovers something even more mysterious. Sourdough is about exactly what the title and this cover infer – sourdough bread. Lois Clary is your typical nine to fiver working for a robotics company – exhausted by the time she gets home. She begins to frequently order from a neighborhood restaurant with a delivery service and becomes well-acquainted with the operating brothers. With visa complications, the brothers of Clement Street Soup and Sourdough have to close shop and entrust Lois with their sourdough starter. Once Lois starts baking loaves and loaves of bread, everything begins to change as her life of technology and food begin to merge.

Ultimately, if you’re looking for a safe and cozy feel-good book to tuck in to and enjoy from start to finish – I’d argue either of these two are the way to go.

Whew, putting this together seemed like I was biting off a little more than I could chew for a bit. I really wanted to make it apparent why I enjoyed each title I mentioned here without plainly saying “HEY! I liked this and I think you would too!” BECAUSE GENUINELY I think you might too! Later on I want to try and take note of what I really enjoyed in books moving forward and writing this all out for you helped me realize why.

When reading a book I’m easily captivated and I think sometimes I spend a lot of time relishing in the luxury of it; but I realize now that really expanding on why and recording my thoughts will help me improve my explanations looking back on them. A lot of the time someone will ask me what book they should read so I’ll give them a title and forget the specifics of why I loved it so much. It’s easy to remember that I liked a book because it triggered an emotional response or I blew through it or I was in awe at points – BUT moving forward just know that I’m ready to deep dive in to some more books when it’s time.

Let me know down below what books you love

or your thoughts on any of these!

my must reads In 2019, I want to bring more books to the blog! For starters, it's about time I compiled a list of some of my personal favorites that I think everyone should read.

#books #must reads

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emilywoodsunit34 · 6 years

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EVALUATION

The requirements of the brief were to understand how image manipulation techniques are used in the work of others, be able to digitise source materials, be able to originate work using image manipulation hardware and software and be able to present own design outcomes. There was also to understand the potential of digital media in contemporary art and design practice, be able to select materials for digital experimentation, be able to produce work using digital art and design techniques.

We had to either redesign a book cover or turn a movie into a book cover. I Decided to do The Purge. We had to use some photography in our work however it was a creative piece and we had to manipulate the work to make it indistinguishable as a photograph in the end. Task 1 was to create a Tumblr and start researching. We began with Erik Johansson and had to outline his process and how he created his work. We then had to research 2 more artists of our choice and I chose Luisa Azevedo and Chema Madoz because I thought their work was very interesting and intricate. Next, we had to find multiple examples of different and intriguing digital illustration that have used photography in their work. I found 3 I loved and explained why I chose them on my Tumblr. One of the last things was to experiment with photoshop techniques and I looked on Youtube for this and found examples on how to create fire and text on photoshop and also turn everything cartoon. Lastly, we had to create a small 200 word paragraph and explain how photoshop can help in the creation of art.

Task 2 of the brief was to show evidence and ideas generation which I did in a small sketch book and took photos with my phone and uploaded them onto my Tumblr. I then had to write a proposal with 400 words to explain what I was going to do and why. I personally didn't do a final small sketch with an outcome because to be completely honest I didn't know what I was going to do until it was done. I then finally did a diary entry that was updating what I was going so far and what I wanted to continue doing and what was working.

Task 3 was then just basically creating my final piece and taking screenshots of what I had achieved so far along with sending my final piece for marking. Lastly, we had to create a final diary entry however I am going to include this in my evaluation as I am going to explain how and why I did it.

The creative process I followed was just one big learning curve on how to create things. I wanted to experiment as much as possible so I did a lot of techniques and if they worked with my image I added them in. To create some of my ideas I decided to do a small mind map inside my sketch book and put different ideas on their along with potential options for other book covers. I took inspiration from having a quick look at the movie posters and also from older book covers as I wanted to keep it very simple and effective. The only planning I only really took was creating some mind maps before hand and viewing youtube videos to learn how to create new photoshop techniques. Some new techniques I learnt were how to create fire from nothing and also how to create something a cartoon.

Personally I didn't have a specific meaning for my photoshop final piece I just wanted to use this opportunity for myself to learn new techniques and create something I created myself. To create it I started with a photoshoot of the person of choice including the masks. I didn't do a huge photoshoot as I knew the basic style I wanted to shoot. Once this was done I went to photoshop and opened up my final image. once this was done I edited the shadows and highlights to bring the image out a lot more including the contrast so the image wasn't so flat. I started with just this to begin with as I wasn't too sure what I was going to create. It was at this point I chose I wanted to make it more of a cartoon; I then went onto youtube to learn how to create it. Firstly I opened my image onto photoshop and then copied it onto a new layer then made it invisible by clicking the eye next to it. Next, I went onto the background layer and converted it to a smart object by right clicking and then clicked the selected option, this was so any affect can be separated easily. I then went onto ‘filter’, ‘filter gallery’ and then onto ‘artistic’ and finally ‘poster edges’. I set the edge thickness to 0, the edge intensity to 4 and posterisation to 1. After that I went onto the filter option next to the effect and changed the opacity to 75%, then I went back onto filter gallery and then chose the ‘cutout’ filter. I made the number of levels 6, the edge simplicity 4 and then edge fidelity 2. After applying the effect I double clicked on the same icon and made it 75% again. For another time I went back onto filter and chose pixelate, colour halftone, made the maximum radius 4, and made all 4 channels 45. This created a dotted effect however once again I double clicked and made the opacity 75% but changed the blend mode from ‘normal’ to ‘soft light’. Once this was all done I made the first layer visible again by pressing the eye icon next to the image and chose ‘glowing edges’ from the ‘stylise’ folder. I made the edge width 1, edge brightness 3 and then smoothness 15. For the last time I went to filter gallery, sketch, and then torn edges with the image balance 4, smoothness 15 and the contrast 12. Above all of this there is a drop down arrow and I then changed this to ‘overlay’ which overlaid the images together and merged them nicely and changed the opacity to 40%.

Overall I am very happy with how the editing came out. To create the fire I first got opened a new page in photoshop and made the background black. Using the pen tool I made a random shape using 4 point creating a very simple flame like shape. Once this was done I went onto ‘filter’, ‘render’ and then ‘flame’. I then chose the first option ‘one flame along path’ and then it made a flame. I then copied it onto my actual image and used control + J to make copies and dot them around the page also making new flames so it wasn't too consistent.

For the text I couldn't manage to find any text or any way to create the same effect from scratch on photoshop and therefore I used the pen tool to cut out the actual Purge text and copied it onto the cover.

I am personally very satisfied with my final piece because although I think it could look a lot more professional I am happy that I learnt how to do many new things and think for the first time doing them they turned out really well. My aim was to teach myself new things and although I had less time to do this assignment than others I think I learnt the most in this one. My strength was learning and teaching myself new things and my weakness was that it was my first time doing a lot of these things on photoshop and therefore they may look a little bit amateurish. If I was to do this project again I would maybe plan it out a bit more better and give everything a certain time so I can get certain bits done in certain times instead of winging it.

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theartiststatement-blog1 · 6 years

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INTERVIEW: Making Ancient Connections

We’ve resurfaced from the abyss to bring you our first humble Artist Statement interview with a former Latin teacher. In respect, we would like to keep the name anonymous. Below we asked some questions to understand the creativity and leadership needed to bring life to an ancient world, and to inspire students to make ‘ancient connections’ in their daily lives.

1) We’d love to hear about the work you love to do, past and present. How did you start and why do you love it?

I loved being a teacher-- a Latin teacher, at that. I became entranced with the ancient Greek and Roman world first in fifth grade (learning a bit about the Trojan War and 5th century B.C. Greeks) and then in high school while studying Latin. My appreciation for ancient painting, sculpture and architecture was furthered by reading some classical works in the original Latin.

In college my further study of Latin was short-circuited when I segued into Russian studies.

Many (many) years later I found myself drawn back to Latin and the classics, and obtained teacher certification in Latin. What good fortune for me to have found a teaching position that allowed me to try to excite younger students (first middle school and then high school) with the wonder of learning a new language and through it, an appreciation for the ancient Greco-Roman civilization.

I found that teaching is a two-way street: I was ever delighted by and grateful for the enthusiasm and "Eureka moments" of my students. In turn, I learned so much from many of them.

2) Three words that best describe you?

I leave that to others.

3) What are the top three skills needed to succeed in your work, and why?

As a teacher, clearly one needs to be proficient in the subject area. To connect with students, one should view each person in class as the individual he/she is and be aware of interests or problems in his/her life. Having a sense of humor and encouraging students to "think outside the box", even/especially to correct my mistakes were important to making the class enjoyable for teacher and students (I hope). Also, important to try to start each day/class with the sense of "tabula rasa"-- that is, do not hold a grudge for previous poor behavior on any one person's part.

4) How do you use creativity in your work?

Artistic creativity was not in my wheelhouse. However, I tried to allow students to demonstrate THEIR creativity in various ways: composing/performing verses on a theme ("Thermae Romae"); illustrating various readings; writing a speech in a certain (Ciceronian) style. Also, I tried to extend students' sense of the continuing influence of the classical world by asking them to note "ancient connections" in our daily life (e.g. architecture, commercial slogans/symbols, references in news articles and opinion pieces).

5) In what ways can you see or have seen art merging with your profession or other non-art professions?

In teaching art can be and is very useful. Showing examples of (ancient or ancient-themed) art on a projector or better yet, passing around a piece of art (or replica) helps students to imagine part of "life" for the ancients in question. It is even better for students to create their own interpretation of discussed or researched topics.

6) Do you see yourself as an "artist" in your field? In a parallel universe, what kind of artist would you be?

I do not see myself as "an artist in my field." But I truly appreciate and admire those who create art. If possible, I would like to sculpt (e.g. in clay).

7) What is something you would most like to teach others?

I would like to have been a better teacher in my field--to inspire more students for learning in general, in "Latin/ancient studies" specifically, and to be considerate civic-minded citizens.

8) Now for a couple of fun questions. Do you have a favorite:

Color?

Shape?

Music?

Creator(s)?

1) green 2) circle 3) classical music 4) ancient architects/builders, sculptors; Mozart, Beethoven

9) If you can represent yourself in one image, what would it be?

Have never considered myself as n image

10) What is your artist’s statement?

Hmmmm (nescio)

#latin #classics #history #education #illustration #art #artist on tumblr #roman #ancient rome

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Clarice: How Does The Show Compare to Hannibal?

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Can a series be considered part of the Hannibal Lecter franchise if Hannibal Lecter never appears?

Picking up in 1993, shortly after the events of The Silence of the Lambs, CBS’s new drama Clarice follows the continued trials and tribulations of Lecter’s most famous foil, originally brought to iconic, Oscar winning life by Jodie Foster thirty years ago. For long-time fans of Thomas Harris’ creation, Clarice is a contentious proposition. The idea of a TV series about Clarice Starling is neither a creatively bankrupt nor unappealing one, however it comes with a faint veneer of controversy due to a perception that its very existence potentially puts an end to revival chances for Bryan Fuller’s gone-too-soon cult classic Hannibal, which ran on NBC between 2013 and 2015.

Due to complicated rights issues dating back to the 1980s, Thomas Harris’s stable of characters has been divided between different studios, with the DeLaurentiis company (who produced Fuller’s Hannibal) owning the novels Red Dragon, Hannibal and Hannibal Rising, while MGM have exclusive rights to The Silence of the Lambs. It’s for this reason that the TV iteration of Hannibal could never use Clarice Starling or Buffalo Bill, while conversely Clarice can’t directly mention Hannibal Lecter, Jack Crawford, Will Graham or anyone else who didn’t originate in Silence.

Both shows find creative ways around this. Hannibal zeroed in on Lecter’s relationship with Red Dragon protagonist Will Graham, while winking to Clarice in the form of tenacious FBI trainee Miriam Lass. Clarice, for its part, refers to Starling’s interactions with a certain inmate at the Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane and features several repurposed Lecter quotes from the movie, but never names Lecter directly. This is less of a problem than you’d think; after all, in the canon of both the movies and the books Clarice and Hannibal didn’t meet again until either seven or ten years after the events of Silence (depending on whether you go with the books or the film adaptations).

But watching the new series it soon becomes clear that Clarice has little interest in the Lecter canon outside of the 1991 film.

Hannibal Lecter: History of the Character

By Gerri Mahn

From the first episode Clarice directly contradicts the plot of original Silence sequel Hannibal, scuppering any sense that it could be viewed as a bridging chapter. The inclusion of Ruth Martin, the senator whose daughter Clarice saved in Silence, is a savvy choice but it is quickly established that Martin is now the US Attorney General, whereas in the novels she remained a Senator (but left office prior to the events of Hannibal). The inciting incident of the show is Martin sending Clarice to work for VICAP in Washington, a department headed up by another familiar character for fans of the books; Paul Krendler, played here by The Walking Dead’s Michael Cudlitz.

Krendler is a minor character in the film version of Silence, but is much more significant in the broader oeuvre of Harris’ writing. In the novels he is established as a misogynist who, smarting over Starling both beating him to the capture of Buffalo Bill and rejecting his sexual advances, actively works to impede her career.

The Krendler of Clarice is decidedly not the same character as the books. Quite apart from the novel Hannibal including no reference to any significant prior working relationship, here he is a tough but mostly fair veteran of law enforcement, initially dismissive of Starling yet developing a grudging respect over the course of the three episodes provided to reviewers. If anything it feels like the series has opted to merge the broader trait of his dislike for Starling with the original mentor role filled by the now off-limits Jack Crawford.

In isolation this is a fair choice. Once you accept that this Krendler is not the pre-established character, the tense yet warming relationship he shares with Starling works. However it does beg the question of why the show didn’t just create a new character to fulfil the role; it’s not as though Krendler is such a well-known name that not including him would be considered an unforgivable mistake by fans. If it were, he would certainly be written more in line with his textual counterpart or Ray Liotta’s slimy performance from the Hannibal film.

It comes off as though the writers of the series chose to work exclusively from the film version of Silence, in which Krendler’s bit-part provides only the sense of him being a bit gruff. This, largely, summarises Clarice’s relationship with the source material; the 1991 film is its bible. The rest of the canon, not so much.

Now contrast this with Fuller’s Hannibal. What started out as a slightly dreamlike procedural developed into a Grand Guignol opera about the yearning for human connection between damaged souls. It is a singularly beautiful TV show, but arguably its savviest choice is a fidelity to the ideas, spirit and characters, if not the specific plot, of its source material. Supporting players from the books are treated with the kind of fanfare that only an obsessive fan of Harris would either bother with or appreciate.

Plot elements from the novels are remixed, allowing characters who never met on the page to interact, sometimes to spectacular effect. At times the show came across as giddy Thomas Harris fanfiction, a description Fuller himself actively encouraged. Hannibal was the perfect marriage of a unique creative vision with a classic text; it single handedly managed to revitalise the Lecter property after the film franchise’s ignominious farewell in the form of the limp prequel Hannibal Rising.

I want to clarify here that I’m in no way trying to suggest that Clarice falls short due to not engaging with the source texts in the same way as Fuller did. For one, Clarice only has access to one of said texts, and does work to include every logical Silence of the Lambs character in a way that both serves its story and furthers that of the film (the film more than the book, as Krendler’s depiction can attest). But the approach is worth discussing as it does underscore a key difference between the two shows.

Clarice largely adopts the look of The Silence of the Lambs, but to its credit the show uses the film predominantly as a springboard to tell new stories. While the first episode somewhat clumsily tries to pack in multiple Silence references, the second and third quickly find a more successful rhythm. A rhythm, interestingly, punctuated with unsettling dream imagery that would have been right at home in Fuller’s show. Vivid red blood squeezed from a hat in an almost greyscale kitchen. A human hand bursting from the back of a death’s head moth. Blood from the dying Buffalo Bill’s mouth racing back in, the nightmare suggestion of a monster coming back to life. Whether influenced by the earlier show or not, these moments clearly set out that this is a different vision to the film, which outside of a couple of pretty conventional flashbacks, eschewed fantasy.

Hannibal Season 4 Would Gender Flip Some Characters According to Mads Mikkelsen

By Kirsten Howard

Why David Tennant Lost Hannibal Role According to Bryan Fuller

By Kirsten Howard

But that’s not the only way that the three episodes made available to reviewers parallel the Hannibal series. It’s no secret that the earlier show was initially constrained by a frustrating case-of-the-week structure. From out of the gates, Clarice has a similarly episodic approach but wears it slightly better. Based on the first two episodes you would be forgiven for writing this off as CSI: Silence, but the third episode unites the threads in a satisfying way, indicating that going forward Clarice could be predominantly a serialized conspiracy thriller with an occasional dip into isolated cases. And while aspects of the unfurling mystery are faintly ridiculous and don’t provoke flattering comparisons to Silence, it’s engaging and confident enough to indicate that this series is interested in more than just reminding you of a thirty-year-old classic. Which, given the current trend in reboots, is refreshing.

There is however a sense that Clarice’s take on the procedural is a safer one than Hannibal’s. For example, the respective second episodes of both shows feature standalone cases. In Clarice the team are sent to deal with a cult-like militia who have injured a policeman. In Hannibal, somebody is turning drugged people into living mushroom farms.

The seeds of that show’s evolution into a surreal, heightened melodrama in which murder became a kind of art form were in place from the start. Clarice is far more rooted in the real world, but given that the central character is a driven young FBI agent as opposed to a high-art loving cannibal genius who is also maybe the devil, the discrepancy isn’t exactly surprising. Of course Clarice should chart its own path, although when comparing the two it’s hard not to miss Hannibal’s delighted embrace of sheer weirdness.

All of that said, there is a distinct pleasure here in seeing Clarice Starling back in action. Given that the novel and film Hannibal immediately got to work destroying her career, getting to see her achieve genuine success is nicely refreshing. Despite Starling’s status as an iconic part of a larger franchise, until now only The Silence of the Lambs ever really did her justice. The ending of the novel Hannibal was famously controversial, with Clarice’s final fate as Lecter’s brainwashed lover seen by many as a betrayal of everything she stood for. And while I will argue that it was misunderstood, that the conclusion was the inevitable result of the Faustian bargain Starling made by allowing Lecter inside her head in the first place, it’s undeniable that she was relegated to a reactive supporting role with very little agency, a sin that the film adaptation was also guilty of.

No such problem here. As portrayed by Rebecca Breeds, this is the Clarice Starling you loved in Silence. Courteous, tough and direct when she needs to be, singularly skilled at negotiating with killers yet grappling with all-too-human demons and vulnerabilities. She’s an immediately interesting, likeable presence. And there is no danger of her being overshadowed; while Clarice sets up an appealing enough supporting cast, it never loses sight of whose story this is.

Jodie Foster will always cast a long shadow, but Breeds captures the essence of the character without ever falling into a hollow impersonation. It’s a fantastic performance that holds the show together even when the writing falters.

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It’s too early in Clarice’s run to fairly say whether it will be as good as Hannibal was. The other show overcame a shaky start to become an all-time great with a fervent cult following still hoping for a belated revival. Whether Clarice can stoke the same passion from viewers remains to be seen, but while its tenuous relationship to the literary source material may be frustrating to Harris fanatics, particularly those enamoured by how Fuller’s show engaged with the books, it’s only fair to judge Clarice on its own terms. And who knows? If it’s successful, maybe it will be the spark Netflix needs to revive that other Harris TV adaptation. For now though, plan to call on it; the world is more interesting with Clarice in it.

The post Clarice: How Does The Show Compare to Hannibal? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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