#there is more sketched out but the next section was SO ROUGH i decided to leave it out ahdhfjfjfj im so excited for this

[jamiethebeeart]

Is it anywhere near finished? No :)))))))))

[yumeka-sxf]

Spy x Family Exhibition Pamphlet

I got my copy of the Spy x Family exhibition pamphlet! I wanted to make HD scans of some of the notable pages and try to translate if I can.

First off is this great "Main Character Correlation Chart" (sorry for my amateur editing, all I have is MS Paint!)

I love how Bond has a different "bofu" (woof) for Loid and Yor!

Several of the pages show the creation process of the manga, starting with rough sketches to final drafts, using chapter 1 as an example. There were a lot of pages for this, so I just scanned the ones that showed the end of the chapter.

Probably the most interesting pages of the pamphlet are the early character designs/concept sketches. Most of these have already been shared by @sy-on-boy on her post here, but I thought it'd be cool to have them in HD! Unfortunately, even with higher quality images it's very difficult to decipher Endo's handwriting. I could make out just a few words here and there, and Google Lens is very unreliable when the writing isn't clear.

The first page has early concepts for the Forger family, Loid, Anya, the WISE logo, and the Eden uniform.

Things to note are that "Oscar" was a working name for Loid, as was "Yolanda" for Yor. What's also interesting is that a beta version of Franky is shown along with the Forgers. Unfortunately I can't make out the notes about him, but I think this has significance because of a sketch on the next page...

Most of the next page shows concept designs for Yor, with a section for Bond and Yor's coworkers on the bottom.

However, what's really intriguing is the sketch in the upper right of the whole family, titled 疑似家族 (pseudo family).

Once again, a Franky-looking character is with them, and he has the title "Uncle" (叔父) Was an uncle originally going to be part of the main Forgers? Was he actually related to Loid or Yor, or if that character did eventually become Franky, maybe he would just pretend to be Loid's brother? I can also make out the word "otaku" (オタク) in the notes for this character as well as "enjoying life" (人生を楽しんでる) Also in the notes for beta Yor it looks like 最強 (the best/strongest) and バカ (idiot/dummy) All I can make out for Loid's notes are 孤独 (loneliness) I think? And what's up with the older and more sinister looking Anya? She really looks like Ashe there. But these are all just early concept designs/notes so I wouldn't take them too seriously.

The next page titled "East and West During the Cold War" has concept designs for Franky, Yuri, Fiona (referred to as a female WISE spy), a male WISE spy, Melinda, and various assassins from the cruise arc.

The first interesting thing to point out is the notes next to the very crudely drawn woman at the bottom of Yuri's concept designs. It says "Yuri's girlfriend?"(ユーリの 彼女?) though I can't make out clearly what the rest of it says. For the Franky designs, I could make out "tsukkomi or boke". So it looks like at some point Endo was deciding whether to make him more of a tsukkomi (straight man) or boke (wise guy) personality. There's also mention of giving him a high IQ (IQ高い). Also, the fact that the sketches include Melinda and the cruise arc assassins gives the impression that Endo had ideas for these story elements very early on.

But the character relationship chart in the lower left is really intriguing.

I'm not sure how accurate these translations are so take them with a grain of salt, but they do make sense to me. But I have to wonder why Anya and Becky are connected to Desmond. For Becky, it could be because her family has ties to the Desmonds, but why Anya? Could the "mysterious institute/lab" she comes from have ties to Desmond too? Again, these could just be early concepts from ideas that Endo is no longer using, so best not to take them literally. Also, the lack of Shopkeeper/Garden in the character relationship charts, the concept art, and the exhibition overall, really does portray them as a "mysterious organization" that Endo perhaps didn't plan out until later in the series' development and is still trying to figure out. But as far as this sketch, I have to say that despite how terribly crudely drawn all their little heads are, it's easy to identify every character...proof of Endo's top notch character design skills!

Another sketch that stands out is on the same page...

It's a very rough drawing of what appears to be either Loid holding Yor or Yor holding Loid with Anya next to them. But honestly it's such a rough drawing it could be any other parents+child. All I can make out of the text directly above is "My wife is stressed!? At this rate..." And the drawing next to it also appears to be two parents and maybe two children? I also have no clue what the "WJ4C 9/20, etc" at the top means. Very mysterious sketch, lol.

The next page has Eden related concepts, including Becky, Damian, George, and various teachers. The drawings in the bottom section appear to be an alternate/abbreviated version of how the Forgers met.

Pretty funny that an image of Franky is covering what's supposed to be a sketch of Demetrius. The text from Franky says "I can't show you this information yet" which is pretty solid proof that Demetrius will make an appearance in the series eventually. There's also nicknames for Damian and Demetrius in the notes - "Dami" and "Demi."

Some notes on the Eden page says there's 2,000 students in the school, with 13 grades divided into 8 classes/houses. The chart on the left is a list of teacher names and their classes, all of which are given names of colors. None of the teacher names have been used so far in the series.

And all that's on the last page of sketches is a continuation of the previous page with the early concept of how the Forgers started (it honestly looks pretty cute, wish it wasn't just rough sketches). And the following section looks like drafts Endo did for promotional material.

The final pages of the pamphlet are the new extra mission chapter which I already fully translated here.

And that's all I'm going to share for now from the pamphlet! I could spend more time trying to decipher the concept art notes but it was giving me a headache after a while, lol. But if anyone wants to try translating them, go ahead (I have higher quality png files of all the scans if needed...they were too big for Tumblr). And again, these sketches are just trial and error pre-serialization ideas that don't necessarily reflect Endo's final vision for the series, so I wouldn't dwell on them much other than for fun theorizing.

The pamphlet does have other interesting information, including an interview with Endo, a timeline of his work on Spy x Family and other manga, and his notes about random things from the series. So I might return to translating the pamphlet at a later date when I have time/motivation.

[canaidliafail]

stay grounded pt.3

streamer abby x streamer reader 🌿

[ part 1 ] [ part 2 ] [part 4]

MDI. Things get spicy here <3

not proof read // will check for mistakes later tonight <33

Your favorite class aside from sewing, was without a doubt art classes. First two hours you did still nature with charcoals or pencils and the other two you would draw modeling figures and practice on how you could translate the fabric type you intended on using in your sketch.

You were good at drawing. It came naturally to you and your teachers questioned how did you end up in fashion design and not art college. You were his favorite.

But it had been a week since you saw a sign from Abby and everything was going to hell. Last post she made was a photo of her with Nora in cosplay which only accelerated your spiral. To be fair you hadn’t initiated contact either but that was neither here nor there

“Did you not have time to draw these days ? Your strokes are very messy…” Your teacher said hovering behind you and studying your piece. You would have screamed actually and then cried and then you decided then you would bomb the city

You gave him a curt smile “I had a rough week at work” He sighed in understanding and patted your shoulder “Ah so young and already having to balance all this. I understand its hard. You can take it easy today then” he said and half an hour later came back to give your sketch an empathetic look that looked like constipation.

At the end of the day you rolled up the papers with your pitiful sketches and shoved them in your bag crinkling the edges. You felt stupid for letting someone on the other end of the world affect your life that much. Hell it's been barely a month that she noticed you ( you refused to account for all the other times you tried to get her attention by sending bits or commenting on her chat a year ago and the occasional like left on a post that made it her -for you page- )

You were at the cafe across from your college building sitting on the bar counter in front of the large glass doors sipping on the overpriced cappuccino and biting the rim of your reusable cup.

She got me a ridiculously overpriced statue. That has to amount to something, no?

Then again she did mention to her it wasn’t that different from getting me a cup of coffee…

Your mind went in circles. Did Onlyfans pay her so well that she could mindlessly toss her money left and right? It wouldn’t be such a bizarre concept to be fair. She was after all at the peak of her career with girls begging to see so much as a collar bone. You nibbled on your lower lip fighting the temptation to see her page.

Did she post gym pics ? Did she post more than that?

You went to her page and tapped under her point at the link leading you to another site with all her links. At the very top, sat a square with the short description of

“18+”

You looked around you and tapped the button and waited for the page to load. Your cheeks flushed. Her banner cropped nicely above her collar bones and below her chest where she showed her arms that were the sole focus of the image.

Her profile photo was a dreadfully common gym pic taken on the dirty mirror near the treadmill section. So effortless yet straight to the point of who she was. She knew what her followers wanted, you included. The illusion that she was just your next door neighbour and this your private chat that turned raunchy at night. You hesitated around the subscribe button.

Crossing that line came at the average cost of 20.99 per month. You pulled out your credit card and went to make an undercover account and subscribe to her profile. Hell there was probably no chance of this ever going anywhere so there was no harm in you indulging in a little more and having something to look forward to after class, right? Right.

You took another sip of your coffee deluding yourself that this didn't cause your heartbeat to spike an unhealthy amount and blamed the shakiness of your hands to your drink

Subscribed for 1 month

Came the message and there was an automated response from her account in the mailbox.

I knew I’d find you here ;)

This cocky motherfucker. You clenched your cup and started scrolling your eyes widening in surprise. There were some posts behind a fat paywall starting at 50 euros going up to 100. You occasionally shrugged one shoulder at the more casual posts and then stopped at one particular image of her with a towel low on her hips, topless with the foggy mirror perfectly censoring your chest. You took a screenshot and decided to go light a candle at the local church next Sunday.

The next photo that stopped you and made you forget that breathing was a necessity was one where she was at the beach with grey cargo pants and a tight white top,sleeveless with a wide cut on her front. The white top ,most importantly, hugged her figure not because of an elastic fabric but because it was wet.

You had never seen more beautiful and well shaped tits. You hated how well it all came together and you hated that the wet top did nothing to hide her pierced perky nipples. Of course there were 389 comments below that pic all thirsty and all equally delighted at this new found discovery that Abby had piercings.

You shook your head and exited her page crestfallen and horny. What a powerful combination. Why did you ever even consider having a chance? You were no different from all the other fans flocking to her page and your reaction to those pics were no different than a mans. You crossed your arms and buried your head in the small dip between your body and hands, fighting back tears and thoughts. Reasonably you knew that Abby did not mind how her followers viewed her as you found her often responding to those comments with her very own bold and flirtatious way. You knew that and yet it was hard to undo years of shame for your nature and Abbys sudden radio silence didn't help

_____________

It was ready. You had never worked with so many materials for something so big before but you were proud to say that the knight armor you crafted was stunning and it was a perfect fit on you. With the release of a new game you Wanted to for once be on time with a costume to wear and take some photos. Besides, it was the least you could’ve done with the company giving you early access to the beta of the game a year ago and now sending you the collector's edition free of charge. You snapped a few pics in your bedroom which in itself was fitting of the whole romantic knight fairytale theme. You tried to film a few videos and tried to post on every platform you had and once you were done with that you tossed your phone aside and went to prepare the house for the weekly sleepover that you and your friend group had

Cassie: Hey babe sorry I’m late,Just go in the bus <333

Rick: Do we have the stuff ? Should I bring mine?

You checked a box near your makeup station and opened to see how much you had left. Definitely enough for 2 cigarettes

No need. I got it

June: Open the door shitface I've been buzzing for 10 minutes

Stay there and freeze to death

Came your response and lowered the volume of your music to realize that Indeed June was here. You leaped to your door and buzzed her in leaving the door open to go take off the armor. You tried not to get impatient and ruin it in the process of taking off every garment. The door slid open wider and then shut closed. June was huffing in pain and rested her hand in front of your bedroom watching you change in spite and anger.

“You hate us all and that's why you live in a place without an elevator”

“Nice to see you too” you said with a smile and she hopped over to your side to give you a quick and tight hug

“How are you doing?”

“Shitty but what's new. Someone has to entertain the group chat with their misery” June laughed and walked out of your room to the living room and plopped down on the couch tossing her bag on the floor and grabbing your controller to change the music and connect to her account. She let phone music fill the halls and got up again waiting for you to finish changing.

You quickly threw on a baggy pair of sweatpants and a crop top and walked out with her “So should we order coffee or a drink?”

“Way ahead of you, Cassie got us our usual already and she told me she is almost here”

Few minutes later the buzzer went off and in came Rick “That’s it. I’m giving up on love. She hates me. She absolutely hates me” Behind her Cassie followed with a cardboard containing all of your coffees yelling at her from the staircase all the way to your apartment

“Will you stop it?! She literally told you to meet tomorrow! TOMORROW!”

“Yes but her tone-“

“Her tone was neutral” Rick huffed out upset and went to sit in the living room

“I take it you have updates for us with your infinite crush?” Rick sulked and grabbed her phone to start reading out loud her latest conversation while occasionally laughing at her own jokes.These get-togethers started by happening once every two months to now happening almost every day as your friend group grew close and it always helped you feel lighter and more chipper. Your phone went off with a notification and you nearly screamed.

Staygrounded69: hey

“SHE texted me. Wow I really thought I was about to get ghosted for good”

Everyone snapped their head at you

“What are you waiting for then ? Answer!!” Cassie urged you on with an excited smile. You shot up and went to your kitchen needing to be away from the others as not to embarrass yourself any further

Whats up

You free to hang out for a game?

You hit your head on the table and groaned out loud. Your friends expressed a mess of concerned sentences all asking you in their own way what happened.

“SHe wants to call and play a game”

“GO FOR ITTTTT GO GET SUM GIRL” June screamed and you shook your head

“No I won't cave in that easy”

In the distance you heard Cassie tease “Sure that you won’t do, but having her Onlyfans pic as your lock screen is not above you” and you would have given her a jab on the ribs but decided against it and went type a response

I’m not alone.

Oh?

I have company tonight but we can still chat or something?

Unless you only wanted to play a game then we can hangout tomorrow…

It was embarrassing how desperate for her attention you were. She used at best 3 syllables and here you were meeting the word limit in a school essay. You saw the three dots appear and disappear as Abby considered her response. You leaned back on the stool and checked your nails,pressing at the skin around them mindlessly.

Works for me, how was your week?

She asked and you felt your heart beat loud in your chest and cold sweat run over you. You could not entirely grasp why her giving you the attention that you craved so badly made you so nauseous and so anxious but you brushed it off to you simply having a crush that intense

It was something. Classes were ridiculously slow

Right. You’re still in college ?

Last year but yeah..I study fashion design.You aren’t?

Oh no I still am. Which is why I still vanish. Classes are A true pain in the ass

You smiled,warmth spreading all over your body. You were pacing in the kitchen while exchanging back and forth meaningless info about your day and your general life. You were surprised to know she was the same age as you but that was about as many similarities as the two of you had but that did nothing to falter either interest in the conversation.

Oh Alice just came.

Give her a pat from me <3

And in came a photo. You opened it without hesitation and were quick to keep your finger pressed on the image processing what was in front of you. Alice was comfortably seated between Abbys thighs and her head was snuggly pressed on her leg looking up at the camera. Now whether Alice was in the image or not it didn't matter cause your eyes were stuck on the fact that Abby was only in a black pair of boxer briefs and she did nothing to divert the camera lens away from that fact.

Her arm was starched out patting Alice’s head, her veiny hand on display. You fixated on those long calloused fingers and you almost moaned just at the thought of what they could do.You hated that you couldn’t take a screenshot and cursed igs safety feature of showing the other party when someone did that. You exited the image and tried to think of an answer.

Damn. She is almost in frame

Don't blame me for your wandering eyes babe

You smacked your head on the table with a loud thud and it rumbled in protest,

“You alive cotton?!” Rick called out and the rest chuckled. You checked the time and noticed you had been talking with her for a good two hours at this point and despite wanting to continue the conversation you had to join your friends at some point

“Yeah gimme a few”

Shit You almost made me blush

Almost? Damn. Better luck next time

She said and you let out an awkward half laugh half sigh not believing what you were reading and how well this had gone. You bounced your leg in distress. You were beyond aroused by this attitude. Be it the photos, or her attempting to make a pass at you, you could feel the inevitable burn and ache in your core. You let out a scream and heard a glass fall and rick cough

“The hell?!”

“What happened?!”

“I’m gonna kick you for that what the fuck”

Came their voices in startled unison

Well Ill have to leave you high and dry. My friends are calling me

Go have fun. Talk to you tomorrow ?

Sure :)

They ran into the kitchen expectant and you let out a mumbled

“She said talk to you tomorrow”

You were sure you had lost 89% of your hearing capabilities from their cheerful screams.

____________

At precisely 4 am you decided to give up on sleep and left the living room trying to step around the bodies sleeping on the floor amongst the pillows and blankets going to your bedroom for some privacy. The ache was persistent and you had to do something about it. You locked the door and unlocked your phone going straight to Abbys Onlyfans. There was a message there

A video behind a paywall. A paywall of 250 euros with the caption “was thinking of you” and right below the video was a separate message

You closed your eyes the minute your fingers slipped and purchased the video. A video unlike anything else on her profile where she wore a sleeveless baggy t-shirt and the same boxer briefs you saw on that photo she sent you earlier that evening. She was sitting on her gaming chair with her legs spread and the camera was placed on the bottom cropping her face out. You watched as her fingers teased the waistband and in came her voice

Were you thinking of me?

It was lower, suggestive unlike how she usually talked. You pressed your thighs and pushed your back against the bedframe falling deeper between the pillows. Your hand laid comfortably on top of your tummy an inch away from the elastic band of your sweatpants. You circled the area hesitating to delve deeper but when you saw Abby initiate the notion by slipping her hand beneath her underwear you did the same, your body having a mind of its own.

Are you touching yourself for me baby?

She asked and you almost let out a breathless quiet “yes” but all that came out was a pathetic whimper. You mirrored her circular slow movements and hated how painfully slow she went about it and as if she knew exactly what you thought she added

Are you getting impatient ?

You bit your lip trying to hold back a moan. Her voice reeked of sex and the eroticism of her moves drove you insane. Your head was spinning and when you dared to outpace her you heard a very low breathless sigh come from the video and echo in your head. The video ended there and your eyes shot wide open in disbelief. You checked the time. It was a 3 minute video.

Fuck

You thought and closed the tab leading back to the chat on onlyfans. A new message was there

-Enjoyed it cotton?-

Fucking fuck

[steamberrystudio]

04/06/2023

Halloo~oo everyone! Just popping in for a quick tumblr update on GS (trying to be more consistent over on this site! 🤔 ).

In my last update, here, I was incredibly close to finishing the rough draft for Yuu's route. that is complete now. And I've been working on editing. I got sick mid-way through this week (feeling better now) so that slowed me down.

But I am about halfway through with the edit. A little less. Like...45% done editing. Yuu's route is coming in at 115,000 words uncoded at the moment. We'll see where it ends up when the revision is done.

Unlike some other routes I don't think Yuu is going to need to really heavy revision passes. I think it'll need one heavy revision, then a mild line edit and proofreading.

Most of my editing so far has been really focused on continuity and smoothing out character development. I haven't had to do any major shifting around of events.

I have sketched out one CG and have started compiling references for sprite variations (new outfits/hairstyles for Morgan and Yuu). So yeah, that's about where the route is currently. Drafting complete, revising underway! When the revision and proofreading is done, I'll start coding the route in and move to art!

A quick WSC update:

At my last update, I had finished up with Daaz's content for the shared part of the route and was getting ready to move into his exclusive chapters. I'd had a new idea and was considering if it was possible and how it would work.

I did a lot of brainstorming for this idea and have decided to move forward with it. It's added in some new (and cool, imo) lore elements that I'm excited to explore.

Something else I did for this project was start solidifying revision concepts.

For anyone who has not followed me or been with me for my previous projects, my revision process tends to be pretty extensive. I rewrite huge portions, delete massive sections, and inject large amounts of new content. (I don't think this is abnormal but for people not familiar with the development process of a VN it might seem weird to focus so much on revisions.)

I have been essentially plotting out some necessary changes (some of which are substantial) for that part of the process. I have a whole new timeline of edits and everything.

So yeah, that's kind of where WSC is at the moment. Now that I've done a lot of prep work for the end of Daaz's route I'll draft that and move on to finishing up Noel's content!

Anyway, that's all for now. I'm hoping that by my next post here I'll be in the middle of coding Yuu's route!

That's all for this update. See you in a couple of weeks!

[probably-iron-deficiency]

TWST x Kingdom Keepers #1

Idia Shroud

Welcome to my first official twst x kingdom keepers AU post!! I have,,, m a n y,,, thoughts for this AU, but my storyline for Idia is the most fleshed out right now. This is my VERY (very) rough sketch for him!!

AU/Character Notes below!!

Firstly…

What IS kingdom keepers?

It’s a book series from the early 2000s set in Disney World, but eventually expands to other disney locations as well. Following a group of middle schoolers, Disney has kids auditon to be part of their new “DHI” program (Disney Host Interactive), in which the kids will be motion captured and projected into the parks as holograms to act as virtual tour guides. However, the kids who become DHIs wake up in the parks in their hologram form after they sleep, and realize that all the rides/characters/animatronics/etc are REAL and come to life. Oh yeah also the disney villains have formed a coalition group called the Overtakers and they want to take over the world.

Obviously this series has some connections to TWST, so I think it’d be fun to explore the characters there! (Plus I make a TWST au for everything so-)

general au notes:

Scroll to next section if you just want AU Idia Lore!

these will be compiled in a master post later, but for some context here:

All characters are aged down in this AU!! First years are ages 11-12, second years are 13-14, and third years are around 15-16 (Leona being the oldest). There are some exceptions to this, though!

➡️➡️Ortho is 9 (truly a little baby😭😭). Lilia is 17, making him the oldest (ancient) member of the DHI kids.

Rather than just one area, the DHI gang were scouted/auditioned from all over the world. By chance, some of the characters already know eachother or are aware of eachother (similar to canon). When they all showed up for audiovisual recording to be done, it was a little chaotic.

In order to theme their hosts in accordance with the parks, these DHIs were assigned to different units that correspond to different disney properties.

Each unit acts as the hosts for different areas of the magic kingdom, corresponding to their theming. (Ex. Ignihyde/Tomorrowland) however, in later updates to these DHIs, and due to their popularity, guests can choose which DHI to interact with in ANY area of the park through their smartphones.

Unlike the original book, some DHIs were given altered appearances in order to better suit the theming (I.E, Heartslabyul members having card suit face paint, Ignihyde members having blue flame hair).

Each unit also has a unit leader, who serves as the default host selection in their respective regions. These are the house wardens in canon.

notes about Idia:

He is 15 in this AU! Still a gamer though.

His parents are pretty high and mighty in the tech industry, leading him and Ortho to be interested in pursuing it as well.

He’s always wearing the same exact pajamas, barring his constantly rotating armada of cringe 2010s hot topic anime tshirts. (Vil has tried to convince him to get some other clothes. This does not go well).

Him and Ortho made matching friendship bracelets for eachother when they were young, and haven’t taken them off since!

The yellow around his (and ortho’s) iris’ are almost neon, and will shine in the dark like an animals. This gives them a vaguely cat like appearance.

Him and Ortho were homeschooled through very expensive tutors, for better or worse (definitely worse)

Once they begin meeting the other DHI units, Idia begins sleeping with his noise cancelling headphones so they spawn in with him. These people are just too loud.

some Idia origin story notes (not everything!! I wanna write some fics detailing the events more):

The Shroud bros decided to audition to be DHIs out of their mutual want to “become heroes” like in their favorite games and Disney movies (and because they were interested in the new tech)

They both passed the audition, and recorded their lines and mocap stuff smoothly! Unfortunately, soon after the brothers were in an accident that left Ortho near death.

He survived, but has since been comatose, with the doctors projecting an extremely low chance of survival. Although Idia’s parents aren’t hopeful about the circumstances, they agree to keep him on life support because of Idia’s mental state.

(despite the tragic event, the Shroud bros DHIs roll out anyways, and Idia uses the money to pay off the hospital bills. His parents could afford it, but Idia feels responsible)

Since then, Idia has been staying with Ortho in the hospital, never once leaving his side. With his parent’s weight in medical tech, it was pretty easy to allow him to stay there.

When Idia wakes up in the park, the first thing he notices is that his DHI’s flaming blue hair seems to have carried to him. Naturally, he assumes he’s dreaming.

Not long after waking in the park, he felt a familiar tug on the back of his hoodie. Turning, he was face to face with Ortho. Notably, Ortho was completely inhabiting his holographic form, not wearing pajamas but dressed in the style of his DHI.

OK THATS ALL FOR NOW BYE FEEL FREE TO SHARE ANY THOUGHTS OR WHATEVER (scuttles away)

[seirindono]

Update

Hi everyone!

It's been a while, hasn't it?

For some of you, this may be the first time you've actually seen me on your feed since I'm on my annual hiatus so... Hi! I'm Seirin, your friendly skeleton lover and author of The Missing Scarf, that one Undertale comic (o´▽`o)

If you were not aware, this blog is usually only active in the summer and/or during the holidays as I'm a student, but I figured I should still write a little smth as I really haven't given any news for a long while now.

So, um, this blog is still very much alive, and so is TMS!   DEMON AU TOO

Truth is, I didn't anticipate back in September the sheer amount of work I'd have to pull off this year as well as the crazy schedule, house mouves, and many, many group assignements... I've always managed but this year is just rough, both physically and mentally (that was new). I had a serious slump around new year and didn't even have the motivation to draw or open social medias for a while. 

But you know me, always ranting that health comes first and that I’ve seen enough burned out artists to know not to go beyond my limits. (*￣▽￣)b  So knowing that I had this 30 pages+ lore doc, unfinished sketches and pile of unanswered asks just waiting for me whenever I wanted to work on TMS, I knew I wasn’t up for the task and had to put it off for later. And later. Again and again. 

That's about it for the venting section.

As of today, I'm still short of time but I've got some of my energy back, enough to write this anyway. But also *drum roll* to work on the next part of TMS! 

And this is where the real announcement comes in: while I'm still on hiatus, I'm planning to adjust the publication schedule a bit for this part. Until now, I'd post a chapter (1 page per day) only after I finished drawing it in its entirety. For this part however, I've decided to try a monthly (or bi-monthly) publication, to give me some leeway, and for you to have actual updates.

We'll see if I can keep up with this pace, but it seems much more satisfying for everyone  ( ´ ▿ ` )

So there you go. Sorry again to those who kept sending me Asks and dms I never got to answer. I just kinda turn into a hermit when overwhelmed or don’t notice them at all (I feel extra bad when I eventually do but every drop of energy needs to be salvaged for irl emergency), but I really appreciate the thought! And, yeah, I haven't disappeared into thin air. I’m just... Lurking here and there.  

Thanks for your patience and I'll see you soon!

Updates will be on the 1st of each month (and occasionally on the 15th)

[maydayfireball]

Len model finished !! His video was suppose to be a black background like rin's was, but i got a little carried away.. Just like Rin, check below for the model progress timeline and video credits !!

Turning Rin into Len ! I'm lazy and i want these two to look very similar, so i just edited rins face and body. Time elapsed: 00:34:53 (his head isn't smaller i just didn't screenshot well.)

2. Struggled drawing Len's hair ! I wouldn't normally include this part in my time, but like. fuck len. tumblr helped pick which one i used of these two blue prints. Time elapsed: 01:07:00

3. Len hair finished ! Why does this man hate me ! Time elapsed: 02:46:44 (almost two hours, huh..)

4. Body rig ! Unlike rin, I decided to rig len from scratch. This is because his base is too different from anyone else's to get away with weight transferring. (significantly shorter than kaito / gackpo, but with a different body shape than rin.) So here's a gif of his silly little arm movin. Time elapsed: 04:08:32

5. Hair Rig / Physics. For all the models (except rin) I've done their hair rig / physics right after rigging the body. This is mostly so i can have a fully optimized base to work off of later when making outfits. For rin i just.. forgot to do her hair lol. anyway time elapsed: 04:34:30

6. Outfit Designing. I didn't time this for rin since that timing was more for commission reference sake, and more clients won't have me designing their stuff. so it wouldn't have made sense to include it. but here we are. Rough outfit sketch. Fuck drawing headphones. Time elapsed: 05:06:05 for all my original models, the concept was more or less blending their design aspects together. (with the exception of gackpo, who's only difference between updates is colors and slight hair changes.)

7. Outfit modeling ! He went pretty easy, since It was just a matter of making parts i already did for Rin. So anything I struggled with last time, i had practice for. Time Elapsed: 7:50:25

8. UV Mapping. I included this step into texturing last time, but I felt like separating it this time around. Basically, i unwrapped all the UVs for the model and laid them out on a texture sheet to draw over. From what i've seen, a lot of people do this differently / in different orders? like they might uv map and then immediately texture the shirt, before moving onto the next piece of clothing. But texturing (using my tablet in general) hurts my shoulders typically, so i try to get it all out of the way at once. So i uvmap before even pulling the tablet out. Time elapsed: 8:50:48

9. Texturing. My neck hurts ! Time Elapsed: 11:40:19

10. Extruding, triangulating, exporting.. and then spas / toons. i think last time i included the extruding / triangulating in meta under texturing? But i've decided to break it up this time. Basically, i add depth to parts of the outfit, manually turn quads into triangles on tricky sections (like shoulders and hips) so they're easier to rig. Basically getting it ready for pmx before i export it. Time elapsed : 12:45:23 (left is unextruded / mirrored, right is extruded with the mirroring fixed.)

11. Rigging adjustments and physics ! Basically, used the weight transfer plugin to transfer the weight onto the outfit to match the base. I then cleaned the rig up and added bones / physics for parts that needed them. Time elapsed: 13:40:25

12. Cleaned ! Honestly there wasn't much to do, since most of the cleaning (like renaming bones) carried over from Rin.

Total time elapsed: 13:41:56 !!

Significantly less time than Rin, but that's honestly to be expected. Overall three days worth of work? Since I didn't. actually work on him much the first day.

I've also discovered that my models shoulders tend to disagree with game rip motions (which is why they look so. sharp. in the video), though i've noticed other models doing this as well.. it occurs since most motion rips don't use the rotate bones, but mine are made with those in mind. Kind of annoying, but maybe i can find a work around.

Final thoughts??? He might be my favorite original model right now honestly. I really like him. I might even distribute him and Rin, with expressions to remove their headphones and arm warmers.

Video Credits: Song: My Love Is Hellfire by SLAVE.V-V-R Len Cover: XZenvii Motion: anonRipper, Colorful Palette Scripts: TearlessHen, thtrandomlurker, minmode, skyth effects: おたもん, soboro, beammanp, 化身バレッタ, 呉石

[albertbutyoucancallmebert]

@stuckinuniformdevelopment

(prev) Teddy nodded while giving Sherri Jr. chin rubs for being such a sweet little girl. “I hoped that he’d actually escape but… even if he did follow my advice he didn’t have time to find someone willing to risk his life for him.” Then he let out a deep, long sigh as he allowed himself to put his weight on her instead of trying to hold his head up. It wasall his fault for being more scared of an awkward conversation than the possibility of Thomas being officially marked for sacrifice at any given moment. If only he approached him earlier. If only he showed that he was trustworthy earlier. If only he didn’t selfishly avoid him to avoid grieving. If only he took substantial action instead of thinking that a warning would be enough. If only… Teddy nuzzled Sherri’s side one more time before sitting up and pulling his Glornist notebook out. This was impossible to talk about without risking another breakdown. Really, it amazed him how Bert could keep up with a tidal wave of panic. He stuck a stiff envelope under the page to avoid leaving any indents in fresh pages while he carefully printed what happened. It was in semi-flowchart form with rough sketches filling in occasional gaps where words weren’t enough. Sam was pissed at Teddy for stealing partial credit. Teddy wanted to get it over with. Sam yanked Teddy into the back room even if he was already following (rude.) He thought he’d be fine because she never injured him before. They slammed him into the cabinet. He kept up smug bastard act to avoid giving him satisfaction. Sam punched his jaw. She grabbed him in an arm lock and forced him to the ground. He struggled because he realized that getting hurt would delay the ritual. (His genuine panic went unmentioned.) Sam told Teddy about how he was their second choice after Thomas. So if he ever disobeyed him, got in his way, or if sacrificing Thomas wasn’t enough to get promoted he’d be next. Which it wouldn’t be since Teddy made the mistake of telling Mike, who blabbed to Bishop Percival like a dum- Teddy blocked his page with his body as he frantically erased the last section. Then he sighed as he rewrote it in a calmer manner. Bert needed to know how his stupid scheming put their entire operation in jeopardy… Sam confirmed that they would frame him if they had to. Then they twisted his arm too far. Gloria (a weird evil hippie) decided to play doctor because he couldn’t keep quiet. But apparently shoulder reductions haven’t changed so whatever. Still forced her treatment on him. Still drugged him. So he slept through most of the workday. Once Teddy was done he slid the notebook over to Bert. The begining was neater, yet too light to see well. Then his writing got darker and sloppier as he pushed his pencil into the page. Which meant that he was unable to completely erase what he didn’t want to show.

Ohh… So the Thomas character didn’t actually escape, it sounded like. Bert noticed how dispirited Teddy seemed about that.

He paid no mind when Teddy got out a notebook to write the rest down. He knew full well how much of a struggle it could be to express thoughts verbally. He wanted to give Teddy as much time as he needed, so while he was writing, Bert began tidying up the table. Sherri Jr helped. Maybe it would help lessen Moe’s frustration with Bert making a mess of his lab in just two days when he comes in tomorrow. At least this table is clean! 

He only glanced over when Teddy frantically erased something, but otherwise paid it no mind.

When Teddy handed him the notebook, Bert smiled and nodded as he took it. He did have to squint to better see the light, neat handwriting, but was able to read the darker messier writing just fine. 

Predictably, the more details Bert read about Sam and what they did to Teddy, the more heated he became. He absentmindedly gripped the notebook so hard the page started to slightly tear. And it wasn’t just Sam. Bert indeed saw the remains of what Teddy tried to erase about Mike. Even just seeing the name "Bishop Percival" made him scowl. And then there was this Gloria character on top of everything else??

“...I hate every last one of them,” Bert growled under his breath.

He briefly glanced over the page one more time before setting it down on the table with a sigh.

"So this Sam character is a real threat to us now, huh?"

[stuckinuniformdevelopment]

@albertbutyoucancallmebert

(Previous) Being that she had been listening in on their conversation the entire time and now that she got to see Teddy’s arm, bruises, and scuffs, Sherri Jr could tell her poor friend was in need of comfort. So when he wrapped his arm around her, she laid down to be the best pillow she could possibly be. Bert lightly smiled at the two as he sat back down. He could tell this conversation was hard for Teddy, but it must go on. He twiddled his thumbs as he pushed himself to remember some of the last things Teddy said in his rant, both to encourage him to continue and to show he was paying attention (to the best of his ability.) “So… The Thomas fellow… Bolted?” Bert was proud of himself that while he was still foggy on the context, he remembered the phrasing.

Teddy nodded while giving Sherri Jr. chin rubs for being such a sweet little girl. “I hoped that he’d actually escape but... even if he did follow my advice he didn’t have time to find someone willing to risk his life for him.”

Then he let out a deep, long sigh as he allowed himself to put his weight on her instead of trying to hold his head up. It was all his fault for being more scared of an awkward conversation than the possibility of Thomas being officially marked for sacrifice at any given moment.

If only he approached him earlier. If only he showed that he was trustworthy earlier. If only he didn’t selfishly avoid him to avoid grieving. If only he took substantial action instead of thinking that a warning would be enough. If only...

Teddy nuzzled Sherri’s side one more time before sitting up and pulling his Glornist notebook out. This was impossible to talk about it without risking another breakdown. Really, it amazed him how Bert could keep up with a tidal wave of panic.

He stuck a stiff envelope under the page to avoid leaving any indents in fresh pages while he carefully printed what happened. It was in semi-flowchart form with rough sketches filling in occasional gaps where words weren’t enough.

Sam was pissed at Teddy for stealing partial credit. Teddy wanted to get it over with. Sam yanked Teddy into the back room even if he was already following (rude.) He thought he’d be fine because she never injured him before.

They slammed him into the cabinet. He kept up smug bastard act to avoid giving him satisfaction. Sam punched his jaw.

She grabbed him in an arm lock and forced him to the ground. He struggled because he realized that getting hurt would delay the ritual. (His genuine panic went unmentioned.)

Sam told Teddy about how he was their second choice after Thomas. So if he ever disobeyed him, got in his way, or if sacrificing Thomas wasn’t enough to get promoted he’d be next. Which it wouldn’t be since Teddy made the mistake of telling Mike, who blabbed to Bishop Percival like a dum-

Teddy blocked his page with his body as he frantically erased the last section. Then he sighed as he rewrote it in a calmer manner. Bert needed to know how his stupid scheming put their entire operation in jeopardy...

Sam confirmed that they would frame him if they had to. Then they twisted his arm too far. Gloria (a weird evil hippie) decided to play doctor because he couldn’t keep quiet.

But apparently shoulder reductions haven’t changed so whatever. Still forced her treatment on him. Still drugged him. So he slept through most of the workday.

Once Teddy was done he slid the notebook over to Bert. The begining was neater, yet too light to see well. Then his writing got darker and sloppier as he pushed his pencil into the page. Which meant that he was unable to completely erase what he didn’t want to show.

[dalt20]

Tooning In 13. Greg Bailey Part 4 of 10

DL: Well. So how was working with Hanna Barbera again with Young Robin Hood?

GB:It was fine. Kind of like going back to my roots as far as working in animation went. On Robin Hood I was running the timing department and lip sync included. I went pretty smoothly from what I remember. It was a good chance to bring the US Saturday morning standards to a Canadian studio.

DL:The Busy World of Richard Scarry for Paramount/Showtime/The Family Channel and France Animation? How did that come to be and how was working on that show?

GB:It was my first animated series to develop and direct on. It became quite a hit and really put Cinar on the map. France Animation was the minority on the project . The only did the Busy World segment. We did the other 2 story blocks as well as the musical interstitials , the opening, the post production so we really did the bulk of it. The Paramount connection was actually quite peculiar and lucky. The people that worked in a portable in the Paramount lot were actually making trailers and publicity and handling some licensing. They were not the film or tv executives. However they had the rights and connection to Huck Scarry (son of Richard Scarry) and they decided they had the power to put together an animated tv series without going through the regular tv and film sections of Paramount. It was pretty gutsy of them to do that and after the show went out and was a success they ended up having to relinquish some control of it to the proper departments over there. Cinar ended up selling the show in over 100 countries worldwide. I really loved the development we did on the show. The characters all had unique walks and lip sync models and we also kept the scenes really busy with lots of details moving around. We also had used a sort of isometric perspective or down shot for the entire show. We avoided all the trendy dramatic cartoon kinds of angles that were and are still popular in animation. Things that are far away are always higher on the screen. This was something from the Scarry books. We also used a lot of white in the background to achieve that kind of vignette sort of look. It wasn't painted solid side to side like typical Nelvana kind of shows. It was really a cool look and I think the stories all had a nice twist ending. It was an interesting show for young preschool kids because we had a lot of information and details they would never have been exposed to. It was very whimsical looking with the things like the pickle car and the banana car and Lowly Worms apple car. But we showed a lot of stuff like how the inside of a fire station operated and the variety of firetrucks they use. I think we had more time to develop different things on that series than most preschool series even dream about nowadays.

DL:Did you have any interference with the Scarry family?

GB:I don't know that I would call it interference, but I did work with Huck quite regularly. His dad was not in the picture. But we would send the models and scripts and storyboards rough cuts to Huck. It all went out by fax machine in those days. He would often be able to send a sketch the next day if he had a better idea for a model or some details on the model in order to keep it in the Scarry world. But he did go through all the material promptly. It is always a matter of getting non-animation people educated about now backtracking on things at a later stage when they finally notice something they want to change. Like, don't start changing the character or background when we send out the storyboard and you have already been shown the designs a few months earlier. I think Huck got used to those things over the course of the season and wasn't a big problem that I can remember.

DL:Also I believe that Richard Scarry sold the rights to France Animation first because he was living in Switzerland. And France Animation was close by in France and they called CiNAR to co-produce and Showtime/Paramount came to broadcast and finance the series.

GB:I didn't know that! We had already been working with France Animation on other shows before that so I figured CiNAR asked them to partner on it. But I understand what you are saying and it's quite possible. I wouldn't know.I am not surprised that Richard Scarry would sell off his rights in Europe. He moved out of the US a long time ago and always had nasty stuff to say about the US. He was super right leaning and rigid from what I know about him. He was avoiding living in a country where he would have to share his taxed money with poor people. I think it would have been pretty crazy doing the show with Richard Scarry.

DL:I never knew he was anti-American.

GB:He was American himself. I would clarify that and say he was anti -America. He was pretty anti-a lot of things.

DL:The Little Lulu show for HBO and Golden Books.

GB:Little Lulu was a series I developed between seasons of Richard Scarry. This time I wanted to do something with a different and strong graphic style to it. So we had these characters and backgrounds with incredibly thin lines. It was still all drawn in pencil or pen in those days so it could be hard to get the proper line sometimes in production. It looked very beautiful but I admit the format of the show with all those small bits and pieces was hard to watch for a whole episode. The stand up comic bits were not funny and were lame. One of the producers loved Seinfeld and was sure that copying Jerry Seinfeld's standup section would work in a cartoon. But how would you get an animation writer to write a stand up routine? It is something that comics try out and constantly refine by reciting it to a live audience. It was the one series that I actually went to do the pitch and sale at HBO. I did the pitch and Ron Weinberg did the sale that is. The HBO producers owed a favour to Tracey Ulman for something she did for free for them, so they insisted we use her to do the voice-over for Lulu as part of the deal. Again it really hurt the series because she sounded old and gruff. She was totally wrong for the part of Lulu. The initial sale was to do 5 specials. So we used her for those 5 shows only. The show went to a full series of 26 episodes before we even delivered the first special. There was a lot of stuff I liked about the show but it wasn't as much of a hit as Richard Scarry was as far as sales went. Also like I say it had some irritating aspects to the episode because of so many little pieces that were not funny or did not help the flow of the episode. I was introduced to some great voice actors on the show like Michael Caloz that did Annie, and Bruce Dinsmore that did Tubby. These were the best characters in the series and I worked with these actors again later on Arthur because of the Lulu Series. I directed the first 5 episodes then I was a supervising director for the remaining episodes. So I was less hands on at that point.

DL:Well I like Tracey Ullman's voice for Lulu as it fitted the character weirdly and also a youtuber pointed it out too about the Seinfeld bits.

GB:In hindsight, I think the way to write the standups would be to give a theme to a standup comic and have them improvise a 30-second routine on the subject. And record it while they do it. Write it down and give the recording and written script to the voice actor to try to copy the timing and natural speaking rhythm of the standup. Something like that. But to get an animation writer to write and script then expect a voice-over actor to attempt to deliver something with the stand-up comic timing was not a good approach. It is not spontaneous sounding. There was a series about a psychiatrist that used stand up comic routines for his patient sessions. I forget the name of the show now.

DL:Dr Gnudo I believe.It was a segment on The Tracey Ullman show.

GB:I was thinking of Dr Katz.

DL:Papa Beaver's Storytime for France 3 and Nickelodeon?Also, did you watch the original Little Lulu cartoons or read the comics?

GB:I did read Little Lulu comics when I was young and I remember the cartoons as well. When we did the new version I watched a lot of them again. The history of Little Lulu was very long as far as the comic but also as a cartoon. It was made by a lot of different studios over the years. So we were just one more part of the line that makes up the history of it. I have a couple of the old comic books from long ago.

DL:That's cool!

GB:I always called Papa Beaver by the French name Pere Castor because we were the minority partner on the project and that was the name of the project until they dubbed it. I was a co-director. I loved those shows at the time because the stories were based on classic folk stories from around the world. So they had good stories and we copied the visual style of each book we used. No 2 shows looked alike. The beaver and the children beavers at the start of each show were done in France by the main director. So we had a lot of fun on our side doing peculiar and unique-looking small cartoons. Some were really weird stories like a raindrop that falls out of the cloud onto the farm field and eventually goes into a river. The story could be any length we wanted as long as it was under 4 minutes. I have never worked on anything that did not have a fixed length before or after that series. It was a fun show to do until people started calling me Pere Castor. I think we did 26 of those stories.

DL:Well, is it because you're Canadian hence the name?

GB:It just sounded like I was so old. If I was American it could have been worse using your logic. I would have been Papa Bald Eagle

DL:LoL! Legend of White Fang for HBO/The Family Channel?

GB:That was my first job at Cinar/Crayon Animation. I was a posing supervisor. That is the posing department would drawn the key animation poses as well as the camera key for camera work and field so it could be sent overseas for animation. Mostly what I remember is that the studio was very disorganized at that point and it was hard to get enough work from the layout department to keep my really small crew supplied with work. they were on piece work so it mattered to them. I did that show for 3 months or so and then the series Bunch of Munsch started falling behind and I got a chance to direct on 2 of the Munch specials.We had a historian as an advisor on White Fang . It was Pierre Berton who every Canadian knew at the time as a regular on CBC. Anyway, the interesting thing he pointed out in one script is that the people could not have sent a telegram to get help from the Mounties in one of the shows, because telegram service was something that was only available along the rail lines. White Fang takes place in the Klondike gold rush which is in the mountains and a few thousand miles away from the nearest railway line. It all seems pretty obvious but you can see how animation writers left on their own had no problem putting in a story point like that which would seem idiotic to anyone that knew how telegram lines work. I remember we had a scene in White Fang where the little girl was being held in a cage by the bad guys in this remote cabin in the wilderness. It was kind of kinky looking. Anyway one day one of the layout guys left a drawing from a scene with white fang hanging by his leg from a tree in a leg-hold trap. It did look pretty grim. The producers were doing a tour of the studio for some daycare teachers, and they saw the picture which freaked them out. Everyone got a lecture about it the next day even though the artist was just following the scene in the storyboard that he was supposed to follow. So for the little girl in the cage in the log shack, we changed that so the bad guy slept outside in the snow beside the cabin. It looked totally insane and confusing. I believe the bad guy's name was Beauty even though he looked like a big thug. So weird stuff happens in animation and it isn't always the animators doing dirty drawings on the side.

DL:Oh well, so you scared some preschool teachers, I find that actually funny.It's weird and absurd.Caillou for Teletoon and PBS?

GB:Caillou didn't run on PBS in the first season. Cinar had joined with Astral and Nelvanna and created the Teletoon Cable station in that period. If I recall it was 50 Astral and 25% each for Cinar and Nelvana.Caillou was developed from a Quebec book property that was already popular in Quebec in French only. So we were working with a local publisher and artist that illustrated the books. I remember there was a lot of push to put hair on Caillou but it just wasn't the same character anymore and I didn't have much problem with him being bald figuring a lot of little kids don't have much hair at that point. Later on people would send letters thanking us for the show because they had cancer and lost their hair too. They believed we did it because Caillou had cancer. I am always happy to hear these little unintended things have good consequences for some people that can use any good news they can get. The show was more popular than I thought it would ever be and it took off and kind of spread, including to PBS. There was always talk of renaming the show because it was hard for English people to read the name. The kids never had any problem with it but it scared the parents. I guess it was good for having made a new word known to Anglophones because we never changed that nor did we give him hair. The name translates as Pebble so that name was already known from the Flintstones so that didn't catch on. I developed the show from a book series to a TV series and directed the first bunch of shows before I moved to Supervising Director on it. I believe we were doing Arthur by then so likely I had worked Caillou during the off-season on Arthur. Caillou got kind of messed up after a few seasons when they added some live-action parts to the show. I heard that the kids that had been following the show in the earlier years were having traumas and crying because someone turned off Caillou. They were actually crying because a producer or sales executive messed up a perfectly fine show for little kids by adding some marketing idea to the show. The kids finally got their way and they took that crap out on the following seasons. Some parents often complained that Caillou was too whiny and their own kids never whined. I think they never sat in a restaurant behind their own kids, however. They were probably whining because of the live-action scenes in the Caillou show.

DL:Did you supervise the lost grandmother scenes of Caillou?

GB:What do you mean? The storyteller?

DL:Yes it was the opening format for the show in season 1-4 as the caillou segments were stories she read to her grandchildren.And were animated in a different style then Caillou segments.

GB:I remember going to the record session for those parts. It was pretty brutal. The actress was a former grammar school teacher and was very stubborn about the way she was willing to act out the line even when it didn't make sense in the overall context of the scene. I don't think it would make the show worse to remove that section except that kids don't have time to go get a snack before the story begins.

DL:Animal Crackers for Alphaim, Teletoon and Fox Kids.

GB:I didn't have a lot to do with the show in the end. At that time I was head of the visual look of new shows in development. The show almost sold itself because it was well known from the comic strip and the look was popular. It still always needs to be developed for TV but it went through my hands pretty fast before it was sold for a series. I was a Supervising Director on it. but not very hands on. It was a cute show but it didn't run very long.

DL:Paddington Bear for Filmfair/TF1/HBO and ITV?

GB:Paddington Bear. Interesting history on that property. It came about because Cinar bought Filmfair. FlimFair made the original series that ran on PBS as probably their first animated series. It was probably on PBS in one of their first year of being. Anyway we all thought we had fond memories of that old series so we all rushed out to watch old episodes of the show. Wow, was it ever crude. Anyway Filmfair still owned the rights for television. Michael Bond was still alive and he was all excited to do a new series. So I read a book or 2 of his books of short stories. I realized quickly why I never read them to my daughter when she was young. The stories were not even stories and they were trite and sentimental. The stories didn't have an ending; they just waffled away into nothingness. Michael was very involved and kept his nose in the business of the scripts on the series. He did his best to make those nothing endings on the stories so that was a barrier to making a decent show. The illustrations in the book are very scribbly and drawings with no structure so they didn't offer anything we could use to base the characters on. I'm not too happy in the end with the look we got for the characters. They are terribly typical looking characters for a preschool show at the time. It looks very generic like Denise the Menace or any number of shows with no style. Michael Bond thought that every time Paddington would say marmalade that it was just hysterical so it is in every show and it never makes me laugh. It's the trite kind of thing I mentioned. I did visit Paddington station in London the one time I was in London for a few hours. The idea was that Paddington Bear got his name because he was found wandering around in Paddington Station. The station is a really amazing example of 19th century iron work. It was designed by Isambard Brunel the great inventor of iron ships and buildings. There is a cartoon short from the UK about him that is excellent.

DL:I didn't like Paddington either, but I like the live action film. Have you seen the film?

GB:No, I didn't. I'm sure it was better than the series. Does the story have an ending? We should have just let Film Fair make a new stop-motion Paddington. It would have been well received. Paddington had a very extensive licensing franchise. We had these licensing people come from the UK and they explained how the image has been used all over the world and how it goes out of popularity just as it becomes popular somewhere else for some totally unrelated product. Some places in Asia gave free towels in laundry boxes and other places like Holland made cookies with the image. It was really interesting to see how licensing makes money like that.

[spectralstitions]

mapmaking progress update (distant sobbing noises)

I've spent the past week or so roughing out a new map for the Hinterlands in my free time and it is just... not working lol. Why is this so hard??? It's not like I'm going into it blind - I've spent hours pouring over fantasy maps, considering advice for plausible geography building, trying a variety of configurations... I even know generally where every major location needs to be. I just can't for the life of me form an attachment to any of the land configurations I've tried!!

There are two main issues I'm facing: Firstly, I am way too concerned with making everything feel BIG. But what past Caspar has failed to consider is that if everything is drawn BIG, then there's zero size contrast, leading every location to appear... middling. Decisions on what should be smaller and what should be larger are very difficult to make, though, let me tell you. These recent sketches are messy but you can see how I have attempted to address this problem, even though I still can't decide which areas should be smaller. Unrelated, I also really gotta figure out how to make the giant crags surrounding Parthesa flow better with the rest of the land lol.

The second issue I'm working on (attempted fix above) has to do with biome placement. In my old maps, which are at the end of this post, I would dedicate entire, giant sections of the land to exactly one biome and almost never included the same biome twice on the map. I pretty much had dedicated zones for each type of thing - "the swamp area", "the mountain area", "the forest area", "the roofed forest area", etc. I want to get out of that habit for the sake of more interesting landscapes. I would much prefer to place many small, diverse wetlands than one single swamp that the characters must travel the entire continent to get to. Which yes, was the original idea.

As with most aspects of worldbuilding, I'm more concerned with what looks nice than 100% realism, and that's mostly because exploring the middle ground of plausibility is one of the most fun challenges of worldbuilding for me. The Hinterlands' climate is mostly dry, with a gradient that works its way from snowy cold (or it will, once I find a place to put Voklor) to dry cold taiga & grassland to temperate forest to warm desert - and that's it. In my mind this is because the land mass is all situated closer to the northern hemisphere of the planet, not smack dab in the middle. Does that make much sense, realistically? I don't know. But I want an excuse to be rid of tropical areas (I hate making them, sorry) and I don't think most people would give enough of a shit to think too hard about that explanation.

This is the last map I made of the Hinterlands (previously named Ha'vesta). It's defunct now because too much of it is based on outdated lore. However, I really enjoy the shape of it - when it comes to maps I really love on-the-nose fantasy geographies that are shaped like something cool - a dragon, for instance. I'm purposefully trying to avoid that trope right now because I think a naturalist aesthetic works better for the story, but I also think that's why it's been so difficult for me to grow an attachment to the new ideas I've been working on. Guess I'll just keep working at it. Hopefully the next time I post about a map it will be because it's DONE and I can introduce Nelka and have them explain it to everybody.

The only thing I'm perfectly happy about regarding my map progress is that I've finally graduated out of my "island continent" phase (；一_一). These old maps make me cringe, so hard, for so many different reasons.

[whentherewerebicycles]

5:30 and 6:30am cherry blossom views :) I slept from 8-5:15 and probably need one more night like that before I’ll feel back to normal again. I do feel significantly less emotionally unstable though lol so I guess everyone who was like JUST GO TO BED yesterday was right 🙄🙄🙄 anyway here we are!!!! we are READY!!!!

here’s my plan of attack. so far I’ve spent the morning reviewing the PPT I started yesterday and organizing my notes for the second and third main points. I also emailed or texted all the former students I’m hoping to use as examples in the talk to get permission from them (and to run my framing of the examples by them for their OK or edits) and they’ve all gotten back to me with the most enthusiastic responses and well wishes for the interview 😭 so that was a nice mood boost this morning. I think I’ll let myself keep lounging in bed working on this outline until 7:45… then I’d like to get up, shower, and work at my desk so I can go back and forth between my work laptop & personal laptop as needed. a possible sketch for the day:

7:15-7:45 work on outline

7:45-8:15 shower, get ready, listen to some music to pump myself up

8:15-8:30 check on reply from B about the training edits + also follow up with M about the interview workshop if necessary

8:30-9:30 transfer remaining outline content into the PPT—it can be super rough as I’m going to do a lot of polishing and practicing work with liz today I think

9:30-10:30 maybe do an initial practice run or talkthrough with liz on zoom

10:40ish walk to appointment so I can get some sun and hopefully reset my circadian rhythms a bit

11-11:30 ultrasound—I’m going to be a little bit crushed if we missed the window, but I also strongly suspect we missed the window so if it’s a no-go this cycle I will just focus on using the next four weeks to get myself back into consistent running & healthy eating routines

pugs arrive around 12

time the talk and make a decision on whether I have time to do the lesson walkthrough as part of it. if I don’t, I will add a section where I highlight some of the model projects we use to expand students’ conceptions of research. if I do, I will need to make the slides—and/or possibly print the materials if I decide to set up the classroom.

try on my outfit and shoes for tomorrow to make sure everything fits and nothing needs to be ironed. I also want to practice the talk in my outfit to make sure I’m comfortable. I may want to bring a cardigan if I get too hot in the suit jacket and need to change.

print the list of questions I generated for the different interviews plus my distilled list of the job duties. I might need to buy a folder to keep papers in?? I should also find that little notebook I bought to jot down questions and notes throughout the day.

in the afternoon haley might come over or I might call her to practice the talk for her.

in the afternoon/evening, I want to map out the route for tomorrow morning and possibly actually drive there to be absolutely sure I can find the parking lot. I can practice the talk on the drive.

practice everything more in the evening and also just practice talking through possible questions that I expect to come up. I also want to find and print my syllabi too just to refresh my memory on how I scaffolded research skills instruction. and I’d like to jot down quick notes in my folder on everyone’s names and backgrounds in the CL office.

medium long walk with the dogs I think

might try to go to bed by 8/8:30 again so I can be up bright and early! tomorrow my first interview is at 9, so I’d like to be there and parked by 8:30, which means leaving by 8, which means showering by 6:30 so my hair is fully dry when I get there. I think I’ll aim to get up at 5ish again just so I can have plenty of time to take all four dogs out and practice a bit more before I need to start getting ready.

[characterillustrationoliviap]

Character Illustration: Class 1

I started this class by opening up some of the palettes which Toby said we would be using today. These palettes were the layers palette, colour palette (colour wheel) and the brush palette. I then saved the layout as a workspace by selecting new workspace in window.

Today we talked about line work for illustrations. We were all given a Wacom tablet to plug into our computer and then I played around with it for a bit. It's very different to drawing on paper or an iPad as what you're drawing appears on the screen rather than the tablet.

I tried drawing a straight line and a curvy line. As you can see, the lines aren't very clean and are really bumpy.

To fix this, I needed to increase the smoothing of the brush. Originally it was at 0% so I tried it at 50% and 100%. This allowed me to understand how the tool works and which percentage I should have it on when drawing.

This was the 50%.

This is the 100%.

Since I am use to drawing on paper or onto a screen, it was difficult at first getting the line to go in the right direction. To refine this skill I drew two Xs and practiced drawing a smooth curved or straight line that went from one to another. It became easier time and I found zoning in helped at times. I think this is something would definitely take time to get really good at so I'll just have to be patient.

Using these curving lines we then tried to draw an eye. It was just a quick rough exercise to adjust to the tablet. I added another layer underneath and gave the eye an iris colour. I played around which the sensitivity of the tablet and pen when I made the specks in the eye.

We then moved on to tracing a shape from a template. The first template we were given was this duck. It has a large variety of line lengths and curves so it will be a really good drawing to use to adjust to the tablet. I brought the image into PhotoShop and then added a layer. I placed a white rectangle over the drawing and then lowered the opacity to make the sketch less visible.

I then added another layer and started to draw the outline of the duck. This took we a bit of time as I was trying to make the lines as smooth and clean as possible. For a few sections, I had to redo the line about 10 times until I produced one I was happy with.

This was the final outline I had for the duck. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I think the curves are mostly all really smooth. The eyes are a bit rough but it's the best I was able to do. I decided to go for more of an angry duck so I gave him some big tilted eyebrows.

I then moved on to colouring the duck. I decided for this drawing I wanted to try and get use to the tablet more so I coloured the entire illustration in by hand rather than using shortcuts like fill. I'll use these better techniques in my second drawing.

I started by adding base colours on a layer behind the outline. I coloured the entire duck in a pale yellow colour for a start. This gave me a simple base colour to build off.

I then went and added all of my other base colours using the brush tool again. I frequently went over a line so I used the option key and mouse to select the other colour and quickly fixed it.

The next step was to add some details. I started by adding some detail to the eyes. Since he was angry I wanted to give him some red bloodshot eyes to match his fury. I made my brush a lot smaller and changed the colour to red. I then made a collection of squiggly, branching lines. I then wanted to add a redness around the edge of the eye. I started made my brush a lot bigger so it would blend evenly. I lowered the opacity of the brush to about 10% and started to build up the redness.

I then added some shadows and highlights to the beak. I used the colour wheel so select a slightly darker shade of orange. Shadows typically are under raised points so I added them under lines on the beak as shown in the image. I added a highlight on the top of the beak and a small one on the bottom.

I then moved on to his outfit. I decided to make it so it looks like he was wearing a vest with some sort of shell (bullet) belt. I started by adding the darker grey shadow to vest. I just played around with the shape of the shadow as there wasn't any guide in the template. I then added some shadows on to the neck of the vest. I also changed the colours of the legs to match the darker orange from the beak. I think the yellow was a bit too light.

I then moved on to adding highlights and shadows onto the boots. I made the boots have a massive lip rather than a really thin one. I added a lighter shade of blue so that the darker one became the shadow. It took me quite a while to get the shape of the shadow right as I was trying to make it fit with the rest of the boot.

I then added some highlights to it to make them seems shiny and new.

I then added some shadows and highlights onto the duck itself. I added some shadows on the underside of some feathers and under his eyebrows to help express the anger. I added some highlights on the top of his head and on his wings.

This was first final drawing. I'm really pleased with the outcome as I've never drawn anything on PhotoShop or using a wacom tablet so I think this was a really successful first attempt. Next time I'd really like to try and add some more shading using brushes with lower opacities. I think this would really elevate the illustration. I think tomorrow I'll move on to the Rooster cop template and try colouring in using the proper way shown in the tutorial.

[raenparade]

weekly update #5 - 09/05/23

We’re back with the weekly updates! There’s not a lot of work here, but a lot of deconstruction. Basically, I want to take a look at everything I’ve done so far, and use that to build myself up and get my project done!

To do this, let’s establish what I actually want to hand in for my project:

Portfolio Website

This will house everything to do with my project, which includes:

TSTSU Storyboards Other Storyboards (Most likely using audio from a podcast) Illustration Work (Personal, Editorial, Commissions etc) TSTSU Project Page (Which is a pseudo-pitch bible of sorts)

My website is essentially a base of operations for everything else, so having that mostly sorted is essential. Luckily, I do! I haven’t really got any storyboards on there yet, but it’s one less thing to worry about later. 

I don’t want to say exactly how many storyboards I’ll do, or exactly what my pitch bible will look like here, as that’s not what this post is about. 

To sort of flip-flop, let’s now examine the work I produced at the start of the year, before I decided to pivot more towards storyboarding. 

Initially, The Sword that Splits Us was going to be solely a concept art project, so the design work took precedent. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that good! I don’t mean that in a deprecating way, just generally. But we get better! 

All of this work, while fine, is severely lacking. I knew this at the time, too. As a result, I was lucky to be able to get some feedback from a friend of mine who works in the industry! He also gave me the confidence to pursue storyboarding, so really he’s the backbone of my entire project. 

I started off making annotated moodboards, for different parts of my environment, mostly being Pluto, but also the Prosperina Research Station, which is based on it.

I haven’t looked at these moodboards in quite a while, so it’s really nice to see how detailed I was. Even if I don’t plan on doing a lot of visual development from now, compared to my storyboards, this is work that I don’t have to complete as it’s already done! 

I then used these moodboards to make a few more pieces of artwork, still basically being all landscapes. 

These are so much better, and I still really like them! However I didn’t do a lot after this, as it was about this time when I decided to pivot towards storyboarding.

Now that I’m looking at this work, it’s actually becoming quite inspiring once more. While I do think I was definitely biting off more than I could chew with thinking I could design a planet’s surface, as well as a whole research station, including individual sections and an observatory - I do now think I could produce some sketches/rough visdev aspects for my portfolio, as well as making it easier when I storyboard some more. 

Even if this work isn’t going on my portfolio, it’s still an integral part of my development, and it’s going to go here! 

I feel my train of thought running out, so I’ll stop here before this post gets far too long. To summarise, I have a lot of work! It’s okay for me to take a step back. I can use what I already have to build on my subsequent work, for all aspects of my portfolio. I’m excited to see what I do next! 

[ollielambertvisom]

RSA

Developing new ideas

While in the tutorial Marie asked me to pick out key words or parts of the animation and just rough draw an idea to visualise it. I wanted to be more playful and abstract with my approach. I started with the first section of the transcript.

"We urgently need to find ways to design that achieve net-positive impacts."

I did this first sketch board starting with a tower progressively building upwards, I wanted to still have the idea of architectural design but simplified down, but this didn't really visualise the positive impact.

Next I drew a brick wall with one missing piece, the wall once the last brick is in place turns entirely green to show the positive impact it has, I feel green is the most widely recognisable colour for something positive.

I then decided to move the same idea forward but with a more abstract structure with random shapes and this time introduce a character placing the last golden square before the whole thing turns green and radiates through the floor.

I quite liked this idea so I decided to add a rough idea to a story board sheet, but this time I added a few more people and made some of the out of abstract shapes as well to make the animation feel more stylised and also to create a theme I could take across the rest of the scenes later on.

Next I decided to do some basic character designs in procreate which I then went over with an inking brush and added colour, from there I started to vectorise the characters and started building a scene so these assets were ready to be imported into After effects as this is the software I think lends it self best to this style of animation and also firs my work flow.

[dylansnbhd]

cute mess, joel dawson

synopsis: joel decides to surprise you with a romantic date in the bunker, but things don’t go quite as planned.

word count: 1.3k

notes: this was the very first dob imagine i ever wrote and i’m so glad it was for my bf joel, mmhmm

masterlist | wattpad

Joel wouldn't consider himself panicky, per se. Now, bravely and reasonably cautious? He felt that was a better, more appropriate description.

But as he scrambled through the bunker with his forehead glistening with perspiration and an armful of miscellaneous knickknacks, he couldn't deny it anymore.

Joel was panicking. Hard.

You and Joel have been together for a little over 6 months now and couldn't be any happier. He actually confessed to you while he was milking Gertie, the cow—it was incredibly charming. The guy was absolutely head-over-heels for you and it was painfully obvious.

So when you absentmindedly mentioned that you'd never been on a proper date, he decided he would set one up for you right in the bunker. Of course, he felt surprises were way more romantic, so he planned to begin when you left with the hunting party.

How hard could it be?

He moved speedily in and out of rooms, occasionally tripping over his own feet. One second he was adding chopped vegetables to the minestrone and the next he was decorating a section of the dining table. It was definitely a month's worth of exercise and that's all Joel really needed.

He took a step back from the table after adjusting everything for the nth time and proudly admired his work. He used one of the baby's old blue-patterned blankets for a mini table-cloth and placed a lantern beside it for mood lighting. One of Kala's "antique" snow-globes stood as the centerpiece and was surrounded by small action figures and army men. As a final fancy touch, he folded a piece of paper and wrote your name on it next to a rough sketch of you smiling. He placed it where you would be sitting and made one for his own side.

It was just missing one thing—flowers.

"What on earth are you doing, Joel?" Ray questioned from the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest in amusement.

"Oh! Well, I set up a date night for Y/n. It's just...we don't have a bouquet of roses just lying around anywhere, do we?"

Ray hummed in false thought before dodging out of the room and coming back with a handful of, what seemed to be, coriander stalks. He shoved them into Joel's hands, earning a blank stare and a quizzical tilt of his head.

"What is—what am I supposed to do with this?"

"Well, you know what they say," Ray started and slowly began to walk out of the room, "cilantro is like a distant cousin to roses."

Joel stood frozen for a second in disbelief as he watched Ray leave. He opened his mouth to say something and paused before finally calling out, "So distant they aren't a part of the same family! Apparently..."

Upon hearing your voice, he quickly grabbed an empty milk bottle and filled it with a bit of water before shoving the stalks of cilantro inside. He ran to set it on the blanket, accidentally knocking it over and drenching your fancy name tag.

"Shit..." he cursed under his breath before standing it up again and hurrying to catch you before you walked in.

He spotted your messy figure a few feet away. You had a slight frown on your face and your shoulders sank heavily.

But any hint of exhaustion previously evident on your dirt-caked face disappeared as you called out an unusually cheery "Hey". Your eyes lit up and you sent him a small, endearing smile. He could feel his heart grow ten times bigger at the sight.

"Hey, everything go okay?" He asked jokingly, referring to the dried mud on your clothes.

You sighed, "Yeah, I found a bunch of canned soups, but then I tripped over something and then...well, you can see. I definitely need a long shower."

He smiled and swiftly moved behind you, "Before you do that, I have a surprise for you."

Placing his hands over your eyes, he walked you over to dining table. You giggled out of shock and held onto his wrists while he sang, "Almost thereeeee."

"Tada!"

His eyes were glued to your face to watch your reaction. When he saw your eyes widened and your jaw drop, he could've confidently said that he stunned you into silence.

"Well, what do you think?" He straightened up and paused, waiting for an amazed reply.

"Joel—"

"I wanted to do something special for you since you said you'd never been on a date before—"

"Joel, the—"

"And it doesn't look like much, but I think I did a pretty good job at—"

"Joel, the minestrone!"

He furrowed his eyebrows and hesitantly nodded, "Well, that too...I was gonna say decorating, but..."

After finally following your line of sight, his eyes bulged out of his head and he cursed before running into the kitchen.

The broth bubbled ferociously, spilling over the sides of the pot and splashing onto the floor. His shoes were being drenched in the liquid as he rushed over to turn off the stove and put a lid over the pot to tame it.

Almost like an alarm, Mary barged into the kitchen with a wailing baby in her arms. The sound bounced around the walls, piercing through your ears.

"I've been looking for this blanket!" Mary—being too occupied with hushing the baby—pulled at the blanket before Joel could call out any warning. Suddenly, the sound of shattered glass accompanied the loud cries like a chaotic symphony.

Joel sighed. He owed Kala a snow-globe.

You had offered to help him clean the mess, but he insisted that he could do it himself. He had already gone to sweep up the shards of glass in the dining area before you could offer again.

So after you went to freshen up, you say the table and waited for him to finish washing dishes. When he saw you, he offered you a tight-lipped smile and set a bowl down on the table taking the seat beside you.

"I was able to, uh, reheat the minestrone, but it got kinda cold while you were in the shower."

You smiled softly at him, mumbling a thanks before scooping a spoonful into your mouth. Your nose scrunched and you involuntarily coughed.

The soup was practically freezing cold and the noodles were awfully gummy.

"It's...good!"

He laughed and dug the bottoms of his palms into his eyes. "I'm sorry, this night ended differently in my head. It was supposed to be special and it just..." he looked up, eyes darting all over the room to avoid your gaze.

He was scared that you would think he was just a screw-up. You went up to the surface almost every week and he couldn't even fathom the idea of being out there for a few seconds, let alone repeatedly. Now, the one thing he seemed to be good at was sitting like a cold, mushy puddle inside its bowl.

"Hey," you reached out to hold his hands and he started fidgeting with your fingers, "I really appreciate that you went through all that trouble for me. Even though it didn't work out exactly, I'm really happy."

"Really?"

"Joel, I could've watched you draw a picture for hours and I would've been very pleased."

He furrowed his eyebrows and quickly turned his head to the side in thought, "Oh shit, I should've done that—I didn't know I could do that."

"My point is," you interjected while placing your hand on his cheek and turning him to face you, "I really loved everything you did for me today."

"Even though everything was basically a hot mess?"

"Mmm, it was a cute mess."

You leaned over to press a soft kiss against his lips and he reciprocated, smiling ever so slightly and resting his palm against your cheek. Any stress that he felt immediately slipped away and was replaced with a warm tingle that sent goosebumps down his arms.

Planning a date went better than he thought.