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gunterfan1992 · 3 years

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Episode Review: ‘Together Again’ (Distant Lands, Ep. 3)

Airdate: May 20, 2021

Story by: Jack Pendarvis, Kate Tsang, Hanna K. Nyström, Christina Catucci, Jesse Moynihan, Adam Muto

Storyboarded by: Hanna K. Nyström, Anna Syvertsson, Iggy Craig, Maya Petersen, Serena Wu

Directed by: Miki Brewster (supervising), Sandra Lee (art)

Across Adventure Time’s ten season run, the show explored a bevy of “mature” themes and story ideas—topics, like love, sexuality, depression, and grieving. The show also touched upon death, but the emphasis was usually placed on the emotional toll of a loved one dying, not really what happens when you die. We knew there were Dead Worlds and Death. We knew that there was reincarnation. But how does it all fit together? What does it mean? How does it work?

With “Together Again,” we finally have many of the answers.

This special opens with a marvelous fake-out episode simply called “Finn & Jake,” that sees the two steal a magical cartoon of 50-flavor ice cream before rescuing Turtle Princess and LSP from the clutches of the villainous Ice King. This is all deliberately anachronistic and over the top. Ice King is back to his season one ways, Finn has both arms, and he is still wielding his golden sword that he lost in season two’s “The Real You.” There’s lolrandom dialogue and silly monsters; it’s like a parody of seasons 1-2. But then, this adventure starts to get all wonky, and in time Finn realizes that he is in a some sort of trance or illusion: one that ends with Jake being buried in the ground. Suddenly, Finn awakens from his reverie. He’s an old man. And he’s dead. We’re then presented with a new title card that lets us know the episode is actually called “Finn & Jake Are Dead.”

Holy Glob! They actually went there.

Turns out Jake died years before Finn, so naturally Finn is super excited to see his best bud. But something’s wrong—he cannot find Jake!! They planned to spend eternity together. But all that Finn can find is his very own psychopomp, Mr. Fox (voiced by Tom Herpich, whose purposefully stilted line readings are the epitome of delightful). Finn rightfully assumes that Jake is in a different Dead World, and so, being the ball of spunk and energy that he is, he demands to meet with Death, only to discover that there’s a New Death in town (voiced by Chris Fleming). The episode eventually explains that New Death was the son of Death and Life, and after New Death killed his father, he became the sovereign of the afterlife. New Death hates his job and decides to just blow up all the Dead Worlds so he doesn’t have to deal with it all. (I won’t get too much into the details here, because there would be a lot of story to parse out.)

Finn soon learns that Jake has reached nirvana in the 50th Dead World, where there is nothing but peace and serenity. Finn nevertheless tracks down Jake, pulls him from paradise, but in doing so, accidentally lets New Death in, who promptly obliterates Elysium, sending all the enlightened souls—including those from different levels of the afterlife—to the 1st Dead World. This gronks up the afterlife, temporarily halting the reincarnation process.

Well, Finn and Jake are rightfully ticked, and so they haunt the material plane looking for Princess Bubblegum. She’s not home (more on that later), but Peppermint Butler is! After Ghost Finn and Ghost Jake explain the situation, Peppermint Butler tells them what to do: They need to find Life and explain the situation. The duo manage just that, and Life is rightfully angry that her kid has stopped the transmigration of souls. After Life gives Finn a McGuffin sword that can hurt Death, Finn and Jake return to his abode. A brawl ensues wherein we learn that New Death has been possessed… by none other than that spirit of the Lich.

That’s right, it’s the Lich! He’s back, and boy is he evil.

The Lich explains that by possessing Death, he can destroy the afterlife, thereby destroying a key aspect of reality. Naturally, Finn and Jake are not cool with this, and they engage in combat. After Mr. Fox grabs the McGuffin sword and uses it to annihilate the Lich and New Death, he is proclaimed the New New Death and sets everything right. Finn is slated to be reincarnated, and Jake is slated to return to the 50th Dead World where he and Finn will one day be reunited. As Finn is pulled into the wheel of souls, Jake suddenly decides to go back with Finn, too, “Just for fun.” The episode ends with a card letting us know that the episode is neither called “Finn & Jake” nor “Finn & Jake Are Dead.” Instead, it is “Finn and Jake Are Together Again.”

As they say, “And there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.”

If you were to tell me several years ago that the last episode to star Finn and Jake would revolve around them dying, I think I would’ve been upset. Not simply sad, but rather frustrated because “they all died” can feel like a cheap ending. But with “Together Again,” it all works. And a large reason that it works is because the show goes all in with their ideas. Finn and Jake don’t magically leap back into their old life (no, no, they very much do bite the dust). Instead, the special emphasizes the cyclical nature of life through the transmigration of souls. The episode ends with a beautiful scene of Finn and Jake, bound together as soul-brothers, being reborn into a new, mysterious (possibly Ooo 1000+?) world. It’s both aesthetically and emotionally pleasing; it doesn’t feel off the way over finales might. This is right. This is the way life works. “Round and round as nature goes,” and all that jazz.

I loved the series explanation of how death works. It seems that souls land in a specific Dead World, where they ‘marinate’ for a bit, presumably being rewarded or punished based on their life in our meat reality. After a time, they are then reborn. This process repeats, with each soul reaching higher and higher levels of enlightenment until they hit nirvana, which is the 50th Dead World. So in a sense, Adventure Time has a roughly Buddhist cosmology with a dash of Greco-Roman mythos thrown in for flavor. (As to what happens after a soul stays in the 50th Dead World for a long period is anyone’s guess, but I’d speculate that when all the souls in the multiverse have been purified and land in the 50th Dead World, they will all collapse into one another and form one perfect Monad. Perhaps this is the sphere of perfection that the beings who merged into Matthew thought they were connecting to? Who knows! It’s anyone’s guess!) I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see who Death, Prismo, Life, etc.’s boss was, but perhaps that’s a mystery better left up to the imagination!

One minor thing that I loved about this special was the number of characters who made cameos as well as all the callbacks that were made to previous episodes. Regarding the former: Finn and Jake’s canine family show up (including the oft-forgotten Jermaine!), as do Tree Trunks and her myriad husbands. Tiffany plays a major role in all these shenanigans as a “death cop” of all things. There is a delightful rogues gallery stuck in the 1st Dead World (including, among others, Maja, Sharon from “The Gut Grinder,” and Wyatt). In the 50th we find Ghost Princess and Clarence happily at peace next to Booshy, the weird spirit mentioned in the Pen Ward classic “High Strangeness.” As far as callbacks go, perhaps my favorite is the clap (from “James Baxter the Horse”) that Jake taught to Finn in case they ever do get separated in the afterlife. And of course, there are myriad references made to “Death in Bloom,” the episode that planted the seed for what this would grow into.

Going into the special suspecting that it would involve Death, I was curious how they were going to handle Miguel Ferrer’s character. (In case a reader is not aware, Ferrer played Death in episodes like “Death in Bloom” and “Betty,” but he sadly passed away a few years ago). The producers’ choice to feature him in a non-speaking cameo—despite playing a relatively significant role in the story—was wise; I’m not sure if I can articulate the exact reasons, but something about his role felt appropriate and not gross, as some post-mortem memorials can be. Speaking of which, the wonderful, lovely Polly Lou Livingston was featured for the last time in this episode as Tree Trunks, happily in heaven with her literal harem of husbands. It was funny, it really was, and I’m sure that Polly Lou would’ve gotten a kick out of seeing it on screen. (Also, this is a pro-Tree Trunks safe space. Any Tree Trunks haters will be chucked into the 1st Dead World with Wyatt.)

The biggest mystery in this whole thing, for me at least, is the question of Princess Bubblegum and Marceline. Several years ago, I wrote an essay about what could’ve happened to them in the Ooo 1000+ universe. I speculated that they peaced out and left Ooo behind. In this special, neither Bubblegum nor Marceline are to be found in the Candy Kingdom—Peppermint Butler seems to be the one in charge, given that he is now wearing Bubblegum’s crown. Likewise, the duo aren’t anywhere in the Dead Worlds either. Maybe the two of them skipped town and got a duplex in the Nightosphere? Who knows… I just want my favorite gals to be OK!

All things considered, “Together Again” was a marvel: An episode that managed to feel like a series finale even more than “Come Along with Me” already did without taking away from the series itself. An episode that managed to make the idea of dying funny. An episode that brought back the Lich in a way that wasn’t forced. An episode that made Mr. Fox the New New Death. An episode that gave us a beautiful ending to Finn and Jake’s story… as well as the beautiful beginning to a new one. I said it on Twitter, and I’ll say it again here: “Together Again” was the end of a sentence in a book with infinite pages. Truly, the fun will never end.

Mushroom War evidence: Everything takes place in the Dead Worlds, so not really. Perhaps a more eagle-eyed viewer can inform us...

Final Grade: That’s right, I’m gonna do it...

Post-script, I actually messaged Jesse Moynihan to ask about his writing credit. He told me that it was for an unused story idea that he had developed. I’m not certain, but I’ll bet it was a part of the cancelled TV movie they were trying to make during season 5, since that would’ve seen Finn and Orgalorg journey to the various Dead Worlds.

#adventure time #adventuretime #atimers #at #atdl #distant lands #adventure time distant lands #finn the human #jake the dog #together again #togetheragain #dead worlds #hanna k. nyström #Hanna K #adam muto #jack pendarvis

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carcinized · 3 years

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Hey hey hey I don’t have Tumblr BUT I saw your post about C!Tubbo dissociation headcanons and here I am, asking for them. And possibly more C!Tubbo headcanons. Preferably angsty. Just. Any of them. Please. Thank you.

oh, a fellow starved c!tubbo enthusiast. hello there, i do have some headcannons to spare luckily, hope you enjoy!! mostly this is the dissociation ones but i have some miscellaneous ones & songs at the end for you :]

so obviously uhhh tw for dissociation/depersonalisation/derealisation in this post!!! also going to put them under the cut bc this is long lmao

oh and disclaimer: this is very much based off my own experiences with (near constant) chronic dissociation so it might be different from other experiences!! yeah.

oh ALSO this is disorganized and probably missing stuff because i am going through a bad bout of spaciness as of right now, so apologies if anything is confusing, feel free to ask for clarification!

idk background timeline stuff so it fits into the story

at first he didn’t even realize he felt disconnected from things. it started off as a coping mechanism during combat and felt so similar to the feeling of being “in the zone” he’d known before that he didn’t question it

after a bit, it spread from only being there during battle to during conflict in general. still, he didn’t mind it—it actually made arguments more bearable because they felt almost secondhand.

eventually he came to use it as a crutch so much that it became constant.

that was when he started wanting it to go away.

and then because i can’t bear to give my precious c!tubbo constant dissociation he probably gets breaks from it sometimes idk lmao

his experiences:

gaps in memory

auditory processing issues

lots of depersonalisation and not recognizing himself in the mirror (which is even more fun/terrifying if you add in shapeshifter headcannons)

a lot of the time he feels like his actions aren’t his, which helped him to feel less bad doing morally ambiguous things (spying, exiling tommy, hunting technoblade, etc)

after it all he was left with near constant dissociation almost all the time.

it nearly always feels like the world is secondhand to him and he has no control/impact (ironic considering the power he has, and he knows that, but)

often wonders if he is dreaming and just waiting to wake up from a coma he’d gotten from one of his many battles.

when things get really bad he wishes he could just wake up from it.

often doesn’t recognize his hands looking down at them, especially with the burns he has now. they’re not his hands, right? but they are. they’re his hands. huh.

uhhh examples of where it could have been shown in plot if you squint lol

for example, that famous clip of him dancing while wilbur and tommy argue in the background would be a physical representation of him zoning out (dissociating) to get out of/away from an argument.

the whole yes man thing could have either been an auditory processing issue where he replied yes to wilbur without hearing what wilbur had asked OR a gap in memory where he didn’t remember telling tommy the opposite

he pulled away for like 5 months into snowchester and talked to hardly anyone but his husband and son. dissociation is hard to interact with people during because you feel so isolated for so many reasons—sometimes you feel you’re the only real thing there, sometimes it feels there’s a glass wall between you and everything else that IS real. and even ignoring that, most people can’t relate to feeling that way, leaving you even more alone. he could have pulled away because it was too much too keep going through that (i did that don’t recommend it tubbo JSJD)

miscellaneous headcannons that i don’t see very often:

after winning a battle, his instinct is to play a disc and look out at the sunset because that’s what he and tommy always did (see his lore yesterday (june 18th)—he did it with ranboo despite tommy not being there)

i’m rather fond of my original-l’manberg-citizens-consider-haircuts-and-fixing-up-appearances-affectionate-because-wilbur-did-it headcannon so i’ll add that here—basically wilbur gave everyone military cuts and new suits and everything. and while that was just for war, it was also because he cared about all of them. ever since, they all considered fixing up someone’s appearance an act of love.

tubbo refused to let anyone cut his hair after the red festival, not trusting anyone. he would probably let ranboo do it now, only he’s rather attached to the way it hides his burns and some of his horns and keeps him warm in the freezing snow.

he builds walls like how tommy builds cobblestone towers—a reflex, a coping mechanism, a habit. he built the l’manberg walls and ever since the defense has been second nature, whether for the best or the worst.

ive been waiting forever to share these i have way too many. i pass the hours staring out the window listening to misterwives and imagining c!tubbo animatics to it and now i have a chance to share them oh my god

so without further ado,

c!tubbo animatics i have in my head:

whywhywhy by misterwives: ok this one isn’t chalked out but it has him vibes

alone by misterwives: just him and ranboo. figuring things out. helping each other heal. i legitimately have an entire animatic in my head to this lyric by lyric and could make a fucking storyboard for it if only i could draw. if anyone wants me to write out lyric by lyric what it WOULD be though feel free to send an ask aHAHHAHAHA

over the rainbow by misterwives: a montage of c!tubbo just. finally going apeshit. that would be so cathartic alright and it’s such a badass song he deserves it

it’s my turn by misterwives: pretty much any times that tubbo finally got to do something back at someone who wronged him—the butcher army going after technoblade, him yelling at quackity about borders saying “well don’t i get to put my foot down too?” the lyrics “i know you’ve got your version of the story, i’m sick of saying sorry, i’m sick of always having to explain” during his spy arc PLEASE he had to justify everything he did and the “are you happier?” comment and schlatt breathing down his neck aAAAA give my boy a break (also the instrumental uses a lemon demon-type sound which makes me think of ranboo so i love imagining a cool bee dup building the outpost montage there snhshagahffn)

find my way home by misterwives: idk the vibes just fit man

oxygen by misterwives: hhhrnggg clingy duo angst oW

i did say i spend a lot of my time listening to misterwives and daydreaming c!tubbo animatics didn’t i?

anyways yeah. here’s some c!tubbo content to help us poor starved c!tubbo enthusiasts :’D also misterwives propaganda go listen to them female led band with a fucking badass lead singer with banger songs and incredible vocals and lyrics ANYWAY

#dsmp #tubbo #dream smp #mcyt #dissasociation tw #feel free to add your headcanons btw or ask for clarification on these!!! i would love to talk abt c!tubbo with you SHJDJDJDJD #dissociation tw #depersonalisation tw #derealization tw #allyster rambles #ask #anon

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indd40041020202021 · 4 years

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Getting into it

I feel like I’m beginning to see a crest of light on the mountain that is this past year. It’s been incredibly difficult to maintain any thread of determination or motivation (and I know I’m not alone in this) but I’ve somehow held on and I think my hard work is finally becoming tangible. As well, because I’m working in a field of design that is less common, it’s been difficult to prove my concepts within the framework of traditional industrial design practice, and has lead to tiring efforts of upholding my self-confidence in what I’m doing. [insert Einstein fish climbing tree quote here] Something that really helped me feel better was listening to this week’s design.emergency talk. Daisy Ginsberg is a huge inspiration for this project, and everything she said helped affirm and validate what I am doing (she even talks about heterarcies!). So lovely, you can watch here:

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CMCl7IKFbBp/ If you haven’t seen her work on designing the sixth extiction, see this link: https://www.daisyginsberg.com/work/designing-for-the-sixth-extinction

So last week, I was really trying to think about the form of the leech, what the skin would look like, what colours it would flash, etc. Supposedly, bioluminescent colours can be dependent on whether the animal lives on land or water. As leeches already live on both, I think I have a lot of leeway in combining these colour combinations. I met with Rob in the flex lab who was excited about the project. He gave me two options, Dragon Skin and EcoFlex. Dragon Skin felt more realistic, and it’s what’s used most often for props in movies. We talked about the opacity of it as well, and how the lights would shine through. Ecoflex was more rubbery, less realistic, but may provide less tension in the tail that the motor has to fight against. Rob said that waterproofing the electrical shouldn’t be a problem, and that we could paint the material into the mold, thus creating a cavity to fit. Rob said that to begin anything, we needed a model first.

So I got to work. I did a lot of work in modelling, starting in Rhino, then forgetting everything I learned in Rhino and moving to Modo. Here are some progress shots.

when testing for 3D printing, Logan told me the displacement was much too small to show the texture. After adjusting the displacement, the texture became jagged, and when I subdivded the work to give it smoother transition points, the file became too large. I struggled with this for a long time - Logan gave me some tips, but I ended up having to do some really complex UV mapping to get the texture to fit as nicely as possible.

After fixing this, I sent it off to Logan to be printed. The leech is 200mm long, and around 45mm diameter. I wanted to maintain this uncanny valley similarity with real leeches, so I tried to push the cavity as much as I could, but I think this is as far as I want to go. Maybe it needs to be bigger? Will be tested once I have a model. I asked Zara to take a photo of the in-process print for me while she was at school.

I wanted to create a hero shot. I started with the leech, then added some pre-built meshes from the modo library, then added a murky pond backdrop. After that, I put a panel of green glass in front of the camera, creating an underwater look.

^ here you can see the panel of glass in front of the camera

no glass

with glass

I then took the two images into photoshop, and used some image overlays to give the impression of bioluminescence.

And the hero shot final:

I wanted to keep some of that murkiness to show depth of field, and show that the leech was swimming towards the lens.

For the brief, I also wanted to show what it would look like in the gallery, so I quickly modelled a gallery wall.

I think the film will be important in understanding what the project is about, and in allowing people to jump between worlds. I want the film to be very simple - a biologist walking into a marshland, picking up a leech, talking about the leech, and then putting it back in the water.

storyboard:

shot order in storyboard: 1 - 2 / 3 - 4 / 5 - 6

Here’s a quick idea of what the script might look like: 1. EXT. DAY - TRAIL

A BIOLOGIST hikes through a wooded trail. (shot 1)

BIOLOGIST: Ok, I think we’re almost there!

2. EXT DAY - LAKE (shot 2)

BIOLOGIST: RIght, so here we are at the Whonnock Lake and Wetlands in Maple Ridge, BC. (shot 4) This lake been imported form other bodies of water, and we thank the water bodies that have been providers to not only this lake but to all the species that it holds and protects. I’m hoping I can introduce you to one of these species, who is very special to our community. (shot 5) Ok, I think I’ve found one here, yup I think she is letting me hold her. (shot 3) Yes, here she is. The species that I’m holding right now is the Hirudinea Lampyris, or the Firefly leech. (shot 4 with hands in shot) This species is incredibly special and has helped us humans better empathize between ourselves and other species. Many humans have empathetic tendencies towards other humans, but struggle with empathizing past their own species. Many other flora and fauna have incredible cross-species empathisation methods, but the Firefly Leech is incredibly gracious, and shows us how other species are feeling through it’s skin. (insert of hero shot? slow pan zoom?) The Firefly Leech is one of the only species in the hirudinea, or leech, family that is an omnivore. And while it preys on both plants and animals, the leech is non-destructive, only taking what it needs and rarely kills it’s prey. The hormones in the food that it eats, such as cortisol, are translated through a chemical reaction that is visible in the bioluminescence in it’s skin.

(shot 4) It is very rare for a species that lives on both land and water to be bioluminescent, and the firefly leech has provided us with a means of decoding the light signals in her skin to read what the emotional status of the being that gave the leech it’s last meal. The combination of lights that she is showing my right now,

(shot 3) is saying that the last species that it drew nutrients from, was calm and content, which gives me, as a biologist, an indication of this eco-community’s health. (shot 5) Ok let’s put her back, thank you - oh, off she goes.

(shot 6) The firefly leech is one of many species in this area, and we must respect and support it’s right to thrive. Through gifts of communication, the Firefly leech has helped us better understand other species, and we hope to move towards emulating this skill within our own species. {FADE OUT} (2 minute read time) I think this playing on loop will give people a really good idea of what the leech is and does. I want to make sure to use language that is thankful and considerate, and avoid hierarchical terms such as ‘discovery’. ------ For the design brief, I also wanted to show some electrical components. I took some files from grabcad and built a replica of what the motor and light system might look like inside the leech. I had to substitute some parts, like the neopixel ring will most likely be a neopixel stick or series of single neo pixels, but the grabcad files do the job of explaining the intended components, I think.

^^ What neopixels look like

This is Bobbi’s double relay limit switch altered to include the speed control and lights. The program I was using doesn’t have the trinket component in it’s schematic library so I used a micro arduino and renamed it trinket, it still serves the function correctly in the schematic.

I felt like the exploded view didn’t really do much for explanation.

I also got the mechanics to work properly, I just have to figure out the right code for the pixels. I think that I might have to adjust the power range or get a more powerful controller perhaps, in this video, only the first neopixel is lighting up, but I have not programmed it so Im not sure if that’s normal. The video shows that the buttons do work, and when the rudder hits one, the motor reverses direction, creating a swimming motion in the tail.

youtube

So for this week, I’m picking up my model, bringing it to Rob to start prototyping models, and talking to Bobbi about both reducing the size of the electronic components and programing the neopixels. I’m hoping to go to a toy store this weekend. I saw some videos about underwater toys, some that used the water as a switch, creating a wet point that seals the break in the circuit. Here’s a few cool videos, and one of a beautiful man-o-war that I think I want to become after I die.

youtube

(hoping mine will look less robotic)

youtube

Absolutely in love with this creature

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artificialqueens · 7 years

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Say You Won’t Let Go Part 5 (Biadore) - Fucking Awful

A/N: No fan fare, no excuses. Just an apologetic author who finally got her hands on a computer.

For those joining this party now – here’s the link to the first installments:

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4

Welcome to the post-All Stars landslide, kids. Let’s cry together.

Say you won’t let go.

October 2015. Danny was locked in the guestroom of his mom’s house in Azusa, writing. He had only a few days left of recording in the studio, so he needed to focus on finishing up the last few songs of the new album before he ran out of time and money.

The album – he and the producers decided it would be called After Party – was coming along really well. His team was pleased that it had plenty of upbeat and synth-y tracks that they hoped might get him into radio play, and Danny was already storyboarding the lead single music video.

And as for those moodier, melancholy tracks Danny was hoping to write earlier in the summer – those came in spades after “The Incident.”

Danny used “The Incident” as mental shorthand for Roy’s housewarming party; calling it something neutral took away its power over him…and kept him from having to decide whether it was his own breakup or Roy’s hookup that upset him the most. As soon as he got home that night, he wrote the lyrics for “I Can’t Love You” on the first takeout napkin he could find. He spent the next few days perfecting the melody to fit his words – the opposite of his usual work pattern – and had the track laid down within the week. “I.C.U.” came next, after waking up in a cold sweat from a dream where he was chasing some kind of glowing light in a sea of darkness. He got that one done just a few weeks later.

Then he broke for All Stars. Literally, broke. Danny didn’t last 3 days back at Drag Race, but that was going to be common knowledge eventually. He went in as a confident artist healing from a breakup and the less-than-year-old death of his father, and he came out a shaken chiona with fresh wounds where all his Band-Aids had been.

Luckily this gave him yet another treasure trove of sadness and disappointment, from which he pulled out two more real gut-wrenchers like “Save Your Breath.” Danny wanted some really dark stuff on this album, and Life sure as hell gave him something to write about. Music was therapy, just as it always had been.

Music also gave Danny an excuse to hide. That was why he was holed up in Azusa, going nowhere but the studio and the house, because he was working on the album – definitely not because he didn’t know how to deal with his friends after The Incident and his All Stars freak out. Danny hadn’t seen anyone but Bonnie and her boyfriend in weeks, and he’d only spoken to Chris over the phone.

Isolation agreed with him. He working on the chorus of one of his bubblier tracks when his phone vibrated. In the zone and unwilling to be distracted, he ignored it. But, much like that crazy bitch from Fatal Attraction, the iPhone would not be ignored, Dan. Periodic vibes became constant buzzing, moving from short text alerts to the long drone of disregarded calls. After a sold 20 minutes of all out iPhone assault, he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Jesus Christ, what the fuck?!” Danny yelled into his phone, picking it up without checking the caller. “Is the Goddamn universe ending?” He had been off in his own creative world, and resented whoever was pulling him back into the real one.

After a long second of silence, a hoarse but recognizable voice spoke. “See, where was this type of anger and hate 2 years ago? Damn, you could’ve at least given me some real competition with that shit.”

Danny froze. Roy.

“Uh, I…Wha…I…” Danny stuttered, hard. He didn’t have a comeback, partially because he was coming down from his moment of rage and partially because he was so surprised to hear that voice.

“That’s more like it. Confused and adorable. How’s my pussyfart doing? Why haven’t you called me? How have you been?“

Confused was right. Why is Roy calling? Danny told him he’d be gone for 10 weeks to do All Stars, but it had barely been 5.

And Roy sounded weird. There was this thing he did with his voice when he was straining to be nice - it got quiet and soft, like he was speaking to a baby bird, and it sounded almost an octave higher. Normally it made Danny laugh, because it sounded so ridiculous in comparison to Roy’s normal voice and reminded him that Roy never understood how warm and comforting he could be without even trying. But in this moment it was unsettling, because he didn’t know why Roy was speaking to him like that.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell. You just surprised me, why are you calling me ri – ” Danny realized it all at once. His fucking mom called Roy and told him what happened at All Stars, that was the only possible explanation. Confusion turned into anger and embarrassment. “Did my fucking mother call you and tell you about All Stars? Oh my God, I am not a child anymore. Jesus Christ, she called you and told you I – ”

“Whoa there, calm your tits kid. She didn’t tell me anything more than you’re back home in Azusa a little earlier than expected, and that she’s worried about you holing yourself up in the studio.”

Danny had set the phone down and was rubbing his face. “Fuuuuuck.”

After a few seconds of silence and a deep breath, he picked the phone back up. “Oh my fucking God, I’m sorry she called you. I am so mort - no, I am fine. I am so totally fine. I don’t know what the hell the woman formerly known as my mother was thinking, but seriously everything is ok. Great. It’s fucking spectacular.”

Danny knew the sarcasm in his voice wasn’t thick enough to cover up how exactly not-at-all-ok he actually was, but he thought he could trust Roy enough to just drop it until he chose to elaborate. He was right.

“Clearly, you sound so balanced and even-keeled right now.” Roy was returning the thick sarcasm in kind. “Look, your mama loves you and knows I’m the only motherfucker around here who can pull you outta whatever fucked up funk you’ve gotten yourself into after being sent home.”

Danny tried to interrupt. Sent home? He must be confused. “No, Roy I -”

But Roy cut him off at the pass. “Just shush and listen to your elders for a second. Cocooning yourself off in your own little sorrow…cocoon, fuck I can’t think of another word…anyway that isn’t going to do you any good. Let’s get out and do something, I’m coming to pick you up in an hour or however long it takes me to drive from Hollywood to ass-fuck Azusa. Just do what I say and for the love of God take a shower before you’re back out in public.”

And with a click, the call ended.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Roy didn’t know how he went home. He thought he got kicked off early and that’s why he was sad. Not because he pussied out within 48 hours and left after crying to Michelle and RuPaul on national television. Not because he couldn’t handle harsh criticism from That’s So Raven. Not because he was so emotionally shattered over other events and wasn’t able to focus on a stupid TV competition. And not because he was too scared to fail so he quit instead.

All things I will now have the pleasure of explaining to Bianca fucking Del Rio. To say Danny wasn’t looking forward to that part was about the understatement of his lifetime. But at least I get to see Roy. And that thought made it all ok again.

So Danny sighed, stood up, and shuffled upstairs to shower - shouting and cursing at Bonnie with every other step, and smiling in between.

…

Roy showed about an hour later, around 4 in the afternoon. He came to the door and hugged Bonnie - Bonnie the traitor, as a still slightly angry Danny thought of her - before grabbing Danny out from behind her and pulling him into a hug.

The hug seemed to defy all rules of space and time. It was bone-crushing at the same time as it was soft and warm. It gave Danny goosebumps and made his chest tense up, but it also sent waves of relaxation down his spine and made his head buzz like it was full of fireflies. It went on forever, but was over way too soon.

“Hey kiddo, how ya doin?” Roy said quietly to Danny as he slowly disengaged from the embrace, gently stroking Danny up and down his back while he did so.

Danny let silence hang, and then it hung for too long. When he realized the pause was getting dramatic, he nearly screeched his next words.

“Better now that mommy called a clown to cheer me up.” He was trying desperately to make a joke. The situation was becoming far to sincere and intimate and confusing for his brain to process, and he was just trying to find an eject button. “What, no balloons or giant shoes? I at least expected a piñata.”

“Oh god, you know I hate when you do that fucking chola voice.” Roy rolled his eyes, the spell of the moment broken. “C'mon you little brat, let’s go.” He bounded down the steps of the house and headed for his car.

“Careful, grandpa, you’ll break a hip! I don’t think Obamacare covers clown-related injuries on anyone over sixty!” Danny yelled after him, gathering the rest of his things from behind the door and trying to shoot a glance at his mom that simultaneously said Thank you and I hate you so much right now.

Roy was already in the car and backing out of the driveway when Danny turned around. “If you aren’t in this car in 30 seconds I’m leaving Delano. You better run - run like you’re chasin’ some of Detox’s trade.”

Danny sauntered slowly over to the car, swaying his hips just a little when he noticed Roy focusing a lot of attention on his body. He held his middle finger up all the while.

…

Roy drove Danny all the way back into LA. They spent the over-an-hour-long car ride catching up on all their quick-and-easy stuff: families, gigs, albums and tours, who of their friends had hooked up with who. It only veered into uncomfortable territory once - when Roy brought up the Handsome Blonde Man who haunted Danny’s dreams. Apparently he was named Tom and also now Roy’s boyfriend. Danny changed subjects as soon as the familiar aching feeling in his chest made his stomach hurt, sharply pivoting to talk about some ridiculous fight he and Chris had over Miley Cyrus. He made sure to fully dodge the other conversation bullet - All Stars - for the full drive.

They ended up at a record store in Silver Lake. Two stories of floor-to-ceiling vinyl, used and new, from beat up old soul 45’s to limited edition Bowie box sets to brand new Chance the Rapper albums.

“Do you actually come here?” Danny asked quizzically as he dug excitedly through a bin marked “Hole.” In all the years he’d known Roy, he’d never known him to be into vintage records. Clothes definitely, books maybe - but Danny had never seen so much as a framed album cover in Roy’s apartment.

Roy was a few rows over, casually flipping through the Musicals section. “Of course, I’m here all the time. It’s not that far from my house, and they have a really, uh, great selection, and there’s good coffee nearby, and over there they’ve got books…”

Danny scoffed. “You’re such a bad liar.” Roy had just done all of his lying “tells” - rambling in a weird cadence, going into unnecessary detail, and not making eye contact.

“What?” Roy kept his eyes on the Rogers and Hammerstein. “I am not, you don’t know everything about me, Daniel. I could be here every fucking week buying records for my…” He trailed off.

“For what? Tell me what you play these on, Mr. DJ.” Danny put a hand on his hip and stared challengingly at Roy.

This was fun, he loved catching Roy in a mistake. Their natural relationship dynamic always made him feel like he was at a disadvantage - as if Roy was smart and he was dumb, Roy was successful and he was a fuck up - so Danny seized on any opportunity to reassure him that they were equal. Especially since he knew he was about to tip his own scales back towards ‘fuck up’ whenever Roy decided to finally ask about All Stars.

“My record player, it’s a…um…it’s…oh fuck it.” Roy stopped pretending to look at through the showtunes stacks and rolled his eyes at Danny. “No, I’ve literally never been here before. I asked Raja for a good place to go for music today and this is what I got. Not bad though, huh?”

Danny was surprised by how quickly Roy gave up. Usually there was at least some kind of fun back-and-forth fighting over who was right, or trying to cover up what they didn’t know, or just full on teasing.

“Why? You always listen to everything on those ugly ass Beats headphones anyway, what would you want with a record?”

There were only a few seconds of awkward silence, but Danny would’ve sworn it was a solid minute.

“I wanted to bring you somewhere to take your mind of things, and I know you love record stores.” Roy looked at Danny with that same sincerity from the hug on the front porch. “I figured you could use the distraction.”

And once again, it made Danny’s heart beat wild. Not because Roy was looking at him with genuine care and compassion. No, of course not.

And not because Roy was willing to sacrifice his very limited time off to do something he knew only Danny would enjoy, and that wasn’t something people did normal friends.

Nope, definitely not. It was certainly because Danny was just afraid to tell him about All Stars, that he wasn’t kicked off but instead made the decision to walk away…

“Oh.” That was all Danny could muster.

They spent about 45 more minutes wandering the shop before the owner came out from behind the poster-littered cash wrap and told them both he’d be closing down for the night. Danny bought a new Lana Del Rey album and a beat-up bootleg of a Nine Inch Nails concert from the late 90’s. He was surprised when Roy followed behind to buy a book on Stevie Nicks’ impact on fashion - leave it to him to find a book about clothes in a warehouse full of music.

Danny was starving, and it was far enough past sunset that he didn’t feel like a senior citizen for suggesting dinner. Roy knew of a good Mexican place with strong margaritas a few doors down, and they headed over.

Two hours later, tacos were came and went, margaritas were inhaled like water, shots were knocked back at machine-gun pace, and Danny had officially exhausted all his small talk options. Oh, and also he was drunk. As fuck. In sum, officially out of ways to avoid talking about the elefante in the room.

“So Daniel Noriega.” Roy was slurring his words just a bit, but he was at least two notches less drunk than Danny.

It’s that fucking New Orleans thing, Danny thought to himself. Roy is like a fucking steel tank. He may as well be sober.

(He wasn’t.)

“It’s time to ‘fess up. What’d you wear to piss off Michelle so much that she shoved her fist up Ru’s ass and made him send you home?” Even when tipsy Roy knew how to be hateful. Shit, maybe even more so when he’d been drinking.

“Well, you cunt, it was actually that dress youuuuu -” Danny waved another shot of tequila under Roy’s nose as he gestured towards him “- gave me for the show. Did you and your precious new boyfriend just want to sabotage me?”

Roy grabbed the dangling shot from Danny’s hand and slammed it back. “No way, not possible. That dress was fucking beautiful, it was black and sexy and it sparkled, bitch.” Roy tried unsuccessfully to tongue pop, a sure sign he was getting more drunk by the second; only drunk Roy dug unironically into the Laganja-isms.

“Yeah, well, Michelle thought otherwise. She told me I had hogbody again.”

“What? That shady whore, I swear I -” Roy tried to interject but Danny talked over him, cutting off whatever tirade against Michelle he was about to launch.

“But it didn’t matter, it wasn’t about the dress. Not really, at least. It was about me. How I didn’t care. How I didn’t try, I don’t try, I never try.”

As he spoke, Danny began to feel an unfamiliar emotion in this story: anger. When he’d recounted it to Bonnie, and every time he’d gone through it in his own head, he’d only ever felt embarrassed and sad. But now he felt a fire in his stomach - no doubt fueled by tequila, but still.

“Who the fuck did she think she was, talking to me like that? I’m the fan-fucking-favorite of all time. Of any Drag Race season. EVER. And she thinks she can tell me I don’t care and I don’t try? And that goddamn Raven…”

Danny steamrolled over Roy whenever he tried to respond or ask a question. “Raven was there?”

There was no derailing him, though. The floodgates had been opened, and the weeks of anger Danny had been repressing now flooded out like blood through the halls of The Shining hotel.

“Michelle just made it ok for Raven Simon - Simone - Salmon - ugh, however you say her name. She fucking tore me to shreds for no fucking reason. What has she done since her Disney Channel show like a million years ago? Talk about a joke, someone who doesn’t do anything. Where the hell does she come off saying I’m a bad singer or that I’m fat or that I’m lazy and untalented…”

“She said what now?”

Danny was basically talking to himself at this point. “Screw both of them. They’re idiot fucking people with idiot fucking opinions.” He knew he didn’t mean it all - he loved Michelle like a father - but he just needed to say it.

“Well that’s a constructive, adult response to the situation.”

“Whatever, I’m glad I quit. I’m better than all that anyway.” Danny said it so confidently he almost believed himself.

The moment of drunk, anger-high reassurance was gone as soon as it came.

“You did what?” Roy looked at Danny in disbelief.

Danny was so surprised by Roy’s surprise - and so drunk from the tequila - that he didn’t think to sugar coat anything.

“I quit. They were cunts to me on the first day, so on the second day I quit.”

Uncomfortable silence crashed the party once again. Roy was just staring at him, his eyes slightly squinting and his focus darting around. It was like he was trying to compute whatever Danny had just said, and it went on unbearably long.

“I stood up for myself, Roy.” He couldn’t take the quiet stare, so he broke eye contact and directed his words at the empty shot glass he was idly spinning. Danny knew this made him look like a nervous little boy.

“It was the only thing I could’ve done. If you’d been there, you’d have told me to do the same thing.”

Roy’s expression didn’t change, but he looked away now, too. His eyes searched for the waiter, who he waved at aggressively. “Hi, excuse me. Hello!”

“Roy, I know I should’ve told –”

But Roy wasn’t listening. The waiter had arrived. “Can we get the check please? Actually, just take my card.” He fumbled for his wallet, yanked out his Amex, and threw it on the table. “Faster you bring that back, the bigger the tip.”

He then proceeded to pull out his phone and start dialing, continuing to ignore all Danny’s attempts to speak. It was freaky when Roy got like this, slipped into tunnel vision and disregarded everything around him. Danny knew it was his way of keeping his emotions in check. A Roy this focused was a Roy trying to keep cool.

“Look, I –”

“Justin? Hey, sorry if I woke you up.” Roy ignored Danny and spoke to the voice on the other end of the call. “No, no I’m fine. I need a favor - can you come get my car from El Coyote and drive it home? I’m here with Danny and I’m too drunk to drive. I figured if you’re not out you could…Ok great, thanks. It’s in the valet, I’ll tell them you’re coming. We’re jumping in an Uber. You’re the best, Thunderfuck.”

The waiter came back and Roy signed for the bill. True to his word, he left a 50% tip.

“Come on, Danny. We’re leaving.” Roy acknowledged his presence for the first time in maybe 10 minutes, but still wouldn’t make eye contact. “Uber is outside, I can’t take you home so you’ll stay at my place. Tell Bonnie.”

“Um, I’m not a child going to a sleepover.” Given the childishly defiant way in which he was speaking, and the childishly ashamed way he’d just been sitting, Danny recognized his own deep hypocrisy. “You don’t get to order me around and –”

Roy stood up from the table and finally looked at Danny. “I don’t want to fight with you right now. Can we please just go?”

The exasperation in Roy’s voice was apparent, and it caught him off guard. Frustration, condescension, even anger - those would’ve made sense. But somehow he just looked sad and tired.

“Okay, sure.” Roy walked towards the exit, and Danny stood to follow.

…

The silent car ride gave Danny just enough time to spiral. Both he and Roy were staring out their windows, probably making the Uber driver think they had just gotten into a huge fight. Danny almost wished they had - at least Roy would be talking to him if they were fighting, and yelling at each other must be better than not speaking at all.

Instead, the absence of words led him down a rabbit hole of thought. Roy has never been this quiet, not with me. Is he that angry? Did I let him down that badly? He must’ve known I couldn’t get far without him, that I’d disappoint him in the end. Him, my mom, my fucking fans…

It was a particularly dark rabbit hole, and one he’d become deeply acquainted with since he left All Stars. He knew every nook of self-doubt, every cranny of anger, every pothole of depression. By the time the car pulled up to Roy’s place, Danny was approaching the final circle of his own personal hell.

Roy had been in his own head enough that he didn’t notice. Danny trailed behind him from the car to the elevator to the hallway, tears welling up all the while.

Inside the apartment, Roy threw his keys on the table and walked straight towards his kitchen. He wasn’t watching Danny as he poured two giant glasses of water, but he began talking immediately.

“I’m trying to think of what to say here, Danny, but I’m just at a fucking loss. You left? You fucking left?” He still wasn’t yelling, but there was a tinge of annoyance in his tone that wasn’t there before.

“You’re so special, so talented and amazing. You couldn’t just believe that enough to tough it out and win? You know you would’ve won if you had just –”

The speech was cut off by Danny’s own sob. One heave, two heaves, and then a waterfall of breathes, apologies and shudders tumbling out while he leaned on the door for support. The combination of too much tequila, chased with a mixer of his own and Roy’s disappointment, was too much for Danny to handle.

That caught Roy’s attention; he dropped his Brita and nearly jumped over the kitchen counter, sliding his hands around Danny’s waist just as he was about to collapse under the weight of his own crying.

“Oh, hey. Babe, shh.” Roy guided them over to the couch. “I didn’t mean to make you…I just don’t understand what happened. Help me understand what happened.” He was trying to talk to Danny, who was too busy trying to catch a deep breath between hiccuping and not inhaling tears.

“I - I’m so sorry - I let you down - and I’m - such a - shit - to everybody - I -” Danny got out 15 words before another wave of sobs. He and Roy had settled into a somewhat comfortable position on the couch - Roy seated, Danny resting his head on his left pec and soaking his shirt in the same spot. He took a few minutes to gather some words.

The steady beating of Roy’s heart under the weight of his head, matched with Roy’s in-rhythm stroking of his hair, eventually calmed him enough to speak again.

“Roy, I know I made a mistake. What they said, it just -”

“What did they say to you? Dan, you have to tell me.” Roy was trying to sound calm, but in a sharp tone that Danny could tell was holding back anger.

“I can’t, and you’ll see it eventually anyway. You’re going to think it’s so stupid, I just couldn’t take their shit after everything that happened this summer. I walked in there and I was ready to fall apart from the beginning. I had just had my fucking heart ripped out of my chest, and - ”

“Oh, babe. I thought you were okay with the breakup? You told us you were fine after he -”

Danny scoffed. That’s not what I meant, idiot. Obviously I mean you.

“No, I - it wasn’t that. I guess not. I just, I couldn’t handle knowing that I was going to end up disappointing everyone.” Danny could feel the tequila making him real ramble-y and real honest, but he couldn’t stop himself.

“The way Ru and Michelle were looking at me on that stage, like I had fallen from a pedestal or something. And Michelle, when we talked it was just, like, pity. I don’t know, it just like broke my brain to see how I failed them.” He paused to wipe his runny nose.

“And thinking about how I would let down my mom and my fans and you - I mean, letting down other people is one thing but when you know you can’t live up to the expectations of the person you’re in lo -”

Even in his most hammered of hammered states, Danny would’ve cut himself off before he finished saying the words “in love with.” But before he could self-censor, he was silenced by the violent change in Roy’s heartbeat. Just as he began the phrase, the pounding on the warm chest beneath him went from the rhythm of soft jazz to the thump of an Afrojack track.

“What?”

Danny didn’t respond, he didn’t know what to say. He was mesmerized by the heartbeat, afraid to speak in case the words he wanted to desperately to hide would come spilling out. This was not the time for this conversation - not while Roy had a boyfriend, while Danny was lying in his arms blubbering like a baby, while they were both drunk, while he wouldn’t get the response he so desperately wanted.

But Roy wouldn’t abide the silence. “Dan, what were you going to -” Roy’s voice cracked, something it never did. And for some reason that made Danny cry all over again, all the way to sleep.

As he drifted off, tears rolling down his face, he would’ve sworn he felt some falling on the top of his head like rain drops.

He would’ve been right - they were Roy’s.

…

Danny woke up around 4:30. He was still nestled up in Roy, but they’d fallen into a more laying down than sitting up situation. The right side of his face was damp, as was the bit of Roy’s chest he’d taken up as a pillow for the last five hours. He was safely wrapped in Roy’s arms, one of which wrapped around his waist while the other laid atop the long black hair he’d been stroking.

Danny gave himself just a few deep breaths to enjoy the moment - the warmth, the safety, the peace - before his eyes snapped open and his head began to throb. It throbbed from salty shots and margaritas, from embarrassment, and from the memory that Roy had a fucking boyfriend.

Knowing Roy was a heavy sleeper, Danny slowly slipped himself out of the dare-he-call-it-spooning position and stood up from the couch. He saw Roy adjust slightly at the loss of an extra body, also losing the dopey smile that was plastered on his sleeping face.

Watching this, Danny’s stomach started to turn - and not just the normal hangover nausea. He was getting the same stomach pangs he felt when his dad passed, the same ones he felt when he lost Season 6 - a pain he’d come to associate with losing something he didn’t have in the first place.

Danny knew he had to get out of the apartment. He grabbed his phone - still in his pocket and alive, thank God - and called for an Uber. He knocked back both the glasses of water left on the counter before scribbling a note on Roy’s whiteboard:

Sorry I had to leave, needed to get home for mom stuff. Don’t tell anyone what we talked about or you owe me the contract violation money, bitch. Love you x 10000.

Danny spent the hour long ride back to Azusa writing out the lyrics to “4 a.m.”

#adore delano #bianca del rio #biadore #say you won't let go #fucking awful #rpdr fanfiction #submission #sywlg #canon compliant

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murderous-coffeebean · 7 years

Video

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Robbie’s Happy Memories

Finally, here it is! My (mainly) digital LazyTown animation! It is set 10 years after the events of the TV series, so please keep that in mind. ^^

For a detailed explanation of the different panels/pics (aka sort of a fic), as well as technical info, please check the “read more”. ^^

This is by far the biggest art project I've ever worked on (only somewhat comparable to The Mikey Comic Series, tbh), so feedback is not only highly appreciated, but also asked for! Please let me know what you think about it! Thank you! ^^

I hope this video will make you smile. ^_^

Lazytown © Magnús Scheving art © Murderous-Coffeebean [deviantART] Please do not trace nor repost this here on tumblr or elsewhere; thanks.

~ * ~ INFO ABOUT THIS WORK ~ * ~ -------------------------------------------------------------- Panel Explanation/Fic (Note: The video itself is set 10 years after the TV series.) We start off with Robbie, sitting at the floor of his home, looking through a photo album. The front of it reads "Myndaalbúm", Icelandic for "photo album". He arrives at a photo that makes him pause and smile, and we see the photo album tumbling down. The first photograph we see is of Robbie, Sportacus and Stephanie having a conversation in the "early days". They are having fun; Sports and Stephanie probably just looked through one of Robbie's plans and now are teasing him a bit about it (Robbie, at this point, isn't outraged, surprising to himself). The next photograph we see is of Stephanie; she is smiling or laughing, and pointing at something, her hair moving in the wind. Robbie is still growing to like the kids at this point, but sometimes he actually stays around when he crosses their path or the other way around, and they realize they can actually have fun together (not that Robbie'd admit it. He's no flippity-floppety sports elf after all :P ). The next photograph we see is from Ziggy's birthday. Robbie had no problem to grow fond of the small boy as he started to grow a bit older (a bit being a year, but yeah). He likes that he's not the only one in town appreciating candy and all things sweet, and of course even he knows what Ziggy's favorite candy is. :D Next we see an image of Sportaflop- when again did he start to like this flipping-around elf so much?? Around this time, when they started becoming friends? Robbie wonders. (But, if he's being completely honest with himself, he knows that it was much earlier than this picture was taken already.) On the next two photographs we see Stingy giving presents to other people. The first one, not as willingly yet. (It's a "Best Of" album of one of Trixie's favorite bands for her birthday.) Then, we see him (much more easily by then) handing a birthday gift to Robbie, Ziggy and Stephanie smiling in the background. In the next photograph, we see Pixel playing a video game. Not visible is Robbie sitting next to him. The clock shows that it's 2am, but neither of them could sleep, so they are spending some time playing video games together. [This lovely scene was inspired by @sportaboob’s wonderful fanfic "Hand-holding in the key of Lazytown"! <3 ] The next three photographs we see are (in slow-motion) Sportacus and Robbie, the sports elf hugging his villain friend (/crush?). Robbie is surprised- Sportacus was thanking him for something (likely for keeping an eye on the kids as he had to save the mayor from accidentally hurting himself). But he did not see the grateful and tight as heck hug coming. There's tears forming in his eyes; it's been forever since he's last been at the receiving end of a hug. The next scene is when the kids are all young teenagers already; they and Robbie treat each other like family by now, and sometimes he lets them crash on his couch. This was the first time that happened though; the kids had been to a concert together (with Robbie to take care of them), and when Sportacus (who had picked them all up with his airship and brought them back to Lazytown again) had stopped to let Robbie get home, the kids had been so sleepy already, Robbie had just grumbled a bit (because he was really exhausted, as well) but had just waved his hand at Sportacus, and the elf had carried the kids downstairs so they could rest, before letting their families know he and Robbie would bring them home once they'd gotten a good night's sleep. In the next picture we see the kids running across a field, playing catch maybe, as the sun sets. Sportacus is probably tagging along, as always, but so is Robbie by then. He likes spending time with his new found family, and he's outside much more these years now. The next photograph we see is of the first apple Robbie voluntarily ate (and enjoyed :D). Yes, it's on a pedestal. It's Robbie, after all, and Sports and the kids are proud of him, so. Why not? :P Next, we're back in the present for a bit. We see one of Robbie's eyes, and a tear drop starts running down his face as he turns the page and sees the next picture: It's a photograph of him with the people he is closest to. There's Pixel, Stephanie, and Trixie, who are about to go off to college together soon; there's Stingy who has crouched down a bit to fit into the photograph next to Ziggy, whom he ended up becoming close friends when they became teenagers; and there is Sportacus in (more) casual (but still sports) wear for once, standing next to Robbie. They were, as per usual, having a great time when the photograph was taken, and Robbie (just as he is, looking at this photograph again and reminiscing right then) had one of these moments where he could hardly believe how lucky he was to have all of them in his life. The tear drop that was rolling down Robbie's cheek now falls down on the floor, and he smiles, still looking at the photograph of his family. A shadow is approaching from behind, and Robbie knows whom it is, even before the person utters a word. It's Sportacus, putting a hand on Robbie's shoulder as he's bending forward to see what Robbie is doing, and he greets him: "Hi, Robbie! What are you doing?" with a smile on his face. Sportacus looks at him fondly as Robbie first replies "Nothing..." but then goes to add: "... just getting nostalgic looking at old memories, I guess..." Sportacus crouches down to sit next to Robbie and mutters "Oh.", as his gaze finally falls on the family picture Robbie had been looking at before. He asks Robbie "... can I join you?", and Robbie just rises his eyebrow as he smiles and replies: "Sure." Robbie reaches to flip to the next page of the photo album, still lying on the floor in front of him and Sportacus. The page on the left reads one word in capital letters: "HEIM". [Icelandic for "HOME"] Finally, we see the image on the right, the last page of the photo album: It's Robbie's new home. A beautiful, somewhat curved house with flower pots on each side of it, and a tree on one side of it. The sun is shining down on it, and a sign over the front door reads, for old times' sake: "Robbie's Lair" in a fancy font. In front of the house, there's a doormat. It reads "Welcome". ♥ Technical Info This is a months-long work of love and learning through failing and trying again. I originally started this out as a random idea I had one night in January, and ended up drawing out the storyboard till 2am that day after I had found a piece of music I wanted to go with. I started with the animation process the next day already, if I recall correctly, already making more detailed notes about how the frames were supposed to go along with the music. I worked on this till the end of the Christmas break, and then continued woring on it a bit during the rest of the winter semester, before diving into this project some more during the semester break in spring. I started putting this together piece by piece in Moviemaker (as, due to my change of university, I didn't have Premiere on my hands anymore and had to find my way through Moviemaker now) and learned some about it as I went, as well. I only recently added the title card, title, and watermark, but the rest of the animation was all created during a working phase of about 3 months. The storyboard was drawn on yellow paper; I converted the remaining scenes I did not get around digitalizing to b'n'w so they wouldn't stand out. All of the digital frames are drawn in PaintTool SAI using the linework layers and tool. I had not worked a lot with them before this project, so it really was quite a challenge to finally do so, and do all of the animation this way. It was worth it though, and for all the trouble it caused me during this project, the advantages of easily editing lines again made up for it again. ^^

(Also, re: one of the last panels just for a sec: I know that “Just getting nostalgic looking at old memories” isn’t grammatically correct, but I wanted that line to work with the animation’s title itself, so. Just fyi.)

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

And with this, I’m releasing this child of mine to the internet. Please treat it kindly, I hope it will spread a smile on some of your faces. :)

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comicteaparty · 5 years

Text

August 10th-August 16th, 2019 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from August 10th, 2019 to August 16th, 2019. The chat focused on the following question:

What is your process for planning out the paneling/layout of each comic page?

kayotics

I’ve finally gotten my process down to a process that works for me. For Ingress Adventuring Company https://www.ingress-comic.com/ I start with scripting the whole chapter out. Step two is thumbnailing the whole chapter out, so I can figure out pacing and paneling. I started to do thumbnailing on sheets of printer paper, which has been easier to figure out my drawings and to see how the comic flows on paper. Once that’s done it’s pretty straight forward. Panel borders in pencils > rough sketch & balloon placement > letters and tight sketch in pencils > ink letters > ink bubbles and borders > ink the rest of the page. Then I scan it and do the colors. With the thumbnail process I kind of do the chapter twice in pencils but it ended up being way easier in the long run, since I hate doing panel layouts and doing that work in the beginning is way easier.

Steph (@grandpaseawitch)

Afraid there's no scripting for https://oldmanandtheseawitch.tumblr.com/. It's all pretty much in my head but I go over it literally every day, and I have a few roleplays archived to keep things on the right track, but that's about it. Thumbnails are done in big batches. Last batch was about 20+ pages done at once. Thumbnailing is also where I figure out composition and such. Just detailed enough to give me the idea of what I want, with enough leeway to do as I please on the page itself. Thumbnails done, I make a batch of empty pages, and go in and make all the panels for the 20+ pages. Since I already know the composition from the thumbnails and I have digital guides set up on each page, that's super easy. With all of those done, then I just go back in, do rough sketches for each page. Cleaner than the thumbnails but not too clean yet. Once the rough sketches are done, this is actually where I'll add text and balloons, so that I know what the bubbles will be hiding and don't have to waste extra time. After that, I do as much in large batches as I can, usually cleanup sketches, then inks, maybe flat colors. But after that point, I just have to sit down to work on individual pages until they're done. And voila!

authorloremipsum

http://signsofthreecomic.webcomic.ws/comics/ For Signs of Three, I always start with the script, get the basic idea of what I'm going for in the page. Then panel layout and gesture sketches of people and the environment. THEN! BEFORE I START DETAIL SKETCHING! I LAY IN THE SPEECH BUBBLES. Seriously speech bubbles are critical to controlling how readable your page is and so so many people don't seem to see that. They must lead from one bubble and panel to the next in an easy to understand way or your reader will get lost and confused. So I always make sure to put bubbles in during thumbnailing. After that it's just basic refining the sketch, lining, coloring, and shading.

AntiBunny

Typically in AntiBunny http://antibunny.net/ I thumbnail a page first to decide what needs to happen. After that I look at those event and decide panel layout based on how best to depict them, factoring in what needs to fit, who needs to be there, and how time will pass. I'd say time is the most important aspect, followed by emphasis, and then content. Typically bigger panels depict more time passing, but that's not a concrete rule. A big panel can depict a very short moment in time. The amount of population has a big play in that as well. A lot of action in a big panel can be a short moment in time that's just heavily emphasized. A big panel with very little movement depicted is great for dwelling on a single moment, which is great for slowing down the pace of reading.

heroesofcrash

I used to not have a script at all, but now I tend to write out scripts in advance. I keep a four-panel format in mind (2x2) when I write a strip, but I'll sometimes combine or split panels depending on the flow of the story. (I'll place some sample strips below, showing a "default" 2x2 strip, and a few that combine or split panels based on that structure) I then draw guidelines in Manga Studio (I have the CD, not the digital version that became Clip Studio Paint) for where each panel will be. I put the dialogue in each panel, sometimes editing for space or to fit it nicer in a speech bubble. I can usually visualize how a speech bubble will generally fit in a scene; it's easier for me to draw around the bubble than to draw first and add the words later. After I sketch out the panels, I may move the words around to fit in the scene a little better. I may even tweak it a little when I draw the speech bubble around the text, if I don't like how the text fits in the bubble or how the bubble fits in the scene. As I mentioned earlier, here's two strips. One has four panels (which is the most common for me), the other has six. The latter is made by splitting the upper right panel into two skinny panels, and breaking the bottom half into three panels rather than two. Not only does it give me enough panels to do a complicated visual gag, but having panels with a similar layout next to each other makes the action easier to follow, and thus makes the gag flow better.

Desnik

For http://ask-a-warlock.tumblr.com/, I make tiny thumbnails to quickly go through layouts. I tend to have a few different ideas and doing small/quick is a lot easier on the revisions

LadyLazuli

For Phantomarine (http://www.phantomarine.com/) I've gotten into the habit of thumbnailing each chapter extremely roughly in a sketchbook, then bringing the pages into Photoshop and shifting the panels around to improve the flow throughout the chapter. I put in rough dialogue bits to anticipate balloons, then I get going on rough sketches and color placement in Procreate, then clean up and paint the sketches, then bring them back into Photoshop to finalize the page. It's honestly really haphazard, just because I tend to change details and dialogue around a lot, depending on what I feel is working/failing - but that core chapter flow doesn't change too much, just so I don't get caught needing more pages in one part. So... I keep the roughs very rough, but I adhere to them quite strongly? The details are where things get experimental (edited)

JUNK

I am a fool who hasn't been doing thumbnails lately, so my process is the typical script>sketch>inks>tone.

MJ Massey

I start with my storyboards, which are just skethcy first drafts of the pages in a sketchbook. I have a vague genreal story outline, but this is where I really figure things out--both the layouts and the script.

In my head, I tend to see things as if they were an animation, so I am usually trying to catch that sense of movement in the comic panels. I try to keep things interesting and thinking outside the typical grid layout, usually resulting in some pretty crazy stuff. It's easier with action scenes, but I try to mix up everything. I do my final pages on 9x12 bristol (I used to work on 11x14 but that was...too big for markers), but there are many times where I will scrap the storyboard and do something totally different for the final page, or add or take away things. But it's good to have that first draft down as an idea, it's easier to adjust from there if I need to

FeatherNotes

@LadyLazulii love your process ahhh!!!

LadyLazuli

@FeatherNotes MERCIIII

Nutty (Court of Roses)

For Court of Roses http://courtofroses.thecomicseries.com/ I mostly sketch out thumbnails, scan them in, and lineart/color. Like most of y'all, I have a general story outline, and specific scenes get more detail as I work closer to them. If there's a scene that has emotional hits and I want the right dialogue for it, I'll script it. If there's lots of exposition and detail, I'll script it. Just, largely winging it on my end!

Tuyetnhi

I usually work from loose script dialogue for a chapter, to get the feel for the page, then start thumbnailing. After thumbnailing tho, I redraw the thumbnails on csp, sketch, then change/define panel layout or render till finish. Often, my thumbnails don't give me enough info till I start the page. And that's good for me since it's still under a set guideline but I don't feel rigid on "Oh gotta make it exactly like this" or some sorts. Same goes with dialogue/scripts too since I tend to go back and correct panel layout if i don't think it was strong enough on the first go. Idk, I treat it more of a fluid process that I can go back and fix due to how I digitally paint/render things. Still the process depends on the page i'm working on, how strong the thumbnails are, dialogue, and color scheme theme I had with certain pages. Most of it is 40% gut feeling tho. Images shown here how I got OIYD! Ch. 2 - Page 15 to be to its finished form. [thumbnail-> Rough sketch -> add with color -> final render with dialogue]

ErinPtah (Leif & Thorn | BICP)

I took scans/notes about each step of the BICP page-making process back during chapter 5: http://www.bicatperson.com/comic/step-by-step/ ...and then again, seven years later, during chapter 28: http://www.bicatperson.com/comic/the-webcomic-page-making-process/ The art has gotten better, but the actual workflow...basically hasn't changed. (If it ain't broke...)

snuffysam

First I have the script for the entire book, which I'll have finished ahead of time. At the start of each chapter, I'll divide the upcoming script into pages based on how I want the comic to be paced - e.g. making sure the setup and punchline to a joke aren't on different pages, making sure there's not too much dialogue to read on a single page, etc. Then, when it comes time to do the page, I'll split things up into panels. That's pretty easy - I generally want to keep things to one line of spoken dialogue per panel, or one "action" per panel. Sometimes there'll be beat panels, sometimes two people will talk in one panel, but that's the general rule. Next I... put together the panels. I don't really use thumbnails to work this stuff out - important panels or panels with more dialogue are bigger, less important panels or ones with less dialogue are smaller. I try to make sure panels don't intrude on each others' vertical space, because i've always found that complicates things in a web medium - but that just means there's less for me to worry about. I make sure the panel layout is different from the previous page, and if there's an action I need to emphasize I'll do something weirder than just a rectangle. If there's not enough space on one page for the panel sizes I want, I'll make it a double-length or triple-length page. As for the actual artwork - I try to make sure the reader's eye line is led along the page. So panels on the left would have the characters generally facing to the right, and panels on the right would have the characters generally facing downward and to the left. I try to leave enough space for word bubbles - and in general, the characters on right panels will be placed lower than characters on left panels, because i want the speech bubbles to move downward as you read across a row. And, well, that's basically it!(edited)

authorloremipsum

finally someone who considers the eyeflow (am joking, mostly)(edited)

snuffysam

i didn't always, but a reviewer once told me how one specific action scene was really difficult for him to parse because the eye flow was just completely in the wrong direction, nearly every panel. so since then i've been making a conscious effort about it :p it's tough when there's two characters up against a wall and you need the page to flow the other direction from how they're standing though, lol.

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #creator interview #comic creator interview #creator babble #comic tea party #ctp

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rudiunit5unit13 · 6 years

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Aaron Draplin is a graphic designer and author that runs his own design business called draplin design co and he was born in Michigan on October 15 in 1973. He has worked with big clients like ford and is well known for minimalism and more of a retro style.

After watching videos about his design process and analyzing some of his designs I took some notes about how he works and what he is interested in.

Uses simple shapes

Tries to create logos that are timeless

Enjoys vintage things and simplicity

He brings letter forms back to basics

Enjoys minimalism

Starts by sketching

Makes notes on texture and color

Makes sure a design will look good on things like websites and items

works with negative space

creates lots of duplication to help his idea generation and outcome of his product

Makes sure his designs work in all sizes

Experiments with shapes gradients and text

Experiments with different layout variations

3 examples of his work and my thoughts and options on them

Assembly.

This logo is a clean sleek geometric logo. You can see how he has created the icon for this as the letter A completely made out of triangles. Its clever because all of it is essentially triangles making it seem complex but really the shapes and design is minimal and the color pallet consists of different shades of blue with the bass of the design being dark shades of blue then gradienting to a lighter shade at the top. Underneath There is a nice sans serif font that’s not too bold but the weight and thickness of it is just right so you can clearly read it in a small and large size.

Peak Oil.

This logo is very minimal so it is simply a black and white logo. He has created the shape of the logo out of some sort of droplet to represent oil. He has used some techniques to add depth to this logo for example on one half of the droplet lines are taken out of it showing this negative space and it almost works as a shading affect. Another thing that he had done to make the type pop is put it in a black circle so its not lost in the shapes and negative space. For the text he has used a clean geometric sans serif font and used hierarchy with the work peak being larger than the word oil.

Nike.

His Nike logo is very text based and it look like a label. I really like this because it has a very vintage old school look to it. once again the general shapes are very basic and geometric but the lay out of all the different lines makes this logo look very strong and quick. Once again using hierarchy with his text as you can see in a more vintage looking serif nike logo at the top so you know which brand the design is for and about. One thing that I really like is the small iconic nike swoosh at the bottom which just makes a nice composition with the two nike logos being the bass and the top and then the rest of the type being centered in the middle of the box created by the geometric lines. This logo has a very simple color scheme as it just uses a nice bright teal cyan color and relies on negative space to create the back drop.

Saul bass

Saul Bass was born on may 8th in 1920 in the Bronx, New York were he was brought up by his Jewish parents. Saul Bass had a passion for art and he graduated from James Monroe High School in the Bronx and studied part-time at the Art Students League in Manhattan, He then went on to attending night classes with the painter György Kepes at Brooklyn College.

He started working in Hollywood in the 1940s were he worked making advertisements for print for films like Death of a salesman and The moon is Blue. A stepping stone in his career was when the director of The moon is blue asked Saul to design a film poster for the film Carmen Jones in 1954, The director called Preminger was so impressed with his work he asked him to produce the title sequence as well. After creating the title sequence he loved it and realised how it can positively enhance the film to the audience. He then went on to create many Posters and advertisements but also lots of film title sequences too.

Saul Bass enjoyed many elements of design and is mainly known for his posters and advertisements but he also did work creating logos for brands like AT&T Corporation (1969 and 1983) and Frontier Airlines (1978).

It was not just advertisements and logos he was a filmmaker for a while during the 1960s were he was asked by directors and producers to produce not only title sequences for their films, but also to visualize and storyboard key scenes and sequences within them.

I would say he is most well known for his film posters and he created some of his best known posters for films directed by Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, and Stanley Kubrick and more. His last commissioned film poster was created for Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List in 1993 but it was never distributed.

Saul Bass won awards such as Academy Award, Best Documentary, Short Subjects and Why Man Creates. He then died in 1986.

I really like this poster by saul boss, I really like the rough shapes and I think the use of three plain colors could seem a little boring but I think the simplicity of the color scheme and shapes actually work well and looks good I also like how the background colors are not a fully saturated and are a little faded or softer making it easier on the eyes and it also allows the wording within the negative space of the body to pop. I enjoy how the poster looks like it has been cut out of bits of colored paper and then put together. One of the reasons a lot of his work is a little more simplistic is because the printing back then was not as advanced as it is today and this also applies to other elements of design like there was not digital software or it was not as advanced as it is today but I think the simplistic look comes across as a bit modern with minimalism being very popular. I think the large text in the body looks great because It stands out which makes sense because the tittle is very important, I don't like how the text is all messy and wonky but this might have been done so it fits the atmosphere of the poster with its rough cut out look.

It shows that Arron draplin takes inspiration from saul bass in his work in the way that he also works with simple shapes, colors and minimalism to help make things like logos live longer and work in all different sizes on different things.

Stefan Kanchev

Stefan was born on the 6th of august in 1915 in kalofer Bulgaria. He studied mural printing in the national art academy from 1940 to 1945. He worked in all areas of art from book covers to trade marks, advertisements and more. Kanchev participated in many galleries and exhibitions both locally and abroad from Budapest, Berlin, Moscow and much more. His work is said to be well know for his clear composition and his “fellicitiouse relation between fonts and shapes”

His work and dedication to galleries popularized his work and style which led him to wining many competitions for typefaces, posters, trademarks, postcards, telegram forms, book designs etc, and his work became famous and could be viewed in the major applied arts encyclopedias. He then went on to win the “cyril and methodius” 1st calss in 1956, 1963 and 1969 for playing a big part in the development of Bulgarian culture. He proceeded with his work and won the Bulgarian state title of national artist in 1971.

Kanchev grew up around his father that was a info graphic artist which inspired him to do art. He has progressed to become a well known artist and draws all of his logos and work free hand it is said that his last moments were spent drawing and working before he got taken to hospital where he died in on august the 22nd in 2001 aged 86.

“Sadala” — Burgas (Factory for underwater fishing equipment)

This logo is a simple black and white logo. It uses negative space and when you look at it there are only two shapes which are black and then when you add a background color which allows you too see the pattern in the negative it still only looks like there are maybe four shapes. This is a logo for something to do with fishing equipment and you can see how this is represented in the logo by the simple fish created out of negative space. The fish is surrounded by a black oval shape which creates a nice boarder which I think will help this design stand out. I Think from looking at this design you can tell that it is related to fish. I also think because of the simplicity of it with essentially just two black shapes and negative space I think this design would work very well on many things because of its simplicity it could be scaled down and still look good, one thing that I am not a huge fan of is the boarder of the fish is not a round circle its slightly stretched vertically and it might look more pleasing to the eye if it was an exact circle.

Hotel “Shipka”

This design is for a hotel. the design only consists of black rectangles with the layout being one long rectangle at the bottom and then on top of it three rows of rectangles each row consists of 9 rectangles which are individually space out by columns and rows. If you look at the design as a whole its like one large rectangle made out of rectangles. The design is meant to represent the hotel and after looking at pictures of the hotel it has a very geometric shape to it and looks like one big rectangle and then rows of rectangles making up the window. This is a very simple design using a very very limited amount of shapes and black as the only color. I think When you know what this design is for it makes total sense but on its own it might be a bit hard to see its a hotel as it could be a block of flats a chocolate bar or a calculator so I think this design could be too minimal.

“Slavyanka” (Port with fishing center)

This is a design for a fishing port. This design Uses thick line work with a circular border with lines coming off it colliding with other lines creating two fish which can be distinguished by the two small circles for eyes. Once again this design is just black but the shapes and pattern is a little more complex. I really like the flow of the pattern and the thickness of the lines as I feel if the lines were thinner it would be harder to see and if the lines were thicker and heavier the fish wouldn't look right. Just like all three designs this one also uses negative space. I think this design would work in many sizes just like the others as it uses just black and clean sharp line work with smooth curves. I think all three designs use good negative space and are able to express and represent imagery using minimal colors and shapes. But I think without any context it is tricky to understand what these designs are for.

I think his work is enjoyed and works well within the design industry because in most cases its simple but effective. The fact that its so minimal allows it to work on so many different platforms and materials, you could scale it down and enlarge it and it would still hold its form and you would still be able to recognize and identify the imagery and illustration he has created. The best type of design is a design that’s timeless, now its very tricky to create something timeless as the design industry is constantly changing but as of today I feel like his work would still work as simplicity and strong composition and structure is heavily used so I think that his work may become outdated in the future but as of now it would work fine meaning his style of design has already lasted a long time.

I think both designers share certain things in common and one of the two things that they both heavily focus on is simplicity and composition and they are both good at creating design focusing heavily on these two things because when your making a minimal design if you have bad composition or something is slightly off its very noticeable because in some cases there are not a lot of elements/parts to the design. You can definatly see similarities in there styles and work and arron draplin talks about how he loves old things and believes that design is timeless and does not need to be complex and crowded which is something that Stefan Kanchev does very well so he could possibly be taking some inspiration from Stefan Kanchev.

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showusyourthesis · 7 years

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Hee Jin Elizabeth Cho & LiWen Choy // University of Auckland

This week, SAANZ talks to resident power couple and fashionistas of the level 5 studio LiWen Choy and Hee Jin Elizabeth Cho. LiWen is exploring the ‘search for the subjective viewer’ though methods usually involved with film production and cinematics, while Hee Jin Elizabeth is primarily concerned with the value and commodification of air and how this can be translated architecturally.

SANNZ: In short, what are your theses about?

E: Mine is a playful architectural response to the recent commodification of resources where NZ, Australia, and Canada are selling cans of fresh air to polluted regions of China. It’s centred around the idea of putting value on the often forgotten element of air.

L: In short, my thesis is about the search for the subjective viewer in architectural representation through a narrative and storytelling.

SANNZ: What inspired you to choose these topics?

E: Throughout the past four to five years I’ve always been concerned about representing immateriality and things that you can’t see. At the beginning of this year I was initially focused on experiential groundlessness but then I had this shift into an obsession with air and putting value on it.

L: I think the reason I’m interested in these ideas is the ability of the medium of storytelling to connect emotions with how you experience space and that also plays throughout a lot of films that I’ve watched. Spatial expression in cinema is just so much more true to how someone embodies a space and how they live day to day, that idea is so powerful that I want to bring that into the way I represent my designs.

SANNZ: Tell me about your supervisor and why you chose to work with them?

L: I’m working with Eu Jin Chua right now, he was the last one on the supervisor list so as I was going through everything I thought “I gotta find the right fit” and I feel like he’s the older version of me, as an academic. Over the past 30 years he’s gone into studying cinema and film and I have a lot to learn from him.

E: My supervisor is Michael Milojevic, and the main reason I chose Michael, firstly was because he was on the Alpine trip with us at the beginning of the year for the study tour, and at the beginning I was really concerned about groundlessness and he had a general paper on ‘ground’ so I thought, if I’m going to remove ground, first I must know ground. He has such vast knowledge and it’s been working very well.

SANNZ: We know you have both travelled this year and previously during your studies, has the overseas experience had any effect on your work?

L: The short answer is definitely yes, especially the previous tour that I went on [Iberia, 2015]. It really changed how I approach design in the sense that I’m not out to design objects that end up on the page as this beautiful render, just being immersed in how much buildings actually affect and reflect the culture. It put so much more weight to what I was doing when I put pen to paper, it was the process of getting myself into that and being on those sites made me want to get into that process.

E: It’s the same with me, the Alpine Tour 2017 was the first time I actually went overseas, I’ve only ever been to Korea and New Zealand and I hadn’t experienced such scale of architecture and it definitely did shift my view of the design process and even my own experience.

SAANZ: How do you feel about having to pursue ONE topic for the whole year?

E: I actually love it. Especially because it’s something we’ve chosen ourselves and I feel it’s where my passion does lie, so it’s really exciting to be able to focus on just that and delve completely into it for the entire year.

L: I didn’t exactly know what my topic was going to be so for me it was more like pursuing a chain of different topics and halfway through the year I’m now comfortable in what I’m doing.

SANNZ: When tackling a design, what is your approach?

E: I find that I write a lot to begin with, especially because with my design right now is air and it’s something that I don’t want to attempt to visualise. I feel I’ve done that through past work in editing my writing to culminate in design conclusions.

L: I think it’s something that requires you to reverse engineer the past four years and how you work. A pattern for me is whenever I read a brief I tend to have lots of images that I immediately think of and it helps to start sketching those in perspective, it helps me to scratch the edge, get it down on paper so I can stop worrying about it and then those ideas might come back later on, they might not, that’s just how I like to get started.

Below- Images of LiWen’s thesis process

SANNZ: How do you feel University of Auckland Architecture school has helped you for entering the industry in years to come?

E: I think the school definitely allows you to search for your own means of working and they definitely support you with that, through which you find your own roots and processes.

L: I think coming into architecture school I was quite closed, I was quite a private person and that’s because I didn’t really understand myself or the way I worked. What’s really helped me is the process of becoming more honest with myself, and with my tutors as well, and what’s been the greatest merit for me is at the start of every design brief I’m completely transparent and tell the tutor what I’m trying to achieve during the semester and then straight away they realise that that’s something they can really support you in. It became a lot more productive process. I think it’s what you make it. Some students might take advantage of things that others might not. The resources are there, it’s what you make of it

SANNZ: What are your plans for next year?

E: I’m not sure where I’ll be located but I will be working in an architecture office. Right now I’m working part time in an office with Tim Mein, and I’m enjoying that.

L: I’m hoping to get into production design and into the film industry and I’ve been recently getting into motion design and motion graphics, so I’m trying to bring my portfolio up to that level.

SANNZ: Do you work while studying? How do you manage a work, life, social, and in your case, relationship balance?

E: Right now I’m working two days a week and for me it’s not too difficult because my boss recognises that I have a lot of workload with thesis and he’s done it himself so I’ve got good flexibility with my work hours. In terms of relationship balance, if I’m not at work then I’m in studio and [LiWen’s] in studio and we try to fit in coffee breaks and occasional movies and such.

SANNZ: Do you ever use each other as platforms to test ideas, bounce concepts off one another etc.?

L: It was a little bit tough to begin with because we were both quite private people, we both had our ways of working and there was a bit of friction to begin with but after we got interested in each other's projects we built on that in a certain way. It’s like a work-life integration: you don’t try to compartmentalise things into different areas of your life, but if you act seamlessly you don’t feel like you have to be a different sort of person.

SANNZ: Who is your music artist of choice when doing architecture work?

E: For me, I listen to music and I’ve had the same playlist for the past four and a half years! I usually just pick one song and that’s it for the day. My favourites are ‘Nude,’ ‘There There,’ and ‘Present Tense’ from Radiohead.

L: John Mayer has gotten me through University emotionally, but when I’m designing I listen to podcasts about anything.

SANNZ: What have been some fruitful moments in your thesis?

L: I’ve been working on storyboarding the sites and the people and how they interact with the space , specifically on the study tour. That’s how I got started and it’s given me the opportunity to discover the emotional relationship between the user and the building instead of just designing from plans and sections, those things are really objective so I wanted to take a more subjective approach to see how I could design something.

E: Along with writing I’ve been using casting and collage and image processing from those casting images because I’m talking about air and gradients, so it's the only medium that can portray that transitional quality.

Below- Images from Elizabeth’s Thesis process

SANNZ: As two resident fashionistas of studio, can you tell us a bit about your style and how it’s developed over your time at University?

L: I think you feel once you move on from first year you really have to dress the part, at the time you wore what you thought was great: I think I wore chinos and jandals which apparently was horrible but I only found out how horrible it was long afterwards. My wardrobe has gone very neutral over the years and now I dress for comfort and in something that’s easy to match or pair.

E: I go for a consistent palette in my wardrobe so that you can pick out anything that goes together.

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cambrosefilms-blog · 7 years

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SWOT analysis

Strengths

What are your advantages?

I would say my main advantage is my knowledge of many camera interfaces as well as a number of softwares. This includes Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media composer, Adobe Illustrator and DaVinci Resolve. I have had many years’ experience with older software such as Ulead video studio and Effectlab 11 that I used during my time creating stop motion animations. I also have a comprehensive knowledge of film language which helps when I plan the different shots for a shoot and when it comes to physically filming it.

I am also a good people person, I’ll listen closely to the director and make sure I translate the intended meaning on to the screen. But I will always have ideas of my own to suggest during pre-production and on shoot. I am also patient with the process and understand the long, hard hours that go in to making a film. This for me is seen as a challenge rather than an obstacle.

What do you do well?

My confidence with a camera has helped me out a lot when I’ve been shooting on location and during my work experience. My hand eye co-ordination is a major advantage as I’m able to move the camera as well as focus pull at the same time. Practising with the C300 and other DSLR’s has helped me greatly. Being able to edit confidently also helps me when I’m shooting as I already have the intended edit in my mind. Being part of the shooting process also helps me a lot in the editing suit as I already know which shots were the best. Having an all-round knowledge about the entire process of making a film will give me an advantage when I look for freelance work.

Why did you decide to enter the field you will enter upon graduation?

Initially when I joined University I had my mind set on being an editor, but through practicing with the camera and watching many stylish shows such as Better Call Saul and True Detective, I became obsessed with cinematography and how people frame the shot for an intended meaning. Emerging technology such as the DJI Ronin also fascinate me due to the possibility of creating shots that were simply not possible before.

What were the motivating factors and influences?

As stated in the previous post, new TV series, especially on Netflix inspired me to pursue the route of the camera. When I watch a film, I focus mainly on the cinematography and look for shots that I’ve never seen before, one shot from True Detective stood out to me as one of the greatest pieces of cinematography I’ve ever seen. The end of episode five includes a 6-minute continuous take and it is beautifully choreographed.

During first year, I was also camera operator on all the shoots, which only inspired me to pursue the craft further during second and third year. Do these factors still represent some of your inherent strengths? My drive to learn more about how the camera captures images through the different settings and how the images are brought to life in the editing suit contribute to my strengths.

What need do you expect to fill?

I hope to fill the need for a knowledgeable and skilled camera operator in a small production company to start with so long as I keep practising with equipment. Eventually I hope to have had enough experience in the industry to go for the role of Cinematographer by working on my own side projects for me to practice the craft.

What have been your most notable achievements?

Ironically, my greatest achievement in film for me would be the success of my stop motion animation channel on Youtube. I was only 14 but I managed to gain over 5000 subscribers and gain revenue on my videos after being accepted in to the Youtube partner scheme.

However more recently, I would say my graduate film ‘It’s About The P’ is what I’m most proud of. I am especially happy with the cinematography and the camera operation in it.

Having completed my work experience with AON Productions in December, the Director Geoff was obviously impressed with my work ethic and technical abilities so has invited me back for further experience after graduation.

To what do you attribute your success?

A lot of practice with various kit, the ability to listen to advice when it is given. It is also imperative to watch a lot of films and TV, what you see being broadcast is the result of a lot of knowledge and refined work and has given me ideas for shots many times.

How do you measure your success?

I measure my success based on what I am personally satisfied with. I do not want to pursue a career in the film industry for lots of money, I love the craft of filmmaking and when I make something I love I think that is the most successful thing you can do.

What knowledge or expertise will you bring to the company you join that may not have been available to the organisation before?

Experience with being successful on a relatively new social platform such as Youtube could be very useful especially for a small production company looking for more exposure. I would also say my all-round knowledge of diverse types of cameras, technology such as the DJI Ronin and working with a drone. My knowledge on many different pieces of software might also assist a company that has only stuck with certain pieces of software.

What is your greatest asset?

My interpersonal skills, the ability to work well in a team, my dedication to the projects I work on and my confidence on camera.

Weaknesses

What could be improved?

Camera technique is something that can always be improved on, so I will continue to practise and further refine my operation and cinematography skills. I also need to improve my knowledge with sound overall, from using sound equipment on location and mixing sound in the editing suit by using programs such as Protools and Adobe audition. BY improving my knowledge of sound, I will have an even more rounded knowledge of the different elements of film. I would also personally like to practice my colour grading more.

What do you do badly?

Anything to do with sound, I do not really understand it very well and always try to get outside help when I must deal with it. I am also terrible at drawing, which limits my ability to storyboard effectively, which is essential for a cinematographer.

What should you avoid?

Drawing storyboards by hand, using photo storyboards is far more efficient for me. However, it would be nice to be able to quickly sketch the type of shot I have in my mind without grabbing a camera and taking a picture of it. I should also avoid the logistical side of film making, I am not hugely organised and would not fit the role of producer. I would rather leave it to someone with more knowledge of the subject and stick to the creative processes.

What are your professional weaknesses?

The lack of experience I’ve actually had in the industry. Although I’ve had experience on camera working on a professional shoot, it was only with one company.

The planning or preparation with something that I’m working on, to take full advantage of the time I have on a shoot I need to prepare myself with a comprehensive storyboard and shot list. I also have trouble speaking up when I know something isn’t right. For example, on set if the director has the intention to shoot a certain scene in a way I know isn’t correct or will not work, I have trouble challenging the decision.

It also takes me a long time to learn a camera interface due to my poor memory. If I want to have a comprehensive knowledge of a certain interface I will need to use the online camera system available for most cameras.

If I want to be a camera operator I also need to be physically stronger than I am now. With some jobs going on for longer than 12 hours I need to be able to hold a heavy camera unit on my shoulder for an extended period. During my shoot on ‘It’s all about the P’ I struggled to keep the camera still on my shoulder for the longer takes, which hindered the overall quality of the image. I could rectify this weakness by joining a gym and practising with freehand cameras.

Opportunities

Where are the promising prospects facing you?

During my time at AON Productions I got to know the producer and director very well. The producer Derek Donohoe currently works for the BBC on EastEnders and has given me the e-mail address for someone that sorts out experience. Derek has said that I may be able to shadow or even assist in the camera department which would be ideal for me.

AON has also agreed for me to come back for some more experience. During my time at AON I was able to operate the camera in some instances so any more experience would be invaluable.

I also have a short film planned with likeminded creatives in many different areas of expertise including, film, sound, visual effects and music. You never know, doing side projects may lead to something far bigger.

What is the "state of the art" in your particular area of expertise?

Emerging technology is constantly pushing the possibilities of even more amazing cinematography, such as drones and electronic stabilisation rigs, I would love the opportunity to work with these pieces of equipment more.

When researching other people involved in camera operation or cinematography, I noticed that they always own and hire out kit to other people. This is something that simply isn’t achievable for me at this point in time as you need lots of money.

Are you doing everything you can to enhance your exposure to this area?

Apart from the previous projects I have worked on, probably not. However, as part of the creative platforms unit I have created a lot of self-promotion items including a website, CV, showreel and business card which hopefully will give me more exposure. After I’m finished with university work I am going to work on more side projects and go for more experience to further my chances of getting a job.

What formal training and education can you add to your credentials that might position you appropriately for more opportunities?

Taking an ARRI Alexa training course and getting certified as an operator would improve my chances of getting a camera related job. Taking an AVID exam would also strengthen my credentials for editing projects and freelance work.

Would an MSc/MA or another graduate degree add to your advantage?

A cinematography masters would certainly hone my camera skills even more, but I need a break from education, I am eager to gain experience with a real company. I feel receiving camera experience with a company would make me more knowledgeable about what the industry expects and not just the University. Going in to an MA with more experience would make a more valuable pursuit.

How quickly are you likely to advance in your chosen career?

Independently I’m not sure, it is how I sell myself that makes the difference. But being about to make a living from camera operating will come much slower as I need to start at the bottom of the ladder and climb my way up to be able to work at the position I want to be in.

Threats

What obstacles do you face?

Competition. A camera operator with the latest kit will be booked over someone that only owns a 60D and two lens.’ Money seems to be a huge factor in the quality of work you are able to produce in my chosen field. However, having a good showreel is my best hope of been chosen over the competition.

Are the requirements for your desired job field changing?

Not particularly, experience and confidence with several types of cameras will also be the standard requirement for my chosen field.

Does changing technology threaten your prospective position?

Definitely not, quite the contrary, having experience with emerging technology such as the DJI Ronin will only strengthen your chances of getting a job. Could your area of interest be fading in comparison with more emergent fields? Certainly not, the possibility of having more flexibility with a camera has only made me more interested in pursuing it.

Is there any way to change the politics or to perhaps defuse your involvement in potential disputes?

If you’re a camera operator you have got to be compliant with the DoP, director and actors, if you are doing what you are told and approach each job with professionalism there should not be any disputes.

How might the economy negatively affect your future company and your work group?

If companies are facing budget cuts they will look for people who are skilled in more than one area so they keep the team small. By learning skills surrounding camera work I will make myself more appealing to a company.

Will your future company provide enough access to new challenges to keep you sharp -- and marketable -- in the event of sudden unemployment?

Absolutely, even with AON productions the diverse range of shoots they do will give me experience with lots of different equipment, types of shoots and types of clients, which will strengthen my portfolio and make me more employable.

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gunterfan1992 · 4 years

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Episode Review: ‘Obsidian’ (Distant Lands, Ep. 2)

Airdate: November 19, 2020

Story by: Jack Pendarvis, and Kate Tsang, Adam Muto, & Hanna K. Nyström

Storyboarded by: Hanna K Nyström, Anna Syvertsson, Iggy Craig, Mickey Quinn, Maya Petersen, James Campbell, & Ashlyn Anstee

Directed by: Miki Brewster (supervising), Sandra Lee (art)

Of all the many colorful characters in Adventure Time perhaps none has a more elaborate backstory than Marceline the Vampire Queen. In many ways, Marceline really was the writers’ gold goose, engendering complex story after complex story. By the time the series ended, the vampire’s life had in more ways than one been woven into the very fabric of the show’s mythology.

But because I am a Marceline fanboy—whose zeal for her majesty is rivaled perhaps only by Glassboy himself—I always felt like the show could have done even more with her backstory; I mean, when the series finale aired, there were still plenty of questions that had yet to be answered (What happened to her mom? What is Simon going to do now that he’s “cured”? How did Marcy and Bubblegum meet? Were they romantically involved before the events of the main series? How did it all go south?). Nevertheless, when "Island Song” played for the last time at the end of “Come Along with Me,” I forced myself to push aside this minor, fannish grievance and applaud the show for writing such an excellent character. I didn’t need for every last detail of her life to be explicitly shown on screen. I was happy.

But then, about a year ago, news dropped that one of the Distant Lands specials would really delve into the history of Marceline and Bubblegum’s relationship. In an instant, I tossed my stoic “I-am-satisified-with-what-I-received” mentality right out the window. We were going to get another Marceline episode, and it was going to dive back into her elaborate backstory!?! I could barely contain my excitement as I waited for the episode to drop.

Well, was my excitement worth it? Or was “Obsidian” a big ol’ let down—a tragic victim to grandiose expectations that were never meant to be fulfilled?

I’m quite happy to say that not only was “Obsidian” a remarkable special in its own right, but it is arguably one of the strongest episodes of Adventure Time, period.

The plot of this episode is fairly standard, as far as Adventure Time episodes go: Glassboy (a new character voiced by Michaela Dietz, the voice of Amethyst from Steven Universe) accidentally sets a giant fire monster named Molto Larvo loose on the Glass Kingdom, and Marceline and Bubblegum—who we learn have been living their best cottagecore life together in Marcy’s cavehouse—are forced to save the day. But the series’ writers take this otherwise quotidian adventure idea—a story which, at least on paper, could have easily fit in during any of the show’s many seasons—and employ it as something of a Trojan Horse, using it as a pretense to delve into both Marcy’s traumatic childhood and her and Bubblegum’s romantic history. And, boy, is it a ride!

With regard to the former story thread, the audience learns that sometime after the Mushroom Bomb detonated, Marceline and her mother, Elise (voiced this time not by Rebecca Sugar, but by actress Erica Luttrell, who played Sapphire in Steven Universe), roamed the wastelands in search of shelter; after Marceline’s mother came down with some sort of sickness, she sent Marceline to be on her own. Elise was hoping that this would spare Marcy the trauma of seeing her mother die before her very eyes, but due to some communication issues, Marceline never learned what became of her mother. As such, Marceline began blaming herself for “leaving” her mom to die in the wreckage of the world. This plot thread is perhaps one of the bleakest that Adventure Time has ever explored, and the show does it masterfully, balancing the darkness (e.g., Marceline’s mother coughing up blood) with bright spots of comedy (e.g., the "wazzup” dog) that never feel distasteful.

Likewise, when it comes to the story thread about Marcy and Bubblegum’s romantic history, the special does not hold back. We get to see “Bubbline” at its best and its worst. I have a feeling that the word “fan service” is going to be used by a lot of folks when talking about this episode. As the AV Club writer William Hughes notes, this word is usually hurled around like a pejorative, but it aptly describes the appeal of “Obsidian”. After all, this episode really is “fan service at its finest”—not only does it give the ravenous shippers the story tidbits that they have so long to see (e.g., the moment Marcy gave Bubblegum her rock shirt, Bubbline’s epic break-up), but—and this is very important—it does so in a way that is fundamentally meaningful. “Obsidian” does not feel self-indulgent, unnecessary, or pandering. On the contrary, it is overflowing with deep emotion that allows us to better understand how Bubblegum and Marceline really feel about one another. Sure, over the centuries that the two gals have bummed around Ooo, they have bickered and fought, but deep down, their love is passionate. In many ways, it is like the titular obsidian, which means that nothing short of an enchanted diamond pickax is strong enough to break Bubbline apart for good.

(It’s also quite nice that after seasons and seasons of tip-toeing around the question of Marceline and Bubblegum’s sexuality, “Obsidian” can explicitly focus on their life together, showing the two characters cuddling, kissing, and dancing. In terms of LGBTQ+ representation, it’s a huge leap forward, and I’m so happy that Adventure Time has had a part to play in normalizing queer relationships!)

Marceline episodes almost always featured a catchy diddy, but "Obsidian” really cranks things up to 11 by featuring a whole bevy of catchy songs, several of which are perhaps among the show’s strongest. The first right banger, “It’s Funny,” is the song that plays over the special’s credits. With a grunge-meets-riot grrrl feels, this track really sets the tone for the episode, signaling to the audience that we’re in for, as Lumpy Space Princess once put it, some “drama bombs.” The next standout is “Woke Up,” a brutally honest diss track that Marceline used both to contain Molto Larvo and break up with Princess Bubblegum centuries prior to the start of this episode. This song was written by pop rocker Zuzu, and it—as the kids say—slaps. Layers of fuzzed-out guitar and digitally processed vocals are used expertly to sell Marceline’s emotions and convey how, on the surface, she’s delighted to no longer be under Bubblegum’s romantic spell... even if her heart may not be so sure.

But arguably, the musical jewel of the entire special is “Monster,” a somber ballad that Marceline sings to Bubblegum when they find themselves trapped in the collapsing furnace and are facing what they believe is certain death. Written by indie pop artist Half Shy, this song is, in many ways, something of the inverse of “Woke Up”: soft, happy, and filled to the brim with a sort of love that few are lucky to receive and even fewer can honestly express. Not only does “Monster” finally cement Marceline’s real, visceral love for Bubblegum in song form (remember: almost every prior Bubbline song was either indirect or delivered by an angsty, heartbroken Marceline), but it also “tames” Molto Larvo, allowing him to metamorphose into a strange but harmless cat-butterfly critter. Just like “Come Along with Me,” “Obsidian” proves that the power of love and music will save us in the end—if not physically, then at least emotionally.

Regarding the production-side of things, there’s a lot of praise to doll out. First off, the look and style of “Obsidian” is gorgeous. While “BMO” opted to experiment somewhat with the classic Adventure Time art style, trading cel shading for an almost watercolor feel, “Obsidian” echoes the aesthetic of the original series. That said, there’s an undeniable animation bump—likely courtesy of that sweet, sweet HBO money—that lets Ooo and its denizens shine in all their glory. You can tell that Adam Muto, art director Sandra Lee, supervising director Miki Brewster, and all the members of the production staff really went above and beyond the call of duty. The episode's soundtrack, composed by Amanda Jones, as deserves a shout-out. Jones did an excellent job mixing the chiptune style of the original series with a bass-heavy rock sound that highlights Marceline’s starring role. Bravo!

As another production aside, I should point out that CN/HBO’s decision to make these specials each 44 minutes was the right call. The 11 minute format of the original series often left something to be desired when it came to plot development, as many an important episode was forced to end somewhat prematurely due to time constraints; conversely, the 8-episode miniseries format that the show experimented with during its latter days sometimes felt like too much time (Stakes, Islands, and Elements all had whole episodes that felt like nothing more than the show treading water). The length of “Obsidian”, however, was just right, giving us plenty of time to take in what was happening without ever feeling like it was dragging.

A final aspect of this episode that is worth mention is its many call-backs to previous episodes and characters. “BMO” was mostly a self-contained story that, due to its nature as a prequel in space, really couldn’t reference the Land of Ooo without feeling forced. “Obsidian,” however, throws in everything and the kitchen sink (Adventure Time superfan and all-around cool person Jagm has collected most of them here for those of you who want to see everything laid out nicely). Stand-outs for me include Choose Goose (someone who we really haven’t seen since season five) smuggling sketchy products into the Candy Kingdom, post-Ice King Simon trying his hand at open mic nights, Bronwyn as an adventurous hero, and Finn the (Adult!) Human complete with beard and scars! Of note, Jake does not appear in this episode, except as a tattoo on Finn’s chest. Many in the fandom are now speculating that the events of “Obsidian” take place after our beloved shapeshifting dog’s death. Oh say it ain’t so! Perhaps we’ll learn more in “Together Again.”

Mushroom War Evidence: Unlike “BMO,” which directly referenced the Mushroom War and its fallout (both literally and figuratively), this episode returned to the show’s roots by featuring gobs of explicit hints in throw-away lines or elaborate background pieces. Honestly, there is far too many to list here in a pithy paragraph, but some major references include: the reveal that the Glass Kingdom, like the Fire Kingdom, was created by ‘magic’ blaze from the heavens (almost certainly a nuke); the fact that Marceline and her mother wandered for a time in the debris-filled wastelands following the apocalypse; and the reveal that Marceline spent at least part of her childhood holed up in a bomb shelter surrounded by the bones of myriad dead humans. Honestly, while references to the Mushroom War have always been sad footnotes to an otherwise cheery show; in this episode, however, the references are very graphic, illustrating the sorrow and horror of mutagenic war.

Final Grade: As I said earlier, I’m a Marcy fanboy, so I’m horrible biased, but I don’t care. This episode rocked. Q.E.D.

#adventure time #atimers #adventure time distant lands #distant lands #atdl #obsidian #marceline the vampire queen #marceline #bubblegum #princess bubblegum #bubbline #adam muto #hanna k #hanna k. nyström #jack pendarvis

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