#this was part of a finals project for the 3d course and while it was a lot of fun i was not super familiar with zbrush

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not having a job despite having time for it?

🍏🥝🍏🥝 <- to keep track of this when it posts,

My family really loves talking about me(20) when they think I'm not listening. I've heard them on multiple occasions say that I need a job and that I should just start working part-time while I'm going to college. The issue with that is that while other people can do both pretty decently, I dont feel like I'm capable of doing both part time and college without one of them suffering a lot because of the other.

My family is pretty financially stable, and the fees I owe never go over 900 dollars and sometimes I even make my own money off of commissions to help pay for things. I actually did have an actual job during my classes for a while filing things and remote video editing work (for the same job) but one of my family members worked with me there as my boss and I decided to quit after they decided to ask if my mom would've rather died than had me after I told him she called trans people abominations (I am trans, I'm only out to that family member and my brother). I haven't found a consistent thing to do to earn money since but I've been trying really hard to advertise my commissions since then.

The part where I feel really guilty though is the fact that I've been going to a community college for almost 3 years now (with my family supporting me money wise) and know I'm only going to come out with a one year certificate because of how fucked my schedule got in my first year. I didn't meet some prerequisites , and despite the course I wanted being a 2 year degree it was worth almost 80 credits, which felt insane as I went into it. 5 classes a term, some 5 minutes after the other, all based on pouring hours and hours into artsy projects (video, audio, 3d modelling, painting, 2d animation, ect...). I broke down within my third term after I started failing some of my classes. I was still trying for my 2 year degree up until 2023 where I decided that getting a certificate that was similar and getting a job after would probably be better for me at this point rather than spending ANOTHER 2 years struggling OR straight up giving up and dropping out with nothing.

I'm also home a lot when I'm not in class (I'm only taking 2-3 classes a term now). I do little things sometimes like take out the trash and pull dishes from out the washer and so on but it's all only when no one is home because the place where things generally need to be cleaned up is all in our very small kitchen AND the fact that I'm scared of them poking fun at me for "finally doing something for once" because it makes me feel terrible when they do. I end up chilling out in my room completing work and desperately finding work arounds for projects to only ever really need done in my room or on campus- generally anywhere that's not going to worry my grandma too much.

I've told my family that their teasing doesn't make me feel good but it just gets responded with "that's just how we show love!" when I know it doesn't have to be that way! My boyfriend teases me pretty often but the difference is that he actually listens to me when I tell him something he said didn't feel very good to me and we talk it through, and then he doesn't make that joke again or i feel better after knowing the context of it!!! A lot of my family members will bicker until another one ends up crying and it's horrible to watch how petty and bitter everyone can be.

Don't really know what else to write, AITA guys? I know I could be doing a lot more around the house instead of working but I'm scared of being touched (my aunt randomly spanked me as hard as she could one time last year) and scared of more mean comments being thrown my way. I already have a plan to leave this home and have been open about it to them, but I don't want to rush it if I don't have to and want to spend a few years saving money up so that I'm not in a horrible situation if things go awry.

What are these acronyms?

[battlekidx2]

Blue Eye Samurai Thoughts

These thoughts are sort of scattered and don’t cover everything I think makes this show great but I wanted to get something out about this amazing show.

Every once in a while an animated project comes around that makes me sit back in awe that something this phenomenal was allowed to be made. That something this rife with creativity, care, and emotion was given the freedom necessary for the people behind the scenes to make an authentic experience that really pushes the boundaries of what animation can do. And Blue Eye Samurai did just that. 

The last time I felt that way about an animated show was Arcane.

Blue Eye Samurai follows Mizu, a child of mixed race that was deemed a monster due to her parentage, and her journey to kill the man who sired her. It’s a dark, tragic tale that blends 2D and 3D animation to create a story that centers themes of prejudice, class, identity, found family, revenge, and loss.

It’s one of the most gorgeous shows to come out in the last few years. With pretty much the entire show having the ability to leave you breathless. The action scenes in particular are standouts (shocking I know).

In these action scenes the show really embraces the freedom its rating gives it without falling into the usual trappings shows with a mature rating tend to. Blue Eye Samurai has an abundance of bloody gore filled violence that never becomes gratuitous. It all feels purposeful and poignant within the story itself and how it explores its themes. It gives the consequences of Mizu’s revenge depth. Not just in how it effects the people around her and the collateral, but also in how the violence Mizu perpetrates effects her.

This is best explored in episode 5 (The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride), which is probably the best episode in the season, where we get to see a glimpse into Mizu’s past and how her path towards revenge is solidified.

The hopefulness of the past is directly juxtaposed with the bloody carnage of the present, while the story of the bride and the ronin is told over the course of the episode. There’s a foreboding that is layered over top of every scene in the past, the knowledge that in some way this goes wrong and leads Mizu to this point. To become this force of nature capable of cutting down men without hesitation.

It shows those parts of Mizu she’s lost through the hardships her life threw at her and those parts she’s been forced to discard herself to accomplish her goals.

The loss brought on by the hardships her life threw at her is shown in the past with her mother and husband and their betrayal and death. And the parts of herself she’s had to discard is shown in the present when she initially spares the boy that turns her in and almost gets the women in the brothel and herself killed that she ultimately kills in the end when faced with the same choice.

This is all just scratching the surface of this exploration, but I think it gets across the point that this show does a good job of exploring the nuances of revenge and what led Mizu to this point.

It’s the show’s meticulous exploration of aspects of Mizu’s character that makes her such a complicated character and an amazing protagonist. I don’t know if anything I write would really do her justice, but the complexity and nuance of her character alone make this show worth watching.

The second most interesting character to me was Akemi. 

Akemi’s arc is incredibly compelling. She goes from feeling trapped and trying desperately to escape to learning how to use her cunning to try and become great. But because this arc is occurring in Blue Eye Samurai it isn’t as straightforward as that description makes it seem on the surface. That arc is flipped on its head and to show what I mean I want to look at the scene on the bridge.

That scene on the bridge after Seki dies was one of the most intriguing of the final episode. That moment you can see the shift in Akemi’s desires from that of freedom to that of greatness. In many ways this isn’t the victory that it should be.

The wording seems like that of someone taking control of their own destiny and deciding to pull themselves up to a position higher than anyone thought possible, but the framing with the city in flames behind her, the shogunate’s enemies burning alive, and Seki dead on the ground put it in a more tragic/sinister light.

And those words she speaks that are on the surface sound triumphant echo sentiments that her father has said to her (telling him he’s only alive because of her and the belief that she can control the shogun, etc). Her desire for greatness even reflects his own. 

This isn’t really freedom and considering the almost naive quest for that freedom she went through during the season and was even hopeful she could obtain just moments before, living out her days with Seki on his family farm, make this feel less a victory and more like she’s becoming what she has to. That she’s hardened. That she’s starting down a path that mirrors Mizu’s in some ways.

And this mirror between Mizu and Akemi is clearly intentional. The show itself visually mirrors the two within this same episode in the exact scene I was just talking about.

And throughout the season she is the most direct foil to Mizu. Both found different ways to try and work around the inherent restrictions being a woman in 1600s Japan would entail, to gain any semblance of freedom from those restrictions, but were ultimately hurt by those expectations/restrictions in a way that forced them to change.

They took how they handled it in two completely opposite directions (Mizu presenting as a man and Akemi using her sexuality and forced marriage to her advantage. In broad, over-simplified terms: rejecting femininity vs embracing it to achieve their goals) which is what makes them such interesting foils for one another.

This parallel/contrast to Mizu makes her the most interesting of the supporting cast and her end point puts her into what might be the most compelling spot out of all the main characters heading into next season.

(Plus she’s voiced by Brenda Song aka Anne Boonchuy and London Tipton)

Honestly all of the characters are given nuance that makes them at the very least entertaining.

The show even manages to make a character that could have just been comedic relief an interesting character and an avenue to expand on its exploration of themes with (season MVP) Ringo.

This is best shown through Ringo’s views of greatness. They at first seem shallow and naive. Not really looking deeper than the surface at what this idea entails and he floats from one thing to the next so easily that it can initially seem unfocused, but I think that’s the point. Ringo doesn’t really know what greatness is so his view of it is constantly changing and what he believes he can be great at is constantly changing too. 

Just like the audience he is awed by Mizu’s strength and ability in battle, but as the brutality and reality of what that skill brings comes to light the idea that this skill and determination is greatness slowly dims. It never entirely dies out because this isn’t meant to destroy his idea of greatness, but instead change it from a black and white binary to something that is more blurred. He still sees greatness/potential for greatness within Mizu, but he doesn’t see her as the pinnacle anymore. The end all be all.

And what he can do to be great constantly changes because he’s suddenly had so many opportunities he never could have dreamed about, due to his disability and being stuck at his father’s noodle shop, opened to him that he needs the time to explore what he wants. He’s still trying to find his calling and by the end of the series he might have found the start of it in the same place that Mizu did– With Swordfather. 

The one thing about Blue Eye Samurai that didn’t quite work for me is the use of music. The show’s score is beautiful and used to great effect, but the music it chose to put over scenes would pull me out of the moment almost every time because it used highly recognizable songs that I’d heard in so many pieces of media it felt inauthentic and jarring.

This is a small complaint because there are only 2 scenes where the music choice did this, but I felt I should mention it because of how important these scenes were supposed to be. The rest of the show easily makes up for this small gripe.

I could probably ramble about this show all day but I’ll cut this off here and say this: Blue Eye Samurai easily lives up to the hype that everyone has been giving it. It’s a visually stunning show with compelling characters that explores its themes in such depth that I can’t wait to see where it goes from here. 

Random thoughts

I love the shot of Mizu in The Great Fire of 1657 where she’s staring Fowler down, flames behind her and eyes a piercing blue, because of the perspective of this shot. This is shown through the eyes of Fowler, the man who just brought an army to the shogunate’s doorstep with the plan to take over Japan, and yet he’s afraid of Mizu and the lengths she will go to achieve her goals. It’s such a chilling shot that absolutely shook me to my core. (Man Blue Eye Samurai is amazing at these types of shots)

Taigen is a character that I had a lot of fun with, but didn’t make as much of an impression on me as the rest of the characters. He isn’t as complicated and compelling as Mizu and Akemi or as thematically interesting as (season MVP) Ringo. I wish I had more to say about him, but I don’t. I do think his dynamic with Mizu is interesting though.

Fowler is a really fun villain and I can’t wait to see how he plays off of Mizu now that he is going to be her guide in London. I can’t wait to explore those bombshells he dropped in the finale about Mizu’s origins.

The fights in episode 6 were the most visually stunning to me in the season. The way it played around with lighting and perspective was incredible. 

I didn’t talk about it much above but I thought the way Blue Eye Samurai explored Mizu’s relationship to her gender to be very compelling and nuanced. The way it’s handled lends itself to a fascinating exploration of identity and gender that I think is important.

Swordfather has such a great relationship with Mizu. He knew she didn't leave his house the night before and just decides to adopt her and teach her everything he knows, giving her a stable relationship that doesn't reinforce her shame. He doesn't recognize her mixed heritage as a point of shame instead embracing her for who she is and letting her know that her mixed heritage doesn't make her impure, standing up for her when the bandit threatens to hit her and insults her origins. This genuine care is something Mizu desperately needed as a child and it was amazing to watch.

I think I want to go into greater depth at some point on my points on Mizu and Akemi being mirrors to one another and how The Ronin and the Bride explores violence and loss and how they're intertwined in Mizu's life at some point.

It’s shows like this that make me even more frustrated at Netflix. They were on such a role in animation and were (and sort of still are) a driving factor in changing the landscape of adult animation that they were frequently the platform that I was most excited to see new animated projects on, but then they absolutely gutted their animation division and showed little to no respect to the work of those that made the animated properties and I lost a lot of respect for them as a result. I really hope projects like Blue Eye Samurai keep being made and that platforms start respecting animation like it deserves.

I kind of feel like adding a few adult animated recommendations on netflix to this so here goes: Arcane (duh. It’s a masterpiece), Pluto, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, Castlevania, Carol and the End of the World, Skull Island, Inside Job, and Tear Along the Dotted Line.

[astronyu]

Sketches and commentary on the Folly ref sheet for RAT's newest plush! (info below the cut vvv)

(note: RAT commissioned me to make the character ref sheet, which is NOT the plushie schematic that Makeship actually uses as reference to produce the plushie)

This is the first sketch we sent to Makeship!

I'm starting to add details to push Folly's identity a bit more and differentiate her more from RM (Rat Maid), i.e. neckline, nose, gloves, blush. Lots of curves! (And I also added two rats instead of one <3O~ <3O~)

At one point we considered giving her the eye design shown on the right (red thread embroidered around her eye) as a reference to her MC skin's glowing eyes, but we decided eye shadow was a better look. also it looks like sans undertale

This is the back! The Folly skin has a long pretty bow, but it's scrapped by the end because A. her hair obscures everything on her back and B. as we went along we increasingly afraid of the sheer mass of fabric building on this plushie.

Most of her palette is colorpicked from the original minecraft skin by Arathain (who also made RM!) but iirc we made the ears pinker and lighter. You can see their OG tweet featuring the Folly skin here!

Onto the dress design!

RAT wanted the Folly plush to feel like more than just a recolor, so he had me redesign her dress. I started off with an inspo board focused on elements we wanted to keep-- Folly's lighter palette, the middle slit of her dress, the off-shoulder straps, and the overall maid theme.

You'll notice that Folly's expressions here are kind of all over the place (I don't think she's ever looked that sympathetic in her life). I think I made these sketches before I finalized her face, where RAT requested some mixture of murderous intent with mischief, but in a subtle way. Later down the line the specific smirk Folly has actually gave the physical plushie a lot of trouble (faces do not scale easily on cone shaped snouts).

The first alternate dress designs!

RED: RAT (paraphrased), PURPLE: me ofc More refined sketches! As you can see here RAT's working me to the bone with all of his requests. It's okay though, b/c after I sent him the completed ref sheet I got to watch him turn on Makeship. (KIDDING, KIDDING)

Overall, I was looking for a dress that felt regal, beautiful, and unconventional, while still feeling like a maid dress. Wow, after physically typing that out I feel like face palming. "I need a dress for a GODDESS also a uniform good for housekeeping please" (???)

After feedback, I focused more on variations of the 2nd option.

You'll see at the last Folly, I combined the 2nd variation with the tie ribbon, the layered dress design, and long puffy sleeves. I decided to bring over the long puffy sleeves specifically because I hoped that they would give Folly a more interesting silhouette that of course contrasts with RM.

(To be fair, this contrast isn't very visible on the plushie itself but it is fun to draw.)

And finally, the second and last ref we sent to Makeship!

imo Makeship did an INCREDIBLE job translating the design to plushie!! I'm sure there's plenty of challenges Makeship's plushie makers have to deal with that we don't see, so I always specify that I'm only responsible for the initial drawing when people ask me if I "made" the plush.

One really delightful surprise were the 3d rats; we didn't think they were possible but they were (ilu makeship)!! You'll probably also notice that Folly's eyes look pretty different--- they were changed slightly in each step and ultimately ended up softer, which is interesting because I feel that it kind of mirrored how RAT's approach to Folly as a character changed in the months of the plushie's development (and up to her release!).

And that's all I have for my part of the plushie! I always love working with RAT on projects and plushies are a highlight. They're especially surreal to think about when we all used to joke about them before RAT really blew up.

ofc, the shill if you want to get her: Makeship Folly plush and RM's ref sheet if you're curious: Rat Maid plushie ref

i think the campaign ends about October 7th, 2023, but you and i are very likely to be in different time zones so if you're interested doublecheck with the site. if the date has long past then ig this is just a fun little time capsule for you, which can also be pretty cool :)

[the-pianist-from-accumula-town]

I'll share with you what I'm doing as my Bachelor's final project, hold on-

This little fella here is called Cebrita and is the mascot of the comic club at my uni. I'm making an animated short ad to play in all TVs in campus.

I'm doing it all, from modeling to rigging to animating, then editing and special effects.

Here's the animatic. Some parts will be 2D, some 3D. I'm doing this project with a friend, she does all 2D scenes and I do all 3D scenes.

I personally love how it's turning out and I hope I can have a project I'm proud of at the end of the year (and I hope it can land me a good job too).

There's still a lot of work to do, of course, but I'm optimistic! It's been quite a while since the last time I posted art here because this is taking all my time rn sooooo hey why not share it with you all? :)

If you would like to help a tired college student get their degree AND get a cool drawing while doing it, you could, I dunno, commission me or smth. Just an idea :3 All benefits will go towards ramen packets and coffe.

[lilis-palace]

WORK-IN-PROGRESS : A Secretaire desk

Not really a guide, but can be interesting for those who would like to know how I create an object or a set. Originally I wrote this essay for a course at my uni but I translated and simplified it.

💡☝️ INSPO

The secretaire desk is an iconic piece of Biedermeier furniture. My fascination with the elegant yet straightforward style is beyond measure.

🧊🕸️ MODELLING

I used Blender for modelling. (I made it when I was still using the old 2.7 version.) The design process for the object consumed a significant amount of my time, spanning a total of three hours.

After I finish making the model, I need to do something called "unfolding." This means turning the 3D object into a 2D mesh. Once that's done, I "burn" the shadows onto it, which gives it the final look you see below.

🎨🖌️ TEXTURE

After that, I use the Sims 4 Studio program. This is where I make sure that the object looks right with its texture and I decide how it should act in the game.

To create the special intarsia effect, I use patterns that I've already prepared in Photoshop. I carefully rotate and arrange them until they fit just right. It takes a lot of time, but the final outcome is totally worth it.

🌐✨ NORMAL & SPECULAR MAP

The Normal map is really important for objects with low levels of detail. It determines how light behaves on different surfaces. With the Normal map, even a surface that looks completely smooth can actually appear uneven when light shines on it. This creates the illusion of more intricate details without slowing down the game's performance.

In the game, they use a simpler version of the Normal map called the Bump map. To make it, I use a plugin in Photoshop and save it in a specific format called .DDS. I have to tweak the channels and choose the right settings to get it just right.

When I apply the Bump map to my Biedermeier writing cabinet with shelves, it creates small shadows at the edges of the shelves when light hits the center. This makes the shelves stand out from the flat surface and adds depth to the object.

The shine of an object is controlled by the specular map. It determines how reflective the surface appears, whether it's a shiny metal, a glossy glass, or a completely matte material. By adjusting the color values, we can create different types of shine.

In this project, I want to achieve a specific type of shine that looks like wax or honey. Fortunately, I already have a template ready for this. I just need to find it and apply it to the object in the program.

📊📐SIMS 4 STUDIO SETTINGS

After that, I need to make a bunch of tweaks to make sure the object works properly in the game. It involves doing both small and big adjustments. For example, I add tags to make it easy to find in the catalog, figure out how the surface should look, find the right spots where other objects can connect to it, decide where chairs and writing surfaces should go, and more. The first picture shows how things are set up by default, while the second one shows the changes I've made.

Throughout this whole process, I have to carefully figure out the exact positions for different parts using a coordinate system. It can be a bit tiresome and take up a lot of time.

📈 💼 WORK IN PROGRESS

First, I made a work-in-progress picture. This is how I announce the new collection.

💃🎞️ GIF

In the post, there's a gif that demonstrates various color combinations. Creating this gif involves a careful and detailed process. I have to take individual photos of all 16 color combinations for each of the two cabinets. Afterward, I need to carefully match and merge these photos together. Finally, I use an online Gif maker site to edit and finalize the gif.

📷🖼️ PREVIEW PIC

I spent a good 2 hours setting up the scene, and it wasn't easy finding the right items and creating the perfect environment. Editing the image also took me another 2 hours, as I paid close attention to every little detail.

Out of the three images you see above, the first one is the default color scheme generated by the game itself. The second image, on the other hand, was created using a program called Reshade. It's an extra tool you have to install separately, and its main purpose is to change the lighting inside the game. It adds depth and creates a whole different atmosphere. As for the third image, that's what it looks like after I adjusted the colors in Photoshop. And finally, I added shadows and highlights to the image to give it a more three-dimensional and immersive feel.

I hope you enjoyed this post and see you soon. The release date of the set is tomorrow!

[manasseh]

Now that most big dates have passed, I'm excited for the summer :)

It's always so interesting, the feeling of 'I'm done with the school year so I can start learning now' ^^' But it's so much easier to be healthy and curious on my own. Wish they'd just let me do whatever + the freedom to bother teachers as much as i wanted, and give me a degree based on the quality of my portfolio lol

For the rest of june, I've been challenging myself to wrap some stuff up, so I can start fresh on the next chunk in july!

✔ rough schedule for july

✔ finish drawabox lesson 3

✔ finish Duolingo Hebrew/Chinese units

✔ finish Korean book chapter

✔ deep clean my room ✧ the kitchen ✧ my files and images

✔ sew on previous embroidery project and set up the next

✧ wrap up the modeling and texturing part of my 3D model, ready for rigging ~

✔ watch/read only 'watch later' videos and posts

Here's some of the video essays from channels I overall recommend! These long form vids sometimes take me like a week to get through lmao but it works well while doing tasks like this week.

> Kawaii: Anime, Propaganda, and Soft Power Politics Moon Channel

> how dark mode killed good design Answer in Progress

> Analyzing Every Torture Scene in Call of Duty — All 46 of Them Jacob Geller

> Bardcore : Neo-Medieval vs Actual Medieval Music Farya Faraji

✧ respond to asks and tag games finally

✔ make the most of the rest of free trial hip hop dance course lol

[bapouro]

If you have the time and if it’d be fun at all, can you talk about how going to school for art is/was? Like what was bad about it but what did it make you realize about why you create? What was originally incomprehensible that became digestible after being surrounded by it? I’m just curious because I really only got into art after college age.

Hi

ive finally handed in my final project ever last friday and after somewhat recovering i can now answer u. (ill put an aside here that before i started uni, i saw a lot of the online umming and awing about art school and it being a scam etc that made me nervous going into it. i dont really think it has been for me but keep in mind im doing this in the uk. i think if i was in the usa or somewhere where it was that expensive i think youd get just about as many benefits going to somewhere like a community college instead. its worth a bit of money but not a lot of money.)

i realised while turning over your questions in my head last week how much doing my degree (illustration undergrad) during covid lockdown, illustrated (haha) the point art school had for me. and the point being that after trying to stick it out for the first few terms during lockdown, i deferred, i didnt really see the point i had already spent my entire life making art in my bedroom online for free, without somebody telling me what to do. practically what that degree offered me was physical facilities and resources, but really what i wanted it for was that vague miasma of drive and something bigger than myself to physically 'prove' myself to. i was and still am very interested in that gap between the online environment i learnt art within that felt a world away from my 'real life', and coming to meet with that 'real life' was kind of my goal. i needed both to meet on a very basic level for my quality of life. and id say i succeeded. twice now somebody i was originally mutuals with online turned out to be in my class. i live with one of them now. and i feel some pride now looking back on how much i felt like i had to separate my 'school' art and my 'personal' art during secondary school and now theyre practically one and the same. in fact one piece of advice ive kept with me from the uni tutors here is they consistently wish the students wouldnt 'hold back' so much on the kind of work they make: one of my friends, the one i now live with, was doing a tasteful furry pinup statue for a project and one of the tutors essentially asked them why the statue was being so sexually subtle with it, for example.

so what was bad about it! man... thinking about it the same reason i gave for why i came back after lockdown could also point out how flippant the reasoning was. its still a lot of time and effort let alone money to be putting into something that you dont Need an institution for. and art and academia, as much as you might try, arent going to be as neatly married as maybe STEM and academia. not that there isnt a place for it. we need it in there. but basically your work still has to get 'graded' on things so they can prove themselves as an institution so they can still get money to run. i ''apreciated'' the deadline part, for what it was, because i was(/am) a serial put-er off-er and i knew i needed something big to try and train me out of it. but the actual mark scheme and trying to work off of it is never not going to be nebulous. what the hell does it mean to 'demonstrate my awareness of the changing landscape of contemporary illustration' graded between 0 - 100 via a 3d animation. ive done pretty well. sometimes id get top marks. a couple times i wouldnt even pass and id have to do it again. the only pattern i could really see between what got those marks for me and what didnt was effort? so take with that what you will.

yea that being said, what it helped me realise why i create... i am thankful my particular course at my particular uni is so into their experimentation / medium diversity. because it proved to me again that experimenting is something i love to do. i could keep doing it forever maybe. but that also made me realise after trying to do that project after project that its only one part of the enjoyment. i couldnt sink my teeth in as much as i wanted. part of why im glad to leave is im glad to try and focus on just a few things now. take a project at my pace... reeeally get way too into it. hopefully.

what was originally incomprehensible that became digestible after being surrounded by it? mm.. i think getting to see a lot of the behind the scenes and the people actually doing illustration as a job kind of softened my glare on some art styles / ways of working i dislike. not that i Like them now but that kind of flat illustrator thing.. for some people it really is more of a job than anything else. i think thats fine. theres all kinds of other art to enjoy outside of their 9-5. i just hope they like it too. but of course it does set a precedent for what clients expect/what you feel like you should be making..? oh also i did actually end up really enjoying the couple of art essays we needed to write. reading cultural/art/etc pdf essays was something i already liked to do like reading baudrillard and ellen dissanayake and things but it was great to actually get to apply it in writing. and i think it certainly became more digestible to realise that these kinds of writers and this kind of writing wasnt some hard to penerate academia i couldnt be a part of really but turned out to be writing about things that already applied to life, whether i went to uni or not. really the whole experience... for me i felt like it was just something i needed to do. if anything just to get away from my family and make my own life. im glad i did it. but really art is art no matter where you find it. uni gave me a push to go further, i could sit around and say i couldve done it without uni but i think we overestimate ourselves. i think i couldve but i bet it wouldve taken longer and i may have experimented less, challenged myself less. who knows. just dont ever let something like that put you off art, it will always find you again eventually. im glad you got into it too.

[autopotion]

*These are not official groupings, just mine.

EARLY (1987-1993)

Mainline games released: I, II, III, IV, V.

Other notable releases: the Legend series, Mystic Quest

Established the formula & series mainstays--job classes, summons, chocobos & moogles, etc.

These games were relatively simple at first, but soon became trailblazers for epic storytelling in RPGs--especially IV (or initially II in North America).

Pixel guys.

Mostly known by their many (many, many) remasters and remakes.

Modern audiences might find their stories rote and their gameplay unnecessarily difficult, but they still enjoy a tiny, vocal fanbase.

GOLDEN (1994-2001)

Mainline games released: VI**, VII, VIII, IX, X.

Other notable releases: Tactics, Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, Anthology, Chronicles

With the formula established & with the more powerful hardware of fifth- (and later sixth-) generation consoles, FF pushed boundaries and graphical limitations to produce their most ambitious games (and marketing campaigns) yet. You might say they succeeded, for better or worse; Final Fantasy VII is generally considered to be the very first AAA video game.

The era that the majority of the FF fanbase on the Internet is most nostalgic for, a fact that might inspire either your own misty-eyed recollection of the good ol' days, or an overwhelming desire to snap the rose-tinted glasses. Or both.

Saw the first of many (many, many) ports across different systems--in part to give English-speaking audiences access to the early games they missed, but also as blatant cash-grabs.

Modern audiences who have no nostalgia for this era often voice that they find stylized 3D polygons much more difficult to acclimate to than the pixel guys.

**FFVI could arguably fall under the early era. If I'd made this poll fifteen years ago, when the division of fans between VI and VII was much more stark, that's where I would have put it. However, this poll is also about how modern audiences tend to think about their favorite FF games, and FFVI enjoys a nostalgic fanbase on par with those of the other games of the golden era. Search for it on any "best FF games of all time" list and you'll see what I mean.

COMPILATION (2002-2008)

Mainline games released: XI, XII.

Other notable releases: Crystal Chronicles, X-2, Compilation of FFVII (Before Crisis, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, etc.), FFXII: Revenant Wings, the Tactics Advance series & the War of the Lions remake of the original Tactics, the DS remakes of III & IV, the first Dissidia. (Also of note, though not directly beneath the FF umbrella, was the introduction of Kingdom Hearts.)

The era of sequels, remakes, remasters, crossovers, and extended universes, shepherded by the Square Enix merger. Only two mainline games were released in this period, and the one that was not an MMO was an entry in the newly-formed "Ivalice Alliance" (contrary to the desires of one of XII's principal developers, Yasumi Matsuno, who left the project before it was finished).

While of course we've seen plenty of sequels & remakes since, this era went all-in on expanding Final Fantasy to the behemoth it is now. FFVII, its golden child, was showered with prequels and sequels. Crossovers were all the rage. Even games that were not strictly "Final Fantasy" games were retroactively roped into one of the existing canon masses, i.e. Vagrant Story into the Ivalice Alliance.

This was also the boom of handhelds, like the PSP and the beloved DS. Mainline games were saved for the heavyweight home consoles, while other titles were dispersed across the smaller systems.

Very few "new" worlds with no preexisting ties to the other games (outside of the shared banner of Final Fantasy) were created in this time, XI and Crystal Chronicles being the few exceptions.

If you enjoyed seeing the games you loved from the 90s getting more content, this era was a delight. If you'd rather the original entries were left alone, it was a painful sign of things to come.

EXPERIMENTAL (2009-2015)

Mainline games released: XIII, XIV (twice)

Other notable releases: XIII-2 & Lightning Returns, Type-0 (also a member of XIII's Fabula Nova Crystallis series), Dissidia 012, the Theatrhythm series, the first expansion for XIV (Heavensward), Record Keeper, Brave Exvius

FF's darkest era. XIII was the first time FF tried something new since XI--brand new world, female protagonist, fresh spin on the old ATB formula--and it fell just short of catastrophic. XIII and its sequels were not well-received (though whether this negative backlash was "deserved" is another story). The game that would later become XV was originally intended to be Versus XIII, an entry in Fabula Nova Crystallis. Between XIII's poor reception and Versus XIII's fraught development, this didn't happen.

The initial release of XIV, on the other hand, was catastrophic. It was so bad that the entire thing had to be rebooted.

The good news is XIV's reboot, A Realm Reborn, did so well that XIV is widely considered one of the best MMOs of all time. The reboot is also one of the earliest examples of video game "rehabilitation," in that a dramatic change or update to the original game transforms a negative experience into a positive one, and thus scrapes back the good will of the player. (No Man's Sky is a non-FF example.)

The virulent criticism of XIII has softened over the years, and it enjoys a small, dedicated fanbase.

You started to see FF dip into mobile games at this point, too.

MODERN (2016-2023)

Mainline games released: XV, XVI

Other notable releases: World of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, Dissidia NT, Dissidia Opera Omnia, Final Fantasy VII Remake, the pixel remasters of I-VI, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Reunion, Crisis Core: Reunion, a slew of expansions for XIV

The long-anticipated release of XV heralded a new age (as well as a movie and an anime). In contrast to XIII, XV was very popular, and put FF back on the map. People loved the boys' road trip.

XIV is still going strong. I don't play MMOs but I'm happy for them.

The remakes & remasters are back, and looking more realistic than ever (if you're into that sort of thing). Look at how many individual pores you can see on your old favorites' faces! The most successful of these is the Final Fantasy VII Remake, which is not a remake as much as it's a conversation with the original game, a move that both drew in a new audience and softened (some of) the diehard og-VII fans who disliked the rest of the Compilation.

Stranger of Paradise is an odd duck attempting to evoke the uncanny valley weirdness of the PS3 era. YMMV on if it worked.

The modern FF games step further out of the boundaries of what an FF game is, dropping ATB combat in favor of real-time action that's all the rage these days. In a first, XVI doesn't have any party members. For the folks who've grown tired of ATB and crave the fast-paced action of the modern day, XVI was a hit (though, I've heard, it failed to deliver on the story).

The endless conversation about whether FF ought to be evolving this far outside of its "formula" (whatever one believes that to be) might feel tired to the average FF fan. But, going forward, it's worth talking about the ways in which FF has neglected to evolve, or even gone backwards: such as the dev team of XV stating that the inclusion of women would cause their core bros to act unnaturally, thus why there are no female party members in the game, or the dev team of XVI deliberately not including a diverse cast because their fantasy game is inspired by medieval Europe.

Tell me which era you voted for in the tags, and what your personal favorite FF game is!

[alln64games]

Body Harvest

PAL release: 30th September 1998

NA release: 20th October 1998

JP release: N/A

Developer: DMA Design

Publisher: Gremlin (PAL), Midway (NA)

N64 Magazine Score: 91%

Body Harvest was originally going to be a large collaboration between DMA Design and Nintendo, but Nintendo ended up pulling out, leaving DMA to work it all out on their own. Despite this, DMA turned out something impressive in size and scope.

This game was the birth of the current open world modern-day open world games – many people associate it with GTA 3 on PS2, but many aspects of that can be found in Body Harvest. Of course, both were made by DMA Design (now known as Rockstar North), but it’s amazing how much of what they did started on the N64.

Alien bugs keep harvesting humans and, as humanity are on their last legs, the hero Adam and his assistants (a woman in a skimpy outfit and a robot) are sent back in time to stop multiple invasions to save humanity.

Roaming out of your time ship, the game feels like a 3rd person shooter – the controls are pretty good for the time, with a big help from autoaim. However, before you encounter your first enemies, you’ll come across a car, that you can hop in.

The vehicles are very odd to control by today’s standards, but you can get used to them. There are a massive amount of vehicles in the game – and not just cars, but tanks, planes, boats, helicopters and more. Some have their own weapons and special abilities, while all essentially act as armour for you – you don’t lose your health while in a vehicle, becoming vulnerable once they blow up.

The vehicles aren’t just for getting to places, ether, they’re all part of the “puzzle” of each area. The open world isn’t just a backdrop for the game, but is integral to the design of the game. You’ll encounter many roadblock and will need to figure out how to get past. It’s something that I feel a lot of open world games lack and you’re constantly thinking about how to get about the landscape.

The first area itself is impressive in size and scope, and that’s just one of the maps. There are four main areas – Greece 1916, Java 1941, America 1966, Siberia 1991 – that have unique looks and vehicles, all with its own puzzle to figure out. There’s also a final mission that takes place on the alien comet, but it’s a more straightforward combat mission.

I did find some parts of Java and America a bit too difficult to navigate, and sometimes a harvest will happen in an inconvenient location – as humans are eaten by the large harvester bugs (one of many different types of bug aliens), a bar will go up and losing too many humans will result in failure -and every so often a mutant will be created to hunt you down.

The difficulty of the game is very unfair, especially due to how the game saves. Each location has 3 or 4 alien processors and you can only save at beacons placed after these have been destroyed. This means that there can be a very long time between saves and messing up a fight can cost you hours of time.

On top of that, the game unfortunately has technical issues. Vehicles can sometimes get stuck, and some are required for progressing. Making a wrong turn when exploring can also lead you to a place where you can’t return, meaning you have to reset. These issues make it a pain to play the original version of it, so I highly encourage playing in a way that utilises save states.

While it certainly shows its age, Body Harvest is a phenomenal game. It’s simple, yet expansive at the same time, and the open world is designed around the gameplay. This game gets overlooked a lot, yet it was definitely an important step in the evolution of video games.

I also do wonder how different Rockstar would have been if Nintendo properly supported this project – would GTA3 had become a GameCube exclusive?

Body Harvest is magnificent. In many ways, it’s the ultimate 3D shoot-’em-up: packed-to-bursting with aliens, peppered with explosions, awash with blood and innards and rollicking good fun. Get it in.

- Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #22

Remake or remaster?

Body Harvest is perfect for a remake. there are four amazing levels to recreate in higher detail, sort out the issues with saving, add some bonus challenges (perhaps let people return to previous levels to explore fully), better driving mechanics. The game’s world is wonderful, it just needs updating.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Body Harvest

[eff-plays]

Hi! I hope you’re doing well! I saw in one of your posts that you’re going to school for game design, and it’s something I’ve been considering pursuing for a while now. If you don’t mind me asking, do you have any tips on what to look for, or what to keep in mind when deciding on a path in that field? Thank you!!

I'm only in my second year and don't really know how much I know, and whether it's enough to give tips to someone else. It will also depend on how college/uni works where you're at.

In Sweden, we have two main routes you can take, which is basically whether you want to study the practical aspects only for a shorter time and get to work immediately, or whether you want a fancy little degree, in which case you'll have to write a lot of essays.

I'm doing the second part, because I'm an academic sort and am interested in games as an art form more than I am interested in immediately going into the field.

So keep that in mind when you decide what it is about games you're more interested in. To add onto that, probably good to figure out which part of the game making process appeals to you the most. If you're more artistically inclined, you'll probably want to study graphics, which doesn't necessarily involve drawing. If you're more into math or the technical aspects of games, the logic behind making them, you'll want to focus on design/programming. Basically, do you want to work on the stuff that's visible to the player, or build the game's bone structure?

Something to keep in mind, as well, is that it's an inherently collaborative process. It depends on your school of course, but I've had 4-5 group projects back to back, with different people each time. Seems obvious I guess, but it really is non-stop, and it'll continue once you get into the field, so if you're not about that life, probably reconsider. (Or just become Toby Fox I guess. It's not impossible, just difficult, to learn game design and then become a one-person dev team.)

Finally, to expand on the group project thing, it's probably the most important skill to learn, which I still struggle with. You can be a singularly talented artist with gorgeous art in your portfolio, but you will be overlooked in favor of a mediocre artist with a varied portfolio and examples of previous group projects and game jams and such. Showing that you're not only capable of working with others and have a wide skillset, but are also able to adapt to different projects and take on different roles, will be a huge asset to you.

But, to expand on that expansion, it also depends on what kind of work you're seeking. Larger studios have much more granular roles you can take, where your overspecialization might be a boon. Blizzard might want a concept artist who specializes in bombastic character art and does nothing else in the studio. Meanwhile, indie studios will want a jack of all trades, someone with a broad skillset that can fill in the role of sprite artist, concept artist, texture artist, 3D-modeller, background artist, all at the same time.

So yeah, it really depends! Your most valuable skills will be collaboration and flexibility/adaptability, either way.

Other than that, I think you should just look up what's available to you and see what appeals to you the most.

Umm... Did that help? Idk shit about anything. But good luck! ❤

[tuiyla]

https://at(.)tumblr(.)com/tuiyla/gleeful-paintbox-project-week-12-what-the-world/jeqd6uxsv0y0

this is such a fun gifset! <333 Could you please explain how you made it? Like where you found these images and textures, how you created this white outline around the characters, which font you used etc. I hope that's okay to ask.

Yes of course it's okay Anon, I love to help with giffing when I can. We're gonna go through the Santana gif but I'll share the layers of Kurt and Rachel too to demonstrate that it's the same principle. And of course if you have any further questions please do ask.

So my comic book-style gif making started with the set before this one, Kitty's Paintbox Comeback set that's more like my most recent Quinntana hallway fight one. I'm pointing that out because I unfortunately, shamefully, didn't link to the tutorial I had used with later ones but did there. @yuutta’s wonderful tutorial is the one I based them all on so check that out for the comic effect itself.

So, Snixx Attack:

First, we just have the first half that’s a pretty straight-forward gif with some adjustments and last-minute colouring:

Now, we need to cut out Santana from the last frame, where we want this pop-up sort of freeze-frame thing to happen. I used the pen tool to do the actual cutting. And actually, I was lying that the first thing we need is the proper gif part because you’ll want to prepare for this freeze-frame step before doing anything else. To make your life as easy as possible, select in advance what your last frame will be and duplicate that layer. Then, when converting to Smart Object, leave it out and just drag with the Smart Object itself. Like so:

On that second one you can see that I move the single frame to the very end so it just stays like that once the clip ends. We can then cut Santana out, or rather cut around her.

Once we cut our character out, we apply the “comic book” filters and play around until it looks good. In Photoshop, the filters look like this on my gif:

I usually just copy these as they are to new comic book gifs I make. The white outline you asked about is just a stroke applied to this cutout and then black and white and other adjustment layers are applied as they would be to other elements of gifs. Layer 4 copy is a duplicate of this (don’t let my lack of naming convention fool you) with a color overlay and nudged to the right.

As this set was inspired by this one, I kinda followed the example and nudged the main cutout a bit as well as making it a bit bigger. Compared to where Santana freezes on the original it looks like this:

And then I put on the color overlay layer as well, put a comic background behind it and do the text and its effects. We’ll get into those in a second, but broken down all these layers that appear at the end of the “normal” gif look like this when separated into three main parts:

For the red background, I just googled “comic book background” until I found the right one. Lots of googling involved when you see stuff like this in my sets. Same goes for the Rachel and Kurt backgrounds. This is the one I used for Santana, slightly adjusted for the gif:

I placed it so Santana was in the middle and the lines felt like they were “coming out of her”. And then it was the text and all its effects, arguably the hardest part.

The first element is a type of comic effect-thing, again found via google:

The devil horns and tail, again, googled, and placed on this new layer + with the bg:

The text itself was a lot of trial and error but it’s ultimately SF Comic Script Condensed with gradient, stroke and drop shadow effects. Or, well, with “just” those and some rise warp text applied it’d look like this:

I was looking into how to turn text into a 3D sort of effect in a simple way in Photoshop and probably struggled more than I should have. It’s been a while so I don’t fully remember, but basically there’s a duplicate layer under Snixx Attack nudged to the right to create that final look. IIRC it was duplicating and slightly moving the layer and then combining all duplicates into one, and applying the following effects:

To get this:

That bottom layer is a few nudge and duplications merged and with the effects above on. On its own, it doesn’t look appealing but with the OG text I’d like to think it achieves what vision I had in my had.

It’s a similar process with Rachel and Kurt, just different scenes of course and different logo/text. The hardest part was figuring everything out with Santana and then recreating the process two more times was quite fun, experimenting with different things. I won’t upload all the files used for those two but you get the idea, googling around and combining images.

With Kurt’s unicorn, again I googled “unicorn” and did some effects on the best png I could find

I know I sped through some things and apologies I’m only answering this now. Please let me know if I need to clarify anything. Ideally this would have been a better tutorial but lack of time and a need to let you know this was more than okay to ask prevailed. I hope it is helpful though and again, happy to answer further questions.

[fandommemequeen]

my 2023.

yearly retrospective time LETZ GO!!!

last year i said 2022 sucked but uh,, 2023 was definitely worse :'o)

with the rise in queerphobic legistlation, school getting progressively harder to stay on track with, my dad dying, and just everything else that ive had to endure this year, its been difficult. but.. i somehow made it.

and you might be wondering how i got through everything. did i touch grass and magically everything was sunshine and rainbows? buy some overpriced self help book or online course that changed my life? No <3

i just,, did what i normally do. i played video games, talked with my friends, watched youtube, brainrotted over fandoms, listened to music, came up with cool outfits, somehow made it through skool, drew, wrote, cosplayed, roleplayed, made kandi and crafts, and just overall found ways to find joy in the small things, which goes a long way when youre trans in a world where your joy is an act of rebellion.

i also had some cool fandom moments this year! season 7 of siivagunner has been AWESOME, return to dream land deluxe was great even if it fricked with the lore a little, THE TOH FINALE WAS SO FRICKIN GOOD, marios madness may be my new fave fnf mod, NPMD THREW ME BACK INTO MY HATCHETFIELD FIXATION, i FINALLY got the kirby planet robobot soundtrack cd and the limited edition quiznos training game physical edition, i found ways to actually enjoy WDY again and leave behind itz toxic fandom, i got into pokepasta, tintn, gogos crazy bones, playtime with percy, inside job, tadc, i started listening to mal blum and against me and chonny jash, im currently being dragged into eggotama as we speak and im getting back into mpdsap,,

but the fandom that had the most impact for me this year was the june archive and restoration project. getting into TJA led me to discover bowlbys other works and get into one of the best fandoms ive ever been in, thanks in part to the june archive and restoration project fanserver. ive met so many cool people through that server, and getting to chat and VC with them has always been a blast. [yknow what? shoutout to all my friends that ive loved talking with all throughout 2023 yall are awesome]

back to life stuff for a moment here, i got to do a lotta cool stuff this year! i FINALLY homebrewed my 3ds [with a bit of help from jaco xd], GOT TO SEE THE HAUNTING OF NIGHT VALE LIVE, put together some awesome cosplays for gencon and halloween, im getting better at rhythm games, i got SECOND PLACE in my skoolz national cybersecurity codebreakers competition, i had an awesome bday, i went to go see barbie [my first movie in theaters since lockdown] and fnaf and both were AWESOME!! all of this despite everything thats happened in 2023!

and as for my creative projectz,, DIGIVERSE REBOOT EPISODE 3 FINALLY RELEASED BACK IN MAY!!!!!! holy frick i was SO PROUD of that,, in addition, ive been doing character reveals for gamerz epic megamix take, i created the doomed timelines awoken au, and ive strengthened my artstyle into what it is today while learning how to use my drawing tablet :3

in addition, getting into TJA and watching bowlbys animation legacy made me think about my past as a creator, and i started work on giving my old book ocs from my days in the TWOW fandom the care and attention they deserve, even if it means some slight redesigns or rewrites. speaking of TWOW, EWOW IS OUT AND IM GETTING BACK INTO TWOW AFTER YEARS!! feelz good to be back, and im hoping i can maybe properly host a minitwow at some point in 2024!

overall 2023 wasnt great, but i stayed silly and had fun despite it and i think thatz very swag of me!

now, every time i do one of these things, if i do an overconfident "bring it on" type message at the end i almost always end up regretting it, AND i am absolutely terrified about 2024 so i am not taking my chances!

so i leave u with this sentiment towards 2024 instead:

i gotta survive The Horrors anyway, might as well stay silly and do what i like while im doing it :3

[miloscat]

[Review] Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels (Wii)

The waggle is what gives a Jedi her power.

I’m looking forward to Jedi Survivor, so I thought I’d knock a few other Star Wars games off my backlog before it releases. Starting with this, the final game based on the Clone Wars animated shows that I haven’t played yet (apart from an old MMO that is long since shut down, a mobile game that I couldn’t find a non-crashing version of, a handful of Flash games, and Disney Infinity... hmm). I’ve previously played Lego Star Wars III on both console and handheld, Republic Heroes on console and DS, plus the other DS game Jedi Alliance. The latter was actually the companion release to Lightsaber Duels, although they’re in totally different genres. This one is a one-on-one fighting game, mostly centred around the no-brainer concept of translating Wii Remote swings to lightsaber strikes. And, it was made by beloved Aussie studio Krome!

The game was in development at the same time as the show, so it’s only able to pull from first season episodes and the movie. The story mode is fairly brief but adapts certain fights that were seen on screen, with framing cutscenes made up of footage along with new narration by Tom Kane’s narrator. All the characters are voiced by their show counterparts in fact, and the graphics match the show’s 3D animation as well, so it’s nice and authentic. I would have liked to see more new content, but there is one unique scenario at least, with the final battle featuring an advanced dual-saber-wielding droid.

The cast plays pretty safe with the main saber-compatible heroes and villains from the show. Mace Windu, Plo Koon, and Kit Fisto are unlockable by engaging with the Challenge mode, but I couldn’t be arsed. The stages are fun with dynamic layouts and events happening, like droids popping out to ineffectually shoot at you, or bits and pieces exploding and such.

It’s really the core gameplay that lets this down, as waving the wiimote and nunchuck around just never translates to a satisfying and deep gameplay experience. There are combos you can do if you can somehow get the correct directional waggles in sequence, and there are technically dodges, force fling powers, and so forth, but in practice I got through the fights by flailing madly and spamming force attacks while hoping the bot player didn’t just block everything.

Let me pull out a few choice tidbits before wrapping up. I was amused by the tutorial, where Anakin is training Ahsoka on the basics; his fully modelled hands appear on screen holding a Wii Remote and nunchuck to demonstrate the controls, which of course establishes that they exist in the Star Wars universe. The characters pepper quips throughout each duel, which are sometimes surprisingly crass insults, and can be pretty silly when a character is versing themself. Finally I recommend inputting cheats to unlock the concept art gallery, as there’s some good work in there; I wouldn’t mind seeing a comic illustrated by the Krome artists in fact!

Lightsaber Duels works in theory and Krome did a decent job filling the game out in certain areas. But relying too much on motion controls is sadly a fundamental flaw to any game design. As part of the Clone Wars project they could have gone further in the game’s content, but it seems this was compromised by the schedule and even supposedly not wanting to spoil the events of then-upcoming episodes! An absurd concern 15 years later. Still, as a fan of the show I enjoyed the character interactions and how well the game fits the show’s style, even if it’s just a bit of waggly fluff.

[diamondsableye]

Two page spread I made for my college final

This was a college final portfolio piece I presented just recently. The class itself was about character design and how to go from a character description, to 2D artwork, then finally a 3D model optimized for animation purposes. It was A LOT and this piece represents probably a minimum of 50 hours of work.

To provide some added context about the world (below the cut)

This is a world where the biblical creation story of genesis is in fact true, (though instead of 6000 years ago it’s an unspecified “somewhere in the distant past”) however, animals took of the fruit of knowledge instead of humans, who never came to be. (which means that fungi took the role of most animals, because it would be weird for me to include anthropomorphic sapient animals alongside non anthro, non sapient counterparts.)

I’m currently working on rewriting parts of the bible for fun, and have come to the conclusion that there should be an extra two books between genesis and exodus (iterations and emergence respectively), which describe in further detail how most “kinds” of animals came to be, (a kind is a group somewhere between species family and species order, so using the same terminology as a biblical kind, but with a different meaning since a biblical kind describes what a creature does not what a creature is which is why whales are classified as fish and bats and locusts are (depending on the translation and passage) “swarming kinds” or “flying kinds”, and sometimes also considered birds.)

If I were to magically get funding or a team behind me (which as awesome as that would be I’m not really in a position to manage for the foreseeable future), the plot of the RPG would go a little something like this: “you play as a barn owl catholic priest who has traveled to the American southwest during the 1880s, (well technically for me anything between the 1860s to the 1910s is fair game, since that’s usually considered the timespan of the “American wild west”), and you seek to seal the gates of hell which have opened up near the quiet town of Haven, which has brought forth many daemons and monsters from the other side. Through your travels you meet Rust, alongside a Jackalope named Cruz, and a Kestrel named Lucia. Throughout your journey you help townsfolk, freeing them from opportunistic bandits as well as all forms of supernatural terrors, while at the same time exploring how religion intersects with issues of race, gender, sexuality, and morality itself.”

I have a lot more in store planned for this project, and I’m happy to answer more questions, but that’s all I’m willing to divulge in a single comment for disclosure sake, since I’m cautious when it comes to potential IP theft. Thank you for understanding!

Edit to add: forgot to mention this, but obviously since all characters are animals, "race" and of course racism is handled a lot differently. I have this graph showing largely how society at large sees the different animal groups, and the closest parallel I can draw to this when it comes to religion is early Mormon views (Curse of Cain and Curse of Ham respectively, basically black people are just born morally and spiritually inferior.)

[superthatguy62]

FF3 Fun Facts of the Whenever: Ingus-Falgabard Addendum/Followup

I mentioned this on That Other Site and no doubt mentioned bits of it in my other posts, but may as well mention it in a proper post.

While Ingus is associated with the Dark Knight job via his connection to Falgabard, he is not the only one. There are a few cases of characters both before and after that Ingus bears some degree of similarity with, either due to the job, the location or even character trajectory (albeit, in reverse).

(NOTE: Due to the amount of overlap between the jobs, we’ll be counting both proper Dark Knight and FF3!Dark Knight/Warmage.)

1. Cecil Harvey (Final Fantasy IV)

Cecil Harvey is the star of Final Fantasy IV and one of the few main protagonists to be associated with the Dark Knight job (the only other main protagonist of the main series is, funnily enough, Luneth in some portrayals). This is due to Cecil being adopted by the king of Baron and entering service into Baron’s army.

...Say, doesn’t that sound familiar-

Cecil and Ingus had a few similarities, but also a number of differences. In particular, their feelings on Dark Knight and general trajectories go in opposite directions: Cecil started as part of Baron’s Dark Knight corps, but was made to do terrible things for his country and eventually renounced the Dark Sword and became a Paladin. Ingus was born in Falgabard, but only remembered this later in life and expresses an interest in learning to authentically learn how to use Dark Blades upon returning.

Of course, there’s also more a bit more parallels, but I’ve talked about them (and this, really) elsewhere on the blog.

For what it’s worth, the FFIII-D team would go on to make the FFIV 3D remake. It’s an interesting coincidence.

2. Nacht (Final Fantasy Dimensions)

Bear in mind that I can only give a general synopsis at the time of this writing, as I have yet to play Final Fantasy Dimensions and, until Square ports it off of phones or I look into “other means” there are no plans to change it any time soon.

Generally, Nacht is one of the main characters of Final Fantasy Dimensions. A game that homages the earlier games, its central gimmick plays into its episodic nature; It takes the concept of the Warriors of Dark that Final Fantasy III introduced and expands upon it by switching the narrative between the Warriors of Light and the Warriors of Dark. Nacht happens to be one of the latter.

Of course, Dimensions is filled with slews of callbacks to the first five-six games, usually taking concepts, characters and locations and reimagining them. While Nacht is initially introduced simply as one of the prisoners of the Empire, it soon turns out that Nacht is actually the son of a Dark Knight from Castle Falgabard.

As Falgabard is not allowed to have a significant population, the place is bombed by the Empire by the time the party reaches it and is thus populated primarily by ghosts resentful of Nacht’s father Sigurd abandoning them. Without spoiling much, a Dark Knight named Graham aids the party and grants them the Dark Knight job.

Nacht, based on the wiki, fills the same “stoic, serious but overall caring” niche of the party that Ingus does. While Matrix Software did develop FF Dimensions, none of the major FFIII DS staff seem to have led the project, meaning this may just be coincidence.

The FFD cast as not appeared in many crossovers although they were in Pictlogica, Nacht included, making it the only time the two characters associated with Falgabard appeared in the same game. Sure there’s no plot character interactions, and I don’t think Nacht is even in the only version you can play anymore, but he was there!

3. Duane (Final Fantasy Brave Exvius)

Duane is one of the many myriads of original characters from Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. As far as I am aware, he is not involved in the main story, leaving his presence primarily as a “vision”; the term for the characters summoned primarily via memories which make up the main gatcha component of the game. Therefore, the majority of Duane’s story is relayed through his bios.

Duane was once a knight of Grandshelt who, on the suggestion of a superior, decided to learn to wield dark blades. He succeeded in becoming stronger, but his usage of darkness made him a pariah among his fellow knights who rejected him. The stress of such rejection caused Duane to snap and slay several knights. Not only did this result in Duane getting banished, but Duane himself was so wracked with guilt that eventually, he...

...Yes.

But even in death and now a vision, it’s said that his grief remains as he seeks to make amends for his actions.

It’s worth nothing that unlike the rest of the characters on this list, Duane takes heavy inspiration from Final Fantasy III’s Warmage rather than the traditional Dark Knight job. Duane’s 4* bio states that his blade is infused with magic, his armor is essentially a fancier version of the Warmage’s and Duane’s JP bios use the term 魔剣, the same term FF3 uses for its job (English materials go back and forth between “Dark Knight” and “Warmage”). The biggest difference is that Duane incorporates the loss of sanity aspect that the main Dark Knight job constantly alludes to; III’s take on the job doesn’t really mention that aspect, although the association with negative feelings in a few ways.

Duane does somewhat resemble Ingus, but this is probably a coincidence. Probably.

Lightning Round

The ones I’ve talked about before and/or are not quite as related as the above three.

Leonhart (Final Fantasy 2)

I’ve talked about this before: A guidebook for Famicom FF3 gives the backstory of Falgabard, being a village founded by a Saronian Dark Knight named Leonhart who was banished for fear of his power. FF4 also had a guidebook story about Leon, but it went in a very different direction (though that one is more well know). As a bonus fun fact: The FF3 guide seems to use FF2 Leon’s exact name while the name used in the FF4 guide is closer to what would be used for an FF11 NPC (localized as “Leonhardt”).

It is almost assuredly non-canon, but a fun thing to think about. Especially in the just as non-canon Memory of Heroes, which implies that Leon and Ingus are reincarnations of one of the original Warriors of Light (or otherwise inherited his will).

Goffard Gaffgarion (& Ramza Beoulve?) (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Gaffgarion is the lone Dark Knight in Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1). A mercenary who initially takes Ramza under his wing, they come to blows when Gaffgarion attempts to fulfill his mercenary duty of assassinating Princess Ovelia.

Between operating under Gaffgarion for a year or two and the general trajectory of his character arc, Ramza is somewhat associated with the job in Fanon, particularly with a rumor in the PS1 version that would allow Ramza to become a Dark Knight or learn Gaffgarrion’s skills. However, this isn’t possible*.

In the War of the Lions remake, the Dark Knight job was made attainable for units that can switch jobs, including Ramza himself. To differentiate Gaffgarion from the standard job, his unique job was renamed “Fell Knight”.

The War of the Lions take on the Dark Knight job leans more heavily into III’s design (WoTL was released one year after the III remake and both have designs by Akihiko Yoshida), although Gafgarrion’s design does seem to take some cues from it. The two jobs that need to be mastered are Knight and Black Mage, which may be an indirect reference to III’s Dark Knights due to the magic association.**

*Supposedly, Gaffgarion’s Dark Knight abilities have coding that allows them to be learned on contact in the PS1 version which was dummied out, per someone who made a Dark Knight Ramza hack for the original game. I cannot confirm nor deny this.

** It’s worth mentioning that Falgabard is one of the wonders that can be learned about in FFT. The description seems to use the same characters that III uses in JP; As per standard, it was localized as “Dark Knights”, just like in III.

Paine (Final Fantasy X-2)

I have not played FFX-2, so I’ll be brief and say that Paine is sometimes associated with the Dark Knight job in spinoffs, including Dissidia Opera Omnia and Pictlogica (the latter having her share the “Fell Blade” ability with the generic Dark Knights, Seifer, Gabranth, Garland, Leon and, interestingly enough, Ingus and Nacht).

[angeliqueshelleyartist]

Review & Evaluation: Individual Learning Processes

Review Blog Post #2

This major study project has been a vast learning experience for me in terms of technical skill, new software to explore as well as challenging old techniques or practices which might hold me back.

The most difficult concept art I created was the mech companion as it challenged my technical drawing skills. In the end I resorted to using 3D to help me as a perspective aid once I had the general design down. The basic model proved to still be a little challenging to create, however, the speed at which I was able to render by hand the final concept made it all worth it. While I'll still develop my technical drawing skills, it's a relief to know that 3D tools can help me out of a rut.

I pushed myself to learn new approaches to prop design on characters, in particular my focus for the Frontier Engineer was detail centric props, as tools are a vital part of an engineer’s kit. Artist Jude Smith was a massive inspiration for me for his detailed, well thought-out characters as he expertly blends sci-fi and traditional components. The main thing I learnt from analysing Jude’s work was the 3D volume he was able to capture in his designs. I particularly noticed the way he designed the armoured pieces to functionally form together, the gravity and weight given to attached props, like gloves and cables, and the volumetric flare of clothing to add movement and interest. I tried to really think about the way my accessories were made and worn, and how the pieces fitted together, and I was successful to some degree. I want to continue developing my working knowledge of costume elements like these to improve my work as a concept artist.

Smith, J. (2022).

My 3D skills have evolved tremendously learning the Unreal Engine 5 pipeline, learning better modelling techniques for cleaner geometry. I encountered a couple of errors in exporting it into unreal, but I was able to trouble shoot the model to have it import successfully.

Unreal Engine 5 was an entirely new experience for me, but I loved every minute of the creative power terraforming and set dressing gave me. I was able to carefully create the world I had been working so very hard to visualise the last few months, and seeing my models in the beautiful level by MYTHRA TECH was extremely satisfying and addicting. I found myself in a frenzy modelling props, unavailable to download for free, to achieve the look and feel I envisioned. The creative joy I felt in Unreal has left me with a thirst for level design which I would love to develop my skills in further. This creative zone is something I will definitely also be tapping into when I feel the resurgence of art block.

I think my practice has developed tremendously over the course of the module as well as the year. It has given me a thirst for experiencing new tools and exploration and helped me over-come my fears of new design territory and software.

References:

MYTHRA TECH. (2022). Mediterranean Coast. [Online]. Unreal Engine Marketplace. Available at: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/3a23dac323e646f38e2c7a744236478e?sessionInval [Accessed 29 July 2024].

Smith, J. (2022). Meriwa. [Online]. ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/aGmg60 [Accessed 22 June 2024].

Smith, J. (2022). Nero. [Online]. ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Penggy [Accessed 22 June 2024].