#tutorials are your friend

[kaybeelikestodraw]

How long have you been drawing?

Any pointers?

I love your lucifer one.

Awe! Thank you!

I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. This is gonna sound super cliche, but the best pointer I have is just to keep practicing; however. Don’t just focus on the things you like doing. It stunted my art growth, and now I’m horrible at backgrounds. There are plenty of great tutorials on YouTube for all artists! A few good places to start are Winged Canvans, and SamDoesArts. The former of the two have a whole team of skilled art professors giving shortened lectures, on lots of various techniques that helped me a lot, in just a few short months. Sam gives great advice on more advanced tutorials on stuff like bounce lighting, and color theory.

Good luck on your art journey!

Editing to add an extra (extremely controversial) tip:

TRACING IS OKAY!!

I’m not saying to trace someone’s art, and post it as your own! You need to give credit where credit is due! And if possible, try asking artists if you can use their art as practice! (Consider this me giving y’all consent to trace my art; as long as you tag me in; I’m everywhere except Twitter; Elon can suck my strap)

But sometimes in order to understand movement, and fluidity, and foreshortening, you gotta get your hand used to line placement, that way you can be more confident in your pen strokes. Look up tutorials on ethical tracing, and shape language, to get a better grasp on how to isolate your characters/models using simple shapes.

Think of it as someone trying to teach you how to swing a baseball bat; your coach, more often than not, is gonna position your hands, elbows, hips, etc. where they need to be, in order for you to succeed in hitting the ball. You know the basics, but it’s always better to get help from someone who knows what they’re doing, y’know?

[hahskeleton]

how two draw

[caughtshrimpin]

I NEED A BREAKDOWN ON HOW YOU DRAW BODIES BECAUSE OH MY GOD IM SO IN LOVE WITH IT IM COMBUSTING 😫

when i get questions like this I start sweating because im unsure of how to answer them in a way that's constructive and can help you in your own art journey, but damn i'll try 😅

as a disclaimer im gonna add that this is how i approach lean bodies, there are several different body types and they are all wonderful and beautiful. I suggest the morpho books for more in depth studies!

to explain what i've highlighted are the more conscious decisions I make while working on drawing a figure. The left example is typically considered more "masculine" (straight lines, fewer curves, "straight" shoulders, etc)

My personal touch is on the right for masculine figures. I prefer softer lines, wider hips, thicker thighs, typically considered "effeminate". Depending on who I'm drawing I tend to interchange these decisions.

Again this is just how i approach art personally. I'm sorry I can't give you anything more meaningful. 😓😓😓

but i thank you for your continual support!

[luvo27]

just saw a pinterest comment that suggested learning how to crochet instead of learning how to knit because it's easier and i can't keep silent anymore i have to confess that i wrote my cass learns how to knit fic because i need people to love knitting in the same way that i need people to love cass. the crochet vs knitting metaphor argument exists because i've had that conversation (minus the metaphor and also it was jokingly silly with my friends) with me arguing the side of knitting and as much as i love projecting onto characters stephanie brown would never in her life be against crochet. she would adore crochet. i don't actually dislike crochet its good for things that knitting will never be able to do like baskets and is so much better for stuffed animals and i think it's better for things like bralettes and bags but knitting is so good for clothing it's stretchy and more flowy. crochet is so good for items that need to hold a little more structure but in my opinion knitting makes more comfortable clothing and crochet got so popular in the last couple of years but knitting did not and knitting is not more difficult!! knitting is fun and good and i love her!!!

[shayberri789]

I am out here fighting for my life trying to convince people than being 30 is not fucking old

[thejournal1st]

As I whisper in your ear, “I wanna fucking tear you apart”

[wayfinderships]

L.imbus moots! I evoke thee!!!

...So like. What's the consensus on G.regor? Cool? Not cool? Asking for a friend- (and myself)

[neriyon]

Small test run of Infinity Nikki done! Mostly just finished the tutorial (and kicked Momo around), but it so far it seems pretty fun~

Also photo mode is so nice ♥

[crescentfool]

so you want to use OBS

hello! i’ve decided to compile information on my OBS setup and some resources that have helped me along the way.  this is mostly for personal reference, but maybe others can make use of this information!

some notes before i get into it:

i use OBS for both offline recording and (twitch) streaming. any footage i record is edited using DaVinci Resolve 18, which is free.

most of my OBS captures are of video games (through a USB capture card, specifically elgato), and the occasional screen/application capture (like clip studio paint, and sometimes PC games).

as such, the information here is reflective of these experiences. this post is not comprehensive to all of OBS’s features- this is just an overview of the settings and configurations that are most relevant to me.

with that out of the way, all the information will be under the cut!

Basic Setup

file format:

how to change: settings -> output -> recording -> recording format -> press “apply” once finished!

I save most of my recordings as .mkv files- it supports multi-track audio! i prefer .mkv over .mp4 because if your power goes out, you still have a recording to work with. 

.mkv files can be read by DaVinci Resolve without an issue- but for Adobe software, they'll need to be remuxed to .mp4 within OBS! (file -> remux recordings -> press the … to select a file -> press the “remux” button)

video resolution and framerate:

how to change: settings -> video -> output (scaled) resolution

my obs canvas is @ 1920 x 1080p (16:9)

i switch between 720p and 1080p as needed! if you're concerned about space, you can probably just go for 720p. i also record at 30 fps, simply because that’s what my capture card supports.

video bitrate:

how to change: settings -> output -> encoder settings (located in both the streaming and recording tab) -> press “apply” once finished!

bitrate is a bit of a doozy to explain, but the most important thing to know is that bitrate affects your video’s quality. lower numbers = lower quality, while higher numbers = higher quality. 

generally speaking, you'll want higher bitrate when you're recording things with high depth of information (e.g. you’d want a higher bitrate for something fast-paced like splatoon, compared to a slower-paced game like animal crossing).

my video bitrate is either set to 3000 or 4000 kbps! and here's some of my other (related) settings while i'm at it:

you can put your bitrate at much higher values than me if you're a stickler for quality- but keep in mind that a higher bitrate means:

bigger file size

more information to upload (when streaming)

your computer will need to encode more

i’d recommend reading twitch’s guidelines on encoding, bitrate, resolution, and framerate to get an idea of what values to pick. for people who are doing offline recording or streaming on a different platform, i suggest googling the appropriate resources!

multi-track audio:

this is mostly applicable to anyone looking to do video editing!

multi-track audio basically allows you to separate your audio sources (e.g. discord, game audio, and your own microphone) into different tracks. 

this is an immensely helpful tool because it lets you adjust audio levels in post-production (editing). some examples of how this can be used:

increasing someones microphone volume if they speak too softly

increasing/decreasing game audio

muting swear words/sensitive information

completely muting voice call + microphone if you want to upload a no commentary video

and more!

to set this up, take a look at your audio mixer panel, and press the ⚙ icon. this will bring up advanced audio properties.

by checkmarking a track box, it puts the audio on that track. to make the above screenshot easier to digest:

track 1 consists of ALL three audio sources- desktop, elgato, and microphone.

track 2 only has the microphone audio.

track 3 only has desktop audio (i use this for voice calls)

track 4 only has the elgato capture card audio (game audio). the volume has also been lowered so that any speaking voices can be heard clearly.

tracks 5 and 6 are unused.

you might be wondering, “why do all three of these have 1 checked off?” this is what i call the universal audio track. i recommend having a universal audio track for a few reasons:

when you stream from OBS onto twitch/youtube- you have to select ONE audio track.

it’s also a nice backup in case you didn’t separate your audio correctly.

if for whatever reason you need to move around your individual audio tracks in editing, the universal track acts as a nice reference point.

mark off your audio tracks for each audio source as you see fit! once you’re finished with the advanced audio properties, go to settings > output.

for the streaming tab, you’ll want to have the number of your universal audio track selected. in my case, that will be audio track 1.

for the recording tab, checkmark all the audio tracks that are applicable to you (in my case, audio tracks 1, 2, 3, and 4). by default, only audio track 1 is selected.

if you don’t check off the additional audio tracks in the output > recordings section, you will not have access to those audio tracks in editing, and you won’t be able to edit your audio tracks independently of each other. so don’t forget to do this! 👍

custom browser docks

custom browser docks are a great tool for when you’re streaming and want to have access to your twitch chat and/or activity feed! (or if you wanted to have some other web browser on OBS).

to create one, go to docks -> custom browser docks.

you’ll be given a table interface that asks you to put the dock name and URL. for streamers who want to have chat and alerts available, do the following:

on twitch’s homepage, go to the upper right and click your icon

then, click creator dashboard

once you’re on your dashboard, go to stream manager

click the vertical “...” on my chat OR activity feed.

press “pop-out chat” OR “pop-out activity feed”

copy and paste the link into the table back into OBS

press apply once you’re done

click and drag the docks around at your leisure to put them where you like!

if you ever decide you don’t want to have something on your OBS dock (or want to bring something back), go to the toolbar, click “docks,” and click the appropriate dock!

third party things

a section of optional things that you may enjoy having.

streamlabs alerts

this is basically for anyone who streams and wants to have their chat and/or follower notifications visualized on screen!

streamlab alerts can be added to OBS by adding a browser source into your scene, and the specifics can be customized on streamlabs itself. it’s pretty self-explanatory, so i’ll just leave a link to streamlabs website, where you can log in using the streaming platform of your choice: https://streamlabs.com/

discord overlay

this is a browser source that can be set up to show people who are in a server's voice chat and who speaks. i recommend this to people who make multiplayer content- it can help viewers distinguish who is who but also it can be helpful in editing.

to set this up, go to https://streamkit.discord.com/overlay, click “install for OBS,” and after logging in with discord, go to “voice widget” and click the server and voice channel you want.

you are able to apply CSS if you'd like more control over the visuals, but the standard layout tends to work fine for me! a search of “discord overlay css” on youtube can help you get more information.

veadotube mini

this is a pngtuber software that a friend recommended to me! no webcam is required- mouth opening and closing is based on your microphone input!

you can download it here (it’s pay what you want!): https://olmewe.itch.io/veadotube-mini

for a proper tutorial on how to use it, i recommend checking out the app's documentation, which you can read here: https://veado.tube/help/

source record

have you ever wanted to stream something with a chat overlay/layout, but wanted your recording to ONLY be the gameplay? or maybe you wanted to record BOTH your gameplay AND your webcam so that you can have a crisp zoom-in on your webcam!

source record is a third party plugin that can help you with that!

the general gist of source record involves applying the “source record” filter on either a scene or source, and customizing the encoding settings accordingly. the exact details of how to set it up is beyond the scope of this post, so I'll just direct people to this video instead (it was very helpful to me):

⚠ a quick note about source record: this plugin can be intense for your computer. be sure to do test recordings and the like to see what your computer can handle (and see if the recordings come out the way you like). it took me a few tests before i settled onto something i liked!

you can download and install source record here: https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/source-record.1285/

vdo.ninja

have you ever wanted to do a collaborative video or stream where you feature someone else’s video on your stream? or maybe you’re doing a multi-person streaming event! vdo.ninja is the perfect tool for you!

vdo.ninja turns your OBS virtual camera into a browser source link- which your collaborator can add on their stream! this is a new tool that i’ve added to my arsenal recently- since my friend and i are planning to stream a side order challenge together! i’ve still got to iron it out a bit more, but i like what i’ve used of it so far.

try it out for yourself at their website here (with documentation and demos available on the homepage!): https://vdo.ninja/ (no downloads required!)

ok! i’m set up! what now?

and with that, that’s all of the settings and tools that i thought would be worth mentioning! while most of my setup was written with video games in mind, some of these plugins and setups may be applicable to other types of videos (e.g. tabletop gaming with a physical camera)!

now that i’ve outlined all these settings, i have one more thing i have to say: regardless of what you're using OBS for, do a test recording before doing anything “official” with it. this recording can be as short as 30 seconds. it’s a good habit to develop that can make sure your streams/recordings turn out the way you want them to!

here are the kinds of things i like to check! it’s not an exhaustive list, but this can be a starting point:

video:

does my video look the way i want it to (and can my computer handle that)?

can my computer handle the load of encoding? - OBS will note in the bottom if the encoding is overloaded. if it can’t handle it, turn down your bitrate or adjust other encoding settings (e.g. i had to toggle psycho visual tuning OFF because it was causing lag)

this is especially the case if you're recording PC games- you don’t want to have slowdown on either your game or the recording!

audio:

are my audio sources (e.g. desktop audio and microphone) correct? - if you plug/unplug devices a lot, be sure to check this (settings -> audio).

are any of my audio sources muted? - make sure you don’t have anything on 🔇 if you don’t want it to be muted! otherwise the audio will be lost forever… (i lost my friend’s VC audio once… it was sad)

are my audio tracks separated properly? - requires you to boot up your editing software, but it's worth doing! for the test recording, just have something from all your sources playing at once, and see if your editor has things separated into tracks.

can i hear the voices clearly? or does the music and/or game overpower them?

if for whatever reason your OBS crashes, or you want more information on anything “critical” or “warning” worthy in your set-up, you can go to help > log files > upload current log file > analyze. crash logs currently can’t be analyzed by the log analyzer- but they’re a valuable tool when asking for help on the OBS forums!

and that’s all! for real, this time. i hope that some of these tools and settings can help anyone wanting to get more out of OBS. there’s definitely other things i didn’t touch upon (e.g. audio filters for noise compression, suppression, etc.), so i suggest doing your own research and trying things out!

happy recording/streaming, and thanks for reading! ✨

[4ce-of-2pades]

[boilercity]

Hi! Just curious, but is there any software that you use in order to access Antonblast's game assets?

Undertale mod tool (available through github) is still my go-to! I'm sure there's other/better ways out there, but that's the one I'm familiar with 👍

[the-lark-ascending69]

I loove the android robin au it's really one of the most interesting au I have seen in a while.

I am always happy to see new post abt it

Also making my favourite characters go through hell and then receiving comfort from their people is like the best thing ever for me so every time I see a whump!Robin post I like automatically

People loving android!Robin makes me so happy anansnssndsnsns she's curious and excitable and full of wonder and the world keeps punishing her for simply being alive. Sometimes it's too painful even for me, big whump lover 😭😭 though seriously, there is not enough Robin whump, and while all the characters in the show are very whumpeable, hurting my little blorbo Robin feels special because... she's just so deeply lonely. She's lonely and she thinks she deserves to be because of something wrong with her (pulling this interpretation from Surviving Hawkins lore which is canon to me 😭). That was a big idea I had when I first came up with android!Robin... that there is something wrong with her. Broken. In this AU she's literally broken in a lot of way (battery and memory problems, weak joints in her lower half, etc), but that's all within the range of normal robot problems. The real issue with her is that she's sentient. It terrifies people because it really brings out the existencial horror of... well, existing. It terrifies Robin most of all. She is the problem. She is what's wrong with her. She shouldn't exist.

But at the same time, she loves being alive so much! She doesn't understand it and doesn't know how it happened, but it happened, and now she's real and wants to experience life and the world and know people like human beings do. So it's her constant battle to become human despite humans having hurt her so much in the past... only for Nancy to already see her as human. Just one made of metal and plastic, but human nonetheless. She's the first person to see her that way and maybe everyone else thinks she's crazy, but Nancy is used to that. She's so sure of this, though, of Robin's self-awareness. She trusts her so blindly. She doesn't even need proof. And not only does she believe her, but she defends her humanity in front of her friends and family so ardently, fighting so hard for Robin to be aknowledged by everyone else as human. Fighting so hard to give her a home and family for the first time in her life.

Nancy has it bad for Robin, really. She's just so in love, even if everyone else thinks she's crazy for falling in love with a machine (no one thinks she is, though, because they all know Robin, and once you know Robin, it's impossible not to love her).

[jellyloveru]

what do you meam the horror alien game has beekeeping now. huh.

[neonbutchery]

kind of a spicy take but while i don't think that it shouldn't be obligatory to make fanwork to participate in fandom + fanwork isn't exempt from criticism (especially when it comes to bigoted shit) there are certain folks whose entire input is just whining all the time about other people's harmless headcanons and ships that it just makes me want to yell at them to fucking pick up a pencil or open a google doc if they just don't like what others put out bc it isn't tailored to their specific tastes

[crabsnpersimmons]

Hey Crabs! I have a small question! 🦀

How do you make the pictures of your traditional art look so good!?

They are always bright and easy to see! But when I take a photo of my drawings, they always have a blue or yellow tint to them. So how do you make it look the way you do?

(Also, I want to gobble up your art it is so yummy and pretty! Sun and Moon are so precious in your style!) ❤️

Thanks! And I hope you’re having a good day! :D

no prob! there's actually a couple things i do, so here's the tl;dr:

Lighting: i use daylight or light from a neutral white lightbulb

Editing: i use my phone's built-in gallery app to lightly edit the colours so they're clear and as colour-accurate as i can get (from my screens at least)

and i'll go into a little more detail with some examples under the cut

1. Lighting

a habit of mine that i got from my IG days (ugh...) is using daylight whenever possible. daylight just lights up the whole area more evenly and relatively neutrally. this is my set up:

glamourous

basically, i put the artwork near a source of natural light and prop up a reflector (in this case, a blank page from another sketchbook) that helps distribute the light more evenly across the page, so that even the side that is furthest from the light gets some light that bounces off from the reflector. i don't always have a reflector tho, like if i'm only taking a picture of a small drawing and not an entire page, there's no need.

now, if it's dark, then i rely on my desk lamp, which uses a neutral white lightbulb. regular lightbulbs come in different temperatures, from warm to neutral to cool—so that might explain why your photos are coming out with a yellow or blue tint. warm lights are common in houses because they're cozy, while blue lights are common in working areas because, like daylight, they keep us more awake. neutral white is in between the two.

here's an example of my Moon doodle that i did recently under different lights: warm (from my bedside lamp), neutral white (from my work desk), and daylight (i don't have any cooler lights in the house, so i couldn't quite get the blue tint 😅)

now technically, NONE of these are colour accurate. so i always follow up with some light photo editing

2. Editing

now, i have 2 personal rules when it comes to editing my photos:

1) try to make it as close to the original as possible; and 2) don't spend too long on it

these are just my personal rules because... one) i'm lazy and i don't want to spend too long fixing every thing in my drawings, and two) i feel it is dishonest for me to make dramatic changes to my traditional art and still call it traditional art. whenever i do make digital enhancements (like colouring it digitally) i will tag it so no one would mistake it as purely traditional art. that's just me tho! there are no rules when you're having fun with your art and mixed media art is a thing! so do whatever you find fun and enjoyable.

also, i will try to make it as colour-accurate as possible, but i also recognize that not everyone's screens are calibrated the same way. my phone is set to a "Natural" colour setting, but on my new laptop (which i haven't figured out how to calibrate yet) is vibrant as all heck (like oh my gosh, maybe i need to start tagging everything with bright colours now, because what if someone else's laptop is this insanely vibrant and saturated??) but either way, i try not to spend too long on it because i know i won't be able to accommodate every screen.

anyways, for what i actually DO... i kinda just play around with different settings. if i took the picture under daylight, then there's not too much i adjust, usually it's the warm colours that are desaturated, so i try to make the reds pop more without effecting the blues too much.

or for my doodles, sometimes the doodle on the other side of the page is slightly visible, i'll tweak the lights and shadows and contrast levels until the background is clear enough (as long as it doesn't disturb the doodle i'm taking a photo of)

now, if your photos are coming out too yellow or blue because of your lighting, you can adjust that by tweaking the Temperature setting. here's an example of that warm Moon doodle:

already looking a little better, right? so don't worry if your photos aren't coming out accurate, there are work arounds!

here's the before and after of the Moon doodle by the way:

despite having daylight, i still needed to adjust the colours. specifically i needed to brighten up the reds and yellows, and bring back the page's natural yellowness. i also tweaked the Definition setting to make less hazy (sometimes i like the haziness tho, so i'll leave it as is sometimes).

and one other reminder: it doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be. a big reason why i keep coming back to traditional art is the fact that i can't control everything. i can't undo lines. i can't move things around. and i can't take the perfect picture. but it doesn't need to be perfect. drawing and sharing my art is supposed to be fun! and i don't want to put any barriers around that, or else it becomes unnecessarily stressful.

all that is to say, try out these tips if you want to, but don't treat them as hard rules and don't focus on trying to achieve perfection. just go have fun!

[aroaceloverofgarlicbread]

Hello, please tell me: How do I make friends with a real live dinosaur?

Ok, so to make friends with a live dinosaur, there are a few steps you have to do. First, decide what dinosaur you want to become friends with, such as T-rex, stegosaurus, velociraptor ect. Then, choose how you want to get to said dinosaur, here, I would recommend one of two options: either, you revive said dinosaur, or you time travel to a time when they were alive. There are a few other ways such as traveling to a parallel universe, but I would recommend one of the first two options I said. If you want to revive a dinosaur, I’d recommend following a tutorial on how to do so, the best rated one I could find was Jurassic Park, but any tutorial for this should work. If you want to do it through time travel instead, then there’s a lot of different ways to do it, the one I’ll use here is that time = money, so all you have to do is temporarily give all your money to someone you trust to give it back later, and then also go in debt to them, which will make time reverse if you just go in enough dept (Make sure to do this with someone you trust to just let you not pay this debt cause otherwise you’ll go into a LOT of debt) if you don’t wanna use this time travel method for some reason, then there’s a lot more, but I won’t go in depth on them here. Now that you have either brought a dinosaur to you or brought yourself to a dinosaur, you just need to do the actual befriending part, which is surprisingly simple, most dinosaurs will become friends with you if you just feed them enough.