#what a tedious robot to draw

[imdapp3r]

Brau-1589

“but they couldn’t find anything wrong.. not a single defect..”

[pharmasrightarm]

Hello hello!! I just wanna start off by saying how GORGEOUS your art is! Truly inspiring. I was wondering what your process was? Again, your art is truly impressive

Thank you!! Oh man, it was a saga and you've opened a can of worms because my favorite thing to ramble about outside of sad gay space robots is our unholy overlord Photoshop (warning for length)

Hatching workflow: step 1: have too many Doré artbooks The refined process is thumbnail > cleaner sketch > black-and-white base OR 3D render > cut out whites > clean up edges > mask out each building/section > hatching lines with the upcoming layer setup

One:

And another:

Below is the layer setup I use for hatching! First I separated each element into its own folder, with its own mask—

Then used this structure in each folder— I just want the hatching lines to appear black when on lit areas, and white on shadowed areas (as opposed to having to draw part of a line in white and another part in black). So, after separating the lit and shadowed sides, I copied the "Light" layer, clipped it on top of a folder of hatching lines, and inverted its layer mask.

(*I draw on layer masks because it's easier to recolor lines + toggle between drawing and erasing with the "X" shortcut (I have fore- and background colors set to black and white for layer masks))

Sometimes I do a pass of grayscale values and overlay that layer on top as a reference while hatching.

I've two main brushes: one choppier and one smoother and tapered at the ends (for thin lines, 2px-3px). Really thin horiz/vert lines are just the Pencil at 1px.

Black-and-white workflow with 3D:

Tbh at first I only intended to make that one lurking Drift illustration. But I cower from 3D like it’ll kill me, so I turned it into a 3D assignment. First I used that "separate ways" piece to make myself model at low stakes (I just made items from the comic backgrounds and jammed them together), then I modeled the Dead End wide shot and got the final lurking Drift comp from that.

1. Drew enough detail to model (>see the 5th image in this post)

2. Used fSpy to generate a Blender camera that matched my perspective

3. Shoved together the barest essentials of the clinic set in Blender (setting the 5th image in this post as a background image in Viewport)

4. Rendered at hi-res twice: once with lighting, once with Freestyle outlines.

5. Changed clinic design in the close-up, so I went back to revise the wide shot.

In conclusion, my hobby is wrangling Photoshop to minutely speed up the extremely tedious and niche thing I can't stop myself from doing If anyone's got a faster way to do any of this, tell me!!

here's a gif for funsies because I get 1 more image on this post

[witchyintention]

Servitors: Your Personal Magical Minions (No Payroll Required!)

So, You Want a Magical Minion?

Let’s be honest—who hasn’t wished they had a little helper to handle life’s tedious tasks? Imagine having a personal assistant, but instead of a human (or a very expensive AI subscription), you have a magical entity that exists solely to do your bidding. No snack breaks, no salary, no complaining about workplace conditions. Welcome to the world of servitors!

Servitors are artificial spirits created for a specific purpose, and they’re entirely under your control. Need protection? A servitor can be your mystical bodyguard. Looking to attract opportunities? A servitor can work as your personal energetic recruiter. The possibilities are endless, as long as you know what you’re doing.

But before you go off creating an army of these things like some kind of magical overlord, let’s dive into what servitors are, how they differ from egregores, and how to make them work for you.

Servitors vs. Egregores: What's the Difference?

Many people confuse servitors with egregores, so let’s clear that up. While both are thought-forms—entities created through focused thought and energy—they serve different functions and have different levels of autonomy.

🔹 Servitors are personal and programmed. You create them with a specific purpose in mind, and they are bound to you. They act like well-trained magical pets: loyal, obedient, and existing only as long as you choose to maintain them.

🔹 Egregores are collective thought-forms created by a group’s shared beliefs and intentions. Think of them as corporate mascots with a touch of spiritual power. Major religions, brands, and even fandoms have egregores that take on lives of their own (looking at you, Mickey Mouse and Santa Claus).

While servitors are like robots designed for specific tasks, egregores are more like cultural forces—harder to control and capable of influencing large groups of people.

Why Create a Servitor?

The real question is, why wouldn’t you want a magical assistant? Here are some common uses for servitors:

✅ Protection: Keep negative energy, harmful spirits, and sketchy people at bay. ✅ Prosperity: Attract money, job opportunities, or even creative inspiration. ✅ Healing: Act as an energy worker to aid in physical or emotional healing. ✅ Enhancing Skills: Boost your intuition, psychic abilities, or even productivity. ✅ Emotional Support: A servitor can be designed to provide comfort or motivation.

You get to decide exactly what the servitor does, and you tailor it to your needs.

How to Create a Servitor

Ready to build your own magical companion? Follow these steps, and soon you’ll have a fully functional servitor at your service.

Step 1: Define the Purpose

Before anything else, be crystal clear about what you want your servitor to do. The more specific, the better. A servitor for “helping with work” is too vague, but a servitor “to enhance my confidence when speaking in meetings” is a focused goal.

Step 2: Design Its Form

Servitors don’t have a default look, so get creative! You can design them to appear as:

A shadowy protector

A glowing orb of energy

A small, helpful imp

A wise owl or cat familiar

The form should match the function. A servitor for confidence might take the shape of a lion, while one for stealth could be a smoky, formless wisp.

Step 3: Give It a Name

Names hold power. Choose something easy to remember but unique enough that you don’t accidentally summon it when ordering takeout.

Step 4: Charge It with Energy

To bring your servitor to life, you need to pour energy into it. This can be done through:

Meditation and visualization

Chanting its name repeatedly

Drawing or sculpting its form

Using candle magic, sigils, or crystals

Some practitioners even use a ritual circle to mark the servitor’s “birth.”

Step 5: Program Its Instructions

Like training a puppy (but with fewer messes), you must teach your servitor what to do. Be clear and direct. You can write down its purpose, speak aloud to it, or mentally command it.

Example: “You are to increase my focus while studying. Whenever I sit down with a book, you will sharpen my concentration and block out distractions.”

Step 6: Assign a Home

Your servitor needs an anchor in this world. You can link it to an object (a crystal, a piece of jewelry, a drawing) or even keep it within your aura. This prevents it from dissipating.

Step 7: Feed It (But Not with Food!)

Servitors need energy to function. You can feed them with:

Your focus and intention

Offerings of light, incense, or sigil activations

Absorbing excess energy from specific sources (like the sun, moon, or even music)

If a servitor gets too weak, it might dissolve on its own.

Step 8: Dismiss or Destroy When Done

If you no longer need your servitor, it’s important to properly dissolve it. This prevents lingering energy from going rogue.

To dismiss a servitor, you can:

Thank it for its service and instruct it to dissolve.

Burn its sigil or physical representation.

Absorb its energy back into yourself or the universe.

Warnings and Ethics of Servitor Work

🚨 Do NOT create servitors for harm. They can backfire or grow beyond your control. 🚨 Do NOT forget about them. A neglected servitor can become unstable. 🚨 DO set clear limits. Make sure your servitor knows its purpose and doesn’t overstep its bounds.

Remember, servitors are tools—not independent spirits or pets. Treat them with respect, but always stay in control.

Final Thoughts: The Magical Workforce at Your Fingertips

Creating servitors is a powerful magical technique that allows you to shape reality in a unique way. They are the ultimate customizable magical assistants, designed to fit your exact needs without any unnecessary fluff. Whether you want help manifesting money, sharpening your intuition, or keeping bad vibes away, servitors can be a valuable addition to your practice.

So, what kind of servitor will you create? Let me know in the comments!

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[d-criss-news]

Darren Criss Is Betting Big on Maybe Happy Ending, the Musical You're About to Fall in Love With

Darren Criss on the Timelessness of MAYBE HAPPY ENDING

Darren Criss has danced up the corporate ladder as J. Pierrepont Finch, stripped down to his skivvies as a queer East German rock star and tackled the “profane poetry” of David Mamet. And still, he says, there’s one thing he hasn’t done: “I haven’t taken any risks on Broadway.”

That ends this season with Maybe Happy Ending, a new musical on a mission to draw audiences to the Belasco Theatre without the benefit of a recognizable title, popular source material or songs that have already spent time on the Billboard Hot 100. “It's a really, really hard market right now to be making art,” Criss says to Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek, chatting at So & So's Neighborhood Piano Bar. And commercial Broadway theater? It’s “tedious, expensive and a gamble.” So naturally, Criss is going double or nothing as both star and producer of Broadway’s next thrilling crap shoot.

Maybe Happy Ending takes the trappings of a classic love story and inserts futuristic robots with outdated software. Criss plays Oliver opposite Helen J Shen’s Claire—a pair of Helper-Bots who, on a quest to contact their former owner, evoke a kind of Millennial-Gen Z mismatch. But rather than getting swept away by love, the two retired machines take the concept itself and try to break it down to its zeros and ones. As Criss explains, “[It’s] two computers trying to computationally synthesize and process what love is and why human beings do this.”

The musical was a hit when it debuted in Seoul, South Korea nearly a decade ago, and now, writers Will Aronson and Hue Park have a crafted an English-language version that Criss thinks has the potential to ascend to the proverbial Heaviside Layer of musical theater. “This is the seminal version that I hope can last in perpetuity for the ages,” he says, adding confidently, “I do feel like this is a timeless piece.”

Original musicals have the most challenging road on Broadway. But when you look to grassroots successes like Urinetown, or Dear Evan Hansen, or even The Prom—which ran in New York for less than a year but inspired a starry film and a slate of regional and international productions—you see how quickly an unknown quantity can become canon. “People are always like, ‘There’s no one creating original things,’” Criss says. “They are. It’s just really, really hard to produce them because you really have to believe in something hard enough to be OK with the risk.”

The fact that Maybe Happy Ending has earned that belief from some of the theater’s heaviest hitters is telling. Director Michael Arden, hot off a 2023 Tony Award for his revival of Parade, chose the piece as his next musical. And producers Jeffrey Richards and Hunter Arnold, with nearly 20 Tony Awards between them, have given Arden free rein to make a capital “B” Broadway meal of it.

The show’s cast is deceptively modest (Marcus Choi and Dez Duron complete the four-hander), but there’s nothing minimalist about Arden’s vision for Maybe Happy Ending or the high-tech space he’s worked out with set designer Dane Laffrey. In short, “They don’t f**k around,” says Criss. “This show is very technologically advanced. I think it's kind of the ace in the hole that people aren't expecting.” He tosses out comparisons to Miss Saigon’s descending helicopter and The Phantom of the Opera’s haunted chandelier—emblems of the bygone ‘80s megamusical. In an era of subtlety and economy (think recent Tony winners Kimberly Akimbo or The Band’s Visit), this, Criss promises, is “a big-a** mother**king spectacle.”

It's another bold, all-in move from the Maybe Happy Ending team, but Criss is determined to hedge no bets this time around. He looks back at his Broadway resume: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (“Glee was white-hot and I was going in for three weeks after Daniel Radcliffe”); Hedwig and the Angry Inch (“People love that show. With or without me, it would be just fine”); American Buffalo (“A beloved and respected American play”).

“They're all classics to some degree,” he concludes. “This is not that.” Of course, understanding what Maybe Happy Ending is not is less of an issue than getting audiences to understand what it is. Right now, Criss says, there are rumblings around town that it’s “the cute little robot show.” The thought puts a mischievous grin on his face: “You have no idea.”

[kociamieta]

you've spoken a few times about the choreographed nature of the knight robot fights, and written a comic about a subversion of the sponsor's plans, with both robots 'dying' at the end as a surprise to one of them. Is it ever possible for them to accidentally injure something actually vital in the other? If that's not an interesting question to answer, do they ever get to fight in different arenas, or are they an event for a single location?

yes! in fact, that's what happened while cutting the copper knight in half in the last drawing - both the head and chest contain vital parts [i've nicknamed them the brain and the heart]. they can still be repaired, but it's a very tedious process, requiring precision and a Lot of time, so it's preferred not to damage those too often. doing so actually shuts the other robot down for a while, so the repair process is also a bit lonelier without its commentary.

the arena is modified to make the duels more interesting, mimicking different locations, adding obstacles and so on. but it's still the same place, even if you paint flowers on the concrete floor. sponsors can pay to see a specific set in action, though it's certainly not cheap to do so : )

[thebeingmerf]

RQ aftermath thoughts as I watch- aka mostly just things that stuck out to me (Note: it’s been a LONG time since I rewatched RQ, at least a year. I don’t remember much of the ending)

————

• M’s official cloak being tailored to have a hood on it like his other one😭

• REBUILDING THE ORIGINAL RED KINGDOM? HELLO? AND A NEW ACADEMY??

• I need to draw the scene with M visiting Sabre’s grave (or technically memorial? There wasn’t a body to bury).

• I love that it shows the process of putting up Sabres memorial. Ik we got a glimpse at the end of RQ, but the sentiment of it is still sweet

• HAPPY (🟧) JOINING THE COLORLESS GUARD 😭

• orange steves helping build the new red academy

• Sol being the only prisoner HELP 💀

• O/Y/G trading (not surprising in hindsight but I just never thought about it)

• I love that all the chromatics can have a successful attempt at living together this time. The rainbow kingdom was made in a time of stress and fear, tensions were bound to rise. But with nothing to be scared of anymore, it’s nice that they can fully integrate their lives without force

• what mod did they use for green wood planks??? (Side note; my favorite color is green, and I’m still salty that my MC houses always have to be made of wool and moss. Yes I know concrete and terracotta are options, but that’s a lot more tedious.)

• green leader listening to his people 👏

• Greens wanting to explore and find ancient plants 😭 I love that so much- and the fact that they love lush caves. THEY MADE IT THEIR NEW HOME?? AWW 😭✨ my plant babies

• they would love sniffers fr

• Blue leader experiencing The Horrors™️

• at least the green steves are safe from the ghouls I guess?- since they didn’t want the redstone towers

• Indigo :((((

• indigo trying to keep busy 24/7 to avoid depression hes just like me fr

• wondering if they have Colorless guard members that are blue or indigo to go to their respective dimensions. I noticed the colorless guards have portals to each colored kingdom, but mortal steves wouldn’t be able to go to the world beyond

• steves canonically turn dull when they die.

• one of the green steves from the new settlement died D:

• “emotional effects of the darkness” brother that’s depression 😭

• THERAPY FOR EVERYONE ‼️‼️‼️ take notes American healthcare system

• oooo Violet Steves + Alchemy is such a fun concept. And I love that they’re getting green and red steves involved to help (in case of injury, and to help with knowledge respectively)

• if Assistant Steve can be affected by potions, does that mean he’s a cyborg (partially robot partially human) instead of a robot (100% artificial)?

• Violet Steves teaching potion brewing to others 😭✨✨✨

• I love that the Violet Steves are falling into more jobs/trades and not just being ‘the flowery love guys’ if that makes sense

• THE LEADERS VISITING SABRES GRAVE TOGETHER 😭

[sosadraws]

Haii, Sosaaa! Okay, so i wanna get into animation BUT I'm really new. Lucky for me I know someone who's awesome at animating (that's you btw) so I need your expertise. What program do you use, and also do you have any tips for a newbie?

Aww Jay, you flatter me~✨but before answering I must put the disclaimer that I'm just a hobbyst animator with no formal training, that during quarintine thought "Oh woah, these Multiple Animation Projects that people do in YT are so cool! I want to join them!" and started learning by herself. Take everything I say with a grain of salt.

First things first: I mainly use TV Paint. However I'm not letting you spent money on paid stuff you don't even know you'll like, so here are some free alternatives that I've used as well:

Krita is mostly a drawing program, but it also has a animation interface. The red and black parts of the Helena AMV were made with this.

Flipaclip is kinda neat phone/tablet app for when you want to animate on the go, but it can also feel more limiting since various features have to be unlocked by watching ads or getting the premuim version (in typical app fashion, I guess...)

Blender, while mainly meant for 3D animation, also has been developing Grease Pencil, that allows 2d animation in both 2D or 3D spaces. And the lines are vectors, so you can edit them after drawing them and such.

You can even use normal drawing programs. I've animated with Paint Tool Sai and Medibang by drawing all the frames, saving each frame as a image in sequence (001, 002, 003...) and putting them together in some editing program or gif maker. It's possible, but it's more work.

There's also OpenToonz, which is an open source version of the software used by Studio Ghibli in some movies?? I haven't used this one, but I'll leave it here in case you want to give it a try.

For editing (In the rare scenarios where I do fancy editing) I use After Effects. I can't personally recommend any free substitute, but as far as I've read, DaVinci Resolve seems like a good replacement.

Now, regarding actual animation advise, I won't explain the principles or terminology because:

It's very overwhelming since it's A LOT of information, specially for a beginner

I work mostly by vibes, so there are concepts I don't undertand well enough to explain to others

Instead I'll foward you this whole book that goes in detail about all that technical stuff.

That being said, at the end of the day, hand-drawn animation is drawing main poses (aka key poses) and then drawing a bunch of more drawings in between until the drawings together look like they move.

So yeah, it's a lot of work,

....but it doesn't have to be tedious work~ 👀✨

As a hobbyst I live for the philosophy of vibing during the process instead of chasing perfect results, and I'm assuming that you just want to try for funsies and not that you're trying to become a pro industry animator anyways. Here are my personal tips to make the animation process more bearable:

1- Pick something you love! Seriously, any long task becomes more bearable when it's about a theme or character you enjoy. There's a reason why most of my animations have been about HnK or Signalis,

2- SIMPLIFY THAT DESIGN! Before you even pick the pencil, I want you to really look at the design of whatever you're going to animate and ask yourself "Are all the details in this design really necessary?" Every extra detail really starts to add when you have to draw the same thing multiple times for a single second of animation. You don't need to add all the robotic details on replika bodies, or draw every single stripe a tiger has, to put an example.

3- Keep it simple! At some point you might have a cool idea of an anime style epic battle with looks of cool explosions, camera angles, awesome fighting choreograpies and whatnot; but you first have to start small or else you'll get overwhelmed and not finish anything (been there, done that). Start with something simple like a bouncing ball, or if you're feeling brave, a walk cycle or a character turning their head. In that same sense, remember the book I linked? Don't try to learn all of it at once, go one step at a time.

4-Use references! On google images there are multiples breakdowns of things like run, flight or walk cycles, for example, and you can even use youtube videos! (tip: pause the video and use "," and "." to move back and forth between frames). In case you need help with a very specific pose or movement, you can use yourself or a friend recreating the pose irl (yes, the process is very embarrasing, and yes, the results are worth it)

4- You don't have to animate/redraw everything everytime. We aren't going for Oscar winning levels of animation here anyways. It's ok to copy and paste across different frames, only animate certain parts of the body and leave the rest static, panning the camera to simulate movement... Listen, if actual standars profesionals cut corners, why can't we? We aren't even getting paid for this!

6- It's ok to suck at first. My first animation was this kitty back in 2016,

and here's this Elster from last year doing similar movements.

It's not perfect by any means, but I feel like both art and animation-wise there has been some improvement. And I guess that right now I could remake it and make it even better, but that's because I got more experience and a better eye at finding mistakes and how to solve them, and you get that with practice.

...So yeah, there's that, have fun in your animation endeavors 👍✨

[ntls-24722]

thanks for the idea 🏃

Not pictured: DJMM hyperfocusing on one of the feather splits that WON'T reconnect because the barb inbetween is missing

Not sure what would've happened for his wings to get all fucked up, Birdguy is almost overly careful with his wings. Maybe Birdguy split them up just so DJ could piece them together. It's a simple but repetitive and tedious task that I think DJMM would like on account of being an AI - even though he clearly does creative works and likes doing them, I like thinking robots of all kinds enjoy those types of repetitive tasks that're usually tasked to robots for that reason. It's like a stim or something

ok i have to give this queen and transfem worker a name. eventually. god.

Zebraelf queens don't really have as strong maternal instincts as we do since there's an entire branch of worker dedicated to raising and taking care of young - They're less moms but everyone's collective auntie. I was going to draw her panicking in the first image but knowing how to deal with kids are still a big part of her job description

also, I said once that zebraelf queens are usually always hexapodal since they often get so pregnant they literally can't be octapodal but their backs aren't too stiff, and their torsos are distinctively super Long. They could Rainicorn that shit

[girlbossndarkpink]

As a student who was told to ALWAYS make use of any and every resource, ethics be damned, I've grown up around search engines and the ever so progressing AI. And now, I don't know which side to take.

Because at one end there's people who believe that AI is revolutionary and will bring a new era of what they call "creativity" and profiting multi-million dollar companies (who are fully capable of employing humans to do the same job).

And at the other end, there's people who believe that AI is eradicating what little shreds of humanity we have, which was in the form of expressing/finding ourselves through activities like art, music, animation, science, et cetera.

And then there's me.

Stuck in the middle.

I recognise that AI is super great, I hear you if you're from that side. And I acknowledge that it's uprooting so many dreams and years of dedication people put unto their work, I hear this side of the story as well. I understand both.

But what I think? I think that AI should be taking away our tedious jobs. Doing laundry, sweeping dust off the floor, turning the light off after I forgot to do it before getting comfortable in bed.

AI shouldn't be taking away jobs we love. AI shouldn't rob people of their dreams to design clothes for haute couture, or develop the next big game, or draw the next volume of your favourite manga.

Yes, AI is nice to have. It's a great field to work in, and if it continues to develop, maybe we would have our own robotic helpers living with us(if we can afford it) and maybe we'd be able to perform surgeries in the most delicate areas of the body, perhaps cure a lot more diseases than we already have. But if it continues to develop the way it is, we'll lose every inch of humane expression in everything. This Ghibli Animation trend won't be the last of it, all the billboards would be filled with AI generated ads instead of real models, hell, even your boss' emails might be AI generated.

At least, that's what i think.

[foolishfoolsgold]

So I just went on a genAI blocking spree, and I think I pinpointed what really doesn’t feel right about AI “art.”

Art, be it painting, drawing, music, writing, animating, whatever else, is born from the desire to express. Human art is infused with everything that makes the artist stand out and is the product of everything that has ever inspired them. No one can take that away from them because no one has lived their life. Maybe hardships or self discovery or childhood obsessions have influenced how they create today, and their art will continue to evolve as they keep experiencing.

What makes AI so gaudy to me isn’t necessarily the fact that it’s easier to do. Advances in art have been removing tedious work for years, all so artists can better express themselves and accomplish greater things. My problem is that (aside from the theft that happens when these models are trained on human art without consent from their respective artists), they’ve removed the skill from it, because developing skill is where that uniqueness comes from. And I don’t want to hear any “I spent hours and hours tweaking this prompt to get it just right!” That’s right, you did. But my point is literally anyone else could’ve typed that same prompt into the same machine, and gotten the exact same thing. And if you’re concerned about people stealing your prompts, maybe it’s time to take a look at the trillions of pieces of stolen art that your program is training on. Making a robot do all the work for you isn’t just lazy because you didn’t pick up a pencil, it’s lazy because you’re letting it distort your vision, which may as well be brimming with unique potential, for the sake of instant gratification and “embracing technology.” So many people are turning to AI for a creative outlet when that creativity is being shed little by little each time they opt to write a prompt instead of enjoy the ride. Being able to step back think wow, I did that.

But yeah, speaking of stepping back, it’s bout’ time I got outta here. Peace

[eldrxtch]

Oh dude, I know how you feel about Sonic Battle. Like the gameplay? Pretty tedious after a while, but the story and character writing? Fantastic (Well, aside from the whole Amy diet thing but it was the 2000s, those plot points were really popular for god knows what reason)

But wow, did the game mess me up as a child, and y'know what, it still does. It's mostly just the whole "Hey meet this robot who's basically like a child who learns by mimicking their mentors! Look, Sonic took him in and is basically like a father figure to him! Uh oh, Emerl's malfunctioning! ... Destroy him. Go on. You have to."

Like damn, when Sonic stories hit, they hit hard. Not to mention, the links to Shadow and Maria in Emerl's story. Speaking of - have you seen the teaser for the Shadow animations for Sonic X Shadow Generations?! It has the incident where Emerl went berserk on the ARK! Ngl, I screamed when Emerl showed up.

Sorry for the goddamn essay but I don't really know anyone else who's into Sonic, especially the more obscure titles like Battle so I got a little excited when I saw you mention it 😅

YEAH, god, emerl's whole plotline fucked with me so bad as a kid

There was something about customizing him completely and getting so attached to him and experiencing his growing friendships and personality and then just like,,, 'JOKES ON YOU, He's the final boss, kill him :)' that they pulled

ALSO, I had NO IDEA!! Holy shit!!!! Emerl in another title?! Thanks for telling me, that's so cool!!!

I was OBSESSED with sonic growing up, like, I had played every title I could get my hands on (I bought so many different collection games on the gamecube just to access older obscure titles like Sonic the Fighters and Sonic R) but nothing has sat with me so intensely as the end of Sonic Battle,, OOF.

Sonic Gem Collection is actually how I became obsessed with Nack/Fang haha, I loved his design and mained him in both Fighters and Sonic Drift 2

I need to draw him again tbh... (I draw him usually with heterochromia as a small reference to the Archie comics being unable to decide on his eye color in different issues haha)

[chowtrolls]

Decommissioned

Google Docs Link. The Handler is not mine.

The process for answering one of Handler’s calls has always been, frankly, tedious. Lockjaw’s pager goes off, giving him a time and a number. At the given time, he calls that given number from a payphone outside his apartment. The voice is always a little different- he had realized by now that the Handler used a voice changing device to remain anonymous. Probably for the best, in his opinion. 

The pager had given him fifteen minutes. By the time Lockjaw actually looked at the pager, he had five. He scrambled to find a notebook and pen, nearly dropped it all thrice, and forgot to unlock the door twice before trying to open it. Meanwhile, Rumble had yet to finish her breakfast. She watched him with an amused expression. 

He made it to the payphone twenty seconds late. It took another twenty to properly enter the number. He set the phone on top of the phone box and nervously tapped the pen on his notebook. He could hear the receiver just fine from a distance, thanks to his improved hearing. And typically, Handler didn’t want him to respond, so he didn’t need to hold it close. 

He wasn’t…afraid of the Handler. If anything, there was a moderate healthy respect for the anonymous individual. So far, Handler hadn’t done anything to really warrant any concern from the blueblood. But…there was a level of professionalism to uphold. And the annoyance was ever clear when they answered the phone. 

“You’re late.” 

“Elevator broke.” The lie rolled off easily. Though Lockjaw’s voicebox had said it so softly, he wondered if they even heard at all. 

“Whatever.” Apparently, they had. “Do you still have the girl?” 

Lockjaw stopped his nervous tapping instantly. Panic began to bubble in his chest, though he remained silent. They weren’t supposed to talk about her. That was the agreement. A little extra came his way to cover her costs, and he would take on more jobs to pay for that. Handler knew- or so he thought- how protective he was over her. His silent thinking was interrupted once more by Handler’s robotic voice.

“Yes or no, Lockjaw. Do you still have the girl?” 

“...Yes. We had agr-”

He was once again interrupted, this time by a sigh that wasn’t fully caught by the voice changer on the call. 

“Of course you do. You’ve just made this so complicated, now. Listen- do you know who she is?”

“...She is Rumble?” 

“No, that’s what you call her, idiot. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Imperial Deepbite. Real nasty guy. She’s his descendant.” 

“...Okay?” Confused, Lockjaw scanned the world outside the phone booth, as if it held any clues why he should be concerned. He had met the man once, during his own Fleet time. Though he remembered very little, he recalled the man as a giant. Tall, girthy, with an all-knowing gleam in his eyes. He was intimidating, to be blunt. 

“The descendant that went missing. The descendant he wanted to replace him. He’s looking for her. And you have her. And I have a job for you, a hit on Deepbite.” 

“You want me…to take out a major Fleet official?” That seemed impossible. Sure, Lockjaw was experienced and had an impressive number of successful hits under his belt, but none of them had been a fuchsia. And none of them were important high-ranking officials. The assassination of a major high-ranking official would just draw an unwanted amount of attention. Not to mention the impossible task of killing a fuchsia- especially one of that man’s size. 

“You don’t have a choice, really.” 

“Can you not find someone else?” He sincerely doubted the Handler only had one pawn under their grasp. Surely they had someone more experienced in handling such high-profile targets. 

“Well, that’s the thing. I heard from the grapevine that he’s been looking...for you.” 

Lockjaw’s blood ran cold. 

“My hands are quite tied, you see. And, as surprising as it may be, there are trolls above even myself. I may be the all powerful, all knowing being in your life, but consider that there are even scarier all powerful, all knowing beings in my life.”

“What makes you think I can get rid of the Imperial Deepbite?” 

“Because the other option is, he finds you. From what my sources tell me, he already knows where you’re residing. He’s scheduled to land in Mordamere for two weeks to restock, then he’s coming to Alternia. Consider yourself lucky I didn’t realize who she was a long time ago.” 

“....She’s just a kid.” 

“And you’re just a decommissioned killing machine. You have two options here; you kill Deepbite, or Deepbite kills you.” 

click.

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2023-09-11

Oh shit that was today

Listening: Apocalyptica is a band that continues to perform because we love it when some guys do crazy shit to a cello. They put a performance of one of my favourites, Bittersweet, on YouTube the other day.

Songs that absolutely ROCKET me back to being 15 and listening to Apocalyptica on loop while practicing for the Lego Robotics competitions.

Reading: Trying and failing to track down the full set of papers by O. P. Kimball on "The Prevention of Simple Goiter in Man", he's the guy who was responsible for a serious government push on iodine supplementation, a topic I occasionally go insane about. There's 3-4 papers he wrote on his initial studies on the student population of some high school in the early 1900's but for some reason the first paper is very hard to find. Fascinating stuff though. This paper is the best of the originals I could find, and the next one is a decent retrospective from the 60's:

It was known before this that iodine was needed for thyroid function, before even the mid-1800's, but Kimball experimentally showed that it's actually really easy to provide enough iodine to people as a supplement to completely eliminate a huge source of disability and disease, and the successive work seems to be what drove grand-scale iodine supplementation which is one of the most effective public health operations pretty much ever.

Yeah.

Watching: The Mummy was up for Movie Night, a rare break from terrible movies for an actually good one. Few movies so rich in impeccable comedic timing and physical comedy.

Making: Now that I have a solution for storing my filament, I am slowly returning to printing, currently doing a few test runs to figure out how to make reasonably dimensionally accurate parts.

Once I get everything to size I can print the actual product, which is an adapter to run a coffee grinder on an electric screwdriver. There's such a tiny difference in the dimensions it feels unfair that you can't just drive it directly. I suppose the other option would be to mill down the driven hex on the grinder directly, but. I don't want to try and do that.

Playing: Breath of the Wild, I am dedicated to actually finishing this game. Beat the Naboris beast, you can check the tag for more details. Thunderblight Ganon was easy but tedious.

Tools and Equipment: I finally have a whetstone for sharpening my kitchen and pocket knives, and I have to recommend having some kind of decent knife sharpening situation.

Draw throughs can be good, I frequently hand them out as gifts. The main difficulty is that good draw throughs are hard to find, and not as useful if you also need to maintain other tools like pocket knives in addition to kitchen knives. I like the Worksharp Kitchen Edge, it's what I got for my parents.

There's some cool fancy sharpening systems that attach the stone to a sliding bar for highly reproducible grinds, but I have enough experience to use stones and they are a lot of fun.

[cloudshoregames]

Your Mech is Different: Inspirations Behind BTE

Hi everyone, Dan here!

I've always been a fan of mechs. As a kid I would dream of growing up to be a mech pilot. I would enjoy shows like Gundam Wing, Zoids New Century, Escaflowne, and Big O while also playing PS1 classics like Armored Core and Xenogears. I remember one time explaining to my older brother that I thought I had figured out how Roger Smith piloted the Big O, pantomiming the movements with my hands and feet, only to be teased for being a nerd.  While there was no mech pilot's academy to join, some people could inevitably point out, "Well you could have learned to fly a jet or drive a tank. That's the next best thing." This notion, I have found permeates the mech subgenre of science fiction/fantasy. Mechs are certainly a power fantasy, but one that is very flexible. What they represent in fiction are different for each person and franchise.

What kicked off my journey into developing Beneath Twisted Earth was actually a YouTube video by Josh Strife Hayes, Armored Core - Was It Any Good? This took me on a nostalgia trip to my childhood playing Armored Core, and the various franchises I had enjoyed over the year. It got me thinking about if I were to make a mech setting what core elements would I include for it to be my quintessential mech game?  (I've Game Mastered for a long time, so this is an exercise I entertain often, seeing a thing I like as seeing how I would apply it to TTRPGs.) Most mech tabletop games in my experience were very crunchy, (Mekton & Battletech were first to mind). This is because fans of mechs like the idea of customization, and making their mech. Having that control over building your machine, but I've never been a fan of crunchy systems. I've always found them cumbersome and tedious. "I just want to play the game!", I would say. 

The next day I threw together a three page mech construction system, and jotted down some notes for a dystopian setting that I could use with my house system someday. I was really happy with what I came up with. The mech construction was highly customizable, but not overly complicated (no number sheets needed). The setting was suitably bleak for a game about war machines, but had lots of potential to be tweaked to tell many different stories'. As I excitedly went over it with my wife, she encouraged me to put it out there. After all, when combined with my house system which I used to run games in any assorted setting that there wasn't a game for, it could be fleshed out into a full game. So I did.

Over the next six months, I began fleshing out that write-up and combining it with my house system. At the same time, I immersed myself in mech fiction to draw as much inspiration as possible. I played any mech video game I could get my hands on, I watched lots of anime, I researched every TTRPG I could find record of, I watched lots of YouTube retrospectives/reviews, and for the first time I dove head first into the world of Battletech, reading through several of the core novels.

This encouraged my design of the game to be more diverse. I wanted to any players who sat down at the table to play BTE to think of a mech and to be able to build it. Not in the number crunching, twelve volume, 30 hours of work sort of way. There are players who like that, and there are games that catered to it. I wanted a game that an experienced player could create their pilot/mech in 10 minutes without sacrificing customization or growth for the people who just wanted to get in their big, stompy robot and start living that life.

Something I found compelling about this deep dive is what mechs meant to different people. When it came down to it, in stories, mechs were always analogous to other archetypes. Mechs can represent many things, but I most often found them taking the role of the following:

Tanks

Jets

Suits of Armor

Horses

Cars

Swords (or other weapons)

Depending on what archetype the mech filled, determined things like how important the pilot was to the combat, what sort of stories were told, and what the capabilities of the mech would be. Because there was so much variation, I also found a lot of conflict in the fanbase over what they should be. This only reinforced to me the importance of customization, not because all fans are gearheads, but because mechs represented a flexible archetype. That meant the mech should allow for each player to express themselves/their pilot. While one player might want an oversized gun on crab legs with armor a mile thick, another player wants an angelic suit of armor that allows them to have sword fights in the sky, and still others want a custom grown symbiotes with bone claws and mouth lasers that fire when it roars in anger at their enemies. All have a place at the table as mech pilots in Beneath Twisted Earth. 

Tangented a little there, but allow me leave it there to you followers and future readers. What do mechs represent to you? What is your ideal version of a mech?

TL;DR - BTE's main inspirations are Armored Core, Battletech, and Gundam. Also, mechs mean different things to each franchise/fan so individuality is at the core of the subgenre. Because of this customization and player agency at the two core principles behind the game.

Art by JGD

Preview Book now available at https://cloudshore.itch.io/beneath-twisted-earth

[taylortruther]

What do you mean by second person feeling self-indulgent?

i find that second-person either makes things sound extremely melodramatic, which is the self-indulgent part, common with fanfics or amateur writers.

but it also feels like an easy way to tell, rather than show, which imo is the trait of a pretty bad writer. (taylor jenkins reid is so bad at this, however, she doesn't write in second-person. but she doesn't really want her reader to think or draw conclusions or judgments on their own.)

"you did this, you feel that, you go to x place and you sit down" and so on. writing like that can be fast-paced or intense, but it can also sound extremely tedious and robotic.

it's hard to get too in-depth in second person, without very obviously telling the reader what to feel, what to think, conclusions to draw etc. about the character or plot they're embodying so it can sound awkward. i included some examples below. i feel like they lose something in second-person.

for example, here's a first person passage:

In the hospital men’s room, as I’m washing my hands, I glance in the mirror. The man I see is not so much me as my father. When did he show up? There is no soap; I rub hand sanitizer into my face–it burns. I nearly drown myself in the sink trying to rinse it off. My face is dripping, my shirt is wet, and the paper-towel dispenser is empty. Waiting to dry, I carve Jane’s name into the cinder-block wall with the car key. A hospital worker almost catches me, but I head him off with a confrontation: “Why no paper towels?”

and this is what it sounds like in second person:

You're in the hospital men’s room, and as you're washing my hands, you glance in the mirror. The man you see is not so much you as your father. When did he show up? There is no soap; you rub hand sanitizer into your face–it burns. You nearly drown myself in the sink trying to rinse it off. Your face is dripping, my shirt is wet, and the paper-towel dispenser is empty. Waiting to dry, you carve Jane’s name into the cinder-block wall with your car key.

third person:

He stood over the body in the fading light, adjusting the hair and putting the finishing touches to the simple toilet, doing all mechanically, with soulless care. And still through his consciousness ran an undersense of conviction that all was right—that he should have her again as before, and everything explained. He had had no experience in grief; his capacity had not been enlarged by use. His heart could not contain it all, nor his imagination rightly conceive it. He did not know he was so hard struck; that knowledge would come later, and never go. Grief is an artist of powers as various as the instruments upon which he plays his dirges for the dead, evoking from some the sharpest, shrillest notes, from others the low, grave chords that throb recurrent like the slow beating of a distant drum. Some natures it startles; some it stupefies. To one it comes like the stroke of an arrow, stinging all the sensibilities to a keener life; to another as the blow of a bludgeon, which in crushing benumbs.

second person:

You stand over the body in the fading light, adjusting the body's hair and putting the finishing touches to the simple toilet, doing it all mechanically, with soulless care. And still, through your consciousness runs an undersense of conviction that all is right—that you should have her again as before, and everything explained. You have had no experience in grief; your capacity has not been enlarged by use. Your heart cannot contain it all, nor your imagination rightly conceive it. You do not know you are so hard struck; that knowledge would come later, and never go. Grief is an artist of powers as various as the instruments upon which he plays his dirges for the dead, evoking from some the sharpest, shrillest notes, from others the low, grave chords that throb recurrent like the slow beating of a distant drum. It startles some natures; it stupefies others. To you, it comes like the stroke of an arrow, stinging all the sensibilities to a keener life; to you, it's as the blow of a bludgeon, which in crushing benumbs.

[rightserve]

Utilizing MEP BIM Coordination Services for Efficient Construction Projects

Buildings are normally intricate frameworks made out of different components cooperating to satisfy assorted needs and boost usefulness. Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) frameworks structure the foundation of a building by assuming a critical part in establishing an agreeable and utilitarian climate for tenants. Effectively planned MEP frameworks add to a maintainable climate by giving satisfactory warming, warm solace, and legitimate lighting. The construction business is progressively utilizing Building Information Modeling otherwise known as BIM Administrations for viable MEP Administrations. BIM Coordination for MEP Administrations is supplanting conventional 2D programming because of impediments in grasping intricacy through level drawings. 3D MEP models offer unrivaled perception and correspondence, working with better establishment on location. In this way, these creative advances and proper administration strategies add to a smoothed out construction work process, further developed plan coordination between the task partners, and in particular limited the contentions during construction process.

Nonetheless, planning MEP administrations with BIM represents a novel specialized challenge contrasted with other building frameworks. Subsequently, progressing from 2D drafting requires careful examination to upgrade work processes, diminish the tedious manual exertion, further develop conflict recognition through cutting edge modeling apparatuses, and possibly influence AI to speed up plan. Organizing these administrations with MEP shop drawings can fundamentally diminish project length which can help in saving a lot of time and assets. This blog will examine the challenges experienced in conventional MEP coordination strategies and the benefits of involving MEP BIM coordination Administrations in the construction cycle.

What are the Challenges of Traditional 2D MEP Coordination Systems? 

1. Limited Visualization

Issue: Depending on 2D drawings makes it challenging to precisely picture complex 3D spaces which prompts hardships in understanding spatial connections between various MEP frameworks and the general building structure.

Impact: This restricted comprehension can thwart viable correspondence of plan necessities and increment the gamble of neglecting likely conflicts or clashes, eventually impacting the general undertaking culmination achievement.

2. Clash and Conflict Detection:

Issue: Conventional techniques need robotized conflict location abilities and require manual overlaying of individual 2D drawings to distinguish expected clashes between various MEP frameworks.

Impact: This tedious and mistake inclined cycle can miss basic conflicts which can result in expensive improve and delays during construction when actual conflicts are found nearby.

3. Difficulty Accommodating Changes

Issue: Adjusting 2D drawings to oblige configuration changes can be lumbering and expect updates to various related drawings, prompting deferrals and likely irregularities.

Impact: Adjusting to unanticipated conditions or client alterations becomes testing and costly, later it can block project adaptability and possibly impact spending plan and timetable.

4. Inefficient Problem Resolution

Issue: Conventional coordination depends on manual correspondence and cooperation, frequently including different gatherings and disciplines. This can prompt disarray, postponements, and trouble pinpointing the cause of issues when clashes emerge.

Impact: Wasteful issue goal can bring about annoying issues, blame shifting, and disappointment among project partners. Hence, impacting the general venture effectiveness and assurance.

5. Lack of Automation

Issue: Tedious manual cycles overwhelm conventional MEP coordination, including conflict location, information joining, and configuration surveys. This absence of computerization prompts shortcomings and expands the gamble of human blunders.

Impact: Manual assignments can consume huge assets, dialing back the general venture timetable and possibly prompting blunders that can have expensive results downstream.

6. Decentralized Design Responsibility

Issue: With isolated disciplines dealing with free 2D drawings, it becomes testing to keep a focal perspective on the general plan and guarantee legitimate coordination between various MEP frameworks.

Impact: Decentralized liability can prompt irregularities, missed associations, and potential contentions that require adjust and coordination endeavors later in the venture.

7. Ineffective Pre-construction Reviews

Issue: Muddled and divided information from 2D drawings can make pre-construction configuration audits less viable in recognizing expected issues and guaranteeing constructability.

Impact: Inadequate or mistaken information can prompt botched open doors for enhancement, expanded hazard of on location issues, and likely postponements or cost overwhelms.