#xzacloudx

[lrussellconceptart]

Practice 7: Kelpie

After re-evaluating the kelpie project it was agreed that I rethink the design of the kelpie to look more horrific. Even though after looking at references it was clear that the mouth did work, it was best that the mouth be changed to be more zombified.

With inspiration from the above photo it gave me the idea to make the mouth into just bone and have the skin peeled back. After discussing the future design we felt it best that the Kelpie look better without a mane. I like this idea as you can see the detail of the kelpie more and it also shows lack of health. I still want to try and stick to my previous story with the kelpie but I think it best to try and be more realistic with some of the myth in terms of having a beautiful form that only humans can see. There was an idea to also add a saddle and bridle onto the kelpie. At first I was very unsure about this, however they were known to be tamed and with my kelpie wanting to be friends it would easily be persuaded.

I sketched out the basic body design for each. I chose to have a small mane on the gorgeous horse as it shows health and a good mane can be mesmerising. I kept it short as its true form has no mane and I didn't want to stray from its true form too much. The kelpie I wanted to make thin as it shows that the kelpie doesn't get many victims as it wants to be friends with the humans.

I chose to make the Kelpie green this time round. It relates more to its environment and like some animals can show where they live or what they eat. It can suggest that it has to eat more greenery of the swamps. I also wanted to keep the human footprints but I was not a fan with it having no hooves. Because of this I decided to give it feathers but with a more lengthy and soggy look to it. This allows for interpretation of what is really under the feathers. As for the gorgeous horse I chose to make it a dapple grey as they are one of the most beautiful horse colours to exist. However instead of the standard blond mane and tail you would get, I chose to go with black to make the horse even more rare to see. I gave the horse a white marking around its face to represent the skull that shows on its true from.

References:

Image 1: Xzacloudx (2018) Zacloud's weekly nothing, Tumblr. Available at: https://xzacloudx.tumblr.com/post/179677221844/so-like-susie-at-first-i-thought-horse (Accessed: January 29, 2023).

[iiaak]

Hey Yogscast fans! I’m sure many of you remember the amazing animated trailer produced by @xzacloudx​ a while back. Well, I had an assignment to replace the audio in a preexisting animation for my Sound Design class, so I decided to use ZaCloud Animations’ Blackrock trailer! So to be clear, all the visuals belong to ZaCloud, and all the audio work is my own. (The music is from Inuyasha- The Soul Power).

Those of you who are very familiar with Blackrock lore will notice some inconsistencies with the canon- I did take some liberties, both for time and so that my classmates could at least try to follow along! I do hope you still enjoy.

(See the original here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thak_jS-9Oc)

[zc-undertale]

99.9% of the time... *too pained/sick/tired/busy trying to pull my life together to feel like drawing. Plus emotions not working = no inspiration or chemical reward for putting in the effort.*

0.01% of the time... *FINALLY feels JUST decent enough to want to draw, has enough energy, AND enough spare time!!!! ........Then THIS happens........*

(At least editing this went ok. Lemons, lemonade, etc. ^^;;)

[hiimtryingtounderfell]

Heeeey! On the (wonderful and gorgeous) latest update to the Underfell comic... you mentioned trying to make more time to draw it by not gaming or looking for a job or other things... NOOOOO!!!! >:( Living your life is super important! The comic's just a side thing! Please give yourself time to do other things. Even gaming and relaxing are important for your mental health! PLEEEAAAASE take that back and take care of yourself? ;_;

Aw man

But at the same time I want to keep updating, so that’s that!

[undertalethingems]

xzacloudx replied to your post “ssssssssecond favorite??? and if thats papyrus, third??????? : o”

Man, that's my sequence exactly. Sans is my #1, but I practically GOTTA have both bros together with how close Papyrus is on that, and their wonderful interactions are what I love most about this game. :3 Then yup, Undyne, then Alphys. Are you me? XD

i mean, that raises some serious questions about doppelgangers or parallel universes, doesn’t it? XD

[unrestedjade]

Hmm, when these folks are asking about fic requests... don't you mean commissions? At least last I remember you didn't want to do free requests anymore. Unless you changed your mind? (Just trying to make sure you don't get overwhelmed ^^;;)

I mean requests! I updated my blog header a while back, but I realize most people don’t browse tumblr that way so they won’t see it. I was fortunate enough last year to land a full-time job that pays me enough to live, so I don’t have to take on writing as a side-hustle anymore. Now I can just write for fun again, which I prefer. :)

That said, I may not be able to do every request I get. Said full-time job is somewhat demanding, especially at this time of year.

Thanks! I’m glad you’re looking out for my sanity, lol.

[spacegate]

Fake fic title: End of the Road

A subverted fic where the entire Undertale fam are on a road trip and well, end up at the end of a road. The GPS is fucked. It’s been a thousand years so Toriel has no goddamn clue how to read surface maps anymore. The tires have popped on shitty, unpaved roads. So of course, instead of going to a nice commercial camping ground, all of them end up in this spooky woods where everything goes wrong. Sans brought hotdogs but no buns. Papyrus builds a huge communal tent with a working shower in it and nobody has a clue how that happened. Undyne tried to fight a skunk and lost. Alphys goes through tech withdrawl cause no cell phone service. Toriel is making the best of the situation. Frisk is scarily good at survival skills and finding food leading the others to wonder where the fuck they learned all that. 

Asgore and Grillby are off enjoying a damn vacation in civilization cause both of them are smart enough to not go camping. 

[synodicsoma]

xzacloudx replied to your post “It’s so weird rping with people who don’t involve their characters...”

UT changed a LOT of perceptions for me too. Of video games as a whole, the RPG genre, etc. (Level grinding? More like mass murder! D:)

That’s a BIG SAME!! OFF and Undertale were big games that changed my perspective on how i view most games nowadays and how i portray and rp characters! 

[sawkinator]

Heya, just letting you know that you recently reblogged a (very good) thread about women being afraid of yelling men, from a-terf, and that they literally are a TERF. :/ On their page is a bunch of anti-trans-women rhetoric, trying to make all trans women look bad/fake by wallowing in bad examples of human beings in general, etc. Just thought I'd let you know. I added to the discussion without including their (and another TERF's) take if you want a different reblog source.

hmmmm, don’t like that! I’ll delete that reblog right now

[xzacloudx]

Weird, huh?

Random Deltarune thought:

In the game files, the fan-named “Snowgrave Route” is internally called:

Alternative Route, Side B, or Weird Route.

Which that last one, uh... seems awfully weird to do! Like, compared to the uncomfortable, gratuitous mental abuse the player can force Kris to inflict on Noelle, along with the mass-murder, it almost seems... too casual, too irreverent.

However, it’s not exactly unprecedented...

In Undertale, in the fan-named “Genocide Route”/Bad Kid/Kill-em-All/No Mercy Route... Papyrus makes it the most obvious that he knows we’re going around killing people, outright mentioning the dusty powder on our hands, & he calls us “freaking weirdo!”

And then, there’s Burgerpants, who usually calls us “little buddy” if we’ve talked to him. But if we’re in the G-Route? He switches to “little weirdo.”

Then there was even Asriel, if we backtrack all the way to the Ruins at the end of the True Pacifist run, reflecting on the fact that he had repeatedly tortured & killed everyone in the Underground...

“I did some weird stuff” indeed...

Maybe it’s kind of a reflection of the player’s mindset (since Asriel also kind of considered himself as a “player” in a “game” when he sufficiently dissociated from reality).

Players who do such routes aren’t necessarily cruel people or real killers at all. Most of them are genuinely horrified at what they uncover. They’re just curious. They just want to examine all the “what ifs”, & learn more about the characters they love, by observing their behavior in new circumstances. And they know it’s just a game.

Especially if we think oldskool, before Let’s Play streams & online revelations. Those of us old enough to remember that time, had to find out secrets tentatively, like a pioneer, & most games didn’t reward so many levels of curiosity. But, sometimes they did. & the thought of discovering something new about a game you love is exciting. So, if you just decided “I wonder what would happen if I killed everyone in this game,” your friend might just kind of be like, “All those nice characters? Wow, you’re weird.”

Not sure if that’s the intention, or if there may be some other meaning behind it, but... it’s an interesting pattern nonetheless.

[sirfrogsworth]

xzacloudx

replied to your post

“It’s okay to change your mind.”

All we have to do is ask companies to develop an alternative for the disabled. It's simple. We can still ditch the plastic straws as long as a bendy and safe alternative is made. I got glass straws from a company who makes angled versions AND they're high-temperature safe (dishwasher, even), so the chart's already outdated. Just get bent paper straws, problem solved! It's not black and white, just needs nudging.

I am not sure how to respond to this. I really don’t want to be mean. And I don’t want to make an example of you. It’s just that you read my entire post, disregarded everything I said, and now your reply is the first thing people see when they look at the notes. 

Perhaps Master Skywalker can start this off...

The disabled community has been asking manufacturers to sort out this issue for a while now. Nothing about it is easy. No one wants to do the research and development for a problem that affects a small percentage of the population. There aren’t enough disabled folks for them to care. They don’t need a nudge. They need a giant push. 

A great deal of my post talked about how 30-second brainstorms are not going to solve this. Do you really believe that you have this figured out? I’m trying so hard to be nice. But... c’mon. Really?

I’m glad glass straws worked out for you. But some disabled folks are unable to clean straws on their own. Due to being immunocompromised, they need a very clean straw at all times. Others have issues grasping things properly. They can’t always judge their strength, making glass straws dangerous. Grip them too hard and they could break. 

The chart is by no means outdated. Perhaps it couldn’t fit every single variable onto it. But it is up to date. Unless you know of some brand new material or manufacturing process, there is no alternative being mass produced that can satisfy everyone’s needs. 

Bendy paper straws are not the answer either. Paper straws will break up in hot beverages over long periods of time and become a choking hazard. Many folks must take small sips and consume liquid very slowly. Making paper straws (bendy or otherwise) not ideal. 

I had the energy to respond to this. I’m hoping I saved some spoons for some other disabled person just now. I was worried that you are going to leave similar replies in the future. I’m hoping you see that big problems like these cannot be solved with a quick thought and a positive attitude. You need to consider what people say and think more deeply. Ask yourself these questions...

Do I have the knowledge and experience to solve this problem? 

How likely is it that no one has thought of this before me?

You need to trust the experiences of people who live with these issues. 

[uselessundertalefacts]

xzacloudx replied to your post “Matpat may be bad but Treesicle is even worse tbh”

Now THAT I can agree on. Matpat at least means well, and has done a lot of things with good intentions (only to be harassed so much that it's seriously affected his mental and physical health... ). But Treesicle's bad in both intentions, and frequency of being way out of line.

Considering the fact that Toby has said he doesn’t want people spreading pictures of him around the internet, I think matpat using pictures of him like 20 times and editing it so that he’s holding a knife or that his face is on Gaster’s body is pretty out of line tbh.

[zeekubeast]

xzacloudx replied to your post: aphobegenji: saying that he/him lesbians...

But… aren’t those just straight men? Men attracted to women are heterosexual, not lesbians. :/ I’m all for equality of sexuality and gender, but this concept makes no sense. Which is why it’s causing problems.

that’s bc you’re equating pronouns with gender identity. gender-non-conforming (gnc) women, especially butch lesbians, have a history of using he/him pronouns in the same way gay cis men have done drag and used she/her pronouns. neither of these two groups’ existence actually harms the existence of binary trans people.

it’s the attempt by cis/straght people to try and concretely categorize gnc people as definitely one thing or the other completely as a whole, rather than taking in to account individual experience and expression, that creates problems.

basically... lesbians can be nonbinary, can use he/him pronouns and still not identify as men, and them using he/him pronouns doesn’t make butch lesbians straight men at all

[itsaaudraw]

Yoski broski! That sweater you drew Papyrus in is so rad! Where'd you get that? I want one too! XD

heck!! thank you!! :D

i got it from Shredder’s Apparel

i have a few of their sweaters and they’re SO COMFY and great quality. they’re the best thing for the cold,, they’re a little expensive but they have sales from time to time (they’re totally worth the price tho tbh) 

[undertalethingems]

xzacloudx replied to your post “how come in the latest page papyrus was kinda jumpy? like when he took...”

Ahh, maybe could've conveyed it with squeezing his eyes shut and grunting with exertion, maybe some vague representations of sweat drops?

Yeah, that maybe would have come across better--though, the way I picture it feeling, it’s like a sudden shortness of breath, or that dizzy feeling you get when you stand up too fast, and that’s harder to show than to tell :”D

[syntiment]

xzacloudx replied to your post: So today at work I smashed a giant, quite deep...

Ouch! Yeah that does suck! Did you report the injury? If you end up needing a break, they should make allowances for you and pay for medical expenses if there are any. (You can look up “workplace injuries” or somesuch)

My supervisors were on me as soon as it happened and I asked one of them to leave a note for the manager. We were working the late shift so she wouldn’t be able to see it until tomorrow anyway.

I’m gonna see how it is in the morning and if it’s still bad I’m gonna have to call in. I can’t do anything remotely quickly with my finger like this. I’d be slowing the team down if I went in to work...