tidenoodle

[tidenoodle]

New Ecosystem breed badge drop, this time for Snappers. Intended to represent their homeland, you can see the Pillar in the background and historical markings from someone who observed the Arcanist climbing it.

[tidenoodle]

Heyyy long time no post! I've been making things, I just got behind on tumblr. DtB is coming up soon and I have a lot to make. Speaking of DtB, that's what these little guys are a preview for! Not for Ecosystem... no, these curious little monkeys are for the tree! They are so excited to climb around the branches and see all the other ornaments.

(Their true ornament versions are the proper 100px, but I like to show my stuff in 150px because it's a bit more detailed.)

[tidenoodle]

Me @ the Beastclan lore update

[tidenoodle]

Here’s the Ecosystem badge that Nature Flight members can win right now (October 23-30 2022) during our RoR push, Arboreal Apothecary!  

I’ve gotten really behind on posting my stuff here, especially the butterflies, but I’ll try to get around to posting some of the older event badges here as well. 

[tidenoodle]

I absolutely still have them!  I exported the big versions and just uploaded all of them, including the newest.  Here is the post!  

https://tidenoodle.tumblr.com/post/674971605063073792/idlewildly-here-are-all-10-of-your-current

I started offering the larger size butterflies alongside the normal size in cases like these, where there is an accent with a lot of little details that could be lost in the smaller size.  This is the “true” size of the adopts, the size I work in.  If you ever ordered an adopt from me and want the embiggened version, I have kept every butterfly I’ve ever done in the master psd file and will happily export one for you free of charge.  Just let me know! (As a forewarning, not every butterfly will look better embiggened. Some of them there was a “ugh it doesn’t matter, it’ll be small” factor. Just bein’ honest with that.  It also looks better on the newer templates, 8-12, because they’re already bigger by nature and by the time I made those, I had learned more of what worked well on the adopts and what didn’t.  Some day I may retire some of the older templates when the gulf between my old stuff and new stuff makes there be a significant quality difference based on which template is picked.  But when that day comes, I’ll try to redo them so there’s nothing really “lost” if you were a fan of the oldies.)

[tidenoodle]

@idlywildly  Here are all 10 of your current butterfly adopts, EMBIGGENED!  (Can click through them here, not sure they’re displaying at exactly the right size on the dashboard but they are uploaded at the right size so you can save ‘em off the click.)

[tidenoodle]

Head canon time! I know this is probably already obvious from most of my noodle drawings but Noodle scarves are an incredibly common occurrence. Spiral Dragons are raised to seek out a singular “Most Important Dragon" also know to Spirals as a Napping Buddy. It can be considered an honor to become a Spirals nap buddy because it means that they trust them with their life and more.

This species-wide trend came about when the very first Spiral Dragons had been created by their Deity-Father, the Windsinger. As most of the young species fanned out across the world, following their inherent wanderlust, they stumbled into more and more danger- what with them being small and prone to passing out with barely a moments notice. So then these proto-noodles found larger dragons with a steadier sleep pattern to ride upon and travel with. As the First of their kind had offspring, and their offspring had offspring, and so on, it was passed down until it became tradition among the species. Even instinctual, some might argue, as even some Spirals not necessarily taught to will seek out a trusted life-long partner to coil around. Hatchlings of mixed parents will naturally gravitate to coiling around their bigger siblings.

Even the Windsinger himself has adopted this trend. Dragons blessed to be near their gods find it an rather common sight for the Windsinger to be tangled around their patron deity- whether they actually enjoy the physical contact or not- talking their ear off.

All of my Spirals Have Napping Buddies except Aether and Aura, who rarely leave their humble shrine now-a-days and so usually hover around the stones and bamboo structures that decorate the shrine. I guess it could be considered their Napping Buddy but Spirals don’t really give that title to inanimate objects or places, only to living, moving beings. If they were to ever travel again they would probably pick one from the clan to serve as their protector.

[tidenoodle]

Woah. [/neo]

New reblog game: run your url through the neural blender and post it

[tidenoodle]

If anyone was wondering how I make the Battle Birds, they are made in 200px size and then exported at 50px.  

This is what they look like in full size.

Barn Swallow, Tufted Flycatcher, Wood Cock, Canadian Goose, House Sparrow, and Baltimore Oriole are the first six of this series.

My reference material for this project is the Sibley Guide to Birds, second edition.

[tidenoodle]

I never stop being amazed and thrilled with this.  Thank you so, so much!

a fun dragon done for some familiars, dragon belongs to @tidenoodle :)

[tidenoodle]

Heartbroken, I just gave up.

Hello everyone describe your lore in 5 words or less.

[tidenoodle]

This design is just gorgeous, so well rendered and articulated.  I would love to see this creature in game some day.  

Your work has got me thinking- I didn't realize how unusual it was to have fluff underground until I couldn't think of an example of it in Earth subterranean animals.  There's a lot of scales and skin and fine hair, things that would help move through the soil.  So, would "mud mane" be a problem that Obelisks would encounter?  Their thick fur traps so much dirt and debris that it becomes heavy and stiff and has to be shorn off or meticulously groomed, else they can’t move their heads?  And that fur on the paws, would that get worn away as they dug?  It’s hard to have hair in a place that’s constantly experiencing friction.  Perhaps having dug so much that your fur is gone would be a mark of pride in some capacity, like how blue collar workers compare callouses.  Idk, just some thoughts.

While I’ve had a fantastic time with the recent event and all the cool lore around it, I can’t help but find the new Obelisk dragons somewhat…… out-of-place. We see the god of earth himself sculpt them from stone, name and individualize each with his own hands, and the end result just… doesn’t really look like an ‘earth’ dragon. I really do love the art we got- the flowing hair adds good motion and elegance to the breed, and their big lion paws are very cute (the hatchling pose is one of my favs now!). I understand they’re based off of stone guardian lions, which is a neat art direction, buuut the species just seems ill-fitting for their rocky homeland (and totally unrelated to Snappers). They mostly just resemble stout tundra/ manticore hybrids to me? And given that tundras already have a cousin strongly resembling them, we don't particularly need a 'tundra v.3' (as the announcement url so helpfully explains lol.) While the Obelisk’s encyclopedia entry isn’t out yet, I’ve tried to keep the design elements of the 'protector + harbinger’ role they’ve been tasked with. They’re large, stocky, and powerful, but also more suited to their environment & offering cover for their fellow dragons.

Their general posture is a mix of bear/ ankylosaur/ armadillo, with robust forelimbs + flat claws for digging. They have toughened hide plates running along their backs, with osteoderms lining their flanks. Their heads are flatter and wedge-shaped (though I’ve kept the under-bite, cute lil’ ears, and a bristly mane). Their tails are flattened into a spade- useful for defense, shoveling earth, or slamming into the ground to communicate. Lastly, their wings- they have 2 strong digits for tunneling, and the leathery membranes have been reinforced with fibers and scutes (this makes them pretty useless for flight, but perfect for defending smaller dragons). Since they’re a newborn species with no known culture/ behavior of their own yet, they’re kinda… a blank slate rn (hopefully that lore article comes out soon). I see Obelisks as statuesque behemoths, watching over their tiny Snapper cousins as their clans travel across the steppes. Perhaps they use the pounding of their great weight to speak across vast distances, to warn other dragons whenever danger is near? Well, even though I don’t dislike the Obelisks’ current design, I can only hope the next breed has a more… distinct elemental concept. (If I have to wait 10 years for water to get ’tundra but with a tail fin’……. sigh.)

[tidenoodle]

The embiggened version of this year’s Greenskeeper Gathering Ecosystem badges!  The theme is Adventure of Lost Worlds, and in the badges, you’re exploring the jungle going towards an ancient temple you see in the distance, and the more levels of the badge you earn, the more of the hidden Centaur village you discover!  Ecosystem is a Nature Dominance program for Flight Rising.  

[tidenoodle]

Some new butterflies for the adopt shop!  Posting them here in their own post because some folks are having trouble saving off imgur... apparently on imgur it just opens up in its own gallery and doesn’t give people the save-as option.  Anyone have a good solution for this?  

[tidenoodle]

Surprisingly accurate, and also just a lot of adorable fun.  I found my own result very touching, and true in a way I had not expected.  

Edit with what the text for PC was, mostly for my reference to remember.  Putting it behind a Read More in case you don’t want to see what the answers are ahead of time.

Pearlcatcher:  According to the encyclopedia, pearlcatchers are haughty, bigoted cowards. The encyclopedia was clearly written by an imperial. Pearlcatchers are known for keeping their pearls - their souls, their treasures, their memories - close on hand. You are a pearlcatcher because your answers align with a genuine appreciation of beauty; you desire, well, a lot of things and you pride yourself on attaining them. Building a life that will earn you acclaim and approval is important to you! You know that when you show others what you like what you have, you show them a piece of yourself. You communicate wholesale; not just through words, but actions, appearances, manners, choices, down to the kind of company you keep. ... That's my take on pearlcatcher lore and the encyclopedia can eat my hat

[tidenoodle]

The Ecosystem participation badge, “Tropical Tree Lighting”, for this year’s Decorate the Behemoth 2020!  I included a full-sized one this time because I really liked the glow effect and I wanted to show it a little bigger.  I used to have it a lot more elaborate but it didn’t “read” in the smaller sizes so I had to simplify.  

I think the hardest part of making badges this small is knowing what not to spend time on.  The more intricate tiny details I make, the more intricate tiny details absolutely nobody sees, and the more blurry and difficult to interpret the badge becomes.  So broader sweeps of color, the acceptance of imperfection... that’s becoming a part of my style.  When the badge is 100 pixels high, it won’t matter if I spent 30 minutes making sure every tiny thing looked just right when it was big.  It looks like a smudge.  It’s very humbling, in a way.  Reminds me to get out of my own way and stop getting lost on trying to perfect small things without mind to the bigger picture.

There’s probably a metaphor there.  But there is DEFINITELY a palm tree here, so, there it is. 

[tidenoodle]

Ecosystem participation badge set for the Dance of the Druids II event last week.