#i learned i can draw mechs with this piece :D

[keymintt]

joining the @promare80szine posting party with my illustration!! it accompanied a “promare vs. the thing“ article in the zine written by my fellow contributor rick!

#art #drawing #illustration #promare #lio de galon #mech #mecha #zine #digital #digital art #robot #robots #promare fanart #my art #double promare posting yeeeeehAW #i learned i can draw mechs with this piece :D

[moonlight-tmd]

Saw your rebolg on the warbuild bee post : D

I was wondering what your take would be on WF!Bee? Like before everything happens and he’s sent to boot camp. I kind of imagined a more street smart version of him that’s rough around the edges but still has a sense of humor, even if it’s a bit darker. He basically built himself from nothing on his colony and had to learn quickly before it had a chance to suffocate him. Through his experience he’s been humbled a bit, but when he’s talking about his speed and skills, he’ll still brag and say he’s the fastest mech/greatest weapons engineer to ever be sparked.

As for his whole relationship with Blitz, I liked to imagine them being physically affectionate with each other. They practically have a long distance relationship due to Blitzwings work, and when they finally get to see each other again, they stick to together like superglue, whether it be lightly caressing the others (door)wing or clinging to each other like koalas (with Bee being Blitzwings size, they have a much easier time cuddling). And of course there’s Bee’s gift giving love language; Blitzwing is practically armed to the derma with finest quality weaponry the galaxy can offer, courtesy of his sweet mechfriend who want to make sure he can beat the autobots good and swiftly. That’s not mentioning every upgrade Bee has preformed on every piece of equipment he could get his servos on, he’s practically given Blitz’s ship a full makeover by now.

That is really cool! I like that idea a lot too!

I thought about how'd he look like as a warframe and i got an idea-

Like what if he magically got his original frame back but with some tweaks to fit earth? They fight over Allspark Shard, he got buried in a mountian of scrap, then some weird glowing shit happens and molten metal pours over and a freshly forged Warframe emerges from the pile. In this he has a monster truck alt mode; I was imagining sorta viking warrior vibe to it, he's got in-build swords that can electrocute ya, his tires are on the back rather than on the shoulders, no doorwings. Also some bronze detailing on top of shiny yellow. Here's a quick sketch of the general look cuz i suck at drawing detailed art from my head-

Yes he got yellow optics cuz they are cool and he's not autobot so no blue. Also i thought he'd have like, an emblem of something like a hammer on his chassis instead of the faction insignia, like a mark that he leaved on everything he forges to sell so everyone knows it was him that made it. Also fun fact- he has retractable claws, except they're thinner and also work as welding tool. An easy way to work with tiny details and parts.

I like the idea that he was considered the greatest engineer/smith/forgemaster that ever existed, therefore Megatron has high respect for the guy. He was nicknamed 'The Architect' and the rumour of the rising legend spread before mysteriously disappearing [aka Bee getting taken and reformatted].

Before he got reformatted tho... hmmm. Yeah his love language would defo be giving gifts, be it weapons or just small sentimental things like jewelry or statuettes made of metal. He is kinda good with engraving, not on the same level as Blitz but it's still nice. Surely he was great at giving bear hugs, really keen on physical contact. My bet is that he was stronger than Blitzwing and could easily pick him up and carry around- having to carry all the heavy materials for the forge n all. I think Blitz was just a seeker back then and then got upgraded to triple-changer. And then they got conjuxed- ah you probably read the other reply so i won't repeat.

And way earlier- he was kind but also rough, he was kinda like Ratchet when repairing his upgrades on others- complaining and judging them for whatever they did that broke the thing. He was playful and didn't really take into account if the fella he spoke with was a high placed individual or just a random street bot, he treated all his customers equally. I like to think he got taken off the streets by a smith that taught him all he knows and then Bee took over the workshop once he was old enough. Then one day an out-of-ordinary mech came into his workshop and tadah, we got a love story.

Even tho he was a Warframe he didn't like to fight, he preferred to spend time in his workshop tinkering away to his Spark's desire. Once he got on the autobot team and on earth, he surely did some small things for the group to help them recover- new med tools for Ratchet, maybe some shurikens for Prowl, little upgrades to make their weapons or stuff more durable and so on. Besides Bulkhead, he never shared anything from his past to anyone, all his team knows is that he's outstanding with tinkering. He doesn't like to dwell on what he lost because of some autobots that forced him into this new life.

Geez that was chaotic to write, hope you can get around in this. Thanks for listening to my ted talk.

#blitzbee #maccadam #ask box #long post #warframe!bumblebee au #tfa au #tfa #tfa bumblebee

[kaaras-adaar]

Comfort Character Challenge ; .

tagged by: @ellana-lavellan-rp tagging: @ravusnightblossom @sunlilted @aylenlavellan @dragonagedmage @theharellan​ @not-born-heroes​ and anyone else! Tag me so I can see!

I guess the gist of this is you have to do three gifs of your comfort characters. Here are mine :D

1. Ellen Ripley (Aliens franchise)

I guess this might seem a weird ‘comfort’ character, but the Alien series is the reason I drew so much as a child. I was OBSESSED with space and aliens, any chance I could draw aliens or write up projects inspired by aliens, I would. I may not draw or write much Alien stuff now, but I have consumed as much Aliens content as possible over the years. Books, games, movies, comics. I have a signed book from H.R Giger (altho it’s a print I think?). I just love the world, the series, and Ripley is a hero to me. I ADORE Sigourney Weaver to absolute pieces. If I could ever meet her in RL, I think I would just stand there gawking like an idiot. I just love her, also her voice is amazing (which is why, ofc, she’s Kaaras’ mother’s VC >.>). 

2. Simba (The Lion King)

The Lion King is my all time favourite Disney movie. I... wouldn’t consider Simba my favourite LK character, I actually love Mufasa, Scar, Shenzi and Zira more... but as a kid, that Nintendo game... I legit just got it for Switch and completed the whole game for the FIRST time in my life because it was SO HARD as a kid (because there was no save feature on the SNES). This is the first movie I remember seeing in theatres, and I would have been near 4 years old, and I remember my dad took us (which he didn’t do a lot), and my sister crying when Mufasa died. It’s one of those childhood memories I’ll always have, and I LOVE The Lion King 1 and 2. Also, I’m 100% convinced I’m a furry because of Kovu, so... there’s that LOL. 

3. Megatron (Transformers) 

I mean, of course Magatron is making the list. I’ve always been split between Megatron and Shockwave because they’re my all time fave TF characters ,but the WORLD I had built around this mech... Most of my late teen/early 20′s was writing and world building Megatron. Transformers got me back into writing, and BOY did I write. My TF series (which sadly went unfinished) was over... probably more than 200 chapters over the course of... 4-5? series or something? I don’t know, all I know is that it’s the longest series I’ve ever written, with multiple parts, and I was SO consumed by it that it became my whole life for a solid 4-5 years lol. And I loved it. I met so many amazing people in that fandom, it’s just a shame that the place became so damn toxic, because writing Megatron was an absolute PASSION of mine, not to mention all the art and smut I did. 

This series made me discover a lot about myself as a person but also as an artist as well. I really, really miss Transformers. I have... so many comics, so many figurines, I have so much art and so many fics, not to mention ficlets. God, I would love to find the passion and drive to continue my story, but most of the friends I made there left (for the same reasons as I did), and I’m afraid it just wouldn’t be the same. You can pretty much thank this fandom for the writer I am today, though. I learned so much. 

#ooc #dash games #the mod

[carnivorousmossbeast]

Have a smol flavorshot. Couldn’t sleep last night so I did the mech suit/dystopia/sci-fi thing. Enjoy!!

2000 tons of carbon fiber enforced steel and titanium plates stand before him, staring down at him. Somewhere in there, he knows, is a beating heart keeping the eyes so alert and posture straight. There is a conscience in there. An awareness. Intelligent life. 80 meters tall, five meters wide encased in enough protective material to build four underground shelters. And even then, sometimes the pilots die. Normally he’d have some qualms about enslaving living beings but since no one really knows what the Weidmanns are, only that after they arrived everything started going to shit, he’s hard pressed to find anything more serious and founded to say against it.

Zoro pilots one of the older ones, one that came with a name and wasn’t grown in a lab. The swirly heart on the chest plate and weird face-thingy on the back shield and DEATH spelled across its heavily armored knuckles apparently came with the Weidmann and it didn’t work until someone thought to transfer the weird designs onto the armor. Sometimes it’s a bit touchy, Trafalgar D. Water Law, but it’s yet to fail Zoro. Or earth and humanity, for that matter. And Torao, how Zoro’s predecessor Luffy liked to call the Weidmann, seems to be oddly fixated on the green-haired pilot.

For example it won’t shut down if Zoro is close by.

The World Defense Council would rather play it as though the Weidmanns are machines, not creatures forced into submission by running so much electricity through their brains that they became effectively zombies, because obviously that is seven kinds of wrong, but Torao ruined that notion when Zoro entered the picture.

The first time Zoro’s in the command panel there’s abnormally high latent brain activity. Back then the technicians called it a power surge but to Zoro it had felt different from the power surges during sims. Because the pilots are put through what essentially is torture to be sure that they have it in them to steer a Weidmann. Some bullshit about neurological overstimulation. Now he knows that sometimes, the Weidmanns wake up and devour the humans that enter their spinal canal. And fighting Kaiju while keeping, essentially other Kaiju, under control, is a task in and of itself. That explains why the command panel is designed the same way landing modules are. They’re nigh impossible to break. As though the massive armoring wasn’t protection enough. Zoro soon learns the hard way that, only because the Weidmanns help, they are not allies. Not even close. He watches a pilot lose control over the neural bridge, watches the Weidmann gain its consciousness through the eyes of Torao. It’s quick, but ugly. Sometimes he still hears the screams of his comrade turning into static as he watches helplessly how Mihawk tears the control panel out of his spinal canal and crushes it in his massive fist before dropping it into the ocean carelessly. He remembers a rumbling purr of satisfaction coming from Torao’s conscience. The next two Kaiju attacks he doesn’t let himself sink as deep into the neural bridge as he normally does, even if the soft, warm whisper of Torao is oddly comforting normally. Not then.

Primal fear dictates he remain at the surface, barely submerged enough to feel the long, insanely strong limbs. These Kaiju he doesn't slice apart with the ridiculously long sword Torao's been outfitted with. He brawls, because so close to the surface, so barely there, he lacks the fine motor control to properly wield a 70-meter longs word with electrical currents running down the blade that has teeth running up and down like a chainsaw.

Kikoku is a masterpiece of engineering. Someone really did their research for effective weaponry - and ended up choosing Texas Chainsaw Massacre as reference. Sharknado as well. Perhaps Sharknado is more fitting, since the Kaiju appear from somewhere deep within the Pacific Ocean. They're not sharks, nowhere close, with their huge legs and claws and less than aerodynamic bodies, but a terror from the ocean none the less.

The next Kaiju is one of the strongest yet.

Zoro knows without Kikoku he hasn't the slightest chance to get past its long, leathery winged arms that sport massive claws, or the insanely long tail that has a bone structure at the end of it that Zoro takes one short look at and knows, painfully aware of the implications for his neural bridge - he'll have to go in deep this time - that one hit will smash through Torao's armor like a wrecking ball through a massive wall of reinforced concrete. It will take the entire Weidmann down and damage it beyond repair.

There are two other Weidmanns running point, "got your six, Zoro" crackles Ace's voice through the comms. Boa Hancock is arguably the prettiest out of all the Weidmann, and Ace is definitely the prettiest pilot. And the fucker knows it. But Ace also knows his stuff and is one of most well known pilots. Most drops, but not the most kills. Ace is happy to run point and let others take the kill. Boa Hancock isn't strong, it heavily relies on others and teamwork isn't quite Zoro's strength. Especially not in the Weidmann. But then again, few people are good at teamwork when their attack and defense is directly tied to a 70-meter monstrosity of titanium with a serrated running blade and coated in 4000 Volts of electricity. The other Weidmann is Sir Crocodile, among the heaviest defense humanity has, and the pilot is the most cryptic bitch ever.

In her presence Zoro always gets a distinct feeling like he's the butt of a joke that only she understands. Nico Robin the strangest out of the bunch. Except she really isn't. They're all weird in the Tokyo Shatterdome.

But then again you have to be somewhat messed up in the head to even be considered for pilot training.

He takes a deep breath before sinking into the neural bridge. Torao's consciousness envelopes him like warm, summer air, smelling softly like heat and sweat and sleepiness in the shade of a tree. He's in deeper than he was with the last two Kaiju, deeper than the WDC says is green, but not where he used to go. Torao and him, they used to synch. Zoro would leave the dock being submerged at the green levels and slowly slip in deeper once the control and directing electrodes were off.

He'd be pulled from Torao the instant he crossed over the yellow into the orange line, and where he goes is deep, dark red.

Rumor has it that once you're past yellow, you start becoming part of the Weidmann. The general public is fed a pretty tale of too much neurological input and synaptic overload but the ugly truth is - you're waking the beast. You're lending your tiny, insignificant brain for them to regain their consciousness and that fries you. Only Torao has never truly been gone. It's the one Weidmann they couldn't really tame and eventually it burned through all its pilots.

Zoro sees the charts stabilizing, the brainwaves lining up sort of on top of each other, enough that he'll be able to move Torao without getting consumed. Or overpowered, torn out and crushed. He relays his data to command and gets the go. Transfer out to the ocean is oddly silent. Torao is unusually still and Zoro doesn't like it. Something is off.

They land, knees slightly bent and hands at the hilt of Kikoku, and then they wait. The Kaiju is moving towards Tokyo, but it's taking its time. While its predecessors have always taken the most direct approach, this one circles around, tests their patience. Tense silence rules between the three monsters humanity tamed to defeat their unknown enemy, with only crackling updates on how far away the monster lurks. Little crackles of static in the silence. Zoro could probably hear a pin drop if he were to unlock his helmet. Even the ocean is deceptively calm.

Zoro thinks he can see movement at the horizon, thinks he can feel a tingle of excitement, adrenaline, rushing through his veins, but he's too deep in the Weidmann to still feel his body like that. Zoro frowns. Now is not the time.

The Kaiju rears out of the water like a monster straight out of old Japanese Kaiju-movies. It's ugly, with thick leathery skin and glowing green eyes, a maw full of crooked teeth, and the leathery skin flaps attached to its arms make a good imitation of wings. He draws Kikoku and readies himself, only to be hopelessly overpowered by the monstrous creature. He forgets about the tail, sees it a moment too late and can only narrowly avoid being hit by the bone club at the end of it. The long appendage hits the Weidmann around the middle and topples him over into the ocean. Alarmed red lights blink in his peripheral vision, damage assessment is still running when the Kaiju descends on the downed Weidmann again. Zoro can hear himself growl - something isn't right he shouldn't be able to hear himself - and yanks up his arm to protect the face.

A new alarm starts blaring when the neural bridge starts to disconnect. Zoro curses up a storm and tries to disengage the neural input dampening systems that are supposed to keep the pilot from experiencing the damage. The pain of being torn apart. The Kaiju shrieks over the still body, the sound shattering through the Weidmann's massive body armor and the command pod and Zoro hears a massive growl in return. And then Torao moves. Zoro isn't in deep enough to be initiating the movement, so this is all the consciousness he's been hijacking for the last two years. Zoro slams his hands against the emergency eject panel, the weapons panels, anything really, that he can reach without disengaging the pilot safety straps. A whole lot of nothing.

He growls. It's not that he's afraid to die, because he dropped that particular piece of humanity the first time he stepped foot in a drop sim, and thoroughly erased the idea of fear when he made his first kill as the backup pilot for Mihawk, it's just that Zoro really hates the idea of not being able to put up a fight.

There's a click and a whirring noise and Zoro finally feels himself sinking deeper into the neural bridge. He stops where he is comfortable, where he went before he witnessed Mihawk tearing the command pod out of his spinal canal. There's a growl rumbling in his - no, in Torao's chest - and a very sudden yank on his mind. Zoro feels like he stumbles and for a second everything is numb and dead, and then it feels like he slips into his body, only that his body is suddenly unfathomably huge and strong. He can feel the bruised organs and muscles of his - Torao's - abdomen, the tingling in the fingertips where the insulating coat doesn't quite manage to keep 4000 Volts on their side of Kikoku's blade.

Zoro hesitates for a moment and suddenly there's a voice echoing through his mind: "Zoro-ya... Didn't take you for a coward."

#ZoLaw #AU #dystopian AU #sort of pacific rim and NGE #there’s Kaiju #because I’m too tired to make up any other names #also Kaiju literally means big unknown monster or something so sue me #I could have named them Godzilla just be happy I didn't do that #fanfiction #will update as i go #can’t promise this’ll ever be anything close to an actual story #I just had some pretty ideas and couldn’t sleep so here we are #YOU GUYS PLEEEEAAAASE ADD ANY EDITS OK?! #I’m hyperfocusing on this rn so really #you’d be doing yourselves (and me let’s not kid anyone) a huuuge favor

[dotzines]

Artist Spotlights!

🎤 _creativert_ 🥁 AbelDraws 🎷 Amaari

🎺 andiavang 🎸 Antonia

Interview below the cut!

Introduce yourself

🎤 HI! I'm a geeky, introverted artist who likes to explore many artistic mediums, but really only posts digital art. I kinda like to draw anything and everything, but recently I've been trying to focus more on my OC's! Besides art, I love reading, playing video games (despite the fact that I haven't played many recently) and I like writing stories too. In the future, I plan to create a webcomic story with my OC's. I hope you enjoy my work! Here's where you can find my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_creativert_/

🥁 Hi! I'm Abel. I'm a Design and Mech engineering student, but my passion is art. I love drawing and currently I'm working on my dream project, a comic named FIVE. This takes most of my free time, but besides that I'll be either rping, watching a movie with my friends, reading (usually webcomics) or listening to some tunes while charging my energy up. I preffer digital art over traditional, you can fix mistakes so very easily... I also get more freedom with a program than with the limited tools I own (and it looks way cleaner and nicer when I upload a digital pic than a traditional, but my photography skills are to blame there lmao)If you want to read my comic, it's up on tapas! https://tapas.io/series/FlVE But if you'd rather see some illustrations and doodles you should check my tumblr: https://abel-draws.tumblr.com/ 🎷 Hi! I'm an avid 3-d and 2-d idol fan as well as a bee fanatic!! Drawing/painting is mostly a hobby for me, but in the future, if time ever allows it, I'd like to sell every so often. My default medium is digital using program SAI but sometimes I'll pick up a pencil/watercolors for traditional pieces. If you'd like to take a look at some of my other works/doodles, my art twitter is here @ https://twitter.com/hiwamaari . 🎺 I’m predominantly a digital artist! But I also crochet, sew, and embroider! I’m Andiavang across all platforms! 🎸 Hi, my name is Antonia, I'm an artist who does traditional hand drawn art. I love to draw and listen to music, often in tandem with each other. You can find me on tumblr @chibiranmaruchan

Do you do commissions post? Where can we find the info?

🎤

🥁 https://abel-draws.tumblr.com/post/184015135166/commissions-are-open-i-renewed-my-commissions 🎺 https://andiavang.tumblr.com/post/186764888718/commissions-are-open-all-payment-through-paypal

Do you listen to music (or tv shows/films/anything else) when drawing?

🎤 Yes! I actually create a new playlist every month filled with songs that have recently come out, or new songs I found that I really like! Generally, I'll listen to music when sketching but once I get to the lineart and colors, I'll listen to podcasts. For podcasts, I really like story podcasts and true crime podcasts. A couple of my favorites are Crime Junkies, Myths and Legends, The Bright Sessions and The Edge of Sleep.

🥁 *Yes*. All the time. I don't usually watch shows while drawing because my atention is all focused on the piece at hand, so... I miss most of it x'D so I preffer listening to music by a mile. It also helps me get myself in a nice mood for drawing <3 🎷 I mostly listen to music, generally one song or album of whatever artist I'm vibing to at the time. Constant repeat lately has been Blackbear's Anonymous album and Mesemoas. 6th single, Crossing Threads. Solid 12/10 🎺 I mostly listen to music! Sometimes I listen to a Podcast instead 🎸 I do listen to music while I draw, if I'm on a tight deadline where I need to focus, I listen to the Pokémon mystery dungeon red and blue recuse team OST. If I have plenty of time to draw, then what I listen to depends on what I'm drawing. it may be where I am getting inspiration from or connected to the aesthetic of the drawing or directly connected to it.

What’s your favorite music artist/band? If you could ask your favorite band/music artist one question, what would it be?

🎤 Oohhh, this is pretty hard honestly. I don't really think I can choose a favorite, but no matter who I'd choose, I'd probably ask them who or what encouraged them to keep going along the path they chose.

🥁 Currently it's panic! At the disco, I'm listening to all their songs on loop constantly lmao. They have such great songs, they inspire me a *lot*. I even created a character based on one of their songs, he's the one I'll be drawing for this zine!:DI'd ask them about the meaning behing lots of their songs <3 The interviews at hand do not satisfy my curiosity enough lmao.I also love Halsey (her first album is my fave), Set it off, Maldita Nerea (a Spanish group) and plenty of musicals (Hamilton, Be more chill...) 🎷 I've so many favorite music artists its so hard to choose, but if I had to pick one, the male J-idol group ARASHI. And if I had to ask them a question, I'd ask them if they're happy and enjoying life well. 🎺 My fave band is Placebo! If hav to ask them what their inspiration would be for their early songs 🎸 My favourite artist is Hikaru Utada and I would ask her if she likes her pre-existing songs, some being based on her life, being used for kingdom hearts or if she would prefer to make songs specifically for the game, about the game itself?

Do you play an instrument? If not would you like to play one? Which one?

🎤  I have a guitar, but I'm still learning how to play that, and definitely want to dedicate more time to that in the future. I'm also kind of interested in learning the piano or violin!

🥁 Nope, but I *wish*, I have such admiration for people who do, seriously. Live music is the best. I'd love to learn how to play the piano, the guitar or maybe the ukelele... But I doubt I will, at least for now, my hands are pretty full with college and comic making. 🎷 I wish I could play the piano and any string instrument. Maybe violin or the harp. 🎺 I used to play the drums 🎸 I can play basic piano. I used to play a recorder when I was much younger.

Which song(s) are you going to draw?

🎤 Magic Island by TXT and Audio by Sia, Diplo and Labrinth

🥁 King of the clouds, by panic! At the disco. 🎷 To the Me of Those Days - KOKIA 🎺 Special K by Placebo 🎸 Sanctuary by Hikaru Utada & Slow dancing in the dark by Joji

What do you expect from this zine?

🎤 To see everyone create a work they're proud of based off of a song they like!

🥁 I just really liked the theme, I have all kinds of imagery and videos in my head about several songs I'm obsessed with. It's a nice excuse to draw a pretty, fleshed out illustration and to learn some new songs in the way from the others' pieces<3    🎷 To be introduced to many different genre's of music and to hopefully find a song/genre I didn't expect to like! 🎺 Mostly just to interact with different people and artists! Make same new friends! 🎸 I expect to see a wide range of music presented, of different genres and both lyrical and instrumental. I hope the music resonates with the individual, something they're proud to share with the other participants and the eventual readers. I would like to have a journey through the zine, experiencing different emotions from everyone's art pieces.

Anything else you want to add?

🎤 Everyone has been super nice so far, and I really look forward to seeing everyone's pieces!

🥁 Best of lucks to everyone participating! I can't wait to see everyone's pieces together :D 🎷 Thank you for taking interest in this zine!  All the artists have put in so much love into each of their pieces. It's been a pleasure to see so many different styles, their works-in-progress and I'm equally excited to see everyone's final product. I hope everyone is able to enjoy all the wonderful artworks being created and produced for all the songs being represented here when the zine releases.  ^^

#AbelDraws #Amaari #andiavang #Antonia #artist spotlight #loop #loop artists #creativert

[physticuffs]

Hi! Mech engineering stuff! I’m trying to compile a machine shop doc for my friend with some thermal fluids stuff too. This is a bit broad, I’ll try to have a more specific question later, but what areas would be good for me to cover for an electrical engineer/someone who may need mech things for a story?

I’m not sure I understand your question--are you asking about terminology, or just like a rundown of stuff in our machine shop, or something else? I guess I’ll answer in a more terminology way and you can let me know if you meant something else.

So that said, the first thing you have to do to machine a part is make a technical drawing. The machinist can’t make anything without a drawing that fully describes the part, BUT the drawing also can’t have any superfluous measurements, because they might conflict with each other. The engineer has to provide full GD&T (geometric dimensioning and tolerancing) on the part. GD&T gives the dimensions of the part--its basic measurements--and the tolerances--how much the dimensions are allowed to vary (so tolerances are expressed as a plus/minus next to the dimensions, and are usually a tiny fraction of the dimensions).  Learning how to do GD&T correctly is tedious as hell and often a whole course or most of a course by itself. 

In an academic context, the machine shop will usually be pretty basic, just the main stuff. Our equipment doesn’t have to be very specialized, and I’m only writing this answer based on personal experience, so I’ll be missing anything specialized. The most basic set of equipment for machining is some collection of saws, drills, lathes, and mills. A bandsaw is easily the type of saw most in use where I work--it’s a saw on a continuously running band, and it’s very versatile because you can move the piece around as you cut, but the thinness of the blade means it’s not as good for thick material. Table saws and circular saws are popular too, and suitable for thicker materials. A drill press makes holes in material. A lathe rotates your piece continuously so that you can make a pattern around the outside of the piece, like if you wanted to cut threads or something. A mill removes material along the surface of your piece. There are hand-controlled versions of all of these machines, but a lot of machines are CNC nowadays--computer-controlled. (Note that a CNC is not a specific machine, but a term that could apply to lots of machines.) You’re also probably going to have a laser cutter and a 3-D printer. (These are always CNC.) They may not be housed in the machine shop, but they’re often used in conjunction with traditional machining tools to create a piece. The machine shop also probably contains a million billion hand tools. Safety is super important too--you have to wear closed-toed shoes and safety glasses, and have long hair tied back. If your friend is writing a story with a character standing in a machine shop, that isn’t gonna be the place to note the character’s long, flowing hair, unless the character is a dumbass who is about to get kicked out and/or injured.  

Thermal fluids is an ENORMOUS field and I don’t wanna just spout random stuff about it, so a more specific question would definitely be helpful. 

[pinkys-plan]

I have found a way to trick my brain into being productive!!! But only in this specific instance!!!

Basically I’ve been doing two things throughout the day - drawing tomorrow’s mechtober piece and learning harmonica for my Jonny cosplay.

Every time I get restless with one I just switch to the other!! It’s great! Even tho I know it’s just because I like both things and neither of them are college work!!!!

I’ve got a few a tabs I wrote out from some of the songs that mechs songs are based on and I managed to edit them to fit the exact tune and rhythm of the mechs versions and I can (shakily) play through them.

AND I also have a pretty good draft + some line art for my drawing (which is a big one 👀)

That’s so much more productivity than in my usual break days and I still feel well rested! :D

#pinky’s personal journal

[snackrat]

Commission Recommendations

I do not take commissions personally (I don’t have a working PayPal! D:) but I can recommend buddies of mine who do! Together they have a range of styles and specialisations, so I’m sure one of them with meet what you’re looking for. I also met all of them via the Fallout fandom, so while they’re all flexible artists with differing strengths, know that if you’re following me for Fallout content all of them can handle it!

Note: they might not be taking them CURRENTLY - their slots might be full, they might be busy with work or college, they might be on a wellness break. But these are all people I can recommend who regularly take commissions, so if they’re not open right now, they may be soon!

❖ is a link to their current commission page, if they have one. 🚫 are things that the artist refuses to do (non-negotiable!)

Note that 🚫 are what are provided to me by the artists themselves, rather than to a universal standard. So just because one artist thought to say “no X, ever” doesn’t mean all others are “yes X, sure!” If you’re not sure, ASK!

❖  @vectober [NSFW, tagged] (see also: @vect-doodles) Cartoony, but not necessarily ‘cutsey’. Wonderful anatomy and graceful elongated shapes. Sketches and colours. Met her through Fallout fandom, but she also has a lot of history with WoW, and will do anything if you give her a ref. Comfortable with drawing NSFW, both pin-ups and more explicit. Regularly hosts streams, so you may even watch your piece being drawn live! NSFW: ✔ (with conditions) 🚫: non-con, furry, extreme gore, loli

❖  @monster-jensen (see also: @jensen-couch-art) Caricatures, cartoons. Usually sketches or simple colours, but he is also a wonderful painter. People (including ghouls) and monsters make up most of his content. He’s great at full-art paintings, but rarely takes commissions for them as they are very time-consuming (and priced to match). You could try! Suggestive/pin-up content is a-ok, but explicit is no-go. NSFW: ✔ (with conditions) 🚫: explicit, furry

❖  @yabbyabb  (see also: @hatchanddixie) Soft playful shapes. EXCELLENT choice for cute and fluffy content. Will also draw monsters, esp monster-girls. Cartoons, avatars/icons. Her speciality is people (inc ghouls), but for you, she’s willing to try animals and furries! See her illustrations in the #yabbyabb doodles tag or on her RP blog. NSFW: ✔ (with conditions) 🚫: gore, mecha, non-con

❖  @dunesand Specialises in character designs and costuming. Can draw your characters or design you a new one! Humans, monster-humans, gijinkas, more. Highly detailed work. Has a personal interest in cultures of eastern Asia, esp of fashions. The passion shows in their work! I especially love their use of layers in costumes and the mask aesthetic. Tasteful/artistic nudity is okay, but no sexual content. NSFW: ❌ 🚫: explicit content, fetish

@surk3 Specialises in monsters, demons, distorted beasts, and designs of same. Beautiful digital painting! Her rendering is seriously unreal. An excellent choice is you want something slick, scaly, or creepy. Loves to try different styles from common media, ranging from cartoons to realistic renders, making her an adaptable artist. NSFW: ✔ (with conditions) 🚫: underage/loli, scat (reserves the right to decline fetish case-by-case)

❖  @skizoh High-contrast B/W comic-style, use of silhouettes and harsh lighting. Angular, sharp. Very noir! Her use of colour is usually as a bold accent to dark solid shapes, but she does full-colour painted pieces as well. Usually moody colour schemes (teal, purple, green). She’ll often use high-contrast colour, too - eg main base of dark teal, but with bright orange highlights to really >POP!< Is willing to do explicit content, but exercises personal choice as to fetish pieces. NSFW: ✔ (with conditions) 🚫: fetish (negotiable)

❖  @ohmdo Raw, textured (GREAT for dark/villainous content!). Stark b/w, or vibrant colour. Excellent use of anatomy and contrast lighting. Most frequently draws monsters, humans, pokemon gijinkas. Has professional experience in the entertainment industry. ART GOALS, TBH - learning a lot from him. Willing to do gore and monsters, but not sexual content (suggestive negotiable, but nothing explicit!). NSFW: ❌ (negotiable) 🚫: illegal content (everything else is fair game!)

❖  @amummy (see also: @amummyart) Specialises in full-colour digital painting. A soft, oily aesthetic, with slick highlights. Great use of geometric shapes. Humans, ghouls, monsters, aliens, toons, more. Her art blog and personal are the same so if you want to see samples of her work they’re under #my art. Nudity, intimacy/fluff, and mild gore are okay, but passing on the harder stuff. NSFW: ❌ 🚫: extreme gore, explicit, violence/suggestive vs child/animal

❖  @rhobi (see also: @sunshineart) I’d describe their work as ‘crisp’. Pronounced borders. A sort of cell-shaded, pixel-art style. Humans, ghouls, furries/scalies, beasts, monsters, robots, mechs, more - original or fanart, including turnaround sheets. I personally love their monster designs, and they can design you your own as a commission as well. Their art and personal are the same blog so you can see images at the #art tag! They’re also willing to negotiate suggestive or softcore NSFW or nudity (but nothing graphic!). NSFW: ✔ (with conditions) 🚫: explicit/hardcore

@izzy-cat-draws (see also: @izzy-fat-cat [NSFW, untagged]) Mostly does sketchwork commissions (or monotone rendered). May do full renders or coloured pieces if you ask him nicely! Has accomplished use of composition and perspective and experience with NSFW content. Draws humans, ghouls, furry, robots, and fanart (esp for fantasy and sci-fi). Specialises in furry (including NSFW furry and fatfur). NSFW: ✔ 🚫: excessive gore, scat, watersports

@snackrat Haha nice try my PayPal doesn’t even work no more, you can’t commish me, try again binch (I may do art trades or collabs tho, chosen on a case-by-case basis), specialises in trash, memes, shitposts, COLOURS NSFW: ❌ 🚫: mecha (small parts ok, eg bionic limbs), fetish

#masterpost #snackrats #commissions #shoutout #signal boost #long post

[jackleveledup]

Game of the Year 2016: My Top Three

It's been a long road for Game of the Year and 2016 in general, but we finally made it to the top three! In case you missed it, there were a ton of other games I loved this year that I wrote about in a post I called "Very Good Games".

And one last thing before we close this out: thanks for reading!

#3. Hyper Light Drifter

This year, no single moment compared to the rush I got from my first chain-dash in Hyper Light Drifter. There's a primal satisfaction to the accelerating timing it demands, as each flash of pink and teal raises the pressure of the impending button press. Eventually I learned that it's not that good in combat and it's only one of many means of survival, yet it was at that precise moment that the game won me over.

I say this without exaggeration: Hyper Light Drifter is a visual masterpiece. Fans and Kickstarter backers have been drooling over screens for years now, and the reality seems to have even exceeded expectations. Environments overflow with lightly muted colors and all kinds of mystery, like enormous Evangelion-inspired beasts, esoteric symbols, and ruins of a civilization long since past. Animation is beautifully handled frame-by-frame, highlighting the tension in each action and closing off with a shimmer of vibrant neon.

It's not an easy game by any means, but success becomes its own reward. Every battle is a fury of bullets and blades with far more dead bodies than dead air. I found myself often getting lost in the chaos, only realizing a room was clear when my darting eyes couldn't find anything new to shoot at. What's unusual, though, is that I didn't find the boss fights to deliver the same sense of exhilaration as the average encounter along the way, but as a capstone to a difficult journey, they work well enough. Maybe I should just be grateful I was never tempted to chuck a controller.

Hyper Light Drifter is enthralling, both in its hectic gameplay and its unwordly atmosphere. I know without a doubt that I'll be back for another shot at deciphering what the hell happened to this world.

#2. Kirby: Planet Robobot

If you've ever daydreamed about what you'd do with your own giant super robot, Kirby: Planet Robobot is a game you need to play. I mean this in the best way possible: it seems like the game was designed by a 6 year old with complete creative authority.

"Give it a giant drill! No, saw blades! Give it flamethrowers! Make it transform into a car! AND a jet!"

Yep, those are all things you can do, and it owns!

The heart of Kirby games has always lied in their diverse power-ups: fire, ice, spark, hammer, bomb, and dozens of others. This time, the sizable set of abilities is doubled by applying not just to Kirby, but his huge, face-shaped armor suit. If Kirby gets a sword, his mech gets two massive beam-sabers. If Kirby gets a jetpack, his mech transforms into a jet! Discovering all of the ways these forms could be used was a joy that lasted me the entire length of the game.

With so many power-ups there's a staggering number of game mechanics at play, which HAL Laboratories take full advantage of in the level design. Whether its a puzzle requiring a certain power-up, a rare boss or ability, or simple visual flair, each stage has some kind of "gimmick" to separate it from the last. Ideas reappear only seldomly, and not without being somehow altered and built upon. Sometimes the game even pretends to be something else entirely, like the shmup style stages that utilize the "Jet" version of the robot armor, or the auto-scrolling stages in the "Wheel" armor. All of this leads to a collection of stages that feel memorable and worth revisiting.

Between its game design and its vast possibility-space, Planet Robobot executes on its concept almost as perfectly as I can imagine. I know Kirby isn't the top Nintendo franchise for most people, but given the run the series is having right now, I'm starting to seriously question how long my little pink creampuff will go underappreciated!

#1. VA-11 HALL-A

VA-11 HALL-A is a visual novel that sounds extremely good in theory - just read its tagline: "cyberpunk bartender action." You play as Jill, who works at a bar called Valhalla in a futuristic city of perpetual darkness, poor people, robots, androids, and most of all, strife. It operates pretty differently as a video game, though. It's often assumed that gameplay exists for the sole purpose of fun, but even for a visual novel, VA-11 HALL-A's simple mechanics took me more than a few drinks to warm up to. Kinda' like in real life, the process of mixing "Brandtinis" and "Bleeding Janes" isn't especially exciting after the first few times, and almost everyone visiting the bar seems to have way more going on in life than you. I just wasn't seeing how it came together. It took some time and careful thought, but by the end of the game it had shaped into something incredible.

It's all thanks to the bar's atmosphere that I stuck around at all, and man, did they nail it. First and foremost, this soundtrack is phenomenal. What woud otherwise be your average cyberpunk setting becomes a wondrous dystopia thanks to Garoad's deft, moody composition. Its implementation is sharp, too. Instead of having music set to match each scene, you're handed complete control over the playlist while on duty. There's a palpable realism to incidentally having serious talks over loud, upbeat music, or joking during an ominous buildup. It helps to give Jill some believable agency as a bartender, too. You can always decide what drink to serve, how strong to mix it, or what music you want to play, but not who comes in that night or what to talk about. Details matter, and the developers at Sukeban Games were paying careful attention.

While Jill herself doesn't seem to bring much nuance to the story (...at first), the rest of the cast handily pick up the slack. The pixel-based character portraits are surprisingly expressive and go a long way in realizing the game's zany, reference-loaded dialog. Dorothy is a definitive fan favorite - she's an android that was specifically engineered to have weaker emotional responses to things that humans often find traumatizing. This trait colors every one of her conversations with typical humans, especially once you figure out that she's a sex-worker. Her career is almost completely inconsequential to her and she LOVES to tease people about it, so the scenes that ensue whenever she meets someone new at Valhalla are pretty entertaining, to say the least. In general, though, Sukeban Games have a firm grasp on how to both play into tropes and subvert them, which allows them to hit their punchlines without compromising any drama during more serious scenes.

My favorite part about VA-11 HALL-A is how much of the narrative the player is trusted to piece together. For a visual novel there's suprisingly little exposition - almost none, actually! It's basically all conversations, and not even ones explicitly about current events. Your only glimpse at what's happening outside of the bar is limited to what you happen to hear, what you choose to read in the news or on shitty forums, and most importantly, what connections you can draw between them. It's amusing to talk to some of the bar's customers, for sure, but your impression might completely change when you realize what they're up to before they stop in or finish their last drink.

The way in which VA-11 HALL-A dismantled my first impression continues to impress me. As the credits rolled it made perfect sense that the bartender would feel less interesting than the guests she serviced. Maybe it shouldn't feel "fun" to Jill when she mixes a drink for a grumpy customer. Maybe it makes sense that a struggling bartender wouldn't have the clearest picture of the "what's" and "why's" of her city's politics. None of that is crucial to finding happiness anyway. VA-11 HALL-A highlighted aspects of life that I don't usually give a second thought to, in a way that feels uncommonly literary for a video game. It's probably not going to be a game for everyone, but to those that seek it out, the narrative at work is nothing short of intoxicating.

#game of the year #goty2016 #va-11 hall-a #kriby #hyper light drifter