#this one marks a change. that change is i have switched to clip studio paint because it was on sale

[personishfive]

in which dialogue is exchanged

#p5 spoilers #goro akechi #joker p5 #akira kurusu #persona 5 #my art #comics #this one marks a change. that change is i have switched to clip studio paint because it was on sale #glad i could keep this blog's aesthetic lol. every art program should let u disable anti aliasing methinks #this ones based on an old old sketchbook comic. well like half of my comics are based on sketchbook comics. i still have material to work w #from those. lol #long time no comic in my defense i am as overwhelmed with life as ever. but you already know that. love u guys<3

[blackstarchanx3new]

Creations AU, But I obnoxiously over explain it PT 6

Pages 151-180

Think of Dawko's voice: JUMPSCARE-

Haha Mike's a little fruity. Getting hugs from someone might not be the most common thing for him. We dunno.

Micheal are you trying to seduce Mike?

Jokes aside we learn some new things about Michael:

He's very cold and smells like metal when you're up close.

Probs cause he works down with machinery. Down there would be cold...

Also he lives with his dad. Greeaaaaaaat.

Living with someone who's dominating and possibly a serial killer.

Uh. Funny wording from you Michael about "Replacing body parts" and seems a bit germophobic in the way he talks about Mike's injury.

Sure that has no significance at all.

Mike doesn't seem all that concerned saying the disturbing line given all we know about him "It's not my first bad injury"

Also Michael buddy, personal space.

Oh.

So that's what his hair looks like when it's brushed. X'D

Details details:

Why does he have two toothbrushes in his bathroom?

Does he use the mint toothpaste or the bubble gum one...

Clearly two distinct individuals live here...whoever uses the bubble gum one is implied to be more childish.

Mike LIVES with someone...

Yes. You can gather all that from the background detail of toothpaste. That's the whole reason it's there. :)

Anyway about what Mike actually SAYS:

He finds Michael overbearing. Oof.

He CONFORMS his hair is dyed, it needs to be cut and considers dying his eyebrows.

In the ream of symbolism: Mike dying his hair implies he's covering something up.

In the realm of just normal shit: He doesn't like his natural hair color for whatever reason.

His choice of grey specifically could be dug into: as it's symbolism is mostly uniformity, blandness, and gloom.

But mainly I chose his hair color to be grey because you don't see a lot of young characters with grey hair. You see white haired characters (Ethan Winters in this series being an example of a white haired character) but not grey.

Mike embraces a hair color that makes him look older.

Also note: Mike doesn't brush his hair normally. It's a mess. Mike doesn't like his current haircut either.

Changing your hair is usually a sign of control, so the fact Mike seems to dislike so much about his hair is a sign he doesn't have much control in his life.

HELLO WHO ARE YOU!?

OH DON'T MIND HIM HE'S JUST ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS.'

His eyes are weird and an unnatural purple color. If you know about Fnaf:

He's playing Fazerblast. I'm sure him being a great shot doesn't come into play ANYWHERE IN THE STORY GOING FORWARD.

You can tell I switched to Clip Studio paint for these pages lmfao. I was using Fire Alpaca before.

Few things: This person is very concerned with their looks.

Their design of having a beauty mark is there because I have one lol not that big tho.

He previously worked nightshift...Oh my.

Haha. His eyes are glitching.

Wonder if we know someone who can...corrupt body parts and make them robotic...No surely this isn't Cody's doing...Surely.

And he's talking to SOMEONE off screen.

A "Kid" apparently. Though the eyeline seems to be at his...Tall kid.

Uh oh.

We know someone who can look like a kid...

OH NO.

Tehe.

He speak Spanish-

Oh my the poster.

Yup Golden Freddy's messing with someone again.

But we dunno who this is or why they're important yet.

Something to note:

So far we've seen 4 security guards/night guards.

Mike: Who has a cyan shirt and a cute little pink bow. (He's got them trans colors)

Jeremy: Blue shirt, blue bowtie

Michael: Purple shirt and black tie

This mysterious person: Purple shirt and black tie.

Bet there's no significance to their outfits at all...

Just keep him in your back pocket for now.

Why would Cody be talking to this person? He pulls out a device and "Should do something about that"

He's clearly someone who has authority of SOME kind to fix problems.

We don't get to hear what Cody/Fredbear says about the matter, but whatever it is this person's "That's awful" leads us to think something BAD is happening....

Weird.

Back to fire alpaca pages gotcha.

That previous scene was added later lmao gives context to smth later.

Anyways:

Mike's outfit:

He's wearing a pale cyan Freddy jacket. The fact he owns Freddy's merch is very amusing. He clearly has a history with the place so him owning merch makes sense.

Funny enough despite Bonnie being Mike's favorite animatronic, twice now Mike is being associated with Freddy. It's the animatronic Cody picked to turn him into, and now he's wearing a Freddy jacket.

Those who know the game over sequence for FNAF 1 would know: Mike Schmidt is stuffed inside of a Freddy Fazbear suit. So these COULD just be cheeky nods to that. ;)

Why DOES Mike own Freddy merch despite Bonnie being his favorite?

He's mostly going just for Bonnie which is funny. He's also curious if "Evidence" is around.

Michael Jumpscare number, like what 3? X'D

He's very excitable and wearing a cute purple turtle neck.

Mr. Afton's not home, neat.

This house's inside coloring is based on the FNAF 4 minigame house. Because I make the rules lmao.

Mike wears cute pink heart socks and I just like that he's cute like that.

There are STAINS on the floor, specifically blood stains. They've "Always been there" according to Michael. Suspicious.

These stains origins are shown off in the SL comic but I won't spoil who they are from for people who are reading this first.

Mike is very offput by this.

They head to Michael's room.

Michael's room is based on the room we play in FNAF 4. Because I find that interesting.

This isn't mentioned here or anywhere really but shit you can infere if you read FNAF 4 and SL comics: Michael owns Cody's stuffed animals now, but Josh's old room is Michael's current room.

So Michael got a lot of things from his dead siblings it seems.

His "Friends" are creepy as sin.

Michael's expecting questions cause of what Bonnie said.

Michael asks Mike about his own father, which prompts Mike to be uncomfortable to say the least.

He hasn't spoken to his father in a long time.

Michael's brain seems to break from this idea and he comes off as super rude but he's just shocked.

Haha. Mrs. Afton is an interesting subject.

Again where she is is addressed in the Sister Location and FNAF 4 comic but for now, it's left to what Micheal says.

He doesn't remember her at all or a LOT of things. Because our boy had a terrible accident and he took awhile to recover from it and he has memory issues from before he got into said accident.

Mr. Afton's parting wasn't nice to say the least considering William is "Mad at her" and he refuses to talk about her.

Mike monologues to himself, coming to the realization Mrs. Afton might be dead.

And Michael's accident might have been from Freddy's.

Would make sense.

And we get a fun Alice in Wonderland reference with the Spring Bonnie animatronic.

It's design was inspired by the "Into the pit" Fazbear's fright books.

Hah. Micheal might not be as innocent as he lets on, note how he is now cuddling a Golden Freddy plushie.

And he resigns to his life is better without his mother and Mike is better off without his father.

Despite being a grown up, Michael's view on the world and his situation seem rather, childish. Which would make sense considering he lost a lot of his memories. It also makes his living situation, living with his father still make more sense. William is very protective over Michael.

Mike's reluctant to join the Freddy's family.

Buddy you dunno how deep in you're gonna get at some point lmfao.

Michael also did an oopsie slip up there if you notice:

"Let's forget about our crap parents"

...Michael.

Parents there is plural.

As in. He thinks William is crap too despite what he just said lmfao.

You might be starting to realize: Michael is masking a whole lot.

What he says/does does not reflect the real Michael Afton. He only seems to let his façade drop and talk honestly around Ennard and Bonnie so far. He's still pretending in front of Mike keeping a cheerful attitude.

And they have a totally relevant talk about ice cream.

If you know FNAF lore you know why "ice cream" is a disturbing topic but again this is smth for Sister Location.

Michael "Can't taste a difference" between frozen and fresh pizza.

Absolutely no symbolism in that line at all.

You can really take this however you want but small lines like this are kinda "Oh I get it" lines later. XD

Michael can't tell when he's being "Deceived", Michael will go with a widely accepted "Crappy" version of something because he just can't tell the difference.

A wider concept of disceptation/imitations being overlooked.

Or you can take William's preference as the odd one here.

William prefers something that in truth has no significant or quantifiable difference.

He enjoys the heir of something "better" when in truth there is no real difference and Michael appreciates things just because they're there.

Or it's just a comment about how Michael literally cannot taste things...

Michael stop flirting.

Also FNAF fans yes the allusions to another character is strong with Michael and that is 100% intentional. If you get it you get it.

He pretends. He knows how to make ice cream. He puts on an air of wanting to help fsr is very comforting when he talks hiding his true nature.

Again Sister Location.

This is another clip studio one I know for sure cause of the asset text bubbles I used for awhile.

Anyways:

Mike and Michael are watching TV.

Sister Location Michael Afton go brrrr wonder if they're watching immortal and restless X'D-

Ironic how Michael is cuddling the plush of an animatronic his brother got his head crushed by/is trapped inside. This is the second time he's doing it but he actually switched plushies as the one he was hugging earlier was a bit more scuffed looking. This one is obviously meant to be Fredbear from the purple hat while the one he was hugging earlier had a black hat and a contorted face.

Mike is obviously hugging a Bonnie plush. it's coloration is off from the Bonnie plushies we've seen earlier so we can think this thing is either a prototype or perhaps another location's Bonnie.

Either way: Despite Michael being childish he's willing to share his plushies with Mike and let Mike hold his Bonnie plush. He wasn't lying when he said he'd try to make Mike feel welcomed.

Jeremy refuses to come to the house because William's off putting. Jeremy's a rather skittish person so that makes sense. Though again we get another instance to Michael and Jeremy Fitzgerald being pretty good friends.

And speak of the devil and he shall appear! :D It's Willy Billy Afton.

William drives Michael mad.

What do you mean by "Those friends" William.

"That was one time"

and "Jeremy is from work too"

The implication is Jeremy and Michael had relations and William saw it lmfao because I find that hilarious.

So smth to note here:

The characters Fritz Smith and Sammy Emily are names used for one character inter-changeably.

This AU swapped his name around and this page refers to him as "Fritz" but past a certain point it's almost exclusively Sammy.

Anyways:

What THINGS did Sammy/Fritz tell William exactly?

Michael seems annoyed by William's presence even calling William a "Creepy old man" and to "Leave Mike alone"

William acts over dramatic about this.

Michael continues to be a menace to his aged father.

And William asks a question that confuses the crap out of Michael.

Mike's mom is nuts too, supposedly.

Mike's gonna stay the night though.

So, they're playing games together.

And Michael is "Not good at games".

Makes sense why Bonnie's the one who does the claw machine not him hah.

We know Mike likes to play video games...so it can be inferred his annoyance here is because he's actually good at them. X'D

Evidently: Michael is not a fan of "The other owner's son"

Conforming there's another owner outside of William.

Presumably Henry.

We hit 180 so gotta pick this up again.

#fnaf au #fnaf comic #fnaf fan comic #fnaf fan art #fnaf creations au #fnaf golden freddy #golden freddy #mike schmidt #fnaf michael afton #michael afton #bonnie #fnaf bonnie #william afton

[elektroyu]

I love your art so much! :) what kind of brushes do you use? I paint, but i find the change to digital art/painting so difficult ! Do you have any tips? :) keep being awesome!

Hey! Thank you so much, I'm really happy my art brings you joy! :D

In Clip Studio Paint I mostly use these 3 brushes:

a flat oil brush with a rectangular brush shape, so it creates thin lines in certain angles and wider marks in others (I *think* it came with an earlier version, but seems to not be included anymore? There should be similar types in Assets for free, though). I do the bulk of my painting process with this brush especially for pet portraits

a pencil brush with paper texture; this is a standard brush (wonderful for creating convincing fur effect in paintings, but also beautiful for sketches)

G-Pen brush for lineart or cel-shaded work

Depending on what I want to achieve I'll sprinkle other brush types in (like airbrush), but in general these are my main go-to's. I'm still learning to use all the fancy tools, though, so maybe I'll develop a preference for other brushes in the future. Who knows :D

As for tips from switching from traditional to digital... this may be a pretty unsexy answer, but I think in the end this comes down to simply practice and experimentation. Use it often for all sorts of things, play around with settings, maybe watch tutorials to see how other people use all the digital tools. You could do studies of photos or art in order to concentrate on getting used to the medium instead of also worrying about what you draw/ paint on top of that. You could start by painting small items/ subjects from your comfort zone one at a time; there's no need to start off with complete finished paintings.

However, if you're overwhelmed with the sheer possibilities: feel free to start very simple and treat it like traditional art (that's what I did). Maybe at first use just one brush, one or two layers, maybe even ignore the eraser or undo option if these stress you out more than they help. You could also combine both types of art and color your traditional linework/ sketches digitally, or the other way around. Whichever approach excites you most! From there, expand your tool box in whatever pace you're feeling comfortable. The rest will come with time and practice.

One thing I'd strongly recommend for everyone who tends to get too lost in details too early (like me haha): work zoomed out until you've solved all the problems, then proceed to detailing. This prevents you from a) wasting a lot of time and b) creating lots of unnecessary frustration.

Other than that, definitely do have fun with it! :) Digital is much more forgiving than traditional art imho and you definitly can make full use of this.

I hope this helps somewhat, but feel free to nudge me into another direction if you were looking for more advanced tips! I really couldn't tell from the (amazing!!) work you have on your blog where you might feel challenged during the changing process. :)

#ask #digital art

[6480n]

[ID in alt text]

Just finished this art of my OC, Jira! He’s my main OC and sort of serves as my persona in many cases, so I’m super excited to be able to share this drawing. Since this is my first time posting him on this blog, I’m going to talk about his history and share a *bunch* of drawings under the cut (as well as WIP images from this drawing).

Text on his shorts says เสือทอง, or “golden tiger”, and he’s carrying bagged soymilk with tapioca, which is a common way to get soymilk in thailand!

The idea for this drawing is one I’ve had in my head for a few months, but wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull off since I don’t have a lot of practice with perspective shots. I sort of wanted to give him a “casually defiant” look, as well as taking the opportunity to design a fun outfit based around colorful muay thai shorts. Unlike myself, I envision Jira as someone who primarily wears shorts (often with an incongruous top like a long coat), so I love designing his outfits because of the unique balance shorts give.

[ID: Two sketches from previous stages of the first drawing, one being a rough full-body sketch and the other being a refined sketch from the torso-up. end ID]

(^ I like his face in this sketch better than the final, lol…) I’m super happy with how this drawing turned out, especially the coloring and shading. I normally have the instinct to put my shading and highlights on another layer (borne from years of drawing art for petsites…), but I painted all the colors and shading on one layer and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I also added some sort of clip studio filter which gave everything a slight amount of color variance, which looks really cool!

Now, about the character himself: I made this guy back in about 2016 when I was getting back into Animal Crossing for the second time. I needed a secondary character for storage, so I invented Jira (who at the time was named 6480 since that was the username I was starting to switch over to), and gave him a connection to my then-main character (plum/Clove, who I’ll post about later) by way of a sort of flirty friendship. I thought it would be cool if they were like, friends who had houses on opposite sides of the same river and waved to each other and ate breakfast together and held hands and like….. yeah 🥺

Jira is super important to me for a ton of reasons, mostly because he developed as I grew up and the transition I made towards using him as my persona instead of Clove represented a lot of changes in my life and my personality. As he developed and I needed to name him, I decided to make him Thai (he started out inadvertently white cause there was only one skintone in ACNL… cringe), which marked a point in time where I became more invested in my cultural background. When I made him a trans man, it represented that I had become more comfortable and proud of my transness. His personality, which was more casual and open than Clove’s, marked the change in my own personality and growth in confidence. And I was able to explore my own ideals of relationships through the one he had with Clove.

Now, it’s 2020 and my new Animal Crossing game has him as my main character and Clove (as well as a couple others) as my alternate! I’m super glad to be able to look back on this and mark the ways I’ve changed over the years, and it’s really interesting that both of my personas since 2014 have been because of the AC franchise.

Here’s some sketches (I haven’t actually made formalized art of him until now, except for one drawing as an anthro monkey which I will not be sharing rofl):

[ID: Digital reference sheet for Jira in Animal Crossing style, in various different poses. He has tan skin and light brown hair. Text on the image says: name: 6480 gender: [male symbol] birthday: Oct 17th personality: smug occuption: barista hobbies: fishing, cooking, model making style: basic/iconic best friend: Lopez end ID]

Section of a reference sheet I made for my four ACNL characters, set inside the universe of my AC island.

[ID: Black and white digital sketch of an Animal Crossing character. He’s wearing a long coat, black shorts, and a cow skull on his head. He’s surrounded by a bunch of small mushrooms and weeds, and he’s carrying some fishing poles in a bag. end ID]

Drawing of my ACNH outfit as it was in April (autumn on my southern hemisphere island)

[ID: Colored digital sketch of two Animal Crossing characters. They’re sleeping in neighboring futons. One has pale skin, short yellow hair, and a sunhat, while the other has light brown skin and short brown curly hair. end ID]

Drawing of my ACNH character and my best friend’s :-)

[ID: Black and white sketches of Jira with more realistic proportions. In one he’s wearing a very similar outfit as the first image in this post; in the other he’s wearing a raincoat, a cowboy hat, and shorts that almost reach the hem of the coat. end ID]

[ID: Colored bust sketch of Jira in an orange shirt. end ID]

Aaaaand I think that’s all the good art I have of him. I’m not expecting anyone to have read this far but uhm THANK YOU if you did… you’re my number 1 fan… Don’t judge what I said in this post too harshly, *so what* if I base my personality around a character that only exists in my own head? 😭 Anyways, have a great day, and thanks for reading my rambling!

#my art #digital art #design #original character #oc.jira #drawing #outfit design #casual wear #illustration #fashion #outfit #clothing #thai #artists on tumblr #in-depth

[lilacmiracle]

The Terrifying Case of Iplier Manor - Chapter 1

Beta read by @mysterio-is-the-truth

Fandoms: Markiplier, Buzzfeed Unsolved

Note: Quotation marks are Ryan narrating, bold is Shane speaking, italics are Ryan speaking, both bold and italics is the psychic, both bold and italics and in all caps is the spirit box

(AO3) Words: 4,356

The video opens on a series of clips that are presumably filmed later in the episode. The first clip shows Ryan in front of a broken mirror while looking over at Shane, asking, breathlessly, “What the fuck?” The second clip shows Ryan, still in front of the broken mirror, with a bottle of what is presumably holy water. He sprays it at Shane. The third and final clip shows Ryan, Shane, and a new person, all in a different room, this one with a wood fireplace, with a flashlight that has been brightly turned on. The flashlight switches off, and Ryan screams very loudly. 

The video then cuts to the intro for most ‘Supernatural’ episodes, with the building in the background being a version of the Manor, rendered in a 2-Dimensional style.

The video then cuts to Ryan and Shane standing in front of the double doors to the Manor, with Ryan on the right and Shane on the left.

“We are here at Iplier Manor, site of the Warfstache Disappearances, for this season’s finale and my one demon sacrifice for this season.”

I’m really fucking scared, man. I -- I don’t wanna do this.

It’s fiiiiiine. I mean, what’s the worst that’s gonna happen? Spooky lawyer ghosts?

We could die! We could disappear like those other people!

Only if the Colonel comes.

“This house, if it is, in fact, inhabited by a demon, is by far the most dangerous location that we have ever investigated. As such, we have brought in a psychic to help us in our investigation.”

The new person from the third clip steps into frame. She appears to be an older woman with short, gray hair and loose clothes. She is wearing loose necklaces and an abundance of bracelets that hang off of her wrists.

Hello, my name is Lily, and I am here to help these two with their investigation on this Manor right here.

With that, the Ghoul Boys™ and Lily head inside of the Manor.

I have a Bible and my holy water.

You’re gonna be fine, Ryan.

I sure hope so.

“This episode is going to be rather out of the ordinary with regards to our other demon investigations, considering the fact that we have already covered the history of this house in our last True Crime episode. However, there are a few odd occurrences inside of these walls that were not covered in that video.”

The video cuts to black, fading into a black-and-white image of Mark Iplier. Ryan’s narration continues.

“This Manor has a long history of misery, being the place of many a divorce and untimely death, all of which were ruled to be by natural causes. Things start getting weird when the actor Mark Iplier buys the house for himself and his new wife, Celine Iplier, in early 1913. Investigators found a diary that is believed to have been owned by Celine Iplier. The entries in this diary paint a terrible picture -- Mark was being twisted into the form of a monster, wrote one entry.”

The image on the video had shifted into an image of Celine when Ryan mentioned her. Now, it shows an image of aged paper, with a message written in practiced cursive. A female voice begins to read:

“Friday, February 20, 1914,

This house has become more and more oppressive. I sense darkness within it, and I think that Mark does as well. I am concerned, for if he feels what I can -- he is not trained in anything beyond our world, he has no access to what is past our mortal realm. For the house to make itself known, even to him, is a sign of something terrible.

I can feel him changing, shifting; he has been ever since he bought this place. Hell, he changed the moment he set foot through those damned doors. I don’t know what the house is twisting him into -- I just know that I won’t like the end result.”

There is a sound effect of the turning of a page, and the image onscreen is replaced by a new one -- another aged piece of paper, the same perfect penmanship, a different message that’s somehow even more ominous. The same voice begins to read:

“Wednesday, August 5, 1914,

Mark hasn’t gotten a job in months. He quit the studio in June, and he keeps telling me that he’ll try for a job with another. He’s not going to, and I don’t have to be psychic to see that. He keeps wasting away in his office, today is no different. He keeps going to the wine cellar, but whenever I go, no wine is missing.

I don’t know what he’s doing. Mark’s beginning to scare me -- he fired our butler. Again. He wouldn’t have done that two years ago. This Mark isn’t the one I married two years ago, either. 

This house is twisting him, and I fear the image that he is being molded to. My concerns aren’t being listened to, either -- everyone’s saying it’s the stress of the War. That’s not it, wars don’t make men stay away from their wives for weeks at a time. Wars don’t make men fire staff member after staff member, or buy car after car, while doing nothing at all with the luxuries that they’ve bought. Wars don’t change men like Mark has changed.

I want my husband back. And I want this fucking house burned to the ground.”

Another page turn, another piece of paper. It’s still old, and still covered in Celine’s perfect handwriting. A new message is upon it.

“Friday, May 14, 1915,

Mark is dead, and whatever’s walking around in his body isn’t him. I’ve mourned and made my peace with that. The thing wearing his face is a selfish and awful monster.

It still hosts parties like Mark did -- the same poker nights that are always won by (the writing is redacted. Written over it, in white, is “The District Attorney,” despite the fact that the person that it must be referring to won’t even be the DA for another 5 years), the same cocktail parties for the sole purpose of social climbing. Those parties are the same as before, which is almost insulting. The only difference is that Mark, our friends and I used to make fun of the pompous jerks, afterward. Now he sends them home with everyone else. He never speaks to me, either.

Parties are the only times I see my brother anymore. I miss Damien, almost more than I miss Mark. But I know that Damien is within reach. I know that I can worm my way past the monster, if only for a few hours. But Mark is too far gone to even be contacted through the beyond. I fear that I will never see him again, even after I die. That almost scares me more than the monster.”

Another entry.

“Saturday, October 7, 1916,

William returned yesterday. He says to call him Colonel now, but I don’t think I ever will. It’s too impersonal, and it glorifies the War far too much. The War cost William his leg, and too many others their lives.

Will may be my only escape from the monster. He hasn’t let me leave this house in months, not even to see Damien. There’s a poker night on Tuesday, the 10th. I know that William will be there, and I know that the layout of the house will disorient him. When he gets lost in the house, I can find him. He’ll be away from ‘Mark,’ far enough away that I can convince him to run away with me. I know that he will, I know that he still loves me, even after our breakup, and even after my wedding.

I only have one chance to escape. William is my last hope, and if I fail, my fate will be at the hands of the monster.

At times like this, I think of my husband. My real husband. I miss Mark dearly, but I know that I could never bear to look at him if he came back. His image has been far too tainted by the thing that is wearing his face.

This will be my final entry. I am hiding this diary in the hopes that it may one day be found by those who may purchase this accursed Manor. Know that if I have mysteriously died or disappeared, it was caused by something taking the form of Mark Iplier. 

Know that this Manor isn’t safe.”

Well that was something.

That was an adventure. We’ve got body snatchers, we’ve got cursed houses, we’ve got reclusive husbands. Hell, this would make a great book!

(wheeze)

“These diary entries tell the horrifying tale of Celine Iplier, who was terrorized by the demon within this very Manor. It took the form of her husband, Mark Iplier, whom she was later able to divorce. She regained her maiden name, which has now been lost, along with many other names of those present at the party almost exactly four years later.”

What’s weird -- and I mean it’s really fucking weird -- is she did still disappear mysteriously. With whatever made itself look like her ex-husband.

That is weird, yeah, but it’s also four years later. I think it’s a coincidence.

But it’s four years to the day!

Coincidence. Although -- this does paint Warfstache in a whole new light.

It does, actually. He’s the hero now!

Good for him.

“Speaking of Warfstache, we are now going to be entering the room that matched the location of his supposed ‘séance room.’ When it was investigated, there was no evidence of anything supernatural at all, though it doesn’t hurt to look.”

The crew enters the room, which is set up with a table in the center. Around it are three chairs, presumably meant for Shane, Ryan, and Lily. There are three lit candles sitting on the center of the table.

We are going to be performing a séance in this room, the one where Damien and Celine allegedly disappeared. We will be attempting to contact their departed spirits, in the hopes that they will be able to give us answers as to the events that transpired in this house.

Shane, Ryan, and Lily all sit at the table. They join hands around the table, encircling it.

Close your eyes, everyone.

Shane, Ryan, and Lily all close their eyes.

We are reaching out to one or both of the twins Damien and Celine, who disappeared in this house in the year 1920. If either of you are present, please send us a sign.

Nothing happens for a moment. The room is silent, the only light coming from the flames of the candles.

Lily visibly shudders.

Something is here. I do not know who, or what, it is. Ryan, if you could ask your first question?

Yes. Are you Damien or Celine?

I -- I just felt a “No.” In my head. I don’t think that it’s either of them.

Are you, or were you, human?

Another “No.”

Are you a demon?

Lily breathes deeply, as if steeling herself.

“Yes.”

Ryan visibly tenses. Shane continues his questioning.

Are you the demon that looked like the actor guy?

Lily becomes unnaturally still for a moment, as if she’s listening to something that nobody else can hear.

It -- it says that it never looked like him. It never possessed him. It just ... spoke to him. Are you intending to harm anyone in this circle tonight?

Silence. The video cuts ahead, almost imperceptibly, as everyone is still in the same position as before.

Fifteen minutes have passed with no answer. The demon has ended the séance.

Lily opens her eyes and releases Shane and Ryan’s hands. The others follow suit.

I’m really freaking out now.

You’ve got your holy water, man. And your Bible.

I -- yeah. I have holy water and I’m not afraid to use it.

You think it was telling the truth? About not possessing the guy?

Are you actually admitting that a real demon was talking to us?

I’m not admitting anything. I’m invested in the story, though.

The story.

Yeah, the story. Was the guy possessed like the wife says, or did he just become a total douche? Fame can do that to people, you know.

You didn’t need fame for that, you dick.

Shush, you.

“After the séance, we’re going to be walking around the Manor so that Lily can get a general sense of the place and if there’s anything that she can pick up on that we haven’t.”

I would just like to say, before we leave this room -- I can feel something here. Unrelated to the recent séance.

Ryan hesitates, then says, 

Please elaborate.

Something ... bad ... happened here. In this room. I sense feelings of confusion, betrayal, loss ... regret. I -- hang on.

She moves to another area of the room, closing in on herself.

Something terrible happened, right in this spot. Somebody died right here. The thing is, though, I can usually sense if it’s a masculine or a feminine presence. I can definitively say that there was at least one masculine presence, the one that died in this spot. But the other ... seems to alternate between the two. And not in a natural way, either; it feels like a woman was possessed by something male. These ‘presences’ aren’t here right now, though, Ryan, you can relax.

Ryan had tensed up, but now he relaxed slightly after Lily told him to.

These are ... echoes of people that were here, ones that went through something awful. These echoes feel very similar to each other, at least, the masculine one and the feminine part of the other. I think that Damien and Celine did die here. I can also sense that they are still wandering this plane, still stuck roaming the mortal realm ... but they left this Manor long ago. We won’t see any of them tonight.

With that, she exits the room, beckoning for Shane and Ryan to follow.

“Our first stop is by an object that most paranormal investigators have agreed is one of the most active places in this Manor.”

The crew stops near a broken mirror on the first floor of the building. There is a large hole just to the left of the center of the mirror.

There is a lot of energy here. You boys might like to use your ‘Spirit Box’ here later. I can feel ... quite a lot, a lot of people, a lot of emotion, right here. I can feel an echo of a man, just over there.

She points to an area just past the mirror, towards what appears to be a room with large double doors leading outside. They are covered by curtains, and made almost completely of glass.

There is a sense of ... pity. Towards him, from someone over here. This mirror feels ... empty. Not empty as in ‘there’s nothing there,’ but empty as in apathetic. Someone fought desperately, kicked and screamed and did everything in their power to get someone, anyone, to help them ... but nobody came. So, they slowly gave up. The fight drained until they finally realized that nobody would, or even could, save them. Now they’re trapped in the eternal hell of the mirror, abandoned by those they thought to be friends. I ... don’t know where that came from, I’m sorry.

Don’t be.

Well, I can tell you that the presence in the mirror was human, but now they’re a spirit. Neither a masculine nor feminine presence, but I think that that discrepancy is a natural one. I can also feel ... something familiar, similar to the room we were in a few minutes ago.

The séance room?

Yes. It is only an echo, but it feels ... powerful. Very, very powerful. And ... angry. On a quest for revenge, hoping to right the wrongs done unto it. Them. It feels like multiple people in one echo, which ... I don’t like that. But ... that echo held the souls of Damien and Celine, but ... not. It was them, but broken. Only bits and pieces of their souls were pieced together into this ... amalgamation. I just ... I really don’t like the energy over here anymore. May we go on?

Of course.

Shane and Ryan hang back a bit.

That was intense. Maybe it possessed her? A bit? Or the thing in the mirror was lonely, and went kind of overboard in expressing itself. Maybe?

We can ask it with the Spirit Box later. Of course, I would not be at all opposed if you didn’t want to.

Why? You scared, Shane?

It’s loud and annoying and, frankly, if I don’t have to hear it then I wouldn’t mind at all.

Yeah, it is kind of loud and annoying.

Thank you.

But we’re still doing it.

*sigh*

The video cuts to the crew walking around various hallways and into various rooms. A few occasional creaks and thumps can be heard, but they’re all easily explainable as the house settling. It is uneventful, until Lily suddenly stops at the top of a balcony on the second floor. Shane and Ryan turn around to see her grasping at the rail with a white-knuckled grip, her eyes squeezed shut.

I ... someone died here. Someones, actually. Two people died in this general area.

Can you tell us if you have any idea of who?

Yes. I need a moment, though.

She walks back to a window that she had passed a moment ago. She kneels below it, her head bowed. She stands again.

I can feel it. A man died right here, very suddenly. I would say that I smell gunpowder, but I don’t smell it, I only sense it. This man wanted justice, he wanted answers for ... I’m sorry. I don’t know.

That’s alright. Can you give any more insight as to who he was?

Yes. Something about him is very ... fixed. He stuck to what he knew, and what he was familiar with. He always had a partner, even though none of them lived to tell the tale.

The Detective.

That seems to make sense, considering everything that I’m getting from him. I think his name was ... “Abe.” 

Thank you. Now, can you tell us anything about the other death?

Yes. It was over here, I believe.

She walks back to the balcony, gripping the rail. She never looks over the edge, instead staring into the camera.

It was just as sudden as Abe’s. A gunshot. They were trying to help their partner, though they didn’t blame the culprit. Everyone was high-strung at the time, and the Detective was ‘poking the bear,’ at least, that’s what I’m getting from them.

Their partner ... this must be where the District Attorney died.

This feels eerily similar to the spirit in the mirror.

One could hear a pin drop, with how silent it got. After a moment, Lily continued.

They were shot, and then they fell over this balcony right here, all the way to the ground below.

Lily looks over the railing, gripping it with both hands. Her knuckles are white, when suddenly she reaches out, screaming,

IT WAS AN ACCIDENT, I SWEAR!

It echoes in the hall for a moment. Everyone, even Shane, stands there in stunned silence. Lily retracts her hand, resting both gently upon the railing. She looks down. Her eyes are closed. She murmurs, softly, almost to herself,

It’s not fair, is it?

Lily shudders and looks up and around, coming back to herself. She folds her arms tightly across her chest and breezes past the camera, murmuring, 

I’m sorry, I have to go. I’ll be in the last room.

The video shows Shane and Ryan looking at each other in confusion and concern. The video shows the crew chasing after her for a bit, then cutting to a room with a couch and a fireplace, with a hardwood floor. It is the room that was shown in one of the clips that was played at the beginning of the video, the clip with the flashlights. Lily is there, with Shane and Ryan. Lily is standing in front of the fireplace.

Are you sure that you want to do this?

Yes, I’m sure. The flashlights will provide a mode of communication, so nothing will have to use me. This will actually be the safest thing that we have done thus far -- provided, of course, that we continue to adhere to the rules of proper conduct.

What are those? We haven’t heard of any kind of rules, except for not to directly incite anything to speak.

No, that’s not what I meant. You received general advice, of the kind that could be used in contact with any run-of-the-mill demon. This one, however, requires a bit of ... decorum. Most powerful demons are like that, and this Entity is no exception.

What are these rules, exactly?

You don’t need to worry, I’ll let you know if you come close to breaking any. Just continue as you were.

Okay, well, if you’re sure ... 

“We are currently sitting in the room that contained the makeshift crime scene, that was supposed to belong to Mark Iplier. The area that the body supposedly occupied was in front of that fireplace right there -” he gestured over to the fireplace “- and it is also here that he reportedly died. Once again, this was covered in our True Crime video, however, there are a few supernatural elements that we neglected to mention. Specifically, Warfstache’s reports of the body having disappeared less than 24 hours after it was discovered.”

The “poof” strikes again.

(uneasy laughter)

“There is no evidence to suggest that this body was moved through supernatural means, in fact, there is also no real evidence to suggest that a body was even here in the first place. The crude shape of a body lying on the ground was constructed of white tape, however, it was not likely that it was constructed by actual authorities, given that no records definitively place a body in this spot.”

Not to mention that the tape structure had a dick on it.

Wait, really? Like, the real outline had a dick?

Yep.

(disbelieving laughter)

“Additionally, many tests have been performed in this area to determine whether any bodily fluids, fingerprints, or any kind of remnant of a human body was present in this area. All that was found was half of a thumbprint, which could not be identified.”

The thumbprint was in the general area of where the thumb would have been, judging from the tape, but that’s not enough conclusive evidence to say, “yes, Mark Iplier did die here.”

It could’ve been any thumbprint, from anyone who was making the tape thing.

Yeah. Personally, I think that it was Iplier’s, but some may not exactly be inclined to believe that.

Lily takes the end of Ryan’s narration as her cue to begin investigating the room for an echo or a presence of any kind.

There was death here, but ... I do not sense any emotion from the victim. That’s ... very odd.

The “victim?” So the person that died here, were they mur-

NO!!!

Ryan and Shane glance at each other in shock.

Don’t say that word. It’s a rule for this demon.

Ryan gives a shaky exhale.

Thanks.

But to answer your question ... yes. The victim was ... killed by someone else.

Do you have any idea who?

I ... barely. He seems very similar to the man I sensed earlier, the one who was pitied by something near the mirror. I know it isn’t much, but ...

Thanks anyway, Lily. Now, let’s get into Shane’s favorite part ...

It’s flashlight time! 

A flashlight is set up as usual, with the setting almost hovering between on and off. It’s currently on, but it would be very easy to turn off completely. 

Okay, my first question: is anyone or anything with us right now? Please turn the flashlight off if you are willing to communicate.

The flashlight doesn’t change for a bit. Then, slowly, it dims and turns off. Ryan tenses up immediately, while Shane hardly reacts.

For the record ... this does feel very similar to the demon from earlier.

If you’re a demon, turn it back on!

The flashlight turns on almost immediately. It is shining rather brightly, brighter than before. Ryan shrinks back a bit. Shane, however, is laughing.

Turn it off ... if you’re gonna kill us!

The light turns off, and Ryan screams. Shane laughs at Ryan’s reaction.

Okay, demon, just one more question before Ryan starts talking ... turn the flashlight back on if you’re gonna disappear us like those other guys.

The camera focuses on the flashlight for a few minutes, but it remains off.

Wow, we’re not even gonna be a mystery? You’re just gonna kill us and not even bother making it interesting? You have no taste.

Shane is shaking his head in mock disappointment as Ryan laughs uneasily.

I am gonna be slaughtered in cold blood, and when I do I want it to be a goddamned mystery! I wanna be on Buzzfeed Unsolved! Fuck you!

Ryan is laughing louder now, and is beginning to relax.

Okay, uh, let’s get down to business. Did you kill the inhabitants of this Manor in October of 1920?

The flashlight remains off, immobile.

I think I scared him off.

Try one more question, Ryan?

Okay. Did you enable, or help along in any way, the deaths of the inhabitants of this Manor in October 1920?

The flashlight remains off for a moment. Then, slowly, it dimly turns itself on. Ryan jumps, but doesn’t freak out as badly as before. 

I ... I think that we’re done with the flashlights tonight.

Awww!

Shane pouts, while Ryan grabs the flashlight and turns it off. Lily stands, and nods at Ryan and Shane.

It seems that it is time to make my leave. Goodbye, you two.

Lily begins to walk away, as Ryan and Shane wave a short goodbye. Then as soon as she is about to leave the room, she stops and turns back.

Good luck. You’ll need it.

Then, she walks out of frame.

Tags: @lildevyl @ghostly-quest @turtlecrow @sandinthetardis

#markiplier #wkm #The Terrifying Case of Iplier Manor #The Terrifying Case of Iplier Manor - Chapter 1 #bfu #buzzfeed unsolved #wkm fic #ryan bergara #shane madej #Damien #Celine #wkm the seer #wkm the mayor #wkm the detective #wkm the colonel #wkm the actor #wkm the DA

[jcherrybct]

3/3/20

In the days since my last post, a few things have happened involving COMP570, CTEC501 & CTEC502! 

I have been slowly working my way through the programming worksheet we were given in our last programming session, this has been very helpful in getting to grips with the fundamental knowledge. I do have to admit however there were a few times I felt like punching a hole in my computer screen, before realising the problem was with the person in the screens reflection. Not the screen itself.  I am getting more used to minor things such as the dreaded semi colon; which has stopped processing from reading the code I have written, and am sure it will soon become second nature. However, there were other errors that took me far too long to realise, such as using a single quotation mark as opposed to speech marks, which led to processing to let me know repeatedly there was a, ‘badly formed character constant.’ I shouldn’t be making that mistake again in a while! I have also gone through a few, ‘Hello processing!’ lessons in an attempt to both reinforce what we have learnt and keep myself writing the correct code! I am currently really enjoying processing and am looking forward to my next lecture/lesson!

Zoog! - The ‘man’ on the screen followed your mouse around the box.

In regards to Studio, the team and I now believe we have our ‘hacked’ board game ready for the presentation tomorrow. We all came in yesterday and managed (with several trials) to work out how to connect an LED to the Makey Makey and to only light up when a certain key is called upon. This came with help from a member of another team giving me potentially my biggest learn of studio so far. Copper wire has an insulating paint on, and is therefore is not conductive. I had been trialling different ways of connecting the LED to the output section of the Makey Makey using copper wires and discounted that we would be able to do so until finding this piece of information out. As good as self learning is, collaborating sooner would have helped save a lot of ‘wasted’ time. (I do not believe that the time was wasted as it got me thinking about several different solutions which could have been better than the trialed method). This also helped with the grounding pen we had created, I had isolated that the copper wire wasn’t conducting however believed it was due to too much copper tape, and that potentially one side of the copper tape wasn’t conducting through to the copper wire. However after trialing and inspecting the pen it became apparent that attaching the crocodile clip to the copper tape was the obvious solution and then worked perfectly. It later became obvious the copper wire was the problem having been told this.  After this Marc showed us the code he had written in processing to bring up the correct functions when buttons are pressed using the Makey Makey. Chris got to drawing up some icons and John to making a platform for the Makey Makey. I started wiring up the makey makey and adding a switch into the ‘click’ function allowing the winning move to light up the LED and show fireworks (with explosion sound effects) come up on the laptop. 

Trialing different options for buttons.

 Today after our lecture, we aimed to polish up our board game and have it ready to play for tomorrow. This included a lot of wiring, firstly outside the mount to make sure everything would work whilst it was still accessible. Then secondly I had the challenge of wiring everything up again inside the mount. As with everything on the project so far this required a recalculation. This time with the mount being too low. John added a further section for the Makey Makey to sit in on its own so the mount would rest flat. We had quite a few problems with this due to clips being too close to each other and therefore allowing the wrong function to be pressed, the LED not working as the wire to the output was not in tight enough. This was hard to isolate due to all the wiring being correct otherwise. We also added play dough to colour the foil buttons we had created so it is more obvious which button to press depending on what you land on.  Once all this was completed, I suggested we have a playthrough as if we hadn’t seen the game. This highlighted several problems. Firstly that we had condensed the categories from 5 to 3, and it wasn’t obvious that if you landed on red or orange you had to press red. I suggested adding a small piece of play dough into the corner of each space on the board with the corresponding colour of the button we should press. We also realised that we will have to include a small rulebook to explain  few of the game features (such as multiplay) that are confusing before the game had even been hacked. Finally we also have to add icons to the timer and reset functions.  All in all we have made great progress in this project and I feel I have come a long way in wiring circuits and finding solutions for problems. I am happy with the game we have created however we could potentially have aimed a little higher (more LED’s etc.). The only problem there however would’ve been the time constraint.  My biggest take away from this project so far I believe is failing is the first step towards a proper understanding and succeeding.

A soft circuit, checking for faults whilst keeping the wiring accessible.

The final board with all the wiring concealed.

Before we continued with the boardgames today, we had our second ‘Introduction to Creative Technologies’ class. We did a recap of last week, including our brainstorming technique, a chat about our Vlog assignment (I am yet to come up with any large ideas. So far I believe I will just be explaining what creative technologies meant to me when I applied & what it means now, having had a brief insight, and also a brief introduction to me ). We also talked over the reading that we did from Rich Golds - “The Plenitude” In which he talks of the ‘four creative hats’ he has worn. Drawing from personal experiences he likens Science, art, design and engineering together whilst saying they are also all massively different from one another. He references how science is actually incredibly creative, pointing towards the machines used in high tech labs.  Interestingly my takeaway from this chapter was that despite making several valid points I agree with, Mr. Gold had a bee in his bonnet about art, (fine art in particular) being on a more true and virtuous level than Design. Several of his points about design being controlled and judged by the client rather than peers making it different from art are contradicted by saying that Pop art is encapsulating what the wider audience is feeling and therefore they are actually very similar.  I did find this reading very interesting however and it really got me thinking! I do completely agree with the sentiment that, to really harness potential, collaboration across disciplines is crucial.

We then talked about what makes you ‘creative’, using the following:

Firstly Paradox. One of the two internal ways of being creative. I understood this as being completely open to ideas and not ever closing the possibility for change. Even if something seems certain, you have to aim to keep your mind open to the possibilities that there are ways to improve, change or manipulate what is black and white into something different.  The other sections of this visual are quite self explanatory and my biggest learn from here is that I should keep open to try and do new things, resist monotonous routine and bring this attitude to life into work. Why take the bus every day just because it worked the first time. By going a different way, who knows what you may stumble across!

Having thought about the phrase Creative Technologists work with:

Their hands,

their heads and

their hearts

to make the world a better place.

I believe this means a few things, and it is better understood when you look at the three parts collectively rather than separately. Creative Technologists have the power to take something they are passionate about, be it making a change or something they rave about (their hearts). Apply their (and their peers) knowledge to it (their heads), and paired with their hands, there is the power to take ideas out of the ideas phase and actually do something with them. The ability to act on a passion like this as well, rather than any random job provides a great drive.   The phrase I haven’t mentioned is, ‘to make the world a better place.’ This is because this phrase can mean so many different things. From the obvious of reducing carbon footprint, waste & helping with diseases to bringing joy through games & toys. Wherever the CTs passion falls within this spectrum is the area that they will try to make the world a better place.

We also looked today at a clip today (https://youtu.be/803LU4C_7IY?t=92) showing how many different opinions can be given on different projects. Where some will say, “useless!” whilst taking a step back there is likely a lot of value. Whilst this task may actually by definition have no use whatsoever when it was performed, and therefore useless, the learning and enjoyment brought actually does provide value. This is paired with what we looked at next in that Creative technologists have the ability to actually take an idea from its early stages & grow it into something physical. Even if you don’t know how at the beginning through failing and learning.

I have tried to cut down my entries today to slightly larger learning points, to save on extra long posts! There are many more points to add, and I have lots of work to do, such as trialing a new technique we learnt today (Affinity diagrams), Identifying some myths & barriers & reading the A-Z of CT to name a few bits!

Bring on studio tomorrow!

#CTEC501 #CTEC502 #COMP570

[bubblesthemonsterartist]

Early Pas de Deux Hakizana: he may have cast her as his prima, but that doesn't mean Izana has to like it

Prompts are currently closedwhile I catch up. I will announce when I am open! :)

A/N: Pre-canon companionpiece to Pas de Deux. 

Pairing: Hakizana

Content Warning: A funeral. Mention of canonical minor character death (Kain)

 It shouldn’t be this easy.

But when he moves forward,she moves back; when he lifts, she leaps. Like the pull of the earth, like thesun to her planets, one moment she tethers him, bending to his hands, going laxin his arms; in the next, she draws taunt, tight like a wire, straining againsthim when the tension needs to draw out and submitting where his will isgreater.

This shouldn’t work. Herbody shouldn’t feel like an extension of his, like both an inhale of breath anda sigh. She’s an Arleon. An American,for fucks sake.

And yet, she’s- she’s-

~ ~ ~

“Magnifique.”

Izana blinks, craning hishead back to catch the plume of smoke that carries the word. In the early afternoon,the sunlight bears fiercely upon the studio, filling it with the heat and brightnessof the stars. Standing within it, his father is both one with the sun andbarely visible, his form a vague outline of light and shadow.

“Père?”

Kain Wisteria does notlook at him, he does not think. He pulls his cigarette to his lips once more,the stub flaring brightly before snuffing out.

“That one.” His fatherclicks his tongue, smoke filling the space as if pointing a direction. “Thegirl in the middle.”

Following carefully, Izana’sscans the bar, the lineup of girls stretched out against the mirror with sweatshining faces. Spools of blonde hair stick to their necks, their collarbones,their foreheads. He counts down the line, past each perfect smile, past each eagerset of eyes until he gets to the middle and-

His face screws up.

“You can’t be serio-”

A program smacks him once tothe back of his head, and Izana winces, “Ow.”

“You’re a Wisteria. Actlike one.” His father pushes himself off the wall, snuffing out his cigarette againstthe ledge. “What’s your problem with her?”

The girls face remainsperfectly painted, her hair tightly piled upon her head. So unlike half thegirls in the line who did not pull the band tight enough, he can appreciate thediscipline. The understanding and acceptance of pain.

Her eyes, though. The others are so eager for approval, so eager to please. Yet her eyesdo not flinch, even when he frowns. They are sure, steady, and there issomething solid about them that remind him of the glacier ice he saw last summer when his mother took him and Zen to the fjords. The way the heat did not melt them, the way that their cavernscaught in the light with their endless shades of perfectly clear greens andblues.

But-

But he’d much rather theshorter one, second one down. Less to carry.

“She’s too big,” heprotests.

His father hums, amused. “You’llcatch up.”

Blowing out his cheeks, heis shameless. “What about that one?” he asks, referring to the shorter blonde.She starts a little, concentration poor, but that can be fixed. With time.

Kain’s lips thin, eyeingher, taking him seriously for once when his eyes trace down her body. “No,” hesays, simple and final.

“No?” Izana’sflabbergasted. Yes, there is a risk at their age of growing tall, or broad, butshe is thin as a wisp, bones fine as a birds, and- “Why not?”

Shaking his head, his jawflexes. “The stage will break her before the end of next year.”

Pointing, Izana exclaims, “Andit won’t her?”

Casting him a disapprovingglare, his father switches to English.

“Girl,” he barks, crossinghis arms, and she does not flinch. “What is your name?”

She opens her mouth, andwhat comes out can hardly pass for any tongue he’s ever heard in this country. “HakiArleon, Monsieur. From Boston.”

~ ~ ~

He’s not expecting her. He’snot expecting anything about her when she finally comes to New York. It’s been years - years since he’s seen her face, since he held her hand at his fathers insistence on that sun filled studio in Paris. But she slides into place among his company as if she had always been one of his own.

She’s quiet, though. Only speaking when she feels the room is quiet enough to hear the weight of her words. And, on occasion, disorienting.

Like now.

“This choreography,” she murmurs,arm barely grazing his shoulder as she reaches over to touch his plans. He hadn’t even realized that she was in his office. “It’snot… French.”

“No,” Izana sniffs,flicking his hair out of his eyes as he continues to sketch. It ishard, though, with the question hovering in the air. “It’s Balanchine.”

“C’est absurd,” she mutters, and he turns towards her sharply, abarb on his tongue but she’s- she’s smiling,the corner of her mouth twitching as if he said something funny. As if he was joking about the future of the Wisteriafamily name. “What would your father say?”

“Nothing,” he drawls,turning back to his work. Flattening his palms over paper and pencil markings,Izana quells the shaking in his core. Finally. An excuse. A reason to shuck offthe last of his father’s ghosts, to prove the old man wrong about one thing. “Because he’s dead. I’m takingthis company in a new direction.”

“I see.” He looks at her,so mild, and this is it, she will break. She will break like every girl father saidwould before he broke them- “What are your feelings on incorporating Vagonovainto Firebird?”

He stares.

~ ~ ~

The church is suffocating,stifling, filled with the murmured wishes of mourners as they pass before thedark veils of his mother. She’s quiet, only the pale of her hands peeking outfrom beneath dark lace, and even then it’s only to rock her youngest, cried tosleep, against her breast.

He was a genius…

Taken from this world too soon…

The great ones always are.

Gritting his teeth, Izana takestheir wishes, one by one. With his slicked back hair and dark suit, his eyesdon’t water, his mouth doesn’t tremble. He’s the man now. The head of hishouse. He can carry the weight of his families’ lies so his mother doesn’t haveto.

“Monsuier Wisteria?”

He knows that voice. Thataccent. It’s atrocious. Maybe her instructor was from Canada.

His mother would scold himif he sneered, so he restrains himself. Just barely. “That was my father’sname.”

“It’s yours now, I guess.”

Those eyes of hers havenot change. They’re still the same shade of shimmering glass. One moment blue;the next, green. But she does not look right in the simple black dress reachingher knees, the seam of her stockings stretching down the back of her calf.

“Izana,” she says,quietly. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

He swallows rapidly. Thetears. The bile. He doesn’t know. And nods.

Remember that you’re the man now, my boy.

“If you-” She takes a deepbreath, hands flexing at her side before, one muscle at a time, falling intorelaxation. “If you want to talk- I lost my mother just last year and-”

“Thank you for coming,” heclips. “Have a safe flight back to the States.”

Her lips press, her throat flexing, but her face does not absorb the strike. She simply moves on.

~ ~ ~

“You’re not going to wantto hear this.”

Izana pauses mid-step,half way to the door, and his blood goes cold. In the shadows, Haruka’s broadback faces him, feet firmly planted and staring through the observation windowat the dancer within.

“That’s never stopped youbefore.”

He grunts, but doesn’tturn. “She’s good.”

“She’s passable,” Izanacorrects.

“She can anticipates yourmovement.”

“So can everyone else.”

That earns him a turn, asingle raises one eyebrow over one shoulder and a patient glare. Izana’s jawclenches.

“I admit,” he says slowly,carefully. “She has some talent for the contemporary.”

Face unchanging, Harukafolds his arms in front of him and looks back towards the studio. “Your fatheralways liked her for you.”

“Yes, well,” Izana shrugs,throwing his jacket over his shoulders. “I strive to be nothing but an obedientson.”

“Izana.” Haruka’s voice isclipped, stern. A voice he hasn’t heard in years. It gives him pause. Gives himtime to see the steel of his gaze reflected on the window. “It would be a shameto throw out a good thing just to show spite.”

Izana turns, mouth openingin denial, but then he catches her form through the window. The arch of herarms, the movement of her line, the leap, the fall- He remembers. He remembershow she felt in his arms. How right.

“I’ll think on it.” Is allhis says, because that’s all he can promise. To Haruka. To Haki. To theseghosts that haunt every studio and every stage.

~ ~ ~

It shouldn’t be this easy,he thinks, stepping out into another cold New York City night.

But he knows.

It is.

#bubbleswrites #akagami no shirayukihime #snow white with the red hair #hakizana #pas de deux #ballet au

[foodfilmaboutus]

The Full Interview

Michael Roulier and Philippe Lhomme, directors of foodfilm Interview:

1. Could you introduce the work experience of both of you? When did you two begin to form the team to work together on creativity?

We both have quite a long advertising background, and one thing we have in common is that when we started we did not take advertisement very seriously, at least at first, being more interested into art creation.

In the nineties, if you aspired to exhibit artwork in galleries, it had to stay "secret". So both of us entered the advertising world almost "by accident". After finishing his studies at Penninghen art school, Philippe started painting and installed his atelier in Mesnilmontant district in Paris with no heating. Living and breathing only for his art. Still today he is the one who draws all our scripts, and it is important for us to keep it that way since it is the very first contact we have with clients to seduce them with our stories.

I take care of the writing. I started as a photographer hesitating between photo- journalism and fine arts after having passed a master in Philosophy, but absolutely passionate by all forms of photography. We where both introduced to the advertisement world almost by chance. We did not know each other at that time. It was a golden age for advertisers.Ten years later Philippe was a Creative Director at DDB mainly in charge of an iconic French award winning food brand that French people loved because of the quality of communication and visuals.

On my side I had become a studio still life photographer working mainly for luxury brands and cosmetics subjects. One day Philippe called me and asked if I was interested to do some "food tests" for the brand, and I must admit I was not too excited about it.

Food was not really glamorous in those days...it was called "alimentary photography". Restaurant Chefs where not considered like the Rock Stars they are today, and I cared more about my personal research considering advertisement like a lovely job, but not like a finality, even though I was lucky enough to work for beautiful brands like Hermes, Gallery Lafayette etc... In the end it was a revelation. I discovered a completely new world into which I had a total creative freedom, which was not at all the case for others kind of advertised subjects. Usually Art directors had no clue about what to do with food, and it was very much 'comedy' orientated as they felt more confortable doing that. It was not the case of Philippe who already believed that there was a lot do in this field and really tried to bring the visuals to a very artistic level. We inspired a lot of other food brands with our images, and the brand became a real visual reference for food. Finally we ended up becoming food specialists, but it had never been our initial projects. We collaborated together for 15 years always trying to focus as much as possible on textures. Food can be naturally ugly and somehow you need quite a lot of experience to master it. We noticed at that time that the food film industry was still surfing on a quite archaic imagery, where the heroes where definitely not the food. In parallel amazing cook books where being printed as editors understood there was a huge market in selling this very artistic food approach. I did 36 books and had the chance to meet these amazing Michelin star chefs who where all desiring to do their proper "food manifesto". It was part of their "business plan" to do such books. A necessity for them that made photographers very happy.

The brand we where working for was only doing print, but one day they asked us to film some recipes for viral videos. They where short on budget but we where given "carte blanche". We just loved doing them, and applied our print workflow to this new experience. We where both passionate about films in our personal life. I was interested in doing experimental research around cinematic experiences inspired by people like Stan Brakhage or Maya Deren. Philippe was spending a lot of time in contemporary art galleries watching artists using video as a medium. Strangely the brand hardly used these film recipes we did for them, and it stayed completely confidential until we decided to post them all in one batch on Vimeo. It became like a tsunami: phones started ringing all the time, and many production companies scouting on Vimeo made us tons of propositions. It all went really quickly, and a year later, Philippe naturally quit his job as creative director at DDB, and on my side I switched from still-life photography to film directing.

2. Which clients do you serve currently?

Our website is built like a simple blog, so the very first page represents our actuality and the clients we lately served.

We have a lot of different clients, and we have enlarged our "film perspective" in exploring other field like the cosmetic world.

Usually cosmetic brands would hire purely still life directors specialized in jewelry, watches, or shooting very "static" items. They had a very "contemplative" approach. Almost robotic. We brought "life" and action, avoiding the 3d representations mainly used at that time. Agencies where seduced by our food background and tried to apply this "spirit" to selling cosmetics...they where seduced by our organic approach.

We love also working for cosmetic brands (L'Oréal, Garnier, Yves Rocher, Décleor, Neutrogena) because the visual grammar has to be very metaphoric, so there is a lot of creativity involved in the process, and they are really expecting this from us: "unseen ideas" to illustrate the benefit of the products....

As far as food it stays our main subjects. Our clients are very eclectic. When you shoot food films you have to collaborate with the big agri-food groups like Neslté, Lactalis, Mondelez etc...and the creative validation process tends to be quite heavy. We can vigorously defend our ideas until a certain point, but at one stage "the big machine" can easily "laminate" your creativity. We are used to that. So what's really remains is the quality of the CRAFT. Our background in print photography really helped us here. I have always been passionate by the digital world and started working early with computers. We try to control in-house as much as we can: compositing, post production and coloring. Our workflow is very direct and since we don't have "a complex post-production pipeline" our approach is very "boutique" in a way. We do hire some digital artists, but they come to work in our studio under our supervision before the film presentation.

We do a lot of this post production job directly on the set: we have great people around us helping us to achieve "live" what is usually done a few weeks later, which is quite an unusual workflow, and spend the nights coloring the clips to be able to show them the next day.

2bis. What’s your core concept of making creativity for clients?

What inspires us most is graphics, architecture, contemporary art, constructivism, Bauhaus, Melies (a French director of the beginning of the century creating illusion) and I am forgetting a lot of other things. Being two "brains" enlarges the perspectives and the approaches. We don't use any DOP, so it's really a duo work.

Philippe and I have very different personalities and skills, and strangely it works really well. But what really unifies us is a desire for elegance and fluidity. A lot of food studios sometimes lack this little something related to external input. Our respective personal passions in life keep enriching our professional work.To resume, it's about "good taste" as we say in France.

We have been too much categorized as "graphic" directors, and that saddens us a bit because we are very much about filming "sensuality". This is probably due to our long collaboration for Marks & Spencer, and to the number of films we did for them.

Our camera angles are usually very simple, frontal and direct. We do have an in-house Kuka robot, but actually don't use it so much, considering that the most important part of our job is composition, more than just a robotic technical achievement.

The editing is the other part into which we have put a lot of energy. The rhythm is not only achieved by the editing skills, but also by the use of visual patterns within the individual clips. We don't "contemplate" too much with long travellings, our work is all about action and the smart ways we have to find in order to animate our textures. And finally the transitions within clips are to our eyes as important as the clips themselves, and we always look for little tricks in order to help the editor's work.

3. Why do you want to be specialized in food films and why began? What’s the benefits of working in this specialized area? How is this area special among creative films?

Food was up to quite recently an unexplored territory. This is what makes it fascinating for us. We are artists using food as our playground. Being French also means that we have a cultural respect for it. Colors, shape, complexity of textures, infinite visual associations and concatenation, and in a certain way "porn".

Pornfood meaning that we can induce by the visuals the viewer to "drool" when we film organoleptic textures that provoque desire and satisfaction.

The other challenge was to totally erase human beings. It's more a philosophical and artistic choice than a necessity for us, and every time we are asked to shoot actors we are happy to do it. But to be able to captivate audience without the acting support is a really an interesting direction. The concept of no-hands-films has led us those last years, but we are in constant evolution, and I am sure it will change.

Being specialized in food give us more freedom than working for other subjects. Everybody has to say something about fashion, cloths, talent acting etc...but very few can have a clear vision about how to stage food, and it gives us a real license for creativity. It's a niche, and that's what's great about it.

4. What kind of experience can you share about food films making? What is the critical thing when making them? Could you explain with 1-2 examples?

One of the critical point is always Time management. When you work with textures you are always surprised by the fact that you cannot really know in advance what shots are going to take more time than others. When you have a long shooting on multiple days your can "deal" with a certain time-elasticity, much better than a single day shoot, when you know that in the same day, whatever happens, you have to "deliver".

We have to obtain the "visual miracle" in a very short time and sometimes it just does not happens, and you can feel the production team and clients become stressed. We learned how to deal with that quite well. Experience will help of course, but sometimes a simple action like just filling a glass of wine in front of the camera can become a nightmare. Of course one could rely on robotics to do that, but then you might lose all the beautiful accidents that can make the quality of the shot. So it's all about making the right choices at the right time.

The same critical point goes when writing the scripts. We have to constantly evaluate the "is-this-going-to-be-possible?". It's great to have ideas, but they have to be somehow realistic and credible, and sometimes we are not really sure of way the texture will behave. There is a lot of randomness that we don't control. We often start over and over again to get the right movement or action. We do work with some great SFX teams that we constantly challenge with our crazy ideas, as we took an ideological posture with Philippe not use 3D, and to always film everything for real. Many people think we use 3D, but I can assure that we don't. We do composite a lot though.

5. Why do you think your work is attractive to the audience and help the brand grow? Can you share one of your favorite works?

I think that what attracts people to our work is that we are often "on the edge of credibility".

We play a lot with illusion, like a magician who will suddenly speed up a gesture to hide the tricks. The rhythm will help us to create this magic. For example we also very often defy gravity, or normality, in order to give a sense of quirkiness. Make it a bit "weird" to get more appeal or unexpectedness. We also try to show details that people usually don't really see, emphasizing a certain playfulness with our camera. The slow motion Phantom camera really helps the observation of the unseen.

The other attractive thing is that our scenes are always "in action". The common question for us is "how are we going to activate this image". No time to contemplate, the textures are always animated in order to keep the tension of the viewer.

6. How’s film creativity different from the general creativity making?

To accept to work as a team with other people. Even more, to admit the power of a team, like a football player.

It is much easier for Philippe who is an ex Creative Director used to commission other artists. I am a bit of "a control freak" and that makes me makes me suffer more than him, and probably others too. This is where we are really complementary.

Nevertheless our team is much smaller than a conventional cinema team, and we try to keep this "boutique" home-made atmosphere. The idea is to never lose the "primal vision" of the film, and keep an eye on everything. We always work with the same team, and we all know each other really well, and that gives a lot of fluidity to our relations. When there is a difficulty, we naturally team up all together to find solutions. It's very democratic!

A good team is like a good wine and it's years of maturation. We where lucky to achieve this.

7. How do you usually allocate work between you two and collaborate with other members in your company? How’s your creativity making process usually?

We both do everything, it's democracy again. We try to put our ego's on the side of our relation.

We do fight a lot though to defend our personal vision of the film, but this is what makes our treatments so rich.

We usually take two days to write a script. The first day is only dedicated to brainstorming, and we throw as much as ideas as we can. Phillipe does quick drawings as we

speak to keep it as a memo. The next day he does the drawings, always in black and white. I love the simplicity of his style, and he really has a camera in the eyes. His drawing treatment is very different of what would provide a rough-man or illustrator . I take care of the writing, and I am extremely precise in our explanations. It's the main secret to win bids. We also try to control as much as we can the art direction of the treatment, and exchange a lot with the creative team doing the lay-outs in the production house. Same goes for the mood boards.

8. Could you tell me an unforgettable thing during you two’s collaboration?

Sometimes the shape of an object, a texture or anything else can slowly become sexually evocative. We remember this time when breaking a poached egg was really reminding a close up of a "very different" scene that could have been extracted from an X-rated movie. Nobody was saying anything, but everybody was thinking the same thing. It was at the same time really evident, and somehow quite understated. At one point the producer "played" his job, and said it, which meant that we had to reshoot the whole scene. It was a good laugh for everybody. It's foodporn after all !

We have hundred of anecdotes with our job, but that's another interview.

9. How will Foodfilm or you personally partner with Stink? What do you think you will bring to Stink’s team through this partnership?

We are very excited with this new partnership, and as we are quite easygoing, it should work really well.

Being represented by Stink is a caution of creativity, so we might have to fight less to defend bold ideas. I don't really know if Stink represents a lot of other table top directors in their international "spiderweb"? I think that the food film market is really huge, and still

growing. So if we can fill this gap for them it's really a great win-win association. Let's talk again about it in a year time!

[beneaththetangles]

Q&A with Our New Staff: Josh, sleepminusminus, Joseph, and Paris!

Over the last couple of months, we’ve brought in four new staff members to join our ministry. A couple of them have been running our social media accounts for weeks now, so you may have been reading their work without even noticing a change, while the remaining two are brand, brand new!

With this being our 10th anniversary year, it felt very appropriate to throw back, as we’ve done all year, and introduce you to them in the way we once did: through a Q&A! So here we go—introducing Paris, who will be covering conventions and doing cosplay content for us; sleepminusminus, one of our writers, who just dropped a guest post for us last week (like I said, brand new); Josh, who helps run our Twitter account and also contributes to the blog; and Joseph, our Instagram admin and the podcast team’s video editor.

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Question 1: How did you become associated with Beneath the Tangles?

Paris: Funny enough, Charles found me on my personal Instagram—not my cosplay Instagram! He saw that I went to Dallas Theological Seminary and wanted to recruit me onto the team, but at the time I was still in school and an active member of of another group, so I didn’t have time to make any commitments. Now I’m graduated and excited to be a part of the team!

sleepminusminus: It’s been so long… I must have looked something up about Christianity and anime and found BTT in the results. I’ve kept up with the blog on and off ever since.

Josh: Charles and I were `both members of the Christian Anime Alliance forums. Years later, when I started up my own blog, Charles was so welcoming and so encouraging. A true inspiration. Fast-forward a couple months and I’m coming off a really, REALLY stressful time due to a blog article I wrote that was not received well by some. Charles helped me out of that dark time and when all was said and done and my brain was no longer a quivering mass of goo, he asked if I would like to join BTT. I had to think and pray about it for a while before I said yes and, well, here I am.

Joseph: I met Charles in college and we went to the same church for some time. I always thought it was cool how he used something as secular as anime to evangelize, but it didn’t cross my mind that I could do the same thing until I saw some of my classmates working for BTT too. Then after I graduated, I asked if I could join and here I am.

Question 2: How did you become an anime fan?

Paris: I guess I was kind of born into becoming an anime fan—being half Asian. On my birthday each year, my uncles would take my brother and I to this anime store back when VHS was still a thing, and we could rent as many anime VHS tapes as we wanted! Some of my first anime included Ranma ½, Kodocha, and Yu Yu Hakusho (we weren’t censored as children). I related so much to Sana Kurata that I literally wanted to change my name to Sana, haha! (I think I still do relate to her lol)

sleepminusminus: At first, Youtube clips of visual novels served as the gateway drug into a deeper obsession with anime. After some personal struggles with pornography, I took a break from anime for around a year. When that year ended, some close friends started watching Nagi no Asukara and invited me to watch along. I’ve been riding the slice-of-life train ever since.

Josh: Okay, first of all, Paris is awesome because I have heard very few people talk about Kodocha and the fact that was one of his first is amazing. Second, SleepMinusMinus is awesome because…well…Nagi no Asukara is awesome, and I also am a happy passenger on the Slice-of-Life train. But I digress. My anime switches were flipped one night in around 2002-2003. I was up late and I was channel surfing. I came across this show that ended up being Yu Yu Hakusho. It was so cool as I had never seen anything like it before! Then…then Cowboy Bebop came along and that’s when I realized there was this whole bigger, wider world of those funny Japanese cartoons than Digimon, Pokemon and Monster Rancher. I came back the following Saturday, and the Saturday after that. Before I knew it, I was writing fanfics and joining online forums. Then I was buying DVD’s and Newtype USA magazines. Next thing I knew I was going to cons and meeting other fans. My ascendance into the world of anime has been quick and amazing.

Joseph: I grew up watching all of the classic kid’s shows like Pokemon and Yugioh with my brother. At night, I remember we would always be excited to watch Inuyasha because of how much more actiony it was compared to American cartoons. I don’t think I realized that I was watching anime until in middle school though, when one of my friends asked me if I watch anime, citing Inuyasha as an example. Then he recommended I watch Code Geass and after I watched that, I realized that there was more to anime than just really cool fight scenes and have been watching since.

YYH is an important starting anime for Paris and Josh (art by つ ゆ / reprinted w/permission)

Question 3: How would you describe your place in the fandom?

Paris: I think my place in the fandom would be a cosplay enthusiast and entertainer. I love Instagram and Tik Tok right now but I’m also hoping to start doing Visual Novel walk throughs on Twitch.

sleepminusminus: In public, I’ve mastered the art of the lurker, only peeking out to mark my completed shows on AniList. Most of the time, though, I watch anime with IRL friends and make fun of bad CG. I also spend excessive hours on rhythm games while procrastinating work.

Josh: I think my place in the anime fandom right now is as a mature anime consumer who has just enough writing talent to put his opinions, thoughts and ideas to a word document or in a 240 character tweet and have it make some kind of sense.

Joseph: I don’t really take part in online discussions, but I know most of what they talk about and the references usually (even the memes). I also try to keep up with the actual industry itself too, like what studios are up to or what the directors are doing. Fandom wise, if anyone mentions the Monogatari series, be ready to listen to me rant for an hour on how it’s a masterpiece.

Question 4: What anime or manga are you excited about these days?

Paris: Right now I’m most obsessed with Re: Zero and My Hero Academia.

sleepminusminus: Kyoto Animation has been consistently good recently. I just finished the Haruhi series and I’m thinking about picking up Lucky Star (but only for the Haruhi references). Beyond that, I’m hoping the new Higurashi remake is better than the original. Oh, and the new Made in Abyss movie had better not disappoint.

Josh: Of course, I’m beyond excited to see where Digimon Adventure (2020) is going to go. It’s been a fascinating watch so far. Seeing these characters who I know but don’t know has been a real prodigious experience. It does feel like we’re moving pretty fast though. Sticking with Digimon, I’m also excited to FINALLY get to see Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizuna. I grew up with the Adventure ‘99 crew, and knowing this is their final curtain call is bittersweet, but I’m interested to see how this whole thing plays out. Getting away from Digimon, I’m really excited to see the Stone Wars arc of Dr. Stone. I’m completely caught up with the manga so I know what’s to come, but I still want to see it play out in anime form.

Joseph: I’m really excited for the new Maeda Jun original next season: The Day I Became a God. Re:Zero has got me on edge every week and probably will until next year. The Violet Evergarden movie was just released in Japan and hopefully it finds its way here soon. Oh and Haruhi is back in print with the next light novel coming out soon, so that’s been a long time coming.

Season two of Re:ZERO has us all excited (art by 茕榕 / reprinted w/permission)

Question 5: QUICK FIVE

Best live action anime adaptation?

Paris: Ghost in the Shell sleepminusminus: I’ve only watched Detective Pikachu… Josh: Death Note (2006). Chairman Kaga is Light’s Daddy. Joseph: Alita: Battle Angel

Digimon or Pokémon?

Paris: Pokémon sleepminusminus: Pokémon Josh: Digimon Joseph: Pokemon

My first cosplay was…

Paris: Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul! I was really into Facepaint and FX makeup in High School so I literally just painted the mask onto my face. sleepminusminus: Lurkers don���t cosplay Josh: My first cosplay was supposed to be Izzy from Digmon at MechaCon this year, but COVID happened and… Joseph: Kagamine Len from Vocaloid. I like make easy and not hot outfits to wear at cons.

If I could meet one person in the anime industry, it would be…

Paris: Laura Bailey! She’s my favorite voice actress. sleepminusminus: Honobu Yonezawa, the author of the Hyouka novels Josh: Amanda Winn-Lee. I’ve interacted a lot with her on Twitter and she’s so nice. Joseph: Yamada Naoko, director for A Silent Voice and K-On! The Movie.

This anime character would be my best friend:

Paris: Tomo Takino from Azumanga Daioh sleepminusminus: Kyon from Haruhi, for his continual complaints and stream of grandiose allusions Josh: Mimi from Digimon Adventure. She’s an awesome character that needs a good friend to tell her to “hush” whenever she goes ditzy. Joseph: Chitanda Eru from Hyouka because she always wants to do something

Our staff is curious—at least sleepminusminus and Joseph are! (art by ちゅんころもち / reprinted w/permission)

All-time anime crush?

Paris: Kyo from Fruits Basket. For some reason, I always end up loving the angry boys… sleepminusminus: Mayaka Ibara, our tsundere queen from Hyouka Josh: Hinata from Naruto. How can you NOT like that lavender-eyed cutie? Joseph: Holo from Spice and Wolf because of course she is.

Favorite food to eat while watching anime:

Paris: Pho Tai w/ an order of eggrolls and Thai Tea sleepminusminus: Instant ramen (no crumbs!) Josh: Nice cold Muscadine grapes. Joseph: Fruit Basket (Preferably strawberries)

An anime that more people need to watch:

Paris: Kodocha; the manga is good too! sleepminusminus: Hyouka (notice a theme yet?) Josh: Planetes. It’s a great space slice-of-life show that gets little to no love. Joseph: A Place Further than the Universe. Very well rated but I don’t think enough people watch it because of its silly premise.

An anime that is way overrated:

Paris: DANGANRONPA. It’s horrible. Change my mind. Other than the Fate series, I haven’t had much luck with Visual Novel anime adaptations— (let’s not talk about School Days) sleepminusminus: Madoka Magica: watch Steins;Gate instead Josh: My Hero Academia. Come on guys, it’s the same old comic book superhero “I wanna be the strongest ______ ever!” shounen show we’ve seen over and over again. Joseph: One Punch Man. The title tells you what the show is going to be about you guys.

Poor Madoka… (art by 薯子Imoko / artist allows reprints)

Do you like gore / dark anime?

Paris: yes. It’s my favorite. sleepminusminus: Sure Josh: Depends on my mood, but not really. Joseph: Gore for the sake of gore (Another), not really. But everything else I can enjoy!

Shonen or slice of life?

Paris: Shonen sleepminusminus: Slice-of-life Josh: Slice-Of-Life all day everyday. Joseph: Slice of life

Best Ghibli movie:

Paris: Spirited Away sleepminusminus: None yet… recommendations please Josh: Ponyo. It’s just so freaking adorable. Joseph: Princess Mononoke

Ever been to Japan?

Paris: I was supposed to go this Summer, but Covid… sleepminusminus: No Josh: HAHAHAHAHA…on my salary? Heck no! Joseph: Yes two times now!

Question 6: Where can our readers find you other than here on the blog?

Paris: Instagram / Tik Tok / Twitch / Facebook / YouTube: Pariscosplays (in progress) / Email sleepminusminus: You can find me on Twitter. If you’re fortunate, you might catch a tweet once a year. Josh: Blog / Twitter – Heads up on my Twitter, I tend to get very political and I sometimes go off on tangents. I give fair warning for both. But overall, I’m pretty chill! I do have an Instagram but I don’t update it too often, and I do have a Facebook, but I keep it on lockdown. Sorry! Joseph: I don’t really use any other social media actively

#Anime #Interviews #Manga #Beneath the Tangles #Visual Novels #Video Games #Articles #Author: TWWK #Author: Pariscosplays #Author: The Cajun Samurai #Author: sleepminusminus #Author: Joseph

[blaurascon-kzk]

KZK Discord Digest 6 - Week of Jan 18 - Jan 24

BLAU NOTES:

We had a snafu with the second database earlier this week. Kat tried to manually alter an entry and it got submitted before he was done writing, thereby accidentally overwriting all purchase logs in that DB with garbage entries. IT IS NOW FIXED. We had a quick response from our host and they got it rolled back. Vendors were taken offline for a few hours while they worked. We had to manually re-enter some entries that got lost during the rollback, so if you get a redelivery from that timeframe that says ADMIN SEND, that’s probably why! If you made a purchase on that database (Stone Pillar / Direwolf) between Jan 17 and Jan 21 2019 and you can’t get a redelivery please contact Sylver Bu. This did not affect our primary database. I put up a crystal in the mainstore near the Direwolf vendors that gives info for how to get creator files for em. This does not directly sell you the devkit or anything like that, and is meant more for folks who do not use Discord or follow group notices. Got friends lookin for that stuff, point em to that.

The deadline for getting the Direwolf Devkit Preorder discount has ended. Also, neat news! If you made a Direwolf purchase before or on January 20th, you qualify for the preorder bonuses!

Our plans for the first half of 2019 or so (no dates set in stone unless mentioned): 1. Direwolf v1.01 update. The preorder bonuses (Direwolf plushy av & rezzable objects; two exclusive skins) will likely ship around the same time as the update rolls out. 2. Elemental Kirins Round 3: Ragnarok, Nova, Aeterna, Teknika (Destruction, Creation, Time, Technology respectively).  3. KAT - Con Crunch for TFF. Aiming for a spot in the Artist Alley.  4. KAT - Moving cross country. Will likely be limited availability for about a month. Likely happening in April. 5. New server & database setup. Aiming to launch late February / early March at the absolute earliest. This’ll allow us to combine our vendors & have a more robust back-end to prevent any more potential database weirdness. Bit more info below. (Kat already spoke to someone at Caspervend about their system. They don’t support the way our vendors are set up & the sheer number of items we sell.) 

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Jan 18

Blau Last Friday at 7:50 AM @everyone forgot to mention here, but I put up a lil crystal in Okarthel by the Dire vendors that you can click and get links/info for the PSDs/Devkit stuff. I'll update it as links change / new stuff comes out. So if you have any friendos wondering where to get resources to make stuff, point em that way :smile:

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Jan 19

Blau Last Saturday at 8:39 AM @everyone Morning! Smol clarification, you don't buy the devkit from the crystal, you still have to contact Kat / Sylver Bu. The crystal just pops out that information. More for folks who don't pay attention to Discord or Group Notices. :3

Kat Last Saturday at 6:17 PM @everyone Attention artists, new and veteran. I know a great many of you preach by Gimp, or paint tool sai, or clip studio paint, which are all great programs, but, something I learned very recently is that you can get Adobe Photoshop CC for just 11$ USD a MONTH. No, this isn't an ad, but I know for many of you the cost of Adobe's subscriptions are often too much. Thanks to a helpful tipster on twitter, if you go into adobe's website and sign up for/switch your plan to the 'Creative Cloud Photography' plan, it includes Photoshop CC for only ~11$ a month. again, not telling people to ditch their free software, but this info is useful for those looking to get their hands on Photoshop. Please don't take it the wrong way.

KatLast Saturday at 6:32 PM @everyone To Clarify (as I have a bad habit of using the wrong words), I recommended PS strictly for 3D applications--If you're a budding 3D artist,  or want to get into doing texturing for 3D models,  most software is configured out the gate to work with PS, making for better streamlining. Not to mention native support for PSD and PSB(obviously) means you don't have to worry about files not opening in other software (as sometimes happens). PS is by no means a true 'art' program, in the vein of krita, sai or medibang, ect, so for art, stick with the freeware. but for 3D, i can't recommend PS enough. its 3D feature takes some getting used to, but can really help you quickly block out markings and ideas, all with the support of Photoshop's

@everyone Please stop advocating piracy. Seriously. its not funny. KZK is not the place to promote breaking the law. I don't know how many times I have to say this. Fun fact, kzk almost got shut down because I was a stupid fuck like 10 years ago and built everything using a cracked copy of zbrush. I got busted and their lawyers hit me with a nasty cease and desist. So I saved up, bought a legitimate key and play nice like a responsible business owner. Kat's lesson for the day, do with it what you will.

Blau Last Saturday at 6:43 PM @everyone Subject jump, but, tomorrow is the devkit/fatpack discount deadline. Can grab the Fatpack & Devkit combo for 9kL$, or if you already have a Fatpack, just get the Devkit by covering the difference for 3kL$. After tomorrow the offer expires! (Folks who have worked on contacting Kat prior to the deadline - sorry if we missed ya! As long as we hear from you before the deadline we'll honor the discount)

Kat Last Saturday at 10:57 PM @everyone So.. Some uh. bad news. We'll call it that, in favor of 'Oh shit I might've just fucked up real bad'. Novice mistake, but I basically nuked our second database. And the real kicker? Apparently when flame and I set up the second database back in 2015, something went sideways with the backup automation. We have no backups of either database at this point. As of right now, my only hope is that my host will see my support ticket ASAP, and rollback my server to the 18th, to before I fucked it all to hell. This means I will be losing ALL SALES DATA for the 19th, 20th, and 21st. But that's preferable to losing 3 and a half to four years of sales data. This is the BEST possible outcome, The worst being that its completely and totally gone. Please wish me luck. I'm trying not to freak out right now. I really am. and please, for all you code monkies out there, please keep any 'humorous' anecdotes to yourselves. I already feel like a piece of shit for literally putting the database down like Old Yeller. However if you have any ideas that might help us recover the lost data, I'm all ears. Thanks.

______

Jan 20

Kat Last Sunday at 12:48 AM @everyone Got a quick response back from my host, and its looking like I'll only be losing purchase data for the 19th. I can manually restore that data once the database is restored (assuming they succeed.

Blau Last Sunday at 8:44 PM @everyone Heyo! Our host is working on getting things fixed. Until they give us the all clear we're pulling ALL kzk vendors down to prevent them from trying to update and breaking things over. We'll send notices/announce when it's all done! Thanks so much for your patience :heart:

Kat Last Sunday at 9:19 PM @everyone Good news everyone! Our host was able to successfully roll our second database back to an image of the 17th. So this means we're missing effectively 3 days of transactions, BUT between Second Life and the server's emailed receipts, I can manually rebuild those missing chunks. Now, that said, we're already hard at work backing up the system, and discussing plans to update the system to avoid this again. And for those of you suggesting caspervend--I already looked into them. The owner told me himself that his system can't do what I need it to. THank you for your patience. I'll bring the vendors back on in a few hours.

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Jan 21

Kat Last Monday at 3:40 PM @everyone So it'll take me a fair bit to finish combing through emails, local chat logs (as I get an inworld message from the server for each sale), and cross referencing them against offline emails received to avoid any duplicate purchases, but I should be able to manually restore most if not all missing purchases. I say most because there's at least a couple hundred entries effected by the data loss, so a couple are bound to slip through the cracks. Once the seas settle, i'm sure well come across the missing entries and restore those over time.

Now, on to the topic of avoiding this in the future: A brief overview of our systems: We have 2 vendors because we have 2 databases. Naverous 1, when flame wrote it wayyyy back in 2009 (in fact the system officially turns 10 years old in a day or two, I think.), it wasn't built to last as long as it has. We'd expected to be able to put together a worthwhile successor far sooner but life got in the way. This scare was the final nail in the coffin and we've already discussed internally plans to completely overhaul the system. All new vendors, new server, new database, the idea being that ALL avatars we sell will be in ONE vendor (With the exception of the one-off stuff like we've already got inworld). Once done, the old databases will be called 'Legacy'. The crystals for those will remain active, but all new purchases will be relegated to a new database with better redundancy to avoid data loss and better memory to handle the large quantity of items we sell. We'll keep you up to date on that, thank you.

Kat Last Monday at 3:48 PM @everyone Apologies for the notice spam lately, but lots to say: Current plans: First up, Direwolf 1.01 update. Fixes, improved resources for user customization, the 2 freeby skins, and the direwolf plush preorder bonus. once that's done, I'll get the last 4 Kirins done: Ragnarok, nova, Aeterna and Teknika. And then I go into con crunch for tff, prepping everything I'll be selling there, assuming we get lucky and get a table in the artist alley lottery.  Then, i'll be moving cross country. that'll probably take up a month or so of my time, between packing, moving, and unpacking. after that, I can start talking new stuff, By then it'll be may, so I'm looking at what I want to do for the summer. I'm heavily leaning toward something awesome, but it depends on whether or not I can get it done in a timely fashion (Lesson learned from the direwolf). the new server won't be available til late feb, early march at the EARLIEST, but we're giving that plenty of time under the hood so eveyrthing works correctly. Thanks.

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Jan 24

Kat Today at 1:34 PM @everyone So, in this, the year 2019, our lord and savior Tetsuya Nomura has finally blessed us with a new Kingdom Hearts game. It launches today in Japan, so we'll no doubt start to see more posts regarding plot and spoilers on the web. I've already had a huge issue with youtube putting leaked footage in my recommended videos. I shouldn't have to say this, and while it isn't KZK centric or even important to the operation of the business as a whole, its something I'm very passionate about--Whether its KH3 or any other game, movie, or title that people are VERY excited for, DO. NOT. POST. SPOILERS. I will personally hunt down anyone who posts even minor spoilers and introduce them to the ground, and in the words of Android 17, Your relationship will be intimate. I know myself and MANY people who grew up with KH are super super stoked about 3 and getting it spoiled would seriously ruin the day. :heart:

#kzk-dd #kzk

[iyarpage]

20 Best New Portfolios, March 2018

Hello readers! It’s March. As is tradition, I’ve gone and collected a bunch of interesting portfolio designs for your perusal. It’s an eclectic mix this month. You’ll see some plain and basic good design together with sites that do interesting things with 3D graphics. Enjoy!

Note: I’m judging these sites by how good they look to me. If they’re creative and original, or classic but really well-done, it’s all good to me. Sometimes, UX and accessibility suffer. For example, many of these sites depend on JavaScript to display their content at all; this is a Bad Idea, kids. If you find an idea you like and want to adapt to your own site, remember to implement it responsibly.

Kaj Jeffries

Kaj Jeffries has won my meme-loving heart by the simple expedient of using GIFs to showcase his work as a director. It’s a simple technique that works flawlessly with his particular directorial style. The layout with two columns that scroll in opposite directions is perhaps not the most practical, but certainly fits the vibe while not being unusable.

Ori Studio

Ori Studio is the first site in a long time to have “dots” as their primary theme. I don’t know, the first word I thought of was “pointillism”, but that doesn’t feel quite right. In any case, the style lends a very distinct feel to the site, and I doubt I’ll forget it soon.

Julien Renau

When you take into account how much I dislike pre-loaders and the overuse of animation, it says something that I like Julien Renau’s portfolio. There’s just something about the little blinking mascot (which you can control via the arrow keys), and the execution of the rest of the site that I find both elegant, and a little charming.

Uncanny Valley Studio

Uncanny Valley Studio changes up what would otherwise be a fairly standard minimalist layout by embracing a distorted graphical style when presenting their projects. And it works.

Each of their projects also seems to feature some interactive elements, such as this basic music looper. This adds a whole new dimension to the way users experience the portfolio.

Snow Beach

Anyone who’s read a few of these articles will know that I can appreciate designers trying something bold, and even drastic, even if it’s a little flawed. That’s more or less how I’d describe Snow Beach, a portfolio for what appears to be a team of directors.

The navigation isn’t exactly obvious as navigation until you look closely, and the “screensaver” kicks in way too quickly. Otherwise, this site hits you hard with that red tone, and a design that is obviously all about getting you to the videos as quickly as possible. I like it.

Community Films

Community Films is another portfolio for several different directors. Instead of hitting you hard with a ton of one single color, though, this one organizes its videos (and Instagram posts) into a pleasant masonry layout.

I’d say they need to make it clearer which links are Instagram picture and which are videos from the get-go, without requiring the user to hover over each one. Otherwise, the site is pleasant to browse, and stays out of your way.

One Design Company

ODC2017 is an interesting case, as it’s not the main portfolio. It’s just a collection of things that One Design Company did in 2017. I have to say, it’s rare for me to see over a dozen color palettes put to use in one page, and even rarer still for me to think it works. But it works here.

Claudia Basel

Claudia Basel’s portfolio is another one of those sites that hits the right spot ion a weird way. You know, like, it’s weird but it’s good weird. Full-screen navigation with what looks an awful lot like a family photo on the home page gives way to a minimalist portfolio that is clean and clear.

Hugo Vann

Hugo Vann took the now very-familiar asymmetrical site and gave it a dark coat of paint. It’s simple, and nothing mind-blowing, but it looks pretty, and works well. What I do particularly like is the way he presents snapshots of his work in ways that make sense for the medium. For example, he doesn’t present his mobile interfaces with skeuomorphic faux-phones, but you can still tell it’s a mobile interface first and foremost.

Patrick Heng

Patrick Heng used his portfolio as a way to show off all of the fancy interactive tricks he could pull. But I’ll find a way to forgive him, if only because it’s just so pleasant to look at. It’s rare that a site manages to feel colorful despite most of its elements being monochromatic. It definitely has something to do with how colorful all of his work is.

Switch

I’d just like to tell the people behind Switch that their site is lovely, find yet another way to implement project slideshows creatively, and that they should look out for lawsuits from Nintendo; they litigate hard.

I typically wouldn’t recommend using slideshows for everything, but I must admit that more and more sites manage to make it work. Switch is one of them. I’d just make the contact info horizontal again. I don’t like trying to decipher text that’s “on its side”.

Akademi

With the dead-simple layout, the huge and bold sans-serif type, and the thick black borders on some thing, Akademi feels like a bit of a throwback. You know, a throwback to two or three years ago, at most? Darn, trends move fast.

It ain’t fancy, but it’s a good website. Man, I almost miss this style, now.

Two Twenty Two

Two Twenty Two is the next site on this list to go a little nuts with the 3D graphics on its website. We’ve got polygonal pizza, lollipops, toast, sunglasses, and those boxes from Super Mario that have question marks. The rest of the site sticks to a fairly typical layout, but that homepage really sets the tone.

Magic People Voodoo People

Magic People Voodoo People lives up to its name by embracing a new-age kind of vibe in its presentation-style portfolio. And even if the logo does look a bit too much like clip-art for my taste, you can’t deny that they have a distinct theme going for them.

P.S. Click around on their page until you see lasers shoot from the eye-logo. Then keep clicking as fast as you can.

Contrast Films

Contrast Films has taken to the Internet with a presentation-style site that very lightly mimics the look of a video camera’s view-finder. It’s stylish, the type is great, and they milk that theme for all its worth.

I am still skeptical of navigation links being spread to all four corners (or sides) of any given website, though. I don’t know where this trend came from, and I’d dearly like to see some numbers on how well it does or doesn’t work.

Mr. Kyle Mac

Mr. Kyle Mac brings us another website that is light, clean, and minimalist, with a few light touches of animation. Nothing mind-blowing, but solid and dependable design.

Walter Spatzek

Walter Spatzek’s portfolio goes right past “light touches” of animation, and dives right into the deep end. And yet, the rest of the design feels elegant enough that I don’t mind. The work is very clearly emphasized, and does all of the selling.

Florian Wacker

Florian Wacker has managed to do something I never thought I’d see. They’ve made (what I’m pretty sure is) German look more elegant than terrifying through typography alone. Okay, that’s a joke, but really, if that was English, I’d quite enjoy just reading everything on this site.

Ketan Mistry

Ketan Mistry is an old-school designer, and his website embraces an old-school theme. I half suspect his website might have looked a lot like this as far back as when we used frames and tables for layout. And why not? Good design lasts.

Robbie Hall Creative

If Robbie Hall’s portfolio looks a bit like a theme, don’t worry. That’s just Bootstrap showing through. However, I didn’t figure that out ’til I looked at the source. In a way, that fact alone is a testament to the skill of the designer. Plus, it looks good.

Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!

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[vargasni]

Review of the Huion Pen tablet - Inspiroy Q11K

Últimamente a Wacom le salen muchos competidores en el mercado de las Pen-tablets o tabletas digitalizadoras. Si ciertamente, siguen dominando el juego, no quiere decir que no haya otras buenas opciones ahí fuera. Por ejemplo, el producto que os traigo hoy, la Inspiroy Q11K de HUION, ¡es una buenísima opción!  Si venimos de Wacom hay algunas limitaciones que tenemos que tener presente. Pero si miramos los precios, es comprensible y muchas veces hasta de agradecer estas faltas (como la función táctil, sigo sin entender porque Wacom sigue metiendo eso en sus productos, a parte de para cobrar 5 veces mas de lo que debería, claro).

No me considero un Geek del tema, pero me encanta probar estos productos y ver que tal funcionan. Los chicos de HUION han sido super generosos de nuevo al enviarme uno de sus nuevos modelos para testearlos y aquí les comparto lo que pienso sobre el mismo.

¡La versión en vídeo por si no tienes muchas ganas de leer!

Lately Wacom has many competitors in the market for pen-tablets. If they, certainly continue to dominate the game, it does not mean that there are no other good options out there. For example, the product I bring you today, the Inspiroy Q11K from HUION is a great choice! If we come from Wacom, there are some limitations that we have to keep in mind. But if we look at the prices, it is understandable and many times even to thank these faults (like the tactile function, I still do not understand why Wacom continues to put that in their products, other than to charge 5 times more than it should, of course).

I don't consider myself a Geek on the subject, but I love to try these products and see how they work, the guys at HUION have been super generous again sending me one of their new models to test it and here I share what I think about it.

The video version below!

Empezando por el unboxing, el empaquetado de esta tableta me encanta. Al abrir la caja una tarjeta de agradecimientos, la tableta y debajo, encontramos los accesorios, cada uno en su cajita negra señalizada en plateado con lo que trae dentro, todo muy bien organizado y compacto. 

Este modelo viene acompañado con el nuevo lápiz de HUION, ésta vez si han acertado con el diseño. Si con el anterior tenía mis problemas por la forma en que habían integrado los botones, con este es todo lo contrario. El lápiz se siente muy bien en la mano, encuentras los botones enseguida y funciona a las mil maravillas. Una cosa que no me había fijado hasta este lápiz, es el contacto de la punta con la superficie de la tableta.

Starting with the unboxing, I must say, I love the packaging of this tablet! Opening the box you have a Thank You postcard from HUION and the tablet itself. Below, we can find the accessories. Each in its little black box marked in silver with what it's inside. Everything perfectly organized and well packed.

This model comes with the new HUION pencil, this time, they nailed it with the design. If with the previous, I had my problems by the way they had integrated the buttons, with this is quite the opposite. The pencil feels great in your hand, you find the buttons right away and it works just fine. One thing that I had not noticed up to this pencil, is the contact of the tip with the surface of the tablet.

En modelos anteriores, cuando empezabas a dibujar, la punta se hundía bastante, como un muelle casi. Con este nuevo modelo la punta es mucho mas firme y se siente mejor al trazo. Viene con 8192 niveles de presión. Bastante enorme el paso en comparación al lápiz anterior.  Eso si, sigue siendo de batería. Mientras se recarga un led te avisa del estado de la carga. Aunque como en los modelos anteriores, una carga mínima de una hora te da para la semana y más. Con dar dos toques rápidos en la tableta con el lápiz se despierta y listo para pintar. 

In earlier models, when you began to draw, the tip sank a bit, like a quay almost. With this new model the tip is much firmer and feels better to paint. Comes with 8192 pressure levels. Quite a huge step compared to the previous pencil. And yes, it has also battery. While recharging, a led notifies you of the status of the charge. Although as in previous models, a minimum charge of one hour last you for the week and more. With two quick touches on the tablet with the pencil wakes up and you are ready to paint.

 El stand del lápiz es un diseño nuevo también, compuesto de dos partes, la inferior, donde van las puntas de recambio y el receptor inalámbrico es de metal, añadiendo mas estabilidad a la base. Y la superior de plástico, que incorpora la herramienta para extraer y hacer el recambio de las puntas.

El diseño de la tableta en si, es muy funcional y minimalista, Sin mucha decoración, todo en negro mate, incluso el logo es casi imperceptible. El cual al fin, está a la par tanto para zurdos como para derechos. ¡Yay! Un único led entre las teclas de acceso rápido para conocer el estado de carga de la batería.  los botones de acceso directo van de lujo, 8 para todos tus atajos preferidos. Traen pequeñas marcas para poder identificarlos mejor unos de otros y el tacto es bastante suave.  Los materiales de construcción no son tan buenos en comparación con el último modelo Inspiroy que era metal sino recuerdo mal. Aquí volvemos al plástico en todo el cuerpo, y se nota. La parte way, es que pesa mucho menos también (?). Así que no es del todo malo, pero me temo que si se te cae al suelo, al recogerla no siga funcionando tan bien. 

Por los laterales encontramos el botón de encendido y apagado para la función inalámbrica, el puerto mini USB y un bloqueo para los botones de acceso rápido… para alguien que necesite eso… El tamaño es ideal para el escritorio, algo mas grande que las Medium size de Wacom.   

The pen stand is a new design too, composed of two parts, the bottom, where you can store the replacement tips and the wireless receiver, is made of metal, adding more stability to the base. And the plastic top, which incorporates the tool to extract and make the replacement of the tips.

The design of the tablet itself, is very functional and minimalist, without much decoration, everything in matte black, even the logo is almost imperceptible. Which at last,  it's placed  for both lefties and rights. A single led between the hot keys to know the state of charge of the battery. The shortcut buttons work fancy, 8 for all your favorite shortcuts. They bring small marks to be able to identify them better of each other and the touch is quite smooth. The building materials are not as good compared to the last Inspiroy model that was build completely of metal if I remember correctly. Here, we return to plastic throughout the body, and you can tell right away. The cool part, is that it weighs much less also (?). So it's not all bad, but I'm afraid if its fells to the ground, it won't continue working as good as before.

On the sides we find the power switch for the wireless function, the mini USB port and a lock switch for the hot keys ... for someone who needs that ... The size is ideal for the desktop, just a bit larger than the Medium Size of Wacom.

Los drivers, como siempre, vienen incluidos en el CD de instalación, aunque es preferible descargarlos directamente de su web por si han actualizado desde que compraste tu tableta. Se instalan sin ningún problema y como siempre me sorprende la estabilidad que tienen. Acostumbrados a los continuos crasheos de Wacom y al tener que reiniciar servicios y demás malabares para poder empezar a trabajar . Aquí solo tienes que coger el lápiz y a pintar.  En la ventana de WORK AREA, podemos cambiar la dirección de la tableta, para los zurdos, cambiar el área de la pantalla que deseamos usar y mapearla con el área de la tableta. La ventana de PRESS KEYS es para configurar los botones de acceso rápido. Al principio parece algo complejo, pero enseguida le pillas el truco. En la ventana del STYLUS PEN, podemos configurar los dos botones laterales del lápiz, probar la presión de la punta, y ajustarla por si queremos menos o mas respuesta según la fuerza que apliquemos al trazo.  Por ultimo en la ventana de ABOUT, podemos Ir a la pagina de HUION con un click en el banner e importar y exportar configuraciones. Lo cual uso bastante. Como esta tableta no tiene para poder configurar los botones de acceso directo diferentes con diferentes programas, como Wacom, por ejemplo. Lo que podéis hacer, es hacer una configuración distinta para cada programa y exportarla a la carpeta que escojas. Así, cada vez que necesites cambiar de software, solo tienes que importar la configuración guardada y listo.

Como siempre, probé la tablet con los softwares que mas podría usar y sin ninguna tipo de problemas. Photoshop, Clip Studio y ZBrush.

The drivers, as always, are included on the installation CD, although it is preferable to download them directly from  the HUION  website in case they have updated them since you bought your tablet. They install without any problem and as always I am surprised the stability they have. Accustomed to the continuous crashes of Wacom and having to restart services and other jugglings to start working. Here you only have to take the pencil and paint.                 In the WORK AREA window, we can change the direction of the tablet, for the left-handed people, change the area of the screen that we want to use and map it with the area of the tablet. The PRESS KEYS window is for configuring the quick access buttons. At first it seems complex, but you get the hang of it. In the window of the STYLUS PEN, we can configure the two side buttons of the pen, test the pressure of the tip, and adjust it if we want less or more response depending on the force we apply to the stroke. 

Finally in the ABOUT window, we can go to the HUION page with a click on the banner and the import and export configurations. Which I use a lot. As this tablet does not have the option to configure the different shortcut buttons for different programs, like Wacom, for example. What you can do, is to make a different configuration for each program and export it to the folder of your choice. So, every time you need to change software, you just have to import the saved setting.

As always, I tried the tablet with different softwares that I  use more often and without any problems. Photoshop, Clip Studio and Zbrush.

La función inalámbrica va de maravillas, no he experimentado ningún tipo de lag, que se cuelgue el lápiz, todo de 10. No necesita mucho lío con emparejamientos complejos ni nada del estilo, desconectas el cable usb, enciendes la tableta y a pintar.

 El precio de esta tableta ronda los 90€ - 110€ dependiendo de donde la compres, por eso precio es insuperable en el mercado ahora mismo. La recomiendo totalmente!

Aqui os dejo el link a Amazon

http://amzn.to/2s1aKDN  

Debajo os comparto el boceto que hice para probar la tablet!

The wireless function works perfectly, I have not experienced any type of lag, hang of the pen whatsoever , a solid 10. It does not need much mess with complex pairings or anything of the style, disconnect the USB cable, turn on the tablet and paint. 

The price of this pen-tablet is around 90€ - 110€ depending on where you buy it. For that  price range  is unsurpassed in the market right now. I totally reccomend it!

Here is the Amazon link:

http://amzn.to/2s1aKDN  

Below I share a video of the sketch I did to test the tablet.

Well that's it. If you have any questions or concerns, as always, leave a comment below and I will try to respond as soon as possible. See you around!

Bueno, eso es todo. Si tienen alguna pregunta o duda, como siempre, dejen un comentario debajo e intentaré responder lo mas pronto posible. Nos leemos!

#art #artwork #illustrtion #batman #flashpoint #painting #digital art #photoshop #clip studio #zbrush #speedpainting #review #pen tablet #huion #wacom #pen #inspiroy q11k #technology #tecnologia #accesorios pc