The fake game anomalies post is amazing, how did you get the videos to look so convincing as working video games?
AHHH thank you so much!!! ^u^ I think a lot of it comes down to just knowing and keeping the way video games work in mind while animating, as well as being aware of what limitations the 'game' would have.
The games in my post were meant to resemble games with graphics somewhere between the PSX and original Xbox (Playstation 1.5, essentially), so I tried to keep poly counts close to what you'd expect for something of that era, used subdivision sparingly, and composited them with varying levels of pixelation effects to resemble game engine aliasing. Since these nonexistent games are for nonexistent consoles, I didn't try to adhere to what the actual technology would/wouldn't allow, and instead focused on what you might expect to see. Game-like lighting in particular is tricky to nail down and I definitely could've made it more 'accurate' with further adjustments, but overall I thought it was okay. As long as you think it looks visually appealing, I think it's fine. (Also it's kind of hard to be accurate to something that doesn't actually exist, LOL)
That's more about the technical side though, and like I said, you can fudge a lot of that stuff since, y'know—it's not an actual game. I think what really makes something like this more convincing is simply conveying aspects of how the game is played or being played; stuff like seemingly functional UI elements, or a player's actions appearing to influence the game in some way.
Interactivity is what distinguishes games as a medium, so this is the key component to keep in mind. Most media doesn't tend to involve active influence from its observers because the medium simply can't accommodate such a thing; printed ink and paper isn't as infinitely malleable as pixels and bytes. So things should be designed as if they are able to be altered or interacted with, even if an actual 'player' is absent. You don't need to build the engine—you just need to imply that it exists, and operates.
In my little clips, I tried to pay special attention to the supposed 'player' as well. You can't see them directly, but rather through proxy of the character or cursor they're controlling. In the first clip, the player character quickly stutters in movement, shown as a sudden stop and start in their walk cycle. You would never have a character move like this in a normal animation because it's unnatural and nonsensical on its own. But in the context of a video game, this movement is instantly recognizable. The player is pausing, tilting, and flicking the analog stick to get a better look at something—or to get away from it.
The character isn't programmed to stop and squint, and the camera isn't programmed to cut to a shot of their shocked face. The character is only a puppet for the player to interface with the game's world, and the unpredictability of a player cannot be accounted for in a preprogrammed narrative. These movements appear nonsensical and unnatural because they represent something not entirely intended. This is only one manifestation of the infinite movement possibilities within a game engine.
It's something trying to be expressed by someone that does not have the direct means to do so. But even indirectly, you can tell what is being expressed, because nothing would move like this by itself. It implies the existence of certain things beyond what is directly observable: a controller and constraints—the player, and the programming.
I think the moment you assume a player exists is the moment it becomes a game.
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Having Nonbinary Sapphic Tuvok Brainrot Lately…
You're the realest motherfucker on planet Earth and I hope you know that.
Here's a bunch of bullshit I doodled on the topic of Nonbinary Sapphic Tuvok !!!! And I HOPE you will share YOUR personal brainrot with the class (my ask box, the masses, a text post....whatever gets the word out.)
If you've been paying attention you KNOW I love a 'Tuvok discovers he's trans while in the delta quadrant' story
Guy who likes girls and has always liked girls...but....not in the same way OTHER guys seem to like girls...
Tuvok who never quite fit in with 'other' men even Vulcan men...always preferred spending time with women and girls but never felt precisely LIKE a woman or OVERLY uncomfortable with being identified as a man and Vulcan society doesn't seem like it would be heavily gendered so he never really questioned it seriously.
Tuvok who found comfort in titles like Husband and Father...those fit, those are good. Then in the delta quadrant he isn't able to be a husband or a father any more and is just some guy surrounded by humans...hmmmmmm....
Still doesn't really seriously think it's worth questioning or exploring his gender identity (partially out of a desire to return home as he left...what will his wife and children think? He's experienced a LOT of sudden change in regards to his personal identity and life, he doesn't really want to undergo more.) until Seven of Nine comes along and also begins to go through a "Questioning Her Gender" arc.
Tuvok thinks about it on his own time for a long time and then finally goes to Janeway for support and assistance and together they spend like SEVERAL months just the two of them seeing what this whole gender thing's about.
Tuvok slowly exploring expressing himself in a more feminine manner because he's spent his whole life adhering rigidly to one sort of Look. Unexpectedly struggles with anxiety about this.
Neelix: Don't be nervous Ms. Vulcan!
Tuvok: [nervous] I am not nervous.
Tuvok and Seven BOTH exploring masculinity/femininity and their own nonbinary gender identities...late night slumber par- experimentation. Painting each others nails is...very scientific. It's important. Talking with Janeway was good because she's his friend but talking with Seven, another person actively questioning their gender is....well, it's something else.
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let’s call my mom, they say. it’ll be fun, they say.
“the boy who was not supposed to tell a lie brings the sword of truth down on the strings” is going to take permanent residence in my brain matter with all of its poetry.
fuckin’ hell, mulligan. this is exu: calamity all over again.
the nat20 for that move was incredible. the dice tell the story. holy shit that line was so good
i was absolutely terrified to my core that lou really had rolled double nat 1s, right after stepmother said "you've OUTLIVED your use" i was convinced for like 30 seconds that pinocchio was going to be completely gone
i'm still reeling. i don't usually go in the dropout discord but i RAN there we're all just yelling together my brain is buzzing
the whiplash between a fun battle aftermath episode up to the tonal shift once the two twig figures showed up and meant to kill tim like. after that. i knew we were just ROCKETING downhill
HOW am i supposed to sleep tonight brennan. how. how absolutely horrifying 100/10
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okay people talk about “religious trauma”, but only recently did I find out that, as a child, one of my best friends used to wake up before anyone else in the house and panic because she was so convinced that everyone she loved had been raptured.
that she still sometimes feels irrationally afraid, almost thirty years later, and has to remind herself that surely a mass disappearance would make the news.
that this isn’t remotely uncommon.
that my boyfriend, who was raised in a very different denomination, used to have the same fears, as well as at least one of my coworkers.
people talk about religious trauma in a lot of ways, and I always associated it with purity culture, bigotry, and oppression. but these raw, granular little moments, where a 6 year-old version of my friend is gripped with terror because the house is too quiet, everyone she loves must have been taken away, and she must have been the only one that was Unworthy...it’s just so much more fucked up than I ever realized.
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