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pandemique · 3 years

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hI!! i love your art and was wondering if you could make a tutorial showing how you paint stuff? only if you can! it's just really pretty !!

hi nonnie! thats very flattering !! i’m sorry i dont think i’ll be very helpful bc i’m a mega noob as well :D but i’ll try my very best <3

my process is very tailored for speed instead of quality (oops soz LOL) so i do suggest this for if u have short doodle breaks ⬇️⬇️⬇️

thumbnailing (for comics) -> lines (sketch who?) -> bucket tool/color drop in the base color -> color in the lines -> one multiply layer for a “base” shadow (in the vid below its purple!) -> one (1) render/paint layer a.k.a lawless no man’s land

full rendering process & more general painting tips below the cut‼️

NOTE: i’ll be focusing more on traditional/fundamental tips for stylized art because i’m sure there’s a much more effective way in digital. I truly do only use one normal layer for render... i think this is bc before i made this blog, my only prior experience in drawing is middle school art class, so all i know is traditional painting on one layer.... pray i can answer this again in the future with something smarter lmao

🌺 MY PAINT PROCESS

1. Choose a color scheme!

It doesn’t have to be set in stone like below, but i at least keep in mind the color range i’d like to use depending on what i want to convey (ex. soft pastels for soft fluff, or warm colors for happy vibes). I try to be as limited as possible for base colors because I tend to go ham when painting, you’ll see later AHAHA

2. Base coloring + Base shadow

Base -> bucket tool in the color scheme (I know other artists are against this but when i discovered the bucket tool in digital art I immediately divorced manual coloring i’m sorry i loved you tho bae) (this is why my style and lines are simplistic as they are, so the color drop works!)

Base shadow -> in theory, warm-colored light creates cool-colored shadows and vice versa. because i’m a fluff addict i mainly use warmer light, so i like using blue/purple as the shadow. generally u can’t go wrong with complementary colors!! (yellow light & purple shadows / orange light & blue shadows).

I make a new multiply layer (decreased opacity just bc i like things soft okay) and clip it on the base layer, then block in the areas i think would get blocked from the light.

3. Color in the lines!

for simplistic styles i swear this works wonders. i just clip a layer to the lineart and manually color the lines with a darker but more saturated version of the base color. it just tends to look more dead i guess with low saturation lol (ex. u can see above i use both peach and red or pink for lines of skin, i guess it implies the blood under the skin too. or something :D)

4. RENDERRRR

when i’m not in a rush i just paint things completely (and mindlessly), but here are the things i almost always do:

line the shadows with a saturated color! i’m not sure this is common but i love it lol, in almost all my doodles just check the shadows—on the edges, there’s bound to be a wild color :D (usually its the light color, shadow color or a color scheme color but sometimes i’m just like boY do i loVe piNk)

my art major friend told me about saturated colors on desaturated bases and my life was changed forever lol. u can see below even when my base is very grayyy, my rendering is very gay :D ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

make the shadows darker where i think they should be darker. usually i can just colorpick from that darker, saturated lineart color!

if it’s a more realistic piece i usually make the highlights lighter, but in simple doodles i find it unnecessary, and i dont like how light/white it looks :( i tend to just make the areas exposed to light more saturated

color in the rebound light~ in reality there’s usually not only one primary light source, at least there’d be secondary light from where light bounces off objects. in art we just emphasize that! so in large shadow areas, or in areas close to other objects/colors, i like to ‘splash’ other colors on

yeah this part is less intuitive for beginners and u have to learn a grasp on the concepts over time, like for lighting and structure. values can be more important than color, so i do suggest learning shading first before coloring, but only if u like (u can always be like me and just pull up references when u dont get how the light would fall on some materials :>). i have more general paint tips below! don’t give up okay, i believe in u nons, we’re all still in the eternal learning process together ( •̀ᄇ• ́)ﻭ✧

5. OOOOHHH SHINY ✨🤩

this step is just me being mesmerized by how easy it is to play with lighting in digital. i play around with the layer settings (multiply for shadow, overlay for light, and often try out the other settings too!). my favorite effect is the highlight glow thing, where u just make a copy layer of the highlights below the original layer, and blur it slightly so it looks like glow ✨✨🤩 overpriced acrylic could never

6. COLOR ADJUST / EDIT

Truthfully i usually skip this step, but my more pro friends really vouch for it!! i think definitely an incredible thing with digital is that u can edit proportions and even color after you’re done. i think they usually use like the curves adjustment layer in photoshop until they get colors they like, but for me, well, in a reaally diligent day i like to slap on the “auto” fliter in the iphone’s photos edit button lmaoooo

🌺 GENERAL PAINTING TIPS

learn basic theory: i think theres free courses everywhere online, but heres a few things u might like to have a basic understanding of: color, perspective, shape language, lighting, composition. don’t sweat it too much tho, it should be fun to explore the concepts!

and for drawing hoomans: proportion, gesture, expression, and veery basic anatomy. i find that overall forms are so much more important to learn than like detailed anatomy bc u can always look it up lol

but remember, u mostly want to learn the rules so u know better ways to break them :)

uuuuse manyyyyy referencessss every time u draww!

^this includes other people’s art — when u see good stuff, figure out why u like it and apply it to ur own art

get feedback!!!!

draw tons!!! brainrot helps !! ;D

aaand thank u for coming to my ted talk! sorry for the ramble nonnie, i hope u got something out of this lol

#VERY LONG POST ALERT‼️#thanku for enabling my rambliness nons #thanku for asking <3 #love u anon #demi rambles #untagged #art advice #art tips #art tutorial #art #painting #i’ll update this as i go bc lord knows im also just a noob

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forfansbyfans · 6 years

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Challenge Yourself: A FFBF Artist Interview

Homestuck Tarot Acts 6 & 7 - Cards Illustrated: Queen of Pentacles, Four of Wands, Page of Swords

It’s always fascinating to see how huge the Homestuck art community is all over the world - Where are you from?

Coastal California, born and raised

We’re in love with the tarot deck! Can you tell us a little bit about how you became involved?

Aryll (who organized the event) posted about it in a Homestuck Art server I'm an admin for (the Homestuck Artists Discord Server) to help get the word out. I was one of many people who was excited by it. I'm incredibly impressed by her selections for the cards, every one was absolutely perfect. (Also she's an amazing artist, and the project is filled with incredible artists, and being able to work with them and get crits from them and see their process was also just incredibly fun and fulfilling.)

Tell us a little bit about the artwork you contributed to the deck – how does the art tie in with the meaning behind the card?

Alright, this might take a bit, partially because I did three and partially because there's a lot in there. I'll try to get into what I can!

Queen of Pentacles: The Queen of Pentacles is a perfect fit for Jane and the Nanasprites. I drew Jane as the queen she is in Propsitian regalia, with a maternal Nanasprite on each side to offer guidance, resources, compassion and playful mischief. The cake Jane's holding with the pentacle frosting represents her material wealth, financial success and security. It hints at her business and creative talents but in a way that's entirely hers, without any crockercorp baggage tainting it. She holds it with an open hand, representing her willingness to share with family and friends. She's centered in the piece, emphasizing her stability. At her feet grow pumpkins, that are both a literal image of pumpkins she grew that (though she didn't know it) sustained Roxy and an entire city of Carapacians, as well as a metaphor for the life and sustenance she creates for those around her. The life symbol on her throne furthers these themes. Lil Seb represents caution (he's on guard, ready to protect his charge) with Jane's hand on his head representing her compassion and maternal affection. (Not to mention holding him back from causing too much mischief! The Queen of Pentacles knows how to keep her family in line) In the background, prospit shines in all its glory, a flourishing kingdom of gold. Skaia shines above, an entire universe waiting to be born, in part thanks to Jane's hand, but she's down to earth and her eyes are set forward, focused on the practical, there here and now. Jane is a great character. I love her and I loved drawing her.

Four of Wands: The Four of Wands depicts S: Unite, one of my all-time favorite flashes. The alpha kids come together in person for the first time ever in a series of shenanigans and time travel. I took some artistic license with the chains on the lanterns so they'd reflect the wands in the original card. Where in the original it evokes a Chuppah, here, homestucks lanterns represents the very life force and the interconnection of the alpha kids. At that very moment, Jake's kiss has caused Dirk's lantern to burst with life, spreading the light of that to all the other lanterns as well. There's also an echo of Dirk's heart symbol in Jake's lantern, and the light almost seems to pierce through Jake's heart. (A lot of this symbolism was in part inspired by some fantastic essays on DirkJake and the lantern scene in particular by RevolutionaryDeulist on tumblr, which I definitely recommend checking out! :3) I tried to keep a symmetry and sense of movement to the card. It's a card of happiness and reunions, that both follows and precedes a lot of hard work. It's everything coming together at one moment, and even if things might get hard again soon, for a while now pure joy. Dirk, Jake, Jane and Jake all see (or are about to see) each other for the first time in person, after what is probably the worst day of all of their lives and a lot of work. While it harmony, celebration, goals achieved and reunions and unions of all kinds, its also a transitory card and can even symbolize a breakdown in communication. (Something that the alpha kids, unfortunately, had plenty of problems with!) Dirk, Jane and Roxy are both acting and watching. There's more to it, but this is the most complicated of the three and I'm afraid the hardest for me to explain, and I seem to be repeating myself so I'm gonna stop now.

Page of Swords: The page of swords is a perfect Tavros card. He's energetic, passionate and creative. Tavros is waiting in the beginning, eager to begin this new project, and look what a beginning it is! An army of countless ghosts waits with him, inspired by his charisma and kindness rather than forced. It's about being ready and moving forward. And importantly, he's successful because he made the choice to do this on his own, ignoring the voices that told him he couldn't succeed and wasn't good enough. It's a card that encourages you to find the people who will nurture your ideas rather than those who bring you down. It also represents communication, which is what it took for him to gather up this army. The breath sign in the clouds is there for multiple reasons. Breath is, of course, Tavros' symbol, and also, the Page of Pentacles is a wind card. But within the Homestuck canon, breath also represents freedom and charisma and many of the aspects of this card. (Also, god rays are cool and fun to draw and make some neat lighting effects.) Like Tavros, of course, the card only represents the beginning. It represents gathering people and friends, and communicating with them, new ideas and the start of something great. But Tavros at this point understands himself well enough to know his own strength. He formed the army, but he isn't the one to take the lead, and he's okay with that.

How have you grown as an artist over the years and what has helped you grow?

Practice is great for improving, but more than that you need to challenge yourself, and you need things to inspire you to do so. I've been drawing since I was three, graduated with a BA in art, and been living off caricaturing for almost a decade. But I also felt like my art was stagnating, and the thing that inspired me most has actually been Homestuck. I actually only got into it recently, only a few years ago, but it's gotten me drawing for myself again for the first time in a long time, and the art discords have a lot of events that have been encouraging me to draw. So even the time I've started drawing homestuck my art has improved more then it had in a long time, and I've really had fun with it again for the first time. But the best way to improve is definitely to find the things your worst at, and study and draw it a lot. Bad at hands? Study a bunch of pictures of hands. Learn anatomy, skeletal and muscular structure. Trace hand photos, draw your own hands. Bad at backgrounds? Study landscapes, trees, perspective... etc. Trying to do different things and work with different styles is good too, things like palette challenges can be great for helping things stay fun and inspired. Sorry, I got a little rambly, and I guess its more a general list of things I learned then the things that sparked my own specific growth, but hopefully it's helpful!

What’s your process? Where do you find inspiration?

I like changing things up. Sometimes I'll sketch thumbnails or even the base sketch on paper, then draw from there in photoshop. Sometimes I'll play with pure color or light and shadow and sort of carve out images. I like to play with art a lot, and how much prep I do varies depending on what I'm drawing; usually if its a commission or illustration with something more in mind I'll do more thumbnailing and have a more structured approach. Inspiration varies. Music can be great for it, Homestuck is hugely inspirational. Games, stories, movies, etc can also all be great. Also I love having themed events, or drawing gift art for people. (Bonus, I love making people happy so I find that particularly satisfying.)

What kind of impact has Homestuck had on your life and art?

It's become my favorite piece of media. I could (and have) gone on a multi page rant about why and everything I like about it. But in an attempt to be succinct, its an interesting complex story with great characters and the perfect balance of humor and serious moments. Seriously, I love every character. It's also, like I mentioned, got me drawing for myself again. I've been drawing much more and improved a lot thanks to Homestuck in the few years since I got into it. I owe a lot to it, and for all people speak bad of the fandom, I think there's much more good then bad, and try my best to be part of the former, trying to help it be a place of encouragement, growth and happiness for everyone involved. :3

What advice would you give to a younger you?

Oh man. There are so many answers I could give here. I'd encourage more introspection. There's a lot of things about myself it took me too long to discover, or things I did because I was following someone else's definitions of success. Teaching myself art with some of the fantastic resources available and focusing on my own goals could have spared me ridiculous amounts of student debt.

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idolizerp · 5 years

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LOADING INFORMATION ON NIGHTMARE’S LEAD VOCAL BAE REMI...

IDOL DETAILS

STAGENAME: n/a CURRENT AGE: 24 DEBUT AGE: 23 TRAINEE SINCE AGE: 20 COMPANY: Koala.T SECONDARY SKILL: n/a

IDOL PROFILE

NICKNAME(S): 알모미 - an abbreviation of even if you know her, you don’t (and the final syllable of her name), due to the fact that she has an enigmatic personality that is more quiet than the traditional “4-D image” but still maintains that off the wall unpredictability. One moment cutesy and cringey, the next moment cuttingly observant and savage, then the epitome of “노잼” or no fun at all. 미미 - “mimi” is a simple play on the final syllable of her name, mi, though sweeter fans state it’s due to the hanja reading being “beautiful” both in her name and ostensibly the nickname, thus meaning she is “double beautiful.” she figures this to be an elaborate explanation for a simple nickname. 노잼미 - due to the frequent criticism of her mood-killing moments (usually ill timed puns, impersonations, bizarre factoids, or references to video games / anime the others aren’t familiar with and so on) being that she is “no fun” (노잼) and the fact that her nickname mimi plays into the korean pronunciation for something not being fun, they’ve been mashed together into a nickname that essentially states she is the weirdo mood killer extraordinaire…but in a fond way? INSPIRATION: Remi’s performative inspiration, as given to the mcs who ask for such information, is that she was just the biggest fan of Diamant and Royal-T and Clover and as a result had been inspired to audition for KJH after only a few months of dance training, hoping charisma could carry her through. The reality? Remi wants to be famous. It’s a cushy life if you can pull it off, albeit at the expense of personal dignity and privacy. She wants to be rich and she wants to get there as quickly as possible - the struggle is not her favorite. Ironically she has incidentally discovered a love of music and even of performance in the process. SPECIAL TALENTS:

multi-instrumental- she can play and compose on both the guitar and piano, as well as production abilities on various synthesizers. she has a talent for quickly transposing music across keys, which is almost never useful in her daily idol life, unless they have her trot out a guitar for an acoustic snippet on a variety. she is most proficient with the piano, more specifically these days in terms of the keyboard and style-adjacent synthesizers.

jingle creation- she can make a quick and catchy jingle for almost anything, and often spends her time narrating her life via song unintentionally and inadvertently, much to the chagrin of those around her. she will occasionally produce these into snippets uploaded on soundcloud. her most “successful” of these was an 8bit midi-filled jingle about the blessing that is milk tea.

fortnite dances - she is exceptionally skilled at performing dances from the popular game fortnite, for better or for worse, and is more than happy to break this talent out on camera. whether her group-mates want for her to do this or not.

NOTABLE FACTS:

remi is skilled in musical composition and arrangements and has dabbled in a various instruments. She is more proficient with the piano than the guitar, these days, as she’s largely relied on the latter as she moves into beat-making and production.

remi is a social media guru, with an established presence on YouTube, Soundcloud, and an active twitter/instagram outreach. She is active as well on Vlive on a regular basis. She does reviews of producing equipment, reviews of instruments, covers, “let’s play” style videos, and various vlogs/live broadcasts. This began during the ending days of Vixen and continued through her hiatus (intermittently) and has ramped up since the debut of Nightmare.

remi debuted at 16 under KJH’s girl group Vixen, as the lead dancer and lead vocalist. She faced a rather significant scandal which was (mercifully enough) quickly eclipsed by the huge scandal that plagued the main rapper of the group, eventually leading to the disbanding of the group entirely. She was a fresh 19 at the time. She was immediately signed under KTM and began training.

was tested and proven to have a relatively high iq, but dropped out of high school to pursue music fulltime after the debut of her group, vixen. she later obtained the korean equivalent of her ged and has referenced studying for entrance exams and taking them late, indicating some potential for her to pursue higher education, albeit belatedly.

IDOL GOALS

SHORT-TERM GOALS:

in the short term, remi is working to establish herself in the industry once more. after four years of down time without a proper group, reduced to training once more, she’s found herself overwhelmed with vigor and intensity. this is her second chance and she’s not willing to waste it. as a result she’s casting the net quite wide in order to find what best suits her and what will expunge her past from the eyes of the public with the greatest speed. at the moment, she’s going for a saturation technique - hosting for mbc allows her constant pleasant smile-y screen time and exposure to a new generation of idol fans, and her slow creep into radio hosting and cfs has provided further blandly positive feedback relative to higher amounts of exposure.

LONG-TERM GOALS:

in the long term, remi is very much intent on creating an empire. she has no interest in remaining in a group forever and, frankly, is quite positive nightmare won’t be lasting too long statistically speaking. with that in mind she’s intent on creating a brand around herself, putting down roots in the industry particularly in easy, high profile, and lucrative engagements like hosting or commercial work, alongside hopes of debuting her actual musical interests as a solo artist, almost in the realm of a passion project given her niche style is not likely to be highly marketable to the public. the plan is that if she has an established presence via other means, her musical output can have greater freedom as it doesn’t bear the weight of paying the bills.

IDOL IMAGE

like the morning glory, like the evening primrose, bae remi is the flower that blooms in the night, in the dark. she is the ethereal creature of the liminal spaces between day and night - the dusk and the dawn. she is not the waned moon, the blackened sky, but the earth bathed in the light of a full moon - mystical and perhaps deceptively alluring. this is her image.

they’re at the point in their career, at this point, where nightmare’s image is the priority. the importance of cultivating an image within the group is at its apex. nightmare is so heavily conceptual to begin with that there is an importance in being able to sell that image both onstage and off, to curate an instagram profile that toes the line of soft and macabre.

remi is being marketed perhaps nebulously, a softer edge, the ethereally strange sort of witch rather than one with a mouthful of blood and necromancy at her beck and call. the ensnared innocent, the tainted soul, the lost alice stumbling through wonderland, dorothy trying to return home, both enticed and appalled by strange magics - these are the formative elements of her persona as it relates to the videography of nightmare. in other groups, perhaps, the image set forth in one’s music video might be far more straightforward or, even, entirely less important. with nightmare, as is often the case, things are quite differents

off stage remi isn’t much different; the epitome of thinking before she speaks, she is owlish wide eyes and surprise remarks that cut observant to the core. humor from left field, jokes that don’t quite land. she’s not loud enough, not over the top enough for the 4-d moniker but she’s definitely odd, definitely weird. she is a study in over-explained jokes that don’t land right, and aren’t any funnier after a lengthy explanation. she’s equal parts taciturn and humorous, unsettling and endearing. she is an enigma, but at least she’s beautiful- something that has been said, to her face, on more than one occasion. the first time it happens she’s on a variety show with vixen. she’s young, and she makes a poor joke, and the silence that falls in the white room continues until she smiles and the host nods, says, ‘well, you can make a joke like that, since you’re beautiful. we’ll just laugh anyway.” it doesn’t get edited out, it becomes a funny moment, but remi can’t help but find it patronizing.

she began, after that, to use it as something of a shield. kjh had been strict about the management of her image- be young, be bright, be beautiful. don’t be threatening, or morbid, or weird. don’t be off-center, or odd, or strange. with ktm she is given the opportunity to leave those constraints behind. she wears her affections on her sleeve, publicizes her quirks. bae remi streams majora’s mask for 9 hours when she loses a bet, the pann post reads. bae remi uploads a youtube video reviewing the native instruments maschine MKII, makes a beat on the spot. bae remi begins uploading lengthily titled largely voiceless beats to soundcloud- shouldn’t she do the bgm for a video game? did you know that the pixel and anime art on the thumbnails are hers too? snapshots of her side of the dorm treat fans to her myriad keyboards and synthesizers, video game figurines and a formidable collection of sneakers. she tweets oblique references to dlist hollywood horror and snooty arthouse indie films in turn, with an eclectic range of music posts that illuminate the fact that it is not easy to pin her down. to narrow her image is to find it elusive, escaping grasp.

but it’s okay, because she’s beautiful. this is the secret, of course, that with a conventionally beautiful face one can easily get away with things. one can bury scandals beneath the faults of comrades and competitors. mcs and hosts and suitors alike are compelled to overlook poorly timed puns, jokes that make no sense, an obsessive interest in promoting herself through unconventional and largely useless means. when you’re beautiful , you aren’t bizarre and morbid - you’re delightfully macabre. when you’re beautiful you aren’t weird and obsessive- you’re charming and offbeat.

so remi becomes alice in wonderland. remi becomes the bait in the trap of nightmare, the delightfully unexpected representation of the unexpected and endearing, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

IDOL HISTORY

the stars do not fortel her coming in the literal sense, but her mother has a pregnancy dream, the kind old grandmothers will say is prophetic, a dream of the milky way in the sky overhead, a dream of laying on her back on the hillside of her hometown out in the countryside, long since left behind. a dream of the inky blackness over head and a sense of something both ominous and promising. to remi this sounds more like a stress dream than anything else, but she also enjoys the idea that her mother knew, even as she was unborn, that remi herself would be some eldritch horror, some mystical being.

she isn’t, of course. remi is a normal baby, albeit on the cuter side. she grows into a relatively normal toddler as well, precocious and strange as most toddlers are, with an apparent lack of fear that alarmed her more timid mother. nothing phased remi, not the dark, not needles, not snakes nor spiders. at the influence of her older brothers, she spent as much time tramping around in the muddy fields around their house as she did inside, and when inside her mind roamed the hills and mountains in flights of fancy.

she was a whimsical child, bound up in impossibilities, in hopes, in daydreams and mysticism. easily influenced by whatever media she consumed, the girl voraciously wrapped herself into fantasy worlds, books and television and movies the most common culprits. but with the dawn of the video game era, the bae household was filled with the enthusiastic shrieks of overexcited children, crowded around a controller- lost in hyrule or the johto region or any number of other pixellated universes filled with magic, mystery, and lore.

the games quickly revealed many things about remi: she was fanciful and flighty, she was obsessive, she was sneaky and scheming, she was a perfectionist. and above all else, she was yearning, a desperation to reach out to something other than the world around her. she wanted the promise of more that came from such worlds, from fantasies and dreams. she wanted to be the chosen one, wielding a special blade or never-before-seen magical powers. head firmly lodged in the clouds, she was able to ignore, for quite some time, the unravelling of their lives.

you see the bae family had hit dire financial straits, and slowly the wear and tear of it began to show in the falling apart bandaid fixes on the plumbing, the windows, the wallpapering of their home. her father became a ghost, drifting in and out of the house too early, too late, barely heard from nor seen.

eventually relocation was in order, and they were forced to leave their little world behind. moving from the countryside of gyeonggi to the heart of seoul was tumultuous to say the least, and relocating from a more spacious (albeit falling apart old) home to a cramped villa apartment was almost impossible. for a girl born to run and explore the energy she was left with in this pent up, new lifestyle had her acting out in more ways than one. her performance at school suffered as she moved into middle school and she had a number of behavioral problems. in the hope of mitigating this and expending some of her energy (and getting her out of the house) her parents scraped up the money to put her in dance classes, which she had expressed some interest in prior.

by the time she was thirteen, she was auditioning for her first entertainment companies.

kjh was the first to offer her a contract, and while she initially thought to hold out to audition with the bigger names first, she found promise in how readily they accepted her in with open arms, talking of a new sort of image, a powerful and hard hitting concept that would make even jinx look weak. she liked the sound of that - she wanted that kind of power, wanted to immerse herself in the fantasy of the rich and famous, and so she begged her parents to okay the trainee contract.

debuting only three years later was, at the time, a blessing. vixen wasn’t the most popular right out of the gate, but remi knew they had promise. potential. as their main rapper greedily grabbed up attention for herself, remi knew in her heart she herself would win the world over if she were just given a chance, and set out to make that a possibility - at any cost, by any means.

overtime it worked, gradually picking up attention, mostly for her maturing visuals and for her natural charisma, more so than anything else, but she wasn’t picky. landing a role on the breakout show heroes certainly came to her aid, and she was experiencing a modest upswing in her popularity, slowly growing her career.

and then the video leaked.

she knew she was ruined.

she had to be.

a video like that, pictures like that, suggestive to the extreme. did it matter if it was her or not? the public was certain, and her name was finally rocketing up the search engines. barely past her nineteenth birthday everything was falling apart.

and then, it all got worse.

when the scandal of their main rapper broke, her first reaction was “at least i didn’t try to blackmail anyone” - there was a sort of comfort in the mutual destruction of it. at least they were both fucking up. at least her scandal was being overshadowed. as more and more details came out, as it went to a trial, as the company brought them in to disband them, she watched her carefully crafted fantasy fall apart around her.

she fragmented. left to live with her parents, in that just-barely-better apartment she’d managed to buy for them with the next-to-nothing she’d earned (ti was easy to upgrade them from almost nothing to barely something, even on the shoestring budget of a rookie idol). she was twenty years old and knew herself to be an abject failure, truly and completely.

it wasn’t until they begged her into at least getting back into dance that she slowly woke back up, became herself again. she had little interest in dancing, these days, but being surrounded by music at least helped. and when a scout from KTM reached out to her, she even considered it.

eventually, she accepted the offer. she had to put the past behind her. she had to try again. training all over again was an exercise in humiliation, and she knew all too well what was said about her in whispers, behind her back. and strangely, it helped, inured her to the criticisms, created in her a brazen and bullheaded spirit of competition and obsessive drive that earned her a spot in the debuting group.

but the concept, god.

she’s a fan of the music. the concept is interesting. but remi isn’t here to be interesting. remi wants that life that she’s been promised by every article about celebrities buying buildings, high rise apartments in solid cash, driving fancy cars and living a life that remi has only ever been able to dream about. she’s intent to make herself a brand, a money machine, wants to live comfortably and carefree and ultimately, with all the reckless abandon she desires.

the years of her hiatus afforded her the opportunity to hone her interests, to find herself in music in a way she’d never expected. for a girl with little passion for the idol life, she found an escape int he story telling of composition, picked up and relentlessly studied those instruments that her mother had once forced her to sit through lessons in. there was a new appreciation for the piano when she was working with a synthesizer and a sound board instead of the same tried and true, pretty but ultimately uninteresting pieces her stodgy classical piano instructor had her playing. when scales were abandoned for midi sound sampling and she was sampling bird song and rain to layer behind the whimsical lilt of distorted, video game esque piano, to tell a story of witches or aliens or the misleading promise of a fairy queen, it was all much more appealing.

remi built herself into a brand the best she could, created a platform for outreach that stretched over instagram, twitter, youtube, afreeka, soundcloud. whatever platform gained traction she was there, with content of any style she could manage, from game play throughs to musical equipment reviews, from dance covers to song covers to re-arrangements of hits, from vlogs and insta-lives to a soundcloud full of strange electropop lo-fi mellow beats accented by anime-styled art that toed the line between whimsy, wonder, and the macabre with disturbing charm, all self produced and created and ultimately not profitable in the mainstream.

she hopes, or had hoped, nightmare would be the mainstream appeal she needed to make her own brand viable, but with the group proving itself to be as niche as her own musical interests she fears this won’t be the case. she’s thus worked on moving into a diversified realm of promotion that will both dilute her former iljin and scandalous image with positive content and will rebrand her as someone marketable outside of her bizarrely morbid group. she’s taking on various radio and music program hosting jobs to saturate the public with her presence in mild and approachable soundbites and can only hope that the upcoming units will give her a better chance still to attain the marketability she needs to rebrand herself, to reach the heights of success she salivates after.

#id.bio #id.koalat #id.nightmare #id.park jiyeon

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kosmicdream · 6 years

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Hi I’m Kosmic. I draw webcomics and my webcomics are really long sprawling huge cast ones that will go on for years and they’re non linear and all this stuff that makes ppls heads spin when they try to explain wtf they’re about. I ask myself this question a lot: How the fuck do I maintain this motivation for continuing projects that are honestly, probably bigger than i can possibly feasibly create??? How do i avoid swallowed up by anxiety of my own creations???? is that energy going to run out at any time? should i be worried?? Well! For some reason I... don’t? like i get winded sometimes but in the end, I actually quite like what i do and I don’t care that it takes literally years to make my stories. but when I step back and look at it objectively it does make me scratch my head and wonder how i came to be in this situation. So, sometimes i try and write a few things that help me with understanding my own process, for whatever reason. Or at least I’ll TRY to articulate some of the things i seem to tell myself again and again that help me feel very comfortable with my writing/creating process. So if you want an insight into tips that i give myself.. this is that!

TIP #1 - Everything you Plan will take longer than you planned, but you can make it easier by unexpectedly including information you might have otherwise withheld.

Secrets are cool in your stories. I have so many of them, but I also understand that they’re much more fun to share than to always keep locked up and out of knowledge. I often overshare to the point where ‘info dumping’ happens which is often considered an unattractive quality in comics. But IDM it so much because my comics just need to be drawn and you can’t glorify and hold every flaw over your shoulders when in the end its not going to be that big of a deal. I think its better to give out more information than finding reasons to bend around a story to avoid revealing things. I feel it might even be more obvious if you attempt to do that.

Also, I feel that everything planned in a story can happen quite quickly, and feel much shorter than actually drawing it. Even with the experience ive gained, i still am surprised just by how much i must throw out to make my long scenes shorter and snappier. even then, they are still really long scenes. I don’t mind doing this, I like to make my stories this way- but ive also designed my comic to serve this pace by making my pages less intensive physically to make. I’m not going to go in depth about this as ive already discussed this many times before, but I do think its important to understand that generally, a commitment to a comic is going to be bigger and longer than it appears in your mind or even on paper as a script or thumbnails.

(my comic eggshells, for example, was originally going to be 340ish pages long. but back then, my pacing was much different-- and my pages were generally twice as wide with around 15 panels per page..sometimes more. but i would over-render and make them hard to read, and now i draw very few panels per page and my comics are much ‘longer’ in page count.)

TIP #2

-Accept that your ideas are bigger than what you can draw and enjoy the private context and history of your work without feeling like its less accomplished for not being all out there. Validate yourself but also understand that your readers are not going to understand the depth from your perspective and they will be engaging with the view they’ve been exposed to.

This is kind of a complicated one but I think that its both humbling to accept your work as this multi layered experiences of contradicting perspectives.. theres the planning and your engagement with the goals, the work of translating your creation to others and the vulnerable exposure of these ideas to the audience. As the creator, you get to see things in a very unique way that no one else can but... the one feeling you will never get to see is the audience who has no idea what will happen next. You can anticipate it, but in the end its so vast and unpredictable that it will be impossible to judge what they ALL will FEEL and sometimes? their perceptions can alter your own enjoyment of your work. I guarantee it will change it in SOME way.. that’s part of the sacrifice.

TIP #3

-Allowing change, flexibility and growth into your series- and letting go of control over all facets of it.

As time goes on things just change. Its hard to accommodate or prepare for that kind of investment in your work when you feel like you havent even gotten through the starting gates of your story. Comics are particularly difficult for that because once you draw a thing, it takes time to edit and you cant really undo and go back. Each panel informs and builds on the next. You have to use what’s there and figure out how it can be a structure for the future.

Accepting the past that has helped create the situation and platform of your comic in the present, which will lead into the future. Personally, i’m not a fan of retconing* certain decisions that have been already made into the canon-- however, i think if a new conclusion or idea is discovered in the process of writing and it works to include because it creates a new and alive energy in the work that will help push it to the next stage.. i think that’s very helpful and useful for sustaining the growth and motivation in a story. Making choices like this can be tricky, however, but even small ones can give a lot of natural growth and flexibility in the comic. The problem can often come with letting go of that unseen, unrealized version we had intended. I know for myself, i can get very nostalgically attached to old ideas but-- if i think of something better that works or makes more sense, I’m always thankful to let go and let my stories grow into a better thing. I try to remember where it came from, however. Because that helps inform me where to go.

(*generally my definition for this is altering events of the past, certain core plans of the comic, character motivations, or facts that are connected to the worldbuilding. im kind of a hoarder so once its in the story aka on a specific page-- its not going anywhere. until then things can be up in the air. for example, the characters knife and spoon were not originally intended to be mutually in love and it was more of a one sided idol worship, but as i fleshed their characters out i realized that it was mutual and it changed and altered the story because of that. now it cannot/will not be “undone” for whatever reason bc this is.. an established fact in the story. but at one point, it was not! i hope that makes sense.)

SO TO SUMMARIZE... plans will always be “”bigger”” in the ever expansive space of your mind so also dont be afraid to get to the point sometimes even if it feels a little, like. less exciting than you thought? accept your story is going to be different for YOU vrs your audience and make peace with that disconnect even tho its disorienting + upsetting sometimes & accommodate the ~natural personal and artistic growth~ you will experience and let go of things that might be holding you or your work back from improving with you. but also dont try to cut out too much of the past because.. it is what helped you get to where you are right now? focus on the present & allow growth for the future, dont try to alter the past and pretend it didnt happen. bc that will be confusing as fuck for everyone involved and also probably hurt the story more than help it. esp if its a long one. ur building a tower dont pull out too many foundational blocks and try to make it too much of something else unless its growing there on its own.. u kno?

When I try to write these tips these are just things I find myself doing in a cycle as i create that seem to keep re igniting my passion for my story again and again. It makes me curious because it also is a very instinctual thing so I thought I might try and write it out!!!!!!!!!! ENJOY.

ALSO some bonus thoughts!!!!!!!!!! I will say that I’ve never completed a long format comic series, so take it w/ a grain of salt imo. HOWEVER...I probably will, eventually. Even if I don’t, I do enjoy writing really big ones and I feel very happy with the work i do on them! and still feel no inclination to move onto other things. Or even when I work on other things, I don’t have a feeling of dropping a story entirely. (for example, i still intend to work on my older series eggshells and don’t really feel a desire to ‘quit’ that story even when i have matured as an author/artist since starting it.)

When I read really long comic series I wonder a lot of internal decisions that happen out of sight, since the timeline of a comic that you read is so much different than the timeline it takes actually creating the thing. its so easy to write/plan/form ideas for lifetimes of work that will never be realized, so what is it that we actually get in the pages? What aspects of this author are we actually seeing? how much have they grown since beginning and what about the story we will never know? I know I’ll never know, because, I am only the reader! And as the creator, I will never know what the feeling of my work as the reader. or the cool and interesting things they predict will happen based on their perseptions, which are so different from mine. Yet!! we are all engaged in the same story unfolding, never fully discovering what its like on the other side but only getting little glimpses and thats fascinating how a story is almost this vast illusion of experiences maintained by so many different minds.

Long format comics captivate me because they are just, really time consuming to make and the pacing of them are so different and less consumable than other stories. They like become.. this place you live in! Why are they my favorite to enjoy even when its natural that, when a story becomes longer, its going to end up attracting more & more issues? Why do i Not care about resolutions to long stories sometimes bc my expectations for them are different?? (also lets face it, experience writing long stories is going to be different than writing short ones because it takes time to write longer things & we are not going to have as much experienc having more than one completed super long multi-act-multi-characterplot story vrs a bunch of smaller ones. it doesnt mean its EASIER to write shorter ones, if anything id argue its probably much harder to write good short things + isolate a story down to that focused vision than making tons of long ones that avoid endings) but..yet!! here i am...

why am i constantly drawn to trying to understand long format stories when I probably could improve faster by writing shorter things??! i dont really know! but i follow my heart and my heart likes to do things this way......

anyway, this entire post is mostly inspired by the fact that many of my favorite stories started before i was even born or have been going on for decades and i wonder if we’ll ever read the endings to many of them.... would it.. matter? they’ve already inspired me so much even without a resolution because i can imagine my own endings to things.. but in the end that is not what happened in the actual story. it was only in my mind.. and yet it never happened, and was an illusion unknown to anyone but myself.....and sometimes my favorite stories are my favorites because of the things i imagined them to be, rather than what they actually were or how they actually turned out.. i dont know how this happens..... but i wonder about what this means with my OWN comics, and how my perceptions of what they could be vrs what they are is like, this weird illusion that also exists only in my mind and no one else can see it. yet we are both looking at the same thing. and i want to know what others see and i never will get to??? ....stories are......... so fucking spooky!!!!!!!!!! AHHH!! ok thats all. thx for reading

#personal #comic writing #ffak faq

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evergreenreviews · 6 years

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Top 20 Songs of 2017

Spotify Playlist

Long post under the cut

20. ‘Laps Around A Picture Frame’ - Broadside

In my AOTY post, and throughout this year, I commended Broadside on their ability to write fun, upbeat songs, so it surprised me that ‘Laps Around A Picture Frame’, one of the album’s darker tracks, ended up making this list. This song is more interesting - both musically and lyrically - than a lot of Broadside’s other work, and it still really stands out to me as a fantastic piece of songwriting.

19. ‘There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back’ - Shawn Mendes

If I had any sort of shame whatsoever, Shawn Mendes would be my guilty pleasure. As it stands, I unabashedly love his music, particularly this song. It’s considerably less depressing than pretty much everything else he’s ever written, and it’s an unbelievably fun and catchy song. I dare you to listen to ‘There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back’ without at least tapping your foot.

18. ‘Guilty Melody’ - ROAM

ROAM has got to be one of my favourite current pop punk bands, and I remained loyal to them despite the disaster that was Backbone. That loyalty paid off because their second LP, Great Heights and Nosedives, is full to the brim with great jams, none more so than ‘Guilty Melody’. Although the two singles that came out before this one were also really good, this track was the one that restored my faith in ROAM. It’s pretty much a perfect pop punk song, with an unerringly catchy tune, solid lyricism, and a vast improvement in singing ability from both vocalists.

17. ‘The Line’ - Foo Fighters

Although Concrete and Gold was generally a disappointment, ‘The Line’ is an absolutely fantastic soft rock song. It’s super laidback and chill, the melody is simple, which to me (as someone who knows nothing about rock instrumentation) seems to complement the slightly more intricate instrumental parts, and it sounds more like Foo Fighters than anything else off this record.

16. ‘The Last Of The Real Ones’ - Fall Out Boy

While I will readily admit that I’m not the biggest fan of Fall Out Boy’s new sound, this song is brilliant. It’s a great electro-rock anthem while remaining a recognisably Fall Out Boy song. The keyboard part works perfectly under the melody, which is simultaneously very simple but also quite interesting. I also love the contrast between the anthemic chorus and comparatively relaxed verses.

15. ‘One Foot’ - Walk The Moon

After being absent for a year or so, Walk The Moon returned in September with this indie pop bop. ‘One Foot’ has all the hallmarks of a classic WTM song - it’s super upbeat and very catchy with a solid melody and instrumental and synth parts that work perfectly underneath the vocal line. While it may not be the next ‘Shut Up And Dance’, it’s a fantastic pop song and the perfect tune for Walk The Moon to return with.

14. ‘All My Friends (feat. State Champs)’ - Hoodie Allen

It may surprise you to see a hip-hop song on this list - I feel the same way - but this song is just too good not to include. While ‘All My Friends’ may not be Hoodie’s best song, the way he and State Champs manage to blend their very different sounds is incredible and works surprisingly well. From the hip-hop beat during the verses to the almost breakdown in the bridge and the build-up to the explosive last chorus, every aspect of this song ties in wonderfully with the others and creates a very interesting and very fun song.

13. ‘Scatter My Ashes Along The Coast Or Don’t’ - Seaway

While I’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite song off Vacation, ‘Scatter My Ashes...’ would definitely be in the top three. It’s a ridiculously fun song, with some not so fun lyrics hidden under the upbeat melody and catchy riffs. It also features Caleb Shomo of Beartooth on a fantastic guest vocals spot. His voice works so well on this song and complements the Seaway boys’ perfectly, and it really just gives the track that extra boost.

12. ‘The Man’ - The Killers

I’ve never really listened to The Killers that much, and I think I only listened to this song in the first place because of Brandon Flower’s bicep in the thumbnail for the music video on YouTube. But thank god for that because ‘The Man’ very rapidly became one of my favourite songs. It’s got a lyrical theme that I’ve never seen before, as the band explores what it means to be a “man”, and it’s all laid over a funky 70s-esque disco beat with a fantastic melody.

11. ‘Hearts Don’t Break Around Here’ - Ed Sheeran

This may be a slightly sappy choice, but I’ll admit that I love a good romantic ballad, and by God if ‘Hearts Don’t Break Around Here’ isn’t exactly that. I feel like this song didn’t get the credit it deserved and was kind of brushed aside in favour of ‘Perfect’ but from day one this was my favourite track off Divide. It’s a perfect relaxed, stripped back, typical Ed Sheeran love song with very simple instrumentation and a gorgeous vocal melody that I can’t help but sing along to.

10. ‘Bad Behavior’ - The Maine

Lovely Little Lonely is made up of wall to wall jams, and none more so than lead single ‘Bad Behavior’. It’s an irresistibly fun song, that you can’t help but dance along to, and it’s impossible not to smile when you’re listening to it. It’s an incredible pop rock song, with that alternative edge that The Maine do so well. You might worry that after 10 years they would’ve stagnated, but this song is proof that The Maine are better than they’ve ever been.

9. ‘On My Own’ - Niall Horan

On an album full of beautiful ballads and acoustic slow jams, ‘On My Own’ stands out as the most upbeat song of the lot. It’s an Irish folk influenced anthem for the happily single, about having fun by yourself when you’re young. It may not be Niall’s strongest vocal performance on Flicker, but it shows the diversity in his writing and provides a welcome interlude from all the slower songs on the album. It’s another song that you just can’t help but nod along to, and perfectly blends the style of pop rock on One Direction’s later albums and the folk and country influences of Niall’s solo work.

8. ‘Soap’ - As It Is

This is arguably one of the most musically diverse and interesting pop punk songs of the decade. ‘Soap’ is a spooky, sinister, slightly aggressive track which is totally unexpected of As It Is. It probably wouldn’t sound out of place on a gothic horror movie soundtrack and is a fascinating take on the genre. The vocal performances from both singers are fantastic, with Patty effortlessly transitioning from the subdued verses to the almost screamed choruses. The guitars in the intro perfectly set the tone for the rest of the song, and the rumbling bass sounds incredible under everything else. ‘Soap’ is, without a doubt, the standout track from January’s okay. and possibly As It Is’ discography in general.

7. ‘Drowned In Gold’ - Boston Manor

This is a very late addition to this list, seeing as it only came out earlier this month, but in the space of 24 hours it had already pushed its way up to this position. I reviewed ‘Drowned In Gold’ when it was released, and all of the sentiments in that post still ring true today. The “choose life” lyrical structure of the verses is still one of the most interesting writing techniques I’ve heard in a while and I really can’t get over the creepy sound Boston Manor manages to create with the instruments in this track, and the musical progress they’ve made in the past year.

6. ‘Hurt’ - Trophy Eyes

This is probably the most depressing song on this list, and easily one of the most emotionally evocative. ‘Hurt’ is Trophy Eyes’ first release since their album Chemical Miracle last year, and you can tell they’ve put that year to good use with immense improvements across the board. The most noticeable improvement is John’s vocals. As far as I can remember (correct me if I’m wrong), this is the first song on which he’s only done clean vocals, and he sounds better than I ever imagined he could. ‘Hurt’ almost has a kind of stadium rock type vibe to it, and I, for one, love it.

5. ‘Praying’ - Kesha

‘Praying’ is the eagerly anticipated comeback track from beleaguered pop icon Kesha, and the perfect song to show not only how she’s progressed as an artist, but also the struggles she’s faced the past few years. The song alludes to her legal battle with her producer, but it is mostly a song about personal growth and overcoming your struggles. It’s a beautiful stripped back, piano-laden ballad which really lets Kesha’s immense vocal talent take the spotlight. ‘Praying’ is an incredibly powerful song, which has the ability to draw a huge amount of emotion from its listeners - if you haven’t cried listening to this song, you’re probably not human.

4. ‘Gone’ - Knuckle Puck

I don’t think it’s any secret that I love Knuckle Puck, but if you’ve been following this blog for a while and read my review of Shapeshifter, it’s also no secret that I wasn’t its biggest fan. However, I absolutely adore ‘Gone’. It may just be because it was the first thing to follow the hugely disappointing Calendar Days/Indecisive release earlier this year, or it may be because it’s a brilliant song. It has attitude and a certain aggressiveness that I love. It’s got the lyricism we’ve come to know and love from KP, and it’s unbelievably catchy. The duel vocalism works amazingly on this track and the slightly dotted rhythm in the guitar riff provides another interesting layer to the instrumentation.

3. ‘Atlantic’ - Grayscale

I can honestly say that this song has been the soundtrack to my 2017. Grayscale very quickly became one of my favourite bands this year, and their album Adornment was even my Album of the Year. ‘Atlantic’ is definitely what one could refer to as an anthem, with a powerful chorus that contrasts perfectly with the relatively chill verses and bridge. It’s a very mature sounding song, showcasing a writing ability far beyond what one would expect of such a young band, although there are a couple of very minor issues in the vocal line. But overall, this song is a brilliant piece of writing that I can imagine aging very well.

2. ‘Out Of It’ - The Story So Far

The excitement that I felt when this song dropped truly cannot be expressed in words. I still feel the same excitement every time 'Out Of It’ comes on, and I don’t think I’ve skipped it once since adding it to my playlist. It doesn’t stray too far from the classic TSSF sound, and probably wouldn’t sound out of place on The Story So Far. I love the change in rhythm between the verses and choruses, which isn’t something I’ve really seen that much in this type of music, and the punchy tune is just perfect for the attitude of the song. It’s just a shame Parker Cannon still can’t annunciate his words properly.

1. ‘In Bloom’ - Neck Deep

From the day ‘In Bloom’ was released I knew it would be in competition for my favourite song of this year. After listening to it maybe 4 or 5 times in a row, it was promptly named my favourite Neck Deep song and I stand by that decision. It’s the most musically interesting song they have released, and it’s so unique from the rest of their work. It showcases so well the improvement Ben has made in his vocal performance over the past couple of years - did anyone see that high note coming? - as well as the progress that the band has made as a whole in terms of their songwriting ability.

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udemy-gift-coupon-blog · 5 years

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Design Book Covers in Photoshop ##FreeOnlineTraining ##UdemyDiscount #Book #Covers #Design #Photoshop Design Book Covers in Photoshop As an experienced designer, I can assure you that you're in the right place if you want to stop wasting your money on designers. Perhaps you wrote a book, and now you want to sell it. A cover is the first thing the customers look at. And even though we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, they usually are judged that way anyway.But you might say, “Wait a minute… Doesn’t creating a book cover take forever?”Not at all. In fact, you can have a beautiful cover done in less than 5 minutes, and I will show you how.“Whoa. Only 5 minutes? Hold on. Doesn’t that mean they look terrible?”Definitely not. They look as professional as can be, and many of my books sell quite well.“Okay. This almost sounds too good to be true. Do you mean I can save hundreds of dollars by not having to outsource these things?”Exactly. You are getting the point. “So what’s the catch? Do I have to spend a few hundred dollars on expensive software?”Ha-ha! I am glad you ask. Actually, I will show you have I have used completely free and fairly cheap software to create all my covers. You can choose to just get the free version, or do some extra cool stuff with the cheap one you can pay for.“But I thought designing was tricky. Don’t you need a lot of technical computer skills for this?”You will need to know the basics, but no matter how many options this program has, you won’t need to know more than a few simple steps.“So do you think I can do it?”Of course! That’s why I took the time to teach you these things through some videos. “Should I practice after I get this course?”That would be advisable, but I promise you: You can become an expert fast. It doesn’t take much time.“How about images? Where can I get those?”I will show you in the course. There are free ones, cheap ones, and more expensive ones. The possibilities are huge! It depends on what you want your covers to look like.“Last question: Do you think this is fun?”Absolutely! It is the most fun out of every task in my publishing business. I am convinced that, once you get the steps down, your creativity will take over and you’ll want to do nothing else but designing. You can become an expert designer, and it won't take you that long! When you buy this course, this is what you’ll get: 15 videos that teach you the quick keys, tools, and steps you need to take to create and save covers. Additional insights and personal preferences from an expert (me). The way to put a spine in your PDF paperback covers. A quick way to create a 3D cover, if that’s something you like. The right methods and formats to save your files for all 3 Amazon platforms. Where to find images, fonts, and other sources. Technical instructions on how to use tools, windows, layers, effects, and more. 5 bonus videos that will show you what else you can do with the free software, like creating a YouTube thumbnail, a Facebook banner, and coloring cartoons. Free advice on how to make your covers look even more awesome. Who this course is for: Book publishers Beginner designers Book cover sellers Artists Anyone 👉 Activate Udemy Coupon 👈 Free Tutorials Udemy Review Real Discount Udemy Free Courses Udemy Coupon Udemy Francais Coupon Udemy gratuit Coursera and Edx ELearningFree Course Free Online Training Udemy Udemy Free Coupons Udemy Free Discount Coupons Udemy Online Course Udemy Online Training 100% FREE Udemy Discount Coupons https://www.couponudemy.com/blog/design-book-covers-in-photoshop/

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legendary · 7 years

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Creating a World of Witches and Wonder

A Conversation with Firebrand's Jessica Chobot, Erika Lewis, and Claudia Aguirre.

Firebrand, the latest original title from Legendary Comics is heading into the home stretch of its inaugural run on digital comics platform, LINE Webtoon. The weekly series follows teenage witch Natali Presano as she comes to terms with her role in a supernatural war, while dealing with the everyday pressures of young adulthood. Firebrand is the brainchild of Jessica Chobot and Erika Lewis. Chobot is best known as host for Nerdist News. Before joining Nerdist, she was a host and recurring personality on IGN and G4. Lewis has made a name for herself as a young adult and fantasy author with her work Game of Shadows, and The 49th Key, in addition to Firebrand. “Jessica Chobot has been such a huge part of the Legendary family for years,” said Robert Napton, Vice President and Editorial Director of Legendary Comics. “We were so thrilled to have an opportunity to support her exploration of a new creative venture and we know that she and Erika Lewis have created a truly compelling new heroine and story that fans will truly become immersed in.” Legendary Backstory had the opportunity to talk with Chobot, Lewis, and artist Claudia Aguirre about the exciting new series as it heads into the second half of its season. See what they had to say about creating the comic below!

Q: As an intro, can you tell the readers a little bit about what Firebrand is all about and talk about the process in which it’s come to fruition. Where did the idea originate from, how did it develop, how did each of you become involved and come together to create it, etc.?

JC: You know, Firebrand is sort of a combination of a coming of age story and a traditional hero’s journey. At its heart, it’s really about a young woman who we’ve seen growing up, who basically just never felt like she belonged anywhere. This was actually an idea that Erika had that she came to me with one day when we were just talking and hanging out. We started volleying ideas back and forth and eventually realized we should do something with this because it started to grow so quickly during that first conversation. So we just started meeting up after that and exchanging ideas and characters and relationships. Eventually it really felt like we had something and we wanted to shop it around and obviously one of the first places we went to was Legendary. EL: Jessica and I worked together at G4 and both had obsessions with witches and magic and all things insane. But for me, I’m obsessed with ancient myths and legends, especially when it comes to magic in different places around the world. Basque is such a unique place and culture and really unlike anything else around it. I did a lot of research into pre-Christianity times in Basque, finding timeless myths. We hope to bring to pieces of them to life in a very unique Erika-Jessica-Claudia type of way. I saw (artist) Claudia Aguirre’s work at another publisher and I was so impressed, and was like ‘oh, how cool it would be to have three women!’ So (Legendary Comics’) Robert Napton got in touch with Claudia and thankfully she was excited about the idea!

Q: Claudia, can you talk about the process in designing the look of Firebrand from early sketches to the finished art?

CA: Well, the creative process for me is like a movie in my head. Jessica and Erika are great. They are very, very cinematic in what they describe so I can see it in my head. I initially try to make sense of my own idea and I do some thumbnailing on paper and try to make it look really cool. Then, I start translating that onto the computer, so I’ll draw it and show everything to the team. They’ll tell me if it doesn’t work and give me feedback. After that, I do the inking process and then the colors too.

Q: Which real stories and history (if any) did you pull from to inspire the style of witchcraft/characterization of the Sorgin in the series? Are there references to any of these in the story or in the artwork?

EL: Historically speaking, the Spanish Inquisitions have been incorporated into the backstory of "Sorgin" mythology, our fictional universe. The inquisitions put paganism on trial during the spread of Christianity in Western Europe. Although you can find a good deal about the Spanish Inquisitions and witch trials, the specific story we tell in Firebrand is something Jessica and I made up. CA: For the art, there is definitely a strong influence from Spain, the border between Spain and France. It’s definitely a process of trying to piece things together to make a whole universe that isn’t there. It’s quite fun.

Q: It’s evident that Natali Presano is a badass. How important is it to have kickass female protagonists like Natali in comics? Are there any comic characters out there that you drew inspiration from in fleshing her character out?

JC: It’s always been important, and we’ve always tackled the story with Natali being a character with a lot of self-sufficiency. But, with how things stand in the U.S., it feels even more important right now. Not only to have that represented for women and girls, but really for anybody who feels left out from “average society." It’s helpful to have a character that shows, if you are true to yourself, you can utilize your power to get through tough times. You can be admired and I think that is so important to have that in a character right now. EL: Absolutely. When Natali sees a wrong, she wants to right it. She wants to do the right thing. But sometimes what she wants to do butts up against Sorgin law, and causes her to get in trouble. Not that it would ever stop her. Deep down inside, she has what it takes character to do the right thing and stand up for what she believes is fair. CA: We always needed people like Natali in comics - we need to not feel alone. For people who feel alone or have been through things, it is important to have these characters portrayed. We have the opportunity to be someone who makes a difference, so we have to make use of it.

Q: Going back to the artwork, it features a cool contrast between the realism of the human world in Washington that Natali comes from and the more fantastical setting of Eder. Claudia, what went into imagining and designing both settings and what key differences did you want Eder to have to set it apart from the human world?

CA: Well, I tried to make the culture. I sadly couldn’t find much in history before Christianity, so I found out a little of their principles and dialect and some stone monuments that they had. Essentially, I took a little of all of this and tried to make an evolving city of Eder. I tried to stay away from the Stone Age so I could make it a little more medieval. I could Google Map a lot of the places in Seattle, so that made that setting easier to do. But the main expansion for me was to try and make it a bit more magical. I tried to make the magical more blueish and the realistic setting of Seattle more grey.

Q: Were there elements of your own lives that you drew from to go into the story or even into the artwork?

EL: On the story side, I will say that for me, I am from D.C. and grew up in a politically charged environment. A very argumentative atmosphere. The kind of place you either love or hate. Also I am from a divorced family. Some of the characters may have been developed around real people. Also, I understand Natali's need to want to feel accepted for who she is, to be a part of a family that allows her to be herself, because I never felt like I fit in anywhere. JC: I guess for me, it wasn’t too specific besides growing up and being interested in the paranormal and the occult and being the weird girl at school. I was kind of shunned by a lot of the kids growing up, so for me it was a matter of identifying as not part of the group mantra. Also though, as I grow up, realizing that there isn’t anything wrong with me, it is just what I like. So that is what I think I brought to Natali in a little bit of a subconscious way.

Q: The “direct address” to the reader style of narration is a cool device that makes the story feel almost interactive in a way, drawing the reader in and directly questioning them. How did you decide on that and what do you think it brings to the storytelling?

JC: Well, we didn’t start with that in the beginning - we had a traditional approach. But we decided to bring in Natali’s voice, because we wanted to break the fourth wall and feel more invested by having Natali talk more to them. EL: She is sarcastic at times, and very powerful. The real parts of her, like everyone, can be insecure and afraid and we try to really humanize her and let people into the fact that she isn’t necessarily what she puts out to the world. All of those things surrounding Natali, her internal voice, we were hoping to give people an insight into who she truly is.

Q: The series is at times hilarious and at times deals with some pretty dark themes. How do you walk that tricky tightrope in the writing and the tone to maintain that balance?

JC: It is a fine line, especially if you have a younger audience. However, these things really happen, so sugarcoating it isn’t necessarily a great thing to do either. So, drawing on all of the traumatic experiences of Natali’s we really wanted to approach all of them from the best angle we could. We wanted to give the backstory and make it relatable, but not turn off the readership by going overboard. These are all issues kids and families deal with growing up, so we wanted to address them but remain respectful. EL: You can see in the comments on each issue: people talk about things they go through. With Natali specifically, the balance of keeping the comic relief but also the dark tones, the greatest thing was using that inner voice and letting the reader into her head; knowing when she was excited, or feeling sarcastic or funny. We tried to make it palatable. We tried to do moments of light-heartedness, especially during those first few chapters.

Catch up on Firebrand's entire first season before new issues are releasedevery Wednesday over at LINE Webtoon

#Worlds

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literarilymanga · 7 years

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Hi, guys! This blog lives! In an effort to breathe new life into Literarily Manga, I’m gonna be posting new content on at least a weekly basis. To kick things off, I’m gonna start with an interview with webcomic creator J.M. Henry. Read the entire interview after the cut!

Me: Would you share a little bit about yourself as a creator?

J.M.: Sure! As a start, I'm the author of the webcomic The Lostland, a webcomic about supernatural psychics in Post-Apocalyptia! I've been working on Lostland for a little more than 5 years now, and it's been both my baby and a massive testing ground for a lot of art/comicing experiments. I've been drawing since I was a kid, around 6-8 or so, and even back then I had hoped to go into comicing as a serious endeavor. These days, I've made it my goal to increase my skills to the point where I can make a decent living doing what I love most! ...But, I'm still pretty far from that! Haha!

Me: Could you give a short summary of The Lostland?

J.M.: The Lostland is an action/adventure webcomic about four characters braving the dangers of the wild wastes--all while one madman plots to cause chaos in an already chaotic Lostland. Lots of bizarre supernatural action and fun adventures ahead!

Me: Could you introduce the readers to your characters?

J.M.: Gladly! Our Story starts with:

J.M: Volken: A young Shaper (our post-apoc. psychics) who used to spend most of his time secluded in the old city ruins known as The Divide. That is, until another Shaper hunts our protag. down for unknown reasons, forcing him out into the one place he wanted to avoid, The Lostland.

J.M. :Meri: Our mischievous Lostland adventurer. She starts out working as an assistant medic in a small town alongside her sister figure, Fiona, but her eagerness to find out who she is(and her hopeless attraction to danger) leads her out into the Lostland on the search for Old World technology.

J.M. : Rosso: The Lostland's most infamous wanted man, also known as "The 10 Million Chip Man," or "Mr. 10 Million". Normally doesn't care much about what goes on around the Lostland, but the strange death of his long time rival in the "New Arum Incident" catches his interest, and he decides to find out just what kind of trouble his old rival got himself into.

J.M.: Nero: His story begins after finding out that a tip about a man he's been after turns out to be false. Tracing back that info leads to him being framed for the New Arum Incident. Nero is now known around the Lostland as "The Man in Black".

Me: Who is your favorite character—and why?

J.M.: I like all of them for plenty of reasons, but I gotta say Volken. I think to most readers, even though they don't say it, Volken is probably the most underwhelming character of the bunch, especially compared to Meri and Rosso. He's weak, even with special powers, spends most of his chapters either getting beat up or getting tripped up by his own luck, but I personally like those things about him, because I know he'll eventually overcome those quirks and become a really cool character by the end of his arc. I won't spoil much from there.

Me: Who is your least favorite character—and why?

J.M.: Ah... Nero, to be honest. Could've been written a bit better. He's not really seen as a protagonist in the beginning, so it was also pretty tough to make him a likable character. It made him the toughest one to write.

Me: You’ve been updating since 2014. Can you offer insight into how you’ve developed your story and your creative process over the years?

J.M.: I've actually been working on the comic since 2011. No worries though! I switched site hosts since then. On the writing side, I started with just the concept, the setting, and characters that would fit the concept and setting. After that I spent a lot of time fleshing out who the characters were and how they'd react to their surroundings. It makes writing them into the story I plan a lot easier and their actions feel less like they're serving the plot. At least in some places. On the writing side, there isn't really a whole lot of it, to be honest, and helps get the art done faster. I map out the major arcs of the story, and then break those down into smaller arcs, and in those arcs, I finally get to writing chapters. On chapters, I usually do very short, single paragraph summaries of them, each scene summed up to one or two sentences. Dialogue and everything else gets worked out in my thumbnails.

J.M.: Honestly, once the summaries are done, I rarely ever need to look at them again, since the volume is usually fully memorized by then.

Me: What is your favorite part of the creative process? The least favorite part?

J.M.: My favorite part of the process is definitely the conceptualization/ brainstorming part. Sometimes, I just come up with some really fun stories while I'm working on something else. I've already got a few that I'd like to try out in the future! Not not sure if it's actually part of the creative process, but trying to get tour stuff up and out to the public is always a pain for me. Sometimes you wind up putting out some of the best work you've ever done, and the ‘net kinda just responds with "eh." Advertising's always been a bit of a bane for me, but again, probably not part of the process.

Me: As you mentioned before, The Lostland is a post-apocalyptic story. What drew you to the genre?

J.M.: Not much drew me to it except to experiment a bit with an idea: How would characters with special abilities get by in a world where people are mainly struggling to survive? Would they help out? Would they take over and run the place because they have the most power? How would normal people receive them in those circumstances?

J.M.: I play around with those questions as I write. Haha!

Me: Several of your characters are Shapers, individuals with psychic powers. Do you find it harder or easier to develop characters with supernatural abilities as opposed those that have no special abilities?

J.M.: I think it's easy to do both fairly well! It would be great to see one normal character reacting to all of this though. I may make it a short story. As for the main characters, the fact that they all have these special abilities works with my experiment a bit, since each views and uses their own powers differently. For example, because of where Volken used to live, a place that was highly paranoid of Shapers, he starts out as being to afraid to use it outside of basic survival. Nero, however, a character used to using his abilities to fight, will usually treat it as his first resort most of the time. Meri and Rosso also have their own reasons affected by the sort of life they've lived, too.

J.M: I also experiment with this outside of main characters, but later into the story!

Me: How have readers reacted to your characters and story thus far? Are there any challenges that you’ve had to overcome when working on The Lostland?

J.M.: I'd say The Lostland's done fairly well, personally. It's not exactly exploding, but it's attracted a crowd of readers who really love what comes out of it. And that feeling of making something that people can enjoy always does a heart good! As for challenges, I had quite a bit of trouble keeping the message clear in the early parts of the story, but thankfully, that was when I was still new. My biggest challenge right now is trying to get both the art and story to a point I can be satisfied with. There's still all lot I have to improve on my way there!

Me: What do you want readers to take away from your story?

J.M: Hmm... I don't really have any big messages to convey with The Lostland... Maybe "Pencil fights can be fun with a little imagination?" LOL! But seriously, if most people start reading the comic and leave it enjoying the experience, the story, the characters, the world, then I think The Lostland's done its job well!

Me: Who is your “intended” audience?

J.M.: I was thinking about doing a motion comic in the future, and I'm already working on a game for the comic, but we won't see that for a while... Printing the comic has always been a major goal for me too!

Me: What drew you to the webcomic genre? What made you say, “This is how I want to share my story?”

J.M.: I've always wanted to work on comics since I was a kid, I even tried submitting some of my old work to Tokyopop, back when they were alive [in print]. So when I heard it was not only very possible to self publish comics online, but there were sites that made it easy to do (I started at SmackJeeves way back). I hopped on board! A lack if editors molding your original idea also helped the case for webcomics. LOL.

Me: Do you have any advice you want to share with other artists and writers?

J.M.: Just two. One: Don't wait too long to start. Sure, take time to plan and improve, but you'll learn faster while you're actually comicing. From personal experience. Two: Don't be afraid to fail a few times or make mistakes. It's all part of the learning process. As a friend of mine once put it, "Don't be afraid to draw it while it still sucks". You won't regret it!

Me: What are your tools of the trade? Any special software?

J.M.: Mechanical pencil, sketchbook(for thumbnails), Deleter B5 paper. On the digital side, there's my cintiq, Clip Studio Paint, and sometimes GIMP.

Me: Will you be attending any upcoming cons?

J.M.: I tend to go to Anime Boston almost every year, but not as a seller yet. Feel free to say hey if you see me!

Me: Anything else you want to share? Shout outs?

J.M: Check out @ComicBookHour if you're a comic creator! Lot of great conversations there!

And that’s it! You can read The Lostland here on Tumblr or over on Tapastic. Currently, the comic updates every Saturday at 8:00am, but may go back to being updated twice a week in the future. You can follow J.M. Henry’s comic progress on Twitter or Facebook.

This interview was originally conducted over Twitter. If you or someone you know would like to be interviewed about your comic or comic related venue, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment on this entry or send a message or ask. I’ll get back to you ASAP!

Don’t forget to check out my previous interview with the Head Librarian at Carolina Manga Library.

Thanks again for reading!

#webcomic feature #interview #J.M. Henry #The Lostland #tapastic #smackjeeves #tokyopop #anime boston

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comicsbyharmony-blog · 7 years

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Journal Entry 1 - My Evolving Process

I want you to write one posting in which you discuss your current (and evolving) process as a comic creator. Throughout the semester, you'll write at least two more of such postings, allowing you to compare and contrast your experiences as a creator. Some questions which could help you get started:

What type of materials/tools are you using? Pen, pencil, paper?

For the comic’s I have created so far, I have used a generic sketch pad called “Draw, heavy weigh drawing paper.” When drawing the comics, I use an old school, yellow, #2 pencil for sketching and then when content, outline the pencil with an R2 Inc Rollerball .07mm pen. Honestly, I just found the pen at the dollar store but it works pretty well (for now). My third process after erasing all of the pencil marks from the page is to color. So far, I’ve just used colored pencils but for this last comic I created (wordless comic), I really wanted to do water color for coloring. I want to expand my material usage for further comics and get creative on how to color them in the future.

Are you using any digital materials or programs?

I am not currently using any digital materials or programs. My boyfriend knows how to use Photoshop really well and I definitely want him to teach me how to draw digitally sometime soon because I feel as if that really helps give life unto one’s drawings and you have an (almost) endless color scheme to work with.

Are you penciling first, then inking? Are you just inking? Are you sketching or "thumbnailing" first, then drawing the finished product? Have you tried multiple different "drafting" / "outlining" methods? Which works best? What have been the results?

As mentioned prior, due to me being an OCD perfectionist, I have to pencil first. I actually forgot to mention that when creating the panels, I use a ruler as well in my materials. I enjoy penciling first because it helps me see it without screwing it up but it sucks being able to see my mess up marks when coloring with the colored pencils.

What comes first, the text or the art?

Considering we have only done one comic with text so far, I would have to say the text comes first. I brainstorm prior to give myself a brief idea of what I want for text throughout the comic and then proceed to draw first, then add the text in while drawing.

How has your process changed (even if only slightly) with each new attempt?

My process really hasn’t changed much. This past comic was wordless so I made a rough draft of panel boxes that just have words of what I wanted to be shown in each panel such as, “eyes closed, wake up, coffee brewing,” etc. Even when it’s wordless, I’ll still make the “text” first. It’s easier for me to have an idea of what I want the full picture to be before just drawing on a whim and creating as I go.

How does your comic creation process differ from your typical writing process?

It’s definitely incorporating a different thinking aspect to my writing process. Although I (somewhat) am following the same routine of organization with my thoughts prior to an assignment, I am finding that sometimes there’s more in the pictures than in the writing itself and it’s in my power to manipulate what I would say through writing into drawing. It’s quite fun and challenging!

How much time have you spent on each task? Do you think that you're an efficient artist, or does this feel like it's taking a long, long time? (Is efficiency even important?) Do you feel that comic-creation is actually a quicker way to communicate than standard text?

Honestly, I have been spending around 1-4 hours creating these comics. Although it seems as if my drawings are basic, I spend a lot of my time brainstorming the initial idea and drawing with pencil. As mentioned, I am a perfectionist and I love things to be very “clean” and organized so to speak so I spend a lot of time drawing things until in my eyes they see them as the best they’re going to be. One thing I am learning throughout the course is that although I am very structured to my ways, I’ve learned comics have rarely any limitation and sometimes my perception of “perfectionism” is what holds me back in giving my full creative attention into creating. I’m excited to learn more and push my limitations due to this. I feel like this is taking a while but I enjoy having time to use my brain creatively for a few hours every assignment. For the last question, I wouldn’t say it’s “quicker” but it’s almost just as effective. I enjoy being able to write and express myself knowing there’s infinite ways to say things and words to portray them but the use of pictures can say a thousand words. I feel as if for me, due to my lack of great drawing skills, I still enjoy the art of writing more than comic creation but I do like pushing my limitations and seeing what I will and am capable of in the future. I think that adding drawings to text lifts the image up more and causes it to be more enjoyable to read. There is definitely beauty in the balance they bring together.

Harmony Blanchies

ENC 3375

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aurelliocheek · 4 years

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A Year of Rain: The Last Reward

How to bring the environment to life.

When our team at Daedalic Entertainment were approached and asked on who wanted to write an article for Making Games magazine, I was not late to raise my hand in excitement. Even though I’ve never done anything like this, writing an essay for anything, to be honest. I opted to do it because I love challenges, and as a game developer, we face new challenges every day. So challenge accepted!

At the beginning of March 2019, I got the great chance to join the art team of A Year Of Rain. A skilled team which I’ve learned a lot from in the short amount of time I’ve been here. What does it mean to join a group so late in the production? Well for starters missing out on the pre-production state, meant that I needed to work efficiently and smarter to get the results before delivering our game.

How can we do that and at the same time keep a visual curiosity and fidelity all through the game? By using a technique called modularity.

Modularity in games is about the creation of an asset (or texture) that can be used repeatedly with itself or another modular asset. If you take a look at the thumbnails I have provided for you, you may notice that a lot of the units share one or more things in common. Roots, flowers, mushrooms and stones, those are some of the pieces that bring fraction units together, creating the illusion that they originate from the same place.

There are, of course, pros and cons to this method of working. We already mentioned that it’s an excellent approach while also being very time efficient. Another massive advantage of working this way is to save memory, improve loading times and streamline the production. However, the downside to this workflow could be that it feels repetitive. That is one of the issues that many artists face when creating tileable textures and props that must be scattered all over the place. For example, one can consider vertex painting. It is a simple way to paint colour onto an object, by directly manipulating the vertices rather than the textures. This way, you can construct more complex scenes with the same piece by adding or removing details from it, making it look different from the same part that is next to it.

Vertex painting is also a convenient workflow to use when building the environment. For example, vertex painting can be used on the ground that the player walks on. It’s an excellent way to paint a tileable grass texture on an otherwise very dull stone road. This way, you get an incredible variation in the environment. I could list many more examples of how we could use vertex painting, but that would go beyond the scope of this article.

The assets in this picture have an unknown origin, but because of how our mind works, we understand that they are structures or buildings of some sort.

Developing Readable Shapes Creating an RTS (real-time strategy) game is immensely challenging itself, and creat-ing assets for the genre is not an easy task. Our concept artists sketch many concepts which need to be distinct and clear from a top-down perspective. That means iterations upon iterations until the silhouettes are readable. One of the hardest challenges in working with an RTS game (or any game) is the need to simplify shapes to their essential core, because of the view being further away from the player. It is not a simple task. We have to remove as many details as possible from the asset while keeping it exciting and visually tasty. To do this, we explore several types of forms that adapt to the “Shape Language” already established by our art director. What does that mean? It means that every fraction and unit have a distinct look and just by playing, you will come to understand how each character fits their respective fraction. The shapes that we create has either elements, patterns or rhythm in them that chains them to each other.

Shape language and readability are the two key points we look at whenever we execute a concept in 3D. A strong shape language can help to push a character’s appeal and personality.

Stylised RTS “So you are doing another one of those cartooney RTS games”. Yes, and there’s an easy answer to why. Being a gamer myself, I can’t help but feel that most of the games played in the RTS genre use this type of art style. So what are we aiming for when using stylised art? One simple word. Exaggeration! We have the freedom to scale our characters almost to the same size as our buildings, without that it is looking wrong. We can do this so that our characters stick out more.

In my opinion, trying to achieve the same result with a more realistic art style would look a bit strange. One of the most significant advantages of going for a stylised look is that you can push your asset’s forms and colours to be more quirky and exciting. The second advantage is that you work only with primary and secondary shapes when doing a prop. The silhouette mostly stays the same with minor deviation. One thing that we do with our assets is to taper them in the lower part of the mesh. It gives the mesh an illusion of being more extensive at the top. The real challenge with doing stylised game art is conveying to the player that the assets and environment are using fewer details while emphasising the shape, colour and form.

A small peek of the Work in progress meshes taken in-game. We can suddenly see that there are huge differences in contrast and colours.

Forming and Sculpting the Concept One of the essential parts, before we start doing any heavy 3D work, is to begin col-lecting references, for both stylised and realistic art. We use references together with concept art to know how assets are to be built. When we have enough references, we start by analysing our object. What are the characteristics of the asset? By pinpointing the required details, we can create them in 3D to mimic our asset at hand.

I’ve mentioned silhouette earlier in the text, but I can’t emphasise enough how important it is for readability. It is crucial for every asset, character or environment that we find a suitable shape. You must be able to recognise an object, even with objects that don’t have a specific background. Our team is always hard at work, trying to create new and visually satisfying shapes. We start by blocking out a silhouette in our 3D engine or sculpting software and throw it into our game engine to check its readability. The reason for this procedure is to iterate continuously, so the asset fits into the shape language of the game. When everything seems fine, we start to sculpt the asset to our liking, forming it and giving it details that can be appreciated in-game. Sculpting can be incredibly fun and yet is also very time-consuming; sometimes, we need to stop and ask ourselves if the features we are putting down are necessary or visible, and if not, we need to dial back on them. We often ask other artists to look over the iterated 3D asset, and this way, we can get constructive feedback and make the necessary changes. This procedure is not only crucial for your growth as an artist; it also ensures that the mesh fits with the overall look of the game. What I tend to do after I’ve gotten thumbs up with the sculpt that I have made, is decimating it and testing it in the game engine to see that everything is still readable.

The retopologize phase is to take our high-density mesh and build a cage around it, which captures the silhouette but have much lesser density.

Give Me Some Colours, Please We are moving on from sculpting to re-topologize and painting. Yes, the fun part! Retopologizing means taking a mesh with a high density of polygons and redefining the 3D mesh at a lower resolution. Just imagine a plane with 50×50 gridlines and picture the same plane as one big plane with four vertices (4 points). That makes the plane less noisy, visually speaking, but more importantly, it makes it more comfortable to paint on. A stylised object usually has fewer details but larger shapes, which can make it feel like it is easier to paint and create. However, working with unlit textures means a lot more work that will have to go into painting ambient lighting, colours, shadow and highlights. You can bake out maps to use as a guide before painting over your mesh. Three maps we tend to use for speeding up our workflow are ambient occlusion, curvature and sometimes a normal map. These are applied as an overlay or multiply layer in our painting software before we start to paint over it.

To make sure that everything turns out the way we wanted it and to save ourselves time and trouble, we start our textures with just some base colours. The flat coloured mesh is then imported into our game engine, to see if it fits the overall look and matches the rest of our game. We can make some minor changes to the colours in case something feels off. Finally, we start adding more contrasts and colours on our mesh, bringing it to life while continuing to test it in the game engine, so that the visual fidelity stays the same.

Shape language is important for all the assets that are being created. Here you can get a taste of two work in progress beasts that are created by one of our 3D artists, Denice Wagner.

Pieces of Advice Make sure to collect and figure out your references before starting. Collect as much information as you can. I usually collect pictures for primary, secondary and tertiary shapes. When sculpting, I begin with the most significant form and work myself down to the smaller details. Collect references for textures, sculpts, colours, shapes and structure.

Breakdown of your assets, character, environment and your textures. Make sure you understand what you are seeing relative to how things are constructed in real life. Knowing the context and background of your objects will most definitely save much time during the creative process.

Blockout your shapes before going into detail. Figure out if there’s a possibility to be more modular with your workflow. Get your most prominent forms down on the canvas, maybe even adding a black material to it to see if the silhouette is readable and engaging. Make the changes that are needed and keep on iterating until you and/or the team are satisfied.

Import it into a game engine. Does it fit into your environment? If it does, move on, and if not, take it back to the drawing board.

Iterate. Don’t be afraid to iterate on your mesh and diverge from your concepts. Sometimes it is necessary that we have to do small changes to make it more fitting to the game’s world and lore. It can be as little as just a change of colour or as radical as scaling down the head of a character while scaling up the eyes.

When sculpting, Wisam always start with the big shapes, to find the most important landmarks of the structure before moving on and adding details.

Use constructive critique/feedback to your advantage. A constructive critique will make you grow as an artist, and it will help you to understand what you can improve and prevent mistakes in the future. If you are working with an environment for a game or just a portfolio piece, I would recommend joining an artist forum and ask for C&C (comment and criticism).

Give constructive critic! If you can help a fellow artist in need, give a helping hand. Many artists can get stuck in bad habits, I for one can work on details for hours, Luckily I have an Art Director that pinpoints that (often), and then I move on.

Challenge yourself. To grow as an artist, we need to challenge ourselves every day. Sometimes we need to do things we’ve never done before to improve, even if it is just by a little bit. Here at Daedalic Entertainment, we challenged ourselves by creating a game in a genre; we haven’t done before.

Have fun. I can understand that working with the same mesh or environment for days or weeks can be tedious and feel like you are not progressing. However, those are the moments where you are growing the most. Working on the same asset for an extended period can drain your energy, and a lot of artists have a massive list of unfinished game projects. However, pushing through at that time is when you will learn the most.

Believe in your ability to perform. Nothing comes easy in this business, but believing in your knowledge of thriving can push you beyond your limits. An artist never stops learning; we learn new skills every day. If we limit us to doing the same thing, every day, we will get the same results every time.

The 3D artists are working closely with the art team to carry out the aesthetic vision for the game.

Finalising We made all the assets, characters and environment. Now we start putting every-thing together. At last, our world starts to live and breathe. Here is where the final-ising of our game starts. The small fixes, like colour correction, scaling and even set dressing. Polish the visuals of the game to the point where everything falls in place like Tetris parts.

So everything feels like they derive from the same world and lore. Finally, our last reward is seeing our creation come to life.

I want to thank Making Games for the opportunity to write this article, but also a huge standing ovation for the art team at Daedalic Entertainment who’s been working very hard and doing their best at creating the art for A Year Of Rain.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article.

I will leave you with this great core message I found on the internet “The art is the preliminary vision of the final product. It has to support the project narrative at all times. More importantly, art is the language you use to communicate those ideas that will determine the final product”.

Wisam Petros Odish Environment and Prop Artist

Wisam is an environment and prop artist with the responsibility to bring the undead fraction in A Year Of Rain to life. Before getting an excellent opportunity of joining Daedalic Entertainment, Wisam worked as a freelance 3D artist for smaller game companies, creating props and environments for mobile games. Daedalic Entertainment is his first massive experience in the game industry.

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drink-n-watch · 4 years

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Genre : Action, comedy, supernatural, urban fantasy, science fiction.

Episodes: 13

Studio: Bones

You know what’s tricky? Navigating that confusing time between childhood and adulthood. Especially if you grew up as a bit of a loner. Feeling outcast and different all the time. And that type of isolation can cut deep. Loneliness can get to you and turn you into someone you don’t want to be. Luckily for Mob, he’s always had a loving family by his side. And master Reigen has always supported him best he can. And now, without even realizing it, Mob is surrounded by friends. But what would have happened if he wasn’t? What would a powerful psychic like that turn out to be without others to keep him grounded?

The first season of Mob Psycho came as a long-delayed delightful surprise to me. I had been putting off the series for reasons that are obscure even to me, and when I finally got around to watching the first season a month or so ago, I wanted to kick myself for waiting so long. Mob Psycho made me happy. Eager to learn from my mistakes I watched a few palette cleanser shows and dove right into the second season. Let’s see if I’m kicking myself again.

is the suspense killing you?

Production-wise, there isn’t much change between the two seasons. Mostly because it was a really solid production, to begin with. I was slightly more taken with Itou, Setsuo voice acting this season but only because a few scenes allowed him to tap into this calm and melancholy tone that he does very well. Mob Psycho has always been a visually distinctive show and the aesthetic is once again rigidly upheld. If you didn’t like the look of the show before, you still won’t. If like me you really liked it, well you can figure out the rest.

All of this said there were two notable improvements in my opinion. One is expanded colour palettes. There are dusk and early morning scenes that bathe everything onscreen in a wash of colours. Environments get plunged in sudden ominous darkness as superpowered character shine. It really gave a lot of dimension to the series and made Mob Psycho 100 II look lush compared to its predecessor.

The second visible improvement was the animation. Not that it was bad in season 1, to the contrary , but there is a whole lot more this time around and it’s awesome. The action is exaggerated and quick-paced with insane ragdoll physics and skewed perspectives that are frankly just plain fun to watch. I found myself completely engrossed in fight scenes no matter how obviously unrealistic they were, unable to turn away and biting at my thumbnail.

I’m telling you, it looks great!

Sadly I have a feeling that if you don’t like the art style, no matter how much praise I heap on the animation, it won’t sway you. So let’s talk story!

I recently wrote a post on 100 Word Anime discussing the pitfalls of comparing one anime to another so let me do it again right now… Mob Psycho season 2 reminded me of Natsume’s Book of Friends.

Some of you may know that I compared Mob Psycho 100 to Neon Genesis Evangelion. The first season did in fact bring that show to mind for me. This second season, however, has matured and tweaked its themes and no longer brought to mind the classic series for me. Now you may think I’m just using another excuse to mention Natsume yet again, I don’t blame you. I do that. But there is a reason. When I say Mob Psycho II reminds me of Natsume I mean specifically season 3.

The second season of Mob Psycho is a wild ride. The action is geared way up and the stakes have been raised considerably. Yet for all the heart-pounding adventures what I took away from the season was just how much Mob and the show itself had grown. I actually wrote it in my notes after the first episode and couldn’t help but grin like a Cheshire when the characters on screen started to echo that exact thought throughout the season. It’s great when you can feel like part of the team.

well…most of the time

The second thing I wrote is just how beautiful Mob’s personal evolution was. The young boy isolated and bound by anxiety and fear had come out of his shell. Without even realizing it, he suddenly finds himself surrounded by friends and for the first time even something akin to peers. And because he finally has that support system available to him, he can finally find the strength to confront his own power. He actually starts using it to help others in mundane situations instead of only having it as a last resort. His emotional gauge actually gets filled by positive feelings just as often as negative ones if not more so. He no longer sees himself merely as a burden to others and therefore he no longer is.

I wrote all these notes down happily then went over them. When that early feeling of deja vu hit me. As I leafed through my past notebooks I realized that I had written almost word for word the exact same thing for the third season of Natsume. Clearly, I need to get a bit more varied in my note-taking but it also shows that I know what I like. And make no mistake I loved this second season of Mob Psycho.

Reigen is my favourite character in the series. I generally love tricksters but beyond that, I think that one of the main reasons Mob didn’t fall apart in his younger years was because he always had Reigen by his side. I doubt I’m the only one with a soft spot for the 2-part midseason mini-arc that developed Reigen and Mob’s relationship specifically.

these are some great episodes

I always thought that Reigen genuinely cares about the boy beyond what use he could make of him. Fact is, Reigen is scripted to ooze shifty sleeve but when push comes to shove he’s actually an extremely capable guy. Ok, not as a psychic obviously but as a con artist, definitely. More often than not his advice is pretty good, he has impressive observations skills and is a wonderful huge of character and he is protective and caring of Mob. He trusts and believes in the boy even when the boy does not believe in himself.

But it’s the flashback that got to me. The fact that Reigen had grown bored with his psychic gig and was considering moving on. With his social skills, he could easily have found some other way to make a decent living. But a young boy clearly in need of someone walks into his office and he just couldn’t turn him away. Sure, if he could make a buck in the process, all the better, but that wasn’t the main motivation. And he’s still like that. When someone is truly in need of help, he doesn’t turn them away, ever.

Combine this with a Mob that has become self-assured enough to think for himself and even say no! A young man that has gained the maturity to accept his mentor’s limits and failings and still appreciate him. And you have a tremendous character arc in two short episodes. Not only did they develop both characters without resorting to exposition dumps but they also did so without sanitizing or retconing either. I said this a lot in the first season review, but Mob Psycho is a smart show. And it continues to be so.

Mob’s been through a lot this season

This season also brought some conflict that was way more nuanced. In the last episodes, we even see Mob gleefully revel in his powers and the destruction they wrought. He immediately stops himself and is filled with guilt but there’s something else going on. There’s a great attention given to Mob’s expressions. By default, he’s a bit of a blank canvass, largely expressionless. This season, as he’s opening up more his feelings are starting to show on his face. Small shy smiles, tiny barely there scowls… But when he goes to 100% then it’s the complete opposite. He is deliberately drawn to be terrifying, almost demonic. Dishevelled unnatural hair, impossibly intense eyes, an uncontrollable aura escaping from him. But in that one moment, that minute that he let himself enjoy his power, he looked….great. I mean he looked like a healthy happy young man. The spiked hair flowing lazily about him like a pretty anime boy, no visible aura at all, a relaxed smile reaching all the way to joyful eyes.

In another anime, I would have called this an odd design choice but not in Mob Psycho. For two seasons this show has been very precise with its imagery and particularly with Mob’ expressions. This was thought out and selected for a reason. The visual language of the anime is telling a completely different story from the script. It’s subtly showing us a boy that has been at war with his own nature for his whole life and the one moment of release came as a huge relief. A boy that could still go down a dark path. This is a moral ambiguity the first season stayed very far away from and a noted shift in narrative vision. One I am excited for.

I feel you Ritsu, it was quite a moment

I want to see more of Mob Psycho 100 and I hope I can do so soon!

Favourite character: still Reigen

What this anime taught me: Sequels are fantastic

Come, we’ll get drunk, quote movies and talk about how awesome we are

Suggested drink: Brown Sugar Manhattan

Every time Mob’s in street clothes – take a sip

Every time the show turns into a video game – take a sip

Every time we see a tomato – get a snack

Every time we see the super awesome Body Improvement club – Cheers!

Every time anyone is pantless – gasp

Every time Reigen seem kind of cool – put the drink down

Every time Mob gets a call – take a sip

Every time we see Mezato-san – take a sip

Every time other psychics are watching tv – take a sip

Every time Ritsu doesn’t get along with Reigen – take a sip

Every time you’re surprised by how touching this show is – check if season 3 has been announced

I love Bones’ visuals. They really speak to me. So once again I uploaded a whole bunch of screencaps to Pinterest and Imgur.

Mob Psycho 100 s2 – Growing Up Genre : Action, comedy, supernatural, urban fantasy, science fiction. Episodes: 13 Studio: Bones You know what's tricky?

#action #anime #blonde bishie #comedy #Mob Psycho #sci fi #shonen #super powers

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