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freebooter4ever · 11 months

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So you guys know i (try to) post daily doodles, and i have said before that i draw for about 2-3 hrs every night. BUT that also means i dont post about like 80-90% of the drawings i do each night. Today though, i've been thinking about A*I and my own relationship with drawing, and how utterly baffled i am that anyone would want to use it to like...draw for them..and how the concept that *tell a computer what art to do so i dont have to do it* is alien to me. So here's ALL the drawings i did tonight. The bottom one is the last one i did and the one i would normally post. And i want to talk about A*I without talking about good or bad end product. Because i dont care if im making the shittiest art in the universe - i still wouldn't use A*I. Not even as a ‘tool’.

If you've been around here for a while you know i have a love/hate relationship with my art. I write too, but writing doesnt make me so frustrated and angry that i want to throw my computer out a second story window. HOWEVER. There is a huge caveat to that anger.

It happens after.

You could look at it a little like hockey. Every game is fresh, right? I mean god knows the US made an entire movie about how every game is a new game and the odds could always fall in your favor no matter how stacked against you. So every drawing i go into it excited - like LOOK at that reference material, its gorgeous. The gesture is beautiful, the post is interesting, there is something about it that is just begging to be drawn. But then say you hit intermission in the hockey game and the opposing team scored a few points. And i step back and look at the drawing and realize i started to go wrong somewhere along the way. But its too late now, you gotta commit and keep going. And you do but somehow the final score is STILL 6 to 0 and thats when i want to flush all my art down the toilet and never look at it again. But its okay because the next drawing is going to start with a blank canvas and who cares what happened last time.

Ok maybe a bad example.

The product is never really what drives me to draw - i mean, sure i do like it a heck of a lot better when i have something /anything/ that i can post to show that im sticking with my everyday doodle. But its not a requirement to doodling. The process of drawing is always fun. Its when i come out of it and look at the stupid thing that im like ‘well fuck i fucked that one up again didnt i’, and THEN i get annoyed lol.

I dont sit there consumed with frustration over ‘gee i dont know what to draw’. This is never an issue. I HAVE TOO MUCH TO DRAW. Sometimes i avoid certain gifs/photos because in the back of my mind im like ‘yeah no, i havent leveled up that far yet, i cant do that justice’. But i dont want to admit the sheer number of images of geno alone i have saved. I think my biggest reference folder is still aoki and that has over two thousand screenshots - i dont think anyone will ever surpass that LOL. I have a never ending supply of practice art to be done.

The frustration comes when i have an image in my head and i want to get it down on paper so-to-speak (computer whatever). So - when im NOT using reference (or at least not an exact one) and am making an ‘illustration’ (ish). But again, the process isn't the issue. I like the act of drawing, i like the image in my head slowly taking shape, i like how vividly i can see it. Yall know how obsessed i am with personality - that's not just part of the drawing, that IS the drawing. And each deicision in the illustration is defined by the personality/character.

A computer can't fucking do this.

Could i maybe tell a computer ‘draw geno in the shower’. Sure. And it probably could. And if i didnt care about the process - if all i wanted was a very good drawing of geno in the shower....that probably would be fine. Maybe great even. Maybe it would be the best damn drawing of geno in the shower ever. And then i'd feel like shit because a machine is producing art that is more valuable to other people than mine ever will be. But holy fucking shit that ruins the entire POINT of drawing???? Why would you do that?

I mean, im sure yall can infer the entire point of the act of drawing geno in the shower. He's hot, he's wet. ANYWAY.

In my opinion, a person who wants the end product and doesn't care about the process of getting there....that person is not an artist. That person is someone who enjoys art, and probably thinks they have a lot of good ideas to make into art, but who doesn't feel that pull to make art themselves. They just want to buy art. And they want it cheap. And mindless computers being trained in seconds on the decades of creativity and hard work of art masters is a heck of a lot cheaper than a human.

And the hardest part of all this for me is how worthless this makes me feel - nobody wants you, they want that automatic button. Kinda like my dad that way (haha)

#geno #doodles

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solatiria · 4 years

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she (+ ponytail!)

as always click for high quality ✨

#mina ashido #mina #mina bnha #bnha #pinky #pinky bnha #bnha fanart #mha #mha fanart #mina ashido fanart #funny how this 30 minute headshot #looks better than my other 2 hr illustration #art is so weird?

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wehavethoughts · 3 years

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Zack Snyder's Justice League Review!

Zack Snyder's Justice League dir. Zack Snyder (2021) Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Films, Atlas Entertainment and The Stone Quarry Science Fiction, Action, Superhero Movie

Rating: 3.5 Waves

Summary: Tormented by visions of a dark future, Bruce Wayne aka The Batman attempts to gather a team of superheroes to defend the planet. When alien tyrant Steppenwolf arrives on Earth seeking a long forgotten technology, this group of heroes must do everything in their power to keep him from locating all three Mother Boxes and destroying the world.

Content warnings: Violence, Death, Body Horror, Gore

This review DOES NOT contain spoilers for Zack Snyder's Justice League

A bit of background for those of you thinking “Didn’t Justice League come out years ago?” You are exactly right! Justice League was released in theaters in 2017 and is the fifth movie in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe). The same company that produced Justice League then funded Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) which is a different version of the story that was released in 2017. Zack Snyder was actually the original director of Justice League (2017), but he stepped away from the project during post production and the film was handed over to director Joss Whedon. Whedon’s creative decisions led to rewrites, heavy editing and a notorious reshoot that required removal of Henry Cavill’s mustache via CGI. Therefore, Justice League as it premiered in theaters in 2017 was Joss Whedon’s vision of the story. As some of you might remember, Justice League (2017) was considered a “flop” as it lost the studio ~$60 million overall and was received by fans with mixed to negative reviews (6.2/10 IMDB, 40% Rotten Tomatoes). But since Zack Snyder had left so late in the project, there were rumors that his version of the film had been nearly finished and there was hope that the movie Snyder filmed was actually better than what Whedon had created. Fans took to social media to demand that Warner Bros release the “Snyder Cut'' of Justice League and in a move I personally find baffling, Warner Bros actually gave Zack Snyder another $70 million to finish his version. Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) which was released on HBO Max is the final product.

While understanding the context of how this movie came about is neat and honestly pretty hilarious, I never got around to see Justice League (2017) so I cannot give any commentary on whether this new film is any better. For those who are curious, my fiancée who has seen both says that the movies are extremely similar in plot, but there are significant changes to characterization and pacing. This review will solely be on the merits and shortfalls of Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) in a spoiler free context since the movie was released just over a week ago (if you want to talk spoilers DM me I have So Many Thoughts).

Honestly, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this movie. My expectations were quite low considering what I heard about the original 2017 version and the fact that I’m more of a Marvel fan. The most surprising thing for me was that I sat through the entire 4 hr and 2 min runtime (for reference the runtime for Justice League (2017) is 2 hrs). Aside from Lord of the Rings (Return of the King runtime 4 hr 11min), I usually don’t indulge in movies that require me to block off an entire day, but I was curious and I love bandwagons.

The highlight of this movie are the characters. Each of our main characters had a deep, solid backstory that drew me in and made me invested in what was happening in this world. One thing lacking in a lot of ensemble superhero movies is balanced screen time between the main cast, but Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) uses its time wisely to give each character depth and critical purpose in the narrative. Even the villain had compelling motivation as to why he is on earth doing dastardly deeds, and while I wasn’t rooting for him, I respected his motivations. I also appreciated that the writers of this movie made the characters intelligent. Sure, some decisions were driven more by emotion than logic, but the way defenses are set up and how our heroes use their unique powers left me incredibly impressed.

The characters’ interactions with each other was also very enjoyable. Snyder took the time to include scenes centered around the team chilling with each other in ways that were refreshingly low stakes and mundane. The story was interspersed with scenes like Wonder Woman and Alfred making tea, Aquaman and Wonder Woman musing over cultural differences, and Cyborg and Flash digging up a body where you could really see the characters grow from strangers to teammates to friends. These scenes also peppered in some light humor that kept the movie from becoming too dark without distracting from the tone.

Since Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) is technically an action movie and it is rated R, I feel like I should touch on the action sequences. Overall, the action was incredibly fun to watch! It was made for the big screen so watching the epic battles for the first time on my TV at home was a bit underwhelming, but the well choreographed, high stakes fights were still visually pleasing. For a rated R movie there was not as much gore as there could have been, which I appreciated and the level of violence was pretty much what I expected from a comic book movie.

The action scenes also do a fantastic job with power escalation. By that I mean the action illustrates the limits of one character’s power clearly in relation to other characters’ powers. This way you are aware of exactly how impressive the characters and their powers are on their own and so when someone or something stronger shows up we have context for how big of a threat we are dealing with. The clean way the story shows us everyone’s respective powers and their limits makes it so the stakes feel more tangible and it's not just unfathomably strong characters beating the shit out of each other with the winner decided by chance.

There are a few reasons the movie didn’t get a full five waves from me. First was that the Amazon’s outfits were very clearly made by horny men based on how much skin they were showing. I, a bisexual, personally love to see superheroes in less then full coverage, but when the Amazon warriors have their entire stomachs and cleavage out of their armor for no reason it exhausts me. What happened to the tasteful and stylish armor from Wonder Woman (2017)? This feels like a step in the wrong direction.

The next concern I have that has kept me from recommending this movie to people is the overall pacing and length. While there were some great uses of the extended run time like the action sequences and team bonding I mention above, there were so many scenes that were way too slow for me to stay engaged. I found myself editing the movie in my head, like did we really need 2 full minutes of Bruce Wayne and his horse climbing a dreary mountain? I don’t think so. This was a narrative where I needed to pay attention lest I miss critical pieces of the story, but the random scenes that dragged on too long had me going to get snacks and checking my phone throughout. If I could rate the movie by halves the first half would get 2.5 Waves because of how it dragged and the second half would get closer to 4.5 Waves since the story really picks up and fun things start to happen.

The final part of this movie that kept it from getting a higher rating was how closely it was tied to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. In fact, the first scene of Zack Snyder's Justice League is the final scene of Batman v Superman. There were many plot critical tie-ins to previous movies that left me feeling confused until I googled my questions during the slow scenes. If you have never seen Batman v Superman or Man of Steel then you will miss a lot of this movie, which I thought was unfair because other DCEU movies came out before the first iteration of Justice League like Wonder Woman and Suicide Squad and while events in those movies are mentioned in passing they are not nearly as important as the Batman and Superman-centric films. If the DCEU is going to pick favorites, the least it can do is pick movies I actually like (Wonder Woman (2017) remains my favorite DCEU movie to date). In general, superhero movies seem to be trending toward sagas and I prefer movies that you can just watch and enjoy without needing to see a bunch of other movies first.

Overall, I did very much enjoy this movie, but based on the run time alone it is not going to be for everyone. Measuring movie success during the pandemic is trickier than looking at box office numbers and labeling it a success or a flop, but it does appear that Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) is doing well as far as critical reception and viewership. I hope that this success will allow the DCEU to explore all of the fun nooks and crannies of the universe Snyder pulled together. In fact, half of the epilogue of this movie felt like set up for future movies. I hope they come to fruition because there were some pretty compelling teasers at the end that I would love to see played out on the big screen.

As I mentioned before, I’ve never seen the original cut of Justice League, but Snyder’s version left me fulfilled and satisfied with the narrative, so I am happy to have seen this newest cut first. This is a movie for people who love DC, love superhero movies or are just really invested in the hype.

~TideMod

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pitheinfinite · 4 years

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Let’s talk about self protection

First of all, I want to apologize for stopping updating the dashboard since yesterday. The numbers are rising too fast for me to keep up with. Since the epic center has moved from Asia to Europe with more media attention now, I figured you can get more detailed information from local media. Hence, the dashboard has served it’s interim purpose. For real-time update, I recommend the following sources:

BNO News-very reliable and fast

worldometers-comprehensive with useful tables

Aljazeera-covering middle east news

Of course, I would write posts whenever there’s significant progress(hopefully!) or unfortunate bad news in Asia.

Now, let’s talk about how to protect yourself when the outbreak is happening in your country. The cute pics of Shiba are designed by Taiwanese government to illustrate what we can do in our daily life to reduce our exposure to the virus.

Another important issue is FACE MASKS. I know most people in the west prefer washing hands to wearing a mask while the Asian do the opposite. But to fight against this sneaky coronavirus, we need BOTH! The mask is meant to protect both you and people around you. If you see someone wearing a mask, please don’t panic, he/she is just trying to protect both you and them from contamination. It is those who carry the virus without proper protection that you should be worried about.

Not every mask can effectively protect you from coronavirus. Not those for pollen or dust. It has to be surgical grade with 3 layers with water proof surface (against droplet, which is the main route of infection of Wuhan virus).

It’s equally important to put on and take off the mask correctly

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For more details and information about surgical masks->HERE

You might think “Wth Pi, I can’t find any mask anywhere, now you’re telling me these bullshit when I don’t even have one single mask?”

Don’t be upset, you’re not the only one with this issue, trust me. We also have the shortage problem here in Taiwan even though our government banned its exportation as early as January 24, the ration still only allow us to have 2 (now 3) masks/per week which is far less enough for most people.

So some doctors and experts suggest we can:

use cotton cloth mask with less risky occasions, like if you only plan to stay in a not-so-crowded place for a short period of time and save the surgical masks for high risk situation, like visiting hospital & airport, using crowded public transportation. Cotton cloth mask provides 80% protection, it’s lower but better than nothing, right?

sew a mask cover to extend the life-cycle of your precious surgical masks or as a contingent alternative.

This way, you can use your masks longer and more effectively. Here are some videos tutorials about how to make a mask cover by yourself:

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This one is a Chinese tutorial but easy to understand with details.

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This is the easiest one I can find so far.

Keypoints:

Be sure to put non-woven cloth (disposable) inside the cover. It is this non-woven cloth can provide protection, not the cover itself. You can use gauze, diapers, wipes (it has to be dry though), or pad. No one knows what you put inside, so don’t be shy.

Wash the cover every time after using and make sure it's dry and clean before you put it on.

If you have to take it down when you go out, fold it (like the pink mask in my pic) and put it into a zip-lock bag to prevent it from contaminating other stuffs.

Don’t overuse your surgical mask. Normally it’s life-cycle is 4~8 hrs, provided intact structure without moistening. If you find it got wet, stop using it, unless you have a ultraviolet disinfection lamp.

Cotton cloth mask might look less intimidating and repelling than surgical masks, I think? It’s also a good way to kill time since we all have to stay home most of the time.

If you find it really really hard to put on the mask and go out, at least keep a safe distance from people to make sure you won’t get any droplets, don’t touch anything or wash your hands (and glasses or even your face) as frequently as possible.

As for sanitizers, you need to use those with effective components like 70~75% alcohol to clean your hands and objects like your keyboard & mouse, office telephone, smart phone, etc. Alcohol can destroy coronavirus due to its envelope structure. Don’t spry alcohol all over your body like wearing perfume, it’s flammable!🔥🔥🔥 HCIO is another popular alternative, but it can only be used on objects, please don’t use it on your hands.

Also, I would recommend to make sure you have enough inventory of necessary living supplies for at least 3~6 months. Its not doomsday, you don’t have to hoard everything, just those might face a shortage of supply when those manufacturing countries are hit with virus. My friends and I are storing canned food and sanitary products.

One thing important but I neglected is medication. If you have to take a certain meds regularly, make sure you have enough at hand. India just announced an ban over drug export.

That’s it for today, I’ll keep you posted when I find anything useful. Stay healthy and stay positive! I have friends living in Tokyo and Seoul, they’re all fully aware the risk they’re facing and dealing with it based on our lesson learnt during SARS. Don’t worry and don’t panic, we can fight this together!💪💪💪

#nonsims #Wuhancoronavirus #wuhan coronavirus #Wuhan virus #wuhan pneumonia #2019-ncov #coronavirus #personal

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momentumgo · 5 years

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Jennifer Schlichting

Animator + Illustrator https://www.jenniferschlichting.com/ Seattle, WA Age 32 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I always knew I wanted to do something with computers and art. I've always loved drawing but didn't know how to marry the two. When I was 8, Toy Story came out and it immediately captured my imagination. As I grew older and realized what it took to create something like that I dreamed about working at Pixar one day. Long story short, I went to The Art Institutes of Minnesota and got a Bachelor's in Media Arts & Animation (which is now closed it was such a joke of a school). While I was there from 2007-2009 we had a few classes that dabbled in 3D Studio Max and Maya. I got to dive into 3D which was great, but it was such a painful user experience it put a huge damper on my desire to create 3D animation work of any kind.

After graduating in 2009 I moved back to my hometown in Iowa and had a hard time finding creative work of almost any kind (shocker, it's IOWA haha). I took a job as a bank teller to pay the bills and married my "high school sweetheart." A few years later I landed a job at one of Nordstrom's photo studios as a photo retoucher and lived in Photoshop all day making models and clothes look impossibly perfect. I also took the odd business card or logo design gig that came my way and fed my soul creatively by taking up painting with watercolor.

After six years in an abusive marriage, living paycheck to paycheck, having a toxic work environment, and my creative soul dying more every day I finally got up the guts to put an end to all of it. I divorced my husband, quit my job, and took everything that could fit in my SUV (including my cat) on a three day road trip across the country to move out to Seattle. I only knew a handful of people and had no job lined up, but I had a place to live for free for two months while I figured out what the heck I was going to do with my life next. That was enough for me.

I landed a contract job at Amazon doing basic graphic design work for the next 7 months and the pay was (just barely) enough to land my first studio apartment in Seattle. Knowing my contract would be coming to an end soon I was keeping my eye out for my next gig the entire time. Not knowing many people in Seattle (let alone the motion design community) made it really difficult to get in anywhere at first. I found a local Adobe After Effects and Cinema 4D meetup group and started going every month to meet some of the community and pick their brains on how to break in. I started doing YouTube tutorials in my free time and revamping my portfolio.

One of the art directors at Amazon heard I was looking for my next gig and after she went through my portfolio with me she suggested that I read The 2 Hour Job Search. It gave great advice on how to get out of the black hole of submitting your job application online and never getting anywhere. I started going directly to people. My LinkedIn search began and the emails were flying out the door. I made a spreadsheet of all the studios in the greater Seattle area, what kind of work they did, the contacts I was making, what kind of jobs they were posting for, and got to work creating projects to put into my first reel since 2009.

People were slowly starting to respond to my emails and accepting my offers to buy them coffee. I met so many lovely and helpful people (and a couple oddballs too haha). I asked what kind of work they were doing, how long their contracts usually were, what it was like to do animation work all day every day, what they were getting paid, and how tailoring their reel got them in the door doing the work they want to do.

One guy I met up with in particular (while I didn't know at the beginning of the conversation) was looking for a motion design intern to bring onto their small but mighty agency. By the end of our conversation he offered me the position! He had a passion for teaching and he could tell I was hungry to learn. While it didn't pay much, and was only a couple days a week I was able to put "motion design intern" on my resume while also working part-time doing graphic design work for a shoe and apparel company. I had just turned 30 and accepted an intern position, but was so thankful for company that didn't discriminate against age!

A few months later I heard back from a corporate telecommunications company I had applied to several months prior. They were interested in starting up an internal studio instead of outsourcing out all their work to agencies in town. I would be the first full-time creative on the team and had to be a unicorn. I knew a little video editing, some storyboarding, some motion design, some graphic design, and that was enough for them to offer me the position.

Fast forward two years and the team has grown to 20+ people and I've done everything from t-shirt design, graphic design, motion design, video editing, storyboarding, and deck design for massive conferences. It's not always fun or exciting animation work, but it pays the bills and afforded me a house in the crazy Seattle market.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

There have definitely been times when there are late nights at work but they seem to be fewer and farther between now that the studio is more established and they are working through better processes. I'm in by 9am and leave by 5pm most days. Weekend work is rare. We get two weeks paid vacation each year (and more the longer you stay with the company) as well. There is definitely more fun animation work in Seattle than what I'm doing currently but it's nice to have a steady paycheck and have time for personal projects on the side.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

I'm a white female born into a Midwest middle class family in the United States. I have a Bachelor's degree which was paid for in-part by my parents but I carried student debt until 2018 (thanks to my abusive first marriage-my ex refused to work for several years and insisted his "business ideas" would make us millions one day). I got out of debt myself by pulling myself up by my own bootstraps. The college I went to was not a great one and have learned so much more on my own since graduating than I ever did in college. I went to college full-time and year-round to graduate faster while also holding down three part-time jobs to help pay for college. It also saved me a ton of money every month after moving in with my now husband and paying only partial rent in Seattle.

I've always had gumption and a stubborn, never-give-up attitude. I was taught at a young age that I had to take responsibility for myself and my future and took that seriously. My parents weren't thrilled I wanted to go to an art college (and they had two more kids to put through college as well) but made a deal if I wanted to go I had to pay my own way. They took out the loan for me, but I paid it all back. I didn't have any scholarships but I made it work. I think it helped that I attended community college for two years before I transferred to The Art Institute and that lowered the tuition bill because of all the general education classes I took beforehand.

If you are a caretaker, how do you arrange your life so that you can achieve your professional goals while being responsible for others, (parents, children, etc.)?

My husband was a package deal and came with twin 9-year-old boys. We have them for a full week every other week. I'm not going to lie – it's a lot, even having them for an entire week haha! My husband and I both work full time but he has more flexibility when it comes to start/end times for his day and working from home. He drops the boys off and picks them up from school/daycare/camps/appointments/swim lessons/ etc.

The weeks we don't have the boys we spend our nights and weekends taking care of housework and building our portfolios (he's a creative as well). We are also trying to be more aware of how we spend our time and shift more of it towards self-care and doing more fun things together vs. the never-ending "to-do" list all the time.

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

This is something I'm still working on, haha! My husband does a great job reminding me to take time for myself, and we love to go out to eat, go to the beach, go for a hike, get massages, or paint and draw together. I've also recently swapped my hour+ commute to work where I would drive myself through Seattle traffic with now taking a corporate shuttle in. This has given me so much of my time back where I can read, draw on my iPad, or catch up on my favorite YouTubers.

I also love painting in my downtime (http://www.jenniferelizabethstudios.com/) which gives me a wonderful break from all the screen time and let's my hands do something tactile. There's no undo button with watercolors and I've accepted that and turned it into a more "zen-like experience" where I try not to control everything haha.

Just getting outside and into nature can be so refreshing. Even if it's a ten minute walk outside on my lunch break can do wonders for my mood. That, and getting 7-8 hrs of sleep/night! Oh, and making sure to take lunch breaks AWAY FROM MY DESK.

And snuggling with my purring cat never fails to make me feel better no matter what's going on in my life.

How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

Being happy and fulfilled with the life you're living. I've always liked the quote "Create a life you don't need a vacation from." Which, may be difficult to do but I think it's definitely something to aim towards.

Success isn't all dollar signs, but getting paid what I'm worth is definitely a win for me. Plus it's always nice being able to take people out to dinner and buy them nice Christmas presents. :)

On another note, I always feel successful when other people reach out wanting to chat and hear about my experience thus far. Whether it's people looking to shift gears slightly or change career tracks entirely it always makes me feel happy and successful when I can help someone out with any lessons or things I've learned along the way.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Take advantage of all the resources online! There was almost none of that ten years ago when I was starting out.

Don't be afraid to reach out to people. You never know where it'll lead. :)

Leave your ego at the door and don't be a jerk. Nobody wants to work with a jerk.

Never stop learning.

Look for jobs with titles other than "motion designer." Currently my title is "Communication Design Manager". LOL . Read the job descriptions to see if there will be animation work involved! Sometimes companies don't know what to call us.

Some great inspirational and informational resources to check out:

-Design for Motion: Fundamentals and Techniques of Motion Design by Austin Shaw

-The Freelance Manifesto: A Field Guide for the Modern Motion Designer

-The 2-Hour Job Search

-Real Artists Don't Starve by Jeff Goins

-Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon

-Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in that order) by Bridget Quinn

-The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown

-In the Company of Women by Grace Bonney

-Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

-Creative Pep Talk by Andy Miller

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exo212 · 5 years

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I wrote a lot instead of going to bed.

Tagged by @wizardfather answer questions

nickname- Got called ‘Big Dave’ my freshman year of high school. I was not a fan. For this an many other reasons I quit football and never played again.

zodiac- Libra/Boar I identify aspirationally with my zodiac sign. I don’t think I really line up with all of the personality characteristics of the typical Libra, but I’d like to.

height- 6'6"

last movie I saw- Close

last thing I googled- Mission Complete

fav musician- Kim Petras? I think. Her songs can make me uninhibitedly enthusiastic about them, which is a rare thing for me.

song stuck in my head- Me & U by Waveless and You and Me by Tony Ruperto

other blogs- nothing i’ll tell you about

do I get asks- Not really. I once got one of those spam asks about reviewing someone’s project. The feeling upon opening it was minor, yet indescribably awful.

following- like, 70-ish people. So not really that many. A lot of them aren’t very active, but when I was following more people I felt like I didn’t see everything they would post. So 70 is plenty for me.

followers- 38. I’m kinda surprised I have any actually. I don’t really make any content. But maybe they like what I reblog.

amount of sleep- Usually I get around 7 hrs or less. But if I’m in a mood, or malaise, or just have nothing planned for the day, I can easily spend 12-14 hrs in bed/in my room in a day.

lucky number- 7. idk if I actually am luckier or anything, but I like to use it in those ‘pick a number’ situations.

what I’m wearing- Just underwear atm. But the usual is: a tshirt, levi jeans, a woven-cord belt, my smart watch, and custom Van’s.

dream Job- I don’t think I really have one. I’ve been pursuing something instructional, but Political psychology has a lot of applications that I’m kind of uncomfortable with. If I don’t cut it as a professor, most of the people willing to pay someone with a graduate degree in the field generally want to manipulate someone in one way or another. Like, marketing is targeting groups to get money from them, and some governmental uses are just a kind of propaganda. And then larger corporations would want to make it hard to unionize... etc etc.

So I do sure hope I get to teach it.

dream trip- I’ve been to a lot of places/countries compared to the average person. But I kinda regret how little I’ve seen of the United States. So maybe some kind of 50-state tour would be fun. Get to know my country better than just where i’ve grown up or vacationed.

fav food- So two things:

1. Almost any food can’t hold a torch to the nostalgia I feel when my Mom cooks for me. And given that she’s also fantastic, that’s a high bar. So basically anything she makes.

2. I love a good Creme Brulee.

Play any Instruments- I guess you could say voice, but I haven’t been in a choir since high school, so I suppose nothing.

languages- English. And a little Spanish, Italian, and Khmer. This semester I’m taking ASL though, so add it to the ‘little’ list in a few months.

fav songs- I don’t know if I really have favorite songs. At least, not ones I keep around me all the time. I usually run my music off of a playlist I make on spotify, and have a healthy turnover in the songs I put on there. I do like Cameo Lover by Kimbra, and Sunflower from the Spiderman movie

random fact- I was diagnosed with ADD ~2 and a half months ago. The medication I’m on has really illustrated how inadequately I’ve been able to engage with things. I’d compare it to how hot it can feel to be outside after you’ve stepped into a room with AC. Once you know the difference, you kind of realize the temperature gap more. And now that I know the difference, I’m frustrated with how much of my life has been impacted by something I’m only really having addressed in my 5th year of going to college. In a way I’m ‘bitch, you’ve been living like this?” ‘ing myself, but I’m just glad I’m finally getting help with it.

Aesthetic description- I really like red/black, gold/black, and blue/gold contrasts. In buildings and furniture especially.

I also really like the aesthetic guide of WoW Blood Elves/High Elves. The sort of ambitious angles, tall spires, semi-naturalistic use of gold accents (House Tyrell from GoT, I’m looking at you), and general density of decorative splendor really appeals to me.

In personal fashion I’m pretty utilitarian, but I’m trying to branch out a bit. I got Van’s that pop with color and some pretty sparkly nails, so that’s something. Bit by bit I suppose.

I’ve also been really influenced by depictions of the goddess Pele as a kid growing up, so I’m really drawn to art that has a sort of elementally empowered motif. So. You Know. ATLA is a hit.

tagging @rockscanfly, @battle-nug , @werewolfblake

#As if anyone will read this #Maybe one person?#Eh #journalling if so

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loadnfc639 · 3 years

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Fast Travel In Mafia 3

Below is a list of characters found in Mafia III. 1 Mafia III 1.1 Major Characters 1.2 Minor Characters 2 Factions 3 Mentioned 4 Faster, Baby! 5 Sign of the Times 6 Stones Unturned. (.-) 4 out 5 stars. TLDR Top notch driving, yet no fast travel system which can be annoying. Drags on towards the end. Shouldn't mandatory side quests be considered mainline story quests. America wasn't/isn't great for everybody so have a blast giving it to some of your contemporaries crappy ancestors, or them directly.

Can You Fast Travel In Mafia 3

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Is There Fast Travel In Mafia 3

Here are some mods fór Mafia 3.Car Customizations.No Back View Match / Speedometer.Minimal Hud.Ragdoll.Automobile Controls.Naughty Doggie HDR Light In Tonemapping.Switch Period Of Time.Manual Law enforcement Searchlight and Sirén.ToggIe Hud.M2M3 - Máfia 2 Major Menu SongMafia 3: Contemporary Cars (mod),Modern cars can become discovered in the games documents, I merely modded them in to end up being capable to drive them. They had been clearly certainly not meant to be interacted with and likely utilized for recording cutscenes. Bugged textures, mainly no noises, barely any harm versions and no functioning doors. Pointless but fascinating to discover.' Originally submitted by:Is quite unhappy to notice that the Mafia 3 group has better tips than the designers and can be for free!Doesn't this apply to basically all games these times and not just Mafia 3?

For Mafia III on the PlayStation 4, a GameFAQs message board topic titled 'This game needs fast travel!'

Most games nowadays have a huge community producing mods either increasing or enhancing the games.Developers, I'michael quite certain, have got a lot of concepts of what they would like to place into the sport, but since this costs a great deal of cash, ultimately, some concepts possess to become remaining out.And everybody have different tips of what they would like in a game, so designers might have one idea, and some neighborhood member another. And I think it't excellent to find that games today are open plenty of for mods. Initially posted simply by:Is very unfortunate to notice that the Mafia 3 group has much better tips than the designers and is for free!Doesn'capital t this apply to fundamentally all video games these times and not simply Mafia 3? Most games nowadays possess a large community producing mods either extending or improving the video games.Designers, I'meters quite specific, have got a lot of ideas of what they want to put into the sport, but since this expenses a lot of money, eventually, some concepts have to be still left out.And everybody have got different ideas of what they want in a game, so designers might have one concept, and some neighborhood associate another.

Today I'll be showing you how to fly in Mafia 3 using this Mafia 3 mod for the PC called Noclip. Noclip allows.

The world isn't so large that it needs fast travel. I understand in games like skyrim where the world is large and horse is fastest way of travel, but in mafia where the fastest cars can go over 100 mph, it's just not needed. Also, it's not like you have to slow down near the cops, just don't hit anyone near cops.

And I believe it'beds excellent to notice that video games today are open more than enough for mods.This video game Is various since it does not have a lot of functions that everybody believed that would become in the game. Originally posted simply by:Doésn't this apply tó essentially all video games these days and not really simply Mafia 3? Many games nowadays have got a massive community making mods either increasing or improving the games.Developers, I'meters quite specific, have got a great deal of concepts of what they would like to place into the video game, but since this costs a lot of cash, ultimately, some tips have got to become left out.And everybody have different suggestions of what they wish in a video game, so developers might possess one concept, and some area associate another. Install amiga os 3 5 winuae torrent pirate bay. And I believe it's i9000 great to observe that video games today are open good enough for mods.This sport Is various since it lacks a lot of functions that everybody thought that would become in the video game.' Leave out me from thát please, I'meters not missing any features.Anyhow, the absence of features must end up being applied to all video games where people create mods, which will not make Mafia 3 any different. And ultimately the programmers are usually the types that made the choice of what features they desired to place in the sport. The absence of some function could become as simple as the programmers didn'testosterone levels need to include that function in the video game, Probably didn't match the eyesight the had for the video game. Video thumbnail maker for mac.

I performed Mafia 2 (and 1 for that matter), therefore still, make sure you wear't speak for me by saying everyone.Look up any game on youtube ánd you will find movies of glitches and bugs. 80+ hrs and I rán into one motorboat being stuck inside the drinking water which can be the just game busting glitch I got, so for me, l can't say I got the amount of problems as you will find in a youtube video.The game for me can be not anymore repitive than many other video games. The greatest problem with these open up world games is definitely that it consists of a great deal of generating back again and on, but you can say the same with games like GTA or Just Trigger.The only AI issues I've seen, is arbitrary people strolling out on the road in front of you, just to cease in the middle of the street, rather of shifting apart from your vehicle. Originally posted by:I performed Mafia 2 (and 1 for that matter), so still, make sure you wear't talk for me by saying everyone.Appear up any game on youtube ánd you will discover video clips of glitches and pests. 80+ hours and I rán into one fishing boat being trapped inside the water which is usually the only game busting glitch I got, so for me, l can't state I experienced the amount of problems as you will discover in a youtube video.The game for me is not anymore repitive than many other games. How can anyone state this is definitely as repeated as any additional game?

Take GTA V for example, those missions were fun for the many component. JC3 will be repetitive yes !, but at Ieast it's fun, it's nót repetitive in thát scale as Máfia III is: drivé a long wáy, kill a féw dudes, drive á long way báck x 100. The devs were too lazy to actually include a fast travel choice in this gamé:D Like á cab actually. That wouldn'testosterone levels take much period.And the basic functions that shuold be in this game are missing. It't not about having more functions just, it's i9000 about carrying on with the series fundamental factors that have been presently there since starting.

You can't really take miracle for example away from The Elder Scrolls collection and state:'hey, we're doing something fresh, mods/upcoming up-dates will add that back in for you men!' Mafia as a gaming series places up a several goals (as every series of video games does), this video game failed many of them. After the initial awesome take action, this game is just dull revenge story, full of copy-paste tasks, and i can'capital t even modify my t-shirt before the dIc comes:DI purchased the collectors edition, and i repent it, that has been 130 euros tossed to them. And i got a game that's Iike gta III. Simply a slightly better images.

Originally submitted by dancefly:here are some mods fór Mafia 3.Car Customizations.No Rear View Looking glass / Speedometer.Minimal Hud.Ragdoll.Automobile Controls.Mischievous Doggie HDR Lighting D Tonemapping.Transformation Time Of Day.Manual Law enforcement Searchlight and Sirén.ToggIe Hud.M2M3 - Máfia 2 Main Menu SongMafia 3: Contemporary Cars (mod),Modern vehicles can end up being discovered in the games data files, I merely modded them in to be capable to drive them. They had been clearly certainly not meant to be interacted with and most likely utilized for recording cutscenes.

Bugged textures, mainly no noises, hardly any damage models and no functioning doors. Useless but interesting to see.' ' How to set up mafia 3 scripthook? All i would like is to end up being able to make use of the 'Cash script mod' ánd the 'all weapons script mod', help me please.

Welcome toMAFIA III is certainly the most recent installing of the MAFIA collection. This Subreddit provides a place to trade about the advancement, information and media. Launch Day ReviewslGNMetacritic (PC), Critic: 55Metacritic (PS4/Xbox), Critic: 60SteamGamespot,Note: Chart may become out of day as testimonials come away.Please read through the rules and take pleasure in your keep!1. Respect other customers and their views. Racism and insults will not really end up being tolerated.2. Format the title of any write-up containing potential spoilers like this illustration.

Be certain not to place the spoiler in the name!Instance of a good Title:'SPOILER I simply learned something insane about Lincoln!' Moreover tag the post as 'NSFW' and select the 'Spoiler'-Sparkle. Failure to tag spoilers correctly will effect in a bar.Use this to hide spoilers in the remarks:If you fórmat the spoilers Iike this:Spoiler: (#t 'Lincoln is certainly a shape moving lizard')The text message in the brackets will just be visible if you shift your mouse cursór over it:SpoiIer:3. Submitted content material must end up being directly associated to the MAFIA franchise.4. No memes/rage comics or identical low high quality posts. Maintain conversations in their particular mega-threads.5. Blog/YouTube spam, or junk e-mail in general is not allowed and will be removed.6.

No posting/requesting unlawful download hyperlinks, splits, or some other repacks. Conversation is alright, links are not really.7. Follow the general!Take note that all of the over is subject to moderator acumen and may become become a huge hit by messaging us.We try to make the moderation óf this Subreddit ás clear and democratic as feasible, so feel free of charge to send out a message if you possess any recommendations or feedback.We will not eliminate unpopular remarks. This is usually a place for discussion after all. Right here and right now there you will study a evaluation complaining that the game doesn'testosterone levels have got fast travel.

Fast Travel In Mafia 3 Release

This is a fairly lazy critique imo. Not really just in the literal sense.I can know that sometimes people really have got a really busy life-style and they want to reduce down on period consuming duties in-game, and just jump between the great bits. But for a game like this l can't find why I would want to do that.The cars (and the music) are usually outstanding. New Bordeaux is usually fun to discover. Every region has a different feel.

And most importantly, it doesn't take you hours to generate from one end to the othér,merely 5 to 10 minutes. Unless you really feel appreciated to abide by every traffic regulation or you're scared to phase on the gasoline and float into the sides. I wear't thoughts the lack of fast Travel either, but I think they do a shitty thing with those various goals.

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I put on't get why everyone of those vehicles and Moonshine vehicles wants to become in the Bayou. I get why the vessels are presently there, apparent, but they could've spread those vehicles and vehicles even more around the chart. How does this relatie?

Well, sometimes when trying to maximize a racket profits I just think like fuck, ain'capital t gonna drive all the way to the base of the map for a ridiculous truck transport to generate more kickback so I can purchase more weaponry. Those several times I do believe about fast Vacation, not hoping it, but it could'vé produced inspired me even more.

Each design has special traits that create generating it a unique encounter. This indicates not really all vehicles are fit for all reasons, therefore you'll want to change cars usually, based on the landscape and the job at hands. The best models are pretty uncommon, and knowing where to find them will conserve you a great deal of time. In this guide, we're heading to show you the greatest car locations in Mafia 3.Mafia 3 Best CarStealing vehicles will be one of the fundamental activities in the sport. You'll do it all the period.

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On the downside, it attracts unwanted attention. This means you'll often wreck a vehicle obtaining rid of the wanted position you obtained by robbing it in the initial place. Messy company. If this can be a problem for you, you might want to make investments in Burke's perk that enables for stealthy car-jackings.Aside from heading fast and having tight control over your vehicle, there are usually other reasons to appear for the greatest car. Some of them are usually achievements like the following:.

-While traveling, performed a 50-meter jump and arrived on your wheels. -Made a 180 degree convert at high velocity without hitting anything. New Bordéaux Drifter -While traveling, drifted for at least 5 secondsYou gained't become capable to unlock these with yóur run-of-thé-mill station truck. You'll need a correct muscle car, something with even more power than you know how to make use of. Something like thé Samson Drifter ór Potomac GT.

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Thése are among the greatest vehicles in the video game, along with spórtscars like the Dé'Leo Capulet ór the Samson Duké.ImageNameLocationSpeedAccelerationDe'Leo CapuIetFrisco FieldsVery fastGoodSamson DukéFrisco FieldsVery fastGreatPotomac GTBarcIay MillsVery fastGreatThe greatest method to get these can be by dangling out in Frisco Fields. That's the expensive part of city, therefore that's where the flashiest cars usually spawn. There'beds furthermore a quaint little shed in the Bayóu where a solitary parked car spawns. If it's i9000 not really one of the types you'd including, you can simply eliminate yourself and anothér one will spáwn.

The Mafia series has seen multiple hiatuses between games, with eight years between the first two and six between the second and third. It has now been four years since the third entry, but 2K Games is set to remake the first game as part of a new release known as Mafia Trilogy. While that version is not out for a few more months, they recently released the remastered Mafia II along with including the already existing Mafia III that is now known in the collection as Mafia III: Definitive Edition.

When Mafia III was originally released, there was certainly some controversy about the change in setting. While the prior two games had the traditional Italian mafia akin to Scarface and The Sopranos, Mafia III was taking a different route by having an African American protagonist that is not part of the traditional mob seen in the first few games. https://loadnfc639.tumblr.com/post/655844989264412672/yanmar-portable-diesel-generator-manual. Instead, Lincoln Clay is a soldier that has just returned back to the fictional New Bordeaux that is based on New Orleans from Vietnam and agrees to help some family and friends with the Haitian mob that have come knocking. Soon after he tries to work out a debt to the Italian mafia that his surrogate father has accrued. This ends up going very poorly and leaves Lincoln wanting revenge against mob boss Sal Marcano and his mafia family. This leads Lincoln to having to gather a unique crew of different partners to help take them down, which is the central focus for most of the game.

Can You Fast Travel In Mafia 3

The story is largely carried by the incredibly captivating Lincoln Clay and the other characters around him, with a solid story surrounding them. Mafia III: Definitive Edition was not afraid to tackle much more intense and dark themes than in the past, which still holds up well now four years later from the original release. While it is definitely a different style than the first couple games, the story is very much worth experiencing here and may be the best of the trilogy in that area.

Where Mafia III suffers most though is the very unoriginal game structure as you play through Lincoln’s story in a once again large sandbox open world experience. The original city of New Bordeaux this time around is larger than both of the first two games combined, but that kind of is a hindrance in some ways as you’re consistently having to drive across the map for new missions. New Bordeaux itself is split up into nine different districts across nine chapters, each of which have a story mission that is split up for you to complete. The repetitive nature of these missions though is where the game really struggles.

Within each district, you have to take over both of the rackets that are found in that location. Once you have successfully done this, a third mission within the chapter will open where you have to take out the person in charge of that district. There is a little more to do in the later chapters, but the biggest problem is that the structure is especially tedious and will have you growing tired of everything in no time. This feels like a course correction from the emptier world found in the previous games, though they may have gone a bit too far in the other direction.

On the plus side, Mafia III does introduce side missions this time around, a major flaw of the previous game. While not available right away, you’ll eventually get access to side missions that branch off from the main story. These include things such as helping out the underbosses by completing tasks for them to gain favor. While they aren’t that most involved overall, they are better than having nothing extra to do like in Mafia II.

The gameplay itself is really nothing to write home about either, albeit a little more refined here. One of the somewhat frustrating elements of the previous game was that you had to press A to leave cover every time, but now you can move much more freely when trying to move between cover or be stealthy. You have the option to adjust aim assist to the level you prefer, which can make the game a bit too easy. There are plenty of guns to choose from here though, with the ability to set them to a wheel and choose between them.

Compared to its predecessors, Mafia III has a major edge in the visuals department. The recent Mafia II: Definitive Edition was definitely more polished visually, but there is still no real comparison between it and Mafia III. Mafia III: Definitive Edition looks great all around, with the character models and environments looking much more realistic. The performance on Xbox One was pretty solid most of the time, with some slowdown here and there when too much was happening on screen. Thankfully, the character movement in general felt much more natural than in the prior games.

While Mafia III: Definitive Edition is literally supposed to be the same game with a new name and all DLC included, somehow Hangar 13 completely messed up one aspect of this game in the included update. Mafia III was given Xbox One X and PS4 Pro support after the release of the game, which added HDR and 4K support to the game to make it look even better. In what is a baffling mistake, somehow this latest update has completely removed this support, now giving you no way to use 4K on consoles. This is something that absolutely has to be patched in, but there is no way it should have ever happened in the first place, especially when this was a free “upgrade” for those that already owned the game.

Mafia as a series has always had a great soundtrack to match the time period, but Mafia III takes this to another level entirely. With the game being set in the late ’60s, the music was ripe for the picking from the era and Hangar 13 did not disappoint. These include songs from artists such as The Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Johnny Cash, as the game offers over 100 different songs in total. The stellar soundtrack will constantly have you taking longer routes in your vehicle just to finish an entire song, which at least somewhat helps the fact that the game lacks fast travel.

Mafia III: Definitive Edition somehow managed to improve in one way by including all of the prior DLC, while also taking multiple steps backwards by somehow removing support for Xbox One X, even as a mistake. The story of Lincoln Clay is still enthralling and handles some very dark themes quite well, but the lifeless open world structure found in Mafia III: Definitive Edition really hinders what could have been the best game in the trilogy.

The Verdict

While not anywhere near as glitch ridden as the Mafia II remaster, Mafia III: Definitive Edition adds nothing more than the previously released DLC along with the very strange removal of Xbox One X support that was added to the original release after launch. Lincoln Clay’s story is still well worth experiencing a first time, but there is no real reason to venture back to New Bordeaux with this latest release as part of the Mafia Trilogy.

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Can You Fast Travel In Mafia 3

Mafia III: Definitive Edition

Available On: Xbox One, PS4, PC

Published By: 2K Games

Developed By: Hangar 13

Genre: Action-adventure

US Release Date: May 19, 2020

Reviewed On: Xbox One

Quote: 'While not anywhere near as glitch ridden as the Mafia II remaster, Mafia III: Definitive Edition adds nothing more than the previously released DLC along with the very strange removal of Xbox One X support that was added to the original release after launch. Lincoln Clay's story is well worth experiencing a first time, but there is no real reason to venture back to New Bordeaux with this latest release as part of the Mafia Trilogy.'

Cheapest Way To Visit Europe

Is There Fast Travel In Mafia 3

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insidethegiftbasket · 3 years

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Stats Club 101 - Counting and Basic Rates

Evan’s Note: Hey, look at this! Another new contributor. We’re growing faster than Ortiz’s ass after the steroid needle hits it. Anyway, everyone say hi to AJ and yeah, go ahead and make another one more when you bring cupcakes to class next week.

———

While Evan, Sam, and now Julio are breaking down players and series previews, I’ll be focusing on the NUMBERS! and SCIENCE! that surround baseball. Before you even think about yawning, let’s be clear: you’re a baseball fan. You do like those things in this context; you just don’t realize it. Hopefully I can help demystify the decimals and acronyms and spinning and launching, making it a little less scary and giving you a new perspective with which to think and talk about our beloved sport.

First up: The first installment of a dive into baseball statistics.

———

It’s no surprise: baseball is numbers-heavy. Likely because it can be mostly described by discrete and well-defined events, baseball lends itself to digits upon digits upon digits. The spectrum of fan acceptance of this spans from those developing modern sabermetrics, to those who blame the Inevitable and Imminent Downfall of the Sport (100+ years and counting!) on anything outside of “traditional” stats. In-between you have everyone else: fans who don’t care either way; those who care a little either way; those who want to understand but find it all so damn intimidating; and even those who think they get it but carry major misconceptions (looking at you, r/baseball and your abuse of ‘regression’).

Well regardless of where you sit, Welcome to Stats Club! We’re gonna take a close look at the classes of baseball metrics, where they come from, and how to interpret them. Before we kick things off you should know of a few key rules:

The first rule of Stats Club is: Stats are not bad.

The second rule of Stats Club is: Stats are not bad!!

But seriously, statistics are tools. Saying a specific stat is fundamentally bad because it doesn’t tell you something it wasn’t designed for is like saying a screwdriver sucks because it can’t hammer nails. The formula is what it is: what’s potentially bad are the inferences you draw from it.

For example, suppose I make a measurement that is the total number of apples and oranges in my fruit basket: I call it 'wAO’. It’s very specific, sure, but it’s still carrying information. And although it only counts those two fruits directly, you may be able to infer what’s happening with the rest of my fruit supply if you know how much my basket can hold; e.g. a low wAO may mean I have bananas and kiwis too. But if you’re wrong, that’s not the fault of wAO. Rather, your methodology is flawed by not accounting for your own assumptions. Keep this in mind as we step through baseball statistics, especially when we get into sabermetrics.

A third thing to be aware of is: unless stated otherwise, baseball stats are not predictive. They are records of the past, and we assume things will stay mostly the same going forward. But this is an assumption, and depending on what we’re talking about it can be a pretty bold one.

Part I. The Counting Stats

<Hits, home runs, RBIs, strikeouts, innings pitched, etc…>

Ah, it’s the most basic category: the stuff you can literally count. Counting stats get scoffed at because of how simple they are, but they’re at the core of everything that follows. After all, you can’t build a model of player production without having raw data to throw into your equations.

As I mentioned earlier, baseball is a nice sport from a statistics perspective because it can be almost completely described by counting stats, which are descriptions of discrete events. A batter does or doesn’t reach base; a pitcher either gets a strikeout on 3-2 or he does not; and so on. Compare to, say, soccer, where it’s not so easy to cleanly describe and quantify the details of player performance.

I say almost completely described because fielding remains a challenge. Errors are an attempt, but errors are a divisive counting stat because they’re uncharacteristically subjective for baseball. Like with soccer where we’re trying to measure continuous and complicated events, advanced analytics are really the only way to quantify fielding in any detail. But we’ll save that discussion for a later post.

Part II. The Rate Stats

Counting’s great, but raw numbers can get large and unwieldy and difficult to interpret. We solve this by normalizing them, i.e. dividing the count by some standard unit. Then we get a rate, or measure of how often something has occurred (remember: baseball stats are not inherently predictive). BA is the rate of hits per official at-bats; OBP is the rate of reaching base—hits and walks and hit-by-pitch—per plate appearance; and so on.

For pitchers, Earned Run Average (ERA) is earned runs per inning pitched times nine, which just scales the rate to an entire 9-inning game. There’s also Walks and Hits per Inning Pitched (WHIP) which says what it is right in the name. On baseball-reference you’ll find SO9 and HR9, which are strikeouts and homeruns per inning, respectively, also times nine for the same scaling as ERA (for whatever reason pitchers get their rates expressed as whole numbers while hitters are stuck with fractions).

Let’s illustrate the first two rules of Stats Club by looking at the much maligned BA. It’s perfectly reasonable to measure how often a batter reaches base via a hit. Hits are exciting! There’s a crack of the bat, the ball goes into play, and the fielders scamper to unsuccessfully throw the ball in before the batter-turned-runner can reach. Not to mention, making contact with a small 90mph projectile and placing it where it can’t be fielded may be the hardest thing to do in all of sports, so getting a hit is always an impressive feat.

But none of this is to say hits are the only things that matter. If you’re trying to get on base you don’t really care how you do it, and from that perspective a walk is just as beneficial as a single (even if Nick Johnson’s knowledge of the strike zone is slightly less dramatic than a clutch Gio Urshela double down the line). Thus the problem is not in BA being what it is, but rather in old-school baseball minds deciding it is the be-all, end-all of offensive measures. So definitely celebrate high batting averages, but don’t use it to definitively say one player is better than another. There are more appropriate tools for that.

Part IIa. OPS and Other Fun Rates

On-base Plus Slugging (OPS) is technically a rate, but it’s unique because it rather unceremoniously—but somehow very comfortably—smashes two other rates together: OBP, and the intimidatingly named SLUGGING PERCENTAGE (SLG), which is bases per at-bat.

The idea behind adding the two is straightforward. In baseball you want to generate runs. And you do this by either getting on base or by hitting the ball so you get a lot of bases. Hey, that’s OBP and SLG! So if we add the two together we get a number that kinda captures a player’s rate of run creation. Hence, OPS.

There was a time when I ignored the first two rules of Stats Club and hated this number. Since the same hit is captured in both OBP and SLG, isn’t it double counting? And wait a second, OBP and SLG have different denominators; you can’t just add them! But as I went through my career I realized I was overthinking it: OPS is fine. Between 9am and 5pm on weekdays I’d call OPS a basic heuristic. A heuristic is a broad concept: it refers to any good-effort way to get a solution or estimate to a problem. Heuristics are explicitly not meant to be optimal or perfect: they just need to be justified by the designer. And OPS can be justified! Aside from the conceptual idea of run creation, it can be shown that OPS tracks with—and even has some level of prediction for!—actual runs scored. So there you go.

But be aware that even given that, we’re still inferring things about run creation from OPS. Inferences still rely on assumptions and interpretations and there was a desire to get more precise. Stats guys wanted a more refined tool to directly measure production. One of these tools is called weighted on base average (wOBA), but we’ll discuss that later when we dive into advanced metrics.

Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP) is another fun one. BABIP also has its description in its name: it’s like BA, but instead of hits per at-bats, it’s hits per balls-in-play (i.e. it ignores strikeouts and HRs). BABIP is used to gauge the statistical un/likehood of a hitter’s performance. The logic is as follows:

Major league ballplayers have a baseline level of fielding skill. That is, there are zones in which any competent player should be able to field a ball and record an out. That means there are also zones where that fielder won’t be able to make a play, and thus the batter—if he places it there—will get a hit.

Given all that, we can expect a ball in play to be a hit about 30% of the time. If a hitter’s BABIP is far below .300, the implication is that fielders are making spectacular plays. And since spectacular plays are spectacular for a reason, the hitter is probably getting “unlucky”. Or perhaps he’s hitting into crazy shifts. Either way, a good hitter will adjust his approach and/or benefit from defenses being less spectacular. As a result, the expectation is that in due time he will see his BABIP regress upward towards .300. And if his BABIP goes up, so will his BA.

On the other hand, if a BABIP is far above .300, it implies the hitter is getting lots of bloop hits, which he certainly isn’t planning. Or maybe he’s beating defensive alignments, which any competent defense will recognize and adjust to. Whatever the reason, we’d expect his BABIP to regress down towards .300, accompanied by a drop in BA.

(BIG NOTE: Player skill is a factor here too! Elite hitters will be better at finding those gaps and can maintain a BABIP of around .350, while the worst hitters may sit as low as .260. If we know a player’s true BABIP after seasons of playing, we can have a good guess of how his BA may trend based on BABIP.)

For a while BABIP was THE indicator of statistical un/likelihood (or un/luckiness). This is why we curse the BABIP gods when one of our guys is “robbed” or when a team--probably the Rays or mid-aught Angels--bloops us to death. But thanks to Statcast, BABIP has been given a partner. Because Statcast logs everything about batted balls, we can, in real time, know exactly how often that type of contact (launch angle, exit velocity, etc.) has resulted in a hit vs. an out. No more inferences required! You know this stat as expected batting average (xBA). But more on that later.

Remember: Stats Are Not Bad. This is some cool synergy between classic rates and new-age Statcast. Use xBA for real-time analysis, but turn to BABIP when trying to project long-term trends.

Part IIb. Time to Normalize…Again!

Rate stats exist to make counting stats more readable, but it’s still not obvious what rate is a good rate. This is something you had to learn when you first got into baseball: you weren’t born with the knowledge that a .330 BA may win the batting title, or that a 5.36 ERA for a starter is disappointing. Rate stats are a useful tool but they don’t tell if a rate is what you want.

Enter the “pluses”, mainly OPS+ for hitters and ERA+ for pitchers. These are essentially the raw rates normalized by the league average rate, times 100 (so it’s not a fraction) with a few other adjustments. This gives a direct comparison to everyone else in the league over that period of time. If a pitcher has an ERA+ of 101 it means he’s in the middle of the pack, whereas an ERA+ of 205 means he’s 100% better than the league average pitcher. Similarly, an OPS+ of 90 says a hitter’s inferred run production is 10% worse than the rest of the league. The pluses are my favorite to look at because they’re nice clean numbers that quickly provide a lot of information.

Baseball-reference iterates on this with tOPS+ for player splits. This is the player’s OPS for that split, e.g. the month of April, normalized by his OPS for the entire year. This lets you quickly check out fluctuations over months, counts, and other situations.

Ok, two caveats here. First, the pluses are also adjusted by a “park factor”, which is a number that describes how pitcher- or hitter-friendly a stadium is. If two pitchers have the same ERA but one plays in an extreme hitters park, he will have a higher (i.e. better) ERA+ because the park factor adjustment accounts for how he has to work harder.

Secondly, because of how OPS+ is calculated—it actually sums what you could call OBP+ and SLG+—an OPS of 90 doesn’t exactly mean 10% worse than league average OPS. That’s why, in the example above, I said 10% worse run production instead. And now we’re bordering on more abstract concepts that may require additional tools to describe...

———

--And that is a good place to end today’s lesson. To recap: we started with counting to collect raw baseball data, and then we normalized those counts to get rates. To easily compare those rates we normalized again, but with a twist: to be a fair comparison we needed to adjust for the quirkiness of the various ballparks. And that’s not exactly something you can just count. You need a model, and more specifically, a model that checks out.

Furthermore, what about our sharper version of OPS? How do we more accurately and directly measure run production? And since errors are a weirdly subjective stat, and because hits themselves depend somewhat on defense, is there a way to meaningfully evaluate a pitcher’s performance while somehow ignoring hits and runs?

The search for answers to these questions gave rise to the advanced metrics, or “Sabermetics”. wOBA, FIP, WAR and others are newer heuristics that use the history of baseball stats to develop models of performance. Next time we’ll dissect a few of these to better understand what exactly they’re telling us.

— Extra Credit —

< A place for footnotes and other remarks for the nerdiest nerds >

Throughout all this I’m going to use the statistics meaning of regression, which means a trend. The concept of regression towards the mean refers to trending towards a true average. It does NOT mean “To arbitrarily get worse”! Baseball fans routinely mess this up and it leads to very bad analysis! Much more on that later.

Isolated Power (ISO) is a rate like SLG, but it only counts doubles, triples, and HRs and gives them weights of one, two, and three, respectively (It can also be calculated as SLG minus BA). As you can guess from its name and its components, it’s a heuristic used to capture power hitting.

Here’s a fun quirk. A player’s OBP is always higher than his BA, right? Not necessarily! Check it out:

Two players with identical BAs for this game but very different OBPs. What’s happening here? It’s the sac flies! Since SFs count as a plate appearance but obviously not as getting on base, they go into the denominator of OBP but not the numerator. So if a player has more SFs than BBs, it won’t affect his BA but it will bring down his OBP. Of course, no actual major league player should have more sac flies than walks over any meaningful period of time, so this is mostly an early season quirk.

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