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#shading inconsistencies are my new aesthetic
troythings · 12 hours
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rating donna troy costumes part 3
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oh god. what the fuck man. i have so many opinions about this damn costume. i should not have so many fkin opinions about this ONE costume. gahhhhhh.
it works for that specific version of donna and her origin. an aggressive, more conservative take on diana’s armor. the shoulderguards give off this cool militaristic silhouette, and the belt buckle kinda reinforces that by looking a bit like the one in a service uniform. also personally, the combination of the W logo coupled with the winged shoulderguards, call me crazy but that looks like donna’s belt logo got incorporated. that’s my crazy
it’s also fking impractical. like i think, besides the silver eagle armor its the most impractical armor on this list. the titans hunt#3 cover (left) fixes this by simplifying it and removing the cape. make the shoulderguards smaller and more ‘sculpted’ along the shoulders and it works. also get it a better palette.
i actually liked the composition of this costume when i first saw it, which is bc sonia oback did good job making a cohesive palette. front bodice and the harness buckles were red. side bodice, battleskirt and the upper side of the boots were brown. silver (crest, boot decorations) and gold (studs, shoulderguards belt buckle etc) were used appropriately. leggings and cape were black. there were flaws. but the color continuity worked.
so this starts to fall apart when the artists get inconsistent. finch doesn’t draw it as detailed as it was in the debut issue. the war torn arc had colorists with WILDLY different ideas on coloring the armor. the one in the middle (brad anderson) is all over the place. like holy god. there’s no organized palette or any contrast to diana’s. i also hate the way they colored that cape like. the fuck. why????
that arc did its thing and then new 52 donna popped up in titans hunt. for the most part it only looks good in the covers that yanick paquette drew for the series. like the skirt is simplified, the belt is simplified, we don’t have a cape in that cover and it actually looks redeemable. we also have a structured color palette again: silver makes up a majority of the metals there and maintains consistency, the bodice, boots and arm/sleeves/wraps/whatever are the same shade of red. skirt and armbands are same color. the black non-cape looking harness thing and the leggings match. in the comic it looks like hot garbage. that is all.
imo i think the paquette take on this costume should be the definitive version. it could be improved further by saturating the red further, giving donna actual bracelets, desaturating the gold and changing the red harness buckles to match the silver belt. darken the leggings to black and we’re good.
but like. the perception of this is heavily colored by that one arc. people see this costume and remember that this version of donna committed genocide. same way i hate the current one, just for being in the liberal virtue-signaling steve orlando storyline where unlawful combatant donna troy breaks international law and topples an entire country but its somehow ok because fAsCiSm. and like this costume has to be improved so much from canon. in canon it’s about as ugly as the first troia suit and only slightly more functional. so like. 0/10
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so this one’s solid actually. it’s a pretty cool way to tie in the black/silver color scheme without referring back to the godfuckingawful titan seed origin. here you just have the plausible deniability that a) the red became black, b) yellow stars went white and c) gold obviously turned into silver. sort of like a, costume graduation thing. kinda. like it’s a more tactical and reinforced version of the wonder girl aesthetic which is cool. modern militarism with amazon elements. i like the belt but i wish it wasn’t mistaken for an A all the time. the W on the collar is AESTHETIC im sorry but the one good thing of rebirth was that they gave the choker to donna and not diana. but it’s actually p good!! wish we still had it 10/10
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fucking 0/10 what were they trying to do here this is ugly this is needless whoever approved this should be court-martialed
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ew. ew. ew ew ew ew ew ew ew. like. im sorry but. dc it’s going to take a lot more than aesthetics to invoke the previous continuity. double that when this donna’s first solo story was her committing americentric violations of international law, thanks steve orlando for putting your dumbass liberal escapism in here and now this costume is ruined forever.
also im pretty sure its not gonna get better with the jimenez thing coming up. and the fucking “donna has a father” origin (goddamn ANOTHER RETCON). so not only does this suffer from the same thing with new 52 donna buuuuuut.
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dc. this exact costume was conceived in a fan edit from the 2010s. you didn’t even fucking try. 0/10
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serialjune · 3 months
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The Betty Boop Continuum, ch. 1
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George
    Sandra twisted my mind in no way any woman ever had before. She'd torment me, hardly speaking, barely moving, her face concealing the bad news. There's only one woman like that in every man's life and possibly only one woman, period, Sandra. I suppose you can't be yourself all the time and, at one point or another, the adversary is going to capitalize on that inconsistency, making a fool of you for the ages. I always thought history had such a soft-hearted and coy way of putting social rejection: left out in the rain, beaten away with a broom, cartoon acts of glib violence and a parable featured at the end. There's nothing soft hearted about Quartown. A couple of romances here and there, the vanishing voice of a Cuban enchantress, a secret shared only by the ends of the Earth, where the Atlantic meets the Pacific. And I always have to ask, embracing the sea in this romantic mode, would I go back to that place? Where seashores yearned for inexperience, that lust for life, mythically our own, but never really. Neither ancestors, either.
    I wanted to get away, by night, where I could join the descendents who might take me from this cruel place. I needed some benign fool to warm my saucer with the tender rays of mutual acceptance. If that meant deforming into a sack of skin, I wouldn't mind. Conquistadors before me would, at times, keel to their own cruelty and settle for a savage, only to learn that the savage, too, cannot digest stupidity any more than his own kin might. The priestly elder, coat of arms, no more kindly when he taps the staff of exile. I took a skinny bitch in shades, from the tanning booth, to be the hallmark of decadence both my grandpa and myself could take euphoria from: beauty for an age, eclipsed by a moment's desire. Evil, all evil, not mine, but someone else's: how it is all like a game of hot potato, taken to the bitter end, where the can goes rattling down the line.
    Lately my anxiety had grown like a mazey vine of tangles, right out of my seat, a fire down under. All these girls, even before Sandra, had this remarkably cheap way of applying mascara and it somehow made them look like Goddesses. Not Greek. Polynesian, maybe. Babylonian. A cascading yellow face illuminated by the bronze emission of a city bus: unconventional, but pretty. The universal smell of wine and beer, especially where it does not belong... she'd come from the wreckage looking pure, untouched by her own environmental conditioning. Such scenes, such racoon looking smears of makeup, all tribute to the one and only lost soul, the orchid, the phony. Why did everyone love beer so much? Disarray, disorder, aesthetics of contradiction and disgusting portraiture. I know that's the ticket for me, but for everyone else, too? Just never thought the old working stiffs had it in them, maybe we weren't sharing the same drink... somehow always reminding me of her. I raced to drunkenness, raping her with the very presence of my disfigured mind. She always saw right through me like an x-ray. To lose it all in one gesture of over-confidence. I never was the type to lose my head, in love or peace time, but for her, I'd not go gently into that good night... And now bathrobes and chintzy leather, braids and robotic forms of masculinity shuffle around the corridor, as I wallow dead in my failure to organize a plan. 
Sandra
    So then we watched Adventure Time for four seasons straight, refusing to eat and drunk on love to the point of hangover. Hey, it's embarrassing, but it's what really happened. Oh, love, that relapse of the animalian will. 
    Teagan (who's name really sounded more like "Teenager") manage to save two bong rips over the course of six hours, all night. Every tiny bump startled him to the point of jumping. It looked remarkably silly, to see a man with a beard that Paul Bunyan could have only dreamed of, afraid like a little boy. The beadiness of those black eyes caused me to frantically worry about things his alter-ego might do, if suddenly enabled by a switch. As a woman, I knew to keep my panic hushed and plan for my escape later. 
    On a scale of 1-100 (with 100 being "party planet" and 1 being "sometimes I still see my neighbour", I'd say the present year of 202x was at about 50%). I was having good thoughts for an alarming amount of time, then my dad walked in and ruined the chill vibes immediately. He came at me, saying all this about,  
 "I play the fool just to build you up into playing the seer. Young people cannot see how lucky they are, if not for this one fact: parents act as step ladders for their minds," 
    And my brain tried its hardest to reject that thought. It was like KFC, Skittles and Pepsi, during the Superbowl, were electrocuting my mind with their rainbow crest of intrusion. In that moment, I could have told you that I wanted it all in me. Yet how little that was to ask, Pepsi, KFC and Skittles. Corruption is a part of getting older, after all. Maybe believing that for so long led me here, amongst the beer stains and bong water debris. This living room was a temple to the devil, an unbearable chamber of death to any person not "in" on the filthiness. I'd joke around, thinking about a maid coming into this and neatly feather dusting as if she didn't see a thing. People could not believe my dad taught us to drink at 14. He had deeply Catholic suspicions.
    And then there was George. He'd walk in the door at about 11, or so, and his onlookers would hysterically ask of his present state, worrying to no end that he might be in trouble. I believe this challenged his patience to some degree. Sometimes he'd arrive at 2am and no one would bat an eye. He'd take off his blue Northface, take a bath, and the calm he felt was enviable. No one knew why he rented a room here, but that's like so many autistic adults. My theory is that "the machine" mistakes them for pot smoking, metaphysical detective burnouts. The truth couldn't be any more ambiguous.
    I used this moment to make my escape. I could not stop thinking about the country life and how much I missed and adored that old world. All countries are the same country anyways, and I miss mine as much as Wordsworth's (a "friend" of my dad.) The return to the country, that would solve everything. All this would end. No more thought, no more worry. Those trees could do the heavy thinking for me, absorbing it all. I missed the countryside so much, so much. Friendly aliens and untouched night crystals, so unlike human terrain. It made me cry to imagine. Slyvia Plath was an idiot for sticking her head in the oven and not the lilacs.
Teegan
    I remember thinking how extremely hot Sandra looked with that wire frame. She could have been a mommy from the start, all right. I bought chocolates that looked like seashells and left them out for her. I was going to show her, tonight, how to catch a firefly, then sneak in for the perfect kiss. Instead, George and I got stoned and he seemed instantly freaked out. I put mushrooms in our joints, but mostly his. I didn't think that it was wrong, or anything. He clearly was a bit of a badass. His lack of concern made it so. Blowing his mind one more time wouldn't hurt. Five minutes in, he said it tasted like dirt and that the dirt in the ground was making him accept the dirtiness of all things around him. It's these kinds of things that made me think this guy was the best, the kind of guy you have to take to a party. He yelled at me like Patton when he was angry and I respected that. We watched Blade, with Wesley Snipes, and one of our sparks flew so far that no one could see where it ended up. Dave Holster (Sandra's dad) would have believed me if I told him that the spark travelled to a different dimension. Dave watched drone footage of UFOs and recorded the videos to his iMac, where he'd show the equipment to a church home group. I never went or anything, I just borrowed his microphone from time to time. Our new band, "Eeyore's Sorry", was about to make a tribute album to our friend who's mom was raped by her dad to make her into an embryo. Dave told me that God makes solid on his promises, sooner or later, and that his daughter playing PS5, without bitching, was an example of a modern miracle, as well.
    So George left, I think stoned off the mushroom surprise. Feeling good, he'd gone to get soda from the 50 cent machines outside Safeway. The dude was told to go get pickles and I think it was a fool's errand, put on by the girls. The same girls couldn't wait for Giorgio Armani to release their new line of eyelash extensions (at midnight) and I wonder if any of them, except for the two Chloes really, truly cared. I left a note, expressing this, under their door and snuck off like a vampire. When George came back, they told him he needed to get Cumberland's pickles. I don't know what gives them such a hard-on for "Cumberland's Pickles". They were going to subject him to this errand, with no explanation! Those two girls I mentioned a moment ago insisted. Stuff like this makes me want to pour gasoline and light a fire... I wouldn't even try and do it for the insurance.
    George looked like Wittgenstein, wearing his cuffed up blazer. His frazzled moustache made him out to be the most straggely, poetic stoner possible. The guy huffed and puffed traffic fumes and dreamed of living in the mall's scaffolds. His room had knife marks all over the walls and the door, I think he couldn't find a dart board online that he felt like spending money on. While he was out to get pickles, the guy left his phone on dead and, unable to tell the time, made it to the store late. I think he DoorDashed the pickles from a gas station, right to the store, and then came home late with Grandma's Fresh (not Cumberland). He told me that he had impulsively bought a whole tray of pre-cooked chicken and left 3/4ths of it at somebody's apartment complex, murmuring something about,
"A waste of $15..."
Natya
    I was living with my boyfriend for what felt like several months by now. He was the barfly and I was his bartender. We'd put on this charade of two people, cordial as hell, taking up the world stage. There was no temptation. It was wonderful in a completely unsustainable way. Minestrone soup sat on the counter top with a bone hemmed into the skin. The epic orchestration from, "The Fox and the Hound," seeped into the kitchen stench and the sogginess of this bun reminded me of the work sponsored luncheons of the past. I hated work with the force of flaming arrows and only ever wanted it to exist in relation to when my parents got home from their jobs.
    The truth is, with or without my boyfriend, my life had been going on like this, well, since it started. The harsh winds and unforgiving tundra of reality was bogging me down and my mood had gone downhill since I was a baby. It says, once, in the Book of Mark, that Jesus cursed a fig tree after it refused to make figs for him, and that says it all. My job was to play old reels of Loreal shampoo commercials for new shareholders. I would typically light a cigarette and babysit and wait as they watched the same old films. If a setting or a nob needed fixing, the eyebrows on the old geezers' faces would tarnish and convey sudden outrage. I hated my life and I began to spend every cent of my savings on makeup and accessories I didn't deserve. I was hastening to become just like my mother and my habits were just as peculiar-seeming. I found a master tape for the "waiting in line" music, shared by all Sanderson & Son corporation sub-companies. This became my driving music almost every day. My soul felt exhumed and stretched beyond the corners, diving so far and so fast into the months that passed like hours. My kids were once very happy just to watch TV. They'd watch so much TV and I'd grow so old. If I died of a fever, they'd still be watching TV. I just wanted to skip it all. Skipping and skipping and skipping.
    I saw the ideal life as a sterilized and tidied space. My boyfriend saw it more as a tangled outgrowth of spontaneous elixirs. My father saw it as fathoming the insignificance of it all so that one could be truly free. Last New Year's, I stayed at a YA hostel and watched all the couples come together (just to break apart again). Soon, everything would be the "same as ever", and all the "goodness" that Christmas wasn't would leave out the door, just as the couples had. My only friends, now, are the tracings of the lost souls I encountered over the years. My only solace: the vastness of my mouth and how I could live inside it, like a shellfish. Tomorrow was supposed to be one degree warmer out. Was my life a curse or was this really the last stop?
    My boyfriend watched with eyes like needle nose plyers. He would think, similarly, about the glacial melting of grand father figures, things slowly breaking up. Knowing everyone would leave him in the end, he'd oscillate between pure kindness and the positive desire to shoot everyone, like a proud Leninist. If everyone was dead, the memories he had of everyone would live. There was always Teegan's place, but I felt above group homes, trap houses, whatever you wanted to call them. I was invited one night to hang out for the Armani sales event, because the one sister, who was probably into crack, decided ovular sunglasses would be her salvation. I guess, maybe, I wasn't so different, in allowing myself to sharply dive into fate, like this.
George, March 13 [in real time]
    You know that floorboard in old houses that feels like mulch? That texture was the scene around here: fibrously connected, damp and simple. Anyone could come in and be anyone. I once listened to this guy, Jason, talk about driving major sized HEMIs off three storey ramps set on the highway. At the same time, Jason's brother would be strung out, not even listening, as Jason lied about him in the story. This band called Chrome played and a sales agent named Tracey kept trying to knock on the door. Just to fuck with her, I told her I was the land lady and she'd have to undo my bathrobe to confirm the sex. I'd never seen anyone so persistent to sell a house, she completely ignored my joke and continued trying to ram her services through the door. I guess the landlord had been trying to sell the place, this group home where all sorts of randoms and fandoms coalesced. If there was ever a sudden eviction notice, nobody cared or paid much attention. It made sense that our Chinese landlord, Ching, wouldn't consult everyone beforehand. I guess this meant we'd need to be packing our stuff. Teegan had his clothes and furniture in garbage bags, at the curb already. That dude was like a Ho Chi Minh of moving between places. Nevermind you, the garbage bags were protruded with sharp edges and panelling, metal from the TV stand to the pipes he installed in the rooftop (he'd be taking them, as they were, "technically his"). The kid came from one of those small lake towns, outrageous hillbilly. I could hear him, right now, recording snaps of himself, saying,
"Don't touch my ass when you come over baby?!"
    And it was unreal enough for my great grandmother to have a laugh. My great grandmother lived in Okinawa for many years and was a transient in the Garden Scene for twenty years. After she left, her slogan became, "Love is All You Need," and a dilapidated shelving unit, with the words inscribed, proved it. Truth is, she was an influence on my neo-Catholic identity. I rejected sex, love and all the rest and found truth in becoming a zealot behind the scenes. The more I smoked, the more I became the cigarette and it turns out no one outsmarts the cigarette.
    Sandra had moved out years ago, Jason started a new life running a pumpkin patch (but I may have missed the sarcasm when he originally said that.) The more and more my greatest and truest and realist friends fled from the scene, the more this house became a sty. I read House of Leaves and couldn't get through 100 pages before realizing that this wasn't about me. I looked out the window of Natya's "second room" (she claimed a second, after Dylan moved) and thought I saw a turkey sandwich outside, out there. A few moments passed and I decided to retrieve it.
    I couldn't stop overthinking about the contents of my pockets. I shuffled, readjusted and gained control, before finally leaving the door, secure and one person. In the wild, twisted twilight, I knew that the war was over. I went over to the sandwich and a giant dog zoomed at me. I couldn't believe what was happening (maybe because of my ADD), but I thought he just wanted the sandwich. When I came to my senses, after many moments I would rather forget, hitting and kicking, I had a painful scar on my head and could feel an angel looking after me, like I was a small babe in the world. All this was easy to rub off. What wasn't was the inevitability of losing control like that in a serious situation. I could go off like a gun, join the infantry, and yet all this fiery dispassion never made sense in the context of my very tepid grasp on life. 
    Inside, everyone was watching old Japanese commercials and wearing overblown lounge wear, one of the newer roomies even in a golf polo. These guys would one day be my best friends, but that's another story for another time.
Natya, same day
    My mother had bought Christmas presents for three of her friends the year before and I had somehow wound up with all three of them. Actually, I took them for myself rather thoughtlessly. One was a "rocket notebook" and I had this romantic vision that I'd become an accounting assistant overnight with it. I felt embarrassed, now, seeing all the entries about, "butt still tight after workout" (who'd I think I was, Anne Charlotte Robertson?). I had a tab left open asking me if I wanted to continue applying for the role of "Cake Decorator".
(The night I wrote down my workout at the reception area at the Hyatt, a man approached me and asked if I knew who Chantel Ackerman was. As I hesitated to recite just one of her films, y'know, the famous one, he screamed an inch from my face and said I had to be on it. I thought that was a ridiculous gesture, but I took it seriously by pretending he was a Maltese who'd been through it all).
    Anyhow, dispensable as it were, nothing could change last night and how I got married and basically saw my entire future in one molly excursion. While I fumbled around the haphazardly named "Broadway St.," it was like I could have actually been in New York. I had no sense of whether I would miss my job and I didn't care either. I was growing up way too fast and the little pinion of my heart had to make it slow down. I did not fear missing out, I did not even fear turning into a late-Cookie Mueller. My impulsive decision to get married was part of a project to let go and play with the elements of my life like a fingerprinting. Somehow I felt too embarrassed to really preach it, but my shiny shoes, buckling together, knew the secret, all too well.
    This little village of houses on Emerald Grove sang out, and I could hear the patchwork of people, now living, in that choir. I remember fiddling around, for the first two hours of the trip, with a ballerina in a music box and, oh, how it spoke to me... The bijou fragility, the possibility that I could be on top of the silver globe like that. The neighbours' screaming baby was the reminder that all this would end and there was nowhere to go anyway. I was rolling by myself and George was playing something on the Wii, where the Miis would clap and spectators would slowly drop out. I felt so stupid watching him with the biggest, twisted smile on my face. Yet, I felt cute, knowing I was cute. He could have been my bigger brother, my first crush, the president and all he had to do was swing that Wiimote that he, truly, wanted nothing to do with. All was an object of my attraction, written in an arcane universe, just for me. 
    When I called home, to see if my dad would notice me, they were watching Ed Sullivan re-runs and I could hear through the tube,
"Tonight... We have a very special announcement. Now, I want everyone to hear this and I want no one backing out. It's extremely important that everybody in America year this message...,"
    And I could hear my mom whispering,
"Yessss," at the end of Ed's sentences. I didn't even understand what they were watching, quite, but I knew her hands were raised up and all of them, in there, would be shooting at the red scare, soon enough.
    I asked my dad for one inspirational quote that would summarize his life's teachings and, with his old farmer's face, he spoke,
"Eat your peas," shaking. And I thought,
"Oh dad, how could you give into whatever that is..."
    Love had long passed me by and was now whirring around the subway system at supersonic intervals, turning 'round Giza and passing through Bombay, and again. As these very thoughts gargled around in my head a while, I felt like an old lady, knitting away. The way it was: the way it had been. Out of time, out of sight. I was going to be very late for work. Think they'd fire me? I asked the boy sitting next to me and he looked sternly in his ill-fitting headphones. People I loved kept messaging me on Facebook messenger and I rudely swiped away the notifications. Love was all around, the jittery and empty city meant nothing. Everything was yoga and I always had myself to do a twirl, if ever in doubt that anyone would be around. Alison by Slowdive kept scrobbling on my phone despite the fact I was listening to Nephilim.
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queentianas · 5 years
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💜 happy belated mermay and happy pride month!!! 💙
*pls assume all characters are of age*
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counttwinkula · 3 years
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i don’t know anything about the person who made the mlm flag that’s going around right now so like please know that all these complaints are purely my opinion and i’m not trying to call anyone out or make anyone feel bad
but i have to enumerate my issues and by george you’re going to read them
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1. the colors look inconsistent. the middle cyan tone seems to have more blue while both the lighter and darker shade look greener. i think the values in the bottom half have a better relationship with one another, but overall the colors simply fail to look as if they belong in the same palette with one another. at the end of the day, they all clash.
2. i’m not a wlw so i don’t think it’s my place to make any judgments about the wlw flag (though i will say i find it far more visually appealing than this one). however, i think it’s rather disconcerting that we’ve arrived at a red wlw flag and a blue mlm flag. this echoes the convention of “boy colors” and “girl colors” so blatantly. as a little gay boy that was the kind of gender conformity that i fought against every day, and as a gay man i don’t find representation in replicating it.
3. queer men have had a symbol for decades. the pink triangle was reclaimed during the initial gay liberation movement and was particularly visible during the AIDS crisis. now, as a gay jew i completely understand why people may not feel comfortable using that symbol, but its historicity and importance to our community cannot be denied. i think it’s a major oversight to try and construct a new symbol for mlm without referencing the pink triangle our gay forefathers waved as they fought for liberation and recognition.
4. lastly, and this is back to the aesthetic arguments, i am so goddamn tired of these multicolor horizontal stripes. it’s honestly getting to the point of self-parody, and while i can appreciate the wlw and mlm flags being inverses of one another, it also starts to feel like our diverse community has become so typified and codified that there’s no creativity or flexibility in these flags we create to proclaim our identities (which then get stolen and commodified by corporations...). some people will hate me for falling back on stereotypes but queer men have been the arbiters of taste and culture; our ancestors include some of the greatest artists of all time. i know that the vexillological standards discourage a design that would be too complex, but good grief could we at least have a fucking saltire or a lion rampant?
as i said before, these are my personal complaints, and i have no doubt that whoever designed this is a perfectly nice person. i was also complaining just last year about there not being a mlm flag, and while i know that this only gets the legitimacy and lasting power that we lend to it, i have a right to be salty. beggars can’t be choosers and you get what you pay for but let me throw my tantrum, it’s pride month!
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tanadrin · 5 years
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So all the terrible retcons and geographic inconsistency (Kul Tiras wtf) and the time travel and the bullshit with the night elves is bad (Illidan is the worst character ever, don't @ me), but the most frustrating part of WoW lore to me is its failure to explore certain complex emotional themes in a really satisfying way--like, the people who expound and expand on Warcraft lore are canny enough to notice that these emotional themes *exist*, but not clever enough to actually work with them or build them out, and so the whole thing collapses into rule-of-cool melodrama. There's nothing wrong with rule-of-cool melodrama; I love rule-of-cool melodrama. But Warcraft lore is *begging* to combine that rule of cool melodrama with some really rich and interesting emotions and character interpretations, it sets them up and is all ready to knock them down, and just... doesn't.
Take the conversation between Saurfang and Garrosh in the Borean Tundra, in WotLK, the one that ends with Saurfang saying "I don't eat pork." I think that's emblamatic of the big theme that unites the Horde, that makes it make sense as a faction. The Alliance, after all, started as a defensive association in the face of the Orc invasion; its renaissance after the creation of Durotar and the invasion of the Scourge is only natural. But what is the theme of the Horde? Is it honor? Strength? Sheer brutality? Well, none of those things. Orcs claim to value honor and strength; the Forsaken are certainly various shades of very dark gray at best, the Tauren and the Orcs *do* seem like natural allies of a sort, but all the races of the Horde have something even deeper in common: trauma. The Orcs are still (cf. Saurfang) dealing with the emotional turmoil of having been both forced and partially complicit in the atrocities of the First and Second War--after which their homeworld was destroyed, they were forced into concentration camps, and they had to rebuild their culture and their identity from the ground up. They have to find a new place in a new world, and there's this tension between the younger generation that doesn't have firsthand experience with any of this and just remembers that the Horde used to be a name that struck fear into the hearts of their enemies (Garrosh Hellscream, for instance) and the older generation that remembers how awful that time really was, and doesn't want to see the old ways revived because it might just destroy their people for good this time. Then there's the Darkspear Trolls and the Tauren, who were both driven out of their old homelands, and fell in with the Horde as natural allies with similar cultural points of reference; and the Blood Elves, whose suffering in the Third War was severe enough to radically alter their culture, coupled with being betrayed by their ruler who decided that joining the Burning Legion and abandoning them sounded like a better time than rebuilding Quel'Thalas.
And then there's the Forsaken. Oh, man, the Forsaken. The Forsaken and Sylvanas are some of my favorite characters in all of WoW, because sure, you could look at it and say, "okay, creepy undead who like green things that go plop and mad science = evil, bad guys." But you'd really be missing what makes the Forsaken interesting. They're not the Scourge--they explicitly broke away from the Scourge when Arthas left Lordaeron. They're not invaders, either. They're in fact mostly the human population of the destroyed kingdom of Lordaeron, the inheritors of that land, but who are treated by the Alliance as interlopers with no right to the very towns and villages they have *always* called home. They're treated as monsters by every living person who ever knew them, and they can't help but regard themselves that way, too. "What are we, if not slaves to this torment?" is one of the casual interaction lines you get when you click on Sylvanas: they do not *like* being dead. But Sylvanas is ruthless and cruel and after Arthas is killed, wins the Val'kyr over to her side so she can keep making more Forsaken. Why?
Simple. Let us imagine: you are an ordinary person, of no unusually great or poor moral virtue. You are hurt, badly. Grieviously. In a way you will never recover from. And everyone you love, all of your friends and your family, the whole society you come from, now sees you as an unredeemable monster that should, no, must be destroyed. How long must you be called a monster before you decide--fuck it, I *will* be the monster they call me. Because, at least that way, no one can ever hurt me again.
The overpowering motivation for the Forsaken is not power or bloodlust; it's not money, or forbidden knowledge. It's making sure no one in the whole world is ever able to make slaves of them again. To make sure they will not be hurt. And the biggest misstep the Alliance ever made was not reaching out to Sylvanas with overtures of friendship as soon as she established her kingdom--because like it or not, she has the support of the people of Lordaeron, and thus a damn good claim to her position. Maybe, if they had, they could have influenced the Forsaken, shown them that they had friends and didn't need to resort to amoral methods to defend themselves. But as it stands, they only have allies of convenience in the Horde (at least until Sylvanas becomes Warchief), and they know that no one in Azeroth is quite happy to see them continue to exist and be free. Everything else about the Forsaken--their use of dark magic, their development of a new, even more destructive plague, their recruiting former servants of the Lich King and raising new Forsaken from among the dead of the ongoing wars--makes perfect sense from the standpoint of a people that knows they are under threat from all sides, and will do anything to survive.
(The Draenei could have been something like this, too, FWIW. Like, a broken people, a people of exiles who are most comfortable in the shadows and with moral ambiguity. But then Metzen had to go make them Righteous Space Goats. I mean, come on. They're just boring now. They were never going to be Horde-aligned--there's too much history with the Orcs  there!--but having a group like that on the side of the Alliance, to help drive home the point that there is not a clear good guys/bad guys distinction here, would have been really nice.)
That actually makes them a pretty damn good fit for the Horde. Moreover, it creates an interesting point of tension with the Alliance, which is clearly *not* always the good guys. I mean, there's the matter of orc concentration camps, but also consider the refusal of leaders like Daelin Proudmoore to contemplate peace (and the subsequent, somewhat... forced turn of Jaina Proudmoore from dove to hawk) and the steadfast refusal of many on that side to deal fairly with the races of the Horde just because they appear monstrous. And arrogance, hoo boy. Dalaran, Gilneas, the Night Elves--huge swathes of the Alliance are characterized by being arrogant and not a little cruel.
And what of Sylvanas becoming Warchief? I don't know where the BFA lore is going (I'm not playing retail anyway), but right now it looks like they're setting up another Garrosh type situation, and preparing for Thrall to retake the Warchief-ship, but if they do that it would be a real pity. First of all, because, well, we saw that already in Mists of Pandaria! What, are we going to besiege Orgrimmar again? Second of all--Sylvanas and Garrosh are *very* different people. Garrosh was, well, Proud; hence the Sha of Pride. He wanted glory and power, he wanted war for war's sake, so he could live up to his father's reputation as a warrior. He was willing to sacrifice everything else that made the Horde the Horde for that. Sylvanas, though, has one overriding motivation: Keep Her People Safe. Punish the people who hurt her is a strong secondary motivation--but it's part of that first one, because if she can make her enemies' victories painful enough, she might discourage them from trying to press their advantage. And her people *trust* her on this: "Dark Lady watch over you," they say when you take your leave. She is not an autocrat--she is their beloved protector. So, she makes the ruins of Lordaeron uninhabitable. She annihilates Teldrassil. Does she spend very many Orc and Troll and Tauren lives doing so? Very well. They aren't *her* people.
I don't think this has to be a tragic flaw leading to her downfall. It sure doesn't make her a good leader for the rest of the Horde, though (even though, on an emotional and aesthetic level, I am 3000% here for Warchief Sylvanas, even more than Warchief Vol'jin, who also had a lot of the creepy threatening vibe that made him a much more interesting choice than either Thrall or Garrosh). But you could make it one, and you could do it very well--they've already mentioned in the tie-ins that Calia Menethil, Arthas's sister, teeeechnically has a claim to the throne of Lordaeron. And, even more interesting, is no longer quite among the living, even if the mechanism of that unlife is happy fun magic instead of evil death magic. Moreover, she has some sympathy for the Forsaken. You could have a squaring-off between them, and you could have a Queen Calia--maybe. If you could bridge that gap and make her understand that the Forsaken feel fundamentally apart from the other human kingdoms now, if she could come to understand just how much evil the Alliance has done to them, if she could really grok what it's like to be them. Then you could have a leader who understands their trauma--but also wants to heal it, rather than lash out at anyone and everyone that might conceivably be a threat. That, too, would be very interesting.
(There’s a reason that, while I loved the Alliance as a kid, I only play Horde toons as an adult. It’s not just that the Horde feel more interesting and vivid to me. It’s that the hypocrisy and the arrogance of the Alliance stands out in much greater relief now. The Horde aren’t good guys--nobody’s the good guys, here--but they don’t lie about their motivations, and they don’t act with cruelty and then play the victim in response. Jaina was an important exception, but they badly mishandled her character in the runup to MoP, which I find very hard to forgive.)
But knowing Blizz, even if they go vaguely that route, they won't stick the emotional landing. There is a very good, if very OTT and melodramatic (in the best possible way), series of fantasy novels or games lurking *behind*, or perhaps parallel, to Warcraft's lore. It is a shame that Blizzard has done so much to obscure it with obnoxious cruft, retcons and timeline compression, repetitive use of the same handful of characters, stupid-ass time-travel plots that create ten thousand plot holes and inconsistencies, shitty tie-in novels (cf. everything by Richard Knaak), and a total failure to make half the world's characters (i.e., everyone in the Alliance) at all interesting. I have a daydream of doing my own version of WoW lore and posting it somewhere like on AO3, but one of the things that makes WoW lore simultaneously so interesting and disappointing to me is that it's embedded in the explorable, realized space of video game worlds. Hard to reproduce that in print, I think. Might be worth it to try.
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clarissaartap · 4 years
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Jeepneys by Manansala 1951 Enamel on fiberboard 51 cm x 59 cm
     Born on January 22, 1910 in Macabebe, Pampanga, Vincente Silva Manansala is an acclaimed Filipino painter and artist. In his youth, he considered his hobbies, kite-making and creating charcoal sketches on paper, as fun, temporary escapes from his labor-intensive jobs of being a newsboy and shoe shiner in Intramuros. At the age of 15, he found that his inclination to the arts brought him under the mentorship of Ramon Peralta to learn the fundamentals of painting at a sign and poster shop. A year after, he enrolled at the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts. When he graduated in 1930, not only was he able to master the basics of oil-painting, but he was also able to merit a great deal of financial aid, scholarships, and grants from art establishments around the world due to the artistic prowess and prodigious creativity he displayed during his stay in the institution. Later in his career, he received multiple awards and held positions in esteemed local and international art establishments. 
   The education and training he took up in countries like France, Canada, the United States of America, and Germany, was reflected in his approach to his artworks, which were obviously products of international influence. It was refreshing in the local art scene at that time, which drew in a massive audience for his exhibits. Rapidly gaining popularity, Vicente’s eccentric aesthetic made him a pioneer of modernism of the arts in the Philippines. His style could be referred to as “transparent cubism,” which involves scattered facets of varying hues across the painting. His paintings created lasting impact to their audience, as his technique seamlessly blended geometry with expressionism, calculation with spontaneity. His genius as an artist transcends beyond his technical innovation, as the subject matter in his paintings, centered on the post-war urban experience, spoke to a new Filipino audience. The end of World War II sparked a type of social awareness that Vicente tastefully incorporated into his artistry. As he took inspiration from his immediate surroundings, Vicente’s paintings revolved around the life of the commoner. He took everyday scenes, objects, and places, like family gatherings, cockfights, native delicacies, the slums in the urbanized areas of the country, religious figures, and painted them in his slightly more westernized fashion that somehow made them iconically Filipino (Paras-Perez, 1980).
   Jeepneys is the title given by Vincente to his work. Based on the title, and the painting itself, the image he intended to create was the daily traffic congestion in the metropolis. Given that the jeepney is one of the most affordable means of transportation readily available to the masses, Vicente probably wanted to cement the theme of daily Filipino encounters as the core of his collection. This work was made in 1951, just six years after the war ended. It is known that jeepneys quickly surfaced as a makeshift, creative way in an effort to re-establish inexpensive public transportation, much of which had been destroyed during World War II. This was done by repurposing and decorating the surplus jeeps from American troops in order for it to be suitable to accommodate several passengers and look visually appealing, colorful, and eye-catching as it traveled on the road (Platino, 2014). The popularity and the history of the jeepney during that time may have also prompted Manansala to create this artwork. The painting is currently displayed in the Ateneo Art Gallery as a gift from Fernando Zobel. 
   Jeepneys is a painting done on a fiberboard using enamel. A wash of white and bright yellow was laid down first, before hasty, daubs of other colors in varying saturations, like orange, red, and brown were applied. The use of enamel on fiberboard allowed for the different-colored strokes to be semi-translucent and glassy without the need for tedious modification of the paint, permitting the yellow hue to penetrate through the secondary layer of pigments. This mimicked a filter of warmth throughout the piece and brought about a more cohesive color palette. The presence of the different colors also distinguish one entity in the painting from another, allowing for clarity of scenery despite the expressive style employed by Manansala. This clarity is also achieved through the use of actual, irregular, black lines that serve as outlines of the subjects in the painting. The inconsistency and coarseness of these lines give a sense of spontaneity to the piece. On top of these outlines, smudges of warm blues were added as accent colors to impart variety against the otherwise unified, chromatic value scale of only varying shades of red and yellow; this makes the painting more interesting and more captivating of the attention of its viewers. Slivers of white highlights also creep through the painting. 
   With the guidance of the chromatic value and the black outlines in the painting, I can identify many jeepneys and people as subjects, which makes me infer that the setting is an urbanized area, like Metro Manila. In the upper portion of the painting, I can see even more people, lined up, probably waiting for a ride to get where they want to be. I deduce that these are common Filipinos, patiently queuing for transportation to get home from work. The reds and yellows make me believe that it is sunset, or time for people to return to their homes after a day at their jobs. The primary colors of the painting may also signify the colors of the Philippine flag, in order to place emphasis on the Filipino origins of the jeepney, and on just how routine the scenario depicted in the painting is in the country. 
   Unlike the vast majority of Manansala’s works, this particular painting of his makes use of more organic shapes than geometric ones, a hallmark of his signature “transparent cubism” style. Similar to his other paintings, this painting is composed of superfluous shapes of different colors that contribute to an overall puzzle-like look. The distribution of these shapes and visual weight is more or less uniform across the entire work, which makes the painting balanced. The irregularity of the shapes, formed by both colors and lines, also evoke a touch of movement and life to the whole piece to be perceived by the viewer. There is also very minimal negative space in the painting; the fiberboard is saturated with different objects and characters. This gives the piece an disorganized rhythm which almost makes the conveyed scene feel chaotic to the viewer. The seemingly rough texture of the painting, probably achieved through the use of a fiberboard with grooves and indentations as its canvas, gives the painting a rustic, undone edge. There is also an absence of a defined vanishing point in the painting, which makes the elements appear very packed and arranged in a collage-like manner.
   In my opinion, all of these elements reinforce the mayhem and frenzy of the traffic scene in the painting. Manila is known for its notorious traffic; streets are rarely peaceful in the midst of the relentless honking of vehicles, the reckless attempts of drivers to beat a red light, and the rowdy crowds of people on the street desperately trying to find a good deal or any sort of transportation to get where they need to be. The dynamism and movement in this painting, that I was able to immerse myself in, was successful in transporting me into the legendary Manila traffic. Given that this painting was made just a few years after the end of World War II, the Philippines was eager to rebuild its economy that had suffered tremendously during the war. This could have led to more Filipinos joining the workforce, and the subsequent increase in the number of people that had to be on the road to earn a living. The work of Manansala, Jeepneys, through its elements and composition, has successfully communicated the essence of a bustling city, brimming with vitality just as it is with madness. 
   I have utmost respect for Filipino artists like Vincente Manansala, who use their acquired techniques from other parts of the world to help in the progress and development of their own country. Jeepneys, along with Manansala’s other paintings and illustrations, is a carving etched on the history of art in the Philippines, as he spearheaded the rise of modernism in the local field of art. Other artists like Mauro Malang Santos, Antonio Austria, Angelito Antonio, and Mario Parial have been inspired to experiment with their own distinct, unconventional styles in painting because of the contributions of Manansala. His artistry birthed a new generation of artists that embraced their personal aesthetics. Beyond his mastery of art, I commend him for the common thread of daily, purportedly hackneyed conventions in the lives of everyday Filipinos that is firmly woven throughout his series of paintings. He shows that the average Filipino is worth creating art for. An image of the traffic-bombarded roads of the city are just as enthralling as extravagant portraits of doñas and dons, paintings of picturesque views that only the upper class can afford to see in a lifetime, and illustrations of glamorous novelties. I believe that in a way, Manansala’s work was able to open the once inclusive, intimidating realm of art to other people who resonate with his work that captures the unfeigned, honest heart of the Filipino. 
   To me, this painting does not necessarily pass the classic standards of rhythm, harmony, balance, and proportion, as it does in fact look disarrayed at first glance, especially when I consider that Manansala did in fact intend for this painting to represent a scene of jeepneys. It might even be difficult for some to make sense of the painting at first. In spite of this, I cannot help but be in awe when I look at this painting, maybe because a sight that I am so familiar with, has been transformed into a expressive impasto of color, with details that take my gaze from one impressive fragment to another. The more I look at the painting, the more things I am able to find that make the work even more fascinating. I do find significant cultural value in this painting as well. The use of primary colors keeps the painting grounded in its Filipino roots, and it also allows for a more graphic projection that the jeepney is a mode of transportation unique to the Philippines. Its history of it being a product of Filipinos’ resourcefulness and resilience after the war makes it a cultural staple in the country. There is a deep heritage and origin to something deceivingly simple like a humble jeepney, like there is a hidden complexity and masked grandeur and to the everyday, seemingly mundane, themes of Manansala’s works. 
References:
Paras-Perez, R. (1980). Manansala. PLC Publications.
Platino, M. (2014). Philippine jeepney: World War II surplus vehicle that became a cultural icon. Retrieved from https://globalvoices.org/2014/04/20/philippine-jeepney-world-war-ii-surplus-vehicle-that-became-a-cultural-icon/
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(note: this post was NOT written by any of the mods! it was sent in by an anon who said they were okay with us posting it in it’s entirety).
Alright I'm just sending this in now while I still can. According to the ys character page, certain characters are drawn by certain people and the credit is there so it's easy to decipher. Kjech's old style was .. not good. It's not bad, but it's not good. I can see they made an attempt and the cell shading is actually nice, just that sometimes the upper bodies don't link well with the lower bodies. There also isn't a defined line of action so there's not much consistency in where the characters are facing. Like, the upper body could be facing the front but their lower body facing the side? Not to mention the legs. Some are good, but a lot have really skinny ankles. And the size difference of thigh to calf is ... Not good, but also not bad. Also, at least kjech has something going on when drawing faces. Like a distinct expression at least. Mulberry is much much worse.
Mulberry isn't consistent in anything. A lot of features appear too big in their style. Also you can OBVIOUSLY tell that there is no planning at all. For example: most characters you can tell are drawn just to accentuate certain parts, but don't make sense at all. Look at the redhead student council girl. You can definitely tell her arms are drawn as an afterthought to her boobs. And all the legs are the same size. It's as if mulberry doesn't want to draw legs that are closed together.
Now look at the green haired science girl. She's standing straight. Yet her thighs don't even touch. Mulberry it doesn't matter if you're using symmetry tool, it's so incredibly off. However you can tell they had fun in character design, and I won't fault someone for that. But this, combined with the flat shading, should at best just be concept art. Should it be official work, then at the very least make it look consistent to kjech's old style.
I have no criticism for Madi, seeing as the only thing they drew was Kencho Saikou. Lastly, I wanna talk about kjech's NEW style. It's 100 times worse than Mulberry's style, oh boy. (Also btw this is legit their new style as I went to their deviant art and this same style showed up unfortunately.) 1- This new style doesn't follow the old style at all. No consistency. 2- God it's like kjech went backwards in learning how to draw. Proportions are WAY off. I mean COME ON.
In case you dk what is kjech's new style, it's the full body of raibaru on the website. The thighs are too big, feet are too small, hands too small. A five year old could draw this. What is this art style? Is it a kindergarten drawing, or fetish art? Also, the shading doesn't match the older style, so this new style at best looks like concept art. At least the old style looked official and good from afar. This new style can easily be critiqued from a mile away. It's that noticeable.
Now onto conclusion. Yes, a lot of the art is bad proportion wise. However, I understand the struggle. It's not easy making aesthetics/character designs that can fit to everyone's liking. I CAN also chalk this up to inconsistencies in art style, and mimicking a style that isn't yours is clearly hard. However, I will not fault the artists. I WILL however fault Alex for deciding character designs are more important than game mechanics. In game design, you learn that mechanics are most important followed by dynamics, which are things that happen as a result of the mechanic. Aesthetics, or game art, come last. They are the least important. YET we have full body looks of all the rivals, characters who's backstories haven't been established and even characters who were scrapped. And they were all done by the first artist with the old style! If Alex paid less attention to looks and more on how the game works and functions, then MAYBE he could have a game that at least looks good and in my honest opinion, if osana is ever complete, yandev will finish the second rival by copying osana's code, then use that as proof that yes! he will finish the game! and then will have people pay for the full game in advance, then bolt.
— mod sayori ❤
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a callout post for SUNFLOWRD / CASSVOICED / VICIOUSRY / AEROMANCI / WHITEDAWND
INTRODUCTION
Hey everyone, I’m tired of letting this go and watching things continually get worse with this situation so I’m going to say something since it affects people like me and people I’m close to.
The topic that we’ll be talking about is her racism + white-washing, transphobia, and fetishizing of culture and abuse.
Let us say this now; Do not send any sort of death threats, any sort of hate, just don't do any sort of witch hunt on this user.
side-note: before anyone asks, we have had someone point out to her that her actions were gross (which the user that messaged her here is one of my friends) and she never addressed any of the things we had as concerns.
RACISM
So cass has done many racist things, though a lot of them were in the past and she could have possibly learned from her mistakes ! Though there are still one or two current things that need to be addressed, which is her white-washing and her use for names from incorrect cultures for her muses Ethnicity.
So cass seems to have a big problem with keeping skin tone consistent for her muse, constantly white-washing Kotaru in the process of all of these inconsistencies.
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I went and got all of her most current portrayals of kotaru, her newest face-claim for them, the most recent heroes edit she did, as well as any other icons that are from this month alone and it’s very easy to tell, the ones with Kikyo (the first icon) is okay, it could be ... passable, though comparing kikyo’s skintone to the very next one, an edit that I believe cass made herself, the skintone is already much lighter and when we move down the list the only darker one is from the edit of female corrin’s art where her shoulder is shaded. Most of the “Darker skin tones” are actually grey (The other “Okay” skintone actually being orange, which isn’t any better), Which is a problem, as dark skin /=/ grey skin. Even her most recent promo, which uses her most recent face-claim, as a wildly different skin tone than her actual icons ! (number 1 compared to number 7)
Now, people could try to say “ It’s an overlays ! It’s just the layers “ And while that may be true, there are many ways and many tutorials that teach people use to use overlays for rp icons and such, to make sure you don’t end up white-washing your dark-skinned muse, because making your dark-skinned muse’s skin grey or orange when overlays, while everything else is still colored correctly, is white-washing. There is no reason for Kotaru’s skin to go from a warm medium tone to grey because of overlayed layers.
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Now next, She has Kotaru listed as Hoshidan-Vallite which she lists as Japanese-Indian! That’s completely fine until you noticed that Kotaru’s real name is Kotaru ‘ Xia ‘ Hanashiro, Xia being a Chinese name with Chinese origins, which kotaru is in no way Chinese, given the Ethnicity cass wrote for them - So why is this listed here ? Kotaru isn’t Chinese and has no reason to have a Chinese name ! It just comes off as fetish-y that they have a Chinese name while being in no way Chinese.
TRANSPHOBIA
So, cass does a lot of transphobic things. Many that bother every person who is trans as well as cis who I have asked, Myself as well, who is trans !
Cass constant use of having other muses both deadname and misgender kotaru is both transphobic as well as uncomfortable, no amount of tagging it make a difference.
Here are a few links to several rps she has done where she allows people to constantly misgender and deadname Kotaru, which adds no substance to either character, adds no plot to the rp, and just allows cass to often use it to vilify certain character
One, Two, Three, Four
As I said, this offers nothing to plot or to character, It just allows cass to either vilify a character or vilify a country ! Constantly misgendering or deadnaming (or both) your muse only makes you look bad, allowing people to constantly do it over and over also doesn’t explore any new “plot points”, as you have done it several times. It’s been very recommended by countless people, trans and cis, to NEVER write about deadnaming and misgendering in this way as it makes people think that it’s okay to ask for a trans character real name so they can “explore this possibility” which many people are uncomfortable with. It’s not a good look to have on your blog or you as a person allowing people to misgender and deadname your muse.
FETISHIZATION OF CULTURE AND ABUSE
It’s always been said by Asian people, especially asian woman, to never pick random picks of Asian women off of Tumblr, Pinterest, weheartit, etc because it makes them incredibly uncomfortable if they aren’t models and it’s also incredibly fetish-y to use them because they look “Aesthetic” for your moodboards. In short, doing this is creepy ! Cass has done this twice and since she does not link the source for her images that she presumably plucks off google, it comes off as both lazy and creepy, not to mention completely being unaware of the ethnicities of the real woman she is using to portrayal her muse
One, Two (not to mention in this one, because of her overlay she, again, whitewashed these women)
Now, it’s also been said there are certain things you shouldn’t write when it comes to trauma. Rape is one of those things, and Cass writes a lot about sexual abuse and rape, as well as trauma as a whole - It’s actually a constant topic on her blog for kotaru ! She, herself, even writing that painting the MU as a traumatized child makes their choices make more sense, despite it’s been confirmed in canon that the Mu was abused (via the cd drama’s which are canon)
Though the way this is both worded, and constantly approached on her blog, has made many people, myself included, uncomfortable. As a survivor of child sexual abuse and near rape, the way she constantly portrays Kotaru’s abuse as a means to vilify certain characters or as a means to somehow get people to fish about their abuse when it’s not their business (see the tags for more), is incredibly uncomfortable and comes off much more as using their abuse as an accessory to make the character appear as if they have more depth, rather then making it actual trauma, seeing as she rarely or never addresses what trauma does to a person and if she does it’s the same rehashed thing about how Garon raped them or how Marx is a rape apologist (this one is by cass’s friend but is directly linked to how cass writes kotaru and writes their relationship with Marx, which makes him a rape apologist)
At the end of the day her portrayals of abuse come off as fetish-y, as if she wants to garner pity from those around her by making her muse traumatized, which isn’t a good thing to be using trauma for - In fact, it’s an incredibly awful way to use it and it doesn’t offer many avenues to explore, instead if offers many avenues to damage real survivors of these events.
IN CONCLUSION
I wrote this because i’m incredibly tired of her constant racism, transphobia, and fetish-y tendencies towards the things i wrote. You can choose to agree with me or not but with the current state of cass’s blog there is a lot of wrong with the things she writes. There are other things i didn’t include in this, as she has either removed them from her blog or changed them so i feel that she, hopefully, learned from those things, but all of these things i listed are constant things she does that are problems.
If you have any questions, my dms are open. I know this community isn’t a fan of posts like these, but i’m not going to sit idly while these things go uncheck as they harm people like me and people close to me.
thanks for reading !
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faegrifted · 5 years
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R O L E P L A Y   C H A R A C T E R   S T A T S   S H E E T
Repost, replacing the old information with your muse’s information.
Pass it on to your mutuals for a better understanding of their muses.
tagged by: @therisingtempest  // stole it from my old blog tagging:  @maljefe ,  @symbiiiotic , @wholehcartedly , @stemsurvivor , @bondchained ,@rcprobate ,@reedtm , @devilglow , @atlaslain , @goddamnitconnor  , @deathfound , @gotitmemorised  , @thereforall , @warpstriked , honestly if you wanna do it steal it (for the multimuses its for any muse that will enjoy this)
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B A S I C S
▍ FACE CLAIM: Ksenia Solo ▍ NAME: Mackenzi (K e n z i) Malikovna ▍ NICKNAMES: Kenzi, Kenz, Z, Mack, Lil Mama ▍ ALIASES: Kenzi McAdams, Kenzi Rogers, Kenzi Sommersby, Kenzi Williams, Meow Meow, Ninotchka Alexandrovich, Rhino Levine, Shaman Czigany,Toni Soprano and many many more not covvered in her rap sheet  ▍ AGE:  26 - Main Verse ▍ GENDER: Female ▍ NATIONALITY: Russian ▌SPECIES : Human with bits of something supernatural in her family tree that’s been watered down over the generations ▍ BIRTHDAY: June 21 ▍ SUN SIGN: Gemini ▍ RESIDENCE:  Verse Dependent, she’s normally out world walking but if not she has a loft in California and a villa in Spain ▍ MARITAL STATUS: Single ▍ ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Neutral  ▍ PROFESSION: Thief for the right price and reason, Private Investigator, occasional therapist/life coach, full-time sassmaster ▍ SMOKES: Nah. Doesn’t mind the smell of it on some people but thinks it’s a nasty habit. ▍ DRUGS: Once or twice when she was younger and more curious about such things. Not her idea of a good time honestly. ▍ DRINKS:Like a fish when she was younger but she’s chilled quite a bit in her main verse.
L I K E S
▍ BEVERAGE: Coffee for anytime with lots of creamer, mint tea in private, Absinthe or Rum for celebration , Vodka specifically cape cod cocktails for casual drinking ▍ FOOD: Anything new to her or unusual, O r e o s,  Pirozhki with either savory or sweet fillings, spicy food , Pizza ▍ DAY OR NIGHT: Night ▍ SNACKS: Dark chocolate,  Plyushka , Smoked Fish, Pomegranate Seeds , Berries ▍ SONG: Moments by Tove Lo ▍ QUOTE: “There is only one thing we say to death. Not today.” - Syrio Florel, Game of Thrones ▍ HISTORICAL CHARACTER: Anne Bonny ▍ INTERESTS: Travel, noir and smutty pirate romance novels, slasher horror films, video games, heavy metal and hard rock music, dancing , stories, and even better those that can tell good ones ▍ PET: None, except for whatever stray she happens to be fostering at the time ▍ BOOK: She has a guilty pleasure in romance novels, specifically pirate ones ;) ▍ COLOUR: Shades of blue, silver, purple, burgundy ▍ FLOWER / PLANT: Sunflowers ▍ SEXUALITY: Demisexual ▍ ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Panromantic
L O O K S
▍ BODY TYPE: LOOK AT KSENIA FOLKS. Slim and lithe, she’s got a graceful form that looks soft to the untrained eyes but beneath the skin is toned practical muscle built from her taking care of herself and a lifetime of survival. Legs for days with the look of a runner/dancer to them.  [gifset gifset gifset] [bonus bonus bonus] ▍ FACE: You’ll be fooled into thinking its angelic right up until she grins at you for the first time and you realize you’re fucked (whatever that may mean for you) ▍ SKIN: Light, fair, and some scars, mostly on her hands but a few major ones here and there. Duet beauty marks on the right side of her lips. Secret splash of freckles across the bridge of her nose only visible when she tans. ▍ EYE COLOUR: Ice blue verging on silver in certain lights. Think of the shade of the moon on cold dark nights. ▍ HAIR COLOUR: Naturally black and curly, but the real texture is private to only the very, very special people in her life. Outside her bed or a close friendship, the closest to the truth you’ll get is seeing it turn from sleek and straight to wavy when it rains. But her hair tends to be a part of any given disguise she wears for work or daily aesthetic, which means colors and styles galore. It’s inconsistent, she changes is constantly but most often its what you see in the icon.
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Black/Brown hair with streaks of whatever color she fancies at the time, choppy razored bangs.
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rockofeye · 5 years
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Anon with the IG question:
I’m not going to publish your ask because it names specific names which translates to drama and being the Vodou Police (both of which I am not into), but I can answer a bit.
That person isn’t lying, nor are they learning from someone who is taking advantage of them. What is happening is what happens with many folks (including me) when they are at the very beginning of their involvement with Vodou: they/we get super excited and want to talk about All The Things without realizing that they/we do not know enough to be talking about anything at all...or know just enough to make it clear they have a teacher but are either not listening or are speaking expansively.
It is kind of a mark of coming from outside the religion/culture: receiving a small piece of information (or reading it on a blog or in a book) leaves a person feeling like they have the whole story or a lot more of the story than they really do. The actual reality is that Vodou is multi-layered and someone who has not gone through the djevo and spent time learning with their parent and with the spirits that have allied with them through ceremony and longer term service is not going to have access to more than a surface layer or two. It’s the nature of the religion and of the culture that supports it. There is a spiritual ‘ticket’ for admission.
I have a serious  love/hate relationship with social media and initiatory religions for this reason. Social media has been a great gateway to connect people who might not have any other opportunity to speak to a priest to find the religion and be reached by the spirits. Social media has also created the atmosphere that leaves folks who are not initiates and/or the time in the seat to advise others feeling like they can do that and can teach things because they saw it mentioned in a Facebook group or read a book or whatever. It’s a hard thing to balance out, and it’s hard for new adherents. We all want to feel valued and find belonging and share our excitement, but many times when we are brand new and/or do not have license to speak on a lot of things it is hard because we need to really sit and learn instead of sit and type.
Instagram is particularly awful because it is easy to look at a lovely picture with some pretty text attached and think it is something accurate. It creates an atmosphere that devalues things that are very important and should not be placed in the public eye. Like, vodouizan should not be posting pictures of their personal altars for any reason. To a trained eye, an altar tells the story of who you are, who your spirits are, and, in some cases, who is teaching you and what specifically they are teaching you. For someone who is not too ethical, you can be destroyed through that--it doesn’t matter if you are about to rearrange things or whatever or you think your spirits are telling you to post pictures (why on earth would they do that?), it is absolutely to be avoided. I mean, we don’t even post pictures of altars/tables for ceremonies until the ceremony is over for the same reasons--someone can harm the party through that. The same goes for spiritual work where the outcome has not manifested and cemented itself. This leads to a whole other conversation about the rise of ‘Vodou aesthetics’ on social media and the like.
And, fwiw, what people post on social media regarding information and how-to stuff is a direct reflection on their teacher and/or spiritual parent, and the Vodou community is QUICK to go to someone’s elders and say ‘why is your child saying this? Is this how you do your work?’. There is nothing quite so uncomfortable as having a conversation with your spiritual parent about what you post and what your inconsistencies or misinformation was (I have had that conversation exactly once and will never, EVER put myself in that place again...ugh).
These days, I only say something if there is obvious misinformation being put out into the world as fact. For me, it is not worth my own inner peace to engage people on what they are saying or get into big discussions because, 98% of the time, folks on social media are not interested in hearing what they may not be accurate on, particularly around things that are fundamental to the religion. Not my job, not my calling in life, and it doesn’t help me or my students.  In the past, this was something I struggled with a lot because I did (and still do) think a lot of how Vodou is spoken about and what specifically is said by folks who do not have license to speak on the religion is deeply harmful and, in some cases, deeply disrespectful to the legacy of the culturebearers. However, I am not the Vodou Police nor am I Ogou or any other spirit...just a houngan. The majority of the time I keep it moving because my primary goal is to live in harmony with my destiny as laid out by my spirits and they don’t have Facebook/Instagram/etc so....  
I hope this answers your question and I hope you understand why I didn’t publish your actual ask. No shade or anything meant. Let me know if there is anything I can offer more information on.
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bizarre-dollhouse · 6 years
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Animation Direction and Aesthetic Appeal: Why I Didn’t Like Book of the Atlantic
For the record, if you really loved Book of the Atlantic and thought it looked great and/or are sick of people bitching about it, you probably won’t want to read this post.
If you didn’t like the movie, thought the movie looked terrible, are curious about how and why people don’t like it, or, most importantly, want to read about aesthetic techniques and how they relate to anime in general, please continue.
I want to really talk about animation, visual direction, and adaption techniques, and I want to use Kuroshitsuji: Book of the Atlantic as a negative example, because I soooo wanted to love this movie and ended up really disliking it.
For the most part, this post is just me getting something off of my chest, because I feel like there’s this grand misunderstanding held by people who didn’t like the movie about why the movie looked bad.
I just disagree with the consensus so strongly that I...I have to make a post about it. Because every review I’ve seen of this movie mentions how just the cgi is bad, or it just looks like they didn’t have enough money amiright? 
I just think it is so much more interesting complicated than that.
Lots of text under the cut.
I’ll just get the basics out of the way: the cgi does not look well integrated and some of the background faces are derpy.
Moving on.
Part 1: Something to keep in mind:
Anime movies tend to look better than weekly anime tv shows because they are given both more time and a higher budget. This is why so many people thought it was unfair that A Silent Voice was up for Best Animation in the Crunchy Roll awards.
This is kind of unimportant but I would like you to keep it in mind while reading the rest of this post.
Part 2: What does good animation even mean?
I’ve heard a defence for the movie’s lacklustre animation is that it looks like all of the money went towards the fight scenes, or that the fight scenes make up for everything.
I’ve seen the fight scene between Sebastian, the reapers, and Undertaker a few times and I’ll admit, there are a few nice cuts early on with some very dynamic dodges and attacks, but after that it’s a lot of easier techniques, like held poses, slow motion falls, cut aways, frame movement, etc. The fight scene as a whole I would (personally) consider to be pretty “meh.”
This might sound kind of harsh, but even if you totally disagree with me and think the fight scene looked great, that just means it looks nice.
That fight scene is not especially well animated. 
What takes up the most time and money in animation is the amount and detail of movement (key animation). Look at any important fight scene from FMAB, or BNHA, or the early episodes of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress. Those big fight scenes have a lot of key frames and details, and they all have wwwaaaay more key animation than the big fight in BotA despite being weekly tv shows.
One Punch Man is a great example because the animation in that show is fucking stellar and the director straight up said that the budget for One Punch Man is not much higher than a typical tv anime budget. Time and skill are the more important factors.
So, not speaking from the perspective of visual appeal, but from the perspective of animation quality, the big reaper fight scene in BotA isn’t that good.
Even the scene everyone raves about, where Lizzy fight all of the zombies: there’s a nice cut of her steps and a cool shot where she stabs one of the zombies in the head from above, but her sword then turns into a flash and we don’t see many details involving aim or choreography. Her stabbing them through the hallway also doesn’t have any real choreography other than her running and spinning once. After she stops to talk to Ciel, the scene gets a little more dynamic with more complicated moves, but it’s shot from far away and still has few key frames. I’ll admit I think it still looks kind of cool and maybe better than how it looked in the manga, but I don’t even think it’s close to the level of quality that’s in a lot of Bones shows.
Anyways, even if you’re in the majority camp and think these scenes look good, compare them to any of the shows mentioned above and you’ll see that even if they look good, they wouldn’t be especially difficult or expensive to animate, and aren’t impressive from a technical standpoint. 
Part 3: Make a collage with those cut corners
Shifting focus a little bit, let’s talk about Higurashi.
Higurashi is one of my top 10 favourite shows (I highly recommend it if you’re not too squeamish). This show also looks awful. Like, really awful. There’s barely any movement, the characters are off model almost 100% of the time, and it has a very simplistic art style.
Despite being outright ugly, Higurashi still visually impresses me more than BotA because of one very simple, yet very very important fact:
The director and animators are trying their best. 
Check out the scene in this gif set (gore warning). There’s a shadow silhouette, repetitive movement, and not much detail in the eyes, so it’s not technically impressive in terms of animation, but the way that the screen shakes when the bat lands, the lower angle used to put Keiichi in a dominating position of the frame, and the colour blur expressing the fact that this is both very emotionally intense and set at a different time make my brain say “ah yes, thought was put into making this scene look good with limited resources.”
Simpler yet is this scene, where it’s just two characters standing and talking while being atrociously off model. But the way they’re placed on the screen (ie parallel but opposing) is both cool visually and thematically relevant. It’s got a nice colour pallet, too.
Higurashi likes to play around with visual perspectives. This scene (violence warning) has no animation in the first gif and repetitive, fast movements in the second, but it takes the perspective of a man about to be beat to death with a baseball bat, which still makes it feel tense.
There’s another top fucking notch scene where someone is digging their own throat out with their finger nails, and instead of showing what would be a difficult scene to animate, they have a zoom in on the character’s back from the perspective of an impending threat that may or may not exist closing in on him and it’s terrifying despite the fact that nothing is animated.
Directing choices like these are extremely common in Higurashi.
Another slightly less obvious example would be Princess Tutu (which is one of my top 5 favourite shows that I recommend to everyone). Princess Tutu has very very few moments of sakuga and lots of repeated animation and kind of inconsistent movement in some scenes. 
It looks cheaply made and is not well animated, but literally no one gives a fuck because that show has beautiful character designs, beautiful colour design, and interesting/creative set pieces.
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The point is it’s 100% possible to make a cheap as fuck, poorly animated show and not have it look terrible. 
I guess this is just my opinion, but when I compare the visual direction in Higurashi and the art of Princess Tutu to the flat, poorly blocked, and underwhelming visuals that make up a lot of BotA, I grow significantly less impressed with it.
The production team stuck pretty damn close to the manga, but the manga looks good because the panels are highly detailed illustrations that are specifically designed to look good when they are standing still and in black and white. They are also placed on a page which controls the visual pacing and lets you fill in movement with your imagination.
Translating this directly into animation but taking out the detail and shading in the illustrations and having the movements look worse than they did in my imagination does...not...look as good.
Part 4: Adapt
Let’s say, hypothetically, that BotA had fewer resources than most anime movies for some reason (money, time, staff, etc.). Sure, I don’t know the behind the scenes details. I doubt this was the case, but it very well might be.
.......Then why did they adapt the source material the way they did?
The manga for Kuroshitusji is fucking gorgeous and has some really iconic panels. For example, check out this post comparing a beautiful panel with the same scene from BotA.
...Why? Why would you make it that way?
Is it because you think it’ll please the fans to keep it the same? Because you wanted to cut a corner and use the manga as a storyboard?
Because it sure as fuck wasn’t because it would look good in the anime adaptation.
If the director and/or animators wanted to do the same scene but with limited resources, they could have maybe cropped it so it focused just on the undertaker’s face and the girl’s face, and then focus on making that look pretty and/or detailed. They wouldn’t have to put extra time and effort into drawing a nice full body shot, but they could still have it look good.
I came up with that time and money saving idea in less than 10 seconds and I’m not even a god damned animation director.
This goes back to my previous point, where it can be possible to make a passible looking show with limited resources, but this movie opted for sticking to the source material even though they really couldn’t do it justice.
Which is fine!!!! Embrace stylism!!! Kill la Kill has some goofy looking fight scenes with cut outs and cheeky techniques, but it does it in a way that builds the environment of the show and works within that universe because it’s clearly a part of the style. 
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Heck, studio Shaft practically gets away with murder by embracing weird styles with some of their older, cheaper shows.
Those particular styles almost definitely wouldn’t work with BotA, but find your own! Adapting the source material means exactly that: adapt it. Change it in a way that makes it just as good, if not better, than the original product in this new format.
In fact, I remember 2 scenes I thought looked pretty cool in this movie: one where it’s showing how the bizarre dolls work and the animation goes all Madoka Magica, and one where it shows this shadowy version of Sebastian before he makes his contract.
Both of those scenes have a style that is unique to animation and were not in the original manga.
I mean I guess it’s somewhat admirable that they were trying to stick to the source material, but they just...didn’t do it well.
Part 5: Does anyone here know CPR?! Because we need to breathe some life into this movie!
LITERALLY ALL OF MY PROBLEMS WITH BOOK OF THE ATLANTIC CAN BE EXPLAINED IN ONE SCENE.
IT’S KIND OF INCREDIBLE HOW MUCH THIS SUMS IT UP.
So there’s this scene in the manga where Ciel thinks he’s about to watch Lizzy get eaten by zombies and is, understandably, pretty torn up about it, as seen here:
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This is a really great panel: Ciel’s face is expressive, the sea water makes it ambiguous whether or not he’s crying or sweating, and it’s from a unique angle that ensures his face and desperately reaching arm are both in the foreground.
Here’s the same scene in the movie:
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Ciel’s face is less expressive, the angle is a lot simpler, and minute visual details are straight up omitted. 
It’s like “yeah, we’re practically using the manga as storyboards*”
*unless the panel is like, hard to draw or expressive to the point where it might look off model.
I feel like the studio was deeply afraid of using animation that was too off model for reasons I don’t understand. Maybe it’s because they were afraid that the characters would look too unattractive but like...
it’s okay to have a character look a little fucked up if they feel a little fucked up.
Returning to Higurashi: that horror series has become famous for its highly emotive facial expressions.
Check out Rena’s furious face in the fourth gif of this set.
Or Rika’s super fucked up expression when suffering intense harm.
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Or the sheer intense terror in Keiichi’s eyes in this gif and this gif set.
Like sure, the show looks like garbage and has lots of other derpy, off model faces, but they clearly had an idea of what they were going for and how to use animation as acting.
I feel that maaaybe the production team for BotA confused looking ugly (having faces distorted by emotion) for looking bad, but that’s 100% speculation.
Part of my reasoning for that speculation is in the following scene: 
So, in the manga/BotA, Sebastian and Ciel run into Druitt, and the scene plays out like a well timed joke when Druitt asks them how they know him and they go like this
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and it’s funny.
The exact same punchline is in the movie but it looks like this
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like, the idea of the joke still comes across, but the expressions aren’t as humorously exaggerated and the joke isn’t as funny as a result.
This is also a scene where I don’t want to hear any “this scene looks bad because of money” arguments because drawing the simplistic expression from the manga would have been easier and less time consuming. 
Again, let’s look at the comedic scenes from Higurashi:
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This particular style probably wouldn’t look good in a Kuro adaption but the idea is that you can deform facial expressions for the sake of joke and sometimes it will make the joke funnier.
The point is also that Higurashi is a really well directed show despite being poorly animated. Can you tell I’m pushing Higurashi?
Please do not misunderstand this point: BotA for the most part has fine facial expressions that communicate the desired emotion. It’s fine. My point is that they probably should have been more daring with their creative choices to make certain scenes more emotionally/comedically effective.
In fact, part of the appeal of animation as a medium is the ability to play with reality through drawings.
Or just, you know, just draw a kid looking sad from a nice angle.
Conclusions:
Kuroshitsuji: Book of the Atlantic is obviously not the worst movie ever. In fact, there are quite a few scenes with good animation, good framing and competent direction. 
(Ooh, I should have mentioned this earlier, but there is a legitimately good cut where Sebastian and Ciel are reaching for each other and it shows blood appearing before you see Seb get stabbed. This was a good choice and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it was not in the manga.)
I can totally see someone saying this movie looks good, and that’s a perfectly justified opinion, I just strongly disagree when looking at the overall product and how it compares to the manga and pretty much every other decently made show/movie.
I’m just upset because this arc in the manga is amazing and the most cinematic, and it clearly was not adapted to its full potential. And now it probably never will be.
Please let the impossible happen and let Bones or Madhouse get the rights for the Green Witch arc and make an amazing adaption. Pleeeaaaassseee.
When I die I want A-1 Pictures to lower me into my grave so they can let me down one last time.
That being said, if you have not seen this movie and (for whatever reason) are dead set against ever reading the manga; give this movie a watch. The story’s utterly fantastic and it’s a...watchable...movie.
But here’s the moral of this whole post:
Book of the Atlantic does not look bad just because it looks cheap. .
Book of the Atlantic looks bad because it looks bad.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Tal-- *passes out*
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speakeasier · 6 years
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Answer 20 questions, then tag 10 however many you want bloggers/mutuals that you want to get to know better.
sorry this was a long time coming, guys. got sick for a bit, and only now i feel better enough to do this. tagged by my bro, @cybergriffon. 
                                           so here we fucking go. 
1. Name: anonymous sugarpenthouse von cupcake.
2. Nicknames: anony, anony-bro, cupcake, grass to name a few.
3. Height:  26.45 metres or 86.8 feet. [i’m joking obviously, but i actually don’t know how tall i am in real life, last time i was measured i was still young “ 8′D “ will update when i find out sometime].
4. Orientation: whale.
5. Nationality: american. usa-eian.
6. Favorite Fruit: i actually like a range of fruits, but some of my favorites include mango, avocado, and kiwi. ohh, and honey dew and cantaloupe. 
7. Favorite Season: i think all seasons have their beauty, so it’s hard to decide. but i suppose i choose autumn/fall because it’s very aesthetically pleasing to me, and best weather/temperature where i’m from. 
8. Favorite Flower: i actually am not fond of flowers despite owning hella plants. ahahaha. hmmm...if i really had to choose, i think i’d pick orchids maybe because most of the time they’re scentless or if they have a scent, it’s not too strong and they come in huge varieties from simple to exotic. wisteria are nice too, i love how they hang. 
9. Favorite Scent: two of the best scents for me are freshly baked bread/pastries and freshly brewed coffee. other random scents i like are sharpie smell, the smell of brand new shoes, the smell of first rain [like rin said, it can hella stink after a while hence why i said first rain], and clean fresh laundry smell like cobalt said. “ :U “
10. Favorite Color: every possible shade and hue of blue. blue. if i had to add extra black and white, but everything comes seconds after blue, really.
11. Favorite Animal: i don’t think i have a ‘favorite’ animal per se. but obviously i think whales are cool because i’m a whale. “ :U “ other animals i find cool out there are dolphins, the satin bowerbird because it’s like me collecting blue things, the blue footed booby, neck eyes, whale sharks, i don’t know all animals have their awesomeness, honestly.
12. Coffee, Tea or Hot Chocolate: coffee, person here. “ 8′D “ hot chocolate is a close second though.
13. Average Sleep Hours: despite staying up late sometimes, i still manage to get seven to eight depending.
14. Dog or Cat Person: between these two? more inclined for dogs. but cats are not bad.
15. Favorite Fictional Characters: ohh man, this is hard? because when you say favorite fictional characters i automatically think mascot-esque characters like mickey mouse or sanrio characters? but if we’re all in spectrum of fictional media, then random people i like are nathan drake from uncharted, sherlock holmes, shawn spencer from psych, alice from alice in wonderland, neal caffery from white collar, and nate ford from leverage. 
and ohh my shit, cobalt, i think i’m part of the reason why you went back to yugioh hell, i’m crying. thanks to that, i’ll add fucking kaiba because savage. “ 8′D “
16. Number of Blankets You Sleep With: one, but the thickness changes with seasons. two sometimes, but hardly.
17. Dream Trip: honestly? around the fucking world. i want to go everywhere. and i want to take everyone i know with me. “ :U “  but some of the few random places off the top of my head are the treasury in petra, jordan, salar de uyuni in bolivia, sagano forest in arashiyama, kyoto, if there’s one place i need to go before i die though, chefchaouen in morocco. 
18. Blog Created: uhhh...had to check...apparently ‘speakeasier’ was made in october 2013. 
19. Number of Followers: currently, 197...but i feel like i lost a lot ever since i started shitposting, and posting inconsistently. i also feel like a lot of them are inactive now, ahahaha.
20. Random Fact: i can legit add anything here, ohh my shit. hmmm...i write with my right hand, but when cutting with a knife i use my left? i collect mugs, i hate candycorn and find it nasty, and i’m glad to know that i know friends on tumblr who has ate some weird shit like me like fucking ramen bricks. like bless, guys, no judgment. much feel. “ 8′D “
i feel like fucking elpis and cobalt got all the good people, like damn even zelda joined in. but....sorry if y’all already mentioned them but i need these two people to stand the fuck up. @hebewithcups and @inchoatewaffle.
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kurtty-drabbles · 6 years
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“I don’t know how to use a gun” (With Kurt Waggoner, any Kitty)
N/A: So, since Kitty does not seem to exist in the Waggoner dimension I took the liberty to create one.
@djinmer4
Kitty Pryde: A fourteen years old girl who inserts herself in the punk life, or at least in the aesthetic by having some of her locks dye in a soft pink shade. Maybe the new look is a way to imitate her idol and caretaker Miss.Monroe.
The girl, while enjoying fashion and cute dresses is not ashamed of admitting she likes ‘boy stuff’ as well, like for example, being a swordfighter and have watched several movies and browse a plethora of books with the theme.
People always have this expectation that Kitty should know about computers and nothing else, and while computers are important, Kitty Pryde has no problem in break those expectations.
“Kitty, we have a mission for you” Miss. Monroe spoke warmly gaining Kitty´s attention “we need you to defend Kurt Waggoner for the time being”
Kurt Waggoner? Oh, right? that super genius kid, Professor X is going on and on about him and his intelligence, which considering Professor X is now a floating head that must mean something.
Kitty, living with Storm for all her life never meet kids of her age, not that she minds terrible, she got to meet wonderful persons like Betsy(Kitty have the suspicion that Storm and Betsy may be more than friends, but any confirmation has been made yet) Jean, Scott and even Hercules and Wolverine…but never someone on her own age.
“I accept the mission, and my sword is his sword”
“I was wondering when you would quote Lord of the rings today”
She was succinctly about Nightcrawler, he lived with Wolverine and Hercules, is a super genius and is German(there´s not much to work with this but Kitty likes a challenge) all the images she is fabricating of him are inconsistent with the next one.
Finally, Kitty meets Kurt Waggoner, the super genius is nothing like the image she was crafting in her mind, Kurt is extremely shy, blue and seems frightened of her.
Is the sword? Oh, must be the sword.
“Hi, my name is Kitty Pryde, the X-men send me here to protect you” for a tiny moment she thought Kurt would have a problem with a girl protecting him, however, this has quickly vanished.
“ Oh, hello, my name is Kurt Waggoner, thank you for protecting me and I´m sorry”
“For what?”
“Your job will not be easy”
Kurt Waggoner: Is a very intelligent, no doubt about this fact, but, Kurt also is extremely shy and doesn´t understand how to communicate with the people of his age, well, to be fair, there are several issues preventing him to have a social life.
One of them is the fact he is blue and looks like the devil weight more than him being super smart.
Of course, the idea of bringing Kitty here is not so much to deal with protecting and more with interaction, Wolverine is worried about Kurt and while the blue boy is touched by the gesture, he does not think the coming of this girl will make any change.
Well, maybe I was wrong.
Kitty sits next to him and talks about her day and asks about his, she doesn´t show disgust or fear for his appearance(she confess, once after a month here, she was afraid of his accent “it is silly now” “why my accent?” “…I´m Jewish”) prompting the genius to know more about Kitty´s life to make sure she is alright here.
Kurt is label as monster, demon, mad genius and amongst others things that aren´t worth mention or think about it, however, Kitty may be the first to call him the fuzzy elf.
“Fuzzy Elf, we are under attack, stay close to me” Kitty commands drawing her sword fiercely.
“I never use a weapon before” Kurt respond sincerely.
“Is ok, I´m here to protect you, Kurt, well, Wolverine is here to protect us all ” she jokes “ but, fear not Elf, I´ll not let the bad guys catch you”
Kurt Waggoner saw many swashbuckling movies and understand that this is the part where the pretty damsel in distress melt in admiration and love for the hero, Kurt never in his many calculations thought he would be the pretty damsel in distress.
Not objecting.
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shirtshoping · 4 years
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For her collection Jesus Is My Savior Germaan Shepheros Are My Therapy Cross Crown Of Thorns Dog shirt. Aden designed the kinds of pieces she’d always been looking for. Offered in a range of tranquil colors, her turbans and hijabs integrate seamlessly into a uniform. Best of all, each purchase comes with a matching donation to provide PPE for those in need. “I wanted something that would bring joy to the patients and the health care workers,” she says. “When it came time to design the sets, I chose shades that I associate with peace instead of the standard white; colors just made me feel good looking at them.” Ease of wear was also essential. Jesus Is My Savior Germaan Shepheros Are My Therapy Cross Crown Of Thorns Dog shirt, hoodie, sweater, longsleeve and ladies t-shirt (Unisex Tee) (Classic Ladies) (Unisex Sweatshirt) (Long Sleeved Tee) (Unisex Hoodie) Liana Satenstein: I like the idea of small labels and individuals but when masks are priced so high by a large clothing company? And who knows where they are made. Chioma Nnad Jesus Is My Savior Germaan Shepheros Are My Therapy Cross Crown Of Thorns Dog shirt. Same, I’m glad that young designers got a head start on this. And I’m only buying from small, local mask makers. Emily Farra, senior fashion news writer: I think a lot of the hesitation definitely stems from the inconsistent narrative around masks. Less than two months ago, the CDC literally told us not to wear one at all—not because it wouldn’t help, but because they knew the hospitals were going to run out. And the fact that so many people don’t have access to masks at all makes me feel uneasy about “fashion masks.” Hospitals in NYC seem to be better equipped now, but other front line workers—at grocery stores, pharmacies, taxi drivers, etc—do not have access to masks. and i’ve heard there are major shortages at nursing homes. Steff Yotka, fashion news and emerging platforms editor: To go back to Sarah’s point about unease about fashion mask-making: I think it’s important to be able to make an aesthetic choice about what your mask looks like, especially now that it seems like we will be wearing them for a long time. But masks becoming a status symbol is tricky territory to me—we’re wearing them for our health. Not to flex. You Can See More Product: https://newshirtstore.com/product-category/trending/
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EPISODE 1:
Aloha, fellow Sakuga Seedlings!
Welcome to my case study series, Brain Vomit.
Name’s
Tuchimuchi Yoshinori – or just Tuchi...
And I enjoy animation. Especially animation from the eastern archipelago of Japan, also called “Anime”
In this series, right here, I’ll be exploring Japanese Animation Production and enlightening this growing community and myself to the power they have in this expansive animated medium.
In this episode, we will focus on Defining Anime, Production Roles that go into creating anime and more!!
I welcome you all to join me on this exploration into Anime.
Without a moment’s hesitation, let’s start with the crust and make our way downward!!
What is Anime?
Anime (アニメ) the word, is moniker for Japanese Animation.
Anime, the art form, is a style of Limited Animation that came into prominence during the rise of Disney in the 1960’s, although Japanese animation dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. The most prominent and well known anime began from Osamu Tezuka -- known for Astro Boy, Black Jack and Kimba the White Lion -- creating new techniques after being inspired to simplify Disney’s rigorous animation aesthetics.
As manga began to be noticed as the popular thing in the 70s, anime began to shift from a Disney imitation to a new style of its own.
Sakuga (作画) is a catch-all term in Anime, where a certain scene or event’s production value and animation quality exceed the usual fare. It’s often these moments that enraptured our eyes to anime and got us interested. This can be anything from effects, to characters to background animation! Sakuga is limitless in it’s potential EPICNESS!!
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Here are some awesome examples by Web Animator’s Yotsube and Bahi JD!
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I know, it’s pretty damn cool. And Sakuga, there is actually a word for it! Literally translated from “Creating Pictures”. The name for this community that I call “Sakuga Seedlings” comes from the pun of “Saku” also being read as “to Bloom”.
(Source)
Some of the most famous anime were created by the world renowned Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki.
But other important, often forgotten legends are:
Hideaki Anno, Katsuhiro Otomo, Mamoru Hosoda and Makoto Shinkai.
If you haven’t heard of these guys, check them out. I’ve linked to their wikipedia articles in their names, so feel free to click on them and get a basic gist of what these guys are about.
In a future episode I plan to go over each and every one of them!
Next, I know you all saw that word “Limited Animation”...
Q: What is Japanese Limited Animation?
Unlike most Disney animation -- or Full Animation, where every frame is painstakingly drawn to create an almost true to life smooth motion -- Limited Animation is a style that takes advantage of the limited frames, partial frame changing and movement to create visually stimulating works. This is a much cheaper method and can be used to varying results.
Most Western TV cartoons and pretty much all anime is Limited Animation.
Full Animation is In an environment in which redraws most every frame are MANDATORY to create as realistic/fluid as possible movement. Unlike it though, limited animation often breaks traditional norms by keeping redraws to a restriction (often by getting creative with animation styles and shortcuts), but allowing for a more dynamic visual spectrum, as they are, ironically, not limited by realistic standards of full movement.
Many techniques of Limited Animation can be incorporated into more Western Full-Animation as well.
Limited animation is not limited to Japanese Animation, but because that is the focus, I want to focus my attention there.
(source) (source) (source) 
So let’s, compare them!
Q: Compare Limited vs Full Animation
Let us compare Disney’s Full Animation and Limited Animation.
For this example,
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vs
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Compare to Disney, which has very realistic perceptions of movement to Limited Animation.
Limited Animation often MUST exaggerate movements, repeat frames and manipulate the camera far beyond to get the sense of movement without frequent redraws.
It takes advantage of the mind’s magnificent ability to fill in movement on it’s own.
Note this: All of this is considered Sakuga. Pretty cool, right?
This type of animation still on paper before colored and composited is called “Genga” (原画).
No, not the Pokemon, Gengar! Nix the “R”!!
(Thank god, for now Tumblr gives have the sources -- so I can save time on listing them. As the series goes on, I’ll be grabbing actual clips and editing them in my own way, so those sources will have to be better defined...)
Q: OK. Back to Anime, How is Anime Produced?
Using the anime Shirobako as a fantastic launchpad, as well as other studies, Anime Production is built upon multiple roles and hierarchies.
(If you are at all curious about Japanese Anime Production, watch this series; It’s on Crunchyroll for free. I’m not being sponsored, but I recommend it. Linked above.)
(I will also be leaving Executives, Producers, Writers, Voice Actors and Sound Crews out of this list, which have a different important roles. But I would like to give this focus eventually along with Marketing Techniques, etc.)
For now, I’ll use basic definitions to keep things simple, but the most common roles in any anime production are:
Director: The individual in charge of keeping production staff on task and keeping the overall visual aesthetic. For Example: Akiyuki Shinbou of SHAFT fame.
Animation Director: This is the head person in charge and oversees all of the individual animation production. They are ALWAYS talented Key Animators with years of experience and have the last say on EVERY FRAME USED THE FINAL PRODUCTION. They have other responsibilities such as as Redraws and Correction.
Character Designer: The person who either creates or adapts designs for TV animation. This is Episode 2’s main message in a nutshell. But to sum it up here, it is not uncommon for Animation Directors and Character Designers to either be the same person, or a pair who have worked together on a lot of stuff.
Key Animator: The people in charge of drawing key poses (important movements and poses). There can be very few or very many depending on the production staff. We’ll get into that at a later time. These can often be Freelance Animators as well, which is very important as Studios often Freelance and can get different feels because of it.
In-Between Animator: The people who draw in-betweens to keys, connecting them all together and clean-up. These people refer to the Key Animators, while Key Animators refer to the Animation Directors.
Color Artists: Pretty straight forward, depending on whether traditionally or digitally animated, add color and shade to the basic animation. During the days of Cel-Shading, these were hand-painted, but with technology, tools like Photoshop, Toonboom and After Effects are more commonly used.
Check Artist: This person reviews each frame and checks for inconsistencies. They help the central aesthetic, style and models are on point. If not, a frame may have to be redone. When these guys mess up, we get things like this. These also can be Animation Directors themselves. Many roles can bleed into one another, if that wasn’t obvious enough. (Show example of animation error)
Background Artist: These guys design the backgrounds, whether 2D or 3D. We’ll get into this more later as well. My 3D knowledge is very limited, so I’ll do my own homework on more information on that.
Compositor: This group puts everything together, can take care of digital effects and edits such as atmospheric lighting and weather, depending on the production company. These guys create the crisp polish you’ll see in Ufotable Productions.
I know you must be thinking, these are very similar to Western Production Studios, and you’d be right.
They are very similar, as each piece is needed to produce like a well oiled machine. But there are many VERY important differences. If you know Animation History, Anime production was based on and eventually deviated from Disney’s original model.
Now that you have most of the basic pieces to understand we can begin digging in the differences from the ground up, work to each role and it’s importance and how that all comes together.
Now we can start to looking into the question of,
Q: What is different about Japanese and Western styles of animation production?
Not in the aesthetic choices, but in the setup and philosophy of animation.
It all comes down to the production at hand, but the main basic philosophy is something I like to call “Western Order and Eastern Individuality”.
This is a good start and the start of some of my liberal take on defining different parts of anime and animation -- A main point of this series was to break down and find a way of defining little things like this in a more digestible method:
So, what is the Western idea of “Order Animation”.
Well, how staff is put together is what dictates it.
If you look at any Disney frame, what do you see? Animation that is completely kept on model and shows the visions of the Director and Animation Leads based on strict values of Order and Perfection.
This is often formed by having teams for every character and aesthetic throughout the entire picture remaining as physically consistent as possible.
It’s very impressive that they can get this group of people so on point! I admire it, even if it isn’t the philosophy I prefer in my own tastes in animation and production.
Then, there is the Eastern idea of -- what I like to call -- “Individuality Animation”. This is just another way the production team is staffed and ordered. Most Key Animators have what are called Cuts -- specific scenes in each production that they are in charge of animating. Think about a Cut like cutting a camera in a film to a new scene. Many film making techniques are used in animation, this should always be kept in mind constantly.
Once again, this goes more onto which you find better in your opinion, but I tend to find these definitions slightly ironic based on their respective cultures, but there is a lot of truth to them.
Q: Now, why does this Individuality Animation interest me?
Because, it allows for every Key Animator and In-Betweener to add their own spice and flair to a scene, to the point where based on the animation, you can tell which individual worked on it.
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-- AND THIS IS WHAT I LOVE!
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LOOKING AT A PIECE OF ANIMATION AND BASED ON STYLISTIC AND AESTHETICAL TROPES, YOU CAN POINT OUT A SPECIFIC ANIMATOR OR ANIMATORS INSPIRED BY ONE ANOTHER!!
I believe Order Animation tries to represent a company as a whole, which is great in its own right.
While Individual Animation tries to represent the identities of those who worked on it. Which I am much more in support of and interested in. If you’ve ever met me, I am the type that remembers faces and personalities more than names and the bigger picture. With how I work and how I love to meet new people, Individuality Animation allows me to really get to the heart of an animator.
Ahem, I lost my composure there! Haha!
Next on the chopping block:
Q: Digital Animation vs Traditional Animation...
How are they addressed?
Simply, are Keyframes and In-betweens hand-drawn on paper and then scanned for clean-up and color?
Or are they drawn on digital tablet or are they 3D models?
Traditional Animation is still very common in Japanese Animation production, and most every anime you’ve seen started as hand drawn on paper.
Digital Animation uses programs such as Photoshop, Flash, ToonBoom and etc. to draw everything. Animators that focus on this medium are lovingly called Web Generation Animators. Believe it or not, one of the eldest animation studios, Tatsunoko has evolved to include many web generation animators.
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(From the Studio Tatsunoko produced “Yoru no Yatterman”, hosting a wide array of web generation animation talent!)
In a later episode, I will do a more complete diegesis on Digital Animation Programs as it’s one of my favorite topics.
3D Animation is a new sensation that started an arise in anime at the start of the 2010’s. All of these anime are produced in 3D animation softwares, but are produced using techniques descended from Limited Animation. Look as series like Guilty Gear Xrd and Black Rock Shooter for some amazing examples of this.
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(Guilty Gear Xrd belongs to Arc System Works. It is on PS3, PS4 and Steam PC, Go play it! The GDC also produced this great video on how the 3D Cel-Shaded style was used to imitate sprite anime form the previous entries! It’s about an hour long, but super informative!!)
Mixed Media is often used, where anime can be produced using all three methods for different reasons, be it backgrounds or the animator had a preferred way of animating. Most modern anime uses a form of mixed media from Pokemon XYZ’s 3D Camera to To Aru Majutsu no Index’s 3D Background design. It’s more common than you’d think.
(Most noticeable at 0:39 and 0:58. Look how the ground around Ash’s feet is swiveling in a new way. Or how the camera follows Pikachu to Pangoro and Honedge. Fun Fact: Quick Attack is ineffective on Honedge, it’s a Ghost type!)
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(Pokemon XY belongs to OLM, Game Freak, Nintendo and Creatures Inc., OLM actually means Oriental Light and Magic, inspired from Industrial Light and Magic, known for Cinematic VFX.)
But these can be used in a myriad of creative ways to make each cut feel distinct depending on which animators are behind the wheel.
Since I’m focusing on Japanese Animation Philosophy, as it’s what I know better and prefer, I will focus on that through most of my future studies.
However, you are free to use whichever method you want!
The great thing about art and animation is that you have a choice in how you go about doing it. I wholeheartedly believe in having whatever style interests you and making the most of your creativity.
If I can help bring in a new interest or skill set into your work, or just entertain you with my geekiness about anime, then it will all be worth it.
Who knows, you may be surprised at what we discuss!
I’ll call this episode a wrap for now! Next time we’ll be discussing the basic principles of animation.
If you haven’t gotten a copy of the Animator’s Survival Guide, I highly recommend finding a copy of it! It’s a must-have for animators of all skill levels, even amateur ones like me.
I’ll see you all next time!!
ON THE NEXT BRAIN VOMIT!!
EPISODE 2: ANIMATION PRINCIPLES ARE THE MOON PRINCESSES?!!
STAY TUNED NEXT SATURDAY AT 7PM EST FOR NEXT EXPEDITION INTO SAKUGA GOODNESS!!
DON’T MISS IT, OR I’LL HAVE TO PUNISH YOU!!
Remember: Always bloom proudly,
– TUCHI OUT!!!
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jaygraphicarts3 · 5 years
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Final Practical Development—Brand Identity
Starting off with the branding element of my final outcome, I used my project name ‘Kinetic’ as my starting point. The first part of a logo design is the sketching process and I wanted to have a vast amount of rough sketches before starting to choose any final ideas. I used George Bokhua’s sketching technique as inspiration for my own. Roughly sketching whatever came to mind in my sketchbook in a mixture of workshop time and free time, the goal was to be as rough and experimental as I have been since the start of the brief. I have learnt that this loose approach is best for gathering ideas from early workshops and looking at artists like David Carson.
Sketching
I started my first set of sketches in independent workshop time. I found myself starting to slow down with my ideas after a while. I also found that I would have ideas spontaneously, so I started to use my sketchbook outside of workshops whenever I would get ideas. For example, when at home or travelling. I believe gathering ideas from different sources of inspiration at different times helped expand the number of concepts I had.
The next step was to refine these sketches into cleaner sketches based on what I think would be the most successful. Here, I had more of an opportunity to think about the potential of using the logos in a system as well as adding more refinements to them. 
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Vectorising
The next step was to vectorise these main sketches. I used Illustrator to keep the vector format of the logos. This meant I could scale them to any size without losing quality. Using Illustrator also meant I could use ratios and geometry to make the logos balanced and edit them more after making them with minor adjustments. Here are the concepts I vectorised: 
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By using a mixture of the pentool, the shape tool and the shape builder tool, I was able to translate my refined sketches into geometric logos with grids. I made sure to keep in mind the principles of gestalt and the rules of making a successful logo when making them. Altering the logos was made easier with a digital process as I could easily duplicate each logo to keep track of the changes I made. 
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From a mixture of feedback from peers and tutors, I found the most effective logo to be the one below. I feel like its success comes from its consistency in line weight, negative space and angles. Its simplicity means it works at multiple sizes and the combination of the shapes and the spacing between them subtly represents the theme of movement and energy which encapsulates ‘kinetic’. 
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It was also at this stage, where a tutor recognised a subtle bird figure in this K if there was an eye in the top left region. By placing a circle in the top left to act as the eye of the bird and adjusting the rounded edges I started to see the resemblance. The imagery of the bird also links to the theme of ‘kinetic’ as it represents swiftness so it fit well with the concept of the brand. However, I didn’t think the resemblance was enough to justify me using it for the logo. After asking the people around me, some saw the bird first and some saw the ‘K’ first and the top left circle became confusing. To make the logo as objectively understood as possible, I stayed with the original ‘K’ concept, but this experience taught me how some concepts can come up in different stages of the design process after the sketching and vectorising stage.s 
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Up until this point, I had been working with just the colour black. I highlighted a rule in my logo design research to be making sure the logo works in a single colour first before applying colour afterwards. If I were to reverse these steps, I would risk the legibility of the logo being less in a single colour. Now I had a concept I was happy with and the majority of people I asked also thought it worked, I experimented with a range of colour options. 
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I chose orange as the primary colour, as well as trying different shades of blue as the secondary colour. When I got feedback about the colours, the feedback was a lot more spread over the options and I found it to be more of a subjective choice. In the end, I chose this option because it implemented the vibrant, energetic orange with the contrast of the dark navy blue, without having too many colours to over complicate the brand identity.
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Type
This was probably the hardest section for me as I was unsure where to find fonts that were unique, distinctive and legible. I stayed with sans serif fonts as I wanted them to work at all sizes and reflect the geometric aspect of the logotype. In the end, I chose the typeface “Exo 2″ to be the brand typeface. I thought it was the best fit with the aesthetic of the brand, mainly because of the similar harsh angles that are present in the ‘K’ icon.
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Here, I got some critical feedback from a tutor who specialises in typography. This was useful because he spoke less about how the logo looked and more about how it would function. In terms of the colour, he explained the difficulties of printing colours, orange is one of the colours that may be printed inconsistently with how it looks on a screen. To solve this, I was given a Pantone colour booklet to choose a Pantone orange which ensures it will be printed as the same orange. Lastly, he gave me some minor adjustments to make in terms of the kerning of the ‘Kinetic’ type. His reasoning was that typefaces are kerned to suit read type situations, so when used for a logo they need to be adjusted so they work on a larger scale and the spacing doesn’t become too large. 
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I made these adjustments and then went back to peer feedback. Here, someone pointed out the thickness of the middle section of the ‘K’. I wanted this to be bold, but after looking back at this and how it affected how it was perceived as a ‘K’, I decided to make it thinner to make the overall logo fit square dimensions more. Below is the final variations of the wordmark. 
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Brand Guidelines
Brand guidelines are important to have to ensure anyone representing the ‘Kinetic’ brand does so by staying to the aesthetic of the brand correctly. This also helped on expanding my final outcome from it just being a singular logo on its own. It meant that anyone could understand the brand identity fully by looking at the brand guidelines. Below are the pages I made.
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Two new things I introduced here is a secondary colour scheme and patterns. The secondary colour scheme is made out of the complementary colour of the primary orange and two other tones equally spaced out over the colour wheel. The secondary colour scheme is something I added so more colours can be used to represent other areas of the brand if needed. 
Patterns were something I highlighted when looking at Bierut’s work on logo systems. I tried to follow what I learnt here and in my pattern workshops to create the brand patterns. To do so, I used the middle parallelogram of the ‘K’ as the common aspect of the patterns. This meant that the patterns were still linked to the original brand iconography but each had their own distinctive look. This is my reasoning for keeping a small number of the parallelograms orange in the patterns. This makes it more clear that it links to the logo and makes the parallelogram a more distinctive shape overall. 
Review
Overall, the final outcome reflects both my personal interests in processes and how my own future could look in terms of brand identity. Animation is something I highlighted at the very start of the brief as one of my interests, which is why I created branding for a motion design agency. If I were to create this outcome again, I would put more emphasis on the typography and logo system. Although I think both elements work well in this outcome, they are not as strong as some of the examples I have looked at with Michael Bierut’s work. The main aspect of the logo system is the parallelogram and the angle its sides are at. In terms of the typography, I would experiment with creating my own type. That way, I can customise how the letters are structured and possibly use the brand system to accompany this structure. I chose to use an already existing typeface in this case simply because of time constraints. 
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