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REBLOG IF YOU'RE AN ARTIST!!!

Professional or not, no matter what art style, I wanna see how many artists are out there.

Silhouette Challenge: Week 5

Our fifth character is:

Tommy Turnbull! Handler (and best friend) of Robotboy!

You've seen Robotboy, and you've seen Protoboy. Now to start off the former's human companion, and the latter's (prospective) general nuissance.

Art is not by me, this is an edit of Mac by Midori Foo. Tommy Turnbull owned by Alphanim and France 3, licensed out to CN, created by Jan Van Rijsselberge.

"The best thing we can do with power is give it away" - On the leftist critique of superhero narratives as authoritarian power fantasies:

The ongoing "Jason Todd is a cop" debate has reminded me of a brilliant brief image essay by Joey deVilla. [EDIT: I SCREWED UP! This was created in 2019 by the guy who runs the Midnighter-Core page on Facebook, and Joey just reposted it!]

So here it is, images first and the full essay text below:

"A common leftist critique of superhero comics is that they are inherently anti-collectivist, being about small groups of individuals who hold all the power, and the wisdom to wield that power. I don’t disagree with this reading. I don’t think it’s inaccurate. Superheroes are their own ruling class, the concept of the übermensch writ large. But it’s a sterile reading. It examines superhero comics as a cold text, and ignores something that I believe is fundamental, especially to superhero storytelling: the way people engage with text. Not what it says, but how it is read. The average comic reader doesn’t fantasize about being a civilian in a world of superheroes, they fantasize about being a superhero. One could charitably chalk this up to a lust for power, except for one fact… The fantasy is almost always the act of helping people. Helping the vulnerable, with no reward promised in return. Being a century into the genre, we’ve seen countless subversions and deconstructions of the story. But at its core, the superhero myth is about using the gifts you’ve been given to enrich the people around you, never asking for payment, never advancing an ulterior motive. We should (and do) spend time nitpicking these fantasies, examining their unintended consequences, their hypocrisies. But it’s worth acknowledging that the most eduring childhood fantasy of the last hundred years hasn’t been to become rich. Superheroes come from every class (don’t let the MCU fool you). The most enduring fantasy is to become powerful enough to take the weak under your own wing. To give, without needing to take. So yes, the superhero myth, as a text, isn’t collectivist. But that’s not why we keep coming back to it. That’s not why children read it. We keep coming back to it to learn one simple lesson… The best thing we can do with power IS GIVE IT AWAY." - Joey deVilla, 2021 https://www.joeydevilla.com/2021/07/04/happy-independence-day-superhero-style/

- Midnighter-Core, 2019

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0bU6TrKdX6QgMLnUFk64jResHMVwiSyENASvJk7efasgZ94G4c81XJCVgGcLFPgPsl&id=594855544368212&mibextid=Nif5oz

Silhouette Challenge: Week...uh...4

School is hell and makes it hard to work on the things you love, like Earth-One.

Apologies for the distraction, but I'm back. Our fourth character reveal:

Oh my! It's Muriel Bagge!

I was really happy with how Muriel turned out. But hands down the best decision was to show bits of her eyes behind her glasses. I had originally planned to keep the glasses opaque like in the show, but the eyes add a lot to the warmth and personality of the character. It's what ended up convincing me to do it for Eustace as well, and I'm just as surprised that it worked there too!

Art by me, Muriel owned by CN, created by John R. Dilworth.

Fantastic Four by Phil Noto

Silhouette Challenge: Week 3

Our third character reveal:

It's Inspector 13, from Ben 10!

This was one of the first designs I did where everything just clicked exactly the way I wanted it, and to this day I'm still immensely happy with how it turned out.

Art by me, Inspector 13 owned by CN, created by Dwayne McDuffie, Matt Wayne, and Man of Action

Silhouette Challenge: Week 2

wow, life got busy

Anywho, let's continue. Our second character reveal:

Duchess of Wails in the FusionFall style!

I like the way I made her seem like she's caught between 2D and 3D, where her form is barely jumping out of the paper she was drawn on.

Art by me, Duchess of Wails owned by CN, created by Craig McCracken

jack when the prophesized "chosen one" still chooses to kill Fuse with the Master Weapon Arsenal and walk out of Fuse's throne lookin like a bad bitch

Samurai Jack: The greatest weapon is not outside of us. It is our inner spirits that guide us to victory. All of your battles have honed your skills. Weapons are not needed, for now you are a living weapon. You are poised to defeat Fuse. YOU are the Master Weapon.

Me, Demongo, and all the ancient spirits who helped build the Master Weapon Arsenal across about 25 missions:

WE LIVE IN A HELL WORLD

Snippets from the article by Karissa Bell:

SAG-AFTRA, the union representing thousands of performers, has struck a deal with an AI voice acting platform aimed at making it easier for actors to license their voice for use in video games. ...

the agreements cover the creation of so-called “digital voice replicas” and how they can be used by game studios and other companies. The deal has provisions for minimum rates, safe storage and transparency requirements, as well as “limitations on the amount of time that a performance replica can be employed without further payment and consent.”

Notably, the agreement does not cover whether actors’ replicas can be used to train large language models (LLMs), though Replica Studios CEO Shreyas Nivas said the company was interested in pursuing such an arrangement. “We have been talking to so many of the large AAA studios about this use case,” Nivas said. He added that LLMs are “out-of-scope of this agreement” but “they will hopefully [be] things that we will continue to work on and partner on.”

...Even so, some well-known voice actors were immediately skeptical of the news, as the BBC reports. In a press release, SAG-AFTRA said the agreement had been approved by "affected members of the union’s voiceover performer community." But on X, voice actors said they had not been given advance notice. "How has this agreement passed without notice or vote," wrote Veronica Taylor, who voiced Ash in Pokémon. "Encouraging/allowing AI replacement is a slippery slope downward." Roger Clark, who voiced Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, also suggested he was not notified about the deal. "If I can pay for permission to have an AI rendering of an ‘A-list’ voice actor’s performance for a fraction of their rate I have next to no incentive to employ 90% of the lesser known ‘working’ actors that make up the majority of the industry," Clark wrote.

SAG-AFTRA’s deal with Replica only covers a sliver of the game industry. Separately, the union is also negotiating with several of the major game studios after authorizing a strike last fall. “I certainly hope that the video game companies will take this as an inspiration to help us move forward in that negotiation,” Crabtree said.

And here are some various reactions I've found about things people in/adjacent to this can do

And in OTHER AI games news, Valve is updating it's TOS to allow AI generated content on steam so long as devs promise they have the rights to use it, which you can read more about on Aftermath in this article by Luke Plunkett

Silhouette Challenge: Week 1.5

You probably noticed this little blue guy next to Ms. Keane that I've never shown before. That's because I forgot to cover his silhouette up lmao

Behold, Spokesperson of the Cosmic Colosseum, Advertiser of the Shipodrome, and personal bootlicker to Rasslor: Champion of the Cosmos.

Promo-Tor!

Art by me, Promo-Tor owned by CN, created by Genndy Tartakovsky

Silhouette Challenge: Week 1

And away we go!

Our first character reveal, just in time for the Powerpuff Girls' 25th Anniversary:

Ms. Keane in the FusionFall style!

A decade older, given that FusionFall & Earth-One's PPG are in their teens now.

Art by me, Ms. Keane owned by CN, created by Craig McCracken

Unrelated to the Silhouette Challenge (because I forgot to include her), here's one I made very quickly 4 months ago: The High Priestess from Season 5 of Samurai Jack

I had wanted to post this after I saw that DOPE Combaticons pilot that Keyan Charlie and his amazing team made. Loved it front to back, and even if it was a one-and-done pilot, I would love to see more stories from that universe.

But while you guys wait for that, uh...here’re my combaticons being cringe.

Silhouette Challenge!

A FusionFall tradition as old as 2010. The Silhouette Post!

Unfortunately, due to college, the fanfic has entered another hiatus so that I can deal with senior year. So while that continues, let there be more art!

I made a few more characters since last we met, so have a go at guessing who they are! Character posts and reveals will be irregular, but you can expect answers to be revealed every week or 2.

Note: this is not for any game project whatsoever.

New E1 Drop

My take on Ben 10's Malware. I do have a preference for his first look before he got all buff and red.

This one hits hard the most. That’s Captain Anarchy’s shield symbol, and Captain Anarchy was Spider-Punk’s universe’s version of Captain America. A variant of the supervillain Flag Smasher, this version also served as the George Stacy equivalent for Hobie’s canon event.

DETAILED SPIDERPUNK REFERENCES!!

And some words from (one of?) the character designers!!