#what i need to do is sketch & line something in ms paint. and then directly trace it over into photoshop | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fireberryarts · 4 years

Photo

So because of my current... set up I couldn’t try the clean-line animation that I wanted, but I tried to fix up issues where I could. See below under the cut for a more detailed explanation of this process (which also serves as a record for my own future reference so it isn’t really complaining. It is, but it isn’t really. Kind of).

I’ve never actually tried animating lighting and shading like this. I think it came out better than I thought it would.

Originally it was a 32-frame animation, but I fixed the pacing and it became a 49-frame animation.

Here is the first as a comparison

Considering.... below... I am very happy with how it came out.

Now I die in peace xD

Also the compression for Tumblr is terrible. Here is a larger version (remove brackets and spaces bc Tumblr don’t like outgoing links apparently);

https [://] 1drv[.]ms/u/s!AiJ2rEKcRHVihDJxgCnxVeVD4S7G?e=T1o6yC

I hope you guys like it and I sincerely thank you for all the lovely comments on my work. Thank you! You guys are great!

Okay so a little bit of an annoyed rant but;

The laptop I am using has issues. I have BSoD often which really slows down progress, even if I DO save often. I also don’t trust it with my data. This problem came about during uni so I bought a new laptop - a gaming laptop so it could handle the things I want - but I ended up with a dodgy one. It got to the point where I’d struggle bringing up the task manager and it’d take up to an hour to boot up. I stopped shutting it down entirely.

Couldn’t do anything because I was living in halls and I NEEDED a laptop for work. I couldn’t just send it off to be fixed. We (me and my brother) tried everything to diagnose the problem. It turned out to be a hardware issue.

After uni I sent it back to be fixed, and they swapped out the hard drive and the wifi card and gave it back. It declined again proving the issue isn’t the hard drive. It was most likely the motherboard. I sent it off again, and they just formatted it and sent it back. Ofc I was upset over that so I sent it off again and explained in detail why it’s not a hard drive issue, not a virus, please check the motherboard.

They formatted and sent it back.

This was over the course of months. In the end I asked for a refund.

With the refund I bought parts for a PC to build. Have almost everything except a mouse, keyboard and my own monitor (I salvaged one). I can’t use the PC with just the on-screen keyboard (you NEED a keyboard and mouse with TVP you have no choice) so we hooked my older laptop up to it for remote access. I installed TV Paint, but the lag from the PC, over the internet, to my shitty laptop and into my dodgy tablet is a bit much.

I could connect the tablet directly to the PC but the cables are not long enough and I have no comfortable chair, unless I want to end up with a sore arse for the end of time, it’s not a good idea to be doing work such as this without a comfortable seat.

We’ve ordered longer cables, a mouse, keyboard and speakers, but it’s just waiting for them to arrive now. I’m sure there will be just as much delay as the PC parts due to the current pandemic.

What I’d do normally, animating, is have the initial sketchy-sketch (that I had already posted) then build a skeleton atop of that to ensure certain things (like head size) don’t change throughout. I wasn’t able to do that because that process absolutely requires an animation software to complete. It can’t be guesswork. It has to be watched in motion.

Atop that I clean-line from what I’ve already done. More talented animators can animate in one go, but I can’t do that so I’m stuck doing it in a few layers.

What I had to do this time? Well the keyframes were drawn in Paint Tool SAI, transferred to TV Paint where I did my best with in-betweens. Fixing animation isn’t going to be a thing I can do in TVP so I tried it in SAI. Tried.

After every few frames I’d export and transfer them to the PC and import them into TVP to watch them in motion. More often than now I’d fuck up somewhere and have to go back and fix the new issue.

Shading and highlighting was done in SAI also. I had to do the base colour, export as a PNG as to lose the layers, then import them back so I can clip shading and highlighting layers ontop of the flattened image.

It was... a process.

After all was said and done (including a background and foreground shading / highlighting layers), I imported them into TVP to watch the motion

I do NOT recommend animating this way.

Just don’t.

Don’t.

I’m just desperate to animate something after a literal year of being unable to do anything at all lmfao

#red dwarf #rimmer x lister #animation #2020 #fanart #my art

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after-avenging-hours · 7 years

Text

Heart Skip [3]: Steve x Reader

Previous Parts:

Part 1 / Part 2

Word Count: 3028

Warnings: None

Over the next several days, you catch yourself day dreaming about the Star Spangled Man with a plan. It was difficult to get away from him. He was the only thing Annette and Dorothy talked about at work. His posters were hung in the shop windows of almost every store. His movies played in the theaters and his commercials played on the radio.

In your down time, you find yourself sketching his image a lot. You were more accustomed to sketching out wedding dresses and designer outfits, so you find yourself focusing more on his costume. It helped when your picture came in the mail a few days later.

You looked painfully awkward and out of place in the photo. Annette and Dorothy looked like pinup girls on either side of him, dressed to the nines, makeup and hair in perfect place. And then there was you, standing just close enough to Annette to be in the picture, but you’re clearly distracted and distanced from the rest of them.

At one point, you end up folding the picture, blocking yourself and your friends out so it’s just the Captain that’s in view. You prop the photo up on your work desk, in your apartment, and go back to sketching.

When you’ve got the basic design of the costume down, you begin to play with it a little. At some point, the design becomes less like a costume and more like a military uniform. The color scheme remains the same, but the functionality of the design becomes a lot more fitting for combat rather than stage shows.

You add a little bit of shading to the drawing before setting down your colored pencil and holding the sketch out. You smile, thinking that this one is by far your favorite of the sketches you’ve done so far. Setting the paper back down, your eyes gravitate to the small clock propped on the corner of your desk.

“What?!” you gasp, when you note the time. You’d been so distracted by the drawing, you hadn’t realized you were supposed to be at work in 15 minutes!

You shuffle the sketch and a few others into your notebook, you’re planning to work on them more while on your lunch break. You then rush to the bathroom to get ready for work.

Steve glances down at the paper in his hand. An address is printed clearly on the slip in his handwriting. He’d written it down that night of the show, almost a week ago, for fear that’d he’d forget. He hadn’t, but having the assurance of the paper helped.

As he stands out in the sun on the sidewalk, his eyes lift up to wash over the building in front of him. The number painted over the door matches the one on the paper. It’s an apartment complex. One nicer than what he used to live in, but not by much.

Steve takes a deep breath, trying to build up the nerve to go in. This is probably one of the craziest things he’s ever done. Well… if you didn’t count the whole super soldier-science experiment thing.

But to track down a woman he saw for maybe 5 minutes? To show up at her home, unannounced? This was something a skinny Steve Rogers never would have dreamed of doing. And it was making the large Steve Rogers question all his life choices.

The slip burns in the palm of his hand. He’s come all the way over here. What was the point of trying to track her down if he were to give up now? Steve Rogers never runs away from a fight. But what the hell does he do when the one blocking his path… is himself?

He releases another breath, feeling his palms begin to sweat. If he was going to do it, he had to do it now. He’s going on a plane tonight to continue the USO tour overseas. It’s a miracle he even managed to get a few minutes to spare to do this.

Steeling his nerves, Steve steps up to the door and pushes it open. The lobby is small, mainly just a small entry way that turns to a hallway for the elevators. To the right, a desk is built back into the wall, a small window separating Steve from the person on the other side. He doesn’t pay them any mind, his only intention to get to the elevator.

“Excuse me, sir. Where do you think you’re going?” The stern voice grabs Steve’s attention when he tries to walk passed the desk.

He pauses and back tracks, seeing an older woman with features permanently set into a scowl. He tries to give her a polite smile, only to be met with a blank response. “Um. I’m here to see someone.”

He’s not sure how, but her scowl seems to deepen. “You do realize that this is a boarding house for women, correct?” she questions, her eyes moving up and down his form, noting that he clearly wasn’t a woman.

Steve’s brow furrows, not understanding what that has to do with anything. “I’m sorry?”

“Men are not allowed above the first floor.”

He looks at her in surprise. That seemed a little absurd to him. Although, now that he thinks about it, he remembers Bucky telling him stories about these types of building. How he’d have to climb the fire escape to get to a girl’s room. Steve releases a soft sigh before placing the charming smile he’s grown accustomed to on his lips. “Ma’am, I’m not sure if you realized this. But I’m Captain America.” He can’t believe he’s pulling this card, but if it’ll get him through the door…

The woman doesn’t even blink. “I don’t care if you’re Jesus himself, risen once again. You’re still a man and that means you aren’t allowed above the first floor.”

Steve’s smile falls before he looks at her with desperation. “Please. I just need to talk to Y/N L/N for a few minutes.”

“Is she expecting you?”

Steve hesitates, “Well, no. But-”

“Then I can’t help you,” she cuts him off with a tone of finality.

Steve leans forward, placing his hands on the wall on either side of the window. “Can you at least call her to tell her I’m here? Or-”

In the distance, the elevator dings as it reaches the bottom floor. As soon as the doors are open, heeled feet can be heard against the tiled floor. The pace is hurried as the person approaches. “Good morning, Ms. Dwyre!” Steve hears the lyrical voice as the woman passes behind him.

“No running through the lobby!” the scowling woman commands.

“Sorry!” you respond unapologetically, you’re too worried about being late for work. You don’t even notice the man standing there before you burst through the front door.

The woman focuses her attention back on Steve. “No point in calling her now. You’ve just missed her.”

Steve blanches, realizing that that had been you. He pushes off the wall and darts for the door. He steps out into the bright sunlight just in time to see you jumping into a taxi. There’s a notebook clutched in your palm, however just as you’re stepping into the car, a paper slips out. The missing piece goes unnoticed as you close the door and the taxi takes off.

“Hey wait!” Steve calls in vain, jogging toward the curb. The taxi continues without heed, soon turning a corner and leaving his line of sight.

Steve releases a dejected sigh. Watching his one chance at seeing you again slip through his fingers.

A soft wind picks up your fallen paper. It tumbles a few times before settling at Steve’s feet. He frowns and tilts his head slightly, having caught a glimpse of red, white and blue. Bending down, he picks up the paper and turns it over.

His brows shoot up in surprise when he realizes that it’s him. Well… kind of. There’s no mistaking what the design of this uniform is based on. It’s his costume. But somehow, you’ve managed to turn it into a military uniform. There are buckles down the front and across his back. He has a leather utility belt and a thigh holster. It looks so much more official.

Now this is something Steve could see himself wearing.

His gaze lifts once more, looking in the direction your taxi disappeared. So maybe he didn’t get the chance to see you. But the proof that you were thinking about him, possibly as much as he’s been thinking about you, rests in his hands. Steve carefully folds the drawing up and tucks it into the inside pocket of his jacket.

It joins the item that’s already been placed there for safe keeping. A picture of you. Steve had no need for a picture of himself, and no care for looking at the two other women in the picture. So, after Robbie had given him the photograph, he promptly tore off the important half and tossed the rest. The two items combined in his pocket seem to burn against the skin of his chest, directly over his heart.

He takes one last look at the building, promising himself that he’s going to come back the next time he’s in New York. He just hopes that you’ll still be here when he does.

---

You huff in slight frustration as you step out the taxi after a long day at work. The shop had been busier than usual, and it was difficult to keep up. Not only that, but you seem to have misplaced your most recent drawing of Captain America. You flipped through every single page of your notebook, knowing that it had been tucked into it. When you couldn’t find it, all you could hope for was that it somehow fell out in your apartment.

You push open the front door and step into the lobby.

“Ms. L/N!”

Uh oh. That tone of voice only meant trouble. You hesitantly approach the window, “Yes, Ms. Dwyre?”

The deep grooves in her forehead stretch when she frowns. “The next time you consider giving your address to riffraff, may I suggest that you simply don’t?”

Your head tilts in confusion. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I understand your meaning.”

“A man came to see you today. Was awfully insistent that I allow him upstairs.”

This only seems to confuse you even more. “A man? I wasn’t expecting anyone. Did he leave a name?”

She scoffs, rolling her eyes. “He claimed to be Captain America.”

That makes your heart skip a beat, your eyes going wide. “He what?!”

Ms. Dwyre continues with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Of course I didn’t believe him and before I could call security to send him off, he left after you ran passed.”

Your head swims as you step away from the window. Surely it couldn’t have actually been him. How would he know where to find you? Why would he even be looking for you?

But still… it was certainly a nice thought.

“I apologize, Ms. Dwyre. I’m not sure how this man acquired my address, but I’ll try to prevent future instances.”

“Make sure that you do,” her face pinches unattractively, her gaze glowering as you step away.

You release a soft sigh. If only you hadn’t been running so late this morning. Maybe you would have been able to see who came to visit you. There’s not much you can do about it now. Maybe the man will try to visit you again.

---

Going overseas is a strange experience for Steve. Traveling the country was one thing, but leaving the States all together was completely different. It didn’t help that it felt like he had a giant gaping hole in his chest the entire time. It took him a few days before realizing that it was from the soulmate bond. He’d never been this far away from New York, and thus he’d never been so far away from her.

It wasn’t a painful feeling exactly. He just felt kind of empty. Like something was always missing and he just couldn’t put his finger on it. It was a little uncomfortable and hard to get used to, but focusing on his performance and the shows helped as a distraction.

He then finds himself performing for the 107th, though he hadn’t known it until after Peggy told him. His heart pounds when he realizes he has a decision to make. He stares at the map on the wall in Colonel Phillip’s tent. Go to the Hydra base to rescue the captured soldiers, but put both himself and his defenseless soulmate at risk? Or continue prancing around stages across Europe where he knew he would be safe.

The photograph and drawing tucked into the inner pocket of his coat burns into his skin. But he knows he can’t just let this go. If there’s even a chance he can save them, he has to take it. He hopes you’ll forgive him for his reckless actions. But he’d rather come home to you an actual hero, not an imposter in a silly costume. He wanted to be the man you pictured him as, the one you drew a picture of.

Traveling to the Hydra base in Austria and saving Bucky had been a huge distraction. He was almost able to forget about the ache in his chest. And then having Bucky back managed to fill in part of the void. While at the main SSR base in London, Steve soon finds himself at another crossroad. He’d done good, saving all those men. He could save more. He could end the war. But how long would it take? How long would it be before he stepped back on American soil. How long before he might see you?

His chest throbs when he tells Colonel Phillips that he’ll stay. In his head it’s the right decision. This is what Dr. Erskine wanted from him. This is what he wanted. At least… it was… at one point.

He just hoped that after all this was over, you’d still be there. That you’d wait just a little longer.

Steve finds himself handing your drawing of his uniform to Howard Stark. In a way, it helped him feel closer to you. Made the distance between you both just a little more bearable. He kept your picture with him at all times too. He often found himself looking at it when he as alone.

---

“You alright, Y/N?” Annette calls softly.

“Hmm?” you mumble distractedly, before the question fully hits you and you snap out of it. “Oh. Yes, I’m fine,” you plaster that familiar smile onto your lips, glancing at her and Dorothy from where they’re perched behind the register counter.

Neither of them look convinced. “You’ve been acting funny recently. Are you gettin’ sick?” Annette asks in concern.

Dorothy nods in agreement. “You have been a little off.”

You shift behind one of the mannequins, away from their direct line of sight. You fiddle with the dress to make yourself look busy. “It’s nothing, you both worry too much.”

“You didn’t even react when I said there were new pictures of Captain America on the front line,” Annette pouts.

That’s when you notice that the two of them are huddled over the morning paper.

You release a small laugh, shaking your head. “Haven’t you seen enough pictures of him in that costume? You’ve met him in person,” you remind them.

“Well, that’s what we were saying,” Dorothy tells you. “He’s actually canceled his shows and is going to start fighting on the front line. They’ve given him a new combat uniform and everything!”

Sighing quietly, you move toward the counter to humor them. However, when your gaze drops to the paper, you have to do a double take. You quickly turn the paper around so it’s facing in your direction. There, plastered on half of the front page, is Captain America… wearing your uniform.

“He looks delicious, doesn’t he?” Annette giggles, mistaking the shock on your face for awe.

Your heart pounds in your chest. How was this possible? Was it purely a coincidence? But… it looked exactly like the drawing you misplaced. That’s when you remember that that was the day you’d had your mysterious visitor. The one that called himself Captain America. Could he have found your missing drawing?

You grow a little light headed, this being too much for your mind to wrap around.

“Are you sure you’re not sick?” Dorothy asks with worry, noting the faded tone of your skin.

“I… I…” You can’t even form a coherent response, your eyes glued to the picture.

“Maybe you should sit down,” Annette walks around the counter, gently guiding you to the back room to sit you on the couch.

Dorothy soon comes, handing you a glass of water. You take a small sip, your gaze staring glassily ahead. The two share a look of concern. You hadn’t had one of your usual episodes in a while, they both realize. But, this seemed different from that.

“Call for us if you need anything,” Annette tells you, with a gentle pat to your hair before the two of them move back out to the front.

Your mind works at the fastest speed possible to try to pull an explanation for what was going on. Though the conclusion you seem to be headed for seems almost more unbelievable than the fact that the Captain somehow managed to get his hands on your drawing.

It couldn’t be possible. Out of all the men in the world?

But at the same time… even through the absurdity of it… it made a little sense.

You gaining more strength on the day he made the front news of being a hero. The way the world seemed to disappear when your eyes locked with his for a small moment. The hole that grew in your chest and the longing the settled deep in your belly they day he left the country to start touring overseas.

Captain America was your soulmate.

---

Heart Skip 4

tags:

@firewolfkelly @juliagolia87 @spaceprincessofmanygalaxies @gillibean9 @dashingdetectivetimelady @full-of-sins-not-tragedies @mashroom-burrito @adarkcloud @potterheadsgleek @inbetweenavengers @dedicatedbff @casameanlock @misshyen @sergeantjamesbarnes107th @liaamari17 @readingtoescape @arie-tfw @marvelfanuniverse @fvckingavengers @themcuhasruinedme @always-an-evans-addict @persephone-is-here-omg @thefandomplace @littlehotmess26 @northscorpio @willowtighe @calicat79 @bethabear12 @kaitlynthehuman @hellomissmabel @jennareedus @callingmrsbarnes @vashanatasha @thorodinsvn @siren-kitten-his @sergeant-angel @alphadareme @reniescarlett @feelmyroarrrr @kenobi-and-barnes @mysterylullaby @badassbaker @topthis808 @tardis-is-mine @4theluvofall @hollycornish @sistasarah-sallysaidso @ella282 @scarlettsoldier @captain--pikachu @xllxni

#steve x reader #steve rogers soulmate au #heartbeat soulmate au #steve rogers x reader #captain america x reader #sam writes

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ciathyzareposts · 4 years

Text

Shadow of the Comet – A Friendly Little Town

Written by limbeck

So, here I am, in my not so austere room, getting to grips with the controls of the game. I can move with the arrow buttons, but only on four directions, which seems fair. Sometimes, though, you jump to the next screen by stepping at the wrong point.

Walking around the room, I notice that, as I pass close to an item, a line from my face to that object appears. Handy. I welcomed it with satisfaction at first, but I may reconsider, as it misled me into thinking that it works with all items. More on that later.

Look at my lasersight!

Fortunately, the all-keyboard interface is intuitive and not hard to grasp. You press O for objects in your inventory, U for using an item, G for getting. Even if you haven’t read the manual, you get the hang of it quickly. And that’s really it.

So, once I have perfected my baby steps, I explore the room and pick up whatever I can, which is BOLESKINE’s diary and a telegram from my provisioners. Reading the diary gives me my first clue: a 12-year-old boy had served BOLESKINE as a guide, so there is a chance he is still alive and can point me to the precise spot in the forest. Other than that, BOLESKINE clearly had a poor grasp of astronomy, not recognising the familiar constellations and just randomly inventing new ones.

The telegram was more annoying, because it said that I have to find my own photographic plates. This is critical to my mission, as Mr GRIFFITH really expects “spectacular photographs”. I hope this backwater town has a hardware store or something.

Request refund / STOP / Want speak to manager / STOP

Now that I have my first tasks, I am ready to head out to the outside world. First step is to head out of my room. I then explore the areas of the Doctor’s house that are available to me and notice some really impressive paintings around. The Doctor is not at home, so it is time to explore the town proper.

The immediate neighbours are an old barn-looking house with a bench and a locked door to the east, a forest without a guide to the west and a fancy house, also locked, to the south. The house to the south turns out to be the Mayor’s.

It’s good to be the Kin.. erm, Mayor

To the south and west of the Doctor’s house is the Pharmacy / GP’s office / hospital of the town. I see a guy with a white robe going in, so I decide to follow. Inside, I just catch a glimpse of him getting into his office, so I try to go in myself only to be stopped by a very unhelpful nurse, who is also the daughter of the busy doctor.

South of the pharmacy is the main square, which we briefly saw in our carriage trip. When I first visit, an old lady, Ms PICOTT is sitting alone, but says nothing of importance, so I leave.

One should never presume

Heading west, I arrive at the impressive (according to the description) Town Hall. The clerk in it is, as expected, unhelpful and does not let me see the Mayor, who is only accepting visitors for a few hours each week and only by appointment. I am starting to get really annoyed now. Why does nobody want to get out of their way just to indulge me? I am a visitor in their town after all. They should show some hospitality!

But I brought the forms for the animal census, and these fine leather jackets.

I decide to continue being nosy and I try the other door on the Town Hall building. Inside, it looks like a museum, with several exhibits from exotic lands. This is where I realised that my lasersight does not identify all the items that I can examine or interact with in a location. Instead, when I am close to something that looks interesting, I need to press L to examine it. So, before I continued, I went to all the other locations I had visited and furiously examined everything, but I mainly got background information.

A few minutes later, I am back at the museum, where I discover a lost page from BOLESKINE’s diary. It describes how the stars are really a pistol rifle shot away and closes with a quote from J.Keats: “Truth sleeps beneath appearance”. The remaining art is just flavour text, or so it seems for the moment.

Some of Parker’s lines have these “good lord” and “Oh my”, I suspect for added Englishness.

So, I continue into the door I can see to the north and into the Archives, where I meet the Master of Archives himself. He introduces himself as Tobias JUGG and he is the first person that seems genuinely excited to talk to me. Of course, true to the character of this little town, he already knows who I am. I ignore that and try to get in his good books, which I succeed by striking a conversation and proving my own love for books, by correctly recognising Shakespeare’s quote. I leave him for now and head to a nearby table, where a I search through a ledger and note down three names of men who were 12 years old when Boleskine visited. The names are Curtis HAMBLETON, William COLDSTONE and Thomas GREENWOOD.

Looking over my shoulder, JUGG confirms that all three of them are alive and gives me directions to their houses. I speak to him a bit more, engineering my responses so that they appeal to his love of literature and history. He appreciates that and invites me to his house for a chat later. He also says that he has a large library on local legends, which the locals believed in until recently. After that, he heads out and I leave the Archives.

I continue wandering the town and revisit some of the areas I was before. I notice that there is a couple sitting outside of the house to the east of Dr COBBLES house, which I now know belongs to one of the three people I am looking for. However, Mr GREENWOOD is deaf, mute and blind from an accident during his birth. This makes it very hard for him to be the one I am looking for. The other half of the couple is Miss PICOTT, whom we met earlier. She maintains her unhelpfulness and we move on.

Fortunately for you, he cannot see that smirk when you say that.

Some more wandering later, I arrive outside of the Dead Horse Inn, a name that seems oddly suitable to this town. Outside is Jed DONAHUE, who also knows who I am. News travel quickly in this part of the world. Not that they have to travel too far. Jed was complaining about…, but he didn’t offer anything else other than some more background. Inside the tavern, there is even more unhelpfulness. A group of card players in one table does not want to be disturbed, but is gossiping about RENATO, apparently a misled youth who doesn’t know better. The bartender is ruder than average and does not open up even after I pay an extortionist’s fee of $1 for his watered-down beer.

Dealing with customers: How not to

My little trek around the village then brings me to the post office. As I walk in, I see a map of the area and I hear some heavy object being rolled above. The lady behind the counter mentions that the DONAHUE boy (I presume Jed’s son) is sick and that she really has a lot of work to do. Clearly, she is only bothered by me and not by all the clatter right above her head. I leave.

Yes, like rearrange those mail sacks by the wall

Eager for some intelligent conversation, I head to JUGG’s house. At the entrance hall wall hangs a rifle, which, upon closer examination, turns out to be Lord BOLESKINE’s own rifle. I wonder how it ended up at the doctor’s house. However, despite his invitation earlier, Mr JUGG does not have any more insights to offer so I leave him alone.

Anyway, I keep exploring dutifully and I finally find the town’s general store. I enter from the south and I see the proprietor, Mr MYERS, dealing with a client. A hooded figure who apparently is in the business of direct parcels. He has left one with Mr MYERS, who informs him that another one he sent to some Mrs GUILDCHRIST was delivered successfully. I don’t know who that lady is, but I know the name the wooded figure goes by. HAMBLETON. To be fair, I was a bit careless at the time and I did not remember that HAMBLETON was one of the three people I was looking for. Anyway, the figure walks out, either on a limp or quirky animation, and I can speak to the shop owner.

Maybe townsfolk go to the general store for their mail because the post office is always “too busy”

I go directly to the point and ask for photosensitive plates, which he delivers with delight. Not only that, but he suggests trying them out first and, if they are not good any more, he will reimburse me. Now, that’s what I call good customer service.

Dealing with customers: How to

Loaded with my new plates, I head out from the north door and arrive at the square again. Heading west a few screens, I end up at the abandoned fishery that HAMBLETON lives in. Before getting in, I pick up a rope ladder, because who knows when I will need to go down a cave or something.

Inside, the place is a proper mess. My delicate British nostrils cannot stand the stench, but I persist nonetheless. The fishery has absolutely nothing of value, but I discover a loose floorboard used to hide moonshine and an old man sleeping on a pallet in a corner. As I creepily watch him sleep, I notice that his fingers are webbed, like a frog’s. I feel fascinated, and a bit lightheaded, but I compose myself and decide to speak to the old man.

Subtle

Curtis HAMBLETON tells me that he indeed took Lord BOLESKINE in the forest, at a place with a cross. On the third day, BOLESKINE was painting / sketching when he saw a “thing”. I also learn of another name: WILBUR. He is HAMBLETON’s brother and probably very important. He apparently cursed CURTIS who ended up living in these squalid conditions. WILBUR is still alive as well and he says that in 3 days the comet will come back, and the THING as well. That’s just superstition, right?

After this conversation, poor Curtis goes back to sleep and I am left to think of my next steps, now that I have my plates and a potential guide that does not want to be a guide. I must also note that the Mr HAMBLETON I saw at the general store is most likely Wilbur, Curtis’ brother and he seems to hold some position of power in Illsmouth. I smell a cult, built on superstition and the old legends.

But we’ll have to find these out next time. I did not make much progress in the game, but I enjoyed walking around the town and familiarising myself with the locations. The outline of the city is logical and I never really felt lost, except for the time in the forest, which I assume was intentional. So far, the game does well in letting me play the stranger moving into a small, closed society, which doesn’t really like having anybody poking into its secrets. It may seem stereotypical, but it works. In the next post, I will try to get into that spot in the forest and get some photos taken.

Some other interesting locations that will probably become important later:

N. TYLER’s house is to the north of the pharmacy. It smells nicely of hot soup, but of course it is locked. Suspicious little town.

There is a well that is standing on its own, but I cannot interact with it at the moment.

The way to the port in which I arrived, is blocked by two burly guys.

The cemetary is a blast of fun, according to JUGG.

In the house south of Mr JUGG’s, I see somebody going in and moving on the top floor, snooping at me from the window. Yet, when I knocked, nobody replied.

There is also an abandoned mansion, with nothing to do.

END notes – CD ROM version

Somehow, addition of mouse control makes the game more frustrating. You do not click where you want to go and let the character find his way there. Instead, you hold down the left button and the character moves in the direction the mouse is with respect to him, but again only in the four main directions. You cannot mouse over items either, which makes me wonder why they bothered at all with adding mouse, other than to not seem backward. Outdoors, there is an option to go to a location using the map.

Time played: 1:30 Sanity lost: 1 (from seeing HAMBLETON’s webbed fingers)

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/shadow-of-the-comet-a-friendly-little-town/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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godwillb · 6 years

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Design 101

I created my first website as a school project when I was 14. The task was simple: create a very basic site including some text, images, and a table. My usual attitude to school projects was to completely forget about them and later come up with some last-minute solution. But, this time, I went nuts.

Since my first website, I’ve always prioritized making stuff look good. Admit it or not, people judge things based on looks. If what you make looks good, like you know what you’re doing, people are going to trust it more. That’s just how things are.

Over years of making side projects, I shifted my focus more and more on developing my design skills rather than just perfecting my programming. You see, being an algorithm writing monstrum gets you just so far. While pursuing the dream of bootstrapping a profitable side project, you’ll have to do a lot of different jobs. Being a designer is one of them. Just like Cross-fit athletes, solo-founders have to be well rounded to perform well.

A superb design isn’t necessarily the one with the most Dribbble upvotes. It’s the one you won’t notice in the first place. It’s a perfect balance of “your grandma could do that” and “wow, that’s damn nice”. Design can be your competitive advantage or the nail in the coffin.

It’s not about talent

When I was younger, I played a lot of Minecraft. I saw all these awesome buildings people made. But when I made something, it looked like a box. Ugly and with no style. How do you even make something nice in Minecraft, right?

So, I found a guy on YouTube and built an exact copy of what he built. A few weeks later, I had developed my own style and could build on my own. Suddenly, my creations didn’t look like crap. Heck, I even won a building contest.

Design is a skill, and like any other skill, it can be learned.

Picking the right tool for the job

In programming, you can use Notepad and write an app that’s as good as if it were written in a full-blown IDE…though your life might be pretty miserable doing it and it will probably take noticeably longer. In the world of web design, MS Paint would take the role of Notepad, and like Notepad, few people actually choose to design with it… I hope.

The most popular design tools for the web are:

Sketch, a MacOS only tool that, similar to React, seems to be hard-coded in every job listing. $99/year.

Adobe XD, a free to use, cross-platform tool that takes the role of Vue. It has a smaller community, but it’s very easy to get started.

Adobe Photoshop, the swiss knife for any design task known by everyone. It’s taken the spot of…you guessed it, jQuery. $9.99/mo.

There’s almost no difference whether you use Sublime or VS code to write apps. Or whether you use React or Vue for the frontend. It’s just a matter of preference. The same goes for design tools, as each one has its pros and cons.

I use Adobe XD. The main reason for me is that it’s cross-platform, so I’m not held hostage by the Apple ecosystem. It’s also backed by Adobe, so it’s gonna be here for a while. The best thing for newcomers is that, since May 2018, Adobe XD is free to use with just a few limitations (that you’re unlikely to stumble upon anyway).

Adjusting your mindset

The biggest challenge coming to the web design world for me was adjusting my mindset. I was used to coming up with the design as I coded the website. Everything had an order. The flow was from left to right and from top to bottom. The fact is, this approach makes you a worse designer.

Design tools are chaotic because they force you to design like every element is positioned absolutely. Embrace this change. It’ll give you the freedom to change things quickly and makes experimenting easy. And that is essential, because design is an ongoing process. It’s expected that you’ll be changing things a lot before you get a great result.

Learning the tools

When coding, you use HTML elements like divs, spans, and inputs and let the browser render them into something visual. With design tools, you have the power to skip the middleman and use visual elements like shapes and text directly.

I picked the 4 most used design tools so you can spend less time learning and more time designing. That way, you can start practicing as soon as possible. Below, I’ll show you how they work and how to use them.

Rectangle tool

Rectangles are the most universal shape. You’ll find yourself using them all the time. Think of it as a div. It’s useful for all sorts of stuff, from creating text inputs to containers.

Text tool (label)

Text tool, as the title suggests, allows you to create text. It’s not that simple though, because the text tool has two states: one for single line text and the other one for multiple paragraphs. Fortunately, they’re extremely easy to learn to use correctly.

The first state is a single line text container that adjusts its size based on text size. It’s similar to a <span> with the exception that it won’t wrap unless you make a line break. The benefit of this state is that it’ll automatically adjust the text box size based on line height and font size.

To create it you simply click with the Text tool selected and write. As a rule of thumb, use this state for anything that doesn’t need a specific width and is a single line. For example, single line headlines and labels.

Text tool (paragraph)

The second state is a text container with a specific size that behaves like a <p> with a specific width or <p> inside a grid column. The benefit of this state is that you can control the text box size. To create a paragraph, you click with the text tool selected and hold to create a selection. As a rule of thumb, use this state for paragraphs and headlines on more than one line.

Select tool

Move, resize, duplicate. This is the tool for that. Those pink lines show you the distance from surrounding elements. The blue lines help you get elements to align properly.

Line tool

Sometimes a line is handy to make parts of design separate. That’s why the line tool is here. You could technically use rectangle tools instead, but hey, so the div could be used for anything.

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doodlewash · 6 years

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Hello dear Doodlewashers! I am honoured to be included among other amazing guest artists here at the vibrant Doodlewash community and I hope you will enjoy my artworks and perhaps learn something useful from me as well. My name is Michaela Istok and I am from Bratislava, Slovakia though I’ve managed to live already in Kuala Lumpur, Prague, Helsinki and Tampere.

The Beginnings

How did my art journey began for me? Honestly, I don’t really remember; I’ve been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil in my chubby little fingers. My mum, having noticed my leaning towards artistic expression (including on walls, floors, important documents and receipts…) registered me at art classes led by academic painter Ms. Sona Herenyiova since I was about 7 years old and I kept on going there until I left my hometown Bratislava for university, aged 18.

Ten years later, I have my a BA (Hons) Graphic Design degree, about 7 years of experience in the design industry and a rather impressive stash of watercolour illustrations, doodles, sketches and filled up sketchbooks in various places in various countries (Slovakia and Finland, to be exact).

Paint Cheap, Have Fun

Though I see many artists, hobby painters and art course attendants striving to use the best paints, the best paper and the best brushes they can afford, I’ve always had a different approach here. See, I believe that if my skills and technique are underwhelming, even the best paper and the most expensive super premium brush will improve it only up to a point, if at all.

However, if my expression, use of line, colours and composition are good (in my eyes at least – though I always nitpick my work!), the artwork can look charming even drawn with a basic pencil on a random sketchbook paper found in a drawer.

This is just a long-winded way to say this: I didn’t care about the quality of my tools for quite some time when beginning.

Instead, I practiced often with mediocre tools because it was well, just practice where I explored myself as an artist. The results varied and once I started to get satisfied with the progress I was making in my art journey, I started using better tools and better papers as well. Now I am in a place where I am mostly using high quality paints, papers and brushes but I don’t make it a rigid rule. You will see two paintings made on the worst and tiniest sketchbook ever in this guest post. I went into it knowing it’s a bad paper but it was fun anyway.

As for my favourite tools, usually I use Koh-I-Noor pencils, Micron fineliners and St Petersburg White Nights or Van Gogh watercolours. Papers vary – I hadn’t yet found my preferred brand, but I do gravitate towards less textured, cold-pressed ones with at least 300g/m2 weight.

Illustrator in Progress

My favourite topics tend to be animals (including beloved pets), people, silly characters, mythological beings, landscapes, flowers and picturesque village houses. I value traditions (though I don’t adhere to them much – but knowing about them makes me content) and so traditional architecture and old crafts are a big inspiration for me as well.

For illustrations, I work both in vectors (digitally) and in ink and watercolour, though I have to say that so far I have had far more clients for my digital illustrated work than for the watercolour ones, probably due to more focus on marketing the digital work. We are currently discussing a range of dog behavior books for children with a dog behaviorist friend, so let’s see where this takes us – in a not so far off future I might be very busy with a lot of watercolour illustrations too!

The Process

I have always been a fast artist (as in, fast in painting) and I consider this an advantage when it comes to watercolours (and acrylics) – they just dry so fast, I must be fast too! I rarely paint wet on wet, so painting wet on dry is a speedy process for me.

The preparatory stage takes me longer than painting itself – usually I gather some research material (photos, illustrations of the subject, simplified pictograms, etc.) to get to know my theme well and draw a couple of rough sketches on some basic papers. Once I am happy that I seem to know what I am doing, I take an actual watercolour paper and either first sketch it lightly with a pencil or draw directly with the Micron fineliner.

When painting pet portraits I need to be fairly accurate, so first I sketch the pet very lightly on a paper with a B or a 2B pencil (it can’t be too soft or the sketch is too dark and difficult to remove or cover by the watercolour wash). Then I take my Micron fineliners, drawing the subject itself. A moment to dry, and I can start applying watercolours.

Firstly I apply lighter colours in bigger areas and after that I move onto more details in darker colours. This lets me control the values and hues of the painting well, not overdoing it – I strongly believe that an overdone watercolour painting is a mortal sin!

For other illustrations, I don’t always feel the need to sketch first by pencil, so I don’t always do that. In that case it’s a drawing with Micron fineliners first and then the watercolours on top of it. This is, of course, quite risky and scary as I can’t remove or alter the fineliners but I like taking this risk. Painting this way is similar to calligraphy – there are no steps back; once you dare to paint the wash, it is there to stay. Doesn’t that remind you of life with no Ctrl + Z?

Useful Tips For Other Artists

I am not, by any means, an authority on painting but I have learnt some tips and tricks over time, so maybe some of them will help you in your artist journey too!

● Don’t stress too much about your tools if you are just starting out – you can practice with anything, not spending too much money on your art at first. Instead, dedicate your heart, time and imagination to your art!

● Also, don’t fret if you hadn’t developed your style yet – it will come! And it might change over the time too as you will be evolving as an artist and as a person (in that case, don’t fret as well, this is a good thing to happen).

● Paint and draw everyday, even if for 5 minutes while drinking your morning espresso. Practice makes perfect (and creates you that elusive ‘style’ over time)!

● You will gravitate towards some themes – should you focus only on them? Should you enjoy working on them but also develop your skills in other areas? Food for thought!

● Don’t feel self-conscious about your art and if you honestly feel it sucks, take a pencil and focus on the most basic basics – still lifes, portraits, nude bodies. By getting better in these basics you will get better in everything else!

● Leaving a bit of an empty paper (not covered by any paints) in the painting will let it “breathe” and prevent the ‘overdone’ look.

● Most of all, have fun and create art. The world needs more artists like us!

Michaela Istok Illustration portfolio Design & digital illustration portfolio Women Who Draw Behance LinkedIn Society6 Shop

#WorldWatercolorGroup - GUEST ARTIST: "A Tale of Many Faces and Flowers" by Michaela Istok Hello dear Doodlewashers! I am honoured to be included among other amazing guest artists here at the vibrant Doodlewash community and I hope you will enjoy my artworks and perhaps learn something useful from me as well.

#WorldWatercolorGroup #artist #doodlewash #EU #featured #illustration #painting #Slovakia #watercolor #watercolor illustration #watercolour #watercolour illustration

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