I Did Some Fun Holiday-appropriate Stuff Last Week (dark Harbor @ The Queen Mary) But Didn't Do Anything

cbt!

What about Character Building Thursday (Thorsday), because question: What type of character is more difficult for you to write convincingly? For me, it’s villains.

- cthonicseraph

Oh sweet I didn't know there was a specific character building day, I'm definitely going to have to switch to this for a while. I have a hard time with grey protagonists, sympathetic villains ok, but heroes with shitty personalities are tough! I think making a villain likeable is easier than giving a hero some really unpleasant traits and still making them likeable. Lots of people take for granted that you're just supposed to like the protagonist by virtue of them being the protagonist and we know how well that works :p Though I haven't really tried it with main characters I do have a few goodguys who kind of suck. Either selfish or cowardly, even have one that is unapologetically racist. There's two characters I really struggle with in my fantasy because I don't LIKE them, and I'm trying to decide if I have to like them. You have to have some empathy for characters to make them three-dimensional and believable right? And it's not like having a villain who gets redeemed thru character growth to become good or at least... less... bad. How do you redeem someone who is already supposedly good? A lot of it is so relative and "good" maybe just means "winning side" but there's a lot of assumptions that come with it. Like... likeability. So hard.

Once in a blue moon some characters will suddenly pop into my head and I have to DROP everything and DRAW them OR DIE (no I won't).  Its true that sinister carnies will always and forever be overdone but do I care? (I don't care) The adorable Sue Carver; ventriloquist, petty criminal, with Peggy and Woody; lackeys, dummies. OR ARE THEY? (yes they are)

I regret nothing!

What are the naming conventions?

Assuming I have them, lol! Honestly I pull names out of my butt. Sometimes I'll put in a little more effort depending on the story (I have one where I made sure at least most of the characters have names that are marginally clever puns) but for the most part I just go with whatever I think of that feels right at the time... D:

Its Friday the Thirteenth and also my birthday and also I'm thirty. Whaaaat

Um. Some fuzzy fox people. Yup.

Portrait commission, tried to move out of my comfort zone a little and do more dramatic light/shadow.

Costume DUMP because I had to move and put most of my stuff in storage so I don’t know when I’ll be able to resume work on this :C Also cos I was CUTE

The fiber optic HAIR is 110% of the reason I wanted to cosplay her in the first place. DREAM WIG, still can’t fully believe I’m making it happen… tho uh. You know how no amount of planning can replace what you learn by doing and gaaawsh there are. Many. Things. I would like to do differently. And I’m nowhere near done but also too far along (and too over budget) to start over, eeeeegh.

It’s a 168 neopixel led matrix controlled by an arduino pro mini. Also have a few attinys to control a servo (wiggly robot antenna 8D), and some sound-reactive led circuits, and just, so many other things I have been banging my head against desk all year tryna make this stuff work, tbh the biggest challenge has been figuring out how to power it properly, and uh, safely…?? I learned a LOT about how batteries work this year let me tell you

Final outfit will be visible from SPACE

OLD PROJECT IS NEW AGAIN! A backplate and mounting plate to use for lots of different costume things. It's based on the usual idea of attaching wings to a corset, with hard Sintra mounting plate idea from a project by @paintyourdragon (of twitter, adafruit)! BACKPLATE__ Used an elastic exercise belt that I reinforced with window screen and washers for tear resistance. The belt bolts to my overdesigned pvc board back plate xD its padded with backpack spacer mesh, with pvc pipes as mounting sockets which hopefullyyyy the placement will be useful for multiple things (wings of course, gigantic Beedle backpack, Sashimono samurai flag). The plate is covered in foam, worbla,and cheap lining fabric to smooth it out, and I predrilled a BUNCH of holes marked with small washers in case i want to sew something to it or whatever. Futureproofing I GUESS. MOUNTING PLATE__ I made two of these simultaneously and used my cute and sweet and skilled bestie @maddycatcosplay as build tester, for her Pharah costume, cos I never finish things and she does xD This specific plate design was for bolting Pharah wings to (I spent 2wks building a jig to bend special aluminum brackets, so the wings would be at the proper angle, argh), as well as an easy way to attach gigantic Blizzard shoulder armor :P Another sintra plate was bolted to some bent pvc pipes and just slots in and out, I'm pretty proud of it! End Goal was simply something to wear heavy things on the back without too much strain, though obviously its still great to try and make stuff as light as possible... Hopefully some of these ideas help other people with their projects! It doesn't actually have to be this much work and detail for it to function, I just spend a lot of time and energy trying to make things as durable and comfortable as possible. A Very Important costuming soapbox issue for me, DO NOT risk injury for a costume, thanks for readingggg https://www.instagram.com/p/B-u5yQLjW09/?igshid=zw0kb3t6oi0v

I swear I didn't know this existed until I decided to googlehunt tablet pcs with wacom digitizers, and it's as glorious as it sounds. It's not without drawbacks (windows7 has very decent tablet pc tools, but I'm having a hell of a time trying to get pressure sensitivity AND multitouch working at the same time) but I'm just so happy to have a computer again asshdjkashdjahsd I CAN COLOR AGAIN

mooby reebyews

I'm not sure why I want to talk about this so much but I DO so I'm gonna.

Saw Robocop the other night, immediately understood why it flopped but holy crap I really enjoyed it ok?? I know most people are basically disgusted by remakes out of some sense of nostalgia, and I don't care at all, usually when you go back and watch an old thing its often Not That Great (and the nostalgia critic has made a whole Thing out of this phenomenon). I didn't hate the Total Recall remake either, because I honestly feel if a story or premise is interesting there's nothing wrong with telling it again in a new way. And I think it's especially fine to do with Sci/Fi because by its very nature the genre has to constantly be updated. And so Robocop was surprisingly political?? With the heavyhanded commentary on drone use and big business manipulating our lawmakers and questions about artificial intelligence and free will and Evil Steve Jobs Michael Keaton and Samuel L. Jackson O'Reilly lol! Dammit I just feel the need to defend it because these are all things that make it good relevant sci/fi and are definitely the same things making the movie a flop. And of course I love robots and cyborgs and Gary Oldman so its no surprise I fucking loved this movie ok. ROBOCOP.

Also saw the Lego Movie and it was seriously the best thing in the entire world. I geeked out hardest over all the explosions/fire/water/smoke being made of legos and the big fingerprint on Emmet's torso. And the plot was really impressively solid (President Business was the BEST) and so so so good seriously go see this movie.

I love movies!!