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Animation techniques and more Ghibli thoughtsIn my last journal I mentioned the strange effect of seeing super cartoony flat characters moving around in a hyper realistic world. There's actually a name for this, it's call the "masking effect" and it was quite elaborately detailed by Scott McCloud in his book "understanding comics."
In comics, frequently the main characters are portrayed as cartoony and simple, while backgrounds often get very detailed. The basic concept is pretty simple. The more cartoony a character is drawn, the more appealing and relatable it is to us as we can more easily imagine ourselves in the role. The more realistic something is, the less of a personal connection you have to it. This is why villains tend to be drawn more realistically, and heros more cartoony. But it goes beyond just the characters... the environment also is affected.
If a person in a cartoon picks up a sword and starts swinging it around, the sword becomes an extension of their body and since it's animated, it becomes a drawn thing whic

Censoring the InternetA few weeks ago I made mention of feminist Anita Sarkeesian who started a kickstarter for a web series called "Tropes Vs Women" specifically centered around how women are portrayed in video games.
Despite the fact that kickstarters are payed for by people who've made the decision they want to contribute their money to the project, Anita came under attack from gamers for "scamming" audiences when her fund far exceeded the target goal. Just this past week it's come out that a 25 year old man from Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada, created a video game where the object is to punch the crap out of Anita. Wounds, bruises, and blood gush out the more you beat her up in this virtual game, and it's drawn some widespread attention.
Whether you agree with her viewpoint is not the issue, it's the fact that this retaliation is just "wrong" on so many levels. Do these people realize that what they're doing is shooting themselves in the foot? Making a video game where you beat up someone who's making

Artist Intent vs Fan CriticismsThis has been a subject I've been interested in for years, and one which I personally struggle with on a near constant basis: Artist's intent versus fan criticisms. Before we begin I just want to make this clear that this journal is NOT about "ignoring criticisms" or any sort of endorsement of such an action. I'm gonna be accused of it, of course, but I just wanted to get that out of the way right now.
...
As I've been observing fan interactions over the years I've noticed a severe increase in a sense of entitlement: IE: that if you love something enough you have a "right" to force the creators to change their content to suit your personal preferences. We saw this play out to the extremes this past summer with the Mass Effect 3 ending debacle, and we see it play out to a much lesser extent here on DA quite a bit.
Artists need feedback and criticisms to grow and improve their work, but at what point does it move beyond offering suggestions to help an artist improve to outright de

Internet BullyingFor many kids growing up in the 80's, if you were bullied in school you were able to "tough it out" because you knew your social interaction with said bully was isolated only to when you were in close proximity of them. When the bell range and you went home, you could dismiss the bully's taunting and physical abuse and be reminded of friends and family who supported you and kept your spirits up.
But in today's day and age of seemingly constant online connectivity, the "victims" of bullying have a harder time escaping. Once the bell rings, they're still potentially subject to be bullied via verbal assaults online, which often goes completely unnoticed by parents and friends. The worse part of this is that we're often told that because it happens "on the internet" there's no real consequences of trolling or bullying, which is far from true.
I've never accepted the excuse that just because "it happens on the internet" means it can't personally harm you in real life. Part of that is from m

Derpy Hooves vs HasbroSo it has come to my attention that recently Hasbro has (possibly?) ordered a cease and desist letter to WeLoveFine.com for selling Derpy Hooves related T-shirts. This, coupled with the mysterious disappearance of the episode "The Last Roundup" (which is the one where Derpy talks) from iTunes has gotten fans freaked out and panicky. The general belief is that Hasbro wants to stop the cannoning of internet named Derpy from the MLP series due to the backlash of people getting angry for them for doing so in the first place. Petitions are going up ( http://www.change.org/petitions/hasbro-studiosthe-hub-do-not-change-derpys-name ) and blogs are being posted and everyone's going nuts over this.
Here's my two cents:
From browsing around WeLoveFine.com I could see a number of deviantart images being used for T-shirts. Specifically My Little Pony related. Now It's very unlikely that the artists or the website got permission to sell these T-shirts, and whether you like it or not, selling merchan

25 Things I learned being a Comic Artist in 2011The following list contains intense amounts of SARCASM for the purpose of satire and humor.
1. Never offer artistic advice or hint at the possibility that the way young and inexperienced groups of artists work might in some way be flawed.
2. Every comic must be inherently drawn better and be funnier than the last.
3. Humor is NOT relative/subjective.
4. Nothing is funny. Ever.
5. Even the most trivial aspects of your comic must be taken 100% seriously.
6. Failure to incorporate conflicting suggestions for improvement = incapable of accepting criticism.
7. Trying to quelch flame wars also inexplicably = incapable of accepting criticism.
8. Trying to explain your artistic decisions = incapable of accepting criticism.
9. Having lots of watchers = having an inflated ego.
10. Reaching the frontpage = getting Daily Deviation.
11. Every character you draw (even ones you do for commission/jobs) = your personal opinions and beliefs which you must obviously follow rigidly IRL.
12. Never change y

FlatteredI should be flattered.
There are people who literally spend hours of their life every day following me. People who obsessively save every work of art I post online. People who comment and hypothesize about everything I do, even when I am not doing anything. People who make their own comics, websites, and blogs because of me. People who meticulously sift through my stats, my comments, and near-decade old journals. People who obsessively screen-capture everything I say or do anywhere online. People who seemingly have no life other than to talk about every aspect of my own. People who, day in and day out, never tire of talking about me to their friends online.
These people are amazing and I am continually astounded by them and the things they come up with... over a worthless and unimportant cartoonist.
Not even a good cartoonist either. Just an average, slightly stubborn, mediocrely popular on a dubious website... cartoonist. Not a politician with real influence in the world. Not a famous

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Happy 4th of July

by *TomPreston, Jul 4, 2012, 2:19:47 PM
Journals / Personal

Happy 4th of July

Usual Minutia
Bla bla bla. Independence. 1776. America. John Adams. Hooray.

Internet Declaration
So there's been this "internet declaration of independence" that's been going around the web recently, and to be honest I think it's a load of bull. As much as I love free speech and rights and etc, I simply can't get behind it, and it disturbs me that so many companies ARE getting behind it. There's just too much entitlement from people on the internet who think they "deserve" everything, and it's really beginning to creep me out. I'm all for abolishing SOPA and ACTA other things like it, but I just can't in good faith get behind the "internet declaration of independence." Sorry.

Anti-4th
What's with this weird anti 4th of July backlash that's going on? All the people complaining about the "patriotism" and stuff. I know it's always existed, but I've never seen it this massive before. Do people really just not understand the point of holidays? It's like getting angry at posts about Santa during Christmas, or about romance during Valentines Day. Is this just some sort of new concept to spread your anger at a holiday because you don't want to see posts relating to said holiday on the DATE OF THE HOLIDAY? I don't get it.

'Merica
Speaking of things I don't get. What's with the abbreviation for America being shortened to the ridiculously ignorant sounding "Merica?" I'm sure many of you will explain it to me here and I'll regret asking this... but did I miss some meme or internet phenomenon for this? Is it just about being MORE obnoxious and thick-headed and douchebaggy by trying to intentionally sound like a dumbass?

1984 was a sci-fi story, please stop trying to make it real...

My 4th of July Pride
"Too Late to Apologize" (1776 version)
[link]

149 Comments

Listening to: Escapist Podcast
Reading: tumblr
Watching: Futurama
Playing: Super Mario Bros 3D Land
Eating: Jaffa Cakes
Drinking: English Breakfast Tea

Happy 4th of Julyby *TomPreston

Journals / Personal

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~FakeTutour Jul 9, 2012 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

'merica is just a funny and obnoxious way to say America. In the right context it can be hilarious.

~Catsterw Jul 9, 2012

Merica is so fun to say!

~TheGhost2 Jul 7, 2012 Student General Artist

My friends and I say 'Merca whenever we're making fun of rednecks and/or blindingly patriotic people. That, and it's just fun to say.

~unicornsquest Jul 7, 2012 Professional Traditional Artist

I think Americans should be proud of their country! If you start looking into the History of all the other countries, we should be even more proud of our country. America has almost always tried to do the right thing for human rights, it has always stood up for the underdog. Even the slave thing people seem to think it only happened in America. Sure the Indians enslaved the tribes they concered. The Africans enslaved their own people too, sold women from tribe to tribe. The rich in other countries had indentured slaves of their poor. Even though it happened everywhere, America finally put an end to it (although it is illegal, they say there are sex slaves being sold in America today, not to mention the illegal aliens, and this needs to stop!)

~vivicool995 Jul 6, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

I do believe the 'Merica thing is just poking fun at the cliche overweight conservative "patriotic" stereotype. They stereotypically talk like that. This sentence is to say stereotypical one more time to make a pathetic attempt at a funny.

~lulucanpy Jul 6, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

'Merica or Murrica is used almost exactly how you think it's used.

It is supposed to represent the stereotypical redneck, who would stereotypically come from the south, thus the accent and the lack of education and huge sense of patriotism.... = MERICA.

So it's used as a mockery.

~Lemurrific Jul 6, 2012

I think some people will always find a reason to be bitter about every holiday.
"SAINT PATTY'S DAY? WHY DOES GREEN GET ALL THE LOVE??!!shift+111"

*v-for-vincent Jul 6, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

Happy 4th!

Fly Old Glory proudly

~Tobi4hokage2 Jul 5, 2012

No one is really Anti-4th where I live, it a mix between "I fucking love America!" and "Oooh...time to set off the illegal fireworks we've been stockpiling since July 5th last year" in my county, though the second part may not count since everyone is always setting off illegal fireworks(we're not allowed to have anything bigger than, and including, firecrackers) and no one ever enforces it.

~Ginger-Bean Jul 5, 2012

My American friend calls it Murca. I think it's just his goofy accent

haha

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