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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

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

Late Lesson LearnedWhile doing research for the new SYAC, I actually stumbled upon something truthful on TVtropes.org. Usually I take everything from that site with a grain of salt, but this one bit actually was surprisingly honest and truthful about webcomics:
Webcomics work on a very different set of standards than other fiction. Almost all webcomic authors are working pretty much entirely alone as they both draw and script their comics and most do not plan any further along than to the end of their current story — sometimes not even that far.
Many of them try to adhere to a schedule they aren't really capable of meeting, resulting in them rushing to meet their deadline and making mistakes that should be avoidable. So many of the good 10% lack qualities standard in traditionally professional works. This can be because of the lack of editorial input as well as the lack of lead time. Not all webcomics suffer from this, though, and even the ones that do can still be interesting. Arguably, some str

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

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

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

MinecraftI just got Minecraft and holy hell is it addictive. I've played around with the iPhone app before (building stuff with infinite blocks with no enemies to fear), but I wasn't prepared for how addictive the full version of the game actually is.
To my credit, I had a little help before starting the game by using a seed which spawned me in the middle of a NPC village, thus giving me shelter and resources to survive my first few treacherous nights. But after a few days had passed and I got used to the controls and crafting, I ventured out and built my own little hut and started digging away.
The first few nights were exceptionally scary, even though I was in a nice safe house. But gradually I learned that Creepers are less creepy to me now than they are simply annoying, and I find myself being more creeped out by those ominous Ender Men.
After digging a very inefficient hole near my house and gather up more resources (cobblestone) than I could handle, I decided to venture out and build a bi

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Tekkit Woes

by *TomPreston, Sep 16, 2012, 3:53:15 PM
Journals / Personal

After playing around with the Technic Pack for Minecraft in creative mode, I decided to try my hand at legitimately playing the game...

Wow... it's friggin' hard. And not hard in the sense that it's difficult collecting all the various ores I need to smelt and make cool things... I mean it's hard in the sense that all these mo-creatures creatures are a royal pain in the ASS.

It's one thing when you have to dig into a cave and deal with creepers, zombies, spiders, and skeleton archers... it's another entirely to have to deal with all those PLUS wearwolves, ghosts, scorpions, snakes, rats, lions, and a whole bunch of other nasty creatures. It's almost overwhelming how difficult it is to mine without getting mauled to death.

I've died a lot already, and I've only been playing for 20 minutes. Tekkit is awesome, but damn... it's really HARD to do it legit.

83 Comments

Mood: Optimism
Listening to: Yogscast Tekkit Series
Reading: tumblr
Watching: Doctor Who
Playing: Minecraft: Tekkit
Eating: Jaffa Cakes
Drinking: English Breakfast Tea

Tekkit Woesby *TomPreston

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~FancypantsRarity Sep 20, 2012 Student Traditional Artist

I watch Toby Turner on YouTube play Minecraft with that mod but he seems to die a whole lot more often in his Aether mod that just having the extra creatures.

~riokuarashi Sep 19, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

It is quite easy to turn the Mo'creatures off withing the settings.

~Kim-of-Sunshine Sep 18, 2012 Student Filmographer

My boyfriend tried the Tekkit pack, nearly got blown up by an ogre! I believe there should be an option to reduce some of the mobs or at least reduce their spawn rate.

~cooltime17 Sep 18, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

If your using the technic Lancher there should be a option which is tekkit with out them, with the area on the top left. but yes it is hard.

you probably been told that 100 times already... eh, have fun

~Magmos Sep 17, 2012

Well, best of luck to ya then!

~Tazwyn Sep 17, 2012 Student

Technic is the one with all the extra creatures. Tekkit, on the other hand, just has the normal creatures (through creepers are still a pain in the ass, regardless)

~Anebrd Sep 17, 2012

Its enough of a challenge for me with the normal assortment of baddies. However oddly enough when a creeper blew me up for the first time, it sealed my fate and I became a fangirl.

~ShadowBrush Sep 17, 2012

Ok, yeah try Tekkit, which is the less memory-hungry bit of technic, which is what you were playing. And the thing is, it's best to play it after you've learned a little bit. I play mainly with other friends who play tekkit because it's more fun, and you can work together most of the time, because most stuff is hard to do alone. Like my most preferred friend to play tekkit with can do everything I can't, and likewise.

~coolcat9728 Sep 17, 2012

Dude. I have a solution to your problem. With the Mo' Creatures. Use tekkit for single player. Not technic. Tekkit takes out Mo' Creatures and another mod that adds the little flying crystal things. That are just. Horrible

~Catbot158 Sep 17, 2012 Student General Artist

I need to play Minecraft. It's becoming a problem since all my friends play, and I have no idea what they are talking about...

P.S. Did you hear about the Nostalgia Critic? I'm asking because your mood status usually says you're listening to his reviews...

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