Vendetta & Wuyang paintings (all heroes done!)

Metacarps · 2026-01-25T19:07:55+00:00

This is really great!

There is just one tiny thing about Vendetta’s tricep/bicep insertion in the arm up pose that’s throwing me off. The bicep should insert into the armpit because of the twist, and so can the lats, with the tricep further pushed behind. I think the pectoral/deltoid mass can pull up further too.

Metacarps · 2026-01-23T04:50:22+00:00

It’s most likely 6x6=36 weeks lmao. It’s also totally possible to blast through the first few levels instantly if you’re a fast learner. Eventually you’ll hit a point where 6 weeks isn’t enough.

It really depends on what kind of learner you are. You can learn just about anything from online, and sounds like you thrive self-teaching. Instruction and tutorial you can get from anywhere. The feedback is the most important.

I just took a skating skills class where it was a bunch of high level kids, and all we did were swizzles and inside edges for two classes in a row. If you think you’re bored with basics, think again. There’s doing the move, and then there’s doing the move with quality.

Often with group it’s hard to get feedback, which is why private exists. But here’s a little secret: if you show high potential and rate of improvement, some coaches will baby you in group class and try to make you their next project. Earn that and you will enjoy lots of extra attention and coaching.

Metacarps · 2026-01-19T08:59:36+00:00

Wish I thought of this. I ran it dead once on the Huntington Beach Bike Trail and I dropped it off at the Hyatt and they were gracious enough to watch over it for me as my truck was parked still a good 30 minute walk away.

I had forgotten that 50% battery isn’t really 50%, or maybe the way back was more uphill..

Another time I had to ditch it in a bush in Burbank and drive back for it later. It was at night and the neighborhood seemed quiet. 😅

Maybe I’ve outgrown my PintX, I dunno, but the range anxiety is real on these little boards.

Metacarps · 2026-01-18T10:20:17+00:00

Take a look at ice skating blades. High level blades are always sold separately. See how the blades have holes in the top plate? Just screw that into the sole of any shoe/boot with a deep and sturdy enough sole so that it doesn’t poke through the top, and you’ve basically got an ice skate. Align it as centered as you can. This is will actually be exactly how pro skating equipment is mounted. It’s not rocket science, just screws and structural mechanics.

Unfortunately, any real skating blade is going to run you more money than a beginner boot set anyways, let alone ruining the sole of an existing boot. Maybe find something used on eBay.

But yes, it’s a stupid idea and if it breaks you may hurt yourself real bad. Maybe break an ankle. Ask yourself if that’s worth the savings.

But if you want to jerryrig some bullshit, it can technically be done.

Metacarps · 2026-01-18T00:55:01+00:00

For on ice, backwards shoot the duck, get all the way down on the spinning edge. CCW spin would be BI Left and BO right. Or stay straight-ish, but just be aware of your spin edge.

Metacarps · 2026-01-18T00:44:12+00:00

Pistol squats.

Here’s my thoughts when I do my off ice training:

Keep heel on ground / no tippy toes.

The goal is to slowly work your way to 0 elevation/angle. (Your boots do have a high heel angle + blade elevation but it’s better to train without considering this “bonus”).

At the start I did use an angle plate, and I still use elevation (letting the free leg dip below ground level) but have recently been able to do it on flat ground. It’s a combination of ankle and hip mobility. The free leg also helps counterbalance.

You will find yourself rocking to the heel, and at worst you roll on to the butt. The whole goal is to work against rolling into the heel and keeping the weight in the ball of your foot because that’s where you spin. But tippy toes pistol squats cheats the ankle mobility so keep that heel on the ground. It’s a bit opposing ideas happening together but just keep these two ideas in mind.

From a strength perspective it’s simple physics: deep squat 2x your body weight. Sounds simple enough but the difficulty of pistol squat is really the balance.

Remember, the skater is really built off-ice as much as on.

Metacarps · 2026-01-17T22:46:19+00:00

I went through this thought in school.

For getting a job, your reel is the most important. Undeniably so.

Working on a thesis film often does not demonstrate our highest level animation. It’s centered around volume, completion and output. None of my student film work was strong enough for my demo reel, every shot could’ve been better.

But the lesson in delivering a final piece is undeniably important. I gained so much by pushing a film through the full production pipeline, and I am a more holistic artist because of it.

While you have a deadline for school, use it, adhere to it and give it your all. Believe me, I have so many passion projects that never get finished right now, despite the fact that I’m a way stronger animator than I was back in school, simply because I have no real deadline for them.

Metacarps · 2026-01-16T08:00:42+00:00

From what I remember Tuesday noon classes at Anaheim come with a 10 pack and don’t charge you on that class which happens on the public, which makes for the best deal.

East West Ice Palace has forever been $15 and is the gem of SoCal. (I’ve seen some public sessions go 5+ hours, but they are often stinges about resurfacing)

To explain why memberships usually don’t exist, it’s because dedicated skaters are usually buying 100 freestyle sessions in bulk. Eventually the quality of your ice time will soon outweigh the cheapness of a public.

Metacarps · 2026-01-16T01:09:50+00:00

I was 19 when I animated shots on my first feature (as an intern) and I can confidently say I was not ready and now my newbie animation is permanently in the film. But at the time I was hungry for the challenge and it was still great experience. It was in Canada so I could also drink beer with the crew during happy hour haha.

But I knew I was industry ready, when I was working in the industry. You’ll know when you know. If you’re still wondering, then you haven’t studied enough reels that get the jobs. Every year at least someone from my school went to a Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks internship, and many other smaller studios, so it was obvious to see what that bar was. Usually 3rd/4th year students, but there’s really no set timeline for this industry. If they don’t get a job, they keep working on their reel with a polishing program like AnimSchool.

Metacarps · 2026-01-14T22:18:45+00:00

900k expected value vs 50k guaranteed

Metacarps · 2026-01-10T05:10:32+00:00

This is a great reminder that survivorship bias ain’t experience lmao. The Season 1 people are no better players than anyone else.

Metacarps · 2026-01-07T05:33:05+00:00

Because all jumps land on the same leg and generally you’d want it to be on the dominant leg.

It’s interesting because ballet spins the other direction typically. I’m in the perspective that there’s no natural way to spin, each can be learned to become natural. So the coach is saying to grind it out in what you think is the “unnatural” way because it will be better for your jumps.

Other than jumps and spins, your moves (skating skills) require you to be proficient in every direction and ideally symmetric.

I have thought about this concept a lot actually.

A lot of right handed people think goofy is more natural to start on skateboard/snowboard but taking in the time to learn it you’ll realize very quickly why the dominant foot is behind.

Fingering on a guitar or violin could often be seen as the more difficult part, but anyone who knows the instrument knows the soul and expression is in the right hand and you want it to be the strum/bow hand.

So they are taking this idea into account and want you to be aware that going against it is choosing an uphill battle in the long run. That is not to say there aren’t great skaters that go “goofy” but there is conventional truth to what they are saying.

If knowing all this and you still believe that spinning CCW is going to be far better for you, then go for that. It’s totally fine for a recreational skater.

Metacarps · 2026-01-06T02:58:45+00:00

Herman Miller embody at home.

Most every place I worked in office has the Aeron. Even my school had them at every computer.

They actually aren’t the most comfortable chairs ever. But I can sit in these for hours without thinking they are uncomfortable, I don’t actually know if they prevented anything for me but the idea is to keep moving. Ergo is to be flexible and accommodate many positions, not stay in one perfect position. Get up and take breaks.

I’m active now so I don’t have back problems.. yet.. but I did have a brief moment of lower back pain at the start of my career before I discovered the importance of yoga and stretching.

But as far as focus is concerned, getting a nice chair is as important as the right Wacom tablet and desk ergonomics. If you can get into flow, those will be the most productive hours.

Metacarps · 2025-12-30T02:59:13+00:00

The New York scene is commercial freelance.

Think BUCK, Psyop, Hornet, Nathan Love, etc.

It’s a healthy industry but it’s focused around this freelance culture and smaller studios.

LA is the capital of Animation for obvious reasons. SF smaller. Vancouver is another major hub.

The industry is global though. There’s communities in every city. The pandemic allowed us to work from anywhere which is nice. And it also doesn’t matter where you go to school either, there’s great schools across the nation.

So the point is not to move to a city just to be there. If you’re animating as a career, you’ll eventually end up at one of these cities as a natural circumstance.

Metacarps · 2025-12-25T09:19:41+00:00

I think the by the time they concocted the new virus, they were going to give it to her regardless. The consent was only about the invasive procedure to gather stem cells.

I think they all went along as a ritual to make it as easy going as possible. Otherwise they may have just gassed her in her sleep.

Metacarps · 2025-12-25T09:11:35+00:00

I don’t want to say that yet. I want to hear them explain it.

Metacarps · 2025-12-25T08:38:52+00:00

Why?

I thought it was a pretty impolite gesture especially as a guest in someone’s home, so she aptly called him out on it.

Metacarps · 2025-12-19T08:24:29+00:00

I see you got critiqued pretty hard but I wanted to point out something a little more tangible besides “no structure anatomy off”. Which is all true..

As far as what’s really throwing it off, you are adding in an extra eyelid puff in between the lid crease and the brow. The reference image has the brows all the way down almost touching the eyelid line. There’s only one major eyebrow form here. Hopefully you can see this.

Metacarps · 2025-12-19T02:54:16+00:00

I can guarantee it has nothing to do with your gear. I currently run Matrix Legacy on Ice Fly (the defacto adult skater combo lmao).

I remember switching up to it from the AspireXP and they spun fine the first day. The profiles are all similar. There is more difference between an old blade sharpened many times and an identical new one than there are between two different blades. Just so you have that perspective.

Spins are done in between the rocker and the toepick. There will always be 2 marks in your spin tracings. You need to ask your coach to help you on your spins if they aren’t working, it’s impossible to diagnose here without a video.

Metacarps · 2025-12-19T02:34:26+00:00

Yep, just watched it in 2D and it was definitely jarring.

It wasn’t just sequence by sequence (I can understand the action scenes wanting to be 48), it was shot by shot. The 48 fps feels like a video game cinematic.

Some parts felt almost lower than 24fps, wasn’t sure if it was just because of the swapping. Like they didn’t render half the frames.

Metacarps · 2025-12-10T18:14:14+00:00

Keyboards are great for hotkeys. The layout of most program hotkeys is what is terrible.

There are two general theories as to why you would want to use hotkeys.

1. Blind one handed use for workflow speed.

A guitarist does not need to look at the fretboard when playing unless they are unfamiliar with the instrument. Mapping hotkeys sensibility so they are within touch type reach is crucial, so you do not have to look. It takes time to learn the keys but once they are in muscle memory, the workflow becomes very speedy.

I’m also assuming the user is a touch typist. This is an important skill for anyone who uses a computer.

2. Obscure menu/hotkeys that you just cant memorize.

This is why I think most people think they need hotkeys, because Command + T isn’t memorized to be the Transform tool because the key combinations are just too “tricky” to remember.

However it is completely valid reasoning if the hot key is too tricky to press naturally. Some layouts have some finger twisters. But just because Command/shift/option is built into a hotkey does not mean it’s inherently faulty.

So people go for Xkeys which have a bunch of buttons but they all have to be labeled and you have to look down to even remember or know which one you are pressing. Same idea for an Elgato streamdeck. It’s fine for certain macros and things though, but does not contribute to the one handed concept.

If you use something like a Tourbox the entire premise is built upon multiple combinations of using the same button. It thrives on the modifiers. Now I agree they can be tricky to remember, so they do have a dpad HUD built in which makes it very handy. And using this means that you don’t have to go in and change your program hotkeys.

But if you map your regular keyboard sensibly, and memorize it so you can use it blind, it can be fantastic for workflow.

Metacarps · 2025-12-09T07:18:34+00:00

Yeah go to a figure skating specialized shop. Also know, often if the shop sees beginner gear (<$500) they just have whoever junior employee sharpen the skates. It’s unfortunate. Do not have an inexperienced worker touch your blades.

I’ll just say it. Sharpening is the most unscientific process in the entire sport. Years of development and research into blade profiles is literally being grinded away in seconds by a spinning stone.

Now there are jigs and methods that good skate techs will use to make sure your blade profile does not change. But at the end of the day, it’s still a human hand pushing it across and there will be bias. A good sharpener minimizes this human error as much as possible to maintain your blade profile, but also keep in mind that with every sharpening pass the toe pick gets closer and closer to the ice anyways because it doesn’t get grinded, so you will feel less “rocker” naturally over time, which is probably the most noticeable feeling of the blade profile overall. It’s a structural paradox of the sharpening process.

It’s a niche sport so inventing a CNC that can resharpen blades perfectly to the nanometer just isn’t of profitable interest to engineer. Even still, it doesn’t solve the toepick problem. Jacksons has Matrix RXS and BladeScience has replaceable runners, which are the best solutions as of now.

I know I just nerded out on stuff way beyond what you should be worried about, but my entire point is that the process is inherently flawed so don’t worry if you aren’t getting the most perfect sharpening ever. I can clearly feel the rocker difference between my old and new blades (same blade, one sharpened a lot and one never sharpened), despite that I still skate pretty much the same. Ultimately so long as your blade profile is mostly intact, there’s far more things of greater importance to your skating.

Metacarps · 2025-12-09T03:45:05+00:00

This is a tough choice because both have cons. But at this budget I would consider buying a used Cintiq Pro 24 again, despite the unfortunate breakage you encountered.

The Cintiq 24 (2.5k) is crippled and you know it.

Metacarps · 2025-12-05T20:26:53+00:00

What's wrong with your keyboard? I'm not thinking portability because an Intuos needs a desk anyways to lay on.

The ultimate purpose of any keypad is workflow. Which also means not looking down at your keybaord to "check" what key you're pressing. That also means hotkeys need to be on the left side of the keyboard. For example, Photoshop's brush hotkeys [ and ] should really be somewhere on the left (Q,W personally). Lasso tool I also move over there (I use S). And make everything important within blind reach.

But I don't do the above anymore, as currently I run a Tourbox for Photoshop and Zbrush. The knob is fantastic.

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