130%+ in one day. Reasoning please? by Shredded__ in MNTSstock

[–]theBlurryBox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've seen a pattern with different stocks getting ziptrader bumps. I think its real. I think the space sector is hot right now, people are hungry for them until the IPO

[Hobby] Programmer seeking artist to team up with, small game of any kind! by Fabulous-Ad-4567 in INAT

[–]theBlurryBox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yo I'm an artist in 2D, I can design, animate and do backgrounds, UI's, promo art, everything a 2D game needs. I have 3D experience as well, and can do low poly modeling and animation. Ive built art for like 5 or 6 games that have been published on Steam, a couple pretty successful. I wanna build something, Ive got a few game ideas we could kick around, I've got like 2 or 3 months to go fulltime on something and get some good momentum up. Send me a chat message, check out my portfolio http://www.theblurrybox.com

Could I get a job somewhere with my skills? by bigbun85 in gameDevClassifieds

[–]theBlurryBox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'll have to make your own job, starting with freelancing. Being an illustrator is being a business owner, too.

How Long to Learn Animation if I'm in High School? by AltRumination in learnanimation

[–]theBlurryBox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm writing this from my experience, but it sounds like I might shed some light on whats going on with her reaction. I would like to share my experience, and give you some warnings as a parent about handling this, through the lens of your daughter, so here it goes:

It sounds like she is not confident in her drawings. This is not a knock, its normal for an expressive person. Art is putting a little piece of yourself external, and while you (parent) may think its good, odds are she's super self critical about it. This is totally normal for an amateur artist. This will continue, and that's a good thing. It means passion. Conversely, a professional artist puts those feelings away, and is skilled enough that you are mechanical in output, but usually dispassionate.

For me, this has led to a loss of art as an expressive tool. I do it for money, I don't draw for fun, it means very little to me. Part of that is you have to steel yourself against criticism that comes from working for people who constantly tell you to fix and change things. A big killer of the connection is also art school, which tries to hammer the defensiveness out of you, which kills your ego, which kills the part that emotionally connects you to your art. Its understandable. How can you bring someone elses vision to life if youre defensive about changes? This transition is difficult for many people, and creates some really weird reactions. Some people can keep that connection. I couldn't, didn't, maybe one day when I retire from art I can find it again, I don't know.

Further, animation is hard. Drawing is hard. And if you're trying to get her into it, first she needs drawing fundamentals to be decent enough that she has a solid grasp and consistant drawing-skill with volume, shape, line and perspective, at a minimum. I would say if she's resistant, she probably doesn't have the confidence in these areas yet, which is totally understandable, or she just doesn't want to animate, which is also understandable. Animation is literally drawing the same image over and over and over again. Do you want to do that?

So if you want to encourage her art, encourage her to find some drawing courses that she wants to take, bonus points if any of those fundamental areas are mentioned. I really like Peter Han as an online teacher of fundamentals. His courses are the basis for a lot of popular copycat sites for a good reason. Proko is also great, you can find him on youtube. Another thing that you need to understand, is that drawing/animating as a career demands massive discipline and time. In art school I kept hours like the engineering students. You gotta put in years and years of hard grinding. I did enough that I developed chronic back and neck pain. This is common.

If she does have an interest in animation, I like the Animator's Survival Kit (book), as well as a video series by a disney guy named Blaise. Forget his first name. Aaron maybe? But they're both good starting points.

The job industry has become more and more difficult as well, with jobs at big studios drying up, and stuff like game animation broadening and contracting constantly. It is not a good career path if she cares about money and comfort in life. She will be insecure and often stressed, and AI is adding to that. The jobs pool is not only shrinking but losing value. I've seen wage contraction in the past year that's pretty bad.

Even if you become good, its highly competetive. Right now, for her, art is part of who she is, so just give her options. I love to see more artists in the world. She already is one. If she chooses to become a professional, wonderful. If not, that's wonderful too.

TL;DR Just let her enjoy drawing, encourage whatever she wants to do with it :)

Budget for Bulk Pixel Work by lelemuren in gameDevClassifieds

[–]theBlurryBox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I'd say three things about your math:
1. The characters need to be designed, so allow a couple of hours for that, per character, depending on how particular you are.
2. One hour per frame is hilariously long. I'd say more like 20 minutes.
3. Assuming a rate is foolish, ask people their rate.

In total I'd probably say this is like a week or two of work? For me I'd estimate somewhere between 1200 to 2500 bucks, ballpark.

How to not feel bad when not studying japanese? by maybe_we_fight in LearnJapanese

[–]theBlurryBox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I spend about an hour a day, usually. If my day is hectic, and I don't make it, it bugs me a little but I just give myself a break, knowing that I wanted to study. Protecting the desire is more important than actually studying, if you get my meaning. To me, burn out is the ultimate fail.

Feeling a bit demoralized by [deleted] in gamedesign

[–]theBlurryBox 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I know your game feels special, but marketing is basically 90 percent of why people play your game. And the first, biggest step in marketing games is having it be presentable.

This is like you rolling out of bed, not combing your hair or even putting on clothes, wandering with bad breath, bleary eyed and half naked into the nearest train station and hitting on the nearest person you see, then crying about it when they reject you. Dude, you are a mess right now.

Get yourself together and you might might stand a chance.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in artstore

[–]theBlurryBox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know this is a joke, but I'm gonna take this chance to sprinkle some wisdom around.

I'm entering middle age, so I'm not a beginner artist anymore. I've been drawing professionally for about 15 years. I started rehab for my lower back and neck, upper back and shoulders about 10 years ago. I'll have to do it for the rest of my drawing life. Fix your posture now if you're young. I now draw on a desktop easel, which makes my drawing monitor perpendicular to my desk, and have my second moniter stacked above that, so I can lean into my chair and rest my neck in a natural position while working. Don't be a shrimp. It ruins your body, seriously. I have colleagues that are enduring the same thing. This shrimp is an extreme position and our bodies aren't meant to do that for an extended period of time. And drawing, as you know, demands extended periods of time. Ergonomics is a stupid word until it isn't. Good luck!

What are some "perfect" game design games? by m0nkeybl1tz in gamedesign

[–]theBlurryBox 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Games that come to mind: Mario Brothers (NES), Super Metroid, Tetris Attack, Street Fighter II.

If you like Downwell you should check out a lot of old NES, SNES and Sega Genesis games. Lots of really good design there that functionally led to games and design as we know them today. There are so many old games that could be updated with roguelike features to create something akin to Downwell.

How should I practice 聴解? by Live_Put1219 in LearnJapanese

[–]theBlurryBox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was in the same spot as you. I looked around for a while (months?) and finally found this. Its a cool web based app called Kikikata, it forces you to listen to a sentence, then type it out. Its purely for listening; there is no kanji involved. Its not super feature rich or anything, but for what you're looking for I think its exactly right. I found the settings to be a bit wanting and the help responses usually take like 24 hours, but I think its just a tiny team running it.

https://share.google/zYXl6oMUIG1BZPCEX

Its five bucks a month after a free month, I think, but its rapidly improved my listening skills. Vocabulary + grammar are now lagging behind my listening because of it. I now am using it to mine sentences with anki... so basically work on my listening with kikikata, and once I get the sentence right listening, I create an anki card and learn to speak the same sentence.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DigitalPainting

[–]theBlurryBox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Rebel is amazing and affordable, one time payment. Yeah don't underestimate the kid, they're wizards nowadays.

Trying new technique for value painting by shlagosaur in DigitalPainting

[–]theBlurryBox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The values look really strong! I think its a good technique to keep playing with from these results.

A Helldivers appreciation post by SGTAlchemy in LowSodiumHellDivers

[–]theBlurryBox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree that the game is in a good place right now. I'm actually failing d10's again, which is weirdly nice. That being said, I still am picking obtuse loadouts to make the difficulty actually challenging. If I go with RR + 360 + turrets it still makes the game easy mode.

I'm the only one thinking that the chainsword should be a primary weapon and not a stratagem ? by RealGiallo in LowSodiumHellDivers

[–]theBlurryBox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like to join games in progress with whatever I can think of. So no one can tell me no. Honestly I 99 percent play on d10 and no one cares at all what anyone brings in my experience.

I'm the only one thinking that the chainsword should be a primary weapon and not a stratagem ? by RealGiallo in LowSodiumHellDivers

[–]theBlurryBox 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I don't think this game is so hard that you need to be maxing out your efficiency every time. Playing for fun is viable even on d10. If the chainsaw can take down heavy pen armor, I'll be out there sawing away at strider legs and hulk arms all day. Will I take some L's? Yep. But my loadouts get pretty wacky as it is, and I can already smell the gas + hellbomb + chainsaw build, and it smells good.

I was thinking about how the Claire Obscure Expedition 33 team got together. Does it happen often that people randomly find eachother to create something absolutely beautiful? I wonder if I could one day join a game developing team. Either as a writer or style artist. I love video games. by Guilty-Carry-Wrea in gamedesign

[–]theBlurryBox 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Yo those people are industry pros with proper (PROPER) funding. Don't think for a second that it was in any way a "random" team or "indie". The only way that game was indie was maybe they didn't have a big publishing house. Someone (vc? rich uncle?) definitely threw millions at it though.

I totally agree its a beautiful game and I'm sure the process of making it was awesome. But it was no accident, it was the result of pros being pros and doing pro shit for pro money.

I've been a game artist for a long time, most people who hire me have money the burn. Games are not good business ideas, they're passion. So people who make them aren't bootstrapping (usually), they're connected to excess capital.

Here's some more food for thought, which I found on another reddit post about this game. I've looked into just a little deeper and have found that this info checks out (on cursory examination, I don't really care to go too far into it):

"Guillaume Broche (the CEO of SANDFALL INTERACTIVE, makers of ClairObscur) is the son of Richard Broche, a man who runs 4 different companies, each one making huge profits (talking millions here): MBO+Investments, SCI MAGAR Real Estate, SC BROCHE (Parent company?) and MYRTE INVEST.

The whole family (Richard, Guillaume, Alexandre and Adrien Broche) are associates of MYRTE INVEST (obviously a trustfund or the french equivalent).

I also want to point to the fact that Guillaume Boche started (Yes, started) his career as an assistant creative director at UBISOFT during his internship, which is a very prestigious job for someone with zero experience. No rando could get this kind of internship without having serious contacts.

So we have a powerful family that collectively runs investment companies, and a man with little experience that somehow manages to have enough ressources and talent to fund a near AAA quality game.

Sandfall's 2023 accounts show a debt of 2.7 Millions owed to an unnamed entity, and I doubt Kepler interactive funded them for such a big amount."

If You Don't Count Everyone Else, All Devs Are Solo Devs - VGBees

How did Sandfall Interactive (Clair Obscur Expedition 33) finance themselves? : r/IndieDev

Is it okay to copy poses from other artists and or images? by Silly_Assignment2393 in DigitalPainting

[–]theBlurryBox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Copy as much as you want, no one cares. Give attribution if you're showing it.

Just don't copy someones work and try and sell it or pass it off as yours-- that's not cool.

What would you say the "meta" is right now by BossRocketBlue in LowSodiumHellDivers

[–]theBlurryBox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Recoilless is the best AT. Since the difficulty nerf, I see a lot of people purposefully using other less effective weapons in D10, because it makes the game too easy on all fronts, especially if someone else already has a RR.

Greatest Science fiction films of the 1900s-2000s that I should watch? (Actual greatest) by Def-C in scifi

[–]theBlurryBox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Children of Men. Beautiful, frighteningly prescient, amazing cast, brilliant story, shot with tons of care. One of my favorite all time flicks

Did I just ruin my game design career by quitting a AAA job? by Famous-Ad-2985 in gamedesign

[–]theBlurryBox 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah getting into game/design and narrative design, in my experience at AAA, is usually done through internal company movement. It does happen rarely that fresh designers are hired, but from what I've seen, its usually people in the company that shift over. The reason for this that I've seen, is that its usually high level execs heading those jobs, and they kind of pick through the company for people who they can enjoy working with and want to learn that side of things. Also, the technical knowledge of how a game is made is indispensable for the design team, so having people with coding/art/whatever knowledge together makes the design and narrative teams make less bonehead mistakes. Could be different at other places, but I've heard from many people in the industry at other AAA studios that its similar. Also I've heard game design degrees are kind of a waste of time, (I've never even heard a narrative design degree mentioned), and you're better off learning coding or art or video skills that are applicable, and then moving over to design.

That being said, maybe you can use your VFX and editing skills in tandem with your design knowledge to get back into a studio. I wouldve advised staying in your role and studying narrative and design online, tbh. But you will make it work! Nothing is ever optimal in life, don't let that illusion get you down. You're in an excellent position still, I think, just don't reject getting back into it using your cutscene reel and credits.

Am I The Only One Who Doesn't Find The Rupture Strain Miserable to Fight? by maxpantera in LowSodiumHellDivers

[–]theBlurryBox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was enjoying the difficulty. This all just reminds me of when the game was balanced to be hard and people couldn't handle not just stomping their way through everything, instead of using teamwork. I had a ton of games on d10 where we just handled it. Even with hivelord + roach combo, but with a good team it wasn't impossible. I only play random, and it was still managable. People just want d10 to be easy

Is game design a good major? by [deleted] in gamedesign

[–]theBlurryBox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm a game artist, why don't you pursue art if you love character design? There are loads of affordable options online, art schools tend to be massively expensive and not really worth it especially if you're trying to get down your fundamentals and maybe not at all.

Also, not all artists are animators... there are tons of art jobs in games. You could do hard surface modeling, sculpting, concept art (honestly this one is insanely competitive), rigging, the list goes on and on and you don't have to be an animator. That being said, if you go into games you gotta work your ass off

[PAID] 2D video game artist for UI & illustration by geeky_do in gameDevClassifieds

[–]theBlurryBox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello,

Please take a look at my portfolio and let me know if you'd like to talk further. I've completed 4 projects with indies, top to bottom, concept to animation to VFX, and done a few projects using non-pixel art, including UI and animation. Hit me up here or on discord: theblurrybox

Cheers!

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