serpentine malign

there is a lot i still really dislike about bsky -- the culture and the short form UI borrowed from twitter, also its tendency to ban certian artistic kink with a 'shoot first, ask questions later' mentality, but two things i have deeply enjoyed recently are:

a) it's by far the place i've had the most wholesome interaction with JP fans/artists.... one of my childhood 'made it' goals was to get noticed by JP artists, and hell, several of them have ordered my doujinshi....... :D;;;; like, legitimately, what an honor. to respect/remix something from their culture so well that they notice and appreciate it.

b) the ability to turn off *all* notifications except for replies/mentions is seriously a game changer \o/ i used to have an extension on twitter back pre 2020 specifically to remove numbers and this effectively does the same thing. doing that on both bsky/tumblr helps curb the worst 'check frequently' impulses so it's like returning to dA-era culture. poast art. reply to comments. give cute compliments. (don't read shit on there; i have a list specifically for only showing pictures/art from people who i follow). touch grass. etc.

i've been doing a thoroughly deep dive in the last month (in part because of a large secret project with one of y'all) on whether sketchup models can be a legitimate part of my comic/illustration pipeline. sometimes some illustrators make it look good - Chance Kubesh's work here made me give this research another go; been elbows deep in Style Builder this past weekend seeing how i can replicate his linework.

that said, what i'm discovering for me is that there really is no match for personal drawing & art direction in terms of sheer time efficiency x quality.

a) most free sketchup models look like 'baby's first cyanogen model' (remember that program back in the day?). the human proportions are always off (easily seen in a comparison of cathedrals - see the crudeness of this one versus the accuracy here) what historical era is it from? are the textures even right? etc.
b) sketchup is very, very picky about which file formats it imports. by the time you've narrowed down free models of the specific architectural model you're looking for, that's in your file format, with hopefully no errors or cheap hacks with the modeling, you've probably wasted an hour or two. it's also something that still needs to be tweaked stylistically. if there's one even available.
b) i can draw insanely fast precise lines now, apparently(???). doing said secret project has me cranking out actual three point perspective cityscapes in ... two hours? with very minimal mental overload, and that's just me on the early side of getting used to an architectural mentality/pipeline. i really think this year is going to be the mythical 'krad figures out backgrounds' year. XD
c) models in general tend to miss the context. the ~character~ that makes good architecture/environments/levels come alive. i really noticed this when i saved 100+ 360 photogrammetry files from sketchfab -- these are not polygonal models as much as they are a "camera/video" scan of real world surroundings, so they do a far better job capturing the lived-in imperfections of surroundings, even in otherwise sterile areas.
d) you're still reliant on one program that forces you to sign-in online with some hellish DRM (i'm using my dayjob enterprise license lol). does not bode well to longevity/stability compared to your own hand.

in a very limited context i can maybe see a 3D model worth it in drawing pipeline assistance, namely in the scenario below: (a) a historically-famous/accurate setting that already exists (vs a fantasy location), (b) all camera angles set in one room/location for 10+ panels, (c) with the setting being incredibly complex in details (lots of a historically-specific era column carvings, arches, railings, steel beams etc). an action scene on an outside fire escape, i might consider it.

otherwise though? personally, i can freehand it faster. :v

i've been kinda in the weird state of quietly grieving the old internet this past week ngl.

basically readying myself mentally to cold turkey leave social media for good if it comes to that with the recent slew of age verification laws (since my state was included in it too). uploading identifying documents? not gonna happen. that's a red line for me. i'll fuck with VPN's/minor workarounds as long as those work but I'm one of those bastards who actually gives two shits about privacy regardless how "dead" it is lul.

social media i'm most likely to leave/most likely to enforce age verification, my guess: tumblr, bsky, discord, mastodon, itch.io (honestly i'm this close to just deleting mastodon and cara.app. they're just not worth it for me).
social media i'm least likely to leave: email (with a privacy conscious host), dreamwidth (i feel like they would fight it all to the bitter end), website (they already have the legal documents you need for website hosting, but are exceptionally privacy conscious too).

so like, i'm not just gonna up and desert my website/this diary, but it'll be much more of a "write only" approach.

i've got enough books & steam deck games backlog to last me at least another five-ten years, at least until a better version of the internet comes along. also got some delicious art projects to occupy me for about the same time, and the pen pal group all has each other's addresses. in the oddest of ways i'm actually looking forward to ~returning to offline~ since that was always kinda... my default? (i kind of like being slightly unapproachable? not in an unfriendly way that makes people feel bad, more of a chronic exhaustion way.)

grieving the potential of the internet. but i feel like it's better for me to just accept that what i knew ain't comin' back. frankly ai slop/DDoS'ing broke it irreparably the last three years. so it's a long overdue coming-to-terms. frankly i feel better already just... letting it go.

it's wild re-listening to old music when i first "got online". remember supermassive black hole by muse? i remember when it was uploaded lol.

anyway that's the soundtrack in my head for this mood. wrapping up loose ends for this next phase.