DDT(not the pesticide)

Emperor Zero

I spent way too long on this boss portrait...and it's still not done... ^^; Just needs a few finishing touches...I gotta run off to work in a minute though, so it'll have to wait. You'll see the final version when the time comes. ;]

Fun fact: doing this design was what convinced me to go through with the Blade alternate outfit gimmick, because I *need* to draw her in her dad's cute miniskirt at some point. XD It's not optional!

On that note, though-- I've developed a lot of sympathy for people who actually need those videos in order to learn. Because I feel like they're so hard to follow...! >_<

Like, an artist will say something like "break the body down into basic cubes/spheres to figure out the perspective" and I'll be like...but where, specifically??? Not every body shape/part can be adequately represented by a basic mass...like, how do you upgrade from 'abstracted cube-man' to an actual drawing of a person; what happened to the in-between step??

I mean, *I* already know how to do that. But it's such a crucial and difficult step (that I had to spend years teaching myself) that it instantly breaks my immersion when people just skip over it. A drawing of a cube needs to be explained, but not the reason why those cubes look a certain way or why you drew them in certain places...?

To give another example: an artist will say something like "we can improve this piece with stronger composition" and I'll be like ok but what does that mean??? Am I supposed to just automatically see the connection between "stronger composition" and whatever you just did onscreen?? For the love of god, help me out here; I thought this was a tutorial! DX

Composition is my weakest area at the moment, and I have yet to find a single video that explains it in a way I find helpful. Again, this is something I know intuitively, but it's also something I make mistakes with very frequently, so I'm really hoping to find a concrete explanation I can internalize. And the best I've gotten so far is "triangles...intersecting lines...sure looks nice"

ಥ_ಥ Yeah...sure does...

Tbh, I think this is a feature rather than a bug...despite how frustrating it is, it's just reflective of the subjective nature of art education. Everyone's art-brain latches onto different things, and you're probably not gonna teach something that doesn't jump out at you as "teachable".

It makes it necessary to try out lots of videos by lots of different creators...and it kinda tempts me to try and script some art tutorial videos of my own, despite...well, *gestures at brain in abject confusion*

Even if God gave me a skull filled with scrambled eggs, clearly there are things even I know that other artists don't, because if I have to watch one more creator trial-and-error their way into decent color grading by shuffling blend modes I WILL explode. ಠ_ಠ Like...I promise color theory is not that scary y'all..."mess with the Multiply layer until you like the way it looks" is not educational advice, and I refuse to believe it's somehow faster or more convenient than just learning how to choose shades...

-Deep Cut begins by finding the map in Big Man’s house, and heading to the recently-resurfaced Spirhalite Islands for profit and adventure. No ‘paying off the city’s debt’ backstory; I’m already tired of the writers tacking on these flimsy “justifiable” reasons for Deep Cut to be bandits. It’s starting to feel like they’re scared these characters won’t be likeable unless everything they do helps to build a puppy orphanage somewhere or sthg…the characters are *already* likeable, the fans have made that clear for 4 years now; have some faith in your audience. T_T It’s okay for them to just *want* to be themselves, without some moral imperative…

-Anyway, the tornado kicks up and crashes the helicopter as normal, and the protagonists are now castaways, living from their hideout ship and scavenging for tools on the nearby islands. They find the bot and the tanks as normal, and start finding plans and messages left behind by the ‘engineer’ who built them, when he visited the island long ago…

-The protags begin raiding the islands for the valuable relics they find, fantasizing about how much they’ll be able to sell them for when they get back to Splatsville (i.e. they still get currency valuations, even if we don’t necessarily have a monetary goal to save up for. We’re tracking potential profit here). The relics all seem to have some kind of mysterious power, likely due to the Spirhalite used in their construction…and as they gather them, the Salmonids on the islands gradually become more belligerent. We make no connection between those things, though– it’s a game; naturally it’ll get tougher as you progress, right?

-Mythic Salmonids guard special complete relics, and once they are defeated, the star projectors will appear, and the bot will play music for each member of Deep Cut, as normal. Once each song is sung, a vault will open up, and the protags will be able to take the relic. Each time this happens, Salmonids from the surrounding islands will be seen processing into the sea, heading towards the island at the center of the spiral. Also, we’ll see the patterns on the ominous door light up, as normal.

-The star projectors show the gleaming tower, the Salmonids processing towards the tower, and the ‘treasure’ rising from the base of the tower, in that order. We (the protag) won’t know what the treasure is until later…although when the ominous door lights up with the 3-headed beast pattern, we (the audience) will start to suspect that it won’t be good…

-The bot’s radar picks up a strong signal from the central island, and the protags are certain that’s where the big treasure is. According to the engineer’s notes, it will appear if they bring the mythic relics to that location, and sing once again (in their case, as a trio). So they head to the Mess Hall…the journey to the bottom is as difficult as normal, but once they get to the throne room, the Salmonids stop attacking. Instead they simply stare at the protags as they make their way down the hall…like, I imagine it as the area being PACKED with the usual mobs, but they’re all just idling around tracking you with their eyes and it’s super creepy and unsettling. ^^ And now you (the audience) KNOW something is up, but it’s a game; the only way to find out is to keep going…

-The protags pass through the glowing ominous door– as normal, they don’t really pay that much attention to it or its patterns. ^^; They make it to the ‘altar’ in the middle of the pool, but nothing is there…just an opening to the sky, far above. So they place the mythic relics in special spots on the floor, the bot plays a special song, and Deep Cut sings together. A final star projector rises from the water, and displays the three headed beast constellation…and NOW, finally, they begin to realize they may have made a mistake. ^^; Particularly when a massive golden egg descends from the skylight, and starts to hatch…

-The Salmonarch fight can pretty much function exactly the same…one thing I would add though– in the part of the fight where you make it back to the hideout ship, I would let you find a final letter from the engineer that you missed until now: in it, he says the thing about the locks not being able to hold much longer, and regrets coming to the island and trying to hunt down all the treasure, warning anyone who comes after him not to use the tools he created for that purpose. Is this to imply that he was the one who woke up the Salmonarch all those years ago and *caused* the huge invasion that Deep Cut’s families had to fight off? Perhaps… 👀

-So now you know (protags and audience) that this whole adventure was a reeeally bad idea, and you need to defeat the eldritch fish-god you accidentally summoned and set things right. And from there you do the final section of the boss fight with the drill attack, once again pretty much the same as the canon. Roll credits!

-As for the post-game: I would have the protags decide not to take the relics away from the island…instead they opt to just take out their Spirhalite. Both items are less powerful and less valuable when separated, but this should calm the Salmonids while preventing anyone from making the same mistake they did anytime soon. ^^; And at least they won’t have to go home empty-handed.

After this, Deep Cut and the Mechanic repeatedly return to the islands to scavenge and hunt for Spirhalite, and to locate more relics, just for the love of the game. Maybe I’d add a super-hard mode for putting each relic back where it was taken from; I think that would be a fun challenge. It would imply that any relics found post-game are being taken just for the fun of having to replace them, but I think that fits the tone of Splatoon XD

…And that’s it; that’s the rewrite. Roughly, anyway…I don’t expect this to become like #re_rise or anything, but I have to admit that I didn’t do much research for this. ^^; That is to say, I could see myself modifying it when more info becomes readily available…or not. The story is just so thin; there’s really not much to add outside of a light rework like this.

So why did I bother? This is getting into what I had planned to write during my spoiler-full review, but basically– I just wanted the narrative to be a bit tighter, and less vague. Lampshading that Deep Cut doesn’t know whether or not they caused the big final boss battle is not engaging; that’s the kind of thing the audience should be asking themselves until YOU, the WRITER, provide them with the answer. 

The question there is essentially “do the protagonists have agency in the plot”-- why would you make an already weak story even weaker by being noncommittal about that?? Do your job and make a decision! >_<

I chose to just make it their fault (although not entirely…if they had found the final letter earlier, or if the engineer had left more warnings, things might have gone differently). In the alternate universe where it definitively *wasn’t* their fault, I would want to put more emphasis on the Salmonids setting everything up in the shadows, while the protags are totally unaware. Someone needs to have agency; it’s one or the other. We can’t have the entire cast of characters just watching the plot happen…

And speaking of the Salmonids– my secondary goal with this rewrite was to make them less of a collective narrative punching bag. Like, in the canon story; it’s supposedly okay to bother them, it’s okay to steal from them, AND it’s okay to punish them for reacting (?) to being bothered and stolen from. Again, since we don’t know why the Salmonarch was born at this specific moment, I can’t say definitively that it *was* a reaction, but the most obvious framing of the story suggests that interpretation. The next most likely interpretation is that the Salmonids simply lack personhood and that they only exist to be bothered, stolen from, and punished; which is even worse, so I’ll stick with the first option. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-...Not much of a plot. I don't think the game suffers for it the way RotM did, but it was still kinda disappointing. :/ More on that later, in the spoiler-full review

-I found it really funny how the character writing for Deep Cut gets noticeably and dramatically more engaging as the game goes on. Like...it's almost like the writers started out not knowing these characters outside of basic archetypes, and had to figure out their group dynamic in real-time. Interesting? Yes! Comically unprofessional?? Also yes!

-In terms of the gameplay-- I feel like this game was made for passionate Salmon Runners~. I might even call it a love letter to Salmon Run, except for the fact that the level design is nowhere near as clever or intuitive...every level kinda just feels like 'walk until you run into a Salmonid mob', rinse and repeat. :/ But the designs and animations for the Salmonids are really good; I love the new ones they came up with (PAINCOURSE <3 EVIL FISH TRAIN FROM HELL, WE LOVE TO SEE IT) and the mobs themselves feel comfortably familiar, almost nostalgic~.

-...Call me a snob, but after watching a couple people struggle through this game I find it easy to tell who's coming in with Salmon Run experience and who isn't. XD I mean, the obvious tell is when people clearly don't know the tricks (you're supposed to walk under the Slammin' Lids to get them to drop...tbh I think Raiders tells you these things; just read the little files). But there's also the lack of 'shepherding' strategy-- people seem to think they can treat Salmonid mobs like Octarians and just brute-force through them. Unfortunately, Salmonids are designed to ensnare and overwhelm in a way that Octarians are not, so you're just setting yourself up to fail doing that. ^^; Stay on the outside of the mob, find advantageous positions and bait the fish towards you; prioritize the ones that annoy you the most, and focus on the Boss Salmonids! Don't waste ink on Chum and Cohocks when you (literally) have bigger fish to fry!! Salmon Run stages are designed to beat these lessons into you quickly, with all their walls and choke-points...but I assume the 'openness' of Raiders' map design does the opposite, providing very little incentive to learn. And as a result, some people just...don't. ^^;

-I love the dungeons; they feel very classic Splatoon-core. ^^ Oddly enough, that's the only aspect of the game that actually made me think "ooh, I wanna play that for myself". ...Look, I hate crafting with every fiber of my being, and I already explained why I think the horde combat is boring; funny gadget puzzles are all that's left to pique my interest. If Splatoon 4 releases on the Switch 2 as well, I'll probably go back and get Raiders at some point, but I have to admit that (like most Nintendo games, believe it or not) it's not really my cup of tea. Might make for some good completionist exercise, but that's about it

-This is completely random, but-- this game has made me certain that I don't like Shiver's voice. Don't get me wrong, her VA does a great job, but the casting is just not appropriate. Every time she opens her mouth it feels like some generic dub voice has taken the place of the 'real' actor; the dramatic flair of her animations and dialogue just doesn't fit with the nondescript anime-girl-next-door voice. Like, it's really jarring and distracting. Personally, I always imagined her as having a deeper voice, more than any of the other idols. She could still sing in a high pitch, since that's her style, but her normal speaking voice would come down a lot more, at least in her inflections. I know it might not be easy to do with the way they process the voices, but...I mean, Marie exists. And we have tons of masculine vocalists in the soundtracks...it shouldn't be impossible. I get the feeling that the devs see the problem too, and they're trying to save it by making her a more obvious ojou-sama archetype (more last-minute characterization, lol). And her VA seems to do that well, but...I'm sorry, it's just not enough. Far too little, far too late...

So I finally finished sketching the introductory manga pages for BLADE_Princess! And coincidentally, in the script writing (which is still ongoing, because why not) I have finally gotten to the point of the story where the whole party is assembled, so they can all commit war crimes together as one big happy family~

…In all seriousness, though: writing this story has been surprisingly rough. I have dealt with villain protagonists before, but usually I have some heroes or anti-heroes in the main cast to balance them out. This is my first time diving into the cesspool of maladaptive coping mechanisms and toxicity that you end up with in an ALL-villain cast.

And it hurts…! >_< It’s really painful to write for these characters…the first few areas are okay; you might even call them ‘fluff’, since they kinda just focus on just building the father-daughter dynamic between Blade and Magolor, and then the friendship between Blade and Auto-Nightmare. They do a few villainous things, but you can write them off as ‘cartoon violence’ or ‘unimportant’ if you squint.

But once they get to Ripple Star and Magolor’s grand plan starts to kick off, you really cannot do that anymore. ^^;; Everything gets a lot darker, everyone’s trauma and resentment is more in-your-face, and the characters start doing things they can’t take back. Like, this is the part of the story where you get to turn Blade from ‘just processing grief; could go either way’ to ‘fully on board for mass murder’ if you want to.

Speaking of which– Blade and Auto probably suffer the most from this tone shift, since they are essentially anti-villains (participating in evil, but with a sort of heroic mindset). Blade is just a soldier, and Auto is just a servant; if you don’t choose the ‘Dark Blade’ route, they spend most of the story kinda ‘just doing their jobs’ out of a sense of loyalty to their creators.

But the torment their creators end up dragging them through really ends up warping their minds…I’m in the process of changing my old drafts of Auto’s arc to include a lot more ‘lost innocence’; I don’t think I realized how the process of getting the Star Rod would probably affect him until I started writing it. That part of the story was originally a “Blade + Auto friendship adventure!”...but that is no longer possible. ^^;

And Blade’s arc is just…between her impending death, her painfully deteriorating body, her grief over her father, the constant suicide-bait hallucinations, her survivor’s guilt pushing her to overwork, AND now Marx going out of his way to bully her…the girl is literally in hell. Like, her life is just this big, swirling black hole of debilitating agony (which is another reason why Auto’s character takes a turn…he really can’t just sit back and watch that).

It’s…frightening, to think about how I’m going to add *even more* suffering on top of that for the last part of her arc (and there’s a lot to add…). Like, I’m scared of what I’ll end up writing. ^^; 

I just take a little solace in the fact that Blade is the kind of character who’s good at regulating her emotions…like, she cries a lot, and she gets noticeably angrier as the story goes on, but she seems to have an easy time accepting her feelings after each breakdown and moving forward with them. It’s something that sets her apart from the rest of the cast…maybe because she’s the only one with an actual military background; she’s trained to ‘endure’, and since she had such a healthy relationship with her father (more on him later), she’s able to talk through things and express herself as part of that ‘endurance’.

Every RPG needs some fancy character portraits~. It’s been a while since I posted any sketches here…

I think I’ve been making good progress with the preparation for B_P– the first batch of manga pages is fully drafted, and I’ve made up a bunch of banners to put these character portraits in once they’re done.

I’m hoping to get a lot of mileage out of these…not only am I gonna use them for status report banners (‘character joined the party!’, ‘upgrade acquired’, etc.) I am also planning to use them as emotes for the ‘heart-to-heart’ convos, and bases for alternate costumes (if I actually implement that…maybe I will, or maybe I’ll just make some for funzies). I hope I do a good job coloring them, because you’ll be seeing them very often. ^^;

Someday…

Yoooo, I finally finished writing and testing the first few areas of BLADE_Princess! I think I’ve set up the beginnings of a good game for y’all, and hopefully something to keep me drawing on a more regular basis. ^^;

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been more into writing lately…and I don’t mind that; I love to write. But I also love to get projects done occasionally, which is hard when you’re constantly fighting off the script brainworms. 6_6 So please tell your friends, participate, and do your part to help me stay anchored in reality! 8D

In case you forgot how this goes: so B_P is structured like an RPG, but really it’s more like a visual novel, where your goal is to earn Affinity Points between Blade and Magolor (pictured) to determine the nature of their relationship. But, since the decisions will be made through polls, the only way to steer things the way you want is to follow the game and vote. ;)

Since there ARE branching paths in this game, that does mean you will potentially miss out on certain content depending on what you vote for…but I’m going to show you as much of the missed content as possible at the end of each area (i.e. whatever I have written/prepared…as we get deeper into the story and the branches diverge more, I probably won’t be able to do everything ^^; ). 

All that is to say, just focus on getting Blade and Mags to do what you want them to do, and if you’re curious about the alternatives you’ll get to see them later. Or just ask! 

I caught a really bad cold during my trip last month, to the point where I could barely talk for a few days. And by now, my normal vocal range is pretty much restored, but there's still an *entire octave* of my singing voice that I can't access yet. Like, the notes aren't even hoarse, they're just nonexistent. Silence and air hissing.

I apologize for taking so long to get to this ask, but you see, character design is my whole entire life, so I needed some time to distill my thoughts. I could answer this question with a full series of textbooks and probably still have more left to say. XD

My first piece of general advice, if you’d like to learn from me through character design critique, would be to check out the Doki Draws channel. 😉 My Xenoblade series (and that one video I did on Pokemon…and the Pikmin one…basically, any time I’m talking about a video game besides Splatoon) probably features the most discussion about design principles– what certain choices mean, and how they affect the viewer, and how to adjust them to get the effects you want. And the angrier I get, the more I go in-depth. ^^ I still feel that my Lanz and Sena video, despite having the highest dislike-to-like ratio I’ve ever gotten on anything, is the crown jewel of my design commentary so far; I spent half the video tearing into a single design and it was really fun. 

(I chalk the dislikes up to the fact that Xenoblade fans don’t really seem to like criticism or engage with it very often within the fandom…and since that was a pretty negative video, it was inevitable. ^^; But I don’t mind; it was worth it)

Now for some more specific advice– like, let’s pretend I’m trying to make any given design; what’s my thought process??

First, I start with artstyle and animation– an optional step, only for those who happen to share my particular brain problems. ^^; I like to invent new artstyles along with designs, and visualizing the character as a vague blob moving around helps me to decide what they should look like. Are they a big hulking figure stomping through the setting; are they a thin wispy figure flipping and jumping over rooftops? Are their limbs visible; are there any capes or skirts or big hairstyles moving with them…? Do I want to adjust the artstyle to emphasize any of those things…?

After I’ve narrowed down a vague silhouette, I start on the colors. Sometimes this happens automatically during the animation step, but other times it takes some extra effort. Should this character feel modern and grounded (emphasis on calm neutrals, dark colors on the legs)? Or should they feel ethereal and fantastical (emphasis on dramatic colors, less predictable color blocking)? Or do they have a specific vibe with a specific color scheme, or maybe even an outside inspiration with a specific color scheme (in the case of gijinkas and redesigns) that I need to work with?

After I have an idea of the colors I want, I pick a main color for the outfit (or their ‘form’, if I’m still not sure about the outfit) and try to arrange the other colors around it until I get something I like. Sometimes this takes a lot of trial and error. ^^;

While I’m working on this, I’m usually simultaneously working on the construction– figuring out what goes on the ‘form’, the specific pieces of clothing or armor or anything the character should wear. Sometimes this is aided by the colors: if I envision a big blue blob in the middle of their torso, it could become a corset or a vest or a pattern/logo in construction. The artstyle I chose also feeds into this by determining the complexity of the design, i.e. how much detail and greebling I need to add. A character who belongs in Fire Emblem needs more than a character who belongs in The Powerpuff Girls; and certain clothing items/accessories may not feel appropriate for one or the other. This is where style study and fashion study are really important: it’s a lot easier to craft a design in a way that feels ‘correct’ to the viewer when you know which items tend to belong together, and how certain styles tend to depict them.