alexithymia, opia

World’s most dangerous bird has bizarre, glowing headgear

Structures on cassowaries’ skulls fluoresce under UV light, hinting at a hidden visual signal

Often labeled “the world’s most dangerous birds,” cassowaries just got even more intriguing. The aggressive, flightless birds have structures on top of their heads called casques, the purpose of which has long confused scientists. To the human eye, casques look fairly plain—but new research published last month in Scientific Reports finds this headgear fluoresces under ultraviolet (UV) light, possibly aiding the birds’ visual displays...

their (live!) young gestate for. wait for it. eight to eighteen (??) YEARS. can have up to 10 at a time. good grief.

longest lifespan of any vertebrate, up to five hundred years

toxic flesh

has giant eyes but is usually blind because of a weird little crustacean that's evolved to live on and eat their eyes. this doesn't seem to bother them much.

lives in deep cold water and has the lowest swim speed and tail-beat frequency for its size across all fish species. just generally lives life in extreme slow motion

largest genome of any shark

eats everything including moose and polar bears

Years. Years?!

Eight.

To eighteen.

there is not a thing on earth that could make me forget this panel

im actually quite proud of this one

ty!! :D

here's a scene from my thesis (very exclusive) ((not released anywhere yet because festivals)) (((hopefully)))

i have stuff on my insta (@/_voidsetup), but i dont really feel like reposting old work, i think i can do better now😔

Anyway, my question is both where and how you’ve become so fluent! I am extremely interested in animation, but have little idea where to start or even do any of the sick lineart and make it look clean

In short I’m kinda overwhelmed! 😭

Any good pointers?

Thanks a bunch!

(Ps- thanks for uploading your process video on the phm animation, it gives me a lot of really good additional insight!)

tyy🥺 you are all so kind here.. really motivates me to work and get better!!

i just graduated sheridan college! i cannot understate its help to me personally, but i believe its not necessary to be college educated to be a good artist.

what college gives you that is hard to find outside it is access to a big art community (with whom you will interact every day for four years and then most likely work with for the rest of your career) and access to life drawing

my suggestions:

• join an art/animation discord server and ask ppl for critique!

• do some fundamentals exercises (life drawing, bouncing balls, shapes in perspective etc.) BUT draw what you like. your ocs, or fanart, or just your favorite subject.

like, not just a boring pendulum swinging in a white void, but your favorite character holding a yoyo or a pocket watch or smth.

always shoehorn things you love into boring homework. life will be more bearable this way

• with every big project, try to use it to learn something new. a new style, or technique, or software. its hard to sit down and watch three hours of dry software tutorials. its easier to do that if all that time youre thinking how exactly youre gonna use these functions for your project.

• use lots of references! i film my own references for animation. it helps me with perspective, anatomy, timing, and performance!

it doesn't matter if youre a good actor (i really really am not), because you still subconsciously make little flourishes when you move, and they make all the difference.

i didnt film a reference for grace rocky hug. and even if i did, i would not show it anyway :P

• i know this sounds very generic, but like,, have fun? i always put music or an audiobook in the background (sorry milt kahl), and drink tasty drinks.

when youre doing roughs you definitely should concentrate fully, but when youre spending the entire day doing line between line cleanup (or spending the second day completely redoing what youve done the day before, haha totally not me right now😀), you might want to make life a little easier.