Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 8hCapital One. *makes a disgusted face* The fuck's in YOUR wallet? 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 11hman, after I'm finished with this illo, i never want to see another pentagon ever again 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hAn amazing line from someone diagnosed with leukemia: "It’s my reporter’s mind combined with an insatiable, lifelong curiosity about everything, and a slightly superstitious belief that if I can look the thing I fear directly in the eyes, it might agree not to harm me." 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hhere's my own progress on my armadillo illustration. Thought I'd finish the pencils last night. Didn't. But in doing all this, I learned a lot more about my own style than i would have if i wasn't so ambitious. 010
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hMake your own way. And the only way to do it is to DO it. Make mistakes. Don't emulate others. Figure your own shit out. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hBut if I can't tell your work from anyone else's who learns the same way, then you're not creating anything new and different, and your stuff is just added to the piles of work I'll never look at again. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hEspecially in art, you have to distinguish yourself. Your shit shouldn't look like everyone else's, and I see that all the time with people who do manga- and anime-inspired artwork. It's codified. A face should look like THIS, and hands should look like THIS. That's comforting to some. 010
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hGods, I've glanced at so many videos of people saying "this is how you do shading" or "this is how you paint the sky". But all that shit looks the same. I'd rather make "mistakes" that result in something new and different than do things the "right" way, if there even is such a thing. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hThis is why so many apps don't feel 'intuitive' or even work properly. Because making things work is difficult. And more often than not, developers take the easier or quicker route, because they're on a schedule to get something out by a given date and time. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hYou can be taught how to do woodworking. But it isn't until you make your first mistake that you truly learn in such a way that sticks with you. Don't be afraid of difficult. That's where the real gold lies. 010
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hSo I want you all to think about the way you create, if you're a creator. Hell, even if you aren't. There is more value to doing things 'the hard way' than by using shortcuts. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hWhen you work in a physical medium, like pen on paper, you make mistakes. Those mistakes, and correcting them in real time on real paper with a real pen, teaches you so much more than the ability to immediately erase the mistake as though it had never happened. You get soft and weak using digital. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hI see a ton of videos of artists using digital tools like photoshop and krita and clip studio to do their drawings. It's so easy for people to change colors on a whim, to keep redrawing the same line over and over, hitting Undo until they get the perfect line. But that's not progress. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hWhen you do the math, as it were, you learn to think in new and novel ways. That thinking is so much more important than just arriving at the answer. This brings me to my second point. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hSo it's in the DOING of the math that humanity progresses. When AI solves your problem, you're given an answer. But the true value lies in DOING IT YOURSELF. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hEuler was able to solve the problem, but the problem wasn't a real problem. Answering it had no practical applications. However, in determining how to solve it, Euler invented an entirely new branch of mathematics that DID have practical applications. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hThe idea is that AI has the power to crunch the numbers and find the solutions to humanity's toughest problems, but the answer often isn't the point. The example was made of a man named Euler who was presented with a logical problem involving bridges. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hSo... wanna talk to you guys about doing difficult things. A couple of issues have dovetailed to make me think about this. Last night I watched a video about mathematics. The subject was how AI is providing answers to classic math problems that people have been struggling with for decades. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 16hgood morning bluesky good morning bluefrenz good morning finland good morning dik diks good morning thing i said i'd finish last night but didn't good morning good morning 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 11/10/2026really reminded me of the ending of Society. Haven't seen it? Go find it. It, too, is insane. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 11/10/2026holy fuck that was one of the most insane things i've ever seen 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 11/10/2026also, holy shit the practical effects are fucking horrifying 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 11/10/2026about halfway through The Substance. Not sure why it's taken me so long to watch it. It's masterfully shot, directed, edited and acted. It's an incredible script. It's so full of dread 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 11/10/2026why the hell do i do this to myself bad enough I'm doing all of this scale pattern detail work now I've decided the background should be full of pentagons why why 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026GAAAAH I WILL FINISH THESE PENCILS TODAY I WILL I WILL 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026fucking hell, y'all, Robert Plant is still doin' it www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXJz...youtube.com“Ramble On” in San Francisco (HSB) - Robert Plant 10/4/26YouTube video by Rose in San Francisco 010
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026MAN what a waste of time that was. It was a half-hour Twilight Zone episode at best. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026You know what creature design I DID love? And was totally freaky to me and I never stop thinking about? The monsters in Arcadian. Go check it out. 010
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026If you've been reading what I've been posting, you can tell I don't think they're scary. 100
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Also, I'm done with movies in which bipedal humanoids crawl around on all fours as an attempt to be scary. It's overused. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026But again, that's not the point of this movie. Because if it is, that's being told very poorly. I've seen that movie and it's been told much better than this. 100
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Did you see Vivarium? That's an example of a movie that leads you to an inevitable conclusion. The point of the movie was that these people were doomed from the beginning, and it's the way it reveals that that IS the movie. 100
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Why did she eat the whole thing? Not explained. Why only one slice? It didn't do anything to her except maybe gave her some hallucinations. Was it supposed to? As the writer, what was the point of the cake? Not explained. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Just little, stupid shit like that. Then later, she wakes up in the middle of the night and eats the whole thing as though she were compelled to. But later still, he tells her she was only supposed to eat just one slice. So what was the point of any of that? 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Here's another bit: earlier in the movie, Liz (our protagonist) is pressured to have a slice of chocolate cake. We, the audience, can clearly see this is suspicious. She says she doesn't like chocolate, she never has, and her new boyfriend already knows that. He brushes it off and she eats it. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026This reminds me of the first season of Paradise, which I hated. Because it's set up like a murder mystery: in this underground bunker, who killed the president? And in the penultimate episode, we find out it was a character who we meet for MAYBE two minutes. That's not a fucking satisfying reveal. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Sure, but my point is this isn't that. I have also seen movies where the end is inevitable, but the movie UP TO that ending has to LEAD the audience to that conclusion. And not many writers know how to do that. 100
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026You know what would've been better? Having our protagonist discover this room at any point earlier in the movie. Fucking give us SOME suspense, okay? 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Ha! And now a scene -- while the protagonist is trying to escape, mind you -- in which this doctor dude is putting her things in a box, labeling it with her name and I guess the range of dates in which they were together, and putting it in a room filled with such boxes. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Guess what: real life is already meaningless. We GIVE life meaning. I don't need to see meaninglessness shown on film. That's not why I watch movies. I want to be told something new. Give me an idea I can think about after the show ends. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026This is the problem I have with movies like "Smile". If all you're doing is tormenting the protagonist throughout the runtime and then she loses in the end, what have you shown me? You've asked a question you can't answer, and there's no insight there, no knowledge gained. No reason for the story. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026I'll tell you this: horror movies where the protagonist loses in the end? Not interesting. The point of horror movies, to me, is examining an idea, and fleshing it out in the course of the film. If all you're going to do is kill the protagonist in the end, then it's just a snuff film. 100
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026But does he have to feed them? Not explained. Do they have to be his girlfriends? Not explained. Fucking dumb movie. 110
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026So get this: this guy's a doctor, right? And apparently he's long-lived because of some ill-explained pact with these forest creatures. Not explained at all. But he's been hooking up with women for decades, bringing them back to his old house in the woods so the creatures can eat them. 100
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Because this story could've been told in a half hour, the way it's going. Oh, and creepy humanoids whose eyes glow in the dark, scuttling across the walls and ceiling for no reason? Seen it. Not scary anymore. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026And now the grand plan is finally revealed, and fuck, they could've made it SO much more suspenseful. Like, have the protagonist consistently voice her concerns to her friend about the new man in her life, so that when he's revealed she's not this whimpering helpless thing, but she's ready to fight 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Also, the main couple we're meant to believe have some kind of attraction to each other, but it's not apparent in ANY of their interactions. 000
Akela Talamasca @akelatalamasca.bsky.social · 10/10/2026And already there's been a monster-related death, so SOMETHING is happening, but it's being revealed so poorly and slowly I just want to get to the end already. What a bummer. 000
