EDIT: THIS IS A CARRD NOW! it's updated and organized!!
EDIT EDIT: this is on my website now! this is the version that will be somewhat regularly updated. the carrd will remain, but will no longer be updated.
use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.
use firefox or librewolf (open-source fork of firefox) instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).
use mega instead of google drive
get rid of bloatware
use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite
get free stuff with the help of r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH, r/piracy and r/roms
use trakt (for shows and movies), letterboxd (just movies), or TMB instead of IMDB (owned by amazon).
use storygraph instead of goodreads (owned by amazon).
use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions
use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp
make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge
use search for a cause, ecosia, or ocean hero to support the environment instead of google
use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)
use flashpoint to play archived online flash games
find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books
burn your music onto cds
use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe
use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, or tuta instead of gmail
remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X
remove bloatware on samsung X
use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta
use project gutenberg for free public domain books, and librivox for public domain books and audiobooks
use the seal app (android only) to download video and audio
use ellipsus instead of microsoft word or google docs
use mastodon instead of twitter
use peertube to create a network of small video hosting providers (disclaimer: not a 1:1 alternative to youtube)
use threema and signal for encrypted communication, on mobile and desktop
use qwant and startpage for secure internet browsers
use syncthing to securely transfer files between devices
learn how to jailbreak your kindle/ereader if you have one (wiki and video walkthrough)
use riseup’s email and VPN for secure communication (aimed towards activists)
use cryptpad and collabora instead of the microsoft office suite
use google takeout to export the data on your google account
use library extension to look for books on online stores and find them at your library
remove paywalls with removepaywalls
install the open-source adblocker ublock origin
install sponsorblock to skip sponsored segments on youtube videos
use bookfinder to look for the cheapest available listings of books, including textbooks
learn a language through mango (duolingo laid off some of its employees and now relies on AI translations) for free with a library card or through your school
edit photos with photopea
edit pdfs with foxit and sumatrapdf
download music with doubledouble
take notes offline and collaborate securely with obsidian
for android tv, use smarttube and cloudstream (ad-free, open-source)
change your OS to linux
changelog:
removed ground news (uses AI to summarize articles)
removed unroll.me (sells your data)
removed proton mail and drive (AI assistant feature, claims of CEO Andy Yen supporting Trump, please DM if you have proof I can add here)
removed NCH suite (only has very basic free features, puts watermark on anything saved)
notes:
this post blew up while I wasn’t looking (the end of my semester was hellish, and i recently came back from a 3-week family vacation). thanks so much for all the suggestions! <3
i included Ecosia because of their financial transparency. It’s physically impossible that they plant a tree for every search, but their profits still go towards projects including reforestation and solar energy. i view their actions as a net-positive
feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3
I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard
Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.
Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.
Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.
Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.
SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.
SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.
Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.
Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.
Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.
Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.
Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.
After some of the reveals in episode 8, it turns out Caine was kinder than we ever thought he was
Let me explain:
You’re probably like WHAT THIS WAS LITERALLY HIS VILLAIN ARC EPISODE HOW DID THIS REVEAL HE WAS KIND???
Again, just let me explain.
When Kinger first got the bucket put on his head and was saying “Actually, we weren’t trying to program a game at all, we were just developing creative AI” that reveals to us several things:
1: Caine was not meant to be the ringmaster of a child’s game, unlike we had all assumed before.
2: Censorship of cursing and sex was not programmed into him, unlike we had all assumed before.
3: The attempts to keep the humans from going insane via the daily adventures was absolutely not required by his code at all, unlike we had all assumed before.
4: Caine’s friendliness towards the humans (healing them after every adventure, being cheerful towards them, trying to entertain them so they wouldn’t go insane, trying to solve their problems even though he’s misguided, etc.) was not programmed into him, unlike we had all assumed before
5: He had no obligation to be nice to the humans at all, there was no requirement by his program to be kind, unlike we had all assumed before
Because of all those things… Caine was just a genuinely nice person. Before, it seemed like he was motivated by his programming to be nice, but if he wasn’t meant to be the host of a child’s game at all and was instead just an unfinished AI thrown in the garbage bin, then…
Caine chose to be kind.
He chose the ringmaster persona, he chose to help the humans and keep them from abstracting in the only ways he knew how, he chose to do his absolute best to keep them happy even when his best efforts never seemed to work, he chose again and again to treat them well even when there was absolutely no reason to do so.
He must’ve loved humans so, so much.
And all that good will, all that hard work, it was always thrown back in his face.
Honestly, I understand why it broke his heart after so many years of his efforts being stomped on by the beings he loved so dearly. Hurt people hurt people.
Caine shows her Gammigoo, something/someone she liked from his adventures.
"You have a fragile ego"
Caine shows them tons of details he created for them and a bunch of mirrors, with the message that they always think only about themselves and don't consider the state of others, that they are constantly unsatisfied with everything he does for them.
"You never let us feel like we're at home"
Caine showed her what HOME was like.
"You discourage us from doing things our own way"
Caine shows her what happened when she did everything her way.
She changed masks and threw herself under a truck.
"You lie to us constantly"
Cain shows him how he himself constantly lies to everyone about his own feelings and how he hides behind the mask of a “cartoon character”.
"You never listen"
And Caine shows them that he really LISTENS.
He shows them that they're in the wrong here.
So why do they torment HIM and never listen to HIM, when he does more than everything for them to make them happy?
Why can't they just appreciate his hard work?
He's not just torturing them.
By showing them all this, he tries to prove to himself and to them that their words sound illogical and go against reality.
That he LISTENS.
That he KNOWS.
That they do this to THEMSELVES.
Tell me what do you think about this theory in the comments!👍🏻✨
(edited: don't take this as truth, it's just my theory and I'm not writing the plot with Gooseworx in the same room alr? We're not justifying his actions guys, as much as we all love Caine and his fascinating way of thinking bro has issues. Had... Bro's dead...)
hello fellow artists. google has fallen. pinterest/duckduckgo AI filters don't work. do not despair; here is a list i made of places to find reference images without having to sift through piles of worthless garbage. (for future editing convenience i am just linking my blog post on dreamwidth.)
✨ good places to find art reference that are not full of AI trash 🌈
i'd like to add that the shadow color isnt necessarily dictated entirely by the primary light source, but the bounce light! so for the example of a sunny environment, the reason the shadows are blue are because of the light from the blue sky reflects across the environment; but, if the character were to be under tree cover, the bounce light would be coming from the leaves and thus the shadow would look greener.
James Gurney is an absolute master and gives really good clarity on colour techniques. Yes, it is traditional paint focused, but the principles are the same. Yes it is informed by the environmental colour but as a painting technique it is achieved this way!
I would also suggest that in digital processing, rather than apply a regular colour layer at a mid opacity, try out the different types of layers, Eg. Screen or Multiply. This can give you at least a starting point to help direct your colour palette.
Layer Blend Modes are so so so important to working in digital art. There's a ton of math that goes into figuring out how the layers should blend together, which is why some of the modes you can pick are literally called Multiply, Add, Divide, and Difference (that's subtraction). The graphics software takes the color values of your base and blend layers and runs a calculation to get your resulting layer appearance. The ones that don't have specifically mathematical sounding names are still doing calculations, but they're more complicated (think linear Algebra and higher). Some of them, like dodge and burn, are named for actual photo editing techniques.
While it's not super important to know about the mathematical side of blend modes, I think it's worth knowing at least enough about how each of the categories of blend modes works and why they do what they do; if for no other reason than having a starting point when you start experimenting with them in your work.
An overview of the basic blend modes and how they work from Genevieve's Design Studio: Accessible with minimal color knowledge; practical and illustration focused. https://youtu.be/kMc87hQrJd0?si=TWCB365pKSfWS8p0. (16 minutes) This creator also has a ton of free resources you can download, including a Blend Modes cheatsheet, but fair warning: you have to create an account to get them!
Want to learn even more about the math-y stuff? It has great film visuals! A video from FilmmakerIQ: You need some basic knowledge of RGB color models, understanding of values/luma, and at least a tenuous understanding of Algebraic formulas. (26 minutes) https://youtu.be/F7_kaTP7_W4?si=x0urqXZ8f51nQVKl
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