[kuro8529]

Figured I'd set a pinned message to my FFXIV / GW2 blog, since Likes and Reblogs come from my OOC account so people don't know where to look for that sexy stranger who definitely didn't steal their wallet.

https://gray-morality.tumblr.com/

[dotbat]

Upcoming SPARK update

I'll be doing an update for SPARK likely on Sunday (seeing how my first update on Blish HUD will go, haha).

Update will include a few various fixes and enhancements, such as:

Better Tooltips (nicer look, more crisp, better sizing/spacing)

Character counters on text fields (now you can see the max limits and know when you're getting close to them!)

Custom Races (You can be a Tengu, Kodan, etc. if you want now!)

Moved the 'Mature' designation on the profiles to a different row (if enabled on your profile). It's now on the same row as Themes, Styles, etc.

Lists (online list, saved/bookmarked, nearby players) now use "..." at the end of your field(s) if they cut off. So if you have a long name, race, account name, etc. It might cut off with ... at the end, but will always fully show in the tooltip or profile itself.

Added some extra profile validation/syncing internally on the server

Menu button for quick access to SPARK windows at the top of GW2 (can be turned off too if you don't want more icons up there!)

There might be more than just this, depending on what else I can get done, we'll see!

Thanks again for everyone who has tried out SPARK and given feedback! Happy to give back to this lovely community. ❤️

[dotbat]

SPARK is now available via Blish HUD!

You can now install it through Blish HUD and all future updates for SPARK will automatically update for you.

This version also comes with a new 'import from another character' feature to let you import existing profiles you've made from one character onto another one!

For more information, please see getspark.fyi

Thanks for all of your support!

[catbatart]

AAAAAAND the mini dice sets are uploaded!

They are separated into Cool Tones + Neutrals and Warm Tones!

That should be the last of the dice sets! I'll likely upload some single d20s at some point in the future, but for now, the Great Uploadening has been completed!

You can find all the dice listings here!

NOTE! I may be printing off shipping labels this weekend but I WILL BE WAITING UNTIL AFTER THE HEAT WAVE TO SHIP to avoid damaging the dice in transit!

[dotbat]

SPARK Sneak Peek v2.0

Some new images of SPARK as a sneak peek.

Keep in mind, everything is a heavy work in progress still. There's much work to be done. I'd estimate I have about 80% of what I want in the first release ready. It's been... 6 or 7 weeks of development so far, I forget exactly when I started on it initially.

This first page is the in-progress revamp to make things a single page without scrolling. More options to come as I work on new features.

One new feature is auto-hide UI. This closes most SPARK windows when you open a map, load zones, or view a vista.

Blocks also now have their own manage window!

Profile Editor Window

Profile Selection

The profile editor has a few tabs, the first being where you set your profiles on each character.

Here you can make a profile, duplicate it, save it, set it to be active, or delete. The UI on this is a bit rough and needs work, but it works well for the most part.

Later on, I may allow you to copy profiles from your other characters in case you have duplicates on different classes.

Profile Editor

The profile editor (god I'm good with names, the profile editor profile editor) is where you set the bread and butter for your profile.

You can add in a custom name to override your character name, set a custom profession similarly, your pronouns, an RP hook for what your character is known for it recognized for, a description, and at a glance.

Unfortunately, multi-line input boxes don't have word wrap, so that's why the text here is cut off. Blish HUD has a pull request in review for this though so maybe eventually it'll be fixed.

Profile Editor - At A Glance

You can set up to 5 'At a Glance' icons on your profile, utilizing existing icons in Guild Wars 2. This search returns up to 50 results, is almost instantaneous, caches via Blish HUD, and disposes when closes to free memory.

SPARK is bundled with an asset icon file for the search so it works locally, then goes through Blish HUD's gw2dat server to retrieve the icon files.

Here you can set a custom tooltip for them, which looks like so in use:

They're pretty neat!

Preferences

Here is where you can set your experience level for roleplay, some preferences, themes, and styles. I might expand on this later on based on feedback.

Current Info

This tab is basically "what is your character up to" and out of character info about yourself.

This information gets added to your presence on the online list when people are viewing profiles, like so:

It's a good way to get a quick glimpse at someone before opening their profile!

Profile Viewer

View Profile

A full profile can have a lot of info.

Some things, like the info from preferences, I might remake and try and make it look nicer somehow. It works for now, but I might make it some kind of dropdown or something to see that info.

On this page, you can hit 'Copy Name' to copy their account name to whisper the player easily (I tried to make a whisper function and it failed spectacularly so I gave up on that). You can bookmark a player, block them, or report them.

The report box pops up on the profile viewer itself and lets you type a short message on why you are reporting the person.

Some notes:

You can only report someone who is stored in SPARK's database. This is because that information is authenticated to be truly from that account, not falsified in some manner, and a source of truth. If they have no logged in for 24 hours, reporting that profile won't go through.

Multiple people can report a profile. All reports get saved into a single report file for that user, with report reasons appended at the top of the file.

I have the ability to entirely ban someone's GW2 account from accessing SPARK in case someone is using it to post hateful things or something.

Private Notes

Profiles also have a private notes tab!

This is saved locally to your PC and never transmitted on SPARK and is a little personal notepad where you can keep some information in about players you interact with. Like if someone gave you a cupcake you could put in their profile "They gave me a cupcake. It smelled like poison. I told them I ate it but I gave it to someone else."

Online List Viewer

The online list automatically filters for you based on if you choose NA or EU in the Spark Module (see the first screenshot to see that option!)

You can search profiles here and search all fields, specify which field, and sort by various fields.

The renown heart next to a profile means it's someone you have bookmarked as well!

The online list refreshes automatically, but you are able to manually refresh it. Keep in mind, the server temporarily caches the online list, so it might be around 5 to 10 seconds out of date at times to keep the server resources lower.

Saved Profile Viewer

Recently Viewed

When you view a profile, it downloads to your disk as a small 1kb to 10kb file. This gives you a local copy of it in case SPARK is down or the user hasn't been online in 24h and SPARK doesn't retain the data anymore.

Any time you open a profile here, it first checks with SPARK to see if there's a new copy or not available, then downloads it.

Keep in mind, if someone blocks you, you cannot retrieve new copies of their profile and will never see them online again. This is for privacy reasons.

Bookmarks

The next tab is your bookmarked users who you want to specifically save and easily keep track of.

There's currently no limit on this, so uh, let me know if this becomes an issue with a lot of them later.

Block Manager

Here's where you can put blocks on SPARK if someone has a profile you don't like or you don't want them to see your profiles at all.

I want people to be able to curate their experience using SPARK which is why this exists.

Blocks are local first to remove any lingering remnants of someone you blocked, and then synced with the server to ensure someone blocked can't see you online, your location (if not hidden), or any profile updates or profiles from you. Before you connect to SPARK, it always syncs your blocklist first before your data is transmitted to ensure complete privacy.

That's all I have to share for now! Let me know your thoughts and I hope to have more to show soon!

[gray-morality]

🏳️‍🌈 Pride Quommission from Shanice. Such a great artist to work with!

GW2 Fakhri (Vabbian heritage showing ❤️)

[dotbat]

*blows the dust off of this tumblr account*

I figured I'd share this here, for the people who supported me ages ago and made Guild Wars 2 a delight for me.

How would people like an RP Profile addon built as an addon for Blish HUD? I've been slowly working on one and I might have the first version of this done soon.

I'm calling it SPARK - Simple Profile and Roleplay Kit.

The name also is derived from the first legendary I crafted, Incinerator. It's precursor is Spark. I thought it was a good fit.

Here's some sneak peek images so far:

There's support for you to add multiple profiles to a single character. You then choose which one to actively broadcast when using the module for others to see.

All profiles are tied to your Account and Character Name. This wouldn't be something you manually type in and is retrieved from GW2 via Blish to prevent impersonation.

The tabs on the left allow you to edit your profile details, set your RP preferences/style, and add in a 'Currently' and 'OOC Info' sections if you want.

Here's the WIP of the profile editing section. Unfortunately, no word-wrap support on the box (Blish HUD has a pull request to add this though, so hopefully soon!), but it works decently. The 'At a Glance' allows you to set icons plus a title and description. I don't have a built-in icon picker though, so you need to find the strings yourself for now until I figure that out.

An example of the profile when viewed by someone else.

I do have privacy settings for your status and location, and I will implement a block list so if you don't want someone to see you through this addon, it wouldn't broadcast that info to them ever.

Profile viewer is currently working decently. I've built a presence module that captures some info from your profile + other things as you've configured it to broadcast and update periodically.

Since this isn't hooked up to be online yet, I'm just duplicating my profile 200 times in the UI while I build it out.

For those who don't know, I actively work on my own game these days (after 10+ years in game dev and growing tired of corporate), but I figured this was a fun little side project to build in the meantime.

There is no ETA on when I'll have this finished. It's all sort of based on when I have extra time to work on it. But I hope to have a rough working version soon for people to test out!

[pillowfort-social]

We are currently at 63% of our monthly fundraising goal for November with 5 days left in the month! If you're able, please consider donating or upgrading to Pillowfort Premium to help keep Pillowfort running, and many thanks to those who have helped out so far.

As a reminder: 100% of funds donated to Pillowfort go toward keeping the lights on and to compensate our staff working on the platform. We don't have venture capital investments, we're not owned by billionaires, and we don't have an angel investor. We're also NSFW-friendly which puts an increased financial burden on us as we have to use more expensive payment processors. We're an entirely user-funded platform. Pillowfort exists because of you.

[armaturenine]

New Parts & Images for Large Figures

https://armaturenine.com/collections/large-pieces Hey everyone, happy to share that I’ve just finished a new set of improvements to the website. As of now you can see new images in the build-it page for the Ranger figures. These now represent the current state of the designs. I’ve have also added several new pieces including keeping some of the former designs in case anybody prefers getting the older feet with springs or the older knees with screws. To a degree these former pieces are better but I’ve departed form them to save on cost (hence recent $20 drop in prices). But I’ve kept the products listed in case anybody would like to upgrade their figure.

Up next I need to refresh the armaturelab.com website with all of the new content so that it’s more representative of where things are at and once that’s done the site will be mostly caught up with everything and I can move onto bringing Titan back and a couple other special things I’ve got in the works.

[guttedpulsars]

here is a master list of great art tools that can make your workflow easier! 👇 (consistently updating)

posemaniacs.com/en

if you want to learn human anatomy with the benefit of preset poses, this is for you! you can use it standalone, but as a bonus you can also import poses into the clip studio paint 3D models. (File -> Import -> 3D Pose (Posemaniacs)

line-of-action.com

great for gestures and observational sketches!

zvork.fr/vls/

browser based rig for lighting & shadows

MY FAVORITE BRUSHPACKS

truegrit texture supply - https://www.truegrittexturesupply.com

Photoshop & Procreate Textures and Brushes | True Grit Texture Supply

Game-Changing Brushes, Textures and Effects for Procreate, Photoshop, Illustrator, Clip Studio Paint and Affinity. Level up your digital art

thedawner procreate & csp packs - https://ko-fi.com/thedawner/

Buy thedawner a Coffee. ko-fi.com/thedawner

Become a supporter of thedawner today! ❤️ Ko-fi lets you support the creators you love.

ADDITIONAL TOOLS COMING!

[pillowfort-social]

Thanks to Pillowfort users, we're on our way to our funding goal for September! Support a NSFW-friendly independent platform and help keep Pillowfort's lights on: pillowfort.social/donations

[jesusinstilettos]

I’m about to save you thousands of dollars in therapy by teaching you what I learned paying thousands of dollars for therapy:

It may sound woo woo but it’s an important skill capitalism and hyper individualism have robbed us of as human beings.

Learn to process your emotions. It will improve your mental health and quality of life. Emotions serve a biological purpose, they aren’t just things that happen for no reason.

1. Pause and notice you’re having a big feeling or reaching for a distraction to maybe avoid a feeling. Notice what triggered the feeling or need for a distraction without judgement. Just note that it’s there. Don’t label it as good or bad.

2. Find it in your body. Where do you feel it? Your chest? Your head? Your stomach? Does it feel like a weight everywhere? Does it feel like you’re vibrating? Does it feel like you’re numb all over?

3. Name the feeling. Look up an emotion chart if you need to. Find the feeling that resonates the most with what you’re feeling. Is it disappointment? Heartbreak? Anxiety? Anger? Humiliation?

4. Validate the feeling. Sometimes feelings misfire or are disproportionately big, but they’re still valid. You don’t have to justify what you’re feeling, it’s just valid. Tell yourself “yeah it makes sense that you feel that right now.” Or something as simple as “I hear you.” For example: If I get really big feelings of humiliation when I lose at a game of chess, the feeling may not be necessary, but it is valid and makes sense if I grew up with parents who berated me every time I did something wrong. So I could say “Yeah I understand why we are feeling that way given how we were treated growing up. That’s valid.”

5. Do something with your body that’s not a mental distraction from the feeling. Something where you can still think. Go on a walk. Do something with your hands like art or crochet or baking. Journal. Clean a room. Figure out what works best for you.

6. Repeat, it takes practice but is a skill you can learn :)

[lastoneout]

I have been in EMDR therapy recently to help with past trauma and like 90% of the appointments are just this post. Which I thought was silly at first bcs I was like "well I know how I'm feeling, I feel bad" but man you have no idea. Literally JUST talking through whatever stressful thing I have going on at the moment and whenever I feel a Big Emotion stopping and acknowledging, naming, and sitting with it makes a huge difference. I've made more progress with my trauma and mental illnesses just doing this in a single year than I have in like 10+ years of therapy.

It might feel silly or pointless at first but stick with it, it really helps.

[orsanedraws]

Hey friends! Have to open another couple of commission slots bc I need money for my meds. Please note that slots are open ONLY for headshots(sketch/render) and half-bodies(sketch/render). Check out all the info and more exaples HERE

[kumanaru]

Heya!!

I know I don't talk much here, honestly I prefer to communicate more through Bluesky or Instagram haha But here's how things have been! This year I decided to go back to Freelancing and doing what I love (as you can probably guess since I've been focusing more on commission work!) and, I'm not gonna lie, things are difficult and different from 2 years ago, before my hiatus.

Been trying to think of ways to help me having a more stable income since I also haven't been lucky and keep getting a lot of rejections.

So here's something I need your opinions and help with! I've been thinking of opening up a Patreon! 🤔 I'd share sketches, WIPs, timelapses/private streams, High Res files (wallpapers and such) but... I don't know really!

What suggestions do you guys have? What would you like to see coming from me? I'd love to know your opinions and ideas!

Feel free to reply to this post or chat/DM me!

[leidensygdom]

So, Discord has added a feature that lets other people "enhance" or "edit" your images with different AI apps. It looks like this:

Currently, you can't opt out from this at all. But here's few things you can do as a protest.

FOR SERVERS YOU ARE AN ADMIN IN

Go to Roles -> @/everyone roles -> Scroll all the way down to External Apps, and disable it. This won't delete the option, but it will make people receive a private message instead when they use it, protecting your users:

You should also make it a bannable offense to edit other user's images with AI. Here's how I worded it in my server, feel free to copypaste:

Do not modify other people's images with AI under ANY circumstances, such as with the Discord "enhancement" features, amidst others. This is a bannable offense.

COMPLAIN TO DISCORD

There's few ways to go around this. First, you can go to https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/requests/new , select Help and Support -> Feedback/New Feature Request, and write your message, as seen in the screenshot below.

For the message, here's some points you can bring up:

Concerns about harassment (such as people using this feature to bully others)

Concerns about privacy (concerns on how External Apps may break privacy or handle the data in the images, and how it may break some legislations, such as GDPR)

Concerns about how this may impact minors (these features could be used with pictures of irl minors shared in servers, for deeply nefarious purposes)

BE VERY CLEAR about "I will refuse to buy Nitro and will cancel my subscription if this feature remains as it is", since they only care about fucking money

Word them as you'd like, add onto them as you need. They sometimes filter messages that are copypasted templates, so finding ways to word them on your own is helpful.

ADDING: You WILL NEED to reply to the mail you receive afterwards for the message to get sent to an actual human! Otherwise it won't reach anyone

UNSUSCRIBE FROM NITRO

This is what they care about the most. Unsuscribe from Nitro. Tell them why you unsuscribed on the way out. DO NOT GIVE THEM MONEY. They're a company. They take actions for profit. If these actions do not get them profit, they will need to backtrack. Mass-unsuscribing from WOTC's DnD beyond forced them to back down with the OGL, this works.

LEAVE A ONE-STAR REVIEW ON THE APP

This impacts their visibility on the App store. Write why are you leaving the one-star review too.

_

Regardless of your stance on AI, I think we can agree that having no way for users to opt out of these pictures is deeply concerning, specially when Discord is often used to share selfies. It's also a good time to remember internet privacy and safety- Maybe don't post your photos in big open public servers, if you don't want to risk people doing edits or modifications of them with AI (or any other way). Once it's posted, it's out of your control.

Anyways, please reblog for visibility- This is a deeply concerning topic!

[noobscrub]

Since this option doesn't actually stop people from using the Enhance with AI feature, I created Archebot, a simple Discord bot that anyone can invite to their server. I originally wrote this for my friend's server, but I figured other people might find it useful.

The bot works by deleting any message sent by one of Discord's bot users, namely Domo, InsightFaceSwap, Viggle, and Glifbot. If any other AIs are added, please feel free to let me know so I can add them to the list.

Archebot is free to use, and I encourage other developers to iterate and improve on my code. It's a really simple program, so I will not ask for credit if anyone uses my code or ideas from this project. I'm still looking into long-term hosting solutions, but my current setup should suffice for now.

If you want to use Archebot, ensure that it has the proper roles to view any channels that you would like it to delete AI from. In addition, you must keep the Use External Apps setting enabled. I know the above post says to turn it off, but that makes any message sent by those AI users ephemeral. An ephemeral message is a message only the recipient can see. For example, if you get DC'd from an inactive VC, Discord will send you an ephemeral message saying that "bandwidth doesn't grow on trees". If the message is ephemeral, it cannot be seen by people other than the command user, so it cannot be deleted.

Here is the Github.

And here is the invite link.

[kuro8529]

I have a new roommate :3

Her name is Yara. Will take a bit before she trusts me but after 3 days she's already coming to get food I hand to her.

[vicious-mongrel]

SUMMER COMMISSIONS OPEN🫐🌿

Portraits are back!

>I'm forming a queue for June while on vacation till the end of May. 1 open slot for each type!

>Contact me via [email protected]

>All prices are per character (except illustrations) and can vary depending on complexity