Roberts Concepts

Architect // Designer

[dryiffsrevitalizingtailholetonic]

the shitstains at youtube memoryhole’d propane genesis evangelion but I had already downloaded it because I know youtube is full of absolute cunts so here it is

[sosuperawesome]

Jason Anderson on Instagram

[wastehound-voof-deactivated2024]

Artist: Alex Schomburg

[hypnoticwinter]

down the rabbit hole character concepts using artbreeder

As a writer, often I find that I get a better conception of who a character is if I have a good reference picture of them, but just personally, I find that just combing through google images or a booru or something to get someone else’s image of a different character, or god forbid a photograph, is really, really tacky and I hate doing it. A tool I’ve really taken a liking to in order to generate fairly unique images for characters without having any artistic know-how of my own is artbreeder.

Artbreeder uses AI and procedural generation to iterate on images to create fairly convincing-looking unique portraits that are not always immediately obvious as being artificial. they won’t stand up to close inspection usually and the process can be a little time-consuming, but the results can be very impressive if you’re willing to put the time in to get exactly what you want out of it. 

When I started writing Down the Rabbit Hole I had conceptions of what each of the characters would look like, but having an actual concrete image to look at and reference when I’m writing a scene is something I find really helpful. For example, here are some of the images I’ve used for main characters in my novel:

Roan Dzilenski

Elena Novak

Makado Veret

Erica Walken

Peter, who I am just now realizing I never gave a surname for lmao

As you can see, at first glance these images don’t scream that they were created through an algorithm - they aren’t especially stunning or anything but I find them absolutely more than serviceable for what I want to use them for. Each one of these images took me about fifteen to twenty minutes of iteration and fiddling with settings in order to get exactly what I wanted.

That’s not to say that artbreeder is completely perfect; I think my biggest issue with it is that it’s very difficult to make realistic-looking people who are either average-looking or unattractive; it seems to want to make everyone a supermodel by default. This certainly isn’t a dealbreaker for me but I do wish that Roan and Elena weren’t quite as pretty. Also that Roan’s nose was bigger; for whatever reason there isn’t a slider specifically for the nose.

There’s a little bit of a learning curve to getting started; when you first go to the site you’ll find yourself staring at a massive wall of portraits, and it can be a little overwhelming - what you can do is either pick one you like, or go up to the top right corner and click the ‘create’ button. At that point it’s fairly self-explanatory; my favorite method is to take a picture I like and just generate children, making minor tweaks as necessary, until I find one that fits what I’m looking for.

With a free account you can only download five high-resolution images - I think it may be per month but the website isn’t incredibly clear - but I’ve found that the standard images it generates are plenty big enough for my purposes, and the prices they charge for paid accounts with more hi-res downloads seem fairly reasonable for the amount of hardware they must be using to create all these images as quickly as they can.

[robertsconcepts]

Joker, Robot

[mysteryfleshpit]

Often called “lighthouses” by seasoned hikers and park field staff, the emergency trail phones located along most developed trails within the Mystery Flesh Pit National Park were the result of one of the most ambitious subterranean telecommunications projects of the late 20th century. Conventional radio communication systems were completely ineffective at piercing the miles of dense flesh and bone which constituted the geobiology of the park. Over a two year period beginning in 1975, more than 150 miles of cables were laid, threaded and draped through the organs and tissues of the Permian Basin Superorganism in order to establish a reliable land-line communication network. While the Anodyne Corporation developed the bulk of this infrastructure – at enormous expense – AT&T was subcontracted to design and install the unique public call boxes most park visitors would be familiar with. Guests could use these “emergency” phones to call the Lower Visitor Center at no cost, or they could be used to call an outside number for a small fee. Though engineered to survive the humid and caustic environment of the Mystery Flesh Pit’s internal anatomy, routine maintenance was required to prevent phones located in the deeper sections of the park from becoming subsumed by natural muscle actions of the pit. Today, it is unknown how many, if any, of these emergency phone stations are still operational, as the United States Dept. of the Interior has barred civilian access to the former park’s many trails.

[robertsconcepts]

[hypnoticwinter]

Down the Rabbit Hole part 18

My eyes flutter open and for a moment I lay there, not comprehending what I’m seeing. There’s a window ahead of me, and the blinds have fallen down halfway, and a ray of sunlight is stabbing at me slyly through them. The air is soft and cool and comfortable and carries the same familiar stench of acrylic paint, and when I put my hand down to my side and feel at the blanket covering me it’s a scratchy, rough, worn one that I know very, very well.

Then I bolt out of bed and dart over to the window and rip it open, stick my head outside and stare. The bright blue sky leers down at me, and when I crane my neck and look down the side of the building I can see the street signs, one canted at a crazy angle like it’s always been. Corner of Franklin and White, Corpus Christi, Texas. I look back in the room; it’s empty. Queen bed. The other side is made up still and I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.

Keep reading

[robertsconcepts]

New Mystery Flesh Pit fan: This is awesome, do we get answers to [Gift gardens / 𒀭𒄿𒋾 / actual depth of the thing / DNA]? Veteran Mystery Flesh Pit fan: 

[allstrangenature]

I can barely contain myself right now

holy shit

HOLY SHIT

[27dragons]

holy CRAP.

Artists, creators, students, and researchers of all types, take note:

Digitized photos and text. 2D and 3D object renders. Music and other sound files. Videos. Research datasets. Collections metadata.

On a Creative Commons Zero license: Take what you want. Use it. No permission or attribution required. Yes, even for commercial use.

There is a lot wrong with the world at the moment, but the Smithsonian… the Smithsonian is right.

[lisaminnci]

STUDIO GHIBLI + FOOD

Spirited Away (2001) When Marnie Was There (2014) Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) Ponyo (2008) Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)

[ part 1 ] [ part 2 ] [ part 3 ]

[hypnoticwinter]

Down the Rabbit Hole part 11

The drive is short and bumpy. The two men sitting next to me are relatively motionless, only moving when the vehicle jostles them. The vehicle itself is loud and powerful-sounding; a diesel engine, I reckon, just listening to the throaty growl of it.

Gravity puts its hand on my chest and gently presses me back into the seat and I realize we’re angling up an incline. We must be driving out of the cratered aperture of the Pit. There are twists and turns but the driver takes it slow and we eventually level out, and then the vehicle is stopping and one of the men next to me gets out and they shove in someone else roughly, almost knocking me over. The man on my other side catches me and pushes me back upright and then I’m knocking shoulders with whoever they pushed in. “Peter?” I whisper as the car starts back up, and I feel him turn his head towards me.

“Shh,” he says, but I can tell it’s him, and for a moment I feel reassured, and then I realize that if he got caught as well I have no support on the outside, hell, nobody even knows I’m in here, and my stomach drops further.

Keep reading

[karnalesbian]

Fidel Castro, Vladimir Putin, and the Oort Cloud are riding on a train.

Fidel Castro pulls an expensive Cuban cigar out of his pocket, lights it, and then throws it out the window after only a few puffs. Vladimir Putin and the Oort Cloud are both surprised by this and ask “what are you doing, Fidel? That’s an expensive cigar!” To which Castro responds, “in your country/post-heliopausal region perhaps, but in my country these are as cheap as dirt.”

Then Vladimir Putin pulls a bottle of expensive Russian vodka out of his pocket and, after a few sips, throws the bottle out the window. Fidel Castro and the Oort Cloud are both surprised and ask “what are you doing, Vladimir, that is expensive vodka!” To which Putin responds “Pah! In your country/post-heliopausal region perhaps, but in Russia this vodka is as plentiful as rainwater.”

The Oort Cloud considers this for a minute or two, and then throws a six-mile-wide comet out of the window which, on impact, incinerates everything within a thirty-mile radius, causes massive earthquakes and tsunamis for thousands of miles in each direction, and kicks up a cloud of dust and ash that eventually encircles the Earth wiping out nearly all forms of life in a matter of months.

[hypnoticwinter]

Down the Rabbit Hole part 9

The line creaks again, menacingly, and Peter glares up at the broad webbed piton. “Goddam it,” he mutters.

“Did you say something?” Makado calls from below, and he glares down at her and kicks off, sliding down another seven or eight feet towards the gangway below. Makado, her ranger suit still half-unzipped, her hair still messy, grins at him, and he shakes his head but is unable to prevent himself from smiling back at her.

“This was a bad idea,” he grumbles again.

“You’re fine, you’re halfway there.”

“I don’t think it’s holding.”

“Don’t be such a baby, it’s fine. I made it and it didn’t even budge.”

“You also weigh like ninety pounds, so…”

“Excuse me,” she says, crossing her arms. “I’ll have you know I weigh a hundred and twenty.”

“Oh, okay, so I only have eighty pounds on you instead of a hundred and ten, I’m sure that makes a big difference to the piton.”

“I triple-checked it, you’re fine.”

Keep reading

[micro-usb-deactivated20230625]

I’m obsessed with this video (source)

[severalowls]

The “I probably shouldn’t have clowns” Starter Pack

[severalowls]

Clowns are creatures that need to clown. They were not meant to be domesticated and profited from as pets. They are highly active creatures that will self harm from stress in such confined spaces. Circus Clowns are delightful to keep in groups, though they are fine on their own, but every 1 clown adds 30 square feet to the space needed. They need multiple props and performance areas in order to replicate their natural environment. These are examples of proper Circus Clown or other basic clown enclosures.

Candee Fluff is a horrible brand of cotton candy, I used to feed it to my clowns and they would just throw it back up. The sugar is all unprocessed, when clowns need highly refined white sugar, just because it’s cheaper. Which is something they don’t list on the packaging to fool clown owners. Ideally you should only feed your clown freshly whipped cotton candy. Large mixers may be expensive but a simple childrens make-your-own candy floss machine will suffice if your budget is tight.

Clowns shouldn’t be confined to a car. (Especially a childrens car..?) Clowns are curious creatures that need to jump, tumble, honk and play to be healthy. Keeping them locked in a car 24/7 as a toy for your kids will stress them out in much the same way as a hamster in a ball. Clowns do enjoy having access to a clown car, especially in groups, but their car should provide 1 square foot per clown and their enjoyment comes primarily from exiting the vehicle in large numbers. Keeping them locked inside can reduce their lifespan by up to 10 years. A small human-sized compact car may be suitable for larger groups of clowns.

I’m cringing at that rainbow collection of “my mommy got me a cute clown” balloon sticks. These are creatures that need to run around with helium balloons. They need to bounce and float away when released. Air-filled balloons on sticks are not a suitable replacement. This is the proper set up for a clown or more modern jesters.

Clowns get stressed from any foot confinement under size 16. Clown shoes are the worst item for being sold to kids as “accessories” in human foot sizes. When kept like that the clown will die a horribly stressed life within a year when they can live for 60 or more. They need colourful shoes or boots with plenty of toe-space and loud squeakers. Clowns are so intelligent that they actually play with you, and they need podiatric stimulation to live healthy. These are proper clown shoes.

Never change the natural markings of a clown. This should go without saying, but I see people buying halloween store ‘clown makeup’ and attempting to alter their clown’s faces. Clowns use their facial markings to identify one another, and altering it may cause stress, and even endager the clown if you keep several in the same tent.

Who the fuck would even feed an omnivorous clown pellet food…? Do they want a sick clown? If clown stores even bothered to care about the keeping of clowns, they would know that shit is bad for them. If you can’t feed fresh peanuts and hot dogs then you shouldn’t own a clown in the first place. Pellet food isn’t even real food, it’s chemically made with preservatives.

[atenuousrowbetween]

Central_Processing_Unit_(cpu)

*better in dark background

[retroanimu]

[floopydisc]

I can do this IRL

[vgjunk]

Possessioner, PC-98.