This is Leslie, creator of "Fins & Crinolines" on Webtoon! (I hardly use this account anymore) You can find more of my art on my other Tumblr *NokkiArt*!
I needed to doodle something wholesome to clear my head tonight and ended up drawing these two. It feels like forever since I last drew Lyla and Fiero. I wish I had more free time to get back into working on F&C ;;;A;;;
Now that he’s been officially announced, I can finally mention that DK is the other Nintendo character I got to work on! I didn’t have as big a part in working on DK as I did with Toad, but I did do A LOT of sewing to get this boy together. The last photo is from when I was working on his hands. You can see just how massive he is!
It looks like Universal made a few changes to the final costume that we fabricated for them. But there are definitely still parts of him we made that were used in the Epic Universe version 😊
Someday I hope I can meet both my boys in the park 💖
As a long time httyd fan who has been heavily involved in the fandom since the first movie and who has spent years working in the animation industry, I’d like to share my thoughts on the new httyd movie. Keep in mind, this is just my personal opinion and it’s completely fine if you disagree with me. I just want to say a little something about all this that really bothers me.
The core reason that Dreamworks and Universal made this film is that it’s a quick and easy cash grab for them. Thats it. They don’t care about telling a good story or making a “better” version of the original movie for fans or even having an accurate portrayal of the characters/story. It’s purely about money. They know that fans of the original film will go see this movie, whether it’s good or bad. And those guaranteed ticket sales are all that matter to the studios. And with Universal, it has the added bonus of being a cheap promotional and merchandising opportunity for the new HTTYD land in Orlando that opens around the same time that the film is premiering in theaters.
And to help the studios make even more money out of this, they are using non-unionized VFX companies around the world to make this film, so that they can get cheaper labor and push the artists to do more that would be against American union standards. The same thing has probably happened with the costuming and fabrication for the filming, hence why the costumes look un-weathered and the sets look cheap. They don’t want to pay for the extra time and effort that it would take to make the practical bits of the production look good.
On top of all this, Dreamworks has already announced that they’re shutting down all their in-house animation projects in favor of using AI and outsourcing projects to cheaper international non-union studios.
With all this in mind, I just can’t support this film and I will not be seeing it in theaters. And I hope that others will do the same.
The only way to stop all these horrible “live action” remakes (which are actually just realistically animated remakes) is to not buy tickets to see them. Money is all that matters to these studios, and if they don’t make any money off of it, then they will stop and try something different. Maybe they’ll even go back to focusing on original stories!
That’s the power that we hold as audiences. Our wallets help drive the decisions that the executives make. So support unique storytelling and gorgeous cinematography in movies. Support indie films. Support animators as they’re fighting for fair pay and better contracts. But don’t support a mediocre shot-for-shot remake riding on the coattails of an already successful film.
And I just want to wrap all this up by saying I have absolutely no hate towards anyone that has worked on the new film. Toothless looks incredible and I know the artists and creatives involved in this project did the best they could with what they were given.
But I also know that those same artists have so many more brilliant ideas that they would’ve loved to be given the creative freedom to do. I just wish hollywood would be willing to take a chance and let them do it.
(reblogging with my tags because I’m too tired to retype them)
One last thing I’d like to add to this conversation...
Since this new movie is a shot-for-shot remake of the original, why aren’t the people who created the original film getting any pay for their work??
The storyboard artists, the layout artists, the writers, the character designers, the animators who created the actions and expressions that they’re copying in the new film; Everyone involved in creating the original film should be getting some sort of compensation for their work, since it’s now being used frame-by-frame to make the new film.
Just another thing that really bothers me about all this. Especially since I have friends who worked on the first film and I know that they can’t speak up against all this because of their contracts and for fear of losing their jobs.
I had the opportunity to go to Epic Universe on Saturday, and since this is probably the only time I’ll ever be able to go, I wanted to do something special for the Vikings of Berk. So I made mini gouache paintings for all the characters and handed out a ton of Astrid/Stormfly stickers to the other vikings.
Ruff and Tuff were so nice to spare a minute for me, since I caught them while they were trying to go somewhere.
And Astrid was the absolute sweetest and loved the lil painting so much. She said that Stormfly had been in an extra cuddly mood lately so it was perfect. She also said that she was going to tell on me to Hiccup because I said that she and Stormfly were my favs. And we just had such a lovely chat. I hope I made their days as much as they made mine ~<3
I was so emotional being there and nearly cried so many times. Berk is perfect and is absolutely the best part of Epic Universe. It was a literal dream come true.
Happy International Asexuality Day to all my fellow Aces out there!
Treat yourself to some ace-cream today! XD ~<3
EDIT: Some folks were asking what flavors these would be, so my personal top choices would be: dark chocolate icecream with oreo bits on top, lavender earl grey icecream, chocolate chip icecream, and ube icecream on the bottom! ^^ ~<3
It’s that time of year again! April 6th is Asexuality Day! <3
I made this to explain Astrid’s Epic Universe look to a friend. Her costume is a mashup of all 3 movie’s outfits, and also Toothless’ harness for some reason.
I think the designers made some interesting choices and at least it doesnt look bad. It just caught me off guard the first time I saw photos of her XD
in case anyone in wondering, this is Paul Hollywood’s idea of a s'more
You know what, their absolute inability to grasp Mexican foods makes more sense every day
Nodding my head in support of the Americans despite having no clue what a s’more is.
Okay, American immigrant to the UK here to explain all the mistakes from Paul Hollywood happening here: there is one fundamentally American ingredient required to make a s'more correctly but which is basically not available anywhere at all in the UK, and that is graham crackers. A plain digestive biscuit close-ish, but still a very different beast.
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From Wikipedia: A graham cracker is a sweet flavored cracker made with graham flour.
The next ingredient (which is also extremely traditionally American but slightly more variable) is typically Hershey’s chocolate, but you could probably swap this out in the UK with any plain chocolate bar.
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Last ingredient is big marshmallows, the kind you do the chubby bunny challenge with, like the size of your thumb and twice as thick.
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A proper s'more, the most traditional possible variety, involves to graham cracker squares, two slab segments of Hershey’s chocolate, and one to two marshmallows depending on your preference for filling and gooeyness. You put a slab of chocolate on one of the graham cracker squares. Your marshmallows should be toasted, usually over a campfire but if you’re doing them at home over a gas stove burner is fine, but the fire part is critical. You can toast them to whatever degree you like, some people like them nice and golden brown but still kind of firm in the middle, me personally? I want that bitch to CATCH ON FIRE, I want it gooey and sticky as hell in the middle, crispy and burnt on the outside. Slap that motherfucker on your graham cracker and chocolate square, top with the other one so your marshmallow and chocolate are sandwiched together by graham cracker on the outside. You do this with your freshly toasted marshmallow because ideally it will be hot enough to start to melt the chocolate so it sticks to the marshmallow and the graham cracker and, combined with the gooey marshmallow, it keeps the whole thing together, and for that reason some people will let them sit for a hot second to let the melting process happen (especially if like me you have chocolate on BOTH graham cracker squares, not just one, because you’re a sugar fiend), but if you are a young child you do not have that degree of patience and you eat that shit immediately, unmelted chocolate and all. Consume your summer camp delight like a tiny club sandwich, get gooey sticky marshmallow and chocolate all over your hands, and enjoy.
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Important note: this is a kids treat. It is a traditional summer camping trip dessert. It should be something any ten year old with adult supervision and access to the ingredients can make (and make a mess of). They’re called s'mores because kids always “want s'more”. If you are using a blowtorch, chocolate biscuits, and merengue, you are so far beyond the bounds of s'more-hood that you have thoroughly lost the plot. If you offered Paul Hollywood’s concoction to an American child and called it a s'more, they’d tell you flat out that not only is it not a s'more, it looks dumb and you didn’t do it right because it’s not gooey.
Graham crackers are a distinctly American thing. They were created by a minister during the temperance movement who believed that the way to get people to stop masturbating was to feed them a diet of only dry, sugarless crackers made from a coarsely ground wheat.
Fortunately one of the few things Americans love more than protestantism is adding sugar to things. So we added sugar and used them to make s'mores, the most sugar-heavy treat imaginable, and we never did stop cranking it.
I for one enjoy finding new ways to adulterate Rev. Graham’s crackers specifically to spite him.
*nods solemly* we never did stop cranking it.
I will say if you’re in the UK, plain chocolate is *not* Milk Chocolate. Plain chocolate is dark chocolate.
Late night scribble while thinking about how amazing a show with Dreamfinder and Figment would be.
They could journey thru the Realms of Imagination and create things to solve problems. That would be a dream-come-true project if I could work on something like that 😭🙌💕
My heart is so shattered over the news about Zombies Run. I can’t even fully process it with everything else happening right now. I wish I could give everyone at Six To Start the biggest hug to thank them for everything they’ve done over the years.
Anyway, I think this painting from 2 years ago sums up my feelings pretty well. ;;A;;
It’s recording season at Six to Start once again! We aim to record each mission in around an hour, which can mean that Matt and the actors spend prolonged periods of time in our office soundbooth, deprived of natural light (and occasionally oxygen).
For actors with a lot of lines, such as series regular Phil Nightingale (Sam Yao), this can sometimes lead to a little bit of confusion when we start a new mission, as you’ll hear in this outtake…
I wasn’t aware of this one, so I’m trying to spread the word.
Black faith leaders have called for a 40-day “fast” from Target for Lent in response to their compliance with Trump’s resegregation agenda.
Now this is an effective boycott. It is targeting (ha) a specific company with a clearly stated goal. The amount of time is long enough to be noticed, and could be extended if needed. Anything that can be purchased at Target can also be obtained elsewhere, so it is actually possible to boycott this specific company for a very long time. Target is caving to fascism and rolling back their diversity and inclusion policies. The goal is for them to reverse that decision. This is an achievable goal.
Boycotting everything all at once, for one day or for as long as you can, because everything is terrible and we’re mad about it…does nothing. It’s vague, disorganized, and frankly impossible. We have to buy things sometimes. You can’t just target the economy as a whole. You have to be specific.
If you want to start a boycott, use this one as an example. Choose one target. Provide one (simple, clear, easy to explain) reason why that company deserves to be boycotted. Explain what you want them to do differently. Make sure that it is something that can actually be done. Then tell people about it.
This is a little different, but I wanted to share some love for the Yogscast. They’re an independently owned studio and gaming channel, and right now, it’s very important that we support as many smaller studios as we can. Especially ones that also support amazing charities and causes, like the Yogscast does. And they just genuinely seem like such fun folks.
I’ve been following their youtube for a few years now and its so nice to see a gaming channel that’s just about having fun with friends and not necessarily being competitive, especially when I’ve had a rough day and I just need a laugh. So shoutout to the yogscast for being amazing.
I thought it’d be fun to draw a few of their TTT player’s models in a lineup, which ended up being a good drawing exercise because they have such diverse designs! ^^
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