That looks sick, thanks!

First time poster -- quick question.

Have you noticed reading novels seems to make us less egotistical? Not in a conscious, "Oh I'm so self-obsessed" type way (though this does happen), but more like the very act of novel reading itself dissolves a small piece of our ego. This happened to me last night, though it may not have had I not meditated for one hour/avoided coffee/stayed offline the whole day prior. It wasn't a minor effect, either -- by the end of the last chapter, I was feeling just like the narrator, though we're totally different kinds of people. Immediately I spotted a pattern between overstimulation and the ego, and honestly it seems to hold up. Like if we're overstimulated 24/7, the brain seems to regard this as a threat, and becomes very closed-off in self-defense. As if our mind is a scared kid lost in a carnival fun house, looking for anything real to grasp onto. This was a really eye-opening experience and I'm gonna switch up my habits for a week to see if it goes anywhere.

To me Sea of Stars is sort of in a different league, it's competing with the Square Enix DQ remasters and Live a Live and stuff because the graphics/scale is amazing. What I'm talking about is games descending from the old RPG Maker stuff, like Ib, Witch's House, Mad Father, Off, LISA, Undertale, etc etc etc that focus on art/music/story over gameplay

I had in mind Omori which took 7 years afaik. But they had a successful kickstarter. If you know a game is taking 5+ years maybe crowdfunding is a good idea at some point to gauge whether people even care

Drugs

Ngl my dad is bipolar and had a phase like this (also in his 40s). Bipolar + drugs + stress eventually fries your brain, not in a joke way but like losing a lot of brain cells, you start believing in crazy shit and seeing patterns in stuff that aren't there. That tweet about the jersey numbers is probably a sign of what's coming ahead. I wouldnt be surprised if ye started claiming he discovered a new disease or invented sampling or some crazy shit in a couple years. In a sense he has dementia

So people are saying this was a manic episode, but doesnt the crazy ass merch that just went up prove this was planned to some degree?

Here's a modified version

This is all authentic lighting. 2 ceiling lights plus the window light. The lighting doesn't look so bad now, but it's a very gray and dark scene unlike the original. I wonder if I just add a color ramp and gradient onto the steel texture somewhere for this

Sure, that's eevee.

I know a lot of the lighting in the reference doesn't make sense. But having the smooth gradients on the wall for example contribute a lot to the atmosphere. Would using something like area lights for that make sense? Should you even do that with lights?

Anyone else listenin to vultures 2 rn?

To me, he's one of a kind because he doesn't make his subjects conform to anything. Most artists aim for a unified mood or impression with their subjects, but Lautrec seems to be the opposite in that anything which catches his eye goes in, even if it clashes with other details or even if it's hard to notice. And he had a special gift for noticing these microscopic details in forms, sometimes extremely subtle things that nobody ever talks about. Degas was the same which is probably why Lautrec admired him so deeply

Oddly, I can't find imitators. There are strands of this style in Van Gogh and Cheret, but Toulouse-Lautrec took it to a completely new level of perfection, and his paintings too were mostly designed using line art later on. Art nouveau would take some of his poses and colors, but not his actual method of drawing, the lines.

I'm confused what I'm doing wrong then. I didn't flee any encounters but the marsh cave is kicking my ass. Enemies hit like a truck while all my party members are still missing a good half of their attacks, mages can't cast most fights because MP is so limited so they're just doing nothing, thief is weak all around etc

I'll try, hopefully things still work out. Sorry to hear you were in a similar situation.

That's true. Though I get what he means. Being stuck in a similar situation is usually what brings people together, so if one of them radically changes then the friendship dynamic falls apart and they lose the ability to relate. Naturally you don't want this to happen so you try to bring your friend along. But if the friend is unwilling, then that friendship is just basically over. It doesn't mean blocking them or being mean, or refusing to answer their texts. But once you make the decision to move forward without them, which you kinda have to, it is like tossing them overboard sadly

Depends what you're trying to do. Saying ugliness is always a death sentence is just as delusional as acting like it doesn't matter.