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Author Plays God — me and Will

Author Plays God — me and Will published on 4 Comments on Author Plays God — me and Will

I made a digital model of me last night, primarily so I could enter LHF and bitch out the characters. Here I am lording it over Will. I am not a nice author. :p I have no hair because I could not find any haircuts with bangs that were buzzed up the sides. Also, I have been bald in the past, so it is not technically out of character.

The latest version of Anneka, not shown, is based on the following digital version of me.

Print ads with Orangina therianthropes

Print ads with Orangina therianthropes published on 1 Comment on Print ads with Orangina therianthropes

I found the Flickr stream of the print ads with the dancing animal humanoids who are so craaaaaaazy for Orangina. Because I am much more accustomed to still pictures of animal humanoids, I am much less bothered by them. Except for the palm tree because it looks like someone with a mummification fetish. See?

 

That therianthropic Orangina commercial

That therianthropic Orangina commercial published on 2 Comments on That therianthropic Orangina commercial

Conveniently enough for my therianthrope kick, BoingBoing linked to this French Orangina commercial. In case you are ignorant of this awesome drink, Orangina is like sweetened, watered, fizzy orange juice with some pulp, and it is so very good. 

The commercial starts with a bipedal humanoid deer woman, who is masturbating rocking in solitary ecstasy on a swing in a bucolic forest. Then a bipedal humanoid bear man steals her Orangina.

The seductive flavor of the contested drink apparently causes them to go against the natural order and fall in love. The entire forest bursts into a chorus line of predator/prey couples, dancing flowers and Orangina bottles blowing their wads and showering particpants. With many shots intercut between furry cleavage and lissome bottle necks, this commercial plays on the fact that the French term for “pulpy,” pulpeuse, can also be a slang term for “curvaceous.” 

Mostly this commercial is overflowing with pulpy goodness. It gets points for including an entire menagerie of bipedal humanoid therianthropes based on a variety of animals, including deer, bears, zebras, pandas, giraffes, rabbits and geckos…although the octopi were quite incongruous with all the terrestrial fauna. I also liked its attention to certain detail, like twitching ears and tails. Finally, I can’t deny the appeal of its rampantly suggestive innuendo: the SWING [a symbol for women’s sexual pleasure], the FALLING BACK INTO FLOWERS, the DANCING, the RIPPING THE WOMAN’S CLOTHES OFF AS SHE SPINS, the SITTING ON WAD-SHOOTING BOTTLES, the LAP DANCES, the ASS-SLAPPING, the SHOWERING ONESELF WITH ORANGINA and the BASICALLY SQUIRTING ORANGINA OUT OF ONE’S TITS. [Side note: It was the tentacular humanoid that was squirting Orangina from its mammaries. Brain…breaking… Unable to…countenance… illogical…biological implausibility…of two phyla…hybridizing…] Watching this commercial is like watching the part in Disney’s animated Fantasia where all the therianthropes are dancing around to Beethoven’s Pastoral, only this is what they would behave like if they were all in their sexual prime.

Two things seriously, deeply disturb me about this commercial, however. One is the ursine humanoid. He walks swiftly and nimbly on his knuckles, shoulders jerking up and down, like a large primate. But bears are basically oversized dogs with lots of extra fat, fur and muscle, and they move like dogs, you know, trotting, without visible shoulder jerks and with more of a general roll and twist in their gait. The ursine humanoid was not loping like a bear! Second, none of the hooved humanoids had digitigrade legs. Third, and most disturbingly of all, animals were dancing with each other that should have been either eating each other or running away from each other. I suppose the point of the commercial was to show that the pulpy, sexy goodness of Orangina was so strong that it could overcome even predator/prey instincts, but the sight of a deer humanoid tangoing with a bear humanoid just strikes me as seriously wrong. And yet I can handle everything else about this commercial… Go figure….

Freakin’ at the freakers’ ball

Freakin’ at the freakers’ ball published on 1 Comment on Freakin’ at the freakers’ ball

The best Xmas prezint I received was the knowledge of a beloved children’s author’s kinky side. I did not know that Shel Silverstein, known to generations of kids as the author and illustrator of such classics as Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Missing Piece, The Giving Tree and A Light in the Attic, wrote and sang pervy songs like The Freakers’ Ball. See excerpt below:

White ones, black ones, yellow ones, red ones
Necrophiliacs looking for dead ones
The greatest of the sadists and the masochists too
Screaming, “Please hit me, and I’ll hit you!!”

I have listened to other songs by this man, and they are equally cock-eyed [nur hur hur hur] and amusing. I must get me a copy of his greatest hits.

Froudian faery sleeping

Froudian faery sleeping published on 1 Comment on Froudian faery sleeping

I’ve been working on a custom Victoria 4.1 character for the past few weeks. She is scrawny, with a long, snout-like face, inspired by the gangly, mischievous critters in Brian Froud’s illustrations. Because I am too chicken to create a custom texture [skin] because V4’s UV map [skin texture layout] is confusing, I am just making the morphs and poses. So far, I’ve made the character’s custom head and body morph [using the pretty cool Creature Creator morph pack] and some custom poses. Here she is sleeping. It was a real pain to make her pose because I had to adjust each of her finger joints individually. The result looks quite relaxed and naturalistic, however, if I do say so myself. I put her in the “therianthropes” category because I used all sorts of animal morphs [including “HeadGoat” (?!?!?!) and “EarGremlin” 🙂 ] to deform her features.

Apollo Maximus: So good in some ways, so disappointing in others

Apollo Maximus: So good in some ways, so disappointing in others published on 5 Comments on Apollo Maximus: So good in some ways, so disappointing in others

 At Sailor Zeo’s instigation, I experimented with the Apollo Maximus fig last night. 

Things I liked about the fig: Apollo default looks much more realistic than Michael 3, modeled with an average distribution of fat, as opposed to Michael 3’s tight and built body. I also liked Apollo’s more fluid morphing capabilities; while Daz figures morph certain features in isolation, Apollo morphs much more smoothly, with more realistic interplay between, say, nose and philtrum if you’re making the nose longer. I also liked the fact that Apollo was free with a wide range of clothing guaranteed to fit him, no matter what his morphs.

Things I disliked about the fig: Well, mostly I disliked the female options, and this is what killed the fig for me. If a character has morph options like “Gender01” and “Gender02” on the head, as well as options to change width of hips and shoulders, as well as chest size and placement of fat deposits, it’s practically advertising its transgender capabilities. When I see a fig with such morphs available, I assume that I’ll be able to get a passably male fig out of it, if it’s female and a passably female fig out of it if it’s male.

For a little excursus about transgender figs… As I enjoyed creating them in 3-D, so I enjoy digitally modeling them. My latest digital iteration of Will is based on the Victoria 3 female mesh, heavily tweaked with the Rayne morphs. My latest digital iteration of Anneka is based on the Michael 3 male mesh, heavily tweaked with the Brom morphs. And you don’t necessarily need extra-fancy morph packs to transgenderize V3 or M3. In fact, V3’s standard morph pack includes “Male” and “Young Male” body shapes, “Male Chest Span,” “HeadMale,” “HeadMale2,” “HeadAlienMale,” et hoc genus omne, allowing you to approximate a male fig very well. [M3 is more of a challenge because of the flat-chest-to-boobs conversion.]

Okay, anyway, fresh from the transgenderizing abilities of Daz figures, I expected similar results from Apollo, perhaps even more impressive ones, since the Web site goes on and on pissing about how he’s new and sexy and improved and loads better than Daz models. I didn’t get anything close. I fought with the morphs for almost an hour, and the best I could manage was a short man with sloping shoulders and wide, fat, curving upper thighs. I could not narrow the shoulders appropriately without tearing the mesh; nor could I find any way to generate breasts on the fig. Furthermore, the only way to get rid of the penis involved making an obvious hole in the fig’s pubis through which you could see its butt crack. I was very sad.

In conclusion, Apollo should not be marketed as the super-duper fig to end all figs. A super-duper fig to end all figs would cough up a female shape if you asked it to. >_< Instead, Apollo should be correctly billed for what he is: an amazing super-duper MALE fig with extensive morphing capacity and free clothes for all your various MALE permutations, created by a guy who very well could be gay [a makeup artist/fashion designer who worked on Newbury Street in Boston for 10 years before hitting the 3-D scene — hmmm, my gaydar is ringing] and therefore more focused on the MALE body anyway. The morph dials should not imply transgenderization, but instead a young/old spectrum or a high fat/low fat spectrum. I erased him from my computer.

This is for SailorZeo, who asked me about my crack habit.

This is for SailorZeo, who asked me about my crack habit. published on 1 Comment on This is for SailorZeo, who asked me about my crack habit.

In answer to your question about my 3-D modeling tools, Zeo, I use Daz because it’s free and because Poser looked a little too complex and daunting for my basic purposes. Be warned that any 3-D modeling program requires lots of practice; just as a beginning kitbasher won’t instantly create repaints worthy of the Japanese customizers and outfits worthy of an42, so the beginning modeler needs to learn the basics, like morphing characters and sticking clothes on them, before moving on to more exciting things like making custom textures [skins] and props. After two months, I’ve finally hit an intermediate skill level with Daz, but that’s because I’ve spent almost all my free time on it.

In terms of models, I use primarily Victoria 3 and Michael 3, both made by Daz. Frankly, they are not particularly cheap — I’d say $100 to get the base figures and morphs — but, on the plus side, they are the most widely supported, so free clothing and textures [skins] can be acquired widely. They’re not the latest and greatest, but they work very well for my purposes.

To be honest, I haven’t investigated Apollo Maximus. By the time I heard about him, I was already ensconced with V3 and M3. I thought that Apollo was solely a male character, and models that cannot represent the full complement of human shapes do not interest me. However, I notice that Apollo’s morphs include parameters for female body parts, so you can probably harass him into yielding a female fig. In any case, I would highly recommend him for free experimentation since he has a good base package and great customizability. [I also note that the linked page contains a free James Marsters/Spike morph for Apollo, if you’re interested in that sort of thing… :p]

Incidentally, it seems as if you are already familiar with 3-D modeling of a sense through the Sims. Depending on what you want to do with custom 3-D characters and sets, the Sims may be sufficient for your interests. From what I can tell, the Sims automates lots of tedious and frustrating things [lighting, animation, expressions] that one does by hand in Daz and Poser. Of course, if you like pushing your characters’ mouths around for hours, attempting to achieve the perfect smirk, Daz may be the alternative for you….

Mom, the abyss is making faces at me!

Mom, the abyss is making faces at me! published on 1 Comment on Mom, the abyss is making faces at me!

When you look into the abyss, said Friedrich Nietzsche, the abyss also looks back into you. He neglected to mention that the abyss could quite possibly be wearing an evil smirk. Because she has a snake tail, the subject of this picture is classed as a therianthrope, even if you can’t see her anguineous parts.

“Hello, I’m a Wii.”

“Hello, I’m a Wii.” published on 1 Comment on “Hello, I’m a Wii.”

This parody commercial, in which the PS2 is personified as a Rubenesque girl with glasses and short brown hair and the Wii is a tall, scrawny girl with no glasses and blond curly hair, is annoying. First, it sets up a false dichotomy between intelligent, down-to-earth, regular-looking traits and gregarious, impulsive, stereotypically attractive traits. It suggests that the first are undesirable and the latter are desirable, but whether a certain mix of traits is desirable depends on one’s tastes. I personally have the hots for the Rubenesque girl in terms of character and physical appearance, but I really like the scrawny girl’s flirtiness. However, in the framework of the commercial, the Rubenesque girl is ultimately an arrogant, castrating, mannish lesbian and fat slob, and the scrawny girl is a stupid, push-over, super-femmy, breakable slut, and neither one of them is ultimately desirable, so I think the parody just shot itself in the foot. The only way I’d like them both was if they were in 1:6 or 1:3. 

Mein Herz Brennt in Hellboy 2 trailer!

Mein Herz Brennt in Hellboy 2 trailer! published on 1 Comment on Mein Herz Brennt in Hellboy 2 trailer!

Rammstein’s Mein Herz Brennt appears in the Hellboy 2 trailer! Appropriately enough for a movie about supernatural characters from Hell, some of the lyrics go:

Sie kommen zu euch in der Nacht
Dämonen Geister schwarze Feen
sie kriechen aus dem Kellerschacht
und werden unter euer Bettzeug sehen

They come to you in the night —
Demons, ghosts, darkling fae
They creep out from the cellar shaft
And spy under your bedclothes

I’m over my Rammstein obsession, and I’m not particularly thrilled by the Hellboy series, but I do think that Rammstein and Hellboy are a perfect marriage of tongue-in-cheek, mordant humor and comic-bookish violence.

I hate it when roosters get involved: Puzzling 42 Below Vodka ads

I hate it when roosters get involved: Puzzling 42 Below Vodka ads published on No Comments on I hate it when roosters get involved: Puzzling 42 Below Vodka ads

Saatchi and Saatchi created a print ad campaign for 42 Below Vodka that apparently won a Clio. God knows why. I mean, the rebus idea is really clever, but I don’t understand why it’s a good thing that your alcoholic beverage promotes drinking your way to the White House or getting crabs. 

And then there’s the two following examples of the campaign, which use the typical straight male fear of other penises to make fun of 1) gay men and 2) trans women. [And don’t get me started on how the ad with the man and the trans woman was titled “Transvestite.” I interpreted the ad about being about a man and a woman who happened to have a dick. A woman who happens to have a dick is transgendered, but not necessarily a transvestite. People can be so stupid sometimes.]

LHF revamp…now with tooniness!

LHF revamp…now with tooniness! published on 1 Comment on LHF revamp…now with tooniness!

After my enjoyable experience with Boopsie, I tried recreating the same tooniness last night in realistic Will, using only M3’s standard morphs. So, basically, inspired by my love for “The Girl” and the toony morphs of Boopsie, I tried to get a toony Will out of a realistic character and his realistic morphs.  Trying to get a toony character out of standard morphs made Will look like an origami lemur. I failed so badly and disappointingly that I’m not going to even show the results.

Fortunately, the creator of Boopsie also has similar custom morph packages for other characters. So I got Rayne, a set of toony morphs for V3. [V3 is the main female base I use for characters. Dolly nerds can think of her as a CG 1.5.] I will now be redoing all my characters, male and female, young and old, child and adult, on V3 bases with Rayne morphs…or on other bodies with V3/Rayne heads swapped on, if I can ever figure out how to work a head swap. Blllllaaaagh.

3-D freeform modeling app freeware, Teddy

3-D freeform modeling app freeware, Teddy published on No Comments on 3-D freeform modeling app freeware, Teddy

Poking around on the BoingBoing post about Plushie, I found that someone linked to another program also worked on by Takeo Igarashi. This program, called Teddy, is freeware allowing creating of digital 3-D models via freeform strokes. And — here’s the exciting thing for people who are interesting in 3-D modeling stuff — YOU CAN EXPORT YOUR CREATIONS AS OBJS! The OBJ format is a pretty-much-universal format for 3-D models — for example, the models that I’ve been using for my LHF digital characters are in OBJ format. Perhaps this program could aid in prop creation for LHF??

Real-time plushie pattern creator from 3-D CGI model

Real-time plushie pattern creator from 3-D CGI model published on No Comments on Real-time plushie pattern creator from 3-D CGI model

Watch this video demonstrating a new app. The app, titled Plushie, allows users to cut, shape and otherwise deform a virtual 3-D plush blob. As the blob is deformed, the righthand window shows a constantly updated version of the pattern pieces needed to created the blob out of fabric. It may be difficult to understand the narrator, a Japanese woman who speaks English as a second language, but the pictures explain everything clearly. Now if only the same principles could somehow be applied to doll sculpting….

Lovingly rendered with NO attention to scale or perspective

Lovingly rendered with NO attention to scale or perspective published on 1 Comment on Lovingly rendered with NO attention to scale or perspective

I just saw some Spike porn [photomanipulations], and they were done with such obvious wanking love for the character [yay!] and such amateurish pasting, scaling and PSP brush effects [boo!] that my gorge couldn’t decide whether to rise or fall, so it’s still bubbling up and down somewhere around my trachea. I am going to run far, far away from the site and play with my agreeably scaled, posed, pasted and lit dolls and models. For all that I talk about sex, think about sex and run my characters around the subject of sex, I much prefer suggestion, double entendre and innuendo than explicit depictions.

Seriously in love with “The Girl”

Seriously in love with “The Girl” published on No Comments on Seriously in love with “The Girl”

I wonder what the LHF characters would look like with toony heads all based on “The Girl” and more realistic bodies? Maybe they would achieve that doll-like look that I’m going for. Do you think they’d look like BeGoth characters? Here’s one who reminds me very much of Will.

Toony Will

Toony Will published on 2 Comments on Toony Will

I’m getting more mileage out of “The Girl” with a new morph pack, Boopsie, which I got with my $25 Daz gift certificate. [Tutorials that are accepted and published on the Web site are recompensed with store credit in the Web shop!!] Tonight I fucked off and made a Will “The Girl.” He looks, unsurprisingly enough, disgustingly cute as a toon. I’m sure other flamboyant LHF characters, such as Anneka, Velvette, Rori, Dom and Baozha, would also flourish fabulously in a toony style, but the other 50%, including Mark, Alexandra, Max, Minerva, Leonora, Chow, etc., deserve a more subdued and realistic rendering style. Forthwith, the fabulous, flirty and fun Will toon!!

Guerdon the Bald-Faced, staunch little goblin guard

Guerdon the Bald-Faced, staunch little goblin guard published on No Comments on Guerdon the Bald-Faced, staunch little goblin guard

Here’s my custom “The Girl” character, Guerdon, as she stands tonight [not finished]. I Made her custom body shape [longer legs, smaller hands, longer neck, bigger feet] with “The Girl” base package, no extra morphs. Her homely, pointy face is also entirely an original product of several tedious hours with D-Forms, although I did use “The Girl” morph pack to create her expression of fierce concentration. Corset, shorts, boots and arm warmer from Glorious Goth. Streamer sleeves from The Dress. Hat from The Dress Headpiece. Shoulder pads from Planet Vixens Toxic II freebie. The skin texture is my work, and it incorporates seamless skin tiles by kabuki-chan at Renderosity and PSP 7 Stitches brushes by slshimerdla at Renderosity as well.

Anyway, she’s a well-disciplined member of the Goblin Royal Guard who has been trained since she was a toddler to protect the life of the Goblin Queen. Highly skilled and unquestioningly devoted, she knows the seven defensive arts of the Lower Orders and the eight tongues of the Roundaway world, making her equally talented in warcraft or espionage.

She was the one who intercepted the Elvish assassin who tried to kill the Queen during last year’s Festival of Worms. For this feat of selfless bravery, she suffered a disfiguring amputation of her eyebrows, sheared off by the vengeful assassin before he expired, choked to death by Guerdon’s hat streamer. The assassin intended to shame Guerdon by removing from her the most prized features of goblin physiognomy: their thick, swooping, expressive eyebrows. [Elves often take goblin eyebrows like scalps in battle, and goblin soldiers have been known to kill themselves before submitting to such dishonor.] Guerdon, though, was not to be daunted, and she had stitches tattooed in place of her brows. This is how she came to be known as Guerdon the Bald-Faced, in reference to her eyebrowlessness, as well as her general courage.

I have a crush on “The Girl.”

I have a crush on “The Girl.” published on No Comments on I have a crush on “The Girl.”

I figured out why I like “The Girl” so much…She looks like a My Scene Barbie doll, and I love the stylized features of this line. Here’s some background on “The Girl,” including an interview with the creator, concept designs and a gallery.

I’m currently making a custom goblin morph for “The Girl,” no commercial morph packs required. The custom morph involves a primitive form of 3-D modeling with Daz’ version of magnets called D-Forms. It’s horribly fiddly and time-consuming, but a lot of fun to put my own impressions on an existing character. Right now she has big pointy ears, a little pointy jutting chin, a pointy little beaky nose, high cheekbones, slightly sunken cheeks and a high, sloping forehead. I want to sink her temples and add a mohawk of spikes on her head. 😀

With a flying leap, she left her shirt behind and soared into the sky…

With a flying leap, she left her shirt behind and soared into the sky… published on No Comments on With a flying leap, she left her shirt behind and soared into the sky…

I was playing with a new fig tonight, the toonily proportioned “The Girl.” Her gravity-defying pose and wide, rubbery mouth just call for exuberant poses. Isn’t she cute? She was wearing a skintight boob squisher but I kept getting poke-through on every pose, so I went for second skin clothing.

Gareth

Gareth published on 1 Comment on Gareth

Here’s Gareth, a long-time character of mine. He’s made off a Will base because I’ve been using that physique for characters for decades. Since he’s a predator of ideas, he has many bestial characteristics, including talons, vespertilian wings, feline eyes, big pointy ears, hollow bones and a predatorial sensibility, highly apparent here.

Attacked in the paint factory!!

Attacked in the paint factory!! published on No Comments on Attacked in the paint factory!!

“They just threw all the black and blue paint in my eyes and ran!” Since I successfully downloaded the merchant resource Gothifully Yours, I’ve been reveling in the pursuit of hyperbolic makeup. See Will below in a black and blue theme. Maybe I’ll make a whole black-and-blue texture set for a freebie… Please note that Will does not usually wear cool colors or drippy styles, but the result is pretty awesome, in an amusing sort of way.

The greater the glitter, the closer to God.

The greater the glitter, the closer to God. published on 1 Comment on The greater the glitter, the closer to God.

Three layers of glittery eyeshadow, magenta lipstick and blush!!!!! I’ve been applying virtual makeup for the last few hours. My artistic vision is becoming reality. Who knew my artistic vision was so goddamned TACKY? :p

Oh YEAH BABY!!! Texturing in progress

Oh YEAH BABY!!! Texturing in progress published on No Comments on Oh YEAH BABY!!! Texturing in progress

I’m drawing again…only, in the terminology of 3-D modeling, they call it “texturing.” But yeah, I’m drawing people’s faces. Last night and this morning I used a variety of free texture resources, Photoshop brushes, digital makeup kits [yeah, they exist] and some merchant resources [digital makeup you pay for], threw it all in the blender of my creative mind and came out with this… It’s a head texture in progress for Will. I thnk it could use more eyeshadow…or sparkles…or sparkly eyeshadow. But it still represents the elaborate and overdone style of makeup that is the pinnacle of attractiveness according to my drag-queeny imagination. [His head is a different color from his body because I’m only working on the head now.]

Crap I downloaded, only to be foiled by my unresponsive flash drive

Crap I downloaded, only to be foiled by my unresponsive flash drive published on 2 Comments on Crap I downloaded, only to be foiled by my unresponsive flash drive

 http://www.sharecg.com/v/18206/poser/Paper-coffee-cup

http://www.sharecg.com/v/17602/texture/Makeup-Kit-for-Preteen-Vicky

http://www.sharecg.com/v/13356/texture/V4-Lip-Colors?division_id=6

Gothfully Yours sampler on Renderosity

5 seamless skin tiles on Renderosity

Mega lip guides by SnowSultan on Renderosity

http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/shop/itemdetails/-/?item=1098&cat=57 V3 seam guides here

http://www.file-upload.net/member/download-3486/Face-intems2007.zip.html

making custom brushes in PSP http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/tutorial/tutorial/-/?id=1643

Mat poses

Mat poses published on No Comments on Mat poses

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php?print=606 making a full mat pose using Mat Pose Editor

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php?print=60 another on making a full mat pose

http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/tutorial/tutorial/-/tutorial?id=1142 making a partial mat pose 

http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=37454&highlight=partial+mat+poses Daz equivalent of mat poses

Skin-making geekery

Skin-making geekery published on 1 Comment on Skin-making geekery

http://www.thebluesdragon.com/ftp/Tutorial-Skin.pdf Sarsa’s tutorial

http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=66730&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=54 some supplements to Sarsa’s tutorial

http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/tutorial/tutorial/-/?id=2123 DAZ-hosted tutorial

And apparently there are some raw high-res JPEGS on Renderotica for texturing…

I should make my own base for people…dammit!!!
 

Filling a linguistic void: “Murine”

Filling a linguistic void: “Murine” published on 1 Comment on Filling a linguistic void: “Murine”

Say you want to describe someone who looks like a rat or a mouse with a kind of long pointy face and prominent front teeth and twitchy disposition. “Mousy” indicates a shy person, which is not quite right, while “rat-like” has negative connotations [sorry, rats — but it’s true], and “rodent-like” is too general, given that rodents go from cabybaras to jerboas.

As a solution, I present to you the word “murine.” It means “of or pertaining to the family Muridae, a group that includes mice and rats.” It comes from the genitive plural murinus, which means “of or belonging to mice.” It also has deceptively tranquil and pleasing connotations, due to its accidental homophony with “marine.” 

Murine would make a good name for a murine therianthrope!!

A song to slit your wrists to: A Perfect Circle’s cover of Imagine

A song to slit your wrists to: A Perfect Circle’s cover of Imagine published on No Comments on A song to slit your wrists to: A Perfect Circle’s cover of Imagine

Right here is an example of how a song originally done by John Lennon as a light, uplifting, optimistic, sincere, profoundly joyful song can be turned into the trudging, ominous dirge of recruiting cult zombies. It’s not just the minor keys, the slow-down and the slowly, painfully thrashing drums. It’s the way that the vocalist flattens his voice and draws out the least expected words — “Imagine all the peeeeeeople…” Yeah, “imagine all the people” all right. When they’re done listening to this song, they’ll be too brainwashed to imagine anything. It’s pretty awesome as reinterpretations go. Listen to it.

Marilyn Manson does drag.

Marilyn Manson does drag. published on No Comments on Marilyn Manson does drag.

Okay, for all that he kinda whines in his earlier albums, I still think Marilyn Manson is cool because he’s really smart and thoughtful and coherent and also, more to the point here, I greatly admire his sense of style. He does rock-star drag oh so very well, and he applies his makeup with a trowel. In this sense, he reminds me of a Ziggy-era David Bowie, only less of a fashion plate and more of a flamboyant costume-jewelry type. Check out, for example, the teeth this this cover of Tainted Love. 

How to figure out lighting in Daz: Cheat.

How to figure out lighting in Daz: Cheat. published on No Comments on How to figure out lighting in Daz: Cheat.

Wow! Finally, after months of tinkering with 3-D modeling, I finally rendered one of the basic units of an LHF comic: a fully stocked interior scene with a character. Below Chow sits in his study, reflecting. [Please note his poster of the Chinatown gate on the wall! I took that picture.] I overcame my difficulties with lighting by cheating. I stole some lights from a daytime exterior set. They were set not to cast shadows, so I added a spotlight over Chow’s table and set it to cast raytraced shadows. Oh yeah, I also removed the ceiling from Chow’s study so I could actually shine lights in because my skills are not sophisticated enough to illuminate a room with a roof.

There’s also a view of the full set below. Yes, I’m aware that Chow’s boot is running into the mat. But that’s never showing up in the final pictures, so I’m ignoring that comment.

“Home Depot! Home Depot! HOME DEPOT!!!!!”

“Home Depot! Home Depot! HOME DEPOT!!!!!” published on No Comments on “Home Depot! Home Depot! HOME DEPOT!!!!!”

Lesbian phone sex, courtesy of the Big Gay Sketch Comedy. Please watch the woman who makes the call; her practically boneless wriggling shows what a gifted physical comedian she is. Watch her feet….

Bad-ass unicorn therianthrope [draft]

Bad-ass unicorn therianthrope [draft] published on No Comments on Bad-ass unicorn therianthrope [draft]

Here’s a unicorn therianthrope character using the same skin mat as my bad-ass octopus therianthrope. [I like the skin…it’s versatile for a myriad characters.] Yes, I understand that you can see part of her tail through her butt…but she’s just a draft.

Ray Wise is a handsome Devil.

Ray Wise is a handsome Devil. published on No Comments on Ray Wise is a handsome Devil.

 So E.R. is the serious medical drama show, and Scrubs is the comedic, nudge-nudge, wink-wink, clowning cousin — same subject, different tone. Likewise, while Supernatural is the serious, heavy-handed, philosophical and emotionally weighty show about monster hunters, Reaper, which I just watched [listened to, rather, at work] a few eps of, is the silly soufflee version. It concerns a doofus 20-something who is a bounty hunter for the Devil, returning escaped souls to Hell with the help of his doofus friends and the doofus person he wants to be his girlfriend. 

Really nothing about Reaper is original. Even the cleverest portions, set at the hellish hardware warehouse/store where all the doofuses slave away under a sadistically cheerful weirdo brainwashed by corporate affirmations, have been taken from countless movies and TV shows. I always appreciate a good work-is-hell theme, but the silliness in the hardware story kept reminding me of George’s awkward, excruciating temp work and scarily perky manager in Dead Like Me or Buffy’s McJob in BTVS. Reaper owes a lot, perhaps too much, to better shows about demon slayers that have gone before it.

The best part, a reason well worth sticking around, is Ray Wise as the Devil. Like Mick Jagger sings in Sympathy for the Devil, Wise’s Satan is “a man of wealth and taste,” always impeccably dressed and wearing that smug smirk of a privileged dead white guy who has omnipotence in his sector. He treats the reaper doofus with amusing avuncularity while constantly trying to mind-fuck him. You can tell Wise really digs playing the charming rascal, and he sure does it well because the screen lights up [with hellfire :p ] whenever he glides majestically on.

That said, I recommend Reaper. I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it, but then again, I never really go out of my way to watch anything on my TV. If you’re looking for a low-key, silly time-passer that doesn’t take itself that seriously, see streaming eps of Reaper on the CW Web site, which I currently can’t dig up a link to. Me, I’m gonna go to the angsty side of the subject and listen to some Supernatural. I hear there were some vampires in a recent ep….

Where’s the werewolf?

Where’s the werewolf? published on No Comments on Where’s the werewolf?

Over there…no, wait…she ran away. Fortunately I took this picture. She shares the same atrocious fashion sense as all of my characters, as well as the Signature MW Evil Smirk. I like her blocky face and her horsey teeth. 😀 She has yet to tell me her name. Oh wait…she just did. It’s Kelly Ashley Brittany Dupree.

Helen Boyd will be at Gender Crash next week!

Helen Boyd will be at Gender Crash next week! published on 5 Comments on Helen Boyd will be at Gender Crash next week!

This is the author of My Husband Betty and She’s Not the Man I Married, which I have discussed previously in two entries [1 and 2]. She’s a writer and activist for transgender rights, and you should go see her if interested. I am excited to hear her in person. I really hope her reading/presentation is good….

Thursday Dec 13, 2007
Gender Crash Open mic
For poets/spoken wordsters/literary geeks/journal
writers/queers/transgender/gender queers

Feature: Helen Boyd!

Helen Boyd is the author of My Husband Betty and She’s Not the Man I
Married. She speaks and writes regularly on becoming queer and being
the partner of a trans person, and her writing has been published in
anthologies edited by Vern Bullough, Mattilda, and Rachel Kramer
Bussel. Her blog (en)gender can be found at www.myhusbandbetty.com.

Bring your Poetry, Spoken Word, Slam Style Poems, Essays, Acoustic
Music, Performance, Singing, Drag, and Dance are all welcome. Where
you can be a Rock Star! for at least 3 minutes!

Doors open at 7p show at 7:30pm at Spontaneous Celebrations, 45
Danforth St, Jamaica Plain, Orange line, Stony brook stop, all ages $5
– 10 at the door, open to everyone, more info?
http://www.gendercrash.comRight-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.

 

Medusa de la Mer draft

Medusa de la Mer draft published on 1 Comment on Medusa de la Mer draft

Okay, she was going to be a mermaid with head tentacles, but she informed me that her tentacles actually go on the lower half of her body, so I had to oblige. You don’t contradict someone with teeth [and muscles] like that. I need to work on making her octopus parts less plastic and more like shiny wet skin.

She is dancing happily because I constructed her with her tentacles in the appropriate place [on her hips, not on her head]. Please don’t ask how she goes to the bathroom or reproduces. It’s magic.

 

Medusa de la Mer, or, Distracted musings of a therianthropophile

Medusa de la Mer, or, Distracted musings of a therianthropophile published on 1 Comment on Medusa de la Mer, or, Distracted musings of a therianthropophile

I just discovered that I have a free octopus model and a free mertail model. I should make a merperson with tentacular [yes, that’s the adjectival form of “tentacle” — I made it up] hair. Hmmm, now I’m thinking of that picture I did, combining a person and all the non-human animals I could think of. It was like a woman with horns and wings and claws on her hands, a centaur front half and some sort of fish tail. Oh yeah…and feline eyes. It was quite silly. However, I’m sure that somewhere someone has created a detailed world and culture for such beings.

“What made the red man red?”

“What made the red man red?” published on 4 Comments on “What made the red man red?”

In her comment on my previous entry, katranna notes that Disney actively avoids black characters. This is true, but they used to be a little less avoidant. For example, the original version of the animated Fantasia had a little black centaur girl in the Beethoven’s Pastoral section. The little black centaur girl, Sunflower, was being a sycophantic slave to the white centaur girls. Sunflower has since been cropped out, denied and otherwise suppressed during Fantasia theatrical and DVD re-releases. See here for a still of Sunflower and even a clip! The rest of the article [about Disney’s most racist characters] is worth reading as well. 

The subject line comes from the #3 most racist characters, the Indians in Disney’s Peter Pan [admittedly based on J.M. Barrie’s stereotyped Pickanninny tribe, which, in a confusing stew of racism, are named after a derogatory term for African-Americans]. They sing a song with that title.

P.S . The list at Cracked.com forgot Stromboli, the fat yelling Italian stereotype in Pinnochio, as well as the eeeeevil slanty-eyed suck-uppy Siamese cats in The Lady and the Tramp who don’t speak grammatically [“Now we looking over our new domicile / If we like, we stay for maybe quite a while”].

Stupid reaction to Disney princess industry

Stupid reaction to Disney princess industry published on 8 Comments on Stupid reaction to Disney princess industry

As the stepparent of a 6-year-old, the Disney princess marketing machine is old news to me. This article by the always-behind-the-times Newsweek pisses me off, though. Here’s part of the concluding paragraph:

Considering that “What’s Love Got to Do With It” attitude, it’s no wonder that Disney is modernizing its princess formulas.

In the new Broadway “Little Mermaid,” Ariel no longer needs Prince Eric to dispatch Ursula the sea witch; she does it herself. In 2009 the studio will debut the animated film “The Princess and the Frog,” featuring its first African-American princess (which is pretty shocking, if you think about the fact that there’s already been Asian, Native American and Arab princesses). She’s already stirred some controversy —she was originally a lowly chambermaid named Maddy, but after the blogosphere got wind of that, she was promoted to full princess and given a more regal-sounding name: Tiana. “Enchanted” (which comes out this week) offers its own extreme princess makeover. Giselle begins as your classic, animated princess. When she falls through a manhole into Times Square (where the movie switches to live action) and falls again after climbing up a billboard for a castle-themed casino, she reasons she’s always falling because, well, someone always catches her. Not in New York City, sweetheart. Giselle soon discovers that her petticoats are a pain and her saccharine personality annoys people. She gets her man, but not before she’s lost the dress and the breathy voice and learned to stand on her own feet—or at least catch herself when she falls down. “Traditionally, the female character is very strong until the last minutes of the film, and then the prince comes in and she’s saved,” says “Enchanted” director Kevin Lima. “I don’t think that’s a contemporarily responsible story. I had to give an alternate ending.” Lima wants the new message to be: “You are responsible for your own happily-ever-after.” And if that includes a Disney Fairy Tale Wedding Snow White gown, all the better.

So, after a review of the Disney princess marketing machine, this article tries to allay concerns that said marketing machine is racist, classist, sexist and generally stupefying to people who buy into it, especially if they are little girls who don’t know any better. The concluding paragraph as quoted above turns backflips in an attempt to convince readers that Disney princess culture is not a huge cause for alarm.

Disney princess culture isn’t sexist, the article argues, because, for example, the stage musical version of Disney’s The Little Mermaid has given Ariel a more active role in defeating the sea witch Ursula. She’s more assertive, not a wimpy woman at all.

No, actually, what would make The Little Mermaid less sexist would be having Ariel defeat the sea witch by herself in the first place in the damn original animated film…or by considering the novel idea that perhaps a powerful, magical, ambitious, frustrated, middle-aged female character like Ursula should not be automatically vilified, ridiculed and made into a grotesque parody.

Disney princess culture isn’t racist, the article insists, because…look! They have an African-American princess coming up in The Princess and the Frog in 2009. 

No, actually, what would make Disney princess culture less racist would be, say, a little respect  for the cultures they’re portraying. For example, the ancestors as venerated in Mulan could be serious characters; or they could be off-screen completely; they needn’t be slapstick caricatures. Or the Native Americans as portrayed in Pocahontas could stop having some sort of gooey, hallucinatory relationship with colored wind and talking trees, and their spiritual practices could be woven into the story with more understatement and less excuse for talking non-human characters.

Disney princess culture isn’t generally retrograde, the article tries desperately to convince us, because Enchanted provides a modern twist on the happy-ever-after ending. In Enchanted, Giselle finds that her animated air-headedness can’t stand up to reality. Also she saves the divorce lawyer before the end. That makes it all better.

No, actually, what would make Disney princess culture less retrograde would be for them to dump the pining/suffering/wedding arc that characterizes all Disney princess stories. Just because Giselle in Enchanted momentarily flexes her muscles before settling down to her wedding does not mean that the pining/suffering/wedding arc has been radically disrupted, allowing for change. Giselle’s rescue of the divorce lawyer represents a superficial concession to reality, brains and general feminist agitation. There is no wholesale examination and revamping of the inherent passivity and stupidity of the tropes. Enchanted is NOT “contemporarily responsible.” It’s just a tired old retread.

“You are responsible for your own happily-ever-after.” And if that includes a Disney Fairy Tale Wedding Snow White gown, all the better.

This conclusion disturbs me. It implies that happily-ever-after does exist and is achievable. Furthermore, it suggests that participating in the Disney princess culture helps a person achieve said happy ending. But, as we’ve seen, Disney princess culture is a seething boil of sexism, racism, classism and general hebetation. It may purport to be liberating, hip, empowering and cool, but it is not. It is merely dressing up sexist, racist, classist stupidity in an appealing guise so that people will think that Disney princess culture represents the road to happiness and therefore consume more Disney princess products and increase Disney’s capital.

There is no happily-ever-after. There is only life. Happily-ever-after is not achieved by consuming Disney princess products because there’s no happily-ever-after to achieve in the first place. Thus, Disney princess products are merely a part of life. Their consumption does not lead to happiness. I do not deny that their consumption may bring pleasure to people; I do, however, vehemently dispute the assumption that consumption of Disney products causes lifelong personal fulfillment and deep satisfaction. They do not. No product does. In fact, consumption of Disney princess products can lead to distress, unhappiness and a dead-end state in a mire of racism, classism, sexism and stupidity…if one does not develop a critical intelligence about the hidden goals of the Disney corporate conglomerate. 

So that’s the key, folks. Examine; criticize, and provide alternatives.

 
P.S. For bonus nausea [and possibly VOMITING!!!!!], note that the 2009 Princess and the Frog is set in New Orleans. Cue the sassy Southern mammy stereotype, the comic and subhuman speaker of Cajun creole, not to mention the stupid, ignorant, stereotyped jokes about voodoo [more properly called Voudon, I think]. Extra bingo points for gratuitous depiction of New Orleans as some sort of swingin’ place full of cheerful Stepin Fetchits just groovin’ to the wild rhythms of that racy, “uncivilized,” “wild” jazz. 

P.P.S. For a bonus bonus, read Deborah Siegl’s review of Enchanted, which uses the movie as a case study to argue many of the points I bring up here.

Hi, my name is MW, and I…I like centaurs.

Hi, my name is MW, and I…I like centaurs. published on 2 Comments on Hi, my name is MW, and I…I like centaurs.

I’ve had a long-term, back-burner love affair with therianthropic — human/non-human animal creatures — from my earliest days. 

Since I was introduced to Greek myths at a very early age, I was trying to draw centaurs [and failing] as early as age 5. [Another challenge at which I failed was figuring out where centaurs came from. The Greek mythological universe always mentions the rowdy, rambunctious, drunk and annoying male centaurs, the wise tutor Cheiron excepted, but never any females. I spent a long time trying to figure out who the male centaurs mated with to have more centaurs. By the way, I refuse to accept the explanation that a cross between a male centaur and a human woman, a la Rape of the Sabines, would produce a baby centaur. Human + therianthrope =/= therianthrope. The centaurs of Disney’s animated Fantasia, while nauseatingly pastel and cute, appeared in both male and female versions, satisfying my need for a comprehensive reproductive scheme for said creatures.]

Mermaids also figured largely in my childhood interests. I thought they were glamorous, fascinating and magical even before Disney’s animated Little Mermaid appeared in 1989 and popularized such creatures. After the mermaid’s infiltration of mass culture, I still persisted in finding them eminently awesome, though I was more interested in Andersen’s Little Mermaid [and the rest of his sick, twisted fairy tales], mermaid lore in general and, again, a realistic schematic for merpeople. [My sister and I pondered the realistic biology of merpeople extensively. We spent much time wondering exactly how a fish part and a human part could fit together into a cooperative body. If merpeople had piscene nether regions, did they then lay eggs? Did they have gills? Could they breathe underwater? Would they really have all the hair that they are traditionally depicted with? Eventually we decided that realistic merpeople would be more like human-dolphin hybrids, air-breathing, viviparous, mostly hairless, very streamlined and entirely mammalian.]

Before the Age of the Internet, my interest in therianthropes existed in an enjoyable vacuum, far away from others who shared my interest [except for Jill]. Therianthropophilia was a harmless, offbeat interest based in mythology and fairy tales. About 5 to 7 years ago, though, with the democratization of the Intertubes, therianthropophilia’s frame of reference changed. Furry subculture — in which people enjoy a broad spectrum of identifying with, dressing up as, discussing, producing artwork about and getting turned on by non-human animals or therianthropes — became much more visible. [Witness Creature Creator for Victoria 4.1, a set of horns, hooves, tails and paws to make the 3-D model Victoria 4.1 into a deer girl, a cat girl, a devil, etc.]  As furry subculture became more visible, the mainstream made fun of it as a collection of sex perverts in mascot costumes. The general derisive attitude toward furry subculture spread outward and tainted the general view of anything remotely related to therianthropes.

So, anyway, now I feel really odd and self-conscious about my therianthropophilia [which explains why you haven’t seen any therianthropes I’ve been making in Daz — also because they are really BAYUD]. I feel like I can’t just rave about how cool mermaids and centaurs and sphinxes and such are; I have to justify myself by explaining that I’m not sexually attracted to them. Stupid stereotypes aren’t even true, and they tar everyone with the same brush.

3 kidsies, 1 outfit

3 kidsies, 1 outfit published on No Comments on 3 kidsies, 1 outfit

From left to right, Geordie, Baozha and Little Will demonstrate variations on my favorite clothing package, the Storytime dress and pantaloons. Geordie has the Clematis style dress and shoes. Baozha has a customized blouse and harem pants based on the bodice and pantaloons, and Little Will has the Rose style dress, pantaloons and shoes. Yup, it’s a versatile and pretty awesome clothing set.

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