#*holds up microphone to this 2d character's face*

[aquariium-ediits]

oh my god dahlia likes bnha

#melchior liveblogs #now that i know this #*holds up microphone to this 2d character's face* #what is your opinion on shigaraki tomura #there is only one right answer /hj #anyways gonna go back to! playing! the! actual! game!

[harfanfare]

Idia drabble, fluff, lots of couple banter

Your wishlist containing released games is empty.

In the next several minutes after saving a title to one, you can expect a notification that the game is getting downloaded, and a mere seconds after that—several messages from your boyfriend.

“thought u would never play it lol”

“weren't you supposed to be studying??”

He sends a meme degrading your hierarchy of values as if he were any better. It is followed by a request.

“stream it to me when you play it”

And you do, after thanking him yet chiding him for wasting too much money on you without a second thought. His reply was a string of emojis and guarantee that he is doing it all for himself, because “educating you on the topic of latest games is his duty” and he cares about “the boyfriend points”.

“I hope my love’o’meter for u was broken by all that pampering lmao”

“waiting for my cg to load up…”

[NAME]: “not enough affection points”

“damn”

“i need a walkthroughyt to this route”

Idia has you join a voice channel, with you sharing your screen. Playing a game in a separate dorm is a whole different experience than having him beside you, with his hands almost trembling to grab your controller if you couldn’t get past a certain level.

He would always wait for you to ask him for help, though. Then he could let the feeling of self-satisfaction sink in as he easily guided your character to another enemy to slash.

If he only has you on the voice chat, you might be able to finish the game almost fully by yourself.

You can hear the soft sound of his keyboard as he plays something as well. He divides his attention between you and his entertainment, and he throws in commentary to your playthrough, teasing you when you can’t find a secret key to the special gate, bullying you when you find the puzzles too hard, or when you pick the wrong dialogue option.

At some point, you might try to (playfully) mute his microphone, but you can only have eight seconds of silence before he hacks into the options.

“No need to be jealous of my gaming knowledge,” he exclaims, and you know he has that big stupid grin on his face. You huff, and he hums. “But if you want me to help, all you need to do is just ask.”

“I want to go through this game myself!”

“Okay, sure. But you know you have already missed the opportunity for the best ending, no?” He laughs. “That’s what you get for muting me, kitten.”

No need to spoil the ending just to get back at me, you’d love to say, but you learned that the shy boy who couldn’t hold your gaze several months ago is actually a big tease. You must’ve grown too much on him, as he would have continued the bickering even if you showed up in his room. No social anxiety towards you—that’s a bit of a shame, he was cute when you first started dating.

…Well, Idia you know now is a cutie as well, even if he can be very annoying sometimes.

“Enough. I’m going to play my otome games, bye.”

You log out, and shut the stream, chuckling all the time. A funny feeling tingled your heart, like always when you won (or have you?) in banter in Idia: your heart is warm enough to probably melt through the ribcage, but a subtle alarm rings in your head. Idia will probably take revenge for this.

He must already be in distress. He doesn’t like you playing otome games alone, as if you could have ever preferred a 2D boy over Idia. The thought makes you laugh.

You plop on your bed, unlocking your phone and tapping an icon of the name game you’ve installed. Although playing it with Idia would have been funnier, you are going to play him just out of spite.

…And after that, you will send him a wall of text about those handsome characters, because he needs to be updated on your current obsessions.

The title screen appears before everything crashes and the screen goes black. Several messages in neon-blue futuristic font colour appear one by one.

An error has occurred.

Caught exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):

File “characters”, line 46, in script

File “stats”, line 153, in script

File “story”, line 665, in script

File “achievements”, line 411, in log.1

File “backup_data”, line 139, in log

To continue:

“[Name]-san. Please come to our dorm. My brother is moping (so he won’t be finishing his project anytime soon, which is, really bad) and I would appreciate you having mercy on him.

Once you come, I will restore your data! It’s a promise :>

— ORTHO”

…Damn those Shrouds.

#idia strikes me as a man who can play a games with you but if it's not a cozy game he will criticize you a lot #he would probably love playing with you but his inner desire for winning a game is bigger than anything #watching him play a game is a show though #bring the popcorn #he could be a popular gaming streamer if he didn't fear people irl would comment on it #idia shroud #idia shroud x reader #idia x reader #twisted wonderland x reader #twisted wonderland #twst x reader #twst #twisted wonderland imagines #twst imagines #twst idia #twst idia x reader #as a computer science student i have no idea if an error like that could occur (burning in shame)

[firefly464]

The Gilded Cage - Prologue

ITS HERE!!! ITS FINALLY HERE!!!

So this is The Gilded Cage, aka the prequel to The Real World :D If you haven’t read that, I highly recommend reading that first because then this will make much more sense. 

anyways, im very very excited for this, its going to be a lot of fun :D

Written in collaboration with @i-have-this-now :D Thank you @rivys for beta reading, editing, and writing :D

Master Post

Next

~~~

“Gentlemen, this is the room. The Final Control Room.”

Eret's voice rang through the Discord call as he led them to the Final Control room. He quickly moved his Minecraft character into the darkened room, the rest of them checking the chests. As he was about to press the small wooden button, he felt a tug at his chest. It was like his very soul had been pulled, and he was falling through the threads and weavings of reality.

Colors were flying past him faster than he could process, sounds of all kinds could be heard but they were either too distorted to understand. In this cacophony of distorted mess, Eret could only think of one thing.

"What the fu-"

"-ret? Eret, what- hello?" He heard a voice next to him. He was in a dark room, hand hovering over a wooden button. Instinctively, he pulled away from it.

"Guys? What the..." Eret tried to ask but trailed off. He wasn't at his computer desk anymore, this wasn't just a game on a 2D monitor, he was actually there. He saw the intricate polished blackstone all around him, the empty chests that were at the sides of the room and everyone wearing their L'manburg uniforms, just like the Minecraft skins.

"Eret? Are you alright?" Wilbur asked. Even though it looked and sounded like Will, something wasn't right. He wasn't speaking through a microphone on Discord, he was right in front of him.

"I- I don't know- what the fuck? What's going on?" Eret turned to them, hoping for some kind of explanation. They looked at him incredulously.

"Hold on, what did you just say?" Tommy asked him.

"I said, what's going-" Eret didn't have time to finish when he felt a sharp sting in his neck.

Instantly, he collapsed to the ground, his muscles giving out on him as energy drained from his body. The sounds of bodies falling to the ground surrounded him as each of his friends fell alongside him. He tried to scream, but his mouth wouldn’t open. Fear rushed through his veins.

An iron needle clattered to the ground next to him, the tip coated with an iridescent gray mixed with blood. He watched as the strange mixture seeped into the cold, stone ground.

A shadow loomed over him, a porcelain mask leering down. "Eret, you were supposed to be on our side. I’m glad I came prepared.”

His blood ran cold. That was Dream. A person he joked around with and played with in Minecraft. Dream's voice sounded precise and calculated, like a hunter waiting to strike. The cold voice pierced his mind, causing him to panic. He needed to run. He needed to get out of there.

“Oh well, it's nothing that can’t be easily fixed,” The gleaming white mask seemed to be staring into his soul, reading his every thought and emotion. The man crouched down in front of him, a wide, psychotic grin on his face. “Perhaps this will teach you a lesson.” Dream glanced up at someone and nodded. “Take care of him.”

Someone was walking towards him. Eret could hear the soft footsteps against the cold, stone ground. He couldn’t move his head to look, no matter how desperately he tried.

His eyes darted around the small room, trying to take in his surroundings from where he lay. His stomach lurched as he made eye contact with Wilbur on the other side of the room. His friends' eyes were filled with raw terror, laced with an undertone of betrayal.

The glint of pain and betrayal was burned into his mind as a boot came down on his head, knocking him out cold.

~~~

Master Post

Next

Taglist (feel free to send me an ask if you want to be added) @hismilw  @violet--majesty​ @chiera99​ @koi-boye​ @waffle-time-god​ @miss-oleum​ @porkgavor​ @crafted-dreams @harley-the-pancake @lemonaid-ruru @luminousart @somethingtocrowabout @bee-tubbo @firepowder @boombahey @rayjayo 

#PROLOGUE POG #god im so excited for this fic #ive got some really good ideas #its going to be so much fun :) #the_eret #eret #tommyinnit #wilbur soot #wilbursoot #sapnap #the gilded cage #Split Realities #mcyt #mcyt au #dreamwastaken #dream smp #dream team #my writing

[jjpmoans]

pleasurable temptation | cyj [m]

word counts : 2.9k+

warnings : cosplaying kink, a hint of exhibitionism, pure smut (it’s bad lmao)

summary :  What did he do to be under this kind of situation? What did he ever trigger you with? Why is he helplessly moaning while you take him in your mouth without sparing him any mercy? While he is playing with his friends even? What did Youngjae even do to deserve such a torturous pleasure? 

“Wait, baby, I can’t. Please don’t do this to me.”

a/n : sooo for october, we decided to join together for a writing collab between the members or @got7creators​! It is called All Sins Week since we are posting a week straight at the end of October. Do check other writer’s kinktober fic as well! Also I am fourth in the order and please forgive me for this absolutely no filth fic. I have no idea what I wrote and I am open for critics bcs I know it’s bad wkkwkwkkwkw and sorrryy if you feel like it’s bland. But i hope you enjoy reading and please give a lot of love to other writers of this collaboration!

[ All Sins Week Masterlist ]

“If you’re Tatsumi,” you ask, breaking Youngjae’s attention from the anime he’s watching. You’re sitting next to him, as usual as he binges watching his anime. “Who would you choose? Akame or Esdeath?”

Youngjae’s eyebrow raises, looking at you questioningly. It’s not new, you’re always asking random questions about the anime he’s watching out of nowhere but this time it’s different. You’re asking him to choose between the protagonist and the antagonist if he’s Tatsumi, the main character. “Choose as in what? As in my comrade?”

“As in your lover?” you scoop your ice cream into your mouth, waiting patiently for his answer as he’s having a breakdown over whom to choose. Youngjae always has a hard time choosing between the protagonist and the side characters, saying that of course people always like the main protagonist but the side characters are also precious.

Which is why now you only want him to choose between the two sexy female characters but you can see smoke coming out of his head.

“Do I really need to choose?” he looks at you with a painfully desperate face, wanting a way out of the question. “I like both though!”

“Nope.” you tut, placing down your bowl on the side table. “You need to choose one. Like if Akame and Esdeath offer to have a one night stand with you, who will you choose?”

You can see Youngjae shifts uncomfortably, avoiding your gaze by keeping his eyes on the tv screen. It’s not long before you spot the growing tent under his pants that makes him shift a couple more times and whines, “Baby, you’re making it sound weird.”

“Well,” it’s not that weird but it does feel weird when your boyfriend is turned on by a 2D character. “Choose one, big boy.”

“Why would any of them wants to have sex with me?”

“I don’t know.” you laugh. You know it sounds kind of weird but who cares? “Maybe they think you’re hot.”

“Nonsense.” He inhales a deep breath, biting his lower lips in an attempt of rethinking his decision, before turning to you like he has made a decision. “Alright, background aside okay?”

You raise your shoulders, agreeing with whatever his condition is. You don’t really care about their backgrounds, you just want to see which one of the female characters that got your man hard. 

“I personally think Esdeath is sexier.” he confesses, grimacing when he sees your serious listening face. However you keep him going, no attempt to cut him off. “Her outfit is always on point, but she looks very sexy in this one episode. So-” Youngjae scrambles to shake himself out of the narration, ending his answer with a simple statement. “I’d choose Esdeath.”

Tonight is the second night of the weekend and as you both had agreed to, it’s Youngjae’s gaming slash anime night. Usually he would be watching anime up until midnight and then continue by playing games with his friends. However tonight he chose to start playing the game earlier than usual, claiming that none of the animes have uploaded a new episode.

This is where you come in.

You stare into the mirror, looking directly to the satin robe that hugs your curves nicely. It’s light but it’s thick and it’s new. You received it yesterday, just in time for you to wear it on the weekend. 

“I must be insane.” you ruffle your hair, watching it slowly turning into a mess, a beautiful mess. You almost can’t believe that it’s you in the mirror, you look insanely a hot mess. It’s crazy how simple the outfit is but absolutely sexy and alluring.

It’s nothing much. You just want to see his reaction, rile him up and see if you can have him a moaning mess under you.

“Mark, Mark.” Youngjae taps on the shift button repeatedly, moving his cursor to hide his character from the opponents. “They’re just behind the truck.”

“Jaebeom hyung, can you sit down for once?” Yugyeom whines into the microphone, annoyed by the fact that Jaebeom is going to expose their location.

Jaebeom on the other hand is hiding behind a tree, reloading his bullets into the weapon. “Shut up, Yugyeom. I’ve been playing this game longer than you’re born.”

“Shut the crap. You are still learning how to write when I was born.”

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

“It does.”

“Okay I see someone moving.” Youngjae interrupts their bickering, moving out of his hideout to a safe place. He wants a chicken dinner tonight and he’s not going to let anyone ruin the fun for him. “I can see his head….”

A shot is fired and Youngjae screams in triumph, successfully eliminating the annoying opponent that has been trying to kill his teammates. As usual, Youngjae being the expert one among them and Mark comes second while Yugyeom and Jaebeom casually got killed and left both of them alone to carry the team. Youngjae had to be satisfied with the squad because at least, they know how to play. If he asked Bambam or Jinyoung to play with him, nevermind. Oh Jackson? Not even a chance. That man doesn’t know how to stop once he starts working.

“Have anyone heard from Jackson hyung?” Youngjae asks, moving his character to steal the weapons and other things from the dead bodies. “It’s been a month since I heard about him.”

“Yeah.” Jaebeom answers distractedly, still trying to load his weapon. “Last time I heard, he’s still in China.”

The door creaks open and if Youngjae doesn’t have one of his ears free from the headphone, he might not have heard the sound. It’s very discreet, very soft as if someone is sneaking into the room. Not that Youngjae knows anyone that is able to sneak into his gaming room without his permission.

Ah yes. Except this one.

“What are you-- what?” Youngjae’s jaw hangs open by the time he tears his vision from the screen to you, standing in your glory right a meter away from him. 

“Why? What happened? Is y/n there?” jaebeom.

“Not really a problem though. Can I say hi to y/n?” yugyeom.

“I can see someone coming, guys.” Mark.

Youngjae doesn’t know if he wants to laugh or to cry. You’re standing about a few feet away from him, in an attire that is foreign to his eyes but absolutely gorgeous, sexy, deathly- did he say deathly? -- and fuck you look so fucking sexy. Your satin gown is modest yet slutty, exposing your chest and only covers half of your breast, the only thing that probably holds the placket of your robe is the three little buttons on your navel which threatens to burst.

Shit.

Something comes to his mind and right when he recognises your outfit, a certain name slips through his lips. “Esdeath.”

“Es- what?” Jaebeom asks, still distracted by the incoming attack from the enemies. 

“Esdeath?” Yugyeom on the other hand, successfully shot the new incomer and went into hiding while still focusing on the topic. “Esdeath as in the Esdeath in Akame Ga Kill?”

“Esdeath visited you?” Jaebeom mutters incredulously through the microphone. Youngjae can see that he’s squinting at the screen, probably trying to see the ‘Esdeath’ he mentioned. “You’re talking nonsense.”

“What- what are you doing?” this time Youngjae totally feels like crying. He forgot that he’s video conferencing to play PUBG and the possibility of his friends watching this through their screen frightened him. Muting the microphone, he looks at you again with mixed expression. “Baby, what are you doing?”

His voice sounds desperate and you haven’t even started anything yet. Yet. 

You let Youngjae’s eyes wander from your collarbone, down to the valley of your breast and to the buttons on your navel and further until his eyes fly to meet yours again, lust clouding his mind. You can see his pupils dilate, eye blown and breathless. 

It’s fun to see him affected. It makes you feel powerful. It makes you feel extremely satisfied.

Perhaps this is what Youngjae has always been feeling whenever he dominates you during sex.

“Baby?” he calls out again, desperate to know what you had in mind. 

Your eyes zeroed on the growing tent under his pants, it’s evident that Youngjae is already half-hard.

“I just want to ruin your mind tonight.” the immediate satisfaction fuels your desire to make Youngjae bend for you after watching his reaction. Youngjae is, what you can make out right now, utterly speechless. 

“I- I don’t understand- wait-,” as Youngjae stutters with his words, you’re already kneeling on the floor, pulling his gaming chair facing the pc again, slotting yourself between the table and Youngjae’s inviting man spread. 

“There is nothing for you to understand.” you utter while the tip of your fingers play with the string of his sweatpants. Youngjae’s eyes follow your hand down, his breath hitches as you press your palm on his hardening cock, giving him a firm grip. His moan almost comes out as a whimper, grimacing at the slightest contact as he tries not to show it on his face. 

“Youngjae?” Mark calls, snapping Youngjae out of his trance. He scrambles to switch the microphone on, just in time you pull down his pants, exposing his cock to your eager eyes.

The coolness of your palm wraps around his cock and the way you grip him makes Youngjae hisses in pain and pleasure, enough to elicit a curse out of him. “Fuck.”

Yugyeom quickly detects the change in Youngjae’s mood, asking him if he is fine and able to continue the game. And in all honesty, Youngjae wanted to leave the game the moment you walk in with the outfit, the fucking sexy outfit. He can’t describe how turned on he was, seeing you almost naked with that Esdeath cosplay.

“One moment, Gyeom-ah.” Youngjae is about to reply when you tug on his shirt, wanting to say something to him. “What is it, sweetheart?”

For the third time of the night, Youngjae wants to cry out loud. You are sitting under his table in that robe, your breast threatening to burst out of the tight material and fuck- Youngjae is so fucking hard. 

“Let’s make a deal. If you can finish the game quietly while I suck you,” your aura is absolutely different tonight, Youngjae realises that. You’re more dominating and goodness gracious, Youngjae have no problem with that. You’re so hot and Youngjae would give anything for you to suck him. “I’ll let you rip this robe off me and fuck me senseless.” 

Youngjae’s eyes widen at your suggestion. You’re making a deal with him? For what?

“And what if I can’t?”

“Well, if you can’t,” you drag your nail along his shaft, sending shivers up his spine. “Then you’ll let me ride you. Let me fuck myself on your cock.” you challenge him, holding his cock towards your lips, sucking his head lightly. Saltiness of his pre-cum invades your taste bud and you’re now addicted, wanting more of his cock. 

Youngjae inhales a deep breath, shifting in his place before unmuting his microphone, resuming his attention to the game.

Oh, bring it on.

“Youngjae, why are you so slow?” Jaebeom asks, running towards the unidentified dead bodies. He starts collecting the weapon and life stock while Youngjae’s game character stops in the middle of the track as if it’s malfunctioning. Technically, the owner of that character is, indeed, malfunctioning.

Youngjae’s breath labored as you continued to bob up and down his length, fisting his cock from the base and stroking his scrotum. It’s hard not to moan. Youngjae has been enduring your teasing quite good so far, only occasional hiccups and soft whines escapes from him and went unnoticed by other members. 

Youngjae has long given up to switch his microphone from mute to unmute then to mute again, he now resorts to detaching his headphone away from his head after muting the microphone so he won’t have to hear anything.

“Baby.” he whines, hips thrusting upwards as you kitten licks his head and slots your tongue on his slit, collecting his pre-cums. Youngjae’s cock is dangerously red, as if if you try to lick him one more time, you’ll see blood. His veins pop up and paint his length angrily. “Please baby. I don’t want to play the game anymore.”

“Hm?” you ask, not quite hearing his pleas. You take him in your mouth again, going down on him until he’s deep in your throat, humming to your satisfaction. His cock isn’t exactly big but he definitely makes up for the girth with his length and his stroke. “You’re saying?”

“I just-” a loud moan escapes him after you deep throat him once again, hitting your gag reflex. Youngjae trashes in his seat, holding the back of your head gently but firmly. It’s too much pleasure for him you guess. “Fuck. fuck. Fuck. please baby. Don’t do this to me.”

You release him with a pop and watch his cock curves backward, smearing the mixture of his precums and your saliva against his shirt. You don’t care about the video conferencing at the moment, you just push him further from the table so you can stand up and straddle him on his chair. They can watch if they want to.

You tug on the string of your underwear, revealing your nicely trimmed pussy to his eyes. At the sight of your drenched core, Youngjae mutters curses under his breath, reaching a finger to your fold.

“Fuck.” he caress your fold with his middle finger, occasionally dipping it inside only to let a gush of wetness out of your pussy. “Fuck, you’re drenched.”

“Mmhm.” you agree. You’re wet from all the thoughts while you suck his cock, thinking of how good it would feel when you ride him. “Can I ride you now?”

“Fuck.” Youngjae’s hand grips your hip as he guides you, slowly sheathing his cock inside you at your speed. “Ride my cock, use my cock. Do whatever you want.”

“Oh-” you let out a long moan to the stretch of your pussy is extremely good, the feeling of being filled with Youngjae’s cock takes you to another level of ecstasy. Even though you have been fucked a lot, however, riding Youngjae’s cock is always, undefeated pleasure. 

“Are you being filled well, princess?” Youngjae asks as he’s balls deep inside you. 

“So, so full, Youngjae.”

“Goodness.” Youngjae’s hands roam all over your ass, then up to your navel, pinching your nipples through the satin robe. “You dressed up like Esdeath to have sex with me?”

“I just wanted to try a new thing.” You shift in your place and Youngjae’s tip nudges a certain spot in you, causing you to throw your head back, gripping on his shoulder tightly. Your eyes shut close as you start to ride his cock, feeling the bliss of his veins against your walls. 

Youngjae on the other hand is dazed with your breast, bouncing right in front of him. He reaches down and a quick flick of his thumb, your robe is open and you’re absolutely naked to him, at least. Your robe stays on your body but the upper part of the robe has slid down and exposed your shoulder, probably a good view for the boys.

“Look at these breasts.” he tuts, sticking his tongue to graze one of your nipples. It’s not a secret that Youngjae loves your breast and he probably has a fetish for your twin peaks. He always gives extra attention and he can go on for hours, licking and sucking your nipples.

“Want me to feed you?” you ask, hips moving up and down his length but you can always multitask, cupping your breasts and bringing them together, putting the nipples close. “Suck them, please?”

“Fuck. Yes fuck. Fuck.” he holds you by your waist, sucking your peaks alternately. Whenever the tip of his tongue grazes one of your nipples, your walls tighten around his cock, causing him to hiss in return. “You’re really enjoying this, huh?”

You nod, impaling yourself on his cock. You’re getting tired and you don’t really feel your legs so your movement starts to falter, slowing down after a few while. “Jae…”

“Tired?” he chuckles, tapping your ass as you nod to his question. As much as you enjoy riding him, you have to admit that your stamina would never surpass Youngjae’s. 

Youngjae lifts you in his arms and just like that, his dominant side appears again. Bringing you to the bed, Youngjae manages to press his cock deeper inside you, making you moan all the way. 

“Look at you.” he tuts when you’re spread on the bed, half naked in your Esdeath cosplay. “So beautiful.”

“So fucking sexy.”

“The death of me.” Youngjae’s hand trails up your leg, past your navel and cups your breast, pinching and rolling your taut bud. You actually shiver at the change of his emotion, retracting to become the submissive partner like you always did.

“Youngjae.”

“Hm?”

“Fuck me.” you plead, whispering as if someone will hear you. Ironic, you thought. Youngjae’s friends have probably disconnected the video conferencing because of your lewd moans and now you dare to whisper? “Please,”

“Oh yeah, of course my Esdeath. I’d fuck you hard and raw.” he promises, lining his cock at your entrance. “Be my guest.”

Copyright © 2020 jjpmoans. All rights reserved

[ Masterlist ] |  [ All Sins Week Masterlist ]

#the moans writings #got7creators #all sins week #kinktober collaboration #got7creators collaboration #got7 smut #got7 fic #youngjae smut #youngjae fic #youngjae got7 #got7 youngjae #choi youngjae #youngjae one shot #i am so fucking sorry if you feel this is bland #idk what had happened to me #i guess i lose my smut touch #i haven't been writing smut either #sorrryyy for disappointing!

[astro-break]

Thoughts on the 12th ep of Hypmic Rhyme Anima. Spoilers beware

Ep.1 | Ep.2 | Ep.3 | Ep.4 & 5 | Ep. 6 | Ep. 7 | Ep. 8 | Ep. 9 | Ep. 10 | Ep. 11

I am the definition of Fear.jpg rn please help

MTR are so cute, just celebrating their win. Look at how happy they are!

... Oh well thats new. I like how Ichijauku has a tiny bit more agency in throwing out ideas (it really shows how close her and otome trust each other) but it also completely retcons a part of hypmic lore that was established with the Drama tracks. If you’ve heard “” then you know what I’m talking about

SMILING DOPPO HOLY SHIT DOPPO

ahaha doppo i love you so much youre so adorable you deserve to be happy

MTR as a family is just soo good. Both as familial or 

Hmm.... yes Samatoki has the right to be angry but that flattens him to a good for nothing thinks first asks questions later type of thug which is absolutely not what his character is. Especially with how the anime portrays him, it seems like there's only one emotion that he feels at any moment and that is anger. Which, fair he is an angry boy, but thats just one facet of his character. He’s also logical and not that sore of a loser, seeing that he still has room to grow (if you want an anime example, refer to the previous episode where he genuinely wonders what he could have done to treat Nemu better)

I think my biggest gripe with the adaptation is the flattening of all the characters TBH. I only really see it in Samatoki since I understand his character the most but I also see hints of it with Rio, Hifumi, and Gentaro. Most of the characters are just flattened into 2D tropes and made to act those tropes out. Which, y’know is the basis of each character but the series has built upon each character so well that its kinda jarring seeing them all so flat

I’m not sayin that I hate what the Anime has done with MTC but I hate what the anime has done with MTC

I expected a “Brocon” “Siscon” fight not this. What the fuck

☆ミ＋。゜H A C K I N G ゜。＋ミ☆

ahaha Ichiro you’re too trusting and pure for your own good

Okay why does all the animation budget go to making Samatoki look hot as fuck?

Ahaha they really do get along like cats and dogs. Jyuto being the voice of reason is kinda weird tho but oh well I can live with it

Tom saying “hai warat~e!” is so cute wtf?????? Lemme pet your head please

GENTARO PICKING UP HIS HAKAMA TO RUN IS ADOARBLE HELP ME

Im getting second hand embarrassment from Ramuda lmao

Slightly suspicious about how these group of reporters know the underground layout of Chuuoku so well

Oh well see I was right to be suspicious

That Unit name is really funny considering the whole Galatic Federation thing ahahaha

Oh that english! that was super clean and enunciated really well

Good intentions, bad execution. His reasoning is a bit flawed but its at least sound

hmmm usually I’d be happy about Doppo giving Hifumi his jacket but in this context not so much. See, Doppo gave it to Hifumi mostly because they had to fight, not because there were woman (which let me remind you Hifumi is deathly afraid of and the jacket acts as a wall between him and his gynophobia)

...... uh Interesting choices of microphones for Secret Aliens. Tom’s is a recording studio mic which makes some??? but not much sense. like Tom is a street photographer, not a radio host. Iris’s mic is.... I’m sorry what is that? Some sort of keyboard and.... something. idk what it is on her finger. And T. Rex just ripped out a purple dinosaur spine, stuck a mic onto the neck and called it a day. Nice

At least their speakers are somewhat better. Iris has Iris plants which. hilarious, but also very modern looking and sleek fitting of her more tech savvy nature as a hacker Theres also phone cameras which makes sense but the butterfly imagery which is present .... Fear.jpg. Rex again just went with a T. Rex Speaker which. Thank you rex for being very predictable, we love you so much. That soundwave looks like DNA too which is cool as hell. Tom.... Idk man Tom are you okay? What exactly is your speaker? are they those aperture umbrella things that photographers use? Im so confused, photographers in the fandom please help

YOOOOOOOOO THAT RAP THOUGH IRIS SOUNDS SO PRETTY?!?!?!? Can she please sing me to sleep? its so smooth and rolling. If I had to describe it, I would say that its the type of voice that I would hope would sing the ballads that I compose, the voice of a mother who still holds on to something after loosing everything she has fought for. 

Too bad Iris doesn’t get a verse to Rap in but holy shit what? Secret Aliens just might become one of my fave divisions based off song alone

Ah theres the cancellers. Thats fun, nice to see that there isn’t an adaptation induced plot hole in this One instance. Lets see if they can patch up the other plot holes created because the anime and source material went into different places

Dice, bad. no cheating. Bad dice

Ahaha there the flash bomb. That high pitch wailing was awful though. please never do that again

Hah, typical Ichijaku. We love it

Oh look at them. Working together. How cute. I really like Rio and Saburo interactions mostly because theres so much potential

Oh noooo i worry for FP

That growl from Ichijaku though. That did things to my heart oh my god

Aww I do like that enthusiasm from Ramuda. I do hope that things turn out at least somewhat okay for him. He’ll probably suffer 

Wait why is Saburo’s left eye purple? Is it the lighting or something else? I hope its just the lighting bc if anything happens to Saburo i will be very very sad (I rewatched the episode and Saburo’s eye is blue all the way up till he gets hit by Secret Alien’s attack. Even in a brightly lit area, it looks purple... i hope it isn’t forshadowing but then again Saburo’s eye has always been a darker shade of blue so it could just be the yellowish lighting since Ichiro’s red eye looks fuchsia)

Ichijaku with an angry face is kinda hot ahaha. Her deep rolling voice of anger just. Ugh very very good. Major props to her VA for pulling it off

IM FUCKING SORRY WHAT

YOU CAN”T LEAVE US ON THAT CLIFF HANGER?!

WHAT THE FUCK

IM GOING TO GO INSANE

THAT WASN’T EVEN SATISFYING?!?!?!

WHAT THE FUCK

KING RECORDS E X P L A I N

I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION

oh there’s a 13th ep

well thank fuck for a 13th ep bc if they ended the season like that i think id actually cry lol

Ugh so I guess that next week will be the last episode. I was so prepared for today to be the last episode but its kinda surprising that they have 13, slightly different from the normal season

#hypmic #hypnosis mic #hypnosis mic rhyme anima #hypmic spoilers

[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #180 - Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed

Spoilers below.

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Yes.

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: Yes.

Was it a movie I saw since August 22nd, 2009: No.

Format: DVD

1) So with the first film writer James Gunn had written a darker script meant to poke fun at the original series and gain a PG-13 rating, but after the cast signed on this was changed into a family friendly film. With the sequel, writer Gunn returns and this time everyone knew what kind of movie they were going to make from the beginning (which relates to some more solid structure in this film than the last).

2) Scooby-Doo Theory holds that whoever the protagonists talks to first is the person who did it. The first person they talk to in this film is Alicia Silverstone’s Heather Jasper Howe who ends up being the bad guy.

3) Okay, Coolsville opens up a museum exhibit about Mystery Inc. and their past foes. It is said that the gang, “donated,” the costumes. But…why are the costumes their’s to donate? Aren’t they police evidence? Do they steal the costumes from every crime as some sort of weird trophy and stash them all in a storage locker somewhere? Am I overthinking this? Let’s move on.

4) What the heck!? Seth Green is in this movie!?

5) Linda Cardellini continues to be absolutely excellent as Velma Dinkley, but one side we get to see in this film that we didn’t in the first is lovesick puppy Velma. Her crush on Seth Green’s Patrick is portrayed as cute, sweet, honest, and is just enjoyable to watch. I think Cardellini is great in both of these films and gets an even greater chance to shine in this one.

6) I always liked The Evil Masked Figure in this film.

I think it’s purely a taste of aesthetics. I like the metallic head, the hair, the cloak. He’s not really a character so much as a plot device and he does pale in comparison to the classic monsters which populate the film, but I just dig the design.

7) I think the early action set piece of Shaggy and Scooby getting pulled around the museum by the Pterodactyl Ghost is a little stagey. It FEELS like they’re on a film set as opposed to even the fun of the cartoon chases. But that just may be me.

8) What the fanboy in me loves about this film is the way it brings in all the classic monsters from the old cartoons. James Gunn is a fan himself and it shows because - much like he is able to fill up Guardians of the Galaxy with notable characters, references, and alien species - he brings in a lot of A-list villains from the show. The Black Knight Ghost and the 10,000 Volt Ghost in particular were always favorites of mine and it is REMARKABLY fun to see them, the Tar Monster, the Zombie, Captain Cutler’s Ghost, and The Miner 49-er brought to live action (among others).

9) Okay, so Heather Jasper Howe’s reporting is 100% slander and illegal. She is taking everything Mystery Inc. says out of context to make them appear bad in the public light. Yes, she’s the villain, this is part of the plan. But unless you’re working for an obviously biased news source like Fox News you would not be allowed to get away with this. Still, when I start to question the realism of a Scooby-Doo movies the whole thing falls apart.

10) The primary conflict for Scooby and Shaggy in this film is them questioning their worth/value to the team. This makes for surprisingly interesting character conflict and an equally surprising emotional arc for the film. I like it!

11) According to IMDb:

The original Scooby-Doo episode dealing with the pterodactyl ghost featured a villain and motive that were quite different. The pterodactyl/hang glider costume was used to smuggle pirated music, with the small-town mayor behind the whole scheme.

12) I cannot begin to express how funny my tiny eight year old self found this joke.

Shaggy [after the gang goes through all their notes, which Scooby has been jotting down]: “Scooby-Doo, what’s your conclusion?”

Scooby: “Bunny!”

13) I have a feeling this film had a product placement agreement with Burger King. Scooby was drinking from a Burger King cup earlier and then this:

14) I may have watched The Mummy too many times.

Fred: “What could possibly happen by ringing a doorbell?”

15) So Shaggy messes with a record player and “Baby Got Back” starts playing. Which begs the question: WHO ON EARTH HAS A VINYL OF “Baby Got Back”!?

16) According to IMDb:

At one point in the film, Scooby and Shaggy are pretending to sing into a toilet brush "microphone". The song they are actually singing is Strangers in the Night - Frank Sinatra's version featured the improvised scat lyrics, "Scoo-bee-doo-bee-doo", lyrics which then-CBS executive Fred Silverman chose as the name of the new cartoon series. The original name for the dog was "Too Much", a popular catchphrase of the era.

17) The entire Black Knight Ghost chase through the mansion is very cartoonish, which I mean as a compliment. It feels like it is ripped straight out of an old episode of the cartoon, speaking again to the great way James Gunn handles the source material.

18) Why is Daphne wearing a shirt with her own face on it?

19) Again: this made me laugh so hard as an eight year old.

Black Knight [after Velma kicks him in the nuts]: “Right in the round tables!”

20) This film was released in 2004, can you tell?

Fred: “…this mystery goes down like a dot com and Coolsville digs us again!”

21) I ship Velma and Daphne. I have a feeling so does James Gunn.

(Screenshot taken of a GIF originally posted by @ezekiels)

22) Linda Cardellini gets to be exceptionally funny in this film for one BIG reason:

Patrick: “Do you have to go to the bathroom?”

Velma: “No, I can’t in this outfit.”

23) The Faux Ghost.

This is a wonderful concept featured in the film which once again shows off just how deeply familiar writer James Gunn is with the source material. Just the idea that a bar for all the people Mystery Inc caught exists is wonderfully fun. The art design and characters all stand out in a wonderfully fun scene.

24) Whoa, this is pretty deep for Scooby-Doo 2.

Old Man Wickles [about being a masked villain]: “We needed people to believe we were different than we were. Maybe because we believed there was something wrong with who were in the first place.”

This also means the song which plays in the club - “Thank You For Letting Me By Myself” - has much more meaning than one might initially expect.

25) This line was improvised.

Velma [after she lets out a squeak]: “That was my outfit, I swear.”

26) It’s kinda fun seeing Seth Green go into psychotic badass mode on this goon. My primary experience with him is through “Buffy” where he mostly plays his character as emotionally controlled. This is a fun change from that. Also, Shaggy gets in a sick burn because of it.

Shaggy [after seeing Patrick act a little crazy]: “But we gotta make like your personality and split!”

27) What even is this movie!?

Old Man Wickles [after Scooby gives away his position hiding in a bush]: “Darn bushes toweling at me again.”

AGAIN!?

28) Ah, the potion gag.

So there was a lot of work trying to figure out exactly what gags to use. At one point, Scooby was going to turn into his hand drawn counterpart as a replacement to a much less favored gag of Scooby turning into George W. Bush. The filmmakers didn’t want to compare 3D Scooby with 2D Scooby so they had him turn into the Tasmanian Devil instead. It’s kinda random and pointless, but not unenjoyable. It’s kinda fun to watch, it just has nothing to do with the rest of the plot.

29) In this moment, I am Shaggy.

Shaggy: “We’re gonna die!”

Daphne: “Think positive!”

Shaggy: “We’re gonna die quickly!”

30) Okay hold on a second: the monsters share the same hatred of Mystery Inc. that their portrayers had? But why? They’re not the same people are they? Do they have the memories of their human counterparts? Are they the vision of the criminals who portrayed them fully realized?

31) The old high school clubhouse scene is a surprisingly poignant moment of vulnerability and character interaction for Mystery Inc. The flashback - even though it’s a little cringe worthy seeing the young Mystery Inc (with their awkward imitations of the main cast and weirdly dubbed over voices from the main actors) - allows for us to understand the core of their relationship. In a lot of ways, this is the beating heart of the film. Mystery Inc and the friendship they have with each other.

32) Again: I am Shaggy.

Shaggy [while being chased]: “This is tied for the most terrifying day of my life!”

Velma: “Tied with what?”

Shaggy: “EVERY OTHER FREAKING DAY OF MY LIFE!”

33) HOW DID THE BLACK KNIGHT GET A GHOST HORSE!? Wouldn’t they need a horse costume to do that?

34) Ah, Buffy speak used by a “Buffy” actor.

Daphne: “Taste the pain Mr. Glowy Ugly Thing!”

35) I love this.

Velma [after Shaggy and Scooby say they’re trying to be more like the gang]: “That’s funny. I always wanted to be like you guys.”

This speaks greatly to just how freaking important Shaggy and Scooby are to the group. They’re the beating heart, it’s called Scooby-Doo for a reason. And the fact that Velma is able to so honestly and believably say she wants to be like Shaggy and Scooby is a surprisingly touching moment in the film.

36) It only took Velma 45 years to admit this.

Velma [after her glasses fall off]: “I’ve got to consider contact lenses.”

37) According to IMDb:

The Cotton Candy Glob is a tribute to the Cotton Candy Monsters who appeared in the story "Goop on the Loose" in the Scooby-Doo comics published by DC Comics, where the culprits were a child and two henchmen trying to get revenge from being fired from a carnival. The Cotton Candy Monsters were mentioned in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo: Terror, Thy Name Is Zombo (1989).

38) I JUST got that the game of keep away they play with the monster making control panel reflects the game of frisbee we saw them playing in the flashback.

(GIF originally posted by @leaveatraill)

39) Tar Monster seems like he has a ridiculous amount of power. Like he can single handedly nearly kill ALL of Mystery Inc. Why not just release the Tar Monster on the world? I feel like THAT’D be a better plan!

40) The Evil Masked Figure is unmasked and revealed to be Heather Jasper Howe. But her hair and makeup are perfect. Shouldn’t she have - like - helmet hair or something?

41) Scooby running to Shaggy like they haven’t seen each other in ages is totally unearned. Shaggy just put on a mask and took it off and Scooby acts all excited! But, it’s still kinda nice.

42) What the heck? This film has a secret mini movie!?

A commercial!?

Much like the first Scooby Doo film, Monsters Unleashed is hardly a cinematic masterpiece but the kid in my absolutely loves it. The characterization is continually strong (as is the acting), it’s a lot of fun to see the old monsters in a live action format, and it’s just an enjoyable 90ish minutes. There are movies which have aged worse so if you have fond memories of this or are a fan of the Scooby-Doo franchise, give it a watch.

#Scooby Doo #James Gunn #Sarah Michelle Gellar #Scooby Doo 2 #Linda Cardellini #Freddie Prinze Jr #Matthew Lillard #Epic Movie (Re)Watch #Movie #Film #GIF

[mi6015connorunsworth-resit]

Reflective Essay

Essay under the cut

The main focus of this film was to be the editing, as post-production is the area I wish to pursue. With this in mind I focused less on aspects such as backgrounds and animation. I wanted a film that would be many different scenes of not quite still images cut together, rather than a fully animated piece. Moments is a film that tells the story of a robot in their final moments of life, remembering who they used to be as they slowly break down. The piece can be as deep as the audience wants to make it. At the surface level we see the robot remembering during some kind of war, they as a child were attacked and became the robot we follow throughout the film. Going deeper it explores the idea of AI evolving to overtake humanity and it towards goes into the notion of “what it means to be human”.

I wanted to focus mainly on the editing and postproduction of this film, being the area I want to pursue as a career, with this in mind I used two main ideas for the film, the first was to have little actual animation but to compensate have a lot of different scenes and shots. The second was to focus on the VFX, using different effects to show the robot breaking down, using several different effects to achieve a glitchy aesthetic and what I imagine a malfunctioning robot would see.

I’m still quite new to 2D animation as a whole, this being only the second film I’ve made in 2D. The art style for this film is reminiscent of my previous film in that it features similarly styled character design and it somewhat sketchy drawing style. However I did use a lot more colour for this film and experimented a lot more with backgrounds. It also features robots which is something that’s completely new to me.

There were a few basic ideas behind the designs of each of the characters. The main robot, who  I called RBT, was designed to look like someone living in a post-apocalyptic world, who just happens to be a robot, the addition of the gun arm shown towards the end of the film is to hint at RBT’s past as some kind of robotic soldier. The two other robots in the film, the Harvester and the Goliath, were designed with similar ideas in mind. They act as the sort of antagonists of the film, to show this I simply gave the red eyes to contrast with the light blue eyes of RBT. The ideas for the Goliath and the Harvesters were quite simple, the Goliath was to looking intimidating and the Harvester was to look creepy, the Goliath would tower over the city, trampling anything in its way, leaving RBT with no choice but to run. While the Harvesters would gently hover around the city streets, searching for god knows what and only revealing their hidden mass of tendrils and jaws once they find it. Obvious differences aside, I designed these two robots in a similar way, with one eye and round bodies, as well as using identical colour pallets, this was to better show that they’re related. The goliath design did go through some changes towards the end, based on feedback from my professor. Originally the legs were a lot more bendy looking, similar to the tendrils of the Harvester, these were changed to me a lot more rigid and mechanical looking, almost reminiscent of a spider in my mind. I actually like this look a lot more than the original as it feels more threatening, which is the main idea behind the Goliath’s design, in hindsight too, these legs would’ve probably been easier to animate than the original bendy legs that would’ve required frame by frame, I probably could’ve animated the new legs in the same way as the rest of my film is animated. The final character designs in the film are that of the girl and her bear, the ideologies for these two were simple, they were to be as small and innocent looking as possible to contrast RBT and the rest of the robots. Something about the big post-apocalyptic robot with a gun arm originally being a little girl with a teddy bear is quite fun, a teddy bear that, as revealed in the ending, RBT still carries, easily holding in one hand the bear that was a third the size of the little girl they used to be.

With all the character designs done, the final part to decide on was that of the setting, while the city goes unnamed throughout the film and there’s nothing to hint at an actual location. It is primarily inspired by American cities, specifically, Columbus, Ohio, as that’s where I took all the photos that I used as reference for my backgrounds. I felt that the towering skyscrapers and wide streets would give a better feel to the film than the streets of Newcastle for example.

The assets and such for the film were all drawn in Photoshop, which would then be exported and brought into After Effects where most of the animation was done. I used keyframes for all of the animation in the film, there was originally going to be some frame by frame which I’ll talk about later. A lot of the VFX work was also done in After Effects, before being imported into Premiere where I edited it all together and added sound and any extra VFX that might’ve been needed.

Sound was originally going to play a much larger part in my film. Used to show off various ideas. The eerie silence of the empty city, broken only by RBTs footsteps or the occasional Harvester, always beeping as they search endlessly for something that probably no longer exists. The roar of the Goliath accompanied by its immense footsteps echoing through the empty streets. All these to communicate either the danger of the robots or the empty loneliness of the abandoned city. The one sound unlike any other in the film is the one that leads the film’s opening, the sound of the radio, there’s a few reasons for its uniqueness, first and foremost it’s the only sound in the film that I created myself, originally a conversation between my friends and I that I ripped from a video and then distorted to the point of inaudibility. Secondly it’s the only part of the film that hints at some other survivors, a small inkling that RBT might not actually be alone. Before being destroyed by a passing Harvester. This scene is actually some loose foreshadowing, as revealed at the end, the radio isn’t the only thing in the film killed by a Harvester.

I faced a lot of problems in the development of this film, the main one being the global pandemic that began about a third of the way into production. This severely limited my access to much of the hardware and software I was originally planning to use. Firstly was the use of frame by frame animation mentioned earlier, I was originally planning to use some in my film, primarily on RBTs poncho and the legs of the old Goliath, however as I lack the proper software at home, I was unable to animate these, though I did end up redesigning the Goliath during my resit, I didn’t feel like it was a drastic enough change to warrant reexporting my entire film, something that my laptop only just about manages. The second problem I faced was that of the film’s sound design, as talked about earlier sound was originally going to play a larger part in the film, as it falls loosely into the post-production area that I want to pursue. However as I lacked a proper microphone, most of my sound was instead taken from the internet. The final and probably the worst problem I faced, is that I overestimated the capabilities of my laptop, Photoshop would slow down constantly, drastically increasing the time it took me to draw assets and both AE and Premiere would crash constantly, the biggest problem with this being that it limited the amount of VFX I could use as adding too many or even adding some in the wrong order would cause an error and in worse cases cause the programme to crash entirely. Fortunately one of Adobe’s better features is that it does try to save your work on crashes, this alongside me saving manually every time I paused to take a breath meant that most of the time I didn’t lose any work and even in the worst cases only lost a few minutes.  

My first attempt at this module failed, while I think it’s fair to at least partly blame the lockdown, it was mostly my own fault. The main problem with my previous submission was the lack of supporting work. So that is what I focused on for these past few weeks. I still have the same feelings about the final film itself as I did in my first submission, simply being that it’s not as good as it could’ve been, but given the unique circumstances it’s the best I could’ve done. That said, I’m satisfied with what I’ve managed to add during my resubmission the supporting work this time around is far better than what I did last time.

[vrheadsets]

Getting Social in VR

Evidence for the human need to share experiences stretches back to the earliest cave paintings. Scenes from real life or the artist’s imagination were recreated and displayed for others to share.   Social interactions have accompanied almost all communication platforms. Reading and writing facilitated theatre and the formal play, early movies facilitated the cinema industry, radio and television broadcasts resulted in families and friends huddled around a single device to consume sports and entertainment. This article explores how innovators are making Virtual Reality (VR) a social experience.

Social interaction within VR can be distilled into three core elements – speech, movement, and emotional expression. Speech is easily captured and communicated using a microphone and VOIP. All VR devices support capture of head movement, and many capture arm/ hand movement. A surprising amount of non-verbal communication can be inferred from these movements, particularly gestures and gesticulations. Whilst elements of body language can be communicated in VR, the communication of emotional expression is lacking. As a work-around some VR social apps are relying on user-triggered emoticons and arm movement tracking to imply feelings and reactions.  We’ve seen some interesting demos from Oculus and others using cameras to capture mouth movements. Eye tracking will provide improved face to face interaction but eye tracking by itself is not sufficient.

Whilst we await the release of emotionally expressive VR, there are still a number of companies creating social platforms. One of the largest is AltspaceVR, founded by former SpaceX engineer Eric Romo. AltspaceVR is freemium software that supports high- and low-end VR headsets, as well as a 2D experience on computers and mobile. It allows users to chat, watch videos, and join a range of special events, from NBC News Q&A sessions to live music. Like many early social VR spaces, it’s similar to a VR-based Second Life –built less around sophisticated communication, and more around sharing experiences.

AltspaceVR focuses on simplicity and shared experiences.

For emotional interaction, Altspace focuses largely on voice and physical movement. As platform-agnostic software, it features many ways to communicate physical movement for social interaction – everything from simple controller-based movement, through to full-body motion tracking with Microsoft’s Kinect. However, this approach limits the sophistication of social interaction between platforms – users won’t often have equally elaborate set-ups, and so some modes of interaction might not be reciprocated. In terms of emotional expression Altspace supports a range of emoticons, largely selected by the user through a menu. It also supports eye tracking but, again, this is dependent on the VR platform being used supporting it. The main focus appears to be on connecting with friends and sharing experiences like live events or streamed video in a VR setting, which it does very effectively.

In real life, gaming is naturally a social experience and so it’s inevitable that social spaces are being built and enable playing together.  The gaming community has always been quick to embrace new technology that allows them to share play time in new ways. As such, many social applications for VR are heavily game-based, offering up a variety of minigames and tools for users. For example, Sports Bar VR offers competitive pool, darts, and skeeball, Anyland invites users to add and tinker with anything (really, pretty much anything) to their avatars or environment, and Rec Room has online multiplayer paintball, dodgeball, disc golf, charades, and more. These games have simple avatars, often cartoony and without arms, but all players can communicate through voice, movement, emoticons, and hand-gestures. In Rec Room, a fist bump results in an explosion of light – physical interaction is used to perform actions, and now you’ve formed a private party to go play paintball.

Rec Room’s use of the game charades is great for showing the capacity for fun brought with physical interaction in the digital world; getting someone halfway across the world to correctly guess that you’re acting out the movie Jaws in your office is a strange but compelling pastime. VR gaming social spaces focus on the fun of physically interacting and exploring the world and other users around you, and anything they miss in the subtleties of communication are often compensated for with absurdity and silliness from fellow players.

Gaming spaces like Rec Room revel in communicating through exaggerated avatars and situations.

In April Facebook finally launched its own foray into social VR with Facebook Spaces. In Spaces, users are represented by a cartoon avatar, with customised hair, face, and clothing. Spaces integrates Facebook services heavily – users can share photos and videos, take their own inside the space (to share on Facebook, of course), play simple games, or call non-spaces users through Messenger.

Interaction in Facebook Spaces is simple, but effective.

Facebook Spaces is part of a third subset of social VR applications – one step beyond sandboxes like AltspaceVR that focus on sharing content, Spaces is a polished experience built around all aspects of communication. Spaces is sophisticated and modern, and seems to pay quite a lot of attention to conveying authentic interaction. The Oculus Rift headset’s tracking communicate head, arm, and hand gestures to others in the social space reliably and universally. Facebook also invested time in making human-like avatars. Development lead Mike Book stated, “Facebook is about authentic identity, which is fundamentally about humans”, and this ethos is carried through to Space’s characters, who are stylised, but also authentically human and full of emotional range.

Facebook Spaces’ avatars, though stylised, look and feel human in their actions.

What makes Facebook Spaces interesting is the focus on communicating the emotional aspects of conversation. Like many similar applications, avatars’ mouths move in time with microphone output. In addition, the eye positioning of all users is interpreted, creating “eye contact” with others. Given that eye contact is a key form of nonverbal communication, this is a very important development. Spaces also integrates a wide range of emoticons, triggered by movement and by buttons on the Oculus touch controllers. Movement-based emoticons enable some spontaneity in the conversation, but, as Book says, “You have to invoke them. They’re not supposed to be accidental.” The need to deliberately remember to respond in a certain way abstracts emotional communication. Nevertheless, interaction-focused social spaces in VR are making big steps forward to providing authentic human communication in the space.

BigScreen VR has an interesting approach. Here, the social element largely revolves around sharing 2D content within VR. Users can share their work, games or entertainment content by allowing others to view their PC screen. Lip sync and inferred gaze tracking adds to the interactivity or the cartoony avatars. According to CEO Darshan Shankar, engagement  levels have been impressive, and to show their commitment to this new way of collaborating the company holds its meeting in VR.

Most VR platforms can be divided into these three subsets – sharing experiences, gaming, or authentically communicating. In the fledgling VR industry, developers largely haven’t yet looked to tackle more than two of these at a time. While sharing experiences and gaming in VR are natural fits that have seen massive growth, authentic communication in VR is still difficult to implement successfully. While almost all platforms support good interactions in speech and movement, emotional expression is still largely based on emoticons that have to be purposefully triggered by users.

At Emteq, we are working to deliver a virtual reality experience that can interpret and respond to a user’s emotional state. Our Faceteq™ technology allows user avatars to react in conjunction with the user’s own facial expressions – essential to truly authentic communication. Our expression recognition solution will integrate to common headsets and capture the wearer’s expressions accurately. We believe this affective computing is the key to authentic VR and AR social interaction, and will open up new avenues in digital social spaces. . If you’re interested in learning more, do get in touch.

  from VRFocus http://ift.tt/2u6haQK

#VRFocus #vr #virtual reality #canada