th3p0rtalmaker

[th3p0rtalmaker]

how?? just how?

#the candy man can #amaury guichon #chocolate guy #reblog

[th3p0rtalmaker]

Remember this joke?

Well, I am going to do something similar only with photography. This is a photo someone took for an Amazon review of their Clinique products.

Honestly, it is not a terrible photo. They did some staging. They have an interesting background. All of the labels are legible. It is properly exposed. This would be a perfectly acceptable product photo for an Etsy page.

I've been taking these advanced photography courses in preparation for whenever I am able to create a new studio in the house. And my teacher is a photography badass. I just watched a 6 hour class on how to recreate a professional Clinique ad. And at first glance it looks deceptively simple. It's just some skin care products being splashed with a little water.

Which is why I wanted you to see an average person for reference.

This is what Karl Taylor came up with.

And I don't think I've learned so much about photography in one tutorial before.

Product photography is just loads and loads of problem solving. You have to light the chrome caps with a gradient. Which requires giant diffusion scrims.

Those big white panels are literally only there for the two chrome caps.

You need a pure white background, but you can't let light spill all over the studio, so you put up giant black light blockers.

And you have to add another light just for the orange bottle on the right.

Oh, and if you want the bottles to glow, well, you have to hide a silver reflector behind them.

But you still want the edges of the bottles to be darker so they have some contrast. So you add some black tape to the sides.

And in order for the reflective labels to have bold black lettering, you have to reflect black cards into them.

Ack! Karl's beautiful bald head is showing up in the chrome caps! He must put on the naughty blanket.

And once you get every aspect of every bottle perfectly lit, you finally get to yeet some water at it all.

I don't love product photography because I have a weird obsession to help greedy corporations make their wares look more beautiful. I love it because it is a complicated and challenging new puzzle every time. Every product is a different shape and requires a different technique to make it look its best.

I don't know if I will be able to live up to Karl's standards.

This is about the level I was at in 2017 before I quit photography.

I have so much more knowledge in my brain now. I'm really hoping I can surpass that.

[th3p0rtalmaker]

i want 60 thousand votes by next thursday

[th3p0rtalmaker]

you just need to start. start that movement. start that friendship. start to create. start with what you love. start with what you need. start that routine. start that assignment. start that message. start that study. start with yourself. start now. and i promise everything else you want will start organically like magic.

[th3p0rtalmaker]

Reblog to hug prev poster (they need a hug)

[th3p0rtalmaker]

Reblog to hug prev poster (they need a hug)

[th3p0rtalmaker]

reblog to pet prev

[th3p0rtalmaker]

[th3p0rtalmaker]

I think this week's Bestiary Posting is pretty fascinating. I especially like the animal being described as having 'mercy', as I feel like many people would consider that a distinctly human trait. I kind of assumed this idea of animals being like machines incapable of emotions was an old idea, but this and other bestiary entries really seem to humanize the animals listed in them more then I expected.

Anyway, I think what the Zomargon actually is, is pretty obvious, but the bit that stood out to me the most was: "it strikes fear into bulls, yet fears the mouse", and my mind immediately went to my dog. He likes to put on a lot of bluster when confronted with larger dogs or animals, but show him a bug and he runs behind the couch and cries until someone comes to save him.

So, it had to be a poodle. There's no other animal it could possibly be. Lively intelligence, scared of mice, works with people, if one of them falls over they have to gather around and make a big drama about it - that's a poodle for sure.

So this description lists a lot of different traits, so I'm just gonna go down them all and explain my thoughts.

"His nose is called a trunk because he uses it to put food in his mouth."

At first I went with an elephant shrew-type nose, but that's not so great for grabbing, but you know what would be? A hand. And what has a hand on the end of it's nose? That's right, a star-nosed mole. So combination trunk/star nose situation.

"The Persians and Indians, carried in wooden towers on their backs..."

So we know it's a big critter, to able to carry people on it's back.

"...lively intelligence and a long memory..."

Gave them a bit of a big skull to accommodate those big brains. I can also confirm that poodles never forget and hold onto to grudges for years.

"...she goes out into a pool, until the water comes up to her udders."

For sure a mammal this time, so good to know.

"If the Zomargon finds a snake, it kills it..."

This explains why my dog's favorite toys are the ones made to look like snakes and why they are the first to get torn to shreds.

"if it falls down, it cannot rise."

For this I was thinking about how this happens to sheep quite often, when they're pregnant or their wool is too heavy, so I gave my Zomargon a broad back and thick woolly fur that can grow out into a big poof-ball (as I doodled in the bottom).

"...it has no joints in its knees."

This one was tricky to figure out. The knee is a joint, so how can a joint not be a joint? I had to sketch up a couple of legs off to the side just to try out some ideas. Ended up going with the middle one, and just adding a big fleshy pad on the back of the foot to support it, since there's no mention of hooves. It looks weird, but I guess they make it work?

"They possess the quality of mercy."

If a creature possesses mercy, it of course must have soft, gentle eyes, so I tried to give them a sweet dog-like expression. This is a beastie made for cuddling.

"...they make their way carefully and peaceably lest their tusks kill any animal in their way."

Just throwing in tusks in at the last second, huh? I honestly almost forgot to include them, they seem like such an afterthought in the description. And if Zomargons don't fight each other, the tusks must be used for something else. I decided to give them something like a Thylacosmilus fang situation, where these big saber teeth are supported by this crazy lower jaw. Seems to be some debate about whether these teeth were used for scavenging carcasses or killing prey. The Zomargon also eats fruits according to the description, so maybe these tusks are in fact just for opening coconuts.

#maniculum bestiaryposting #Zomargon #reblog

[th3p0rtalmaker]

[th3p0rtalmaker]

#I'm thinking of opening commissions #this is a very good reminder #reblog

[th3p0rtalmaker]

“omg you’re so creative. how do you get your ideas” i hallucinate a single scene in the taco bell drive thru and then spend 13 months trying to write it

#guilty as charged #reblog

[th3p0rtalmaker]

That's an awful thing to get hit with out of the blue, I'm so sorry you and your husband are having to go through this. 🥺 I hope he's able to find a new job asap, maybe even one with higher pay and better benefits! 👏🏻

Dark Kingdom Rising (And Life) Update

This week's chapter will be postponed until next week. My husband found out on Tuesday that this will be his last week of work, which we were not expecting. Since finding out this news, I haven't been in the best head space and so the chapter is still unfinished. I am doing better now and hope to get it done for next week. The rest of this part of Dark Kingdom Rising will be finished I promise! There are only 4 chapters left after all. Hoping for better vibes for everyone. We will see you next week.

#dark kingdom rising #dark kingdom rising au #dark kingdom rising fic #life update #meecha posts #reblog

[th3p0rtalmaker]

Chatting on Discord, imagining Tangled the Series but Eugene’s mom survived and Edmund died to the Moonstone. Everything is exactly the same - she has the same character, same dialogue, same everything, it’s just his mom instead of Edmund. After losing Ed to the moonstone she took up his ax and sent everyone away. I love Edmund, but c’mon, Dark Warrior Queen with her ravens and her bear hood, taking up the mantle of the Brotherhood after her husband’s death? That’d be pretty awesome.

#i wanna see this au 👀 #tangled the series #eugene's mom #silverhart art #reblog

[th3p0rtalmaker]

Are Arianna and Cassandra gonna get any mother-daughter moments in the Lost Lagoon rewrite?

At the moment I have at least one planed. Near the end Arianna sticks up for Cass when Dahlia tries to insert herself as Rapunzel's new lady in waiting. Arianna basically kindly points out that, unlike Cassandra, Dahlia has no real qualifications for being a Lady In Waiting, but she could train if she wants the job so bad.

#tts #tangled the series #rta #rapunzel's tangled adventure #nerd answers #arianna #cassandra #reblog

[th3p0rtalmaker]

When she moves it looks like she's walking like normal, just upside-down. I always assumed she had some kind of black rock-Spiderman power 🤣

I zoomed all the way in on Batssandra and I’m dying, look at Rapunzel’s face 🤣🤣🤣

I can’t tell if she’s alarmed, confused, surprised, or a mix of all three

[th3p0rtalmaker]

And Arianna took the path of duty/responsibility over the adventure that she enjoys, just like Cassandra is a lady-in-waiting who would much prefer to work as a guard!

OH MY GOD IT’S CANON CASS DOES ADMIRE ARIANNA

AND THE OUTRIGHT STATING THAT SHE LOVES BOTH ARIANNA AND RAPUNZEL TOO! FOUND FAMILY FOR THE WIN

Also the bit about Cass keeping secrets kinda reminds me of the original draft where she remembered Gothel

#reblog