It's a Crossy Road Renaissance! 🏰

The latest Crossy Road update is now live, with new Medieval stages & characters, a UI update and new character cards 🎉 pic.twitter.com/0MvYfxxeys

— Crossy Road (@CrossyRoad) November 18, 2022

The Medieval update is here! Much kudos to the hard work of the Hipster Whale team!

I made voxel art for this world/update (characters and the environment) in 2018, 2020 and 2022 on and off, iterating under the guidance from the rest of the team; I’m glad we eventually got there! :’)

There’s also a huge UI overhaul and fancy new character cards in this update that took a tremendous amount of hard, great work, time and iteration from the programming, UI art, design, production, marketing and whole Crossy Road team (hopefully I didn’t miss anyone out)!!

Ah it’s neat seeing people unlocking all the characters I had a part in making & seeing the new interface/cards in action! 😀

Little timelapse! Battle cry!!

Yes I kicked my butt and did a passable background with some foliage brushes this time ;P

Knights of the Mallard vs. Knights of the Chicken

Well that was my concept and lore for the jousting knights and banners in this update’s game world ;P

Eternal rivalry lives on between them!

Who will the Mallard will ride on ;D

Team fire 🔥🐊 Wasn’t expecting to win though :’)

Happy for Big Man Sweep people who won!

Recap of figuring out twitter migration & managing social media out of precaution ahhhhhh

Haven’t used it in years & now I’m forced back.
Ticked the opt out of 3rd party AI datasets for each,
deleted all old featured art I left for prosperity,
not bothered with scraps
but I can’t delete my dead DeviantArt account; lost access to the email :’)

I’m frustrated & tired. (original tweet)

Yeah my deviantart is now empty. Wow.

Had to search for artist/peeps elsewhere, figuring out Mastodon & Cohost and I don’t know how long twitter is going to be around :’)

I’m kind of sad that Twitter is dying – for the few good things. It’s where I have my largest (but most are not engaged) audience and how I’ve met many gamedev people before I reverted back into a hermit. People, artists around the world and companies felt accessible there (in a distant, online kind of way). Personally I don’t miss the mixed, sad feeling like you’re at a social event/town square and it turns out you’re mostly talking to yourself as people walk/scroll past you without a second thought and go for the hot takes/toxic drama/discussion/popular/entertaining/educational people. Or they didn’t know you posted. Or they’re distracted. Or they don’t care for what you post/say/do. Ah social media :’)

Instagram and twitter have both plateaued/fluctuated for years for me so I don’t know if I’m reaching people, let alone those who kindly follow me. It’s just not worth my full time and effort but I’m managing what I can :’)

The safest way is to sign up for my blog’s email updates rather than depend on social media platforms but I don’t think that’s a popular option :’) I super appreciate the small handful of people who are still on the mailing list, thank you!!
Ahhh I am overwhelmed with posting to many social places and I’m just trying to see what sticks :’)

Been feeling upset/irritated/hurt when I get sudden bunch of dislikes on some Youtube videos and trying to not take it personally nor get discouraged. It’s the random minority but I keep questioning what I did wrong. Most of my videos don’t get much traction anyway (which is normal). Social media is great at making me feel terrible and I can’t help but feel sensitive and insecure with metrics, especially at my lowest. And then I lose followers/subscribers. The sad, hurt feelings passes after a while and hopefully I’ll desensitise myself over time but it sucks :<

Edit: At the very time I published this post, I lost youtube subscribers and got some dislikes. Ouch. I need to distance myself :'(

I need to remind myself to focus on sharing the journey and I’m not trying to please everyone. Part of me also thinks “stuff you, rude internet stranger!!” Reminding myself to fail fast and keep testing things ;’P

Given that I’m back on instagram, tumblr, cohost and testing mastodon – I’m still not sure with mastodon (you really have to be super interactive/engaging and I’m more of a lurker) and I’ve cut out dillyhub, artfol and inkblot since there’s not much of an mainstream audience there – it’s more communities I don’t have the bandwidth to invest/commit/get into. Discord gets overwhelming too! I like Cohost so far since I started trying it in August and I’ve started to re/follow some tumblr artists again (yes I gave up Tumblr a month or so ago because I felt lonely there and now I’m having another go at it because some artists are going back there and I guess it can be nice if you curate it well and not expect anything) and I followed some people on mastodon and cohost (on a whim, when I was searching for people at random). Testing things out for a while!

I’m more of an art & blog poster and lurker than someone who engages with the community so not every platform is for me. I’m just trying to make what I do more accessible and it’s definitely a job in itself as I try to get my head around new platforms.

At this point I’ve given up trying to search for any more artists/peeps outside of twitter. This is exhausting. I’ll just let go of most people. Perhaps we’ll come across each other again as the internet becomes more fragmented. Probably not because most people are simply online acquaintances/strangers, are not actually interested and drift away.

Others just don’t want to be easily accessible anymore which is great too! Too bad I’m chronically online :’)

Generally I don’t even check social media feeds so I need to be careful with mastodon, tumblr and cohost since they’re pretty small and hopefully manageable for now. Please don’t expect “follow for a follow” because then we’re not following out of genuine interest/support in each other and/or each other’s work/content. Also I don’t want to follow too much people and I don’t want to have even more timesinks at all of these platforms. If it’s not working out I’ll cut down and keep curating who I follow.

Digressing, I’m keeping LinkedIn for industry connections, Mastodon has gamedev and art servers too, Tumblr for art posts, Cohost I’ll keep it to artists and people I can learn from and I’ll keep lurking at a few random Discord servers.

And like a broken record, my online home shall always be this blog and website! I will keep this (my own blog and website) going so my journey and my work will not disappear due to changes to any given platform! Even though I’m on so many places, I treat them as tools to reach more people while I ramble here to myself, out of the mainstream spotlight :’)

Anyhoo this has made me readjust a little with how I’m dealing with social media, now that I shouldn’t put too much time into twitter. I’m iterating and trying things out as I go along :0

Reflecting on AI art and the future some more with my mixed feelings

Proko’s interview with a misguided, naive AI developer for an “utopia” where apparently he believes the “cost of living and houses will be cheaper”, how poverty will end due to AI automation in all industries – I am skeptical that the cost of living will ever go down in a capitalistic world – corporations won’t cut their own profits. I could only manage to read the video comments because I couldn’t stomach watching it myself, given that many AI tech people haven’t been really empathetic/ethical/respectful to artists in their actions and in using copyrighted work without permission. Apparently he says the “boulder is already rolling” and it’s too late to *not* steal from artists (it’s already part of the data) and recommends artists to do traditional art (which will increase in value?), keep doing what they do and learn AI tools/to code instead :/

There are AI generated 3D models, animations, comics, prints, packaging design, editorial illustrations, videos and so on popping up because people and corporations can get it done fast – based on countless datasets. So we are being replaced even though art is a process a lot of us enjoy?! And how art takes years/decades to learn?! And we have to learn the AI tools to survive in the industry? This probably makes traditional art more valuable. This is the future? I have no idea as I’m just getting my head around this.

I don’t have anything against AI art itself, it’s more the opportunistic people who abuse it, gloat on the fact that artists have “wasted their lives” learning and sacrificing to get to a professional level as they profit using their work and take advantage of others via plagiarism and copyright violations. Stop violating artist rights.

Under capitalism, we are really a cog in a machine. It really feels inevitable either way (as people bring up photography vs art, digital art vs traditional art, 3D animation vs 2D animation and many other industry artists who were forced to change to survive). Some say it’s not fully doom and gloom and that it’s another time for people to pivot due to advances in technology. One artist has their own private AI trained just on their own work to do the majority of their comic art for them and then they polish it up at the end (due to their own carpal tunnel). They are still in control in expressing themselves through their story and their own art.

I don’t mind coding as much as I struggle with it but I don’t know if I’ll personally use AI tools any time soon because I enjoy illustrating things and expressing myself :S

On the other end of the spectrum, it’s frustrating to hear that some artists had to prove that they didn’t use AI to make their work. Many aspiring artists are incredibly discouraged, depressed and are scared off doing this as a career – now that jobs are potentially harder/impossible to come by. Some freelance artists have lost clients too. Many artists are feeling devalued and dismissed, especially when we don’t have an international kind of artist union :<

According to MewTripled’s video on (predicting) what jobs to avoid thanks to AI art generators & “AI Proof” art careers, lots of jobs/tasks/conceptual stages will be done by AI/automated like colour, inbetweens for animation, comics/comic assistants, generating ideas, editorial/corporate illustrations, art commissions and so on. AI proof jobs would be the comic creator artist (like the artist who uses private AI earlier), art directors, traditional artists/handcrafters (due to value/scarcity & that it’s human made) and having a social media brand/personality.

I feel like a lot of these suggestions are more for those who are already established artists and I’m not sure if there are any “true” AI proof jobs. There won’t be as much studio jobs, entry level roles and small/middle sized job. Content creator artists are also competing with AI generated art which is faster (how will this change the value structure of money, fame/popularity and reputation/respect?) The majority of society and corporations won’t really care for artist jobs when they have access to AI tool/software/automation to create things and they have something good enough to use (given that it’s not copyright infringement).

Commercial art will use AI generated art and all that’s left for artists is human expression, problem solving, storytelling and your authenticity/humanity. People generally care more about human made art and expression than AI generated art.

So in this light, I’m not putting my “eggs in one basket” with social media and art as much as I feel like I’m on too many platforms. At least my blog is my constant. Learning how to do social media all the time and see what works for me.

All I can do is adapt, iterate, stumble with how I do art and content creating! It gets overwhelming at times so I’ll vent again about social media as it happens ;P

I don’t want to dwell and worry about this all the time – it’s out of my control :’)

People recommend building a course and/or community but I don’t really feel inclined to do that. I don’t have that “charisma” anyway. I’ll keep doing art, learn, lurk and do more what I want because that’s all I can manage right now 😛

Also if you have your own insights, let me know! I don’t consider myself smart – I’m just slowly learning and reflecting here.

So much for a taking break from social media last week!!

UGH I’m exhausted I want a proper break :<

Been sorting and rearranging out my workspace, equipment and setup.

Testing instagram reels because I caved into their system, though I’m finding it pretty short and shallow. I had to cut out the majority of my speedpaint for the sake of terrible attention spans. I don’t know if I like making short form content just for instagram but I’m not taking it too seriously and I’m not taking too much time on them. I’m good if maybe some more people can see it on their feed :’) I don’t know if my reels are any good though since they’re so short now :<

I kept it super short & simple for people scrolling by;
I don’t even know if this works well as a reel 😢
It’s clear to me that instagram isn’t really for art and all I can share is just a fraction of the illustration and won’t even see the actual speedpaint or blog rambles 😔
I hope that peeps will still enjoy what they can see here and maybe view my work at my blog and/or other places too.
Happy to hear feedback, I’m just figuring it out!
Thank you for watching ❤️

My thoughts after posting my reel for today’s illustration. I’m going to try just posting my art to the home feed and the reel as a separate thing next time. I don’t like having to cut out my art for vertical reels like this :/

And I’ve been stressed out with a lot of ups and downs and feeling unproductive in these past months and weeks in general. Trying to relax and heal up my tense and sore body instead of creating much art :’)

Anyhoo, please take care with your life juggling and have a good week ahead!

I’ll try to do the same as I dread another blood test :<

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