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planning intro/outro for TBSaos podfic
Feb. 1st, 2026 01:48 pm( Read more... )
One of the challenges for Voiceteam Mysterybox 2025 asks us to do a roundup of what we've been creating the last 12 months or so, and what we're looking to do this next year, with a focus on audio fanworks.
That's an easy focus for me to write on - I've definitely been focusing more on podfic than visual fanart this past year, thanks in part to wanting to give my wrist a break.
( Read more... )
That's an easy focus for me to write on - I've definitely been focusing more on podfic than visual fanart this past year, thanks in part to wanting to give my wrist a break.
( Read more... )
In Stars And Time reference
Apr. 13th, 2025 10:26 amI am writing this up as a recommendation for In Stars And Time, the recently released rpgmaker game I'm affectionately calling "timeloop depression simulator."
It's a followup to the initial smaller game Start Again Start Again Start Again: A Prologue, which was the creator's test/experiment with game design and initial exploration of the story concept as a game rather than a couple comics. SA:AP's trailer:
If you're interested, the early version is still available for sale, or there's a few full let's plays floating around that take 3-5 hours!
In Stars And Time
Think old school rpgs; pixel art, characters with locked roles and abilities, character sprites of the party trailing around after the main character, adventures full of collecting magical artifacts before facing the big bad in the final dungeon.
In Stars And Time takes such the idea of such a story, but starts us off in the town nearest the final dungeon.
The party's all at level 45 and have been traveling for months, they've been through adventures and turmoil together, and the main character is just waking from a nap in a meadow after a mysterious opening cutscene.
Since it's not actually the endgame of a classic rpg, we're given the starting task of exploring the town to meet the other main characters, interacting with a statue for a plot-summarizing flashback, plus the option to roam around talking to the various NPCs.
The next day, the party sets out to the dungeon, using the artifacts they gathered through their backstory journey to unlock the main gate, and head inside in search of the King.
...It takes only a few rooms before the main character dies.
...
And then, Act 2 begins.
The main character wakes up, in the meadow, again.
(And promptly throws a fit about dying and being so stupid as to miss it, before forcibly calming down and trying to look on the bright side.)
This will be the first of quite a few time loops.
( Read more... )
It's a followup to the initial smaller game Start Again Start Again Start Again: A Prologue, which was the creator's test/experiment with game design and initial exploration of the story concept as a game rather than a couple comics. SA:AP's trailer:
If you're interested, the early version is still available for sale, or there's a few full let's plays floating around that take 3-5 hours!
Think old school rpgs; pixel art, characters with locked roles and abilities, character sprites of the party trailing around after the main character, adventures full of collecting magical artifacts before facing the big bad in the final dungeon.
In Stars And Time takes such the idea of such a story, but starts us off in the town nearest the final dungeon.
The party's all at level 45 and have been traveling for months, they've been through adventures and turmoil together, and the main character is just waking from a nap in a meadow after a mysterious opening cutscene.
Since it's not actually the endgame of a classic rpg, we're given the starting task of exploring the town to meet the other main characters, interacting with a statue for a plot-summarizing flashback, plus the option to roam around talking to the various NPCs.
The next day, the party sets out to the dungeon, using the artifacts they gathered through their backstory journey to unlock the main gate, and head inside in search of the King.
...It takes only a few rooms before the main character dies.
...
And then, Act 2 begins.
The main character wakes up, in the meadow, again.
(And promptly throws a fit about dying and being so stupid as to miss it, before forcibly calming down and trying to look on the bright side.)
This will be the first of quite a few time loops.
( Read more... )
UTDR voice time
Apr. 13th, 2025 09:50 amMore Undertale voice acting stuff, this time renditions of the 1 year Q&A and 3 of the in-character interviews that have been shared through the newsletters - the 1st and 2nd Papyrus interviews, plus the conversation about the 7-8-9 joke... (and potential Deltarune implications)
Undertale 1 Year Anniversary Q&A:
"Papyrus, what's your favorite food?"
Papyrus Interview (1)
Papyrus Interview (2)
Interview (The Number Nine)
Undertale 1 Year Anniversary Q&A:
"Papyrus, what's your favorite food?"
Papyrus Interview (1)
Papyrus Interview (2)
Interview (The Number Nine)
Podfic to date!
Apr. 8th, 2025 05:44 pmI've been continuing my efforts into audio recording for the purpose of sharing podfic, and recently reached the threshold of being happy enough with my efforts to share a few.
Hosting on Internet Archive and sharing on AO3, I've got a couple of Papyrus-focused Undertale fics that got happy responses from the authors so far:
A Cleaning Day by ReaderRose - (podfic)
Enough by Skerb - (podfic)
Hosting on Internet Archive and sharing on AO3, I've got a couple of Papyrus-focused Undertale fics that got happy responses from the authors so far:
A Cleaning Day by ReaderRose - (podfic)
Author's Summary: Sans discovers Papyrus is in a cleaning mood, but, like, the bad kind. Not the usual kind.
Enough by Skerb - (podfic)
Author's Summary: Papyrus struggles through self-worth issues. Sans helps.
Puzzles to Cope by UndertaleThingem - (podfic)Author's Summary: Papyrus likes to keep busy. It's one way he can avoid dwelling on a past that doesn't exist anymore, and what better way to keep busy than repairing and maintaining the puzzles scattered across Snowdin Forest?
Even if it doesn't always work...
Earlier this year, I started trying my hand at podfic!
See, I had gotten into the habit of listening to some at work, especially a couple of fics in the 50+ chapters range. It was nice to go through the story at a read-aloud pace - as opposed to the way I almost skimread by default. Hearing things out like that made some of the emotional beats hit harder, especially with some podficcer's efforts at tone and emotion.
There are many more stories that I enjoy that don't have audio counterparts, though, and not many in my favorite canons at all.
And there I was, looking for a creative hobby with minimal use of my hands
Of course, it's not as easy as that. Just reading a story aloud, sure, that might just take a mic and the willingness to stay put long enough to read things - in shorter or longer bursts of reading.
But to share them?
Audio quality is a question. How's the background noise, how's the volume, how's the voiceacting?
Permission is a question too, is the author okay with podfic versions? It's much more polite if they are.
And the big question... Where do you host it? Audio files don't build up as quickly as video files, but it doesn't take long for them to get much, much larger than their text counterparts.
These are all separate questions, for all they do all need to be answered before sharing podfic. I'm still working on all of them, in different ways.
But today's post is to celebrate one level of accomplishment: I did a let's play of Undertale, a neutral run where I voice acted all the characters, a lot of the narration, and also rambled to myself between these things.
The accomplishment is that I got through the full (neutral run) of the game, and split the recordings into short enough videos that I could upload them to YouTube!
...56 videos of it, thanks to the 15 minute max for unverified accounts, and a number of times where the best spot for clipping was just too long, so I went with something several minutes earlier instead. But hey! It exists. Round one!
With each of the three recording sessions, I experimented a little with different audio setups and settings, to compare how they went.
I tried my hand at character voice consistency with some of the characters, and tested out different ways to do the voices of characters I haven't done much of anything with yet.
Part of the benefit is, depending on different author's permissions, uploading to YouTube as unlisted videos that I only link to in certain places (here, AO3, different discord servers...) could be a way to go about this!
Privately, I've done recordings of a number of fics that I'm fond of and have bookmarked on AO3, but none of them are ones that I'd want to ask to share just yet.
That's part of why I'm reasonably confident in my Papyrus and Sans voices, and Toriel and Undyne and Alphys to slightly lesser extents. (Yeah, I complain a couple times in these recordings about how what I was doing didn't sound right, but I'm used to hearing my voice aloud, or through an earbud, not through my computer's speakers, and that's a part of the difference too)
Ideally, I'll be able to do either a reasonably consistent just reading aloud option or a with character voices option, and be able to decide how much to exaggerate the character voices depending! Something of a longterm project, but it's nice to sit here and go, oh yeah, I have made progress with this. :)
See, I had gotten into the habit of listening to some at work, especially a couple of fics in the 50+ chapters range. It was nice to go through the story at a read-aloud pace - as opposed to the way I almost skimread by default. Hearing things out like that made some of the emotional beats hit harder, especially with some podficcer's efforts at tone and emotion.
There are many more stories that I enjoy that don't have audio counterparts, though, and not many in my favorite canons at all.
And there I was, looking for a creative hobby with minimal use of my hands
Of course, it's not as easy as that. Just reading a story aloud, sure, that might just take a mic and the willingness to stay put long enough to read things - in shorter or longer bursts of reading.
But to share them?
Audio quality is a question. How's the background noise, how's the volume, how's the voiceacting?
Permission is a question too, is the author okay with podfic versions? It's much more polite if they are.
And the big question... Where do you host it? Audio files don't build up as quickly as video files, but it doesn't take long for them to get much, much larger than their text counterparts.
These are all separate questions, for all they do all need to be answered before sharing podfic. I'm still working on all of them, in different ways.
But today's post is to celebrate one level of accomplishment: I did a let's play of Undertale, a neutral run where I voice acted all the characters, a lot of the narration, and also rambled to myself between these things.
The accomplishment is that I got through the full (neutral run) of the game, and split the recordings into short enough videos that I could upload them to YouTube!
...56 videos of it, thanks to the 15 minute max for unverified accounts, and a number of times where the best spot for clipping was just too long, so I went with something several minutes earlier instead. But hey! It exists. Round one!
With each of the three recording sessions, I experimented a little with different audio setups and settings, to compare how they went.
I tried my hand at character voice consistency with some of the characters, and tested out different ways to do the voices of characters I haven't done much of anything with yet.
Part of the benefit is, depending on different author's permissions, uploading to YouTube as unlisted videos that I only link to in certain places (here, AO3, different discord servers...) could be a way to go about this!
Privately, I've done recordings of a number of fics that I'm fond of and have bookmarked on AO3, but none of them are ones that I'd want to ask to share just yet.
That's part of why I'm reasonably confident in my Papyrus and Sans voices, and Toriel and Undyne and Alphys to slightly lesser extents. (Yeah, I complain a couple times in these recordings about how what I was doing didn't sound right, but I'm used to hearing my voice aloud, or through an earbud, not through my computer's speakers, and that's a part of the difference too)
Ideally, I'll be able to do either a reasonably consistent just reading aloud option or a with character voices option, and be able to decide how much to exaggerate the character voices depending! Something of a longterm project, but it's nice to sit here and go, oh yeah, I have made progress with this. :)
Podfic practice
Apr. 29th, 2023 08:13 pmThis last year I learned about podfic, and I've gotten pretty enthusiastic about the idea of being able to listen to stories I'm fond of.
I've tested reading and recording a couple of fics already, and enjoyed it enough to want to continue.
I'm not quite at where I want to be for recording and sharing those works - these first drafts are very much only for myself - but I'm feeling optimistic about getting there.
Now that I'm poking at Undertale fic, and the hope of voicing multiple stories from that fandom, I figure I should work on figuring out how I'll voice the characters.
I made a point of saving the audio clips of their various typing speech sounds, made notes on what I'd want to do to differentiate between them.
Next, I figure, I'll go find their introductions or reasonably long monologues for each of them, and voice them separately. The better to pay attention to how I'm emoting when I stick in just the one voice, vs when I try doing conversations, you know?
First up, Alphys. Let's see if DW wants to embed the video the way I'm hoping.
I've tested reading and recording a couple of fics already, and enjoyed it enough to want to continue.
I'm not quite at where I want to be for recording and sharing those works - these first drafts are very much only for myself - but I'm feeling optimistic about getting there.
Now that I'm poking at Undertale fic, and the hope of voicing multiple stories from that fandom, I figure I should work on figuring out how I'll voice the characters.
I made a point of saving the audio clips of their various typing speech sounds, made notes on what I'd want to do to differentiate between them.
Next, I figure, I'll go find their introductions or reasonably long monologues for each of them, and voice them separately. The better to pay attention to how I'm emoting when I stick in just the one voice, vs when I try doing conversations, you know?
First up, Alphys. Let's see if DW wants to embed the video the way I'm hoping.
a novel concept:
May. 26th, 2022 02:57 pmwhat if I take some of my ramblings I post to plurk, and put them in post form
some kind of archive of chatter
where the folks who come looking for me on DW (or are already here, hello o/) can see them
imagine
[imagine seven dot meme]
some kind of archive of chatter
where the folks who come looking for me on DW (or are already here, hello o/) can see them
imagine
[imagine seven dot meme]
in light of tumblr doing its thing
Dec. 26th, 2021 04:42 pmI will see about using DW for more the fandom-at-large purposes rather than pretty solely the DWRP side of things
We'll see how that goes!!
I am currently semi-actively sharing art on Twitter
Discord I mostly use for lurking in servers and occasionally talking - I don't prefer to have private conversations there, so I won't be listing my account here
We'll see how that goes!!
I am currently semi-actively sharing art on Twitter
Discord I mostly use for lurking in servers and occasionally talking - I don't prefer to have private conversations there, so I won't be listing my account here
Art advice: reference images of skeletons
Dec. 29th, 2018 02:52 pmHey, skeleton fans?
Artsy skeleton fans?
Have you admired this digital artist's work before?
It's all on one of those paid stock image sites, so, you know, don't yank the pictures to use for anything public or commercial, etc etc legal advice. But unlike some sites, the watermark isn't very awkward, and the display pictures are reasonably sized. It's a good range of poses that make for handy reference images!
( some full size examples behind a cut because )
So that's what I'm doing right now!
Artsy skeleton fans?
Have you admired this digital artist's work before?
It's all on one of those paid stock image sites, so, you know, don't yank the pictures to use for anything public or commercial, etc etc legal advice. But unlike some sites, the watermark isn't very awkward, and the display pictures are reasonably sized. It's a good range of poses that make for handy reference images!
( some full size examples behind a cut because )
So that's what I'm doing right now!
thinking about blogging and reblogging
Dec. 29th, 2018 04:15 amMan, as much as I'm very used to using Dreamwidth for roleplaying and have been here since the great LJRP Exodus, I am very out of practice with trying to use it for blogging or social networking or any of that jazz.
Part of it is, Tumblr is so easy. Follow people who post things you want to see a lot of, use XKit to shrink down the stuff you have no desire to see, and hit reblog to add things you like to your own blog. Maybe add commentary in the tags, maybe just one or two to help organize it, or maybe just hit reblog. Bam! You've put something out for your followers to see and react to, with almost no effort on your own part.
And so now I'm wondering, how would I go about replicating the feeling of easily sharing interesting content, and posting it here on Dreamwidth?
Obviously it won't be as easy as clicking the reblog button, but there might be things that are easier than writing whole posts myself. Clickbait sucks, but... it might be a starting point. Block quote some interesting things of note about the page in question, maybe thumbnail images if it's mostly art / photos / what have you... Would it be funny or just Hello Fellow Kids to outright write descriptions in tag format, albeit without tags?
An example of what I'm thinking:
D&D, concept taking orc stereotypes and saying you know what - how about vikings, how about people who regularly do battle and die in battle keep clean so they're not dying of infected wounds and disease and whatnot. so they've got good healers, they understand how the body works well enough to have good necromancy going on, and varieties that aren't just about creepy fighting methods, but reflecting their religious beliefs and being productive for their communities.
(source)
Part of it is, Tumblr is so easy. Follow people who post things you want to see a lot of, use XKit to shrink down the stuff you have no desire to see, and hit reblog to add things you like to your own blog. Maybe add commentary in the tags, maybe just one or two to help organize it, or maybe just hit reblog. Bam! You've put something out for your followers to see and react to, with almost no effort on your own part.
And so now I'm wondering, how would I go about replicating the feeling of easily sharing interesting content, and posting it here on Dreamwidth?
Obviously it won't be as easy as clicking the reblog button, but there might be things that are easier than writing whole posts myself. Clickbait sucks, but... it might be a starting point. Block quote some interesting things of note about the page in question, maybe thumbnail images if it's mostly art / photos / what have you... Would it be funny or just Hello Fellow Kids to outright write descriptions in tag format, albeit without tags?
An example of what I'm thinking:
2) Orcs who died dishonorably being burned instead of buried, to kill whatever germs killed them. Reanimated skeletons are charred black. They are used for harvesting crops, which doesn’t require too much ability to think (if it looks like this pick it if it looks like that leave it there). As they walk the fields, their blackened bones flake and leave behind black bone dust, fertilizing the crops. Their job is done when the skeleton disintegrates. They have fed the clan, and regained their honor.
-theopaltree
D&D, concept taking orc stereotypes and saying you know what - how about vikings, how about people who regularly do battle and die in battle keep clean so they're not dying of infected wounds and disease and whatnot. so they've got good healers, they understand how the body works well enough to have good necromancy going on, and varieties that aren't just about creepy fighting methods, but reflecting their religious beliefs and being productive for their communities.
(source)
instead i've been subscribing to a widening circle of online buddies from tumblr, dreamwidth, kintsugi, and elsewhere
plus i'm messing around on this extremely baby website waterfall, in the sense of being a tiny hatchling of a site that has very basic code and very live updates going on, and very few features as yet.
mainly because the closest to a dashboard that dreamwidth has is the reading page
and i never got accustomed to looking at that thing
( and then i started rambling to myself in the same manner as i do in tags sometimes )
plus i'm messing around on this extremely baby website waterfall, in the sense of being a tiny hatchling of a site that has very basic code and very live updates going on, and very few features as yet.
mainly because the closest to a dashboard that dreamwidth has is the reading page
and i never got accustomed to looking at that thing
( and then i started rambling to myself in the same manner as i do in tags sometimes )
