itsmeif

Latest Posts by itsmeif

A Twitter thread of mine that I think some of you may find useful here as well! I’ll update this periodically when I update the Twitter thread.

edit: i made a gif

A Twitter thread of mine that I think some of you may find useful here as well! I’ll update this periodically when I update the Twitter thread.

MALE HEAD LIGHT REFERENCE TOOL by William Nguyen

Click here to use the interactive reference!

My friends asked me for an tutorial

For Paint Tool Sai users. There should be plenty of guides on how clipper group, preverse opacity/opacity lock works so I won’t be adding them here.

Excuse my lame English, I’m not a native speaker.

Muscles of the Glabellar Region by Anatomy For Sculptors

Support the creators and check out their store!

Jon Kent and Damian Wayne in the Young Justice Animated Series

It’s been a good long while since Young Justice: Outsiders came out, so I feel like I can finally write about this without worrying about tagging spoilers and ruining lives or something. This is something I thought about the second this episode aired, and I’ve been waiting to write it. So here it goes!

Young Justice: Outsiders was obviously exciting for many reasons, but some of the most excitement came from introductions of well beloved characters, such as Jason Todd and Damian Wayne (seen in Episode 6) and Jon Kent (seen in Episode 9). Anyone who follows Super Sons already knows that this is a massive deal, because it establishes that Damian and Jon both exist in the same animated timeline for the very first time, as well as it being Jon’s animated debut.

While I’m obviously extremely excited for the possibility of a Super Sons animated moment, it got me thinking. The screen shots above show that Damian and Jon are both infants, likely somewhere around one (1) year old. This is completely different from the three (3) year age difference we’re used to, and while this difference might not seem like that big of a deal to some people, it has the capacity to completely change their character dynamics.

Let’s start by looking at Damian:

We all know Damian’s backstory by now; raised in the League of Assassins by Ra’s and Talia Al Ghul, until he was ten (10) years old, when he moved to Gotham to live with Bruce Wayne. It was at this point that he became Robin. This is a pretty concrete point in Damian’s character, and is very unlikely to change. At some point in the YJ series, he needs to become Robin. But lets take a minute to think about what kind of person he was at that age: arrogant, violent, stubborn, and desperately trying to prove his worth to a father he just met. At this point, he was a killer, and regularly fought with just about every member of the Batfam, Bruce and Dick in particular, as he tried to break the habits he’d been brought up with. 

In the context of YJ, we can assume that Dick would at some point bring Damian along to join the Team, but the question is, at what age? Damian joining almost immediately fits pretty well with how quickly he was introduced to the Teen Titans. But, at that age, he was hardly a team player. It wasn’t until he was about thirteen (13) that he really started developing actual friendships. However, the age Damian joins the Team - in my opinion at least - would depend very heavily on when the other “Next Generation” heroes join. 

This brings us to Jon:

Jon is known for being the complete antithesis to Damian. Rather than being raised to be a loyal machine, he was raised to be a loyal friend. Jon is a character who puts family first, and thinks of his friends as family. He’s truly a breath of childish fresh air in an industry that loves feeding us doom and gloom. While he is beloved by the majority of the fanbase, other characters were very apprehensive about him when he first got into the hero business at ten (10) years old; not-so-coincidentally, the same age as Damian. 

However, Jon is also the character in DC comics with the most amount of pressure on him. You imagine being the son of Superman for a moment, and growing up knowing that every single person you meet expects you to one day take over that title. Do you think you’d be able to handle that? Let alone at ten years old? I certainly can’t. Yet it seems like Jon doesn’t actually realize just how heavy that weight on his shoulders is.

While Supers are known for being power houses, and every team seems to want one, Jon was a kid, and very new to his abilities. He was unpolished; constantly making mistakes, misjudging his own strength, overshooting his speed and flight, and who could possibly forget when he lost control Manchester Black, or when he went full Super Nova and nearly killed the Teen Titans? It became very clear at the end of the first Super Sons run that Damian was actually the only other young hero that trusted Jon, which is why they continued to function as the newest take on a dynamic duo. 

How does this all come back to Young Justice: Outsiders? Well it’s actually very simple. All of that mistrust that characters were going to have in Jon was immediately erased the second the series did this:

Right here is the next generation of the Team. We all know it, and unlike previous heroes, this is the first generation that’s growing up together. Unlike every other iteration of the Justice League, Teen Titans, Young Justice, and literally every other team you can think of, these kids are all going to grow up watching each other’s powers come in. They’re going to know each other’s weaknesses and flaws, from weekly play dates, birthday parties, and any other hero-family get-together; some of them might even end up going to the same schools in this universe. Yes, Jon is the youngest out of them, but that just means that every single one of these kiddos is going to watch him grow up, knowing that S on his chest will always be there.

Let’s think about what we know about Jon again. He’s charismatic, funny, loyal and true, and has this uncanny ability to be able to talk to literally anyone, regardless of who the are, where they’re from, or what circumstance he’s in. You know what those traits line up perfectly with? A natural born leader. 

Growing up in this environment, where all these super kids play all the time, it’s so easy to imagine Jon growing up and being this larger than life personality that everyone just naturally seems to listen to. Jon would be the kid coming up with new games to play, and teaching them to everyone else. He would be one of the team captains when they play kickball, soccer, or any other sport. He would be genuinely interested in everyone’s hobbies and skills. He would be the one everyone turns to when they need someone to talk to. If someone’s unsure about him, chances are they’ll just do what everyone does; take one look at that S on his chest and just start listening. 

The series progresses. There’s another time skip, and Damian and Jon are now both ten years old, taking on their respective superhero mantels for the first time. As all young heroes in this series eventually do, they join the Team. Perhaps around the same time, perhaps Damian joins a few months before hand, or vice versa. But that doesn’t matter, because the effect will be exactly the same.

Damian is harsh. He’s vindictive, and unemphatic; the exact opposite of what everyone expects a Robin to be. He refuses to take orders, and is very clearly trying to fight his was to the top of the food chain. Plus, he comes right in and kicks Tim Drake out of the Robin title, someone who could very likely be the current leader. Chances are, everyone would hate Damian from the get-go. Meanwhile, everyone would be looking forward to the day Jon joins. They all knew he would. It was just a matter of time. 

Rather than being introduced to each other with a clear difference in experience like in the comics, Jon and Damian are now on relatively even playing fields because they’re the same age. Damian would have more combat skills, but Jon’s already an integral part of the group, and he’s a fast learner. Obviously they would but heads, likely even more than they did in Supers Sons. 

One of the biggest debates we see in every single season of YJ is “Ok, but who’s in charge?” This would undoubtedly come up as Damian flat out refuses that listen to any leadership if he doesn’t deem them worthy. Even at ten (10) years old, he would likely be fighting for that position of head honcho, because at this point in his life, Damian’s driving forces are his ego and his ambition. Unfortunately for him, at ten (10) years old, with that personality, and after having just left the League of Assassins, he’s completely untrustworthy. 

Jon on the other hand is a perfect candidate for eventual leader. Everyone would have followed Kon, the Superboy before him, to the ends of the Earth. Superman led the Justice League at one point, plus he’s, you know, Superman. Here we’ve got that legend’s kid, with all the makings to eventually take over the whole operation. He’s young, and pretty green, but chances are every single person on the team would have it in the back of their minds that this kid was born to lead. 

The biggest problem? Jon has a tendency to crack under pressure, and second guess himself. There is a chance that Damian rushing to be in charge would force Jon to be pushed forward far too quickly, long before he’s ready. Meanwhile, Damian’s smart as sin. No one on the Team would be able to deny that Damian’s a perfect strategist, who analyses and memorizes every skill set and strength of the people he has to work with. He can come up with a flawless plan at the drop of a hat. Meanwhile, Jon would be the kind of person to lead with his heart, and build morale on a foundation of morals and trust.

That’s going to be the conflict between Damian and Jon in Young Justice because of how they were introduced in the series, and with their lack of age gap. Damian doesn’t have the time to grow and gain everyone’s trust before Jon becomes Superboy, where as Jon wouldn’t have the chance to learn before getting pushed into leadership positions he isn’t ready for. They’re likely going to but heads even more than before, and right now, there’s no way to tell if they will ever be able to achieve the friendship they have in the comics, or if they’ll be stuck as rivals.

Is it too early to make assumptions? Yeah. Probably. Who knows what the writers have planned. But I don’t think there’s any way to doubt the conflict they just created for themselves.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Sticker Sheets made by IllustrateChrissy

A wonderous fuck-ton of facial expressions [part 2].

[From various sources]

Tumblr Dashboard Image Sizes:

Photo post: 500 by 750 pixels for dashboard view; 1280 by 1920 pixels for high-res version (except for superwide panoramas).

Photoset: 500-pixel width for one image in a photoset row. 245-pixel width for two images in a photoset row. 160-pixel width for three images in a photoset row. Gutters are 10 pixels.

Audio Post: 169 by 169 pixels for album art.

Link Post: 130 by 130 pixels for the thumbnail image grabbed by Tumblr from web link (if available).

Text Post: 125-pixel width for images added to a text post, which expand when clicked. As of July 2014, inline images appear as 500 by 750 pixels for dashboard view.

Avatar: 64-by-64-pixel icon next to posts.

S.H.Figuarts ボディ♂♀の可動が凄く良くデッサン人形に最適です！画像はイラストのポージングを再現したモノ。脳内補完前程のデッサン人形ですが、細かなニュアンスも結構出せます。

Colors from Adobe Color CC (Kuler)

Respect artist rules

Request via ask box

10/26 Updated with more colors

Character Expressions!

A super-belated celebration of hitting 1000 followers. The challenge? Draw your OC’s expression in/reacting to the listed situations. Do them in order or have followers send asks. Remember to reblog, not repost. Have fun! :D

Dropping ice cream on the ground

Finally completing a level in a video game they were stuck on for months

“Don’t touch me”

Alarm clock just went off

Just got assigned a lot of work

Watching a fictional character they love die

“Oh what’s that thing”

“aAGH I SHOULDN’T HAVE TOUCHED THAT THING”

Just actually slipped on a banana peel

Being blamed for something they didn’t do

Just ran for an extended period of time

Being sent an email that’s entirely in wingdings

Receiving anon hate

Having money thrown at them

Just brought fast food home and looked in the bag to see it’s not what they ordered

About to be hit in the face with a rotten tomato

Startled by a doorbell

Getting paid very little for a tedious task

Getting paid a lot for a tedious task

Failed to make a bubble with bubble gum

Just received socks as a gift

Seeing their favorite animal

Seeing their favorite person

Someone pronouncing their name horribly wrong

Eating something gross

Trying hard not to burst into tears in front of a crowd

Someone accidentally touches their sunburn

Realizing they spelled their own name wrong on something they gave to a friend

Booing someone off of a stage

Being booed off of a stage

Getting flipped off

Receiving an email with the entire Bee Movie script

Realizing they’re about to fall down the stairs

Having a fan blown in their face

About to tackle-hug someone

About to receive a tackle-hug

Accidentally burned themself with hot glue

Looking in the mirror and realizing someone drew on their face while they slept

Seeing something they desperately want to buy

Eating something hot and realizing it was probably too hot to eat

HOLY FREE ART PROGRAMS BATMAN

I’ve had this list sitting around for a while (in case I ever want to try something new) and I thought I’d share it, because why the hell not, everybody loves free stuff. I’ve only used a couple, so for all I know these could be complete shit. BUT YOU NEVER KNOW, RIGHT?

*= available for both windows and mac os

GIMP * - Does a lot of the same stuff as Photoshop.

FireAlpaca * - Similar to Paint Tool Sai, so it’s a good alternative for Mac users.

Autodesk Sketchbook Copic Edition * - Simulates the look of copic markers.

MyPaint * - Basic stuff, nothing fancy.

Pinta * - Drawing program modeled after paint.NET.

Inkscape * - Vector/drawing program meant to be similar to Illustrator.

ArtRage * - Digital painting program; you can get the trimmed down version for free or buy the full version with more features.

Sumo Paint * - In-browser drawing app.

DAZ Studio * - Some sort of 3D model poser thing.

Pencil * - Software for animating.

SketchUp * - Tool for making 3D models. Looks handy for stuff like architectural drawings.

Blender * - Pretty popular 3D software.

escape motions * - Some browser apps, fun to fiddle with when you’re bored (the fluid fire simulation is pretty cool imo).

Twistedbrush (Pixarra) - Seems to be meant for replicating the look of traditional media.

Pixia/Phierha - A popular program in Japan, according to the website.

Krita - This was originally made for Linux and it looks like the developers haven’t ironed out all of the kinks in the Windows installer.

Artweaver - Another trimmed down free thing if you don’t want to buy the full program.

paint.NET - Pretty basic kit, probably good for simple stuff.

Project Dogwaffle - I’m not sure what this one is all about because I couldn’t stop laughing at the terrible website.

Speedy Painter - Lightweight digital painting program.

mtPaint - Originally made for pixel art; simple enough to run on older computers.

Chasys Draw IES - Supposed to be some sort of drawing+image editor thing.

PaintRibbon - Seems to be another plain old basic image editor.

DrawPlus - Looks like it’s made for graphic design and vector stuff.

SmoothDraw - I’m guessing this is a basic thing for people who don’t want to bother with complicated stuff.

Size comparison site!

FOR ARTISTS AND WRITERS WHO NEED IT IT’S AMAZING

I know some of you need this! (you don’t need to have giant or tiny characters either. it’s a great ref for everyone!)

ELI SHOWED ME A COOL THING where it generates a skeleton in various angles for you !!!!!!

Part 1 of my Design and Layout for Comics lecture! 

Here’s part 2: https://gingersnappish.tumblr.com/post/614575142440517632/part-2-of-my-design-and-layout-for-comics-lecture

Get ready and get excited! This year’s themes for PeterFelicia Week 2020 are now live! 

Day 1: Midnight Rendezvous — Moonlighting across the city’s rooftops is just another night in the life of Peter “Spider-Man” Parker and Felicia “Black Cat” Hardy, but what else do they get up to in the twilight hour?  

Day 2: Protective — Show off that famed Parker protective streak or how terrifying the Black Cat can be when there’s a threat against someone she loves.

Day 3: Fantasy — For all things mystical, magical, and fantastical! Fairy tales, witches, wizards, sorcery, dragons, sea monsters, mermaids, knights, cursed princes, mysterious strangers, magical cats and sly spiders! Anything your heart desires!  

Day 4: Heists — Jewels? Paintings? Secret superhero gadgets? Sparkling treasure? Maybe even a heart or two! Everything is fair game as long as something gets stolen! 

Day 5: Noir — Go dark with villain AUs, conspiracies, demons, vampires, murderous thieves, kingpins, queenpins, etc. Or get inspired by classic film noir! If you’re still unsure why not let Marvel help and check out Peter/Felicia in all their 1930′s glory in the Spider-Man: Noir universe. (see: Spider-Man Noir #1-4 and Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without A Face #1-4) 

Day 6: Family — When did they first think of each other as family? How does Peter introduce Felicia to Aunt May or vice versa? Or maybe they have a little spider-kitten of their own! A baby, we’re talking about a baby! Everyone loves a little domesticity right?  

Day 7: Free Day — Do you have a great idea that doesn’t fit a theme? This day is for you! Go wild, get creative because anything goes for this slot! Also, if you missed a previous day’s deadline, you can use this one! 

Further, we also have some optional general themes! These can be combined with other themes or used on their own. They can be used any day. 

Threesome — Friendships, love triangles, or perhaps something a bit more intimate ;) just be sure to add an extra person to spice things up! 

Outside Perspective — Close friends, relatives, exes, heroes, civilians, Twitter feeds, the media? Take a step back and think about how Peter/Felicia’s relationship is perceived by the people not in it!  

Unrequited — Sometimes there is no happy ending for our favorite couple, maybe we are just stuck with bittersweet yesterdays. 

Identity — Secret identities, double identities, identity confusion, and miscommunication! This is the spot for all your identity porn needs, or consider how their respective vigilante/thief identities interplay with each other. 

PeterFelicia Week will be held August 3-9, 2020 on Tumblr and Twitter! No sign ups necessary and all fan created content is acceptable ie: fic, art, edits, aesthetics, fanmixes, podcasts, playlists, meta, etc. – as long as they focus on Peter Parker/Felicia Hardy. Just remember to tag your post #peterfeliciaweek in the first five tags! 

Still confused on what exactly PeterFelicia Week entails? Read the full announcement post here! 

More posting guidelines will be made closer to the time of the event. 

We look forward to seeing all that you create!

Top 12 alternatives to Photoshop for digital painters and illustrators

Hello there!

Yes, we haven’t done this in a while… but our inbox and chat are swamped with questions on the subject, so this article was very much needed.

it’s a simple list of art apps, but we know you love those :D

Enough with the intro, here it is, a list of twelve art apps you may want to check out.

ArtRage is an art program for beginners and professionals. With its minimal interface, it’s easy to keep the essential tools at hand without stealing space from the canvas. Panels can be moved around and tools can be customised. We all know how important it is for digital artists to be able to modify brushes!

Pros: easy to use; friendly interface; essential tools from professional apps available; available for iOS, Android, Windows and Mac

Cons: it may get sluggish with big files and when using big brushes, but performances also depend on the running machine; limited selection of editing tools if compared to Photoshop - ArtRage is more of a painting program rather than an editing one.

Paid

ArtRage Lite is a different version at a cheaper price, mostly for beginners, but also for professionals if they need the essential.

Now free, Sketchbook is the famous app created by Autodesk for various platforms.

Pros: clean, friendly interface; easy to use; professional features; autosave feature

Cons: lack of official tutorials; doesn’t offer as many tools as other apps (it’s down to the essential); paid subscription in Adobe style for Enterprise License

Free and paid

Black Ink is a powerful little program few actually know, but there’s a reason: this isn’t your classing drawing app. What’s cool about it is the vast selection of special brushes, completely non-realistic, and definitely able to boost your creativity.

Pros: vast selection of customisable brushes; excellent performance

Cons: not very easy to use; non-intuitive interface

Paid

This is probably the most complete software for painting, drawing and animation. It was originally known as Manga Studio, but with its updates and addition of features, it became Clip Studio Paint. 

This doesn’t say much about the quality of the features themselves considering the affordable price (if you haven’t used the app yet, that is), but among graphic apps, this one is the top seller.

Pros: professional features for illustrators; layout tools for comic/manga artists; 3D reference models; customisable tools; various sales with special prices

Cons: the interface may not appear intuitive at first; the program may lag (again, performance also depends on the running machine)

Paid

GIMP is the famous open source image editor originally created for GNU/Linux and available for OS X and Windows. 

Best known as Photoshop’s main competition, this is a manipulation program for both beginners and professionals who love design.

It offers many professional features, making the program a powerful tool.

Pros: professional editing tools; supports different formats; supported by different platforms; active community

Cons: in spite of the simple design, many options are hidden and it takes time to discover all the features; slow startup

Free

Krita is an open source painting app created by artists for artists.

Pros: easy to use; intuitive interface; great brush workflow; brush stabilizer; customisable brushes; general good performance; very enthusiastic, although small, community

Cons: it may be slow or even crash depending on the running computer and the app’s version; very few editing tools compared to Photoshop

Free

MediBang Paint is a free and light app for drawing and painting, perfect for manga and comic creation.

Pros: vast selection of brushes; cloud sharing; friendly, minimal interface (non-desktop app); also available for iPad, iPhone and Android

Cons: requires an account to use all features; non-intuitive interface (desktop version)

Free

Mischief is a sketching app with essential tools, useful for brainstorming and ideation.

Pros: infinite drawing canvas; friendly interface; easy to use; cheap pro version

Cons: few updates; offers only the essential (but that’s the point); no editing/adjustment tools

Free and paid

Corel’s jewel, Painter is the most famous software that offers digital tools able to give a traditional feel to brushes and canvas.

Pros: different selection of media; many professional features; PS-friendly

Cons: certain brushes may work slow; not easy to use at first; the software may crash (this is the most common report); pricey

Paid

Paintstorm Studio is a professional software for digital painting. It’s focused on the use of brushes and blending, which makes the software a little gem in the digital painting field.

Pros: good brush workflow; brush stabilizer; “close gap” feature; customisable interface and tools; professional features; affordable price

Cons: non-intuitive interface (desktop version)

Paid

Procreate is the powerful drawing app for iOS. 

With the very sensitive Apple Pencil, Procreate is so easy to use that many artists chose the iPad over the most famous graphic tablets.

Pros: friendly interface; makes it easy to organise files; excellent brush workflow; customisable brushes; video recording; affordable price

Cons: hidden features; only available for iPad

Paid

SAI is a simple app for artists who want to focus on painting and drawing. 

It’s well known for its good pressure support and its essential tools for manga artists, but SAI can be used by any kind of artist who wants to paint.

Pros: easy to use; friendly interface; light software; customisable brushes; tons of (non-official) tutorials

Cons: limited selection of tools, even basic ones; limited canvas sizes and uses; it might crash from intensive work, especially with big canvases and brushes; supports only RGB colour mode; lack of support

Paid

HONOURABLE MENTION

Many call this app an advanced PaintTool SAI, and for a reason. FireAlpaca offers almost everything PTS has and more.

Pros: friendly interface; brush stabilizer; lineart selection; customisable brushes

Cons: no colour slider; limited brush control; although more advanced compared to PTS, the features are quite basic.

Free

We hope you’ll find this list useful. 

If you think there are other apps that should have made this list, don’t hesitate to let us know!

Thank you and peace out,

G&M

Other articles:

10 inspiring and helpful YouTube channels for digital artists

6 inspiring Art Podcasts for digital artists

7 amazing Photoshop extensions and tools for digital artists

RED DEAD REDEMPTION II O4/?      Algernon Wasp’s studio in Saint Denis

some of my favourite brushes!!! ive collected them over the years/edited to my use, and such 

 ✧paint tool SAI 1 (never touched two but youre welcome to play around putting them in it!) 

✧ if you find a way to convert them into clip studio/photoshop, do link me! id love to see

How to Make a Face Mask for Hospitals and Medical Centers

Hospitals and medical centers across the country are asking sewers to make face masks to protect out health workers. You can google “how to sew face masks for hospitals” to find out where fabric masks are being requested.

Stillwater Medical Center is asking sewers to follow the face mask pattern from buttoncounter.com here.

From Deaconess Health System:

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Citing shortages, Deaconess Health System, including Henderson’s Methodist Health, has asked the public to sew face masks for staff fighting coronavirus.

“This does follow CDC protocols that you can find on their website that if all other supplies are not available, that handmade masks that meet certain criteria are acceptable,” Deaconess spokeswoman Becca Scott said.

The release with the video, pattern and instructions was posted to the Deaconess Facebook page Thursday morning and is available at www.deaconess.com/masks. A PDF of the pattern is available here and embedded at the bottom of this article.  

Deaconess has “a sample video” about how to make the masks, which Scott said will be sterilized when they come in.

From Forbes here:

Additional Resources for Open Source or Volunteer COVID-19 Projects:

One of my favorite how-to sites is Instructables. The DIY Cloth Face Mask has almost 100,000 views. It is a step-by-step instruction for those who need it. Kudos to ashevillejm.

In 2006, CDC released a Simple Respiratory Mask design using heavyweight t-shirts in its Emerging Infectious Diseases journal. More of an academic post, but some ideas in it.

A Facebook group was formed last week: Open Source COVID19 Medical Supplies. It is worth a visit — in just a few short days there are 20,000-plus members and volunteers.

If you are looking for some research and street-level testing of various materials for DIY mask-making, this post from Smart Air Filters is exceptional: What Are The Best Materials for Making DIY Masks? It also includes a few great links at the end of it.

Way of Echo | part 1

A small introduction: due to the fact that there was a story with Echo and she was announced as a hero, I wanted to share the full my story, which during these months I came up with based on facts known up to this point. This is a headcanon, but I always try very hard to get into the original. I only slightly changed my original story - in the old version, Dexter really had a wife engineer who died due to the implicit fault of Overwatch, and it seems now she has a name and personality.

One year later.

One late evening at the bar, the team recalled this sad story. Among them was Mccree. He thought about what had happened and every time he did not leave a heavy feeling of guilt. Overwatch allowed the death of such a valuable person. Whose safety can they provide if they are not able to save themselves? But with his mind, he understood that this should not bother him and he could no longer fix anything.

When everyone dispersed beside him, a saddened man crouched, he wanted to get drunk quickly. Mccee decided to ask what happened to him. The man briefly shared his grief with him, telling about the death of his wife, today was exactly a year from that moment. Jesse sympathizes with him and lets speak out until the person who introduced himself as Dexter shows him a photo of the deceased. Not immediately, but he recognizes Liao in the photo, and listens to his interlocutor more attentively. Dexter tells the sweetest memories that come to his mind. Her nice smile, an amazing selection of films for the evening, rare days that they could spend together because of work… McCree is getting darker.

“I once worked on artificial intelligence,” Dexter began suddenly, “I thought, is it possible to transfer human consciousness to the body of a robot? Maybe… Of course she has already…” “Sorry, but I think it doesn’t work like that,” the man remarked sadly. “You don’t understand how dear she was to me… I should at least try,” he objected. Silence fell. Nobody wanted to argue and drink already. “Maybe I know someone who can help you, but don’t say anything about me,” Jesse said and they shook hands.

Dexter turns to Overwatch’s leadership, already as a specialist in robotics. He, too, was an employee of Omnic Corporation in the past. He learns about his wife’s projects and is surprised that he knew so little about them. Dexter offers to continue her business, but the management refuses to finance, then he offers this as a secret experiment, which does not carry the overwatch logo in the end. Reluctantly, he is allowed to continue work. He does not report either a resurrection or his acquaintance with Mccree and works hard.

He proves to management the importance of having an individual echo of character and refusing to limit its independence. He uses Liao’s deferred development to refine the Echo enclosure and its software.

Soon, a renewed Echo comes into the world.

But that was only the beginning.

Echo’s Lore

ORIGINS

To chart the origins of the Echo project, it is important to delve into the personal history of Singaporean scientist Dr. Mina Liao, who would later become perhaps best known as one of the founding members of Overwatch. But prior to joining the organization, Dr. Liao was widely considered one of the preeminent experts in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence, and an employee of Omnica Corporation. There she worked on the team that was responsible for the design and creation of the omnics that would ultimately wage war against humanity during the Omnic Crisis. Ultimately, it was this expertise that led her to be recruited into Overwatch to help stop her creations.

Even that catastrophe was not enough to dissuade Liao of her firmly held belief in the potential artificial life and its power to transform the lives of humanity for the better. She dreamed of improving upon the original omnic designs. These theories would become the foundation of the Echo project. However, due to Overwatch’s restrictions on artificial intelligence research and development after the Omnic Crisis, Liao was forced to limit Echo’s capabilities. What she created was a multirole, adaptive robot that could be programmed to learn different functions: anything from medical support to construction: but had serious limits to its independent decision making. Critically, Echo had multiple layers of protections, failsafes, and security to keep it under control. Echo was used successfully on test missions alongside Overwatch strike teams, but Overwatch leadership was reluctant to put it into full service.

REUNION

However, the truth was that Liao had programmed Echo with a powerful, general artificial intelligence that learned by observation. After thousands of hours in the scientist’s presence, much of Liao’s behaviors (including her speech), were adopted by the Echo robot. This secret that was known by very few, including Blackwatch agent Jesse McCree, who had, at times, been assigned to guard the scientist. When Liao was killed in attack on an Overwatch facility, Overwatch’s leadership was reluctant to continue pursuing such a dangerous project, and all development on Echo was shut down, and the robot was placed into quarantine.

OVERWATCH 2

Having joined up with the new Overwatch team to defend Paris against the Null Sector incursion, for the first time, Echo is seeing action as a full-fledged team member. But as she is exposed to new people, new ideas, and new situations without Dr. Liao to guide her, no one knows how she might evolve in the future.

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