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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 1d

keep us posted if its good, foreign language (and bbc production) shows and films have usually been where the good stuff hides on netflix

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 1d

in happier news i have been waiting for the skate story demo ever since the superb reveal trailer three years ago. easily a top five game trailer. sets a mood and atmosphere that makes the game appeal far beyond fans of skate games. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6j0...

Skate Story | Reveal Trailer

YouTube video by DevolverDigital

www.youtube.com

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 1d

in summary:
1) let's not all pretend like the 'in front of the computer your entire lives crowd' (that's me) is the vanguard of responsible electricity usage, and

2) i'm sorry for pretending lens flares weren't cool in 2001. they're still as cool as ever in 2025.

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 1d

offloading a bunch of work to gen ai doesn't save you money. in fact it hurts the work, it doesnt pay people, and hurts your rep in the long run. most of all, i think once the moral high ground has been abandoned for a new favorite scold, people won't like gen ai because its just lousy and tasteless

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 1d

but if a robot can take my job maybe it's earned it. maybe i can sleep for a change.
except i don't think it can replace me, and i don't need to scold anyone to make my case as a creative person. i believe that. that's what the work is for. if i can't speak through the work, the work isn't worth it.

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 1d

but it's not impossible. i think the biggest benefit to spending enough time with gen ai to be sort of annoyed/disgusted with it is to spot its hallmarks as readily as most artists can now.
crucially, most clients typically have a ways to go. their taste and acuity now need to get past ai slop.

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 1d

and you're thinking "but most toys don't lose people jobs." i really wish ai didn't. it's wrong. but i also don't think you go make it go away by scolding people.
educating clients has always been a rough part of working as an artist or designer and it just got a lot harder than it needs to.

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 1d

it's what you do with a new tool. or should i say a new toy. i think there are actually decent and even moral applications of gen ai. like any tech not through the gartner hype cycle we've still got some time before people lose their weird fever for lionizing it, or moralizing over it.

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 1d

but PS was still so new for him, the shine hadn't worn off, it hadn't settled down it just another tool. (he might have played with the infamous "plastic wrap" filter, even)

i dont blame him, any more than i blame the kids throwing asset packs into UE5 at 12 fps and marveling at what they've built.

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 1d

a vivid memory i think is relevant here: my industrial design professor circa 2001 giving the class a marker rendering demo. so much technique.
then, to finish, he scans it into photoshop and drops a lens flare on it. at that point i'd already used PS for five years. lens flare?! incredibly passé.

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 1d

i don't like gen ai. and yet i spent a considerable amount of time with midjourney and a few other packages because i thought it was important both to see the limits (felt like procgen in games—you hit them a lot faster than you think) and most importantly, to actively take the shine off a new tech.

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 1d

if everyone can turn on george miller that fast, well, i hope your fans are kinder to you in turn.

i don't like gen ai, but i also don't think it's going back in the box, either. and i'd rather talk about it, than pretend i'm turning my back on a great artist. because i'm not.

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Reposted by Jack Monahan

InkyInGreen 🍂 @blackwallmancer.bsky.social · 9d

Found this on the AO3 subreddit, and I'm about to let it change my whole life (or at least work really hard to internalize it wrt my writing).

Someone's screenshot of a two-post twitter thread, from user blue (@bluewmist):

the fastest way to kill motivation is to make your identity depend on the outcome. it's called ego involvement. when failing becomes failing as a person, your brain starts avoiding the whole thing. not because you don't care, but because you care too much.

you don't need lower standards. you need less self-worth tangled up in your goals. the work gets easier when it's not about proving who you are.

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Reposted by Jack Monahan

HughSJ @hughsj.bsky.social · 4d

FROG TEAM SIX, DEPLOY
#Brigador #BrigadorKillers

(this is such a wonderfully odd game)

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 8d

the art is great. but moreso the intuitive understanding that a doorknob's truer purpose is to rest a weary head

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Reposted by Jack Monahan

James Hell Brooks @kleinman.bsky.social · 10d

RIP Jane Goodall, by all accounts a wonderful woman who loved this Far Side cartoon

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 9d

i hope you’ve also been thinking that it’s very brave of daniel day lewis to take on his ultimate acting transformation in Anemone of Looking Like The Edge

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 9d

master studies one way or another really do so much to give a new level of respect. i remember in college thinking it was maybe kind of funny to do a luis royo style piece, as that airbrush style was so outré at the time, but all it did was make me really respect his craft more than before.

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 10d

this was a great series to revisit, especially once you start looking at the episode credits. turns out, susanna white is someone you really want on a mini series. also, i found the first episode far more nuanced in its presentation than when i first saw it years ago.

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 10d

yall look like a bunch of elvises.

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 15d

maybe Volta is lucky enough to have some wild multi-colored flora, it’s definitely worth considering!

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Reposted by Jack Monahan

Stellar Jockeys @stellarjockeys.bsky.social · 17d

The Sleepwalker spacer mech recreated in LEGO, by Monolith

A front view of a LEGO version of the Sleepwalker spacer mech from video game Brigador: Up-Armored Edition alongside a LEGO minifig for scale

A rear view of a LEGO version of the Sleepwalker spacer mech from video game Brigador: Up-Armored Edition alongside a LEGO minifig for scale

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Reposted by Jack Monahan

Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 16d

as the corporate nucleus of the outer colonies, Mar Nosso has all manner of obscure military surplus funneled back to it and resold. or recirculated.

what kind of planet does Chris Foss tiger stripe camo work on?

Brigador Killers #brigadorkillers #3dart #blender

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 16d

great photos. i hope you also chatted with them abput how casting you as a future noir protagonist means an ennis house tile should show up. that’s contractual

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Jack Monahan @gausswerks.bsky.social · 16d

tremendous hyper dorvack document feeling with these imo. i’d love to see the piece dialed toward that sort of angle. playing up some softer focus in the distance and atmosphere.

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