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popqorn

Since you are a fan of Sonic, are you excited about the new movie that's coming out? What are your favourite cryptids? With the characters marked plushie pals, are they based off plushies you own in real life or are they made 100% from your imagination?

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Thank you for the question~

I honestly love people's own made up monsters. Its really fun to see what people think make a good monster and to guess/see what inspired them. Though I don't have a ton myself, I really like ones that gave brightly coloured designs. There are a lot of dull colours in horror and I like to see people spice that up.

TenMomentsTill Simple question, but what are your favorite kinds of monsters?

so your comic Catband is based off your life's work, but is there any other inspirations for it, which I assume related to your passion for music?

The comic is inspired by a lot of things that I love: it's a way for me to explore a lot of themes that are important to me, and to pay tribute to places, people, and things whom I think need that spotlight. It definitely draws on my love of music and my years going to shows in the local music scene (and people I've known in the scene), but it's also heavily inspired the city that I live in generally. Catband Fest is inspired by another local festival; the music venue it takes place in and the people who work there are inspired by several real places and people (and their fates); the freak show is inspired by the real one; the artist studio is based on a real one... and so on. It's not a story about any specific real people or events, but it's my own take on a story that pays tribute to all these things that I think are, or were, valuable and important, and that I don't think should be forgotten.

In case that have been asked, what do you learned from previously making the comic and will you apply those things you learned on the reboot? c:

The first version of the comic was my first big story-based comic, so I made all the mistakes and learned a lot by doing it! Some of that's just basic formatting-- page sizes, panel layouts, speech bubble placement, lettering-- but it's also lessons like which characters and storylines are or aren't important to the story, and just the overall lesson that I should plan the whole thing out a lot better this time so I don't write myself into corners. I also learned that I need to balance my health and ability better with the quality of the art I produce for pages-- I know that I can't be so meticulous with comic art, because updates will take forever and I'll hurt myself doing it.

Thanks for the questions!

hedgemaze Not sure if this has been asked before but-

so your comic Catband is based off your life's work, but is there any other inspirations for it, which I assume related to your passion for music?

In case that have been asked, what do you learned from previously making the comic and will you apply those things you learned on the reboot? c:

THAT'S AN EXTREMELY GOOD QUESTION....I won't deny that my story is indeed inspired from the genres I like and (something you may notice) I especially like genres that are targeted at younger audience? (As you know, for boys its often a toys/monsters/TCG anime while for girls its often magical girls or witches--which are, well, if you notice from my profile; I have done both genres lol) Not only they hold a special attachment to me because they're mostly the things I loved during my childhood but as I grew up, I find that I still enjoy the genre regardless of how lengthy and cheesy it can be?? The fact that it's aimed for all-age audience is why some of the struggles or conflicts are more relatable (since you want younger audiences to understand that life's not always colorful for everyone, regardless of age). Take Digimon or Princess Tutu (which is listed as PG-13 but I know it's often associated with a lot of magical girl anime) as an example; they're neither aimed at older audience but that didn't stop them from making their story have any "darker" or sad undertones, and they're surprisingly realistic and it just....something I adore about their writing a lot. Also I don't care how overused this trope is, but the "power of friendship" type of plot always makes my heart warm and as someone who grew up without many friends back then, it often makes me touched that the main characters have friends they could rely to regardless of their flaws and difference. They're great and hardly seen in most "mature" genre tbh :'D 

So YEAH....That's basically the reason why I made my story like that; I wouldn't say it's 100% younger-audience targeted but the reason behind the younger-aged cast are indeed to portray the struggles of adolescences growing up with little choices in their life. It's an underappreciated part in these kind of genres and I'd love to see it being used more in any form of medias (as well as tackling the concept myself too :'D)

PaperTsubaki Ooh! I see you've already released your VN (I live under a rock oops) :0c I'll try to play it once i've got enough space on my pc ;;

Onto the questions, What were your favourite and least favourite part when working on Written in the stars? What were the easiest and hardest part on making a VN? Are you happy with the outcome?

And lastly, I checked your twitter and saw the development on Celestial Dance. What kind of Otome game is it going to be like? A harvest moon/AC inspired Otome game seems interesting! (I'm not familiar with Otome game light me up sis ::"")) )

A JOJO'S FAN IN DISGUISE?! NANI?!

I'd say my favourite is Johnny followed by Jonathan and Joseph. I love love Johnny's personality and quirks he has! The grey-morality and motivation of his character is hella great too. He is just a lovable asshole kind of guy. And his relationship with Gyro is fun to read, it's the dynamic that i feel like lacking with the other Jojos and their partner. Jonathan because i love bara tiddy blue haired man with a soft heart. And Joseph, like Johnny, is a lovable dumbasshole. His personality is so charming and fun despite being a bit underdevelopped. I love how him aging is potrayed as the series progress. It's such a bitterseet thing to see ngl. Choosing a favourite part is really hard but uhhh i guess part 7 and part 5. Part 7 has alot of my fav arc, fights and characters while part five's fights are amazing. Now that's a hard one! But i think it'd be Hey ya! Whitesnake. It's just their concept takes my interest. I like how it used a disk instead of just straight up taking the stand ahah. i guess Kaiba and Made in abyss must've influenced some of my character. In personality and design (Mostly design i suppose)

Oh man, the memories from my past self when making my characters came back oh no. He wasn't, like, an Earth charater. His concept just came out of the blue (badum tssh) Earth and the other terrestial gang where inspired from song by their names (Except Mercury, her purpose was only to complete the gang oops) There wasn't any research done on him n his friends and i just add what i feel like would fit him the best. But now that im more informed, the aspects i look into when designing charas like him is his corresponding colour planet, the facts and geography of the planet, and their job. It's a bit hard considering some colours may clash together but that's just my two cents :> Thanks for asking!

Swissy

A JOJO'S FAN HUH?
Which Jojo is your favorite? And which Part and Stand are your favorites? Going off that, you think any of your favorite animes influenced some characters? Maybe a full design or in abilities/backstory/personality/etc?

Also, I'd like to know the design process for your planet characters! Like for Earth, what made you decide to add clouds? What made you decide the clothes? What are things you consider when designing a character like him?

Alright, PicklePantry. I see you around a lot, and I've got a few questions, honestly. First off, why is the pickle in your icon dressed like a cowboy? Second of all, what's your favourite meme? Third of all, if you were trapped on a desert island with Tom Jones is your pantry only filled with cucumber pickles, or are there other types of pickles in there, too? (My favourites are pickled okra and pickled radish.)

Nothin' like a cool drink of water in the afternoon, and tall drink a' whiskey in the evening! I'd say it took about three years total to get all the DA:O achievements. Long breaks between games, and probably five to six playthroughs to nail absolutely everything. I wouldn't call myself an achievement hoarder, but there's definitely something fun about getting 100%... especially when you just love the game.

WhiskeyWorks So you're whiskey here but water on dA, what's up with that? Also how long did it take to get every Dragon Age: Origins Achievement?

"do you remember what the earliest characters you ever made were like?" I answered that here.

"Which of your characters are your favorite, or the most important to you?" Definitely Aluminum (not only is she kind of like me but her element is my favourite), and by extension so are her friends.

Alexg47

Which of your characters are your favorite, or the most important to you?

And do you remember what the earliest characters you ever made were like?

So, when looking at your profile I saw your mention about having a lot of OCs since you were very young. What's your oldest (TH-uploaded) character? And how much has that character changed from what they were originally supposed to be?

My oldest character (in general and on Toyhouse) is Xero, but I was a baby at the time, so I usually go with my maybe fourth or so oldest and say Silver for questions like this, since he's probably the oldest that I was old enough to think of as a character with a defined personality and role. It doesn't much matter though; they were both childhood stuffed animals. : p This is Xero; this is Silver.

Xero had a different name as a stuffed toy, and he was obviously a cat then, but he has the same tawny brown fur/hair, dark blue eyes, and heart-shaped birthmark on his butt as a human, and he still has the same personality he had from when I was a child playing with toys: this playful trickster who was always making trouble and falling in love with different people (or animals) all the time.

Silver is also human now, but he has the same scruffy, curly gray fur/hair and crappy facial hair/whiskers, the same skinny build and blue eyes, and the same collars around his neck, and although the story he's in has obviously changed, he still has the same general role he's always played in my stories as a straight man reluctantly in the middle of things, trying to keep things together while his personal life is kind of a mess.

Maybe I mostly answered how they're similar rather than different there, but I think you can tell how they're different, haha

For a secondary question: what's with the whole 'hedge' thing? Why did you name yourself hedgemaze and why do you have a hedge character? XD

Hedgemaze Expo is the name of one of the main bands in my comic, so I've been using that or just Hedgemaze as a username for years. That's all. The name doesn't mean anything in particular; it was originally the name of the "fake band" my friend and I wrote songs in high school as, and I later gave it to my characters, but I guess I just liked the words. Hedgemazes are a fun concept and a Hedgemaze expo is logically impossible: how do you display these field-spanning structures in a convention?

Hej the character is just a visualization of my username (Hej is the nickname my friends use for me), because a few years ago I'd joined a group chat with some artist friends and we'd roleplay and draw our adventures, but I didn't have a persona to use for that and certainly not as HedgemazeExpo, so people started drawing me as hedges and her design is what I eventually solidified as my chat persona. All of this would have been different if the original username I was planning to use hadn't been taken : p But I like Hej, as a persona. She's different, and she was always fun to roleplay and draw.

Thanks for the questions!

So, when looking at your profile I saw your mention about having a lot of OCs since you were very young. What's your oldest (TH-uploaded) character? And how much has that character changed from what they were originally supposed to be?

For a secondary question: what's with the whole 'hedge' thing? Why did you name yourself hedgemaze and why do you have a hedge character? XD

Good luck with getting into writing! I'm afraid I don't think my answer will be very helpful to you... I have a very messy/unprofessional way of writing, I barely plan anything, I write the story from beginning to end first time, making up nearly everything as I go along, and I forget half of the things that have happened in the story until I re-read it later. I don't really know how more 'professional' writers plan out their writing. I literally just think of a cool idea that I want to write about, and then I... write it.

As for proofreading/editing, I usually read through the completed story several times over, picking out typos, fixing plot holes, and generally smoothing out any inconsistencies. I sometimes post things without proofreading them as much as I should, because I'm lazy. If I were to actually try and publish a physical novel, that would probably be different, though. I don't have any beta readers or editors, I do everything myself. And I've never published a book. (Actually, I did physically publish one when I was like 13 but I regret doing that because my writing was awful back then, but luckily I don't think the book is available to buy anymore. And I'm not gonna say what the book was called or how to find it. I'm letting it burn in the depths of hell.)

I do want to physically publish a book someday, but the current novel I'm working on (the Alpha series) is so plot-holey and disorganised that I don't think it will ever be publishable, at least not without an extreme amount of editing. I love the story though, and I'd like to post it somewhere for others to see, I just don't think it'll ever be a professional thing. I really don't see myself ever being a professional author. It's just my hobby and something I do for fun, nothing else.

I love how this entire response is just as messy and disorganised as my story writing style. XD

I hope that at least somewhat answered your questions though. Feel free to ask me if you have other questions or want anything clarified.

RadiantRaindragon So uh I'm trying to get back on writing again someday so...I want to ask how do you plan out the format or drafts for your written works? (If this question doesn't sound odd, of course because my format is quite a mess and I don't know if I'm doing it right dgfgdg) How much proof read or final check you do before publishing it anywhere? Do you by any chance have any beta readers before posting them?

(And extra random question, do you ever aim to be a professional writer at some point--or at least publish a physical book?) 

Thanks for asking! Admittedly......I have 0 interest for fashion so 80% of my design was done without any reference or inspiration? I just slapped in whatever details I find good regardless if it exist or not which leads to some "useless" details in my design like the rope thing on Ayumu's hips or the really random belt on Manami's thighs |D But I do admit that's one of the part that kinda makes them unique, at least? I try to not show any obvious inspiration on their design and just think of a certain theme/color I wanted--and well, just go wild with it lol. Thankfully for this kind of setting in my characters (not slice-of-life, but nowhere near "classic" fantasy either) I felt like I have more freedom in their design which leads to this mess of an outfit I created for them lol. In other words--yeah unfortunately the way I design is usually really random and have no inspiration or reference but there are few cases where I do look at references like...their casual outfits just to not apply the "outfits that doesn't exist IRL" for something that's meant to be comfortable for daily wear?? But yes I do like keeping my OCs distinctive and have their own color code or fashion style, but hopefully not too clashing and still fit within one story, hahah. (Again apologies if that's not the answer you're looking for but I'm just really random about their outfit designs most of the time--)

I think I already answered the inspiration for my stories here, but for my artstyle...it's well, almost the same answer as my stories' inspiration but I'm just a huge fan of 2000's anime artstyle because of the huge role they played in my childhood, and ended up sticking with this style until now because of that attachment and...well...I felt like this style is the 100% accurate representation of my story's overall theme :'D (There's a few names for my inspirations, but if I were to choose one--Yoshihiro Nagamori's work should give enough of a general example)

Thanks again for asking! :>

cati

Since you mostly have an anime styling to your work, what sort of anime do you like the most? What anime would you say has inspired you or influenced your work the most? Who would be your favorite anime character? I also noticed you have OCs in the Dangan style! Do you still enjoy Dangan? Do you have a favorite character from that?

I used to have a rabbit! His name was Thumper! He was a little grumpy but I loved him.

Nowadays I don't have any pets, but i'd like to own a cat one day! I'm much more of a cat person than a dog person. Alternatively, my ideal pet would be a goat since those are my favorite animals ever <3