I really did kind of vanish off the face of the earth didn't I?

Faced with a unique opportunity, some months ago me and NymeraSnowcat moved from NC to CO having seen the writing on the wall regarding the future of US politics and our own safety; a decision that was swiftly proven wise. It's taken a while for me to get re-established and find my stride to be doing art and stuff.

But, I'm back now, hopefully :3


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I'll also be becoming more active on BSky in future, now we actually have a social media platform not run by a sociopath!
https://bsky.app/profile/cutesune.bsky.social

So, it's been a little under 1 year since I drew this full body picture of Seraphine.

I'm my own worst critic, but even I can't deny there's been a few improvements to my technique comparing that picture to my most recent of the same character. It's just mind blowing to put them side by side.

' - '

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/55340218/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/51090170/


So uh, yeah.

Unfortunately my productivity in the art department is likely to take a hit as we've recently gotten a new puppy, and he's ended rather more taxing on my time than I'd perhaps imagined leaving very little time or energy for creative ventures or... anything productive really.

Just thought I'd put that out there as I know both my followers and myself were rather enjoying the new pace of things on my FA page. Hopefully in a few weeks... or months some semblance or normality can return.


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In meantime please accept a puppy photo in lieu of art
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bv.....ew?usp=sharing

I feel like there's been marked improvements in my more recent work; I mean, I can look at these ones after the fact and about half the time I think 'I don't hate it', which is a big step up!

However, by the same token I also feel like some of that older work is particularly abysmal these days and makes me cringe every time I browse past it, so some spring cleaning is in order. I know it can be annoying when an artist deletes something you liked, so I've set up a google drive folder which'll stay up a good while where I'm backing up everything that got the cut so you can root through the dumpster if desired and make copies before they are gone for good if you really cared about those pics!

https://drive.google.com/drive/fold.....cd?usp=sharing



Quite a few of those pics are liable to be Avali-related sketches; but maybe that just means it's about time I do some new ones.

I've set up an Itaku page over at: https://itaku.ee/profile/cutesune !

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Given the continued stories of people getting ridiculous bans under FA's new draconian policies, coinciding with me actually starting to do lewder art, I figured it was time to start hedging my bets a little and set up a mirror elsewhere. Itaku might not be the busiest site yet, but it is a really solid platform, borrowing the best elements of Twitter feeds, FA profiles and tagged galleries and smooshing them together.

At any rate I'll continue to post content on both platforms, just, you know. It'd be a nuisance if suddenly this gallery went dark, and had no mirror to retreat to and had to start over completely from scratch in terms of watchers.

For those who don't check the top bar, FA has implemented a new policy effectively banning sexualized depictions of neotenous characters.
https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10552819

There's already been reports of Avali falling afoul of the rule in principle because they are, by design, neotenous and moe (At least they are in canon depictions. Some of the fan art strays pretty far from that). And, while 'neer reassures us that they will not go after races or characters that are adult but cute by design, that is not the reality on the ground of people who've asked FA Staff if their characters would pass muster, and been told they would be removed after the policy goes into effect.


As someone who prefers cutesy designs, created a neotenous looking race, has an avatar that might be read as underaged (She is not, though she is an example of the 3,000 year old vampire loli trope) and wanted to branch into more 'adult' art, this is pretty concerning news, and depending how it's implementation pans out I might be in the market for a new gallery site.

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On a side note last month I doubled down on art studies, with the intent of going into finally going into commissions... and then I broke the 5th metacarpal in my right hand so I can't draw probably for a month or more

FML (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Soooo... about 9 months back I posted some cryptically titled pictures of a new avatar in line with some IRL changes, and hinting at what those might have been.

With that, Ryuujin/RyuujinZERO doesn't really fit as a screenname anymore. But it's also a name I've used for the best part of 20 years and has so much online recognition; Associated with the Avali mostly, but also a lot of game modding over the years... and maybe even a few people who followed me for the art!



Now, I'm thinking of seriously giving art a shot again (And, I am feeling creative and confident putting digital pen to digital paper of late... again, changes!), trying to get to the point I'd confidently take commissions, maybe even come up with a Patreon scheme. So I think it's about time I bit the bullet and created a new, more fitting FA account and profile for a new, more fitting me.

The question is though... what is the best procedure for migrating to a new account without leaving too many people behind? Have any of you guys ever created a new online identity, and how well did that work out for you?

Since a few people had come to me asking about Avali NFTs seeing there is now a couple places seemingly offering then, I figured I'd answer a few questions on the matter.

Are Avali NFTs allowed?
Under the new terms of use, yes. So long as it is original content or used with the artist's explicit consent. While I personally do not care for NFTs (At least in the meme form of overpriced hyperlinks), it would be hypocritical to give the Avali a Creative Commons license but then add a stipulation against their use in one very specific way. Not to mention it'd be borderline impossible to enforce without expensive legal processes given NFT's decentralized nature.

Are there official Avali NFTs?
No, nor are there any plans to create them at this time. Anyone advertising otherwise is a scam... well... more of a scam than NFTs inherently are :p

What is your position on Avali NFTs?
I've heard some suggestions made for how NFT, as a technology, could be useful for a variety of tasks, particularly in cyber-security. But the kind of NFTs we're talking about here, the meme-image hyperlinks like the Apes are nothing more than hyperlinks stored on a blockchain. They have no intrinsic value and while the token (The T in NFT) is incredibly secure, the hyperlink it points to is no more safe or future proof than any other webpage. The image it currently points to could be edited, removed, hacked or duplicated which means despite them being advertised as 'the new medium for collectible art' they are in reality no more a collectible than a Neopet; their value only exists as long as the site hosting it does.

If you want to spend money on Avali pictures, go get a commission or buy an adoptable from an actual artist, while it won't have resale value, it'll look better and helps support the community. NFTs only have 'value' if you can find some other sucker to buy it off you; and let's be honest, you're unlikely to find a buyer for a computer generated Avali.

Just a minor note to clarify for a few people who asked/were confused, the new "https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/" rules apply to the intellectual property, that is to say, the likeness, concept, lore etc. and it's usage, whether in free fan-fiction, or commercial products; but it's also been suggested "https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/" is probably the correct format and not CC BY-SA.

Importantly, the take away is that your own creations - assets, like artwork, 3D models, whether free or commercial in nature, are still your creations and do not have to be shared freely. If you make Avali related artwork, sell a model on gumroad, or make a avatar on VRChat, you're under no obligation to let other people redistribute or modify those if you don't want them too.

The attribution rules refer to the Avali as an intellectual property, and how people may create derivatives from it; whether that be in-canon artwork, an AU fan-fiction, or selling related assets.

Hope that clears some things up!

So, behind the scenes there's actually a bunch of stuff happening in regards to the Avali, which hopefully have more to announce on that within the next couple of weeks. A part of that, following discussion with some of the community's creators, is a relaxing of the usage permission rules!

After some frank discussion it became clear that the current embargo on commercial usage was very unproductive and served only to have a chilling effect on content creators.

Going forth Avali as a race/concept will be re-classified as CC BY-SA under Creative Commons.



In summary:
You can use the original Avali lore, likeness and concept more or less however you please, you may also create your own AU's, adaptations and fan-fiction that uses elements of the original material and publish those; just make sure you credit me and any other creator's who's work yours builds off for the original concept

You may use the Avali in commercial works essentially without limit, including but not limited to commissions, merchandise, avatars, adoptables, Patreons, writing and so on, so long as you give credit to the origin of the concept



A big apology to creators who came to me in the past requesting commercial usage requests but were turned down, it was unnecessarily cautious on my part. You should consider any past refusal as void!

 NymeraSnowcat has insisted on dragging me out of my nice cozy little tidepool and put me back out there creatively.

So with any luck my art postings will go from twice a year, to maybe three or four times this year! - Honestly, I would like to find a style and workflow that works for me and open up commissions someday. Anyway, just posting this journal to say "I'm not dead", and as part of a spring cleaning effort to try revive things, now Nym' herself has made her presence felt on FA and is frankly putting my page to shame :p

I'm rather disappointed to have to put this journal up. But it appears on NeosVR there was some confidence trickster shenanigans recently, where a user pretending to be me attempted to con several Avali fans (That i know of) into helping donate money to him to buy a VR headset. Luckily one of the users unwittingly messaged me in response to one of his questions by accident, which drew it to my attention before they went through it with.

But, just a reminder, asides from actual practical stuff like commission payment I will never ask the community for anything more expensive than headpats, if you see a 'Ryuujin' asking for donations, it's not me. Stop and report them to whatever admin runs the social media service you're on.

So, It's come to my attention recently that people were selling Avali digital merch online. So I feel like maybe i need to remind people about what you can and can't do with Avali stuff.

From a legal perspective, as their creator, the Avali are my intellectual property. Which is to say, outside of normal parody/fair use rules, nobody else can technically use their name or likeness for, basically anything. But in practice I waive most of those rights:

You can:
* Recreate the Avali on any platform you want, without my permission
* Make fan creations in any shape or form that use their name and likeness. (Yes that includes OCs)
* Make/receive paid commisions for those fan works
* Receive donations (ie. Twitch donations, Patreon) and the like for content that feature Avali.
* Have Avali appear incidentally in promotional material (ie. NeoVR's steam store page)

You cannot (Without my explicit consent):
* Create assets for commercial use. For example a store product, where users each pay for the right to use it individually.
* Sell merchandise that uses their likeness or related iconography that is not directly commissioned by an individual.
* Falsify legal information (ie. Claiming to hold the IP rights in negotiating any of the above)

Now, what if you yourself, HAVE made Avali related content? - Well I am also granting you rights, which as the original creator of your derivative work would also fall to me to dictate.
* Once a work is created, it must be distributed freely from then on. Payments can only be in the form of original commission or donations, not usage license.
* You have the right to dictate the distribution of that creation. ie. Which persons may use it, what platforms it be distributed on.
* You may also dictate whether that creation can be modified and/or redistributed itself.
* You are responsible for for upholding the last 2 rules. If your works ends up beyond your control, it's not my mess to clean up ;)

Last but not least, I reserve the right to change the above terms

I know there was some drama lately relating to an author taking commissions for GMod PAC3's, and while I think the author handled the drama that ensued very poorly, I believe that content creators should retain the right (For the most part), to decide how and where their fan works are distributed and modified.

/boring, un-fun Ryuujin talk.


EDIT: To stress "Without my explicit consent". If you have some project or thing going on you fear might fall afoul of those rules, just throw me a message and I'll have a look. There's already a few exemptions granted out there

Hey look, a journal! - They pretty much never happen.


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So, people may or may not been watching the gaming media lately. Those who have, maybe have seen this story:
https://www.gamerevolution.com/news.....s-hours-no-pay

The tl;dr is that Risu from Chucklefish came forward and revealed that they had been subject to abusive working conditions and going unpaid. Once Rho came forward and corroborated it, others spoke up it also became clear quite a few junior staff and contributors had been similarly stiffed. I've also seen a lot of people defending Chucklefish, trying to shoot down the claims as baseless.

For that reason I think it's important I weigh in with an experience of my own.

As you might remember, the Avali originally hit the limelight as a Starbound mod (Chucklefish's big launch title), specifically back during the beta stages of development. They were pinned to the #1 spot of the mod listing for literally a year or more, long after I'd discontinued personally developing the mod. During this time; largely due to fans asking them to, Tiyuri, the head of Chucklefish approached me over Skype and asked if I'd turn the Avali IP and my work on the mod over to Chucklefish to add them to the game in an official context, similarly to how the NovaKid race was created by a fan too.

I discussed some of the complexities of this, since the Avali really only work as a custom race, because they were kind've hacky; Starbound didn't natively support digitigrade/exotic body profiles, they needed lots of custom armour. When I enquired what kind of deal he'd be offering he told me:

"Oh, we can't pay you, it'd just be for the exposure, getting your name in the credits of a major title"

I wanted to say "Fuck you pay me" but instead politely declined. I never really gave it much though after that, figured it was a one-off thing, and maybe no company'd been willing to pay some random netizen for an IP they wanted to acquire. But after the recent stories of Chucklefish approaching, (often literally) children, and getting them to do work for them 'for the exposure', it makes a horrible kind of sense in context.


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If you already own Starbound or other Chucklefish titles, stopping playing them would be a pointless protest if you are still enjoying them, they already have your money. Some of Chucklefish's titles like Stardew Valley and Risk of Rain are tricky, because they were made by indies, who Chucklefish simply published, but if you buy those Chucklefish does get some of your money, so that's your decision to make.

However, if you plan to buy Starbound; especially if the Avali mod is in any way an influencing factor in your decision, I'd strongly discourage doing so, I've never liked their past business practices and this is just scummy icing on a shit sandwich.


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EDIT: To clarify, Chucklefish wanted a full IP transfer (Intellectual Property Rights), NOT just the mod. It's not uncommon for developers to take mods for their own use, indeed it is often baked into the EULA's of their games that mods are their property. If I were to transfer the Avali, everything about them would now belong to Chucklefish: Their likeness, name, lore, as well as the usage rights. Nobody'd be allowed to (legally) make or receive commissions, donations, any financial transactions of any sort, in which the Avali property was involved, not even me.

Hey all, dropping off a rare thing called a journal post, an almost unheard of thing with me ;)

At any rate I've had a few people PM me lately asking about Avali related commissions. As usual i don't really do commissions (partially due to a ridiculous lack of self confidence), but also because the mod's unexpected success has taken up far more of my time than I expected... honestly if the mod was any more successful we'd have to start inventing new numbers because it's just glued to #1 and can't go any higher despite peoples best efforts to vote it beyond that.

But I digress... back on topic, I don't mind other artists taking commissions for Avali characters. So if you want to commission Avali related art you don't have to go through me to do it, you can take the commission to someone else without objection from me ^^