If you find yourself regularly working within mediums that require modicums of creative output, do you find yourself repeating certain tricks, methods, processes, bits, etc. that seem personalized or unorthodox to you for not much reason besides 'I just think they're neat' or 'I'm just comfortable doing this' or simply for the bit? At any scale/scope.
If so, what are they?
I’ve been developing a decent bit of medium fluidity since I have a passion project I’m roadmapping that kind of requires it (independent game vision), so I’ll talk a bit about the medium I’m most comfortable in and have been at the longest, music.
Off the top of my head, I like this 8 note key-relative pattern (written in Am purely for display). I like to use percussive, staccato sounds in my melodies. I use Logic Pro, and I find myself using the stock marimba a lot since I vibe with its timbre.
For guitar players 99% of the time you're going back to that 2nd-4th string minor pentatonic pattern because bendy + easy to move up and down the neck from there. See - a lot of rock songs (intro to Octopuses Garden, Reelin In The Years melody, Where Is My Mind melody and solo etc etc)
I make all my games in a 320x240 resolution and limit myself to 16-bit colors.
Most people don't consider it a creative output. But when I am really feeling myself and am feeling really creative with my software architecture on a C/++ codebase, I will make sure that every call to free() is preceded by the comment
/* FREEDOM!!!! - Mel Gibson */
As a weird, idiosyncratic Braveheart reference that pisses off all my colleagues.
When it comes to programming, especially in C/C++ use bitmasks as often as possible. Use ternary operators as often as possible. Generally make my code as hard to parse as possible without seeming purposefully obtuse
when I'm writing fiction I keep a couple rules like coyote and roadrunner [1]
they can never say thing
they're not supposed to ask for dimensional analysis ("how far away?" "how tall" "how long") with units if they can help it
internal monologues are generalized and described, never repeated verbatim
curse words are reserved for when they're really, really mad
no chosen ones
no glorifying moral absolutes
communism must make an appearance and must be portrayed positively
the MC must do something noteworthy eventually because that is the purpose of the story being told in their POV
[1]https://kottke.org/12/03/the-rules-of-road-runner-and-wile-e-coyote-cartoons
If you go back through everything I've ever written and take the first letter of every sentence, you'll find a secret message
And that message is
A lie, a fraud, a total fabrication from our team of writers
when i draw, it's basically just 2 things.
smutty aliens ladies in fishnets.
or caricatures with sorta just white circle eyes.
these are mostly because it's easy and funny.
I am not sure if this is the answer you're looking for.
This alien is even smuttier! The toaster in this has me dying too. :data-laughing:
Would a biblically accurate angel in this universe have several penises arranged in a radial pattern?
OMG I love hank and yoooog shaking hands. And yeah, that's a smutty alien. Thank you for sharing these. I just tested positive for Rona and these legit lifted my mood. :meow-hug:
Saxophones, distorted organs, or 12 string guitars. Never on the same track, but they each add something that i feel is missing in a track.
I've completely lost track of what writing quirks I use under which identity and only vaguely remember that Owl doesn't use as many commas as he should.
Can't speak for myself but I read a lot of content by amateur authors, both original content and fanfiction and it's fun to see what specific things the writer is a nerd about since it really shows through with less edited content that is on sites like royal road and AO3. Example is one story had the fantasy religion have people refer to gods with the same pronouns the speaker used and while reading I was thinking whether the author was a linguistics nerd or just really queer. It's just fun to notice random little things like that from work that is"I write this because it makes me happy" and not to make money and appeal to focus groups with the distinctiveness rounded off
