A drawing of a Muppet-y Cloud Strife riding on a Big-Bird-like chocobo.

From this day in 2021: My nephews were curious about Final Fantasy after seeing a Moogle I drew and I described Chocobos as looking "kind of like Big Bird" so then I had to draw it.

this is an excellent post regardless of if you're interested in the subject or not. just a great technical analysis all around.

Here’s to making myself finish art I started weeks ago
#ahsoka #starwarsfanart #starwars

Ewan McGregor as a smiling young Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace

Ewan McGregor as an older exasperated Obi-Wan Kenobi in Revenge of the Sith

I’d have stuck with Ewan tho

image with purple background that reads: “May 1, 2026 Deadline to apply. €10,000 Grand-Prize. €5,000 Excellence Award prizes

📆 Reminder: applications for the Open Social Awards are due May 1

Seeking MVP products on open protocols!
👉 newpublic.org/OSA

Obi-Wan lands on Tattooine

Droids on top of a wall, firing down

Ahsoka and Anakin looking at a hologram

A clone blasting some droids

For comparison, some representative samples from The Clone Wars (2008). You can see the painterly textures, but wow the environmental design, lighting, and overall quality has gotten a LOT better.

Vario's mech suit getting hit by blaster fire, with bright flashes emitting from the strike. The sparks, flash, and smoke all look like they're painted.

The same droid from before, being thrown across the hallway from blaster fire. The motion blur smear and blaster hit flash also look like they're painted.

The Zabrak firing the heavy repeating blaster, with a red flash from the blaster lighting him and the ambient smoke even more aggressively. The smoke causes an oil painting look throughout the frame.

Here are those same three scenes just a couple of frames earlier or later. The particle effects (smoke, sparks, blasters) and textures look hand-painted, and I think there’s even a painterly shader happening with motion blur and DoF maybe? It’s such a neat look.

#StarWars #MaulShadowLord

Vario in a mech suit crouched on the ground, while blasters strike the ground behind him. The sparks spraying from the blaster hits look like hand-drawn squiqqles.

A droid slumped against a wall in a dark hallway while a blaster strikes the wall beside it. The light flash from the blaster hit looks painted, while the sparks flying look hand-drawn.

A Zabrak fires a heavy repeating blaster. Its blaster bolt looks painted and yet provides the only lighting in the frame, lighting the Zabrak's face from below.

It leans heavily into this painterly style that Lucasfilm animation has been exploring for almost 20 years now, since The Clone Wars movie (2008). But wow, the quality and execution is so far beyond The Clone Wars.

Every frame looks like concept art, in a good way.

#StarWars #MaulShadowLord

Captain Lawson looking at a hologram of Maul, with dramatic back-lighting and a painterly style

Over-the-shoulder view of Captain Lawson as he points a blaster at an unidentified Zabrak standing in the road, with smoke billowing out of a crashed speeder behind him.

Two Zabrak stand in front of a crashed speeder, with one firing a heavy repeating blaster. The blaster bolt has a hand-painted look.

A low, close-to-the-ground shot of droids entering a hallway, lit only by red emergency lights and their flashlights, where they see the remains of other dismembered droids scattered across the floor.

I’m really enjoying Maul: Shadow Lord so far for its tone and story, but the visual style definitely steals the show. I want to watch all of the BTS interviews with the art director, artists, and technical team!

#StarWars #MaulShadowLord

Not every platform gives the option like Bluesky does, for one! But I think there is this old school social media mentality that you need an image for people to see/engage with your post or click through to the link.

When an open source project posts a link on social media, should they attach a relevant image to the post, or exclude their own image in favor of the link preview?

Are you building something on or with @roost.tools projects? I want to hear about it! We’re putting together a little community directory of projects.

FBI Extracts Suspect’s Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database The case was the first time authorities charged people for alleged “Antifa” activities after President Trump designated the umbrella term a terrorist organization.

NEW: The FBI was able to forensically extract copies of incoming Signal messages from a defendant’s iPhone, even after the app was deleted, because copies of the content were saved in the device’s push notification database, multiple people present for FBI testimony in a trial told 404 Media.

2014 me vs me now

I strongly considered this one!

omg in 2014 I legit shaved my beard for a Peter Pan Halloween costume. Huge mistake; I haven’t been clean shaven ever since. At least I looked like a lost boy, tho? 🙈

If you ever receive a label that you disagree with on your account/post, you can appeal like so:

1. Go to the post
2. Press on the “A label has been placed on this content”
3: Press the appeal button to appeal

2014 me vs me now

we’ve invented a new type of Posting that is too powerful. we’re working with industry partners to roll it out safely

Our friends at @internetstudio.bsky.social are running a small program to help builders ascend into being founders/partners. Here is a video of studio partner @elij.dev, who often helps take products from zero to one for many clients.

He made diagram.page on his own without AI!

Newly created Polymarket accounts bet big on US-Iran ceasefire in hours before Trump’s announcement

A group of new accounts on Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits.

Automatic registration for US military draft to begin in December Eligible men will automatically be registered into the military draft pool by December as part of an effort to streamline the previous process of self-registration and save money. The Selective Ser…

Don’t worry, the President needs congressional approval to reinstate the draft. Just like he needs congressional approval to start a war.

This Friday!

ROOST at AtmosphereConf 2026 Robust Open Online Safety Tools or ROOST is a new non-profit entity designed to address the urgent need for accessible, high-quality safety tools in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

We're back from #ATmosphereConf 2026 and we're still thinking about it.

@cassidyjames.com and @julietshen.bsky.social gave a trust & safety crash course, introduced Coop to the atproto community, and hosted an unconference session on what a minimum safety stack looks like for indie devs.

I think the word “AtmosphereConf” being so long combined with our heading font size is making the post do annoying layout stuff on mobile, though 😭

ROOST at AtmosphereConf 2026 Robust Open Online Safety Tools or ROOST is a new non-profit entity designed to address the urgent need for accessible, high-quality safety tools in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

i am fully recovered and rejoicing in the blog
@cassidyjames.com put together recapping our adventures in the Atmosphere

roost.tools/blog/roost-a...

ROOST at AtmosphereConf 2026 Robust Open Online Safety Tools or ROOST is a new non-profit entity designed to address the urgent need for accessible, high-quality safety tools in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

I wrote up the @roost.tools experience at AtmosphereConf. It was an incredible time with one of the most welcoming and friendly communities I have ever had the chance to hang out with!

The opening keynote alone should be watched by anyone building on the Internet.

The ROOST logo, an x, and the AtmosphereConf goose illustration on a ROOST-style yellow gradient background

Good blog meta image, or naw?