Nightshade - Blog Posts

This is kinda cute, so reblog and tag… what your flower name is. 🌻

Drank a bunch of caffeine last night and stayed up till 3 AM working on a nightshade drawing.... I'm a completely healthy individual

Inktober - Day 2: Spiders

T: These illustrated stories are scientifically inaccurate.

N: These are comics, Tarantulas. They're not supposed to be.

Good news, fellow artists! Nightshade has finally been released by the UChicago team! If you aren't aware of what Nightshade is, it's a tool that helps poison AI datasets so that the model "sees" something different from what an image actually depicts. It's the same team that released Glaze, which helps protect art against style mimicry (aka those finetuned models that try to rip off a specific artist). As they show in their paper, even a hundred poisoned concepts make a huge difference.

(Reminder that glazing your art is more important than nighshading it, as they mention in their tweets above, so when you're uploading your art, try to glaze it at the very least.)

my thoughts on the instagram ai situation, as a digital artist on the platform

figured i’d write and share this around so others in the community i’m in know my status. sooo, some basics for starters:

“Are you leaving Instagram? Where can I find you active?”

i’m staying on instagram for the time being. seeing as instagram almost certainly already has the data of my past posts, i won’t be deleting anything; going forward, i’ll be using ai disturbance filters and other anti-ai overlays for any stills i post. i anticipate using instagram for reels primarily, as well as staying in communications with mutuals and other artists. i do have a cara account, but will likely be posting intermittently until some issues i’ve noticed get addressed. going forward, i’ll most likely be at my most active over here! growth, fortunately, never was a priority in my social media presence so i’m not super concerned about that.

tldr:

instagram: gonna continue posting reels and occasional stills, will be primarily focused on interacting with fellow artists

here: most active! will post both rough and polished stills, as well as lore and whatever random thoughts pop into my head. (see pinned post for a tag guide)

cara: activity will be low unless shit really hits the fan on instagram and i can no longer protect my work via overlays. if you’re an insta moot, feel free to dm me if you want me to share your posts around, though! if the link doesn’t work: i’m @/asphodelity [EDIT] cara does work with an ai organization, hive; here is a post that goes into it and other things people have said about the platform! as i already wasn’t intending to use the platform all that often this won’t change anything for me, but make sure to do your research if you’re looking into the platform!

“Will this affect how much you post?”

not really! i already have a fairly sporadic posting schedule, so i’ll just be continuing what i’ve been doing: posting when i have things i wanna share :]

“Help! I’m an Instagram artist and want to know how to protect my art!”

i gotchu.

[EDIT] the non-glaze/nightshade/artshield filters are mostly ineffective! it won’t hurt you to use them, but if you can stick to using the glaze and nightshade sites!! if you don’t have a pc, you can apply to get a webglaze account!

how to (hopefully) opt out of your art being scraped in the european union (i think?)

how to (hopefully) do the same in the united states (note: post could be outdated)

other ways to protect your art: one, two, three, four

ai disturbance filters: one, two, three (set these to overlay at 30% as the top layer for most effectiveness! these aren’t as effective as using a website like glaze, but are better than nothing)

after june 26, no matter your region, you’ll be unable to opt out of ai data training. this affects, to my knowledge, everything you post, including captions.

“Any other thoughts?”

now, more than ever, we as a community need to stick together and support each other. don’t let anyone tell you your art isn’t worth anything; we as artists have something very special in our ability to create, express ourselves, and connect with the world around us, an algorithm and misguided techbros will never be able to take that away from us. keep pursuing what you love, my friends; we have to weather the storm to see the rainbow.

my dms are always open for art reasons. need a pep talk? i’m around. wanna collab or trade? i’d love to! need help boosting your social medias? i’m happy to help (although my presence is admittedly very small). whatever it is, i’m here and willing to help!

i’ll keep updating yall on this platform as my activity changes (or, perhaps, something big related to ai happens), so be sure to stick around if that seems interesting! also, please feel free to reblog this post and add more information i may have missed, that’s all for now, thank you for your time <3

So a free tool called GLAZE has been developed that allows artists to cloak their artwork so it can't be mimicked by AI art tools.

AI art bros are big mad about it.

Nightshade found a trailcam and wanted to say hello!

As for Alex, well... he got a bit startled LMAO (might adjust some hues in the upper image for fun or later edits)

New OC

——Transformers earth spark ——

———Info below the cut ———

She’s the kid of another one of my OCs along with Knockout and Breakdown (I’m sorry but I love them; also I will introduce the other oc— Skyline— soon)

You can read some of her basic info in the first pic, if you have any questions feel free to ask (in comments or asks)

So far I only have her Protoform, I haven’t designed what she will look like once she gets her alt forms, but she is gonna be a triple changer

Also, have her and nightshade as a bonus

(This is when they first met)

They’re just a couple of little nerds who like to info dump to each other about their special interests/hyper fixations

(Also I’m thinking that her ground alt is gonna be a Lamborghini Siam and her flight alt to be a B-2 Spirit)

No one asked for it (and probably no one ever will), but here is a list of the kinds of characters that I like (it is very weird):

1. Emotionally stunt/ compromised with a LOT of trauma.

2. Lives in a world with magic or other tipe of power system, and either can't or doesn't want to use that system, and just uses their hands and feet to fight. Like ONLY brute strength (and maybe a gun or a big a$$ sword with it).

3. Probably as ADHD or autism or other kind of mental disability that isn't confirmed but ALL of the signs are there and everyone knows they have it.

4. Anger issues.

5. Short and have anger issues.

6. Probably apart of the aro or ace or aroace community just not confirmed.

7. Women who can kill me.

8. Really smart but also very tired all the time. They just don't have the energy to actually try. (It's a good thing, they could take over the world if they tried).

9. No gender.

10. LGBTQ+

11. Animal.

12. Tired mentors.

13. Any kind of disability.

14. Clinically insane.

15. Dumbass.

16. Really likes violence and fighting.

And that is everything that a character can have to automatically make it my favourite.

I won't elaborate more so don't ask.

Good news, fellow artists! Nightshade has finally been released by the UChicago team! If you aren't aware of what Nightshade is, it's a tool that helps poison AI datasets so that the model "sees" something different from what an image actually depicts. It's the same team that released Glaze, which helps protect art against style mimicry (aka those finetuned models that try to rip off a specific artist). As they show in their paper, even a hundred poisoned concepts make a huge difference.

(Reminder that glazing your art is more important than nighshading it, as they mention in their tweets above, so when you're uploading your art, try to glaze it at the very least.)

Good news, fellow artists! Nightshade has finally been released by the UChicago team! If you aren't aware of what Nightshade is, it's a tool that helps poison AI datasets so that the model "sees" something different from what an image actually depicts. It's the same team that released Glaze, which helps protect art against style mimicry (aka those finetuned models that try to rip off a specific artist). As they show in their paper, even a hundred poisoned concepts make a huge difference.

(Reminder that glazing your art is more important than nighshading it, as they mention in their tweets above, so when you're uploading your art, try to glaze it at the very least.)

HELP THIS IS SO UNDERRATED-

If you are still doing the OMORI ask thing than could you do nightshade (omori/stranger) ((that is not how you spell stranger but you get what I’m asking))

I hate everything about you; why do I love you?

They would kill each other <3

Aubrey ended up doing this piece because she was/is in front! Idea came from her and everything. We apologize for making them anime style /lh

We've been reading Endless Dreaming recently, so a few of the little things in this are inspired by that! Good fic, I recommend y'all give it a read if you haven't already.

Asks for these are still open!

At last--- Humanformer Nightshade!! NS has by far one of my favorite designs and coming of age episodes out of all the Terrans, I hope I did them justice!! For their casual look I tried to marry a little bit of medieval outfit design w/scientific theming and I think it worked (first pose inspired by one of the renders I found done by Sebastian Contreras on Artstation ; https://artstation.com/artwork/5vok5A)

I love giving the robots the most over-the-top, obnoxious eyelashes 💜

Dreamyyy

Combining my current interests together ;]]]

something something kid appeal bot = babysitter

bonus:

And of course i had to draw Nightshade again heheh

Do you have any favourite headcanons about Nightshade?

(I feel like them being autistic is a pretty common headcanon, so I’m curious if you have any thoughts on that as well)

YEAYEYWYEYYSUSY OH MY GOD YES WE HAVE SO MANY HEADCANONS ABT THEM !!!!! get ready for a fuckn infodump (also sosoos many of these are just us projecting)

warning: i sound like an insane person

okay so YES !!! nightshade is absolutely autistic. and they are stimming constantly. they stim vocally a lot, and a lot of the time its just bird sounds, but sometimes it'll just start screaming lmao. it also likes to rock back and forth a lot!! definitely a verrrry common one.

Also if youve seen how we draw nightshade you might've noticed that we draw xem with little wings in root mode! they also flap those to stim :]

also they love slime!!! this is verry much just me projecting but i like to think xey love slime and they have a huge collection of textures <33 its favorite is bingsu!!!

and NEOPRONOUNS as you might've noticed :P. (we have a nightshade alter that uses neos so we are once again, projecting) but anyway, it was hashtag that told nightshade about neos, and they immediately got into it!! they have many and love hoarding them <3 some of xeir favorites are it/xe/that/owl/web/bot/mur

bones!!! vulture culture!!!!! they collect bones. sometimes theyll go out into the forest and search for bones for hours (it has soooo many antlers) and if web finds a dead animal, web'll take it back with them to clean it out webselves :]

They also have intrusive thoughts. yeah less fun headcanon time. they can be very vivid and very graphic, and its caused nightshade to have panic attacks a few times. i hc that bumblebee also used to have them, so bees helped xem through some of the bad ones <3

also xey have severe emetophobia. yeah i know, a bit of a weird one. if someones sick, they will be avoiding that person like the plague. whenever it watches a movie with the family, it'll always check if there are emeto scenes so it knows when to look away or leave (shout out to doesthedogdie.com i fucking love that website!!!!)

this post cus i think about it a lot

and general terran hc! i headcanon that all the terrans can eat human food :D although nightshade specifically has a difficult time eating (the tism) and xey'll only eat things like noodles or very processed food. murs a huge ramen lover 😎

MINECRAFT. you cannot look at nightshade and tell me they dont love minecraft!! xey have a survival world going where xeyre completely decked out in netherite, have a hundred redstone machines scattered all over the place, and just so many huge projects going on. mur started a multi player world and got all murs siblings to join. most chaotic world ever

and now im thinking abt owls, so. they have night vision, because of course. and it also sleeps in a nest (terrans can sleep hc jumpscare) its just a pile of a fuck ton of pillows and blankets and if you touch it xey WILL bite you

also it has a very strong prey drive. if they see anything particularly small moving around on the floor they are fucking jumping it. its like xeyre the maltos mouser lmao. no small animal that shows up in the malto home is safe

oh and as for music !!! big fan of the big neurodivergent three lmao. lemon demon, will wood, tally hall. that stuff yknow? (yes im projecting) also heres a playlist that our nightshade alter made that is 100% what we hc source nightshade to listen to !!!!

LOVES STAR TREK !!!! you CANNOT convince me they wouldn’t. big fan of the non-human bridge officers <3 Spock, Data, Saru (and also big Odo fan) webs favorite is probably next gen :] also i 100% percent believe it was Alex that introduced xem to it. i look at alex and see a star trek liker. i will not be taking criticism

oh and now heres a weird one. when nightshade was a protoform, they were always very… squinty? i dunno, its just something we noticed. like why are you squinting baby, can you not see? and then when xey got their altmode, suddenly xeir eyes were much wider! and i like to think that they did actually have bad eyesight as a protoform! and becoming and owl greatly improved it :]

also they cant see glass in their alt mode <3 hashtag has a compilation of mur crashing into windows

and about the episode "missed connection", we aren't actually told how long nightshade was helping tarantulas, and while most interpret it as just one day, i like to think it actually took about a week at least or even longer. i dont really know why i hc this, but maybe its cus i need nightshade and tarantulas to be besties or i'll die

okay thats it for now <3 i definitely have more headcanons so i might make a second post abt em later

Funny ideas for the Terrans

- Yknow how when little kids fall over they fill their lungs with enough air to wail like an air siren? Thrash does that sometimes.

- Nightshade - being a bird - can’t see glass after getting their alt mode. This means they have to be careful, and are always very cautious to make sure there’s some sort of a perch to land on beforehand.

this is 100% because while for a while Dot left the kitchen window open bc it was nice outside, one night she closed it, and they would normally swoop in using mass shifting and land on the counter to greet her and Alex in the morning before work, or help with the dishes. But it was closed, so they confidently swooped in, believing it was still open, and ramming straight into it head on, smashing their beak into the glass (the window cracked), then fell. It was quiet a moment before they started absolutely wailing hysterically on the ground, because that really hurt their fragile/sensitive beak. Dot, horrified and feeling terrible, immediately rushed out and whisked them up to comfort them. That is how it was discovered they’re blind to glass now, and ever since she has put stickers on the windows to help indicate if they’re open or closed for them.

- Twitch will sometimes get zoomies, except she’s zooming so fast and so completely ‘no thought head empty’/hyperfocused on zooming, she ends up stuck in the dirt, and has to be pulled out. Then she’s off and within the next two minutes she’s done it again.

- Hashtag lags sometimes. She’s an internet hotspot, basically, and those have their troubles, so sometimes she’ll lag like that after overuse or something. It leads to some silly things, and once she was stuck so long the others turned it into the mannequin challenge.

- Jawbreaker has turned really big tires into hamster wheels sometimes, and has even been caught sleeping in them. This has lead to him inadvertently winning hide and seek.

A They/Them who causes May/Hem

Some face meme requests from twitter

if you took a bite out of them, they would taste like the andes chocolate mints

What if Ultra Magnus is in Earthspark?

(Who is really big, bigger than Megatron then got seriously injured and him saying "I'm fine" when the Maltos are being hysterical at the background.)

(What?

Ultra Magnus is Evolving!)

(Also Minimus Ambus slipping out from his suit.)

(He'll be smaller than twitch, which he would be standing there proud and mighty.)

(He then saying sup' to everyone)

Me: Ehhh...why not make it to a meme?

Also me: yeeeEEESSSS

Hahaha my still looking for my art style

I have Earthspark Brainrot rn so enjoy the Sillies!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2023!

Hehe hambirb

for the transformers sketch requests, how about nightshade from earthspark?

The lovely inventor and big eyed cinnamonroll!! 🦉💚

finished the new tfe episodes and wow!! i love that nightshade fella!

nb color palette for the funsies