@melvian@dragonchat.org cover
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melvian

@[email protected]

Ice dragon, type designer, artist, programmer. Intensely curious, wants to make a small corner of the world a little less horrible.

Adult. Sex-repulsed aroace. Anyone who gets horny around me (especially without a CW) will be blocked.

This account is strictly SFW. I don't make or boost NSFW stuff.

#nobot

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@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

Despite having a far better and more adaptable appearance, I will admit that the original version of me, when I first appeared in 2024, had a certain charm to it.

(Originally posted 2024/01/21 — https://melvian.net/1/)

Me, a green four-legged dragon, sitting on a giant pile of letters, with type specimens scattered all over. I’m flipping through the pages of a type specimen of one of my favorite typefaces, ABC Arizona.

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

I still think OS X Mountain Lion is the best that any operating system ever looked. It looked better than what came before. It looked better than what came after. It looked better than any version of Windows ever made, even Windows 7.

melvian OP ,
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I distinctly remember seeing Lion for the first time when I was a tiny hatchling. I was at an Apple Store and my parents were getting themselves a new Mac. By this time I was already familiar with the look of Leopard, and seeing the look of the buttons deeply resonated with me somehow.

I still think the look of that OS has aged incredibly well. It had the perfect amount of skeuomorphism. The modern flat design is devoid of texture. Even Leopard and before that has too much texture, I think. Lion felt incredibly clean, but not devoid of texture. Mountain Lion refined it even further.

melvian OP ,
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After someone on a Discord server had posted a video of the infamous crowd reaction to the price of the Pro Display XDR's monitor stand during WWDC 2019, it sent me on a rabbit hole on Apple's keynotes, curious what they were like prior to the pre-recorded ones they do nowadays.

WWDC 2011 was the introduction of Lion, and as I watched that keynote I was reminded of that OS. Now I'm feeling a little nostalgic about it... and I don't usually get nostalgic about things.

melvian OP ,
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I think part of the reason I feel nostalgia is partly because of the design and how much we've lost in terms of that nowadays, but also because that aesthetic evolution came at a critical moment in my own creative endeavors, which laid the foundation for who I am today.

Perhaps, and it sounds cliche to say this, it was at a moment when I still had a sense of wonder about technology. Who knows how I would've felt about Apple back then if I were ten years older and had a better understanding of where technology was going. Even back then, Apple was not the "wonderful company" that people could make it out to be when compared to today, and already at that time one could see evidence of software bloat, closed ecosystems, and planned obsolescence.

melvian OP ,
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And I guess this is why I don't usually feel nostalgic about most things. I'm not nostalgic about the way I made things back then because I have matured so much in the years since and I can make infinitely cooler things than I could back then. I'm not nostalgic about computing back then because despite a lot of things getting worse, some things exist now that are indeed better than what we had back then.

I'm only nostalgic about the aesthetic.

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

at this rate I'll be a dragon sitting on my own hoard of typeface drafts lmao

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

Oh hey, it's time for the DRAGON APPRECIATION STATION!

If you're a dragon, reply to this post to tell me how you'd like to be appreciated! :dragnheart:

Me, a four-legged cartoon dragon, behind a table with a sign above it that says "DRAGON APPRECIATION STATION. If you're a dragon, tell me how YOU'D like to be appreciated!"
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@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

I'm starting to dislike "The Visual History of Type" by Paul McNeil.

It was one the first books I had gotten right when I was starting to really get into type design. And I'm finding that with a more mature understanding of type design history I see three major problems with it:

  1. It's male dominated. (There are at least some women in there but I suspect there could be more, maybe even other gender identities.)

  2. The book's title implies it's about the history of "all of type" but only ever talks about Latin type. There are entire histories of fonts in other writing systems (like Arabic, which I've recently been reading up on) that this book basically pretends doesn't exist. Even if the book was called "The Visual History of Latin Type" I wouldn't have as much of a problem because at least it would acknowledge its bias.

  3. Especially towards the end of the book (into the 90s and particularly the 21st century) it feels less about landmark designs that were crucial to the development of design and type, and more about fonts that the author personally likes. Like most of the fonts in that category I have absolutely never seen out in the wild nor could I see actually influencing design.

melvian OP ,
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Expanding on #2: The only typeface that the book explicitly mentions scripts beyond Latin and Cyrillic (which was mentioned in two typefaces) is Nokia Pure, a multiscript typeface that is Latin-centric, and no discussion is made about the issues and debates surrounding the treatment of other writing systems (not even anything specific to Nokia Pure either).

Furthermore, the picture they use to show Nokia Pure only shows the Latin.

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

Well now that it's 2026, I should get at least one of my New Year's resolutions out of the way:

inhales

MRRRAAAAWRRAAWRRRWRRRRRR!!! :dragnyell:

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

typeface design is so fascinating because the kinds of characteristics that make a letter feel "normal" vs. one that doesn't are not things people would ever think

melvian OP ,
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iirc there's that one anecdote about adrian frutiger (well known type designer) making a normal geometric ring, and then making a second ring but with the usual type design optical compensations applied to it, and then showed them both to a bunch of people and they'd be like "oh that's a circle and a letter O!" without having absolutely any idea what frutiger actually did

melvian OP ,
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allow me to personally demonstrate this

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random
A flowchart diagram, which starts with "join fedi", which leads to "increase dragon", which has an arrow coming out of its right side and pointing to itself from the top, thus creating an infinite loop of increasing dragon.
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@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

My new streaming schedule will be every Monday and Wednesday; Mondays from 6-9:30pm CST and Wednesdays from 11:45am-3:15pm CST.

Here's what the rest of December's schedule looks like.

(And here's my Twitch link: https://www.twitch.tv/melviandragon)

Stream schedule for December 15 through December 31 2025. Every Monday and Wednesday; Mondays are from 6:00pm-9:30pm CST (UTC is Tuesday 12:00am-3:30am) and Wednesdays are from 11:45am-3:15pm CST (UTC is Wednesday 5:45pm-9:15pm). Monday streams are on the 15th, 22nd, and 29th of December, while Wednesday streams are on the 17th, 24th, and 31st. All of the streams will be me playing lightly modded Minecraft, specifically singleplayer survival. The streams on the 24th and 31st coincide with Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve respectively.
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melvian OP ,
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Schedule update: Due to the absolute epic fail that was today's stream, I am doing an additional stream tomorrow (Tuesday) at 6:00pm CST.

melvian OP ,
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Stream is being delayed by an hour, will happen at 7:00pm CST.

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

Time to stream in about half an hour...

melvian OP ,
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Playing some more lightly modded Minecraft survival!
https://www.twitch.tv/melviandragon

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

"You can't make programs more efficient! That would deal a huge blow to the loading screen industry!"

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

Might stream some Minecraft or something at around 7:30pm CST tonight.

Thinking about streaming again, I want to see if I can keep a consistent schedule (probably be every Tuesday).

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

I have only now just learned about the importance of properly planning out edge loops in good character topology, no wonder I'm having so many issues with 3D Melvian. I have definitely been thinking about topology wrong all this time...

Can I salvage the topology I have and totally rework it so it's better? I think I can...

melvian OP ,
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Despite having used Blender for about 13 years at this point, most of that stuff has just been messing around with 3D text and motion graphics and garbage like that, and I have never properly gotten into character modelling or 3D rigging or any of that until 3D Melvian. So even though I'm making a lot of n00b mistakes, I don't think I'm doing too bad of a job for literally my first 3D character.

melvian OP ,
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The answer to the question of whether I can salvage the topology seems to be yes, so far...

I'm not even done with the face topology yet and it already looks a lot closer to those really fancy looking clean wireframe renders 3D modellers sometimes like to show off with. Which is kinda funny to me because I'm not that kind of dragon that wants to make the internals look all pretty, but I definitely get a feeling this will function a lot better, which is the whole point of this in the first place.

Big take away from this, and it's something I've known for a long time: you can look at a lot of art and not have any clue how to make it, because knowing how art is actually made (and the techniques behind it) will recontextualize how you look at art, and give you actual insight. You need to both study technique and look at a lot of stuff. And practice.

melvian OP ,
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I kinda wish I'd saved a version right up before the topology reform, but I do have a copy of the original model prior to this major update. Definitely going to make some comparison images for y'all when I'm done with this.

melvian OP ,
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One of these days I'm going to extensively document the history of my "sona", including the very first sketches, the general approach behind how I design characters, the reasoning behind each of the details and proportions, and why I totally redesigned myself a year ago.

I think I could write a lot of interesting things for the site, like the entire history of the Melvian fonts for instance. It just takes so much time :dragnyell:

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

(In the style of the "Stop Doing Math" meme) STOP KILLING DRAGONS * DRAGONS WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE EVIL * THOUSANDS OF DRAGONS SLAIN yet NO REAL IMPROVEMENT in society * Want to improve someone's life anyway? We had a tool for that: It was called "DRAGON SNUGGLES" * "Why yes I'd love to harm and kill a giant majestic creature for merely existing" - Statements dreamed up by the utterly Deranged LOOK at what Dragon Slayers have been demanding your Respect for all this time (Three very poorly drawn dragons with 'X's in their eyes. The one on the left is more quadruped, laying down, the middle one is more biped, with an arrow stuck on it, the right one is a big quadruped with a tiny stick figure on top raising their sword and saying "I am the best!") "Hello I would like a dead dragon please" They have played us for absolute fools
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@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

Anyone have experience with those SD to IDE adapters? I'm struggling to use one of them as a boot drive for a Pentium 4 tower. The computer detects the card correctly, I can install Debian 12 on it, and reboot the computer and get Debian to run on it. But once I shut the computer off, and start it up, the computer acts as if the card is empty.

What might be the cause of the problem?

melvian OP ,
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PSA: If you are using an SD to IDE adapter for an old machine and are installing a new version of Windows such as Windows XP or newer, or Linux or some other operating system, there is a possibility that, even if the BIOS can detect it and the OS can be installed on it, that the computer will be unable to boot to the adapter.

If that happens, try putting a small FAT partition on the drive. It can be FAT16. It can be a very small partition. You don't need the OS to be installed on it either. Just have a FAT partition somewhere on that drive and try it again.

melvian OP ,
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I only figured this out because of a forum post that suggested that certain adapters may look for a FAT partition on the SD card in order to emulate itself as a hard disk correctly.

I would post a link but I have no idea which forums are fascist/run by assholes anymore. A bit of effort with a search engine should turn that post up though.

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

I seem to consistently underestimate how much people care about me.

You probably underestimate how much people care about you too.

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

excessively uses the word "human" to make other humans think that I'm a real human

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

I'm not really a warm soft blanket kind of dragon since I will overheat real easily, but a thin comfy blanket? :dragnmelt: The feeling of being wrapped... :dragnaww:

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

Confession: I'm still mildly embarrassed about liking the look of the KDE dragons.

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

lately been thinking of certain typefaces as being "friend shaped" for some reason

melvian OP ,
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@DaCutestCorvid the letters in a typeface that will often give off the most friend shape vibes are the "a" and "g", so the phrase "friend shaped dragon" would be more effective for ranking.

Allow me to demonstrate:

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

every company with way too much money being like

A page from a fake brand identity manual designed to mimic the look of actual brand identity manuals, featuring lines at the top and bottom of the page, two-column small text for descriptions on the upper half of the page and various illustrations on the bottom. Specifically, this page is labelled "Typography". The subject is a basic neogrotesque (Helvetica-like) typeface. It reads: "Meet Shitpost Sans, our exclusive typeface used for all of our communications here at Dystopia Corporation. It’s friendly, playful, universal, completely unique and undeniably Dystopia. Its voice helps reassure our customers that we are definitely an ethical company and totally not exploiting them or not causing any environmental pollution. No way would we ever do that!!!" Shitpost Sans comes in eight styles: four weights from Extrabold to Regular in display and text sizes.
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@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

Quick little PSA from your friendly neighborhood typeface dragon! :dragnuwu:

This PSA is about how to identify certain letters (in a serif style) that may be upside down, like the N and S, and how to identify certain letters that be backwards, particularly diagonal letters such as A V W X Y. Unfortunately, the complete alt text is much too large for Mastodon. To see the complete alt text, see my first reply to this post.
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@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

Years ago it dawned on me that teaching "programming" by itself is like teaching "paintbrush usage". Look at all these cool things you can do with this paintbrush! You can use it this way, or that way, wow doesn't it look so cool!?

The response would inevitably be "So what?"

Instead we should be teaching systems design, how to break a problem into subproblems, and how to use programming to do a certain thing. Like it'd be kickass if there were a computer science curriculum that was focused on building a paint program. Suddenly, programming might actually mean something to artists!!

@melvian@dragonchat.org avatar melvian , to random

What resolution is your gender?