Quasi-Stellar

So What's This All About, Anyway?

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Quasi-Stellar comes from quasi-stellar radio source, better known by the contraction "quasar". Supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies emit massive amounts of electromagnetic radiation in— oh, you meant the site?

It's called Quasi-Stellar mainly because I think that sounds cool and couldn't think of anything better, and it fits with how a lot of the effects are spacey but reflect no actual space phenomena. But there is a little bit of deeper meaning, as my final project in my high school Digital Imaging class was to design a Paint.NET tutorial for others to use. My idea was to make a tutorial for a quasar, which was mostly collating a tutorial for a galaxy I tweaked to my taste and adding a laser effect for the electromagnetic jet. I don't think it actually looked much like a quasar in the end, and I've long-since lost the specific tutorial, but that class did instill a love for Paint.NET in me. A stubborn kind of love, as to this day I only even touch GIMP when I need to export a project in a form Paint.NET can't save as, but I suppose the first step up from MS Paint will stick with you like that. It being free and still updated doesn't hurt, either.

Most of what's on this site is visual art, and almost all of that has been made in Paint.NET. I mostly mess around with effects, although I've been doing a little bit of pixel art lately. I also, rarely, do traditional art in even more amateurish fashion, and a little bit has made it here. I've also dabbled very slightly in other digital illustration, but nothing that meets the standard for me to post it here. (And trust me, that's saying something.) I don't think the art that is on this site is particularly impressive, but that's fine. I like it enough that I think someone else might like it too, and enough for me to figuratively shove it at passersby in case they might be one of those people.

I think my better skill is fiction writing, and I have a whole other website for that. It has some short stories, a few ongoing serials, and an every-other-week update schedule. That site also uses Libre Baskerville and Fondamento, which are pretty neat, and what I'm using here. (Phew, wasn't sure where to attribute those.)

If you want to get in touch with me, do it through NeoCities profile stuff or through the means you can find here. If you'd like to see some NeoCities sites that I like, feel free to check the list here. Apologies for the runaround on some of these links, but it's easier to keep things updated this way.

Lastly, if you're interested in using any of the art on this website, the answer is probably yes. If any of this is helpful to someone, I'd be flattered. Attribution in whatever form is most convenient is appreciated, but not absolutely necessary; just don't misrepresent who created what. Telling me you've done something is also appreciated, though not necessary. If you want to use some of it to decorate a site or project, the answer is yes. If you want to make an avatar/icon/profile picture/forum gingerbread, the answer is yes. If you want to alter or edit any of it to make a derivative piece of art, the answer is yes, and you can do whatever you want with the result, it's yours. If you want to include a piece of pixel art or a picture as an element or background of a larger piece of original art, the answer is yes, and again you can do whatever you want with that. If you want to take one of the few character images and use it as a reference or inspiration for a character of your own, the answer is yes. By contrast, something that's a definite no is selling any of these digital files as unaltered digital files, individually or as part of a collection; they're here for free, don't rip people off, yadda yadda. This paragraph probably isn't necessary, but I'd rather waste a little of everyone's time than a lot of some potential person's time. Questions or letting me know you've done something with something here can go to the means of contact in the paragraph above this one.

Similarly, I'm permissive with use of the songs. But, because they're uploaded to YouTube and Bandcamp, I had to release them with a formal license, under the Creative Commons. Specifically, on BandCamp, they're released under the Attribution 3.0 license. Which is to say, attribution is necessary, you have to link the license, and indicate if the material has been altered. There are no limitations other than that. (I think YouTube uses a more restrictive Creative Commons license, but that's trumped by the more open license for essentially the same material.) Go wild.