https://www.therookies.co/entries/20976

I have posted all of the work I have done in the past 11 months here for The Rookie Awards. :D

Yesterday, on 21st of May 2023, a huge meeting took place in the center of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, my country. Writing about it here because I know that Newgrounds is a mostly American platform, with people that do not know about events in this part of the world or crimes that were never written in their history books. This event isn't about European Union alone, which is also a thing of this world, and as all things it has its flaws too, this event is a middle finger to the criminal country that has been selfishly pillaging and manipulating our land for hundreds of years.

In 1918 the regions of Moldova, Basarabia (Bessarabia, current R. of Moldova), Bucovina, Transilvania (Transylvania), Maramureș, Banat, Crișana, Muntenia (Wallachia), Dobrogea and Oltenia united and formed Romania as a country, for the first time in history all Romanians were united. The most relevant parts were Moldova, Muntenia and Transilvania, Moldova as a region was formed by Moldova itself, Bessarabia (slavic name given by the eastern problem) and Bucovina, it was called Principatul Moldovei (Principality of Moldova).

It did not last long, during World War 2 Romania was attacked by 2 territory hungry empires from both sides and for the rest of the war fought to keep its land intact, changing allies in order to achieve its goal, it did not need foreign land. The first territory to be taken was Bessarabia, and that is when one of the biggest terrors of our history started.

It is not the current leader that makes that country evil, the current guy is just cosplaying the devil from ww2, the one that was worse than the Austrian, or the Italian, or the Japanese, the one that did not stop at slaughtering other nations, but even did it with his own people.

With my region as prisoner of this empire we have been exposed to horrible crimes, some of those are:

• Deportations of Moldovan Romanians to Siberia, especially intellectuals, but also people that opposed the new regime. Those people were transported through cold trains for days in a row without food and dropped in the middle of Siberia left to survive by themselves.
• Executions.
• Imprisonment in gulags, inhumane prisons
• Cultural genocide. They brought their people back in the places of the intellectuals and city people that were deported. They considered their language to be superior, humane, while we spoke an "animal language". Romanian speakers were discriminated in cities, so they had to learn their barbaric language to survive. Books were burnt, banned, people that dared to speak or write the truth were punished.
• Killing of identity and brainwashing. They invented the "Moldovan language" and told us that we do not speak Romanian, we are not the same as Romania, they are the enemy that assimilated us. It is true that "Moldovan" was mentioned as a language in older writings, but every single time they were used as synonyms to the Romanian language knowingly by the authors. We only have a different accent, not a different language. We are co-founders of Romania, a country in which we shared a language and culture with other Romanians. They still go with this rhetoric nowadays and sadly some people here are still brainwashed nowadays.
• Didn't allow us to leave. You know a country is bad when it does not allow its citizens to freely leave, like North Korea nowadays. Some people tried their luck to escape to Romania, but were killed, rarely they succeeded in leaving the country.
• The Holodomor, unlike Holocaust, is not commonly taught in today's world. It was genocide through forced starvation that mostly affected Ukraine and took the lives of 7 to 10 million citizens, but also affected parts of today's Moldova, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

and many many more.

Another crime it committed, this time to Romania, was theft. During WW1 the Queen of Romania wanted to keep the country's treasury safe from possible invaders, so she sent the treasury to the Tsar so he guards it until the war ends. It was about 100 tons of gold from several banks and personal treasures, cultural trophies like paintings, irreplaceable documents and so on. The animals, with the bald man that they still worship nowadays, took down their own Tsar and refused to return what is not theirs. That is lifechanging amounts of money that would have benefitted the infrastructure of the country and made it as modern as other Western Countries in today's world, instead a big part of the country still lives in poverty.

The union also sabotaged my country by illegally exchanging territories between it and Ukraine. The south of Bessarabia which was also our exit to the sea and Northern Bucovina, also called Cernăuți, was given to Ukraine, while we received a slice that hugged our border that is nowadays called transnistria, a previously overly radicalized and indoctrinated time bomb used strategically to keep us under their sword. After the union fell, the Romanian language was once again declared the official language of our country, which enraged entitled guests and made them start a war against us, claiming our land as theirs. The war was supported by the legal descendent of the union, which sent unimaginable amounts of munition and equipment as support and 1500 soldiers, which overwhelms such a small country that was kept in poverty by the same people. Ever since they have stayed there, threatening us with genocide repeatedly, claiming that they own us, that we are their belongings, sending funds to puppet politicians, fiddling with our elections, not allowing us to improve our country, not being allowed to unite with our origin country, not being allowed to join the EU, scaring investors away, spreading propaganda...

In 2020 we have managed to get rid of our last puppet president, in 2021 we managed to get rid of our last puppet government. While the tyrants threatened us with death again, increasing the gas prices to amounts that 95% of the country could not afford, leaving some to die in the cold of the winter, Romania and EU offered us humanitarian aid, shared energy sources with us, saved the lives of tens of thousands of people. One side helps while the other offers worse than nothing and gets surprised when no one wants to be associated with them.

I have been given a bad start in life by being born in this country that has been pillaged and destroyed by those beasts for such a long time. My parents, grandparents and great grandparents lived miserable lives through poverty, censorship and fear. My great grandfathers had everything taken from them by the government, a current village next to the capital is called after them: "Gratiesti", my family name being "Grati". I had to move out 5 years ago, at 15 years old, to receive a better education in Romania, lived in a commie block dorm with 2 people in the same tiny room. Despite the lack of great conditions Romania has embraced me and offered me an education, a small but helpful monetary aid, its people have treated me more like family than my own Moldovans that are made to act as wild wolves from the conditions that they live in. I finally belonged somewhere. My family saved money for their entire lives to offer me a good college education, money that lost a big part of their value due to the inflation caused by their war. The money they gathered might seem small for some, as salaries in civilized countries are easily 10 times higher.

Yesterday, on 21st of May 2023, over 75000 people gathered in the center of Chisinau, the capital of my country, to tell the EU that the propaganda of evilmakers does not represent our country, those people were not paid to come there, as they are in the fake small protests of the socialist/communist party. People came by themselves, in their own cars, on foot, not gathered in busses by some political agent that promised them 10$. Moldovans from foreign countries came back to visit just for this, and let me mention the fact that there are very few flights to my country, also because of this war, most have to fly to Romania and come through other means to Chisinau. I will have to do the same in one month when I return home for the summer holiday. My father went there with some of my uncles, I am proud of him.

We want freedom, we do not want to fear for our lives, we do not want to continue to be bullied by a tyrannical country, I believe we have the right to decide what is right for our country, by ourselves. I am Romanian and my two Romanian passports should be just one, I have double citizenship for a single citizenship. I don't want my descendants to go through the struggles that I did growing up in my country. I believe my little cousin should have the same opportunities as the kids from Germany, US, France or Sweden.

I live next to the french border so I thought I could take some time off uni and do something fun. I saw so many places in just one full day and two halves. I was guided by two amazing ladies they showed me tons of places and got surprised that I'm from Moldova yet don't speak Russian fluently haha. Check this out:

(I also tried to add more but apparently 20 is max haha rip, had lots of statues but only picked my favorite one)

I have been a self taught artist for 2 years, started around the time when I created this account on Newgrounds. I have learned a lot by myself, I'd say that it is still the best option for me if it was a normal world out there and if skills alone were what mattered. I have decided months ago to flee the war next to us that might easily start to affect us by applying to a university in Belgium, Howest Digital Arts and Entertainment, rated second in the world on TheRookies this year. I am here right now, it is my fifth week studying here, I have been in Belgium for 6 weeks.

My life has changed so much, I never expected it to affect me in such a way. I have never had anyone in real life to talk about my hobbies because I didn't share it with anyone, I was alone for years, with just a few superficial acquaintances at school, with an internet chatting addiction, alone in my own mind going insane.

Here I have found friends.

They are very human, imperfect, but honest.

I have discovered how it is not to be alone every single day for months in your own head arguing with your own.

I think I also love someone, but I'm not enough of a person yet, so I need to get better.

I started learning how to cook, I started learning how to live, I got to see the huge differences between Chisinau and The Western World, I just bike around the city looking at how beautiful, how clean it is. I might even go to Brussels on 28th of October for the Carpenter Brut concert, that guy changed my life with his music 6 years ago and I still listen to the same songs made by him and I love them just as much as I did the first time.

I started learning polish. W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie i Szczebrzeszyn z tego słynie. Jesteś najpiękniejszą dziewczyną, jaką kiedykolwiek widziałem. Cieszę się z każdego dnia, w którym cię widzę.

My first sight in Belgium, Charleroi. They marketed it as a Brussels "south" airport, but it is fucking not. It is 50km from Brussels. Everyone there speaks french :(((( Cringe

The Kortrijk towers

The guy that made this presentation ended up being my class mentor W

Cat cafe cats

Impress your geek friends

beautiful Belgian architecture. I have seen no commie blocks here, ever.

me at some Erasmus organized "Neon Party". My friends drew amugus

this room is called the Fish Bowl, we can see the students doing their lab classes xd

Every friday we meet with some friends and do lightsaber fights, some of them spent waaay too much on lightsabers xD. I didn't want to post any pics with friends but this one is kinda blurry so it works IG.

A friend made me a henna "tattoo", it will last about 3 weeks. She also made me an amongus on my arm :)

I went to a place that serves ribs and beer, it is called Ribs & Beer (I know, original). Paid 23 euros once and was able to order infinitely for free as long as I eat it. I ate kilograms of ribs.

I have tons of pictures but most of them are with friends so I won't post them publicly :)

Also, it is very expensive for me to be here just because I am from Moldova, but for an European it would be a top choice of an university. EU international students only have to pay 1284 (at least that's what I paid this year) euros for tuition, at this point the weight of rent and food is bigger than the tuition fee, most people pay around 400 for rent and 200 for food. I usually cook at home so I save a lot on the food costs.

Skill wise I'd still be better self taught, but the university provides me with way more than just information and I don't have to be drafted for the war (I am not writing this as a meme, it is a real issue).

I know I've been posting very rarely, about once a few months, that is because I spend hundreds of hours on projects, trying to polish them and improve my skills as much as possible. Expect even less personal art from me now, since I barely have time. If you want to see what I've done this summer check out my SPC9, spent about 2 months on it. It is still an early post, I will do a proper professional presentation when it will be textured. I might collab with a gun animator to give it some movement and some life as well :).

Initially this was my Blender review on Steam. It is a set of personal notes marked with dates and time regarding my evolution in art and hours accumulated in Blender, without counting other applications. It got so big that the platform did not allow me to post any more, so I decided to post here and reference my review to this website.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/EinMeister/recommended/365670

I chose blender to make good looking stuff without being able to draw it myself. This program allows me to create amazing assets without much talent, just knowledge. Amazing.

The fact that such a complex program is available for 100% free is also amazing!

Can't recommend it enough, i've been working in for like 14 hours a day 2 days in a row and at the moment i'm writing this review i'm starting my third.

Edit: I've been doing it for 3 weeks as much as I could. It's amazing how much stuff I can do now.

Edit 2 (12.9.2020, 430 hours) I've reached a point that I never thought is possible to reach without being a pro in the industry. Holy shit, once you learn how to use it you will be a god able to create anything! I still have to learn UVs, weight painting, sculpting, more nodes and lightning though.

Edit 3 (19.10.2020, 610 hours) After learning the basics of sculpting I've done my first commission that i spent about 30-40 hours on and worked on other small stuff. Also I can finally UV unwrap and work with textures. I started learning Substance Painter too, which is an amazing tool for creating UV maps. I've noticed that my past topology was trash so i'm working on improving it. Started using a github app called Instant Meshes to remove the poly count without losing much detail.

Edit 4 (11.11.2020 800 hours) I've improved my topology and started learning booleans and bevels since hard surface looks so cool. This guy on youtube called Josh Gambrell is a god in them. Can't live without Booltool, Hops and kit ops now.

Got accepted in the newgrounds Christmas collab 2020 bc people like my art, I'm working on something really big :)

Edit 5 (27.12.2020, 1000 hours) I've finished https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/einmeister/new-grounds-new-wheels my collab piece and besides the newgrounds advent, I also applied with it in https://youtu.be/ouUKTzWIJ3E a CG competition which I have somehow won,

I finished my first tutorial, meant to help friends and randoms that somehow happen to find it.

Edit 6 (30.03.2021 1560 hours) I participated in a https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/einmeister/zona-it wallpaper contest and lost. I have also participated in an avatar contest for the channel Dave2D on youtube, but lost. I spent the rest of the time making decalmachine decals which I plan to upload on gumroad for sale after I finish this mechanical leg project I've been working on for a month. I learned a lot of Substance Painter and Fusion 360 & how to export in moi3D, as well as manual retopology and optimization as I did a gig with a fish.

I am planning to finish my mechanical leg, which I will post here, publish my decal pack, learn actual moi3D modeling and some rigging. I also need to get into characters, I want to specialize into hard surface modeling but it doesn't hurt to know the basics of character creation.

Edit 7 (01.06.2021 1900 hours) I have learned rigging and put a ton of work into the mechanical leg but put the project on a long break. I have finished my decals but forgot to upload for sale so now if i'm better after many months i might try it again. I have participated in Moon Camp Pioneers 2020-2021, a contest held by the European Space Agency with 2 people I have found on the internet that did their part of the design and fully the paperwork and concept. We have won second place, here's the link: https://mooncampchallenge.org/pioneers-gallery-2021/details/

I also started learning gun modeling, having made https://www.artstation.com/artwork/VgqKXX an album cover for a friend and talented musician, https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/untextured-m4-04fce8bf5d01476f9e62c0500905f5d1 an m4 rifle and almost finished showcasing a Kriss Vector model with full internals that I will upload everywhere I can.

Edit 8 (31.08.2021 2330 hours) I finished my https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZGnDQw Kriss Vector at the beginning of the summer, made a https://www.artstation.com/artwork/48Yx9k low poly Honey Badger model for some roblox game but ended up being scammed, worked on a 40 second animation that I will release at the end of September, created a high poly and baked it on the official CSGO PP Bizon model since I am making a skin for an ongoing valve competition. The last but not least of my summer projects is that I have started working on a good showcase of my mechanical leg that I mentioned earlier. Besides those I also spent some time watching courses and tutorials, including Substance Designer, and teaching friends how to get started with Blender.

Edit 9 (16.11.2021 2510 hours) I haven't been able to do as much work as I've done in my previous updates, irl school started and it is also my last year which means that it is very stressful, the final exam is coming...

The mechanical leg that I was talking about in the last update became https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3dyQdE

I have finished the animation that I mentioned, which is the https://youtu.be/6iZIaERfvpc]trailer for a https://youtu.be/-cJTfiS83b0 community music album.

I didn't manage to finish the pp bizon skin by the competition deadline, I think I would've given up on it if it was fully on me, but someone contacted me to do the albedo map and we will soon publish it on the csgo workshop. I have also made smooth normals for multiple csgo skins, I know all of the mistakes of the valve models i worked on to their core. 

I ordered a new microphone because my headset attachment broke, I can finally start doing youtube tutorials again.

I have started learning 3DS Max, its features seem interesting, looks like it has a workflow that could benefit me. Even so, it is "industry standard" and it might look good in my cv. I have also tried out Shapr3D, amazing program, but it has the only thing that makes me want to swap from Fusion 360 which is the fact that it is connected to the cloud all the time, I want offline programs!!

Also I've been trying to learn drawing, but I am really bad at it and I have no idea how to learn, I've been trying to learn drawing for longer than a year already and it won't work. It is required to get into 3D art unis... weirdly enough. Drawing is not for me but I have to force myself through it.

Edit 10 (29.01.2022 2710 hours) I have finished the bizon skin, worked on other models for csgo, created a tutorial on youtube, learned MoI 3D, met some cool people in the industry, re-rendered everything for the mechanical leg and kriss vector projects and also made an extra transparent shot for it, I have done some sticker designs of my own art that I want to print soon, made a 3D printable model of the Apollo spacecraft for a kickstarter game and worked for the entire holiday season on a high poly MP9 model that I want to learn texturing and asset optimization on. 

Drawing doesn't work, I have no motivation for it as I have for 3D, no passion, not for me. I will apply anyway, even if I found out I can probably not afford it. 

Started working on a course with someone.

Edit 11 (25.07.2022 2806 hours) GRADUATED school, I am finally a free man, sadly I had a lot to study which was time I did not spend doing 3D art. Lots of time was wasted for information I will never need like the analysis of some really old Romanian books, plant biology and maths over anything i will ever need to use even if I learn Houdini. I have been accepted at Howest DAE in Belgium, a digital arts university in the city of Kortrijk. I will study there for the following 3 or 4 years, me having done so much 3D in the past means a huge headstart. I have printed the stickers I mentioned previously and put them around the city, sadly people ripped most of them. I haven't finished the MP9. The invasion of the terrorist state of Russia to the country neighboring mine affected everyone. I have been shocked by it and I couldn't look at any guns for a few months, and by the time I got my head together I didn't want to work on that old project anymore. I started modeling another B&T weapon, the SPC9, a very new model with very little image reference that no one has modeled and posted online before. I will post the MP9 as a training piece for this one, even though the techniques are totally different. I am modeling the SPC9 in Fusion 360. 

I have taught several teams of highschool students how to model in Fusion 360 in order to participate in the same Moon Camp contest that I won second place of last year. Some of them quit, but 3 teams managed to submit their project and one of them got third place in Europe :) Now they also know CAD.

I have done more work for CSGO skins, watched a few tutorials, but that was pretty much it.

Edit 12 (25.07.2023 4050 hours) The exact 1 year time skip is a coincidence, but it is iconic. I have finished my first year in Howest DAE with great success, no retakes. I'm proud of it because it is a famously hard school to do that in, many people that start the year are gone by the end of it, willingly or unwillingly. The workload is very dense and it required huge amounts of effort, I have not been able to work on any personal projects during the school year, only in holidays. I have learned a lot of theory and soft skills and put them to practice, which I have not expected. I already had a lot of experience with 3D before enrolling here, unlike my classmates, so I expected not to learn much in the first year and only start to get serious starting from the second, it was not the case. I will learn a ton of useful stuff the upcoming year without having wasted one. I have learned how to program in Java, how to do procedural models in Houdini, how to do preproduction sketches also called concept art, evolving my iteration and composition skills. I have learned how to receive and give feedback better, as being surrounded by so many artists involved lots of that. Made lots of friends, some of them are really close to me, fell in love, got my heart broken, improved social skills. During the academic year I made those link1 link2 link3, continued work on my SPC9 in holidays, did some more csgo bakes, started doing cs2 bakes once it got announced along with the beta test, both clear canvases and skin normals. This summer I mostly did cs2 bakes, but also finished my exams, modeled some flowers, continued learning from tutorials and courses and made a quick tutorial to transition to Blender for my Maya user friends. I am also preparing to teach at the Java Processing intro course for the new year students next academic year. I need to start working on a collaborative project with a friend and I also want to model some buildings inspired by Iasi, a beautiful city in Romania that I have visited a little bit after I finished my exam season. I also started going more often to the gym this summer, unrelated to 3D, but it helps me feel physically better since I stay so much in front of my PC.

I will keep updating this whenever I feel like I achieved something.

I got accepted at Howest University of Applied Sciences, at Digital Arts and Entertainment, Belgium :D

This means I won't be forced to do military service here in Moldova, since I'll be a student. Honestly worst place and time for that ngl.

I will be able to study this field far away from this endangered region, endangered by another invasion by those sick barbarians.

MMMMYA YA! Finally! It is madness day and me with the boys managed to finish a year long project. I did the 3D animation for the album's teaser where @RyuuAkito helped with the TV effects and my frog friend helped rendering. I got a potate PC so I have to beg friends with good computers to help out. Ryuu also managed the album btw.

@stoofer97 made the amazing effects and rendering for the youtube upload of the album, badass!

@SquashHead did the iconic album cover, kudos to SquashHead!

I can't believe I got to work with @Cheshyre, who has made the music that was part of my childhood, back when the only games that I played were flashies, now I'm already technically an adult that can drink and drive (not at the same time) and I still love his music, maybe even more than when I was a kid and didn't understand how hard making music this good actually was.

@Lothyde !!! I also can't believe I got to work with him. Besides this album I made the album cover for his Cheshcore Vol. 1 on bandcamp, go buy it!!!! (or at least give it a listen, can't go wrong with that).

@MonoCronic, the one and only! Thank you Mono, without you I don't think I could've ever participated in the project. Badass music and badass friend.

@SentryTurbo, I can't say the album got an objectively best song since all of them are so good, but my personal favorite is Mad Ones from him, go listen to it!!

@Patrystyk and @Vestik (aka Ristik and Vestik) even though their names are similar they are not the same person.

@NavJ03 NAVOJJJJJJJJJJJ, he publicly announced that he needs more subs on youtube and tbh he deserves them so go susbcribe.

@CryNN When you go to a rave make the DJ play his music. If he doesn't want to pull out the big iron.

@Demonicity One of the chillest people I've met. Makes so much music and still reacts to reviews on songs he made years ago.

@Whalefat If all whales did music like him the earth would be 29% ground and 71% pog fishies and sharks.

Also thanks a lot to @NickSenny and DoubleThunder (which does not have a NG account YET, here is his soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/doublethunder) for working as features in the tracks, @Krinkels for creating the series, @TomFulp for creating the website, TrauFrosch, my friend, for helping with the renders and @Matter-of-time-dz for helping with the teaser rigs. It has been a pleasure to work with you guys, I will never lose those memories. I hope everyone else will enjoy the album just as much as I did when listening to the wips and pre-public final versions. I will be listening to those for a very long time just as I still listen to the first SiN today. And thank you, the reader that might not be the artists above, for reading this and listening to the album! You should check those guys above out, absolutely all of them are under-rated. Years of work and thousands of hours of practice should not go unnoticed.

<3

Whatsup

HEY! I have no idea how you got on my profile. If someone ever sees this, make sure to let me know. One view is enough to make me feel like i did not do it for nothing.

I have been playing a lot of flash games back in middle school. They were the only thing i was enthusiastic about and pretty much my only friends. I loved 2 games mostly: Madness Project Nexus and another flash called strike force heroes 2 on another site. My favorite sites of finding gems were mainly this and Kongregate. Many were surely not kids games... but meh... it's ok. I have been reviewing hentai games on steam for the last 2 years anyway.

About steam! Today i found out madness project nexus gets on a whole new level and published on steam. Well, that's amazing! The best news i've heard all month and the second game i'm excited for this year. The other one is Cyberpunk 2077 btw.

Basically I am Ein, I do reviews for the third biggest Steam group that is not made by valve, it is called "Hentai!" and it has 860000 members now, in June 2020.

I also have my own curator page with like 120 followers in which i curate stuff that is not hentai and a youtube channel in which i do the same thing.

I am romanian, i think i know english and i also know a bit of russian and german.

I like games so much that a month ago i started learning game development myself. I'm studying gamemaker studio 2 and blender, i want to make better music than the one i make right now and maybe in a few years i'll be able to give people access to a one of a kind game.

I listen to a lot of music, but mainly synthwave, LoFi hiphop, lyrical rap ( even though rap has some very bad examples nowadays ) aaand lots of other stuff that i can't give genre names to?

I like romance anime like Clannad, but my other favorite is Samurai Champloo. I guess i watch one or two small series per year and even less films.

My discord is EinMeister#4035 and this is my steam profile. I am a lot more active there than on newgrounds so it's easier to contact me there.

My favorite 15 games are (not in order):

Borderlands 2

Dishonored 2

Doom Eternal

Furi

Hotline Miami 2

Katana Zero

Metal Gear Solid V

Metro Exodus

RUINER

Sekiro: shadows die twice

Starbound

StarCraft 2

TEKKEN 7

Terraria

Yakuza 0

Of course i have a lot of honorable mentions. Two of them being Castle Crashers and Epic Battle Fantasy 5, made with talents coming from this site. I actually got EBF5 from the hentai curator i'm in. Played it for 80 hours before giving it one of the longest reviews i've ever done.

Now I'm not sure if this is some kind of forum post or profile posts so i hope i don't screw up. I'll surely laugh at this and call myself an idiot in 10 years when i find this relic.