#Edit: i figured out the saturation problem

[splatoondetective]

I like the new banner!

AWWWWW, THANKS XD

I know it probably looks blurry, so please click on it, zooming in helps too, but I'll still add close ups.

Close ups under the cut :)

[charmfamily]

(SEMI) CHARMED KIND OF LIFE: EPISODE 1, PART II. “AT LEAST IT’S NOT STILL ON FIRE”

Transcript Below.

[Prospero, Minerva's familiar, hops down from his perch on the windowsill to come inside. Once within earshot, where he knows his Caster can hear him, a trilling meow echoes through the dining room to get Minerva's attention.]

MINERVA: [muffled, not moving from her slump that has her face mashed against the surface of the now clean dining table.] I thought familiars were supposed to be able to precognitively sense and forewarn of impending doom; where the hell were you all night?

PROSPERO: [The ensuing chuckle at her question is quite sly, almost a little devious in its quality.] Was I summoned? ... No? Then my whereabouts remain, as always, Caster, none of your business. Besides that – being able to sense impending doom doesn't mean I can stop you from causing it, for future reference.

MINERVA: [She scowls at her familiar's retort, begrudgingly hoisting herself from her hunched position while Prospero begins nonchalantly yet smugly cleaning his face.] I concede that I may have said some things I oughtn't – No, I said exactly what needed to be said, the delivery could have been more gentle, I suppose – but I am not the bad guy here.

[thebramblewood]

I thought it might be fun to do a little behind the scenes for the last story post! You guys might be surprised how little actual editing was involved. I mainly just crop, add brightness and saturation, clean up any small bits of clipping or weirdness that bother me, and then add captions! Do you want to know what actually took me the longest?

This hair had some problem areas that showed up in live mode but not CAS. It's such a tiny thing, but it annoyed me, so I had to touch it up in nearly every screenshot. Luckily, the darkness of her hair means I didn't have to do a perfect job.

The effects were all done in-game. Lilith has the alluring visage vampire perk, which creates the red haze and mind control spiral. Unfortunately, Helena crossed her path too closely, and rather than set the shot up again I used the clone brush in Photoshop to edit out the effects around her head (vampires who can successfully do mind control on other vampires are exceedingly rare). By the way, I later figured out a quick and dirty method for dispelling unwanted visual effects on a Sim is to remove buffs in MCCC.

As I've mentioned, I had to shoot the attack scene twice. The first attempt was too dark, the location wasn't very visually interesting, I was in an area of San My where I had less camera control, and I used the Effects Player, which ended up being less eye-catching (hey, sometimes vanilla is the best option!). They would have worked to get the point across, but I think you can really see how I learned and improved upon my vision!

These comparison shots are all uncropped and unedited, by the way. Reshade/Relight truly does the heavy lifting. I've also gotten better at finding an angle I like and sticking with it, even if that's only because I don't want to adjust Relight all over again, lol! Speaking of angles, that last shot was done using the Dutch angle trick I learned in this tutorial by @surely-sims! First-person camera is actually super useful for storytelling. If you don't already know about this head-turning trick, it'll change your life. It comes in clutch for changing the eye line of a posed Sim since I'm not always great at getting that right in Blender.

Anyway, I don't know if anyone will find this super helpful or interesting, but I'm always open to questions about taking and editing screenshots, even though I feel like most of what I know has just been absorbed through osmosis and trial and error!

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme Post #74

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 5, The Ball, Crowley giving Gabriel hot chocolate

...

Sideburns Check

This scene is brief and mainly shows Crowley's left sideburn since the right sideburn is too blurry to confirm much of anything.

Still, that long left sideburn fits into the longest-length category that happens around Gabriel when humans aren't around.

...

Brighter Red Streak Check

The more saturated red streak of hair can be found.

...

Hairstyle Changes

I don't really think the scene gives enough to work with on figuring out how the hair might have changed, but here is a composite picture so you can decide for yourself.

...

Earthly Objects

(For reference: Earthly Objects | Crowley's Name Usage or Lack Thereof in Season 2)

There have already been signs that we are dealing with an outside force, such as the Metatron, reading and/or editing the story as it plays out.

He's been possibly censoring the alcohol use by having the camera cut away during certain drinks.

Now he's going to start censoring words. If it isn't him, some outside force from the character speaking is doing it.

The story will make this censorship more evident later with Mrs. Cheng and Mrs. Sandwich.

It is not as clear here, but I do think it's happening.

Gabriel is not allowed to say Crowley's name during Good Omens 2—ever. He's been allowed to bend or break the rules, but this rule is one he cannot break.

Who is against using Crowley's name?

The previous scene just told us Uriel is.

A later scene will show that Uriel says, "which there isn't," followed by the Metatron saying, "which there isn't," when the Metatron notes the "institutional problem." That implies Uriel has been conditioned to think that way as part of an institutional problem. Uriel will also later be shown to be very alarmed and concerned about if they have done anything wrong, to displease the Metatron. So, that's a set of tangential clues that this name thing is related to what the Metatron wants.

In every ball invitation scene, Crowley's name was not said. Crowley's name was not said during his own invitation to the bookshop. It wasn't said when he was in Demon Mode and told Gabriel to jump out the window.

Muriel is the one who got to say Crowley's name in the previous scene before getting the message that they shouldn't do that again.

Even though they are guided on that rule, they still got that name in while these specific events are happening to bring in that supernatural zone that will let Crowley and Muriel meet when and where they do later.

I think Gabriel tries to say Crowley's name after receiving the hot chocolate and before Crowley leaves the room.

The word doesn't come out, and music overlays where it would be. It's just before Gabriel says, "You're really nice."

Crowley himself reacts as if he heard his name said.

With this name issue in mind, maybe there are two standard sets for this scene.

I am not sure of the below. These are guesses.

Crowley holding the cup would be point #1.

The name "Jim" on the mug would be point #2.

Crowley and Gabriel having their hands touch while Crowley gives the hot chocolate would be reciprocal touch they have for point #3.

Gabriel's attempt at saying Crowley's name would still be credited or at least intended for point #1.

Crowley's touch on the rug outside the room as he leaves would be point #2.

Gabriel drinking from the cup while altering the physical touch on that cup would be point #3.

...

For paying attention to the pockets...

Crowley's Tied Hands might retie if a blurred strike on a lapel edge is allowed. The other signs are there. His watch is visible when he says, "Don't thank me," His right index finger is extended when he starts to turn, pauses, and says, "And I'm not." His left thumb joint meets a jacket edge as he is crossing the threshold out of the room.

In addition to that, the Belt Head is shown with some focus when Crowley passes the cup to Gabriel. There is a light in the room leading to this one that is to Crowley's right when this Belt Head is shown closest to the camera.

When Gabriel tries to say Crowley's name and says, "You're really nice," the cut reminds us of the nearby lamp that could have been an overhead light for the Belt Head in this scene. Then the Belt Head gets another possible overhead light through the lamp to Crowley's left as he exits the room. There is yet another lamp that's to Crowley's left and feasibly above his Belt Head in the room Crowley enters on his exit. It's the same lamp that was the Belt Head's right-side Overhead Light when Crowley first entered in the previous scene he had with Gabriel.

Crowley has a small self-made pocket with his legs when he says, "Don't thank me."

Otherwise, the main pocket that interests me isn't actually in this scene but that the preceding Muriel scene is pocketed between the Demon Mode scene and this one.

...

Story Commentary

This scene calls back to a scene in season 1 in which Crowley reacted angrily, or seemingly angrily, to Aziraphale calling him "nice."

With Crowley no longer working for Hell, he denies being nice here, but his reaction isn't as strong or angry as what season 1 showed.

Crowley was not nice when he entered the room and even with my theory of the supernatural zone, he has an ulterior motive.

Crowley's manipulating Gabriel as a catalyst to bring in this supernatural zone, but he might be doing that from a previous agreement he had with Gabriel. The storming out sequence in episode 1 shows us that something was cut, and whatever it was, appearance swaps involving Gabriel, Aziraphale, and Crowley replaced it. That means Gabriel was in on a plan.

That plan led to this draft of the story we see that's going to have Gabriel and Beelzebub end up together, leaving their positions vacant and ready to be replaced.

Crowley is still doing all of these various actions with the supernatural zone as part of something for Gabriel. These things aren't done exclusively for Gabriel. I'm sure Crowley gets something out of it too. Based on how things eventually play out, it was a mutual agreement. Theoretically, Crowley and Gabriel are not friends, but they were, and what was left from that previous friendship was enough for this story to happen. Muriel probably had a big role in the matter as well.

...

This scene focuses more on both Crowley and Gabriel compared to their last shared scene in that Aziraphale is not mentioned at all. Humans outside in the street are not shown, as Gabriel's head largely obscures the window he almost jumped out of.

...

That's it for this post. Sometimes I edit my posts, FYI.

...

Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

[anewp0tat0]

AAAAHHHHH!! CONSIDER MY SHIT FLIPPED!! THE BLACK BUTLER LIVES! What are your thoughts on the new art style?

BRO I'm with you, flipped like that pancake I managed to throw half out the pan😩 I still can't believe. best Monday every fr.

and ooo thanks for the question, I wanna hear your thoughts after this👀 I've already said a little bit about this in the tags of some other posts, as well as touched on it in my master post of the crew, but I suppose I may give a big final answer(for now, from this teaser).

judging the art alone, not the fact that we get a new anime or anything exciting like that, just the art alone... it's very pretty!

yea this is very pretty. the kid looks great, small and good, and his hair looks feathery and neat, so I approve. I think they nailed his general proportions, I think they'll do a great job at keeping them consistent during episodes! the image to the right does looks a tiny bit like a 3d asset, which is a bit jarring compared to the previous anime style, but I'm flexible towards this change. even if he looks like a video game cutscene character, I usually love cutscenes!!

but here's the drama I'm sure you're here for. yes, unfortunately, there are some wee things that I don't love as much🤏

the first thing, it really doesn't matter and I should shut up about it now... but YOU asked so ajdjfksksk why did they have to shrink sebs jaw cmon my favorite art of him ever was during the Greenwitch arc so don't tell me I'll NEVER be able to see that style of him animated😫 I just like prominent features man. I know he's meant to be pretty but but but....

ah okay. heres the main thing that I think most people may agree with.

these are two screenies of sebster from the teaser. honestly, as ☆luxurious☆ as his lashes are, I'm not a fan of the left image. the airbrush on his hair feels a tad overdone. I love the attention to detail, especially in the one on the right, it shows a lot of love! but there's just something about it that's a bit off for me.

and I think after 24 hours I've finally figured it out: it's the colors.

the realization started to hit me when I saw my favorite edit so far here by @ashxketchum. the colors have been edited to be much more saturated and warm. and I think this is exactly what is missing here.

I even tried my own hand at it, and yea personally, I think slapping a saturation, tint, and just a BIT of contrast on the whole thing can do numbers on it.

already I like it(no I'm not just praising my own work, it's not the best edit out there I did it in 30 secs). I think the reason for this is because the background is very rich in contrast and warm tones, so the characters(particularly sebastian who is all black) stand out when they are muddy and low contrast. I love stylistically when contrast is high, but that's just a personal thing, and I shouldn't hold a studio to those standards.

I tried it for the poster too though, which again I felt was a bit off. official art has never been the most top tear, and the poster is GOOD, the background is awesome and the two peeps looks amazing. but my problem with it was clear once I did another color edit.

(edit on the right)

again, I feel like everything was very muted in the left original, not to mention a tad monochromatic. I really think a kick of contrast and hue could do wonders.

BUT. I know that at the end of the day, it's not a big deal. I don't really care. would it make my day or whole year if they slapped a color filter on it, or continued to work on the color grading of the scenes? probably yea! but my opinion isn't obsolete, and most of all, I look forward to and respect the artists decisions.

so no I'm not "fixing" the art😅😒.

and finally, I think this is awesome:

(I had forgotten but this gif is edited by @kilruas from this post)

GORGEOUS. could it turn some people off cause it's mostly cg? maybe. idc though. gorgeous. gimme some of that beverage.

sorry for the rant, hope it's what you wanted! I think that's everything... I like it 85%!

[seiwas]

hi sel! i was wondering if you had any tips or tricks or advice for making fic banners and dividers? yours are always so cohesive! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

hi nonie! omg i'm so flattered you asked me this 🥺 i’m happy you like them!! admittedly, i am a bit particular about the aesthetics of my fics, but don't really expect anyone to notice 😭

i am by no means a designer! but i'll share a few of the things that have worked for me 🥺 under the cut will be what i do for sizing, editing, and inspo!

SIZING (w x h dimensions, 300 dpi)

��� banners: 1280 x 320 for my thicker banners. 1280 x 249 for my thinner ones. i've been preferring the thicker ones lately just because i prefer how it looks on the post compared to my thinner ones (more balanced and stuff!)

› dividers: 1280 x any size you want or 500 x 5. i have both jpg (thinner) and png (thicker) versions for my dividers, mainly because my jpg ones stopped working after a while* 😭 i use the png ones more now because the actual image itself is also bigger in height; there are transparent spaces above the bar itself that allow more control over the space your divider will have between text (please let me know if this is confusing! i'm not sure if i'm explaining it well).

*tumblr can be really selective with the media it allows on the feed and tags, and for some reason, some dividers have been causing that problem 😭 i still haven't figured out what characteristics/factors exactly cause it, but i suspect it might be a combination of size + colours. i usually have to do test posts to make sure it appears!

i'm attaching some screenshots below for reference!

EDITING

› software: photoshop, figma. though i know there are others you can use (e.g., photopea, canva, picsart, etc.)! i just use these because i'm more accustomed to them 🥹

› process:

find a manga panel i like and clean it up (background removers can usually do the trick)

find colours i like and use it as the base for the background

*if using photoshop/figma/photopea: set the manga panel layer as 'multiply'

add the text

*for dividers: i usually just grab from the background of the banner (either i crop a portion of it or colour a long, thin rectangle the same colour)

attaching what my editing board looks like on figma! (i could be more organised but i usually do these things in such a rush i could never be bothered 😭)

› things i consider

for general fic banners: i like to keep a consistent format, which is: character panel + name + identifiable colour because they're the details that i'd like to inform people of first when they stumble upon my post! (some people will put fic titles too, which i don't do bc i can't be bothered to mess with the spacing 😭)

*keeping a consistent format also makes it easier to duplicate elements of your banners into other banners you'll be making! ex. if i'm writing 2 different gojo fics and decide to change what manga panel to use, at least i can always duplicate certain elements (i.e., name text) and find colours along a similar saturation/hue! it makes things a lot quicker and easier.

for event fic banners: i usually pattern it after the event banner itself! so for example, the fics under my 'how to be your loverboy' collab share similar elements (i.e., the wavy edge) to the main event banner. sometimes i use the same colours too (i.e., in's and out's event).

*on dividers not showing up on the dash: i notice it a lot more with light-coloured banners (some neutrals) and super thin ones. to find a way around this, i either change the colour and/or the size OR i'll find a photo that shares the colours i want and crop it to the size that i want (for some reason, it works this way 😭)

INSPO

i usually browse through pinterest for inspo on digital design stuff! i learned a bit of UX/UI so there's also a part of me that's influenced by its trends.

lately, i've been really into gradients! because it's a fun and easy way to make things look clean but not boring, and i think it can evoke the ~vibe of the fic based off the colours you end up choosing!

when i can't think of anything and want to come up with the banner quickly, i'll usually choose a photo/aesthetic i associate with the fic and blur the image until all you see are kind of blobs of colours. they're similar to gradients but have more shapes and require less of your brain power 😭 (i.e., by your passenger seat, and there's something...)

... and that's it!

sorry for this really lengthy post, i hope it's helpful nonie 🥹 let me know if you have any other questions/if anything is unclear!

[lepierr0t]

Me: I’ll try to be more active on tumblr

Also me: *disappears for 4 months*

Anyway, keeping up in social media has always been a challenge for me so, I1l give myself a break.

Ive been precticind quite a lot with oils recently. It was already something I wanted to do, but I was figuring out how to for a while.

the thing is, painting always scared me, when I was trying digital painting, It was always so overwhelming. I didn't really knew what to do, and I could do anything, there were no rules, no limitations and no easy process, at least not in my head.

But since I started oil painting, everything seems rigth, everything is starting to make sense. why the blocking, and why we aint the way we do, and how color works. Oh GOD! color is finally starting to make some sense to me!

I need paint, I need the need to mix it and pay attention to the saturation, and the pigments and the contrasts, I need to touch it, and to smell it and to feel the texture when it is dry. It is a whole different experience that the digital world can't provide. And a whole understandment that the digital can only replicate very poorly.

Recently I've realized how much of a megalomaniac I am and How my personal projects are always too complex for someone with no experience at anything and that's probably oneof the reasons it's so hard for me to finish anything. so I wanted to start this slowly. I wanted to paint one small object that I liked, so I picked Candles.

I also have bookbinding as a hobbie of mine, so I also bind a book just for studiyng painting. I used my very first painting of a candle I did during the pandemic when I was first trying out oils as a detail for the cover.

after that I started practicing painting just candles. Simple. with some notes to each just so I can orient myself

"paint the glowing around the candle before doing the flame"

"try blocking the whole candle in one color only"

but recently I got a commission from a friend, and I wanted to try and do it on oils. At first I tried doing it by observation alone. But I had many structural problems I should have solved in the drawing phase and the colours would not save it..

So I started over and decided to actually break the portrait apart and... you know... do things correctly...

I separated her face in more simple shapes and tried working out on a composition that would work better. after some editing on ClipStudio, I used Adobe color wheel to produce a pallete, which I used to guide me

This is the result so far... Although this is still the "ugly stage" I'm already pretty happy with it.

I just wanted to share my experience with painting so far. I don't know if other artists can relate, but painting seems less scary now that it is physical. I can touch it and bend it and it is actually pretty fun!

[tizzymcwizzy]

idk if anyone has asked this before but how do you manage to make your traditional art come out w a clear and crisp quality when you upload it bc i've been trying to figure out how to improve that for my own art

i might've answered this before i don't mind repeating myself

STEP 1: make sure you have good lighting!

take your photos next to a window on a bright day, not in direct sunlight because that can cause glare or over expose the image, but next to a window where the ambient light is even across your piece

taking pics on a rainy day or after the sun sets? no problem! all you need is bright ambient lighting, like what you'd find in a well lit bathroom, light that isn't shining directly on you, but reflecting off the walls, diffused and even

when taking your picture you wanna make sure there are no shadows, be it cast shadows from your hands, or shadows on one side of the page due to focused light

here's a side by side:

on the left side there's this gradient of value across the image because the light is just hitting the page from the top, and there's some visual striping caused by my lamp

on the right the image is evenly covered in light from a nearby window, so there is no gradient

of course the left image is exaggeratedly bad but if you photograph and edit with uneven light your end product will be passable, but not as great as it could be

here are some more examples post edit, notice the gradient across the drawing and the shadow on the bottom half

again not TERRIBLE but not ideal

STEP 2: photograph straight on, up close and crop tastefully!

when you're taking your picture stand up if you can, and i mean it, just get right on top of the piece and make sure your camera is parallel, because taking a pic at an angle can really distort the proportions of your drawing

also make sure you're fitting as much of the drawing into your picture as possible, you don't wanna lose quality unnecessarily by photographing from a distance

and when you crop, try and get out as much unnecessary space as you can, of course give the image breathing room, don't crop down to the edges of your image, but also try and cut out your thumbs or desk if you're going for that crisp professional look

all the rules in this section can be broken if it's done intentionally!

here are some examples of off angle/weirdly cropped drawings with my desk in the background but it's on purpose:

STEP 3: time to edit!

so this part is really going to depend on what software you personally use to edit and getting familiar with it, i use my phone's built in editor which is the google photos editor, ive used ios photo editing, ive used photoshop and procreate and most programs generally have the same couple of editing scales so im going to be general

FOR BLACK AND WHITE ART:

1. turn the saturation aaallllll the way down

we don't want the yellow of the pages or the warm light of your lamp or the blue tone of the sun on our white paper, unless you're going for a black and white in sepia sort of look, then edit to your discretion, but in general for black and white i eliminate all color

2. crank the brightness and contrast (highlights/white point/exposure/brilliance) UP and turn the black point/shadows DOWN

we want to create as much visual contrast as possible and make the darks REALLY dark and the brights REALLY bright, especially if you have a drawing that has very little midrange values, this worked well for my stamps, but for a pencil drawing you want to keep those details and middle values so the settings won't be as extreme

depending on what program you use the names and effects of each setting might be a little different, so fiddle around to find out what everything does!

here's a before and after

FOR COLOR ART:

1. increase saturation! (and vibrance on ios) depending on your piece and your camera and the medium and the lighting your image and its colors can come out a number of different ways, but usually cameras will not capture the vibrancy of real life colors. and personally i just like boosting them anyway :) i think it looks really nice!

2. turn the brightness and white values up, but not too much, we don't want to wash out any colors but if you have a white of the page we still want that to be bright white

3. turn the black point/shadows down just a little, we don't want to completely overpower the light and color values with darks and shadows, but we still don't want it to look washed out and dull

and lastly (for both B&W and color) fiddle with some other specialized settings! play with curves! or pop, or HDR or whatever other slider you have access to, figuring out what each does and which ones you like will help you get your final image closer to your tastes

happy editing and art making!!! i hope this was helpful :)

[sorcerous-caress]

(anon who doesn't think bobtarion is hot and should maybe come up with an easier way to identify himself. I'm also Lorroakan request guy but that's not important now)

No, the edited version is worse and I'm trying to figure out why. Bobtarion (lookswise, and SOME of the surface level of his personality) reminds me of a specific type of middle aged queer man that I am not trying to fuck but enjoy hanging out with sometimes.

This new Bob is like. He's trying to be a very serious elf lord and failing at it. Like I do think I prefer this look to his original one IN GENERAL but *he's* not pulling it off for me.

Maybe if I knew nothing about his character and just saw this new guy I'd be interested? hard to say. I think changing hair+eye color and making him a little less pale would go a long way for me, but the vampire fans wouldn't be pleased.

YOU'RE THE LORROAKAN REQUEST GUY? okay yeah you def need a nametag. Come up with one, maybe Sapphire? The gem Lorroakan has on his chest?

Anyway, I'm actually tempted to boot up the game and start editing Bob's looks based on your description. Give his skin more colour or saturation since his skin tone is literally called "vampire skintone," which has a really dull and lifeless colour.

Change his hair colour? Maybe platinum blonde to stay close or we can go fully to black or brown.

The problem is, his face genuinely refuses to work with anything else. Also I am very sleepy that is another obstacle between me and the pc.

His eye colour is almost the exact same one as Cazador! Actually it is Cazadors eyes in the edited picture because I thought it would add more drama. His edited look is what I imagined his ascended vampire self to look like, a try hard lord.

A non vampire au Bob look would be interesting ngl.

[asaka-lucy-dr-rc]

First of all, thanks so much for your detailed answers! I'm glad you took the time out of your busy schedule to respond.

As for his eye color, I mentioned in my ask that his eyes are clearly blue at times, but yes, they are also greenish. In fact, I think there are times when they are clearly greenish, even if you just look at Rui Komatsuzaki's art, for example, below is one of the official art on the cover of the official art book:

So often, on merchandise and such, this eye color is the standard. Like this and this.

I agree with you that gray is really the right color. This is just my guess, but Komatsuzaki tends to paint with low saturation, so he increases the saturation as a final touch, and I think Nagito's eyes would be too distinctly blue or green. But just as a matter of taste, I was a little curious what color you prefer for Nagito's eyes.

Incidentally, what I think is the right color for Nagito is something like this:

(This is part of a drawing I did for Hajime's birthday that I posted earlier. I was wondering if there were others that would be better, but not as many as I thought because I have a tendency to draw him with a closed eye expression...)

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Also, thanks for mentioning his hair color! That's right. Sometimes it's clearly red and sometimes it's not. It is interesting to point out that it is even purple! XD (Come to think of it, the hair color of the Nagito figure designed by Kei Mochizuki was also purple.)

I also feel that it varies from art to art whether his bangs are also red or just the back of his hair is red. The reference sheet says that his hair gets whiter as it goes to the top of his head, so the hair on the top of his head is definitely white, but I think the color of the tips of the bangs is inconsistent. Personally, I interpret his bangs as white and only the back of his hair as red, as shown in this image:

I know a lot of people think Nagito's showing Junko's arm art looks bad but I honestly like it.

Huh? Do many people not like it? If so, it's very surprising. I like it a lot, just like you! While he is acting out of the ordinary by transplanting Junko's arm, I like the fact that his facial expression is like that of a child who is excited about something.

I also like the art of Nagito standing in front of the flame because it uses the design of his hair. Because in the reference sheet, his hair is described as unstable, like a flickering flame.

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By the way, I've seen you mention the Danganronpa 2 spin off mangas many times, but this post made me decide to buy them! The Nagito in this manga has the physique of a "180cm" tall man. (This is a side note, but I just learned that his height setting is lowered in the English version! XD) I will read this manga and use it as a reference because I always have the problem that I tend to draw Nagito too young (almost like a ten year old kid).

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While I'm at it I also want to highlight his reference sheet, it's clearly consistent because that's the job of a reference and I think his expression is pretty cute here.

THIS!!!! is how I always feel too! Nagito's face on the reference sheet is so cute. I've seen it so many times to reference it, but no matter how many times I see it, I can't help but be surprised at how cute he is.

In fact, Komatsuzaki's drawing style has changed a lot since his early days, and perhaps the most recent drawing of Nagito he did was the bonus art for the collector's edition of Danganronpa Decadence, in which he looks much more mature.

(I actually didn't know about this art until recently. When I first saw it, I was confused by how insanely cool he was and how short his hair was. lol)

Speaking of reference sheets, I like how thin Nagito's thighs look compared to Hajime's ones. There is no big difference in the silhouette, but Hajime's pants have more horizontal lines where the fat seems to be pushing out the cloth, while Nagito's have fewer horizontal lines, so I think his legs are thinner. I know a lot has been said about the thickness of the chest, but I thought few people mentioned the thinness of the thighs, so I wrote about it. (Sorry for my crazy point of view...)

I was just rambling on about what I remembered from your response rather than replying to you, I hope you can tell that I found your answer very interesting.

To conclude, I would like to talk about my favorite art of Nagito. If I were asked the question, this would be the first thing I would mention:

(This is a screenshot taken from the Ultimate Gallery of the Switch version of SDR2.)

I really think this art is a good and pretty representation of his face. I like that this art clearly shows how he looks with his coat off and how thin his body is. (This does not mean that I like thin-bodied characters. I just think that it is part of the design of the character of Nagito Komaeda.) I also like the chain on his pants, so I like that it's drawn as well.

Sorry to write at almost as long as or longer than you. Thanks so much for your answer!

Hi Zen! This might be another difficult question for you to answer, but I'd like to ask: Which official artwork of Nagito do you like the most?

Even in the official art, he looks different sometimes, doesn't he? I am still confused as to what color his eyes are. (In a lot of fanfic they are described as gray, but in some art they are clearly blue).

I would like to know which of the official artwork, whether in games, anime or manga, is your favorite.

Whoa!! that Is a difficult question! I'll try to answer it though haha!

I have a lot of them I like but choosing one is pretty difficult... so I'll just start this answer off with a discussion on the inconsistencies statement! I believe Nagito's eyes are definitely gray, at some points it maybe hard to tell but they're definitely gray! There are a few anime moments where his eyes feel green, some promotional material straight up changes it to green, and a small amount spin off art may change it to something that can be interpreted as blue, but for the most part they are absolutely gray.

I think the only actual very small change he undergoes is his color tips? His hair always has a gradient but the colors used for it are a little inconsistent sometimes. In Danganronpa 3 they're red and occasionally purple so it's a little weird haha! Sometimes he's not drawn with his gradient at all, a slight gradient with the same color, a red gradient, or a purple gradient so it's pretty confusing. His gradient also changes with how prominent it is depending on the art if there even is one. He's drawn most often with red subtle tips though so I think that was the intention. You could probably chalk it up to lighting if you wanted Lol.

While I do love a lot of his sprites I think some of them are pretty restrictive and lack all of the emotions we know he's able to show because he does in other appearances. This is why I really like when the Mangas allow him to be very expressive beyond what his sprites can convey! I think his sprites can really excel with some expressions but falls flat with others.

Rambles about his sprites in Dr2 and his slight inconsistencies aside, a lot of his art is great! (I'm very biased) but I do have some strong opinions, positively and negatively, on quite a few of them. The main thing is that I don't know if I actually have a favorite??? It's a really difficult question.

But I do want to highlight these three dr2 cgs I really like! He isn't fully 100% consistent here but I really like them. I know a lot of people think Nagito's showing Junko's arm art looks bad but I honestly like it. Nagito about to play Russian Roulette is such an awesome moment too! The one where he has the fire behind him is not only really cool, but also a really good in game shot of most of his body from a different angle!

I truly, again, love his manga art! His specific spin off's manga has a lot of really amazing, interesting, and fun visuals! Even if I'm not really fond of the anatomy the artist uses it's still really good stuff. The Danganronpa 2 spin off mangas have really good anatomy and expressions he looks sooo good there I'm in love with it.

While I'm at it I also want to highlight his reference sheet, it's clearly consistent because that's the job of a reference and I think his expression is pretty cute here. I don't really see people talk about it so I just wanted to also bring it up Lol.

For the most part I've really struggled to directly answer your question because he has a lot of different interpretations, art, and appearances that all mix together into one mental image or understanding of what he looks like for me. I really love most all of his art so it's hard to say. Nagito has a lot of different tones in his art as well, from his crazed ramblings to happy expressions, he has so many tonally different art pieces because he excels at being sweet and intimidating. This makes it even more difficult!

In conclusion, I don't believe I can come up with an absolute answer for you unfortunately. Regardless though, I definitely learned from this that I have strong opinions on all of his art. I hope you enjoyed my appreciation for some of his art and small talk about mild inconsistencies of his haha!!

Apologies this took so long and Thank you for your ask <3

[chaoyingmedia]

Raw footage

For this shot, I tried to do a POV shot of my dad looking at my mom while she holds his hand. I can adjust the HSL later when editing so the colour or saturation won't be a problem but however, I think that the two people in the background are a little distracting so I might try to figure a way to edit them out.

[tibbohonestwithyou]

Fraud

I popped down to the Causeway today to grab a snap of the Drove. I've been waiting for a break in the turgid weather we've been having to try and get out and test the new camera, and today happened to present the opportunity.

With all the rain of late the Drove has been close to overflowing, really the highest I've ever seen the water level (or at least noticed, anyway). I figured there would be a pretty reasonable composition down here with the, now fixed, focal length of 40mm.

I was wrong. It transpires there isn't really any focus to the image, it's a bit of a nothing shot, but I took it anyway as I still needed to test out the editing software I've opted to run with for now.

Over the last fifteen odd years I've learned an awful lot in Photoshop, especially for the purpose of photo editing. I've always tried to edit my photos with the intention of subtly enhancing what is already there, not pushing things. A tweak of saturation here, a smattering of contrast there, some gentle nudging around the Curves and Levels settings, the removal of distractions in the image with the aid of the clone and spot healing brushes, that sort of thing.

I've watched Photoshop advance in leaps and bounds from CS3 all the way up to the new cloud based system, which I unsubscribed from after selling all my Canon gear. This time round, however, I thought I'd grab something cheaper and less involved for my latest return to photography. I wanted something that I wouldn't end up spending too long fussing over, something that would let me make the fundamental tweaks, something akin to the apps I've been used to on my phone (Snapseed and the stock Android editing thingy, mainly).

I found something, but I'm not going to tell you what it is just yet.

The problem I've stumbled across today though is I think photo editing software has perhaps advanced a little too much now. It has certainly made some of the more advanced editing techniques very, very easy, and I don't think that's a good thing.

To set the scene of this shot; as I walked along the Causeway there were a couple of very large flocks of birds, a good eighty to one hundred birds in each, both twisting around in the sky right where I wanted to shoot. I couldn't believe my luck! When I actually arrived at the right spot to compose they'd all flown away, which was a bit rubbish. I decided to wait it out and see if they returned. During the wait a huge Heron turned up, accompanied by three very young Herons. I had a limited amount of time to spare, and during that time the large flocks never returned and the Herons never took flight again. I popped off a few frames whilst waiting but decided to give up as the light was changing and without the birds in the right place there was nothing that would make this a great image. I left.

I dumped the RAW into the new software to see if I'd enjoy the workflow or if I should revert back to Photoshop and Lightroom. I fiddled with the basic settings, all of which were straightforward and yielded the right results. Then I found some settings that made light work of serious enhancements. I tried one out. It worked too well.

Personally I don't think there is a bridge over the gap between image enhancement and image manipulation. The latter, to me at least, feels like it becomes a piece of digital artwork, not a true representation of what the camera saw. A photo captures that moment in time, it's a visual record of the scene/person/event etc. Shooting in RAW and then pulling back the exposure, colours and contrast is nothing new, it was a darkroom process before it was digital, and if done properly just serves to enhance that photo. Manipulation is something else entirely.

There is a fundamental aspect of this picture that wasn't how it looked through the lens, and it makes me feel like the whole image has been cheated, it's a fraud.

I've punched the colours and tones a bit, and I've done a couple of little tidy-ups, removed a plastic bottle that was floating in the water, and cropped slightly to 4:5 ratio. But with just one click (then some subsequent fine adjustments) something significant changed.

It's potentially put me off the software, but I'll persevere for a while to give it a fair test with lots of different images. I don't intend on using these manipulation tools anyway, I'm only really here for the basic bits and pieces.

Can you work out the edit? What are your thoughts on manipulation? Do you like the final image or do you agree it's a bit of a nothing? All of this stuff is subjective anyway.

Sound off in the comments (or in the Facebook comments if that's why you're here).

As an aside, if you were so inclined to zoom in just to the right of the darkest ripples in the water, you'd see the Heron and it's young, but I don't know what Tumblr compression is like, so they might be a bit blockier here than in the original.

1/200s - ISO 320 - f/16

[kaz-foxsen]

My Quest to Generate a Reverse Tiger

I was hoping to have a finished product to show off, but my quest to use AI to generate a photorealistic "reverse tiger" (orange stripes on black, which is a color morph I've made while playing with character creators in RPGs) is ongoing, so I'll share as I go along.

I started with the Stable Diffusion 1.4 model. My first attempt (Dec. 28, 2022) was to just use a text prompt like "photograph of a black tiger with orange stripes", but that didn't work out. The images sometimes came close, but weren't quite right:

I decided to start over by generating a normal tiger in a nice pose to use for img2img. I didn't intend to use two tigers, but this image was too good for me to pass up, so I decided that I'd reverse the colors on only one to create an interesting contrast:

I made a crude Photoshop edit to turn the base color black and the stripes orange and used that for img2img:

Sometimes I used in-painting to isolate the reverse tiger. The results were ok, but not quite photorealistic:

Some interesting failures:

While the black nose was an efficient way to convey the orange-black color swap concept, I realized that many of the results looked off because the faces violated my swap "rule". It wasn't initially obvious since the orange and black markings are of similar width, but I figured out a way to distinguish the base and stripe colors. The normal tiger's orange base color blends into the white parts, while the black stripes lie on top:

This would prove to be a huge stumbling block. I painted over the best result in Photoshop for another round of img2img:

The AI proved extremely stubborn about swapping colors so I couldn't give it too much strength but sticking too close to the image prompt created a fake-looking airbrush effect. Best result of 12/29/2022:

Prompt: a nature photograph of two (large cats), realistic fur texture, smooth whiskers, orange markings, orange stripes Negative Prompt: blur, blurry, ugly, deformed, airbrushed, airbrush, painting, drawing, ((green)), (((black stripes))), ((black spots)), crooked whiskers, broken whiskers Seed: 9091646 Width: 768 Height: 512 Steps: 70 Guidance Scale: 30.0 Prompt Strength: 0.3 Sampler: ddim

Since black stripes seem so inextricable to the keyword "tiger", I tried replacing it with things like "lion", "panther", and "large cat", but that didn't solve the problem. Enjoy some Cheeto-colored house cats:

I tried some more, but this was the best I could do so far:

Prompt: a (((nature photograph))) of two large cats, realistic fur texture, orange (((markings))), (((orange stripes))), ((black base fur color)), ((white cheeks)), Macro Negative Prompt: ((((ugly)))), (((duplicate))), ((morbid)), ((mutilated)), out of frame, ((poorly drawn face)), (((mutation))), (((deformed))), ((ugly)), (((blurry))), ((bad anatomy)), (((bad proportions))), ((extra limbs)), cloned face, (((disfigured))), out of frame, ugly, extra limbs, (bad anatomy), gross proportions, dead, zombie, ((((airbrushed)))), (((airbrush))), (((painting))), (((drawing))), ((green)), (((black stripes))), ((black spots)), crooked whiskers, broken whiskers, scruffy, thick whiskers, (((dark stripes)))), (((blurry fur))), (((blurry coat))), saturated orange, (((smeared))), bent whiskers, (oversaturated), ((flat)), (((2D))), (((brown stripes))), (((illustration))), crooked eyes, extra eyelid, ((yellow stripe)), (((gaussian blur))), (((cartoon))) Seed: 8711914 Width: 768 Height: 512 Steps: 70 Guidance Scale: 20.0 Prompt Strength: 0.35 Sampler: ddim

[supersources]

an easy visual guide on what to do when the psd you love doesn’t work as it should on the screencap you picked.

a common problem with heavier psds, some friends have asked me before how i make psds work for multimuses and stuff like that so i decided to make this little tutorial in case anyone else struggles with that out there. i’m not the best at explaining, but it’s simple enough. 

to me, the first step is to look at the picture that comes with the psd, often unedited. in this case, i’ll be using my psd 005 as an example. i made it using screencaps from z/endaya in the s/piderman movie. as you can see, the picture is low contrast and low brightness with a blue-ish green-ish filter. we know that because there isn’t too much variation between the white colors and the black colors, so we know the contrast and brightness are low. and we know it’s cyan / green tinted because the highlights have a blue undertone to them, and the shadows have a green / yellow undertone. pictures with similar tints and contrast will look the best with that psd. 

side note: if you can’t tell what’s the tint of your screencap, you can use the color picker and select the brightest spot to figure out the highlight tint, and the brightest shadow to found out the tint for the shadows. in this case, these are colors.

so if i take this picture of s/ydney s/weeney that looks nothing like z/endaya’s in terms of brightness and tint, it obviously won’t look good. it’s much warmer toned and brighter, though there is a similar amount of contrast it doesn’t matter much when both of the other things are off. 

it’s an easy fix which isn’t always the case but it’s easy to understand the basics. start with a color balance layer to even out the tones of your picture to make them more similar to the one the psd is based on. you start editing the one that first pops up but you can also use the ‘highlight’ and ‘shadow’ options later if the pictures are too different and the psd still doesn’t work. 

and then you can add a brightness & contrast layer. because we’ll be lowering the brightness considerably we’ll also have to lower the contrast, otherwise it’ll deepen the contrast levels of the original picture which we don’t want, because it’s already good. 

it’s already okay if you don’t wanna take too long, but to me it’s still too saturated, so you can add a vibrance & saturation layer and make it a little less colorful. 

remember that the adjustment layers must go BENEATH the psd for it to work, otherwise you’ll just be changing the psd. 

[uselessidiotsquad]

Plant Rambles: Deiliús and Sylvari Glows edition

This time it's mainly in regards to one of their main issues, their lack of glow. It's also a good way for me to dump HC's on what Dei's glow problem is, why it's important, and how it plays a role in Sylvari culture. This could get lengthy so I'll put it under the cut.

I'll put a TLDR at the end for peeps who are short on time!

Whereas some Sylvari can lose their glow due to injury or ailment, Dei simply just Awakened without one.

Dusk and Night are the most desirable shifts for the Tenders who really enjoy helping saplings. The reason why Dusk and Night are important is because it's when the Tenders first get to be able to see the color, brightness, and pattern of a saplings glow.

A saplings glow could be equated to a humans fingerprint, no two are the same (besides maybe twins). The color might be similar but the saturation could be different, or the patterning, or the brightness level, or even the pattern of fluctuation it shows.

So seeing a saplings first glow could be the equivalent of hearing a newborns first cry - it's a sign that they are healthy and developed. This is why the more dedicated Tenders prefer the darker shifts is because it is one more thing they can use to make sure the saplings are well.

Now, enter Deiliús. All other signs of their development were normal. Their pod was healthy as far as everyone could tell for the entire time that they were developing. The only change is the timing - Dei and was born around the same time when old Mordy was getting its ass kicked.

The Pale Tree was not at her healthiest here but nothing was off during their development. Given a shift in the magical paradigm, especially one so closely related to Sylvari, we could use that as justification for why something did not switch 'on' for their glow.

So Dei awakens, healthy, normal, a bit groggy but to be expected. Things seems fine, the Tenders go about business with helping the unsteady legged beanpole of a Sapling get adjusted, figure out where they are, things like that. Then Night rolls forward and they show no signs of a glow. Now there is worry.

Glows, in a practical sense, could be seen as another form of non-verbal communication. Like how sometimes ones posture can tell you a lot about what they are feeling, this is how I see glows working for Sylvari.

A bright glow I equate to strong feelings, a wavering glow could be uncertainty, a strongly pulsing glow could be confidence or focus. A dim glow could mean illness or pain, a flickering glow means distress, and no glow at all is alarming.

For a human equivalent, imagine if someone had the body posture that suggested they were about to pass out. Maybe they look pale, uneasy, or uncomfortable. Maybe they are wobbly a little. Naturally, you'd be a bit alarmed, maybe even try to help see if they need to sit down or something. But then if you found out that was their normal it would confusing and go against what seems like an innate understanding.

This is the situation Deiliús is in. That's how they are perceived without a glow by most of the other Sylvari.

Here's how it applies to them in the recent past and current.

As a only few hours old sapling that's very impressionable having the ones who are caring for you tell you,

"Oh no, there's something wrong with you."

It leaves a very big mark on their mental and emotional state. The Tenders had good intents, as they tried to ask questions and get more information as to how they were feeling, if something was bothering them, trying to get to the bottom of why they have no glow. But in reality all it did was overwhelm an already confused sapling who didn't have answers.

Having one of the first experiences of your existence being others convinced that you're already flawed! Is it any wonder at all that they grew to be so insecure and bothered by it?

The older they get, the more Sylvari they are around, the most the contrast of Glow vs No Glow becomes apparent. By now, they already believe that something is wrong with them, that they are flawed or broken somehow. This is when the self-injury habit starts out of genuine curiosity if their bark was the the source of the glow not emerging.

As different plant attuned Sylvari have different bark, there's no one size fits all. Dei thought that maybe their bark was just too thick in areas and tried to remedy it by thinning it in areas. It didn't work. For some Sylvari I think their scars can glow but not for everyone - again an individual thing rather than a broader scope.

All this did - besides get them stuck on a damaging habit - was scar the light colored bark up and make them stick out even more. It was out of necessity that they discovered their Mesmer abilities. Finding relief that there was at least a way to imitate a glow so they could stop hiding from others as soon as it gets dark. Eventually, they even got skilled enough to be able to hide the scars and current injuries, though they still dressed more covered in case something slipped up.

Currently, they are still in Diamhasla's Court of Blasphemy. They had the living hell beat out of them from Mad and are even more scarred up than they used to be. This is what is pushing them, along with Diam's insistence, to advance their Mesmer abilities again. Their lack of glow isn't seen as as much of a taboo among Nightmare, who are generally occupied with more direct (unpleasant) things.

TLDR:

-Dei awoke without a glow, likely from the timing of Mordy kicking it during final stages of their developement.

-A glow is both a means of non-verbal communication and method of determining well-being for Sylvari.

-No two glows are alike (except for twins) like fingerprints.

-One of their first memories was of being told that something was wrong with them which planted the seed to their extreme insecurity.

-They attempted to remedy it through self-injury but it just made things worse.

-The necessity to conceal both lack of glow and scars sparked their Mesmer abilities.

-Currently they are even more scarred up in the Court of Blasphemy thanks to both Mad and a toxic environment furthering their harmful habit.

-This combination will push their Mesmer magic even further to be able to extend their illusions outwardly.

[dragynkeep]

Feel free to ignore this if you want, but how do you make your edits? I really want to do the same to create my oc's, but I wouldn't even know where to start.

I don’t mind teaching people the basics of how I do my edits, let’s start!

So, I use Paint Tool Sai, so everything I do is based around that. You don’t need Paint Tool Sai, but I don’t know how you could do it on other programs so you can either just get a free copy or play around and figure out the specifics for yourselves.

Now, let’s say I’m editing Ruby’s Atlas outfit, I’d need a screenshot of her, preferably one from the Atlas Arc!

Obviously, if it has a background like this with multiple people that I don’t feel like editing or don’t want, I’ll have to find a different background to put my finished edit on. Otherwise, I can just put the finished Ruby back on and carry on editing out any bits that can’t be hidden.

Open up Paint Tool Sai and first matter of business is... shrinking the head.

Yeah, I don’t know why, but the heads on the female bodies are always so dispropotionately big, especially when compared to the men. It can lead to some wierd shots like this:

Seriously, her head is twice the size of his. Someone tell CRWBY that women’s skulls are not sexually dimorphic, we all have the same skulls.

Fortunately, Ruby doesn’t need to be shrunk much in this specific screenshot, plus a bigger head is typically for younger characters and makes her look younger than everyone else, if it wasn’t for every woman having this head shape that it. 

But on some of my edits, especially my Ruby and Aurora one, I had to shrink their heads by like a third, it was horrendous.

After a good deshrinking, set the layer the ss is on at around 50%, it doesn’t really matter so long as you can see the lines you’re about to draw. I don’t have a drawing tablet, and the arthritis means that it’s too painful and uncomfortable to draw, so I just use a mouse.

Word of advice, here. It’s okay if your lines aren’t super clean, what’s important is you’ve laid the base down for the cleaner lines to be put on later. But here, you do have to put in extra work if you want a different body type since RWBY doesn’t offer much in terms of diversity. For Eirian, I have to physically draw the muscles for her since Ruby has none, so I would suggest either having some familiarity with drawing on your own or have plenty of references to guide you.

Okay! With the main sketch lines down, we move on to cleaning everything up! Set the sketch layer to around 50 - 60% opacity, or until you can see your lines over it but can still make it out from the screenshot.

On a lineart layer, choose the lineart tool and make sure it’s 0.7 width. I use 4 for drawing, but using this very skinny width makes it appear more like an actual RWBY model than just a drawing over it.

When you’re done with that, it should look like this! In the layers section, you’ll notice two new lineart layers as well. You have a main one for most of the lineart since the colour won’t change, but for the highlights, lips and eyes, it’s best to have them on a separate one underneath the main one.

The reason for this is because, once you change the colour of the lines later on during colouring, having them all on one layer means that the coloured lines overlap on the black outlines, which doesn’t look nice. The highlights in the eyes should be on the layer beneath the main one, and the layer for the lips and eyes themselves should be on the layer under that. Any other details you might wanna add that have a coloured lineart should go on that layer too.

Once the lineart is done, we have one more thing to do before we get to the next stage. Pressure tool.

It’s not hard to find on the tool bar, it’s right between edit and select, but I use this to make the lines flow more seemlessly rather than stop abruptly. When you select the pressure tool, simply pinch any ends of lines on your edit, like strands of hair or the fold lines on Ruby’s cape. 

It should look something like this when you’re done! Compress all the lineart together and move on to the next step: lighting.

Before we can get to colouring, we need to put done the lines for the lighting. First, determine where the source of light is coming from, and put down all the lines that would happen from that light source. Also, make sure the colour of your shadows lines are not black, so you can distinguish them from the base lines. I usually gross a mid tone grey.

Like this! Once all the lineart is done and its all on one layer, we can move on to colouring.

I used to just simple cell shading like Maya RWBY, but I’ve moved more towards detailed shading so it’s easier to give it more texture and such. I have a colour pallete handy, and colour using four different colours: the base, highlights, base to shadow, and the actual shadow.

For example, with Ruby’s skin tone, her colour pallete would look like this:

[Highlight, base, base to shadow, and shadow]

With the select tool, select all the area you want to colour in. Obviously, don’t do the shadow areas first, they gotta go on after. Add the base colour first, and then do the highlights like this;

With the blur tool, simply blend it together until it’s all blended together:

Like this. Repeat with the base to shadow colour, going along wherever the shadow lines touch the skin.

Next is simply doing the shadows on the face.

With your colour tool, simply click the grey shadow lines with the shade colour selected and they’ll turn that colour.

I add blush to my edits so they have more colour to their cheeks. The colour of the blush depends heavily on the person’s skin tone, so I do it by taking the base, darkening it while upping the saturation, and moving a bit closer to the end beginning of the spectrum where red should be.

The blush layer (the one currently selected) should be above the skin layer so that you can just clip it onto the skin. This means you don’t have to reselect every part of the face just to do the blush.

Slap the blush colour on like this and then blend until it’s as natural as you like.

It should look like this once everything is done, and you changed the lip line to the colour of the lips! You can do this for most textures, changing it up when you need to (i.e. cell shading for metal with more harsh highlights, leather has bright highlights that aren’t blended completely together with the base colour).

A problem with having the lines so thin is that, while colouring, the colours can tend to “bleed” if a layer with a lighter colour is next to a layer with a darker colour, and the lighter layer is on top of the darker layer. If you just make sure all the darker colours are above lighter ones, it should be fine.

Now, with hair, it’s a bit different to how I colour everything else, especially two toned hair like Ruby’s.

Rather than just highlighting the base part, I highlight all of it (save for the hair spike but that’s just because I don’t need to two tone that and it’s just get in the way).

Once selected, I put the base hair colour down and then the colour of the tips, before I put blend it all together..

The highlights and the first shadows are on separate layers. 

Since Ruby’s hair is two toned, we have to put the highlights on an overlay setting so that it changes depending on what the colour is underneath. Blend it in

Repeat with the first shadows layer, making sure its separate from the base and the highlights layers. Also, set the shadows layer to overlay for same reasons as the highlights layer.

Now for the shadows, deselect all of the hair and then select all the parts of the shadows only.

Once all selected, make a new layer for the shadows and colour it all a very dark version of the hair’s base colour, near enough to black without being black since we want it to be tinted a colour.

After making sure the shadows layer is clipped to the hair layer, like we did with the blush, we can delete all the grey lines where the shadows are. You can easily do this by holding Alt while on the lineart tool and simply click the lines to delete them.

Now set the shadows layer to around 50% opacity so the shadows match colour to the hair. 

Now, rather than use the blur tool, we use the gaussian tool instead. It’s not a tool that comes with Paint Tool Sai, so here’s my settings on a customised water brush:

With the Gaussian tool, just blend the shadows with the hair until it looks like softer shadows rather than harsh lines like on the face.

And that’s it for the hair! If the character’s hair is just one colour, you don’t need to do any settings on the highlights or the shadows, but the process is the same after!

Now that we have Ruby done, it’s time for the eyes! My most favourite part and the one I have to do last, otherwise I’ll do them and then abandon the project.

Note: The sclera (White parts) layer should be below the lashes but above the skin layer, since we’ll be turning the grey lines to white once done. The highlights layer should be between the sclera and the lashes, while the irises layer should be between the sclera and the highlights.

If you want the highlights to pop more, make the sclera an off white instead of pure white, while the highlights are pure white. It makes them stand out more.

Similar to the skin pallete, the eyes should have a base, highlights, shadows, and a darker colour for the pupils. Ruby’s pallete would be like this:

Now, with the bottom half of the eyes selected, fill it in with the base colour.

Then simply colour in some highlights at the bottom. 

And blend together!

After that, just add in the shadows and recolour the lines.

With the irises, I always colour them in a very dark tone of the eye colour, similar to how Yang’s are coloured in canon! Recolour the pupil’s colour line, and the lines around the iris itself.

And that’s how to colour in the eyes!

Now that Ruby is done, we just have to give her a background! If you picked a good screenshot, you can just put the person back on it and edit out anything peeking out from behind them, but this specific screenshot has a lot of people in the background that looks way different to how Ruby is coloured, so I’ll have to find another one.

If you can find one of just a background, great! Slap the character on and move to the next stage, but a lot of the screenshots on the wiki are either too cluttered or just not right, so I’m gonna have to do a lil’ trick I constantly do when characters won’t get out of the way.

A screenshot like this, with a character far away and plenty of background, is a good enough one for this.

Take a part of it and stretch it out, you can make it seem like the person is part of the set. Obviously, you need to get a pretty good chunk, otherwise it could look pixelated and just not great.

Since Ruby still looks like she’s not part of the set, she needs to have a filter put over to adjust her lighting. The best way to get the lighting to match the scene is to find a character from the OG screenshot, and colour pick the colour off any white parts of their body. You’ll always find white on their person since everyone’s scleras are white.

Once you have the filter colour, clip a new layer on top of your character layer like so:

Change the layer setting to Multiply and then paint it on the character!

With the filter on, you can adjust it with some darker and lighter so it looks like the light is shining on her.

And there we go! There’s other little tricks that I do, like making the character’s eyes glow in the dark like with Blake and Ruby, or the Maiden’s fire eyes like in my Aurora piece, but this post is already so long. If people wanna learn how to do those, I can make another tutorial to help!