#Subject Masking Tutorial

[doink]

Capturing Winter Magic: Subject Masking in Green Screen by DoInk – Stuck in a Snow Globe Lesson

Step into a winter wonderland of creativity with our latest blog post and video tutorial! In this guide, we'll explore the enchanting world of subject masking using Green Screen by DoInk, focusing on the delightful and always popular "Stuck in a Snow Globe" project. Whether you're an educator bringing seasonal magic to your lessons or a content creator looking to add a touch of whimsy to your videos, this step-by-step tutorial is your key to unlocking the magic of subject masking in all time favorite Winter project of being stuck in a snow globe.

What you will learn:

Introduction to the Subject Masking Tool in Green Screen by DoInk

Crafting the "Stuck in a Snow Globe" project from start to finish

Tips for optimal subject masking in various scenarios

Enhancing your project with overlays, animations, and text

Real-world examples for inspiration and application

Empowering your creative storytelling with subject masking

Subject masking in Green Screen by DoInk opens up a world of creative possibilities, and the "Stuck in a Snow Globe" project is just the beginning. Whether you're telling a winter tale or creating festive content, subject masking adds a touch of magic to your storytelling.

Unlock the magic of subject masking and transport your subjects into a winter wonderland. Share your enchanted projects with us, and let the seasonal storytelling begin!

[eddiediaaz]

Hi! Can I ask how you did the double exposure gifs for your merlin set? They're beautiful btw!

heyy, thank you!! of course!

it's actually not very hard, the trick is to find the right shots for this. here's how i did it (reference gifset), under the cut.

for this tutorial i will be: — using photoshop cs5 on windows — assuming you know how to make gifs using the timeline — have basic coloring, sharpening, groups, and layer masks knowledge

I. CHOOSING THE RIGHT SHOTS

the ultimate trick to pull this off is to choose the right image. in order to do the double exposure, you need a silhouette shot that has these:

a defined and dark silhouette with a background that is not too busy

enough contrast between the silhouette and the background

the silhouette should take at least 50% of the space

not too much movement

here are a few examples of why they work and why they won't:

gwen: perfect example since this shot is already quite contrasted with a defined silhouette. there won't be a lot of work needed to make this one work.

merlin: not a great example because even tho there's a somewhat good contrast between him and the background, the silhouette is just too bright, not dark enough.

arthur: another good example, even if there are some bright spots on his face and armor. since he's not moving too much, you can definitely brush some black over him to make his silhouette darker (i'll explain/show later)

morgana: this one could work because the contrast is great, but of course her skintone is very bright against the black clothing. that being said, since the movement is not too bad, it could be possible to brush some black over her and move these layers with keyframes (as mentioned for arthur's example). i haven't tried it tho, but i think it would work well enough.

once you have your silhouette shot, you need another gif for the double exposure. what works best, in my opinion, are:

wide, large shots

shots with no to little camera movement (no pan, zoom, etc), but the subjects in the shot can have little movement of course

pretty cinematography/scenery shots

i find these are easier to find and make it work, it's not as "precise" as with silhouette shots. it's mostly just trial and error to see what works best with the silhouettes.

II. PREPPING THE SILHOUETTE

for the effect to work, we want a silhouette that's dark as possible. i'm gonna use the gwen and arthur shots as examples.

for the gwen gif, i started by sharpening, and then upped the contrast by quite a lot so her silhouette is mostly black, while retaining some nice details. i've used only 3 layers here:

selective color layer: in the blacks tab, playing with the black slider (value: +10)

brightness/contrast layer: added a lot of contrast (+61) and a bit of brightness (+10)

black and white layer: on top, its blending mode set to soft light and at 20% opacity. gives a bit more depth and contrast

then for the arthur example, i've also sharpened it first, and added contrast layers in this order (the skintone looks horrible, but it won't matter soon lol):

levels layer: black slider at 0, grey slider at 0.76, white slider at 104

selective color layer: in the blacks tab, black slider at +10

brightness/contrast layer: brightness at +1-, contrast at +47

black and white layer: on top, its blending mode set to soft light and at 20% opacity. gives a bit more depth and contrast

as you can see, half of his face is still quite bright. to correct that, create a new empty layer and put it between the gif and the coloring layers.

using a really soft brush and the black color, brush some black over his face and body on that new empty layer. you can edit the layer's opacity if you want, i've set mine to 71%. since arthur doesn't move much here, there's no need to keyframe this layer's position. for the morgana example, this is where you'd need to play with keyframes to make it work. here's where i'm at now after this:

you can always edit this layer later if you need, after doing the double exposure blending.

once the silhouette is all ready, you can put all layers in a group and rename it (i've renamed mine silhouette).

III. BLENDING

now the fun part! import the wide/scenery shot in photoshop, then resize it to the same height of your silhouette gif. make sure the gif is a smart object layer, and sharpen it. finally, bring this gif onto the silhouette canvas (by right clicking the smart object > duplicate layer). once you have both gifs onto your canvas, put the wide shot gif layer in a group, and set this group's blending option to screen.

you can then position the wide/scenery gif the way you like it in the canvas. this is how it looks for both examples after i've done that:

if the blending mode screen doesn't give you the best result, so you can play around with other blending modes (such as lighten and linear dodge in these particular cases), but generally speaking, screen is the real mvp here haha.

IV. COLORING

now that the double exposure effect is done, we need to color the gifs to bring them together. i went with simple coloring here, simply enhancing the colors that were already there. just make sure that the coloring layers for each gif are in their respective groups. here's how i've colored both examples:

gwen silhouette group: i added a gradient map layer on top of the contrast layers in black to green and set the blending mode to color

scenery shot group: multiple coloring layers, with a green color fill layer (blending mode set to color), with a layer mask so it only affects the top half of the gif

for the arthur gif, i did something very similar but with warmer colors. i didn't use a gradient map for arthur though:

arthur silhouette group: i made the yellow warmer, closer to orange/red, with a hue/saturation layer, and added more vibrance. didn't feel like it needed a gradient map layer here though.

wide shot group: basic coloring layers to enhance colors from the merlin & daegal shot, and an orange color fill layer set to the color blending mode.

at this point you're pretty much done. just need to add some final touches and typography (if you want).

V. FINAL TOUCHES

a small and completely optional detail, but i wanted to soften the edges of the wide gifs. to do so i've duplicated the smart object gif layer and removed the sharpening filters (right click on smart filter > clear smart filters). put this layer on top of the other smart object layers (but still below the coloring).

then with this same layer still selected, go to filter > blur > gaussian blur... > 10px. this will give you a very blurry gif, but we only want the edges of the canvas to be softer. so add a layer mask to this layer. with a very large and soft brush (mine was at 0% hardness and about 800px size), brush some black onto the layer mask to remove the blur in the middle of the gif.

you can play with this layer's opacity or gaussian blur amount if you want (by double clicking on the gaussian blur smart layer filter). here how both examples look with this gaussian blur layer:

you can also mask some of wide/scenery gifs if you'd prefer, so it shows less outside of the silhouette. just put a layer mask on that whole wide shot group and brush some black or grey on the layer mask. it's what i did for the gwen gif, with a very soft brush and i set the mask density to 72% (i kept the arthur one as is tho):

and that's how i did it! hopefully that was clear enough :)

[antoniosvivaldi]

Rotoscoping Tutorial by @antoniosvivaldi​​

Hi everyone! I’m excited to announce my long-delayed Rotoscoping Tutorial - requested by a number of people over the past calendar year. 

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create the cutout gifs like this (and seen in most of my gifsets under this tag) with Rotoscoping on After Effects. I’ll also provide additional examples and a number of things that I do to optimise my giffing / Rotoscoping workflow (e.g. useful shortcuts & other things to be aware of).

This is the structure of the tutorial:

Why Rotoscoping? Photoshop video timeline’s limitations

Photoshop workflow pt 1: Preparing your gif

After Effects workflow: Interface, shortcuts, and Rotoscoping tools

Photoshop workflow pt 2: Assembling your gif; with multiple examples

Bonus content: Rotoscoping tips* & workarounds to common issues

For quick reference, here are example gifsets (and where Rotoscoping is used in the posts) that I will mention in the tutorial:

Example 1: Cutout gif effect | panels 2 + 4

Example 2: Changing a gif’s background colour | all panels

Example 3: Cutout gif effect in a shape | all panels

Example 4: Putting it all together | panels 1, 3, & 5

What you need & need to know:

Software: Photoshop & After Effects (After Effects 2021 or later for Rotobrush 2.0)*

Hardware: 16GB RAM required to run later versions of AE*

Difficulty: Advanced; Knowledge in making gifs, applying layer masks, and using video timeline interface assumed

Key concepts: Rotoscoping (AE) / Video Timeline (AE+ PS) / Layer Masks & Groups (PS)

Supplementary files: tutorial resources

*I’m currently running the latest version of PS & AE on an M2 Mac, but I’ve also used older versions (CC 2015 & 2020) on Intel-based Macs. I’ll outline some known compatibility & performance issues, and workarounds later in this tutorial that could help streamline your giffing workflow.

Tutorial under the cut. Like / Reblog this post if you find this tutorial helpful. Linking this post / the example gifsets in your post caption, will be greatly appreciated if you read this to create effects seen in Examples 3 + 4.

1) Why Rotoscoping?

My Rotoscoping journey is motivated by the shortcomings on Photoshop - namely the limited options to manipulate the Layer Mask keyframes in the video timeline interface, as well my need to gif more efficiently.

Suppose I want to cutout this subject or recolour the background of a gif on Photoshop: I personally classify the gifs that I prepare on PS into 3 types based on the motion of the subject

These are the common Photoshop-only approaches when attempting to mask the subject in the gif.

Case 1: minimal motion in the subject → a simple layer mask will do the trick

Case 2: some linear panning of the subject in the gif → using the Layer Mask Position keyframes in the video timeline interface will do the trick

Case 3: subject moves around a lot (e.g. zoom motion) → Unfortunately this is where a Photoshop-only workflow will require frame by frame masking. Layer Mask Position keyframes only apply positional translation (but not transformation / rotation) on the layer mask

Enter Rotoscoping on After Effects: Instead of resigning to frame by frame procedure on Photoshop, I opted to make my life easier by learning to Rotoscope on After Effects. This essentially provides me an opportunity to cutout / recolour a wider range of gifs with relative ease.

2) Photoshop pt. 1: Preparing your gif

Prepare your gif the usual way - whether you screencap or import frames from video.

Then your Photoshop should look like this:

Now, I shall walkthrough & explain my personal giffing workflow (as of 2023) after loading the gif frames. To speed up the process, import my gif prep action file to Photoshop.

Going to Window > Action, you’ll see a set of actions under the “gif prep” folder. 

"set frame delay for timeline” (highlighted in yellow) will set all of your entire gif’s frame delay to 0.03s

“convert to timeline“ (highlighted in red) will take you to the Video Timeline interface

To play an action, press on the Play button (highlighted in green)

i. Set the frame delay of the entire gif to 0.03s. (play “set frame delay for timeline” from my gif prep action pack)

I work with everything in 0.03s frame delay (or equivalently 30fps) at first. It’s always possible to change the frame delay of the final gif to 0.05s before uploading onto Tumblr.   

ii) Convert this gif to a Smart Video Layer (play “convert to timeline” from my action pack)

Note: I personally don’t resize the gif just yet. That’s because Rotoscoping in full video resolution will render higher quality details around the edges as well as more flexibilities later on in the editing process.

Performance optimisation: If your computer has 8GB of RAM or less, you might find it helpful to crop / resize your gif to Tumblr dimensions now for a less sluggish performance in After Effects later on. 

(I have giffed on a desktop with 8GB of RAM and it’s quite slow at rendering individual frames of a 1080p short clip on AE)

iii) Add colouring adjustments on the gif. This will save you A LOT of time when you Rotoscope gifs that are originally very dark / poorly lit (e.g. the uncoloured Taylor Swift gif shown just above). 

If you usually colour your gifs at the very end of your giffing process (i.e. after sharpening), this will be a bit of a change.Nevertheless I still highly recommend adding some base colourings now to at least increase the contrast between the subject and the background.

iv) To minimise lagging on After Effects, simplify this gif file as follows: 

Flatten / Unsmart this gif file back to frame animation mode: play “flatten” (highlighted in red) from my gif prep action pack

Set the frame delay to 0.03s: play “set frame delay for timeline” (highlighted in green)

Convert the simplified gif file back to the video timeline interface: play “convert to timeline” (highlighted in yellow)

After “unsmarting” and converting back to the video timeline, your interface should look like this

And voila! This gif PSD is now ready to be imported to After Effects for Rotoscoping work!

3) After Effects: Interface and useful shortcuts

Open After Effects and Import (Cmmd / Ctrl + I) your gif PSD that you’ve just prepared.

After importing your gif PSD to After Effects, the interface should look like this. 

In the screenshot below, there are two compositions: the imported gif (highlighted in green) & another composition file made from selecting the imported gif (highlighted in red)

For the rest of the workflow, we will edit from the clone composition (the one highlighted in red), so select this one.

Before we take our plunge into the Rotoscoping, here are a few useful shortcuts to remember. I’ll explain the Roto Brush tool in the next section.

Preview the previous: fn + up arrow

Preview the next frame: fn + down arrow

Add to Roto Brush selection: holding Shift while you’re using the Roto Brush Tool

Subtract from Roto Brush selection: holding Alt while you’re using the Roto Brush Tool

Change Roto Brush size: while holding Cmmd / Ctrl, click + drag your mouse left / right

4) After Effects: The Rotoscoping Process

To access the Rotoscoping tools, click on the Roto Brush icon (highlighted in red in the screenshot below)

Then you’ll get the following dropdown options with two Rotoscoping Tools

Roto Brush Tool: This is where you add / subtract your Rotoscoping selection in your composition

Refine Edge Tool: Paint around the edge of your selection for more refined edges. Very helpful for Rotoscoping fuzzy edges / hairs

To make some Rotoscoping selection, first grab the Roto Brush Tool and click on the subject you want to cut out from your composition. 

When you’re Rotoscoping you’ll see this in the Effect Controls panel. 

There are two versions of Roto Brush:

Version 2.0: The Rotoscoping selection is powered by AI for higher accuracy when you propagate the frames. 

Version 1.0 (Classic): This is the legacy Roto Brush Tool that uses a lesser algorithm. Recommended only if Roto Brush 2.0 is unstable on your machine due to RAM issues.

And two quality settings for Roto Brush 2.0:

Standard

Best

Note: I am currently unable to use Roto Brush 2.0 with Best quality model on my machine to compare the differences myself, so I’ll link this page that explains the two quality settings.

Note: if you’re using an older version of After Effects you’ll see this instead. This corresponds to Roto Brush 1.0 / Classic in the newer versions of AE.

When you’ve made a selection using the Roto Brush Tool, you’ll see the pink lines around the subject. This is the region that you’ve selected to Rotoscope!

To bring out some details around the edges, grab the Refine Edge Tool and paint around the edges

Then the interface will look like this

To view the Rotoscoping selection that you’ve made more intuitively, you could click on the following buttons.

Personally I like the viewing my selection using Toggle Alpha (the second box from the left) & Toggle Alpha Boundary (the 3rd box from the left)

Toggle Alpha

Toggle Alpha Boundary

Note: If you aren’t happy with the initial Roto Brush selection, you can always add (press Shift while using the Roto Brush Tool) / subtract (press Alt / Option using the Roto Brush Tool) your selection.

After you’re happy with your Rotoscoping selection in the first frame of your composition, press fn + down to view the next frame.

Repeat pressing fn + down and fix the selection along the way (e.g. I subtracted a small area from my Rotoscoping selection with the Roto Brush tool to make the edge look cleaner).

After fixing the selection along the way, go back to the composition file (select the clone composition again) and you will see that a cutout gif is made!

To export this, go to File > Export > Add to Render Queue. You’ll be redirected to the Render Queue panel at the bottom of After Effects. 

Highlighted in red: click to change export setings

Highlighted in green: click to change save destination

Highlighted in yellow: click to render video

To preserve the transparency of your cutout gif, you need to change your export settings in the Output Module. 

Under the Video Output section, change your Channels to RGB + Alpha. Press OK. Then Render the video.

5) Photoshop pt. 2: Assembling your final gif

The essence is to drag the cutout gif (aka the video file that you’ve just rendered on AE) into a new PSD composition file. This will be where you’ll do the rest of your giffing. Your workflow will contain the follow steps:

Make a new blank PSD composition file in Tumblr dimensions

Enable the Video Timeline

Follow the instructions detailed in the individual examples i.e. drag the cutout gif into the PSD & adjust the timeline start / end points

Exporting the final gif. If you’ve worked in 0.03s frame delay all the way up to here, just play the action that I’ve provided in the tutorial in the following order to set the frame delay to 0.05s.

EXAMPLE 1: finalising your cutout gif | sample gifset

After enabling the Video Timeline in your PSD composition file you’ll see something like this

Go to your folder, drag the cutout gif you’ve made on After Effects, resize / reposition, then press Enter. 

And also make sure to adjust the Video Timeline’s start / end values.

Add some finishing touches. Because I did the Rotoscoping at full HD resolution, I’ll also need to sharpen my gif in this step.

After you’re happy, you can export this into a gif file and do what you usually do to change the frame delay to 0.05s. 

Notes on my “Unsmarting” approach:

To prevent accidentally writing over a PSD composition file that I’ve spent time editing, I personally render this into a short video (File > Export > Render Video) and use the following export settings (to prevent quality loss)

Then I open the rendered clip and play the actions in my gif prep action pack as follows:

flatten: this “Unsmarts” the clip / video

set frame rate: this sets all frames to have 0.05s frame delay

This is the final interface that I get before I pull up the Save For Web window.

EXAMPLE 2: changing your gif’s background colour (for Case 3 gifs) | sample gifset

From your folder, drag BOTH the cutout gif (rendered on AE) and the original gif to your blank composition. 

Important: you need to make sure that both layers are properly lined up in the composition file (i.e. selecting both layers when repositioning / resizing)

 On Photoshop, press Enter twice and place the cutout gif on top of the original gif from the Layers panel. Then you should get something like this

Select both layers and resize / reposition them in your PSD composition until you’re satisfied with the placements.

The basic idea here is to add some adjustment layers / other things in between the cutout gif and the original gif. To do this, select the original gif layer in the Layers panel.

Then you can start adding.a bunch layers e.g. textures, onto the composition.

And then here’s the exported gif!

6) Fancier Rotoscoping examples

Note: knowledge in using layer masks / groups and making shape / text layers assumed

In the next two examples, I’ll show you how to combine the two previous examples with shape / text layers.

EXAMPLE 3: Placing your cutout gif into a shape / text layer | sample gifset

Add a text / shape layer to your blank PSD composition

We want to prepare a masked group so in the Layers panel:

Make selection from layer: Cmmd / Ctrl + Click (highlighted in red)

Make a new group: click on the folder icon (in yellow)

Create layer mask: click on the icon (in green)

After duplicating the masked group you’ll get something like this in the Layers panel

Drag your cutout gif into the PSD composition

Place the cutout gif into the masked group on top

Select the mask of the top group and paint (in white) over the region you want to reveal for the cutout gif

Add some finishing touches & export the gif!

EXAMPLE 4: Putting it all together | sample gifset

You follow the same approach as in Example 3 to prepare the masked groups, but you need to drag two gif layers in (and resize them using the approach outlined in Example 2)

Place the gif layers as follows

While selecting the mask of the group on top, paint (in white) over the region that you want to reveal in the cutout gif

Now select the original gif (placed within the other group) and add some adjustment layers

After adding some finishing touches & exporting the gif, I get this!

Note: you can do even more overlay effects in the background portion of example 4. There will just be more masked groups + adjustment layers

7) Bonus: Some useful Rotoscoping / giffing lifehacks

GIFFING LIFEHACKS:

— Use best quality footage that you could find & Rotoscope in full video resolution, for better details around the edges

— Poorly lit scenes & low contrast edges are harder to Rotoscope (e.g. Toy Story set / TS evermore set).

If you’re new to AE, I would recommend choosing videos with well-lit gifs with simpler backgrounds and high contrast edges (e.g. Maisie Peters Cate’s Brother set)

— Use Rotobrush 2.0 if you’re using After Effects 2021 or later. It’s more difficult to Rotoscope / change background colour for gifs with a lot of movements with the classic Rotobrush tool. If the scene is tricky, you might want to switch to the “Best” quality model.

HARDWARE-RELATED PERFORMANCE OPTIMISATION:

— The recent versions of Photoshop require at least 8GB of RAM. If you have less RAM, it will still work provided you have enough scratch disk space. For better performance, it’s best to close other applications when you’re using Photoshop.

— The recent versions of After Effects require at least 16GB of RAM. If your machine has less RAM than this, there are some workarounds to prevent your machine from hanging: 

Essential: close other applications that you’re running on your computer

Resize your gif down to Tumblr dimensions & sharpen it before importing to After Effects.

Install an older version of AE 

8) Bonus: Some known software + hardware issues, and workarounds

KNOWN ISSUES ON PHOTOSHOP:

I currently have minimal issues in my giffing workflow, but I’ll nevertheless outline a few common known Photoshop issues for anyone who needs some workarounds.

— Video Timeline interface missing: this affects Apple Silicon Macs (i.e. M1 / M1 Pro / M1 Max / M1 Ultra / M2 / M2 Pro / M2 Max)

Update to newer version of Photoshop (updated 2022 or 2023)

Open Photoshop with Rosetta

— Scratch disk full error: This is a common issue with machines that lack RAM & have nearly used up internal storage. Editing video layers in the timeline interface uses a lot of memory hence will require a lot of scratch disk space. 

Make sure that you have enough free storage space while using Photoshop. Alternatively you can use an external hard drive as a scratch disk.

KNOWN ISSUES ON AFTER EFFECTS:

These are a few issues that I have personally ran into over the course of giffing on multiple devices & multiple versions of After Effects.

Note: Inputs from M1 / M2 Mac users with regards to experiences on using the After Effects Rotoscoping tools are welcome!

— Rotobrush 2.0 set to “Best” quality model causes AE to crash: this affects anyone who’s using MacOS Ventura

I’m currently experiencing this issue on my M2 Mac. The workaround right now is to change the Roto Brush 2.0 quality setting to Standard. 

This is due to some software compatibility issues on Adobe’s side specifically with MacOS Ventura. Fingers crossed that they will properly fix this bug in the future updates!

— Cannot re-open project files with Rotoscoping: this affects anyone using the initial release of After Effects 2020 (I had installed this on an Intel-based machine and it sucked)

The only option here is to update to a later version of After Effects.

8) More useful Rotoscoping resources

Rotoscoping + Keyframes Tutorial by @jenna--ortega​

Rotoscoping + Masking Tutorial by @usergif​

Rotoscoping For Beginners in After Effects | Motion Graphics Tutorial

I hope you enjoy reading this! If you have any questions / need any help related to this tutorial, feel free to send me an ask!

[cal-kestis]

HOW TO: Make a Pantone “Color of the Year” Gif

A few people have asked about my Pantone sets which use the “Color of the Year” swatch design. So, here’s a full tutorial with a downloadable template of my exact overlay! Disclaimer: This tutorial assumes you have a basic understanding of gif-making in Photoshop.

PHASE 1: PICKING A SCENE + PANTONE COLOR(S)

I’m starting with this because it’s crucial for planning your gifset as well as making sure the execution is smooth sailing. The steps in this phase won’t necessarily be literal steps but some tips for how I usually go about making a Pantone set:

1.1 – Picking a scene.  Scene selection is everything. To make things easy on yourself, I suggest choosing scenes where the background is mainly ONE color — for example, a scene where the subject has a clear blue sky behind them. To make things even easier, choose a color that isn’t the same color as the subject of your gif. Like, if your subject is a human, I’d avoid using a gif with a red or yellow background unless you want to do a lot more work to mask their skin. 

Rip me using a scene of green lil Grogu in green grass lmao. But I guess that goes to show you could really do this with any scene (I just did lots of masking and keyframe animations to perfect this green shade). BUT selecting your scenes wisely = a lot less work. 

1.2 – Picking Pantone colors.  People often ask me how I choose my colors and there are a few methods which I’ll go over below. 

But note that not all Pantone colors have a cute name, or any name (fun fact: only Pantone textiles have official names and they end with TCX, TPX, or TPG).

METHOD A: Google Search “Pantone [Color]” Source: Google Easy but not always fruitful, all you do for this method is open Google and type “Pantone [insert color here].” For example, when searching for teal colors, I searched several things including: Pantone Teal, Pantone Turquoise, Pantone Blue, Pantone Green, Pantone Blue Green, etc. Then, just sift through the Google results and click on whatever comes up from the official Pantone website! Since Pantone’s site blocks some info behind a paywall, you won’t be able to get a hex code from them. But you can just screenshot the swatch from their site, put it in Photoshop, and use the eyedropper tool to figure out the color.

METHOD B: Color-Name Site Source: https://www.color-name.com/ This handy website lets you search by colors using the upper navigation bar. Or you can just type something like "magenta" or "blue pantone" or even “frog” and see what comes up lol. Color-name can put together palettes too! I like that this site also tells you the hex code of a color, which is really helpful for getting the right code to put in my overlay. Note: Not every color on this site is a Pantone textile, so not all of these names are Pantone-official names. You can tell it’s official if, in the Pantone row of the Color Codes table on the middle of the page, it has a code that’s 2 numbers, a dash, 4 numbers, and either TCX, TPX, or TPG.

METHOD C: User-Made Pantone Colors Archive Source: https://margaret2.github.io/pantone-colors/ For my Wednesday characters as Pantone colors set, it was all about matching the color name to the character’s vibe. So, before looking at the actual colors themselves, I wanted to find the perfect color names. I stumbled upon this page. The pros = it lists pretty much all of the current official Pantone names. The cons = it’s not convenient since there’s no filtering tool. You can do Command+F and search for keywords, but that’s it. I literally scrolled through this whole page for my Wednesday set and read every single name, which... I think means... something’s wrong with me /lh /hj

METHOD D: Official Pantone Color Finder Source: https://www.pantone.com/pantone-connect This is last on my list because I don’t actually recommend it. Unless you already have access to this resource from your school or work or something, I would never pay for it and it is a paid feature only. Boooo 👎 But there is a free trial (which I’ve never used), so if you want to see what it’s about, you can definitely go for it.

PHASE 2: MAKING THE BASE GIF

Again, just some super quick tips for making a gif that, I think, looks best with this kind of set — but if you’re still learning how to gif, I do have a basic gif-making tutorial here for extra guidance!

2.1 – Uncheck “Delete Cropped Pixels” before cropping your gif. When you use the crop tool, this checkbox appears in the top toolbar. Unchecking it allows you to move the positioning of your gif later on, which is handy in this case when you want to choose which part of your gif will be underneath the Pantone swatch. You can read more about this tip in my basic gif-making tutorial (linked above; Step 1.5 – Tip B).

2.2 – Make your gif 540px width. My gifs for these sets are usually 540x540px but I think 540x500px will also look good. I think it’s more impactful though to make a big gif to show off your coloring.

PHASE 3: ADDING THE PANTONE OVERLAY

3.1 – Download my template I made this template myself, so all I ask is that you don’t claim it as your own and that you give me proper insp or template credit in your caption if you decide to use it! Get the PSD with the transparent background here!

3.2 – Download the font Helvetica Neue Bold The font I use (and I’m pretty sure it’s the same font Pantone uses) is Helvetica Neue Bold, with some very specific letter spacing (which I determined by studying Pantone’s official Color of the Year Very Peri design). It’s already set in my .psd but here are specs in case: color name spacing = -40, color code spacing = -75 (sometimes I’ll do -25 for the numbers after the dash if I don’t like how tightly they’re packed together). 

I uploaded Helvetica Neue Bold to my dropbox here!

3.3 – Import my overlay You can either drag the whole folder onto your gif from tab to tab or right-click the folder, select Duplicate Group, and select your gif as the destination document. Just make sure this overlay group is above your base gif!

3.4 – Fill the color swatch In my .psd, on the layer labeled “Pantone Swatch,” just grab the hex code of your chosen Pantone color and fill that layer using the Paint Bucket tool! I’ve already put a layer mask on the layer for you so it fits perfectly inside the square outline.

If you’re using my .psd, all the blend mode settings are already in place! I usually set the colored square behind the Pantone logo to the Color blend mode, but sometimes, I prefer the way Hue looks. It’s up to you! 

You can also adjust the drop shadow settings to make your text more visible as needed. The layers are arranged in this order so the drop shadows don’t interfere with the semi-transparent part of the colored swatch. 

3.5 – Insert the color name and code My .psd has two versions to choose from: (1) a color name that fits on one line and (2) a color name that requires two lines. Use the one that applies to your color name and simply type that and color code into the corresponding text layers! 

Note 1: Pantone doesn’t keep their font size uniform for every color of the year. They’ll sometimes shrink the text to fit longer names, but I like being consistent. So, I use this one font size for all my colors.

Note 2: My template has all the text left-justified and matching the starting point of the P in Pantone. BUT, sometimes the gif looks better if you nudge the text a bit so it looks more centered. Use your discretion when aligning the text!

Note 3: Btw, you definitely don’t have to use the TCX/TPG codes like me. (I’m a nut and there’s no way I’ll ever do a Pantone set and not use those types of codes to maintain uniformity across this series lol.) I’ve seen others do sets inspired by mine using different color codes or even just the hex code itself!

PHASE 4: COLORING THE BASE GIF

The key here is to make a majority of your gif feature your chosen Pantone swatch. If you’re really smart with your scene selections, this should be a breeze! If you’re stubborn like me and want to use specific scenes with the opposite color of your chosen Pantone swatch, there will be a bit more color manipulation involved... However, this isn’t a coloring tutorial, so again, I’m going to give some tips and resources that will hopefully help you out!

4.1 – Color matching. Now that you have the Pantone swatch on your gif, you should be able to reference that center square set to Color/Hue to match the rest of your gif to that color. Feel free to paint a little blob of your color onto another layer anywhere on your gif so you can refer to it closer over a specific part of your gif. For example, I put a little circle over Grogu’s head to see how closely I matched Pantone’s Peapod color, then I tweaked my adjustment layers a bit more until the colors matched near perfectly and I couldn’t tell where that blob begins or ends. The left is the solid color and the right is set to the blending mode Color (like the square):

4.2 – Moving the base gif. This isn’t really about coloring... but remember when I said to uncheck “Delete Cropped Pixels” in Step 2.1? Well, here’s your chance to adjust your canvas and move the gif around so the exact part you want under the color swatch is in the right position. I personally think these kinds of sets are more impactful when you put a differently colored part of your gif under the swatch so you can see through it and the difference is clearer. In my example, I put Grogu in the center so the green box would cover some of his brown potato sack robe.

4.3 – Color manipulation. Color manipulation is when you transform your media’s original color grading into a completely different color. The Grogu gif isn’t a great example because the original scene was already a green-yellow color:

I mean, the difference is still pretty drastic but that’s mostly because my file was HDR and washed out as a result.

So, here’s an example I made using a gif from my first Pantone set for ITSV (I’m not doing this demo to the Grogu gif because it’d be too much work to manipulate a green background with a green subject. This ITSV scene is perfect bc the majority of it is blue while the subjects are mostly red.)

For the “basic coloring,” I did everything as I normally would: mostly levels and selective color layers.

For color manipulation, my fav adjustment layer is Hue/Saturation (those are the screenshots that are on the gif above). When you’re smart with your scene selection, it’s pretty easy to manipulate colors with one Hue/Sat layer because you usually only need to tamper with 1-2 colors and, hopefully, they shouldn’t interfere with skin tones (obviously you’ll do other layers to further enhance your gif’s brightness, contrast, etc. — but I just mean the heavy lifting usually only takes me one layer with a good scene choice). 

All you have to do is figure out what color the majority of your gif is, toggle to that color’s channel, and fiddle with the hue slider. In the gif above, you can see that I played with both the Blue and Cyan channels. Here’s why:

If I only adjust the Blue hue slider, I get those speckles of cyan peaking through in the gif above. Unless you’re working with completely flat colors — like 2D animation with zero shading/highlights — a color is never just one, solid color. Blue isn’t just blue, it may have some cyan. Purple isn’t just purple, I often have to toggle the Blue channel too. So, yeah, be mindful of that!

I’ll sometimes go in with the brush tool and paint over some areas of my gif to really smooth out the color and make it uniform. When I do that, I just set that painted layer to the Color blend mode. Some of the resources below go into that technique a bit more!

4.4 – Coloring resources. While not all of these tutorials cover the same type of color manipulation I did in my gifs, I think the principles are similar and would be helpful to anyone who’s a beginner:  – color manipulation tutorial by usergif/me: I go a bit more in depth here (I think lol) – how to change the background of any gif by usergif/fionagallaqher: a great tutorial for using keyframes so you can manipulate the background of a gif with lots of motion – bea’s color isolation gif tutorial by nina-zcnik: this tutorial has more tips about hue/saturation layers as well as masking your subject – elio’s colouring tutorial by djarin: this tutorial shows a lot of examples of first manipulating the colors then brushing over the gif with a matching color for extra coverage

And just one last note on coloring, I always try to appreciate gifs with the mentality that “good” coloring is 100% subjective. One of the only things I would classify as “bad” coloring is when you whitewash or [color]wash someone’s skin tone. So, as long as you keep the integrity of your subjects’ natural skin — especially if they’re a POC — you should feel good about your coloring, because it’s yours and you worked hard! <3 

PHASE 4: EXPORT

That’s it!! If you work in Video Timeline like me, just convert from Timeline back to Frames, export your gif, and voila! 

Easy PEAsy. 🥁 

If you have specific questions about this tutorial, my ask box is open <3

Also, check out these other Pantone-inspired sets by my friends @nobodynocrime (Mulan set) and @wakandasforever (Ponyo set)! There are so many ways to use Pantone colors in your set, so I hope this inspires you to create something beautifully colorful <3

[cressidascowper]

hi, your latest edit for thgweek24 is absulutely stunning and i thought if i can ask if you can make a tutorial about the ripped gifs/paper effect? if not, that's okay! have a nice day <3

RIPPED PAPER EFFECT TUTORIAL

hi! thank u :D (thgweek set referenced)

below the cut are the steps that i took to create this effect. this tutorial is very screenshot heavy and assumes some basic knowledge of photoshop and giffing.

i do my best to try and explain my process so hopefully this is helpful! if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

STEP 1: Choose and arrange your two gifs

with this specific use of the ripped paper effect, there's one gif on the "outside" of the rip and one on the "inside." in this example, the outside is the b&w and the inside gif is the colored:

for me, the outside gif determined the positioning of the inside gif and the position/direction of the rip. as can be seen, outside gif has a lot of space on the left. therefore, i knew i was going to position the subject of the inside gif more on the right so i could create the rip without hiding too much of the b&w gif.

next, you want to arrange the inside gif on TOP of the outside gif. your layers panel should look like this:

STEP 2: Creating the ripped effect

here comes the fun part! in order to create this effect, you're going to need torn paper brushes. here and here are some packs you can download (w credit to owner).

next, create a layer mask on your inside gif. you're going to use the brush of your choosing as an ERASER. then, you can play around with the size and angle of the eraser to create the look you want. this is what the gif and the layers panel now look like:

STEP 3: Adding the paper

in order to add the paper around the edges of the inside gif (where the text goes), you now need to download a paper texture. i found mine on google by searching "paper texture png."

place the paper png IN BETWEEN your outside and your inside gif. this is what everything should look like:

now, similarly to what you did in the previous step with the inside gif, you are going to create a layer mask on the paper layer. using an torn paper brush as an eraser, you will erase the paper, creating the shape you want.

be sure to leave enough room for whatever text you want to be on the paper. also, i suggest making the rips of the paper different from the rips of the inside gif so it looks more organic.

here is what my gif looks like after erasing the paper:

optional: add a drop shadow on the paper layer (right click -> blending options... -> drop shadow)

STEP 4: Adding the text

first, you want to identify the space where you will have room to place your full quote within the paper. if there are no spaces, you can always use your brush/eraser to modify the layer masks.

next, add a layer on top of the paper layer (and below the inside gif). select the text tool and start typing your repeated text!

because you can see which text is hidden by the inside gif and what is on top of the paper, a shortcut i use is the "tab" button and only type words that will be seen.

type the repeated words around the quote you want highlighted:

now, in order to contain the text within the paper, convert the text layers into smart objects. then, create a clipping mask on both layers (right click –> create clipping mask). this is what your layer panels should look like:

with that, your gif should now look something like this, with the text contained inside the paper:

STEP 5: Highlighting the quote

as you can see, it just looked like a bunch of words. so, in order to highlight the quote you carved out in the previous step, add a new layer below the layer of the quote you want highlighted:

now, use a round brush (softness around 10-15% and opacity at 70-80%) with the color of your choice to highlight the words you want.

and there you have it!

i hope that this made sense and was helpful! if you have any questions or clarifications, please don't hesitate to ask :)

[xiaolanhua]

your icons are soooooo so cute honestly!!! i wanted to ask if there's any way you can make a tutorial on how to make them? of course if you want, if you don't want to, that's okay :)

Hi! I really appreciate that you like my icons, thank you so much! 💖💖💖🥹

It's been a long time since I've done a tutorial so I hope I can explain it well haha

So I will explain how i go from the original picture and the final icon below:

I'm using Adobe Photoshop 2024 but you can use other versions too!

First, I create a 250x250px document and apply a random color fill layer to be the background color of the icon, you can do it by going on Layer > New Layer Fill > Solid color (the color in this moment doesn't matter because I change them later according to the picture I choose to edit).

Then I place the picture I want, adjust the size to make the subject on the center and apply some smart sharpen:

I apply some adjustments to try to color correct if the original picture using Levels, Selective Color and Color Balance to get something like this:

If you want to know the exact adjustments settings I used on this picture you can download the psd here.

To remove the background, I do the hack where I go to the Properties panel (Window > Properties) and click on the "Remove background" option. It's not always that I will get a perfect result but I think it makes easier for me to adjust the little details such as hair and accessories, etc. And I do that using the Lasso tool (shortcut L).

Now, with the background removed I pick a color that I think will match the icon in the Color Fill layer that I created before. To make the background more "fun" I like to add a Gradient Fill layer (Layer > New Layer Fill > Gradient) with a color that might go well with the one I picked earlier to make a smooth and light gradient.

My result until now:

Now it comes the fun: adding textures! I like to add some textures to make the icon more lively and I usually download them on deviantart or on resources websites. You can download some cool textures here, here and here. On this part I really test a lot of textures with different Layer blending. There are a lot of different blending options so you can try as much as you want.

Other thing I like to do is add a clipping mask above the subject layer when I want to color something specific in my picture such as the hair, the clothes or even applying some "fake" blush on the cheeks. I do this adding a new layer, then using the shortcut option (or alt) + command (or ctrl) + g to make it a clipping mask and then using the Brush layer to color what I want. For the blending mode I usually use Soft Light and sometimes Color if I want the color to really stand out.

And in the end I will have something like this:

And my layer tab will be like this:

For using on the dashboard I usually resize it to 100x100 to make it look more sharper and defined but it's really a choice, you can already start making your icon using the size you want, I just prefer doing on 250x250px because i'm used to.

To save it I use the shortcut shift + option (alt) + command (ctrl) + s to save it for web with these settings:

And that's it! Sorry for not going to deep in each step but I guess you can get the feeling when you try making your own icons! Is really about trying different methods and things until you became satisfied with your result.

[robin-buckely]

Coloring Tutorial

Hello, this tutorial is for the wonderful @djoharrington​​ and those of you wondering how I colored this set. I’m going to be talking about how to color the first gif only to keep this tutorial from getting too long. The other two used the same coloring method with only minor adjustments made to keep them looking similar.

Yes, this scene really is that dark before coloring.

Quick notes on what I’m using:

mpv player for screencapping — not mentioned in tutorial

Photoshop 2021 for editing

I mention mpv player because I’m giffing 4k, and it’s one of the few players I’ve come across that take continuous caps that don’t end up looking washed out. It makes for easier coloring.

This is me coloring literally any Upside Down scene:

Step 1: brighten the hell out of this gif

You can use a throwaway layer to get you started. I used an exposure layer (which I eventually kept and adjusted during the original process of coloring this scene) with end settings of: exposure at +5.25, offset and gamma correction at default.

Now we can see all the beautiful details of Nancy’s face. Well, most of them.

Step 2: photo filter layer 1

The way I offset this horrid blue tint they use for Upside Down scenes is a photo filter layer (several for this particular scene). For now, just the one. Put this below the exposure layer!

This brings a bit of color back to Nancy’s face and warms up the blue tones that are so prevalent in Upside Down scenes.

I don’t change the blending mode, opacity, or fill, just keep as is.

Step 3: curves layer 1

I clicked around a lot with this layer. Mostly in an attempt to get rid of the blue and adding more color to Nancy’s face. Didn’t get the result I was looking for with this layer until I added other layers. But I managed to brighten the gif a little more and add some contrast.

Step 4: hue/saturation layer

Put this layer below the photo filter layer! I used this layer to balance out the colors I pulled from the curves layer. Brought back some warmth/purples by adjusting cyans and blues.

Step 5: selective color layer 1

Ended up a little more purple than I wanted with the hue/sat layer, so I used a selective color layer (set between the hue/saturation layer and the photo filter layer) to get rid of the purple by, again, adjusting cyans and blues.

Make sure to have “Absolute” marked!

This is better! There’s a lot more color that isn’t blue in Nancy’s face now that I can work with and manipulate.

Step 6: color balance layer

This one goes on top of the curves layer (should be the topmost layer at this point). Only adjusted Midtones and Shadows, adding a little more red and yellow in her hair and face.

This looks a lot more natural. Now we just have to brighten it up again.

Step 7: exposure and curves layer 2

I don’t touch the RGB mode on this curves layer. I mostly adjust the Red, Green, and Blue modes by adding a little more red and green while sliding the bottom corner on Blue to add more yellow to the shadows.

Technically, I could stop here if I wanted, but the purple is still pretty prominent in the gif, especially in Nancy’s eyes, and it’s hard to adjust that without adjusting the color of the entire canvas since there’s movement in this gif. If Nancy were more of a still subject here, then layer masks are an option. Alas…

So I adjust the colors and try to get rid of the purple. The gif as a whole kind of looks washed out as well. I want more color here.

Step 8: photo filter layer 2

I set the opacity to 55%. I want warmth, but not too much.

Step 9: selective color layer 2

This is where I end up seeing the most change. Even small adjustments go a long way here.

It’s mostly the cyans, blues, and magentas which makes sense given how overwhelmingly blue this scene was, then almost overwhelmingly purple as I started making adjustments. Red and yellows are important for anything to do with the face and hair. This is where I add a more “natural” shade to Nancy. Literally anything that isn’t fucking blue is an improvement to me at this point, given how it started out.

Blue is back in the background where it belongs and not in Nancy’s face.

I think this is where I originally stopped. Like this looks pretty good to me, but I also wanted to make sure the other two gifs could be colored similarly, and they were for the most part. But there was only so much adjusting I could do to Nancy’s face in the third gif without adjusting the entirety of the scene (and set), so I had to go back and adjust her here to get a similar coloring.

(A lot of this set was back and forth, adjusting the colorings until they matched. It took so long. Especially with the stupid Upside Down visual effects in the background. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so there were a lot of minor adjustments and a lot of nitpicking until I ended up with a result I liked.)

So last and final step.

Step 10: selective color layer 3

I ended up adding more red to the face, hair, and shadows to keep the first and third gif similar in coloring. And this is where we get our final product.

And the side-by-side comparison again.

Anyway, here you have it. This is the end of the tutorial. I can in no way guarantee that this method will work on other Upside Down scenes (trust me, I’ve tried), but hopefully you’ve learned something!

And hopefully I’ve explained myself well enough that you can apply this :)

[juubli]

Here are some process shots for this one of Raphael from BG3! That magnificent bastard...

So I started out with a sketch of Raphael. He's got such a charismatic swagger doing the whole "What's better than the Devil you don't know? The devil you do" scene. I just wanted to do a caricature study and have a bit of fun.

Moving from rough sketch to clean line art is always challenging for me as I often get bored or what was originally loose and fun can become stiff.

I had to redo the linework twice because I didn't like how the first one turned out! Second time is always the charm.

I initially only planned to draw the character but I love the design of House of Hope too much, so I went back into the game and took a bunch of screen shots and sketched out the rough bg.

Then I went ahead and cleaned up the bg. At this point is when I group the layers properly, so there is a clear separation between foreground, and background as well setting up the layers for animation. (Making sure the fireplace guards overlaps the walls behind it.)

At the next stage I adding in the flat colors. I wanted to keep the style treatment of this piece more on the cell shaded/cartoony instead of super painterly. So I keep the color treatment fairly flat with a small amount of texture with the intention to add lighting as a fx overlapping treatment instead of painted in.

I work on the characters and the bgs at the same time to keep the values and color temp consistant, constantly adjusting as I go. From habit from work, I always paint the entire BG JUST incase I need to make changes or make adjustments to subject in from. Here is the bg all done, with fire painted in as a place holder.

And finally, adding the final lighting layers added on Raphael. I keep it simple here, just a redish/purple multiply player with the areas in the light masked out, and inverse mask on an orange/red overlay layer of the areas in the light.

Animating the fire took ironically the longest, the animation tools in photoshop is clunky and I haven't animated since school days. I looked up a lot of references and tutorials! It's not perfect but good enough for me!

[allegraforchrist]

Self Image as a woman is constant battle between comparison and content.

Idolize the perfect body, the perfect hair, the perfect skin routine, the perfect face shape, the perfect breast size, the perfect gym glutes, the must-be-perfected everything about ourselves.

And after we ‘achieve’ one of the above, we move on to the next project of ourselves.

Women of God, there’s a difference between bettering your body and eating habits, versus objecting your body and eating habits. What I mean by objecting is subjecting ourselves as constant object of attention - attention to the self, and not to God. Attention to the self-image, instead of God’s image.

We should want what is God’s best - for our souls, minds, bodies, and health. We are the temple for the Holy Spirit. But taking that best and turning it into nitpicking obsession, is never going to satisfy your fleshly self-image. You are created in God’s image.

You are the rib, the daughter, the child, the woman of God. When you complicate your beauty in Christ, (beauty as in faith, modesty, prayer, love, kindness, fruits of the spirit, peace), you compromise Christ.

Instead of reflecting Christ, you’re reflecting the world. You’re fixing your outward appearance to match the mask of unpredictable industries.

You can’t say you love God, but then love complaining about your facial features, your body shape, your weight, your stretch marks, your hair, your lips… your whole Godly make up boiled down to what the world defines as a “woman”.

I’ve been here, and I am here, and to be honest, nothing in the world is going to make you a more beautiful daughter, sister, mother, wife, than being in Christ.

We need to value ourselves according to the Word, and not the word of articles, tiktoks, hacks, tutorials, skinny exercise Pilates or whatever.

We mustn’t trade our authentic femininity for short-lived vanity. Don’t idolize what you wear, your makeup, your hair, your skin, your fitness level… etc. Instead of praising God and giving Glory to Him, you give praise and glory to companies and models, and products. I’m not saying don’t get your hair down, don’t go to the gym and get fit, don’t get your nails done, don’t eat healthier, don’t try new methods to help with your acne and stretch marks and dermatological complications, don’t not love your gift of being pretty. I’m saying we mustn’t make our outward appearance the standard over Christ. Our outward must reflect our inward, and that happens when we take our eyes off our insecurities and set them in Christ and the loving Word of God.

Nothing in appearance lasts forever, we aren’t going to look younger and cuter when our bodies are buried one day. Proverbs 31:30, “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

Seek God, seek His image in you, seek His beauty, His purity, His love: because we are made in His image. We are fearfully and wonderfully made! Psalm 139:14, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

No, maybe you’re not a Victoria Secret Model like Adriana Lima. You’re not the ideal blonde like Taylor Swift, you’re not curvy like Kim Kardashin, you’re not fit like Simone Biles, you’re not attractive like the DCC Cheerleaders, you’re not super intelligent like Amy from the TBBT, you’re not cleared skinned like Jennie from Black Pink. It doesn’t matter what you’re not, it matters what you are: a woman of God. What makes a woman of God attractive and beautiful and intelligent and pleasing, Her love for Christ! PROVERBS 31! Your value and belle is beyond worldy measure. Proverbs 31:15-18, “…She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed.

Don’t spend your life hating your body, it is your vessel for the Adonai Almighty.

^ 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

^ 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

Don’t simplify your significance to God, by treating it as an insecurity. You’re perfect as following Him makes you to be. Matthew 19:21, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

[utopianoverlord]

🎵 playlist cover tutorial (& psd)

In this tutorial, I'll be going over how to make a character-centric playlist cover using my template

✨ Firstly, thank you so much @withered-rose-with-thorns for your kind words on my edits and interest in learning how to make these! 😊

The core of our process is thankfully a simple one. We'll be using the clipping mask function to affix a character cutout and textures to 3 specific primary layers. Here, I'll walk through remaking a cover similar to that of my Vi playlist. To begin, download the following:

cover template (mega.nz)

My template is 400x400px in overall size and mainly features 3 named layers.

1.) CUTOUT — With the template ready to rock, we'll start by working on the heart of the edit, which is getting the character cutout for the portrait layer. (As a general rule, always try to use the highest quality images/shots for projects whenever possible.) In this example, I've used the Pen tool to free Vi from her scene:

For creating precise cutouts I will only ever recommend using the Pen tool, as anchor points allow the most control in achieving the cleanest results. If you're unfamiliar with the Pen tool and its settings, here's a 60-second guide to the basics. (i.e. connecting anchor points all the way around your character from the start to end > Make Selection > set Feather Radius to 0 and have anti-alias checked for smooth edges) Once you've made your selection, if you need, you can change the cutout size by using the Transform Controls or simply adjusting the overall Image Size.

2.) PORTRAIT LAYER — Back on planet template, we'll focus on the "middle portrait" layer. Above each of the 3 main layers is one titled *top clipping mask*, which we'll keep at the top for all. This is a means of ensuring all new layers created beneath it will stay clipped to the primary layer (as indicated by the little arrow pointing downward to the left of each mini thumbnail image). You can simply drag your cutout to the template, or just copy & paste it in a new layer, and use the Move tool to position the image how you'd like. (If any layer accidentally unclips, right click it and select Create Clipping Mask or just hit that Alt+Ctrl+G)

With your image now in position, you can then change the portrait background color by creating a new fill layer > Solid Color. Double-click the Solid Color layer to change the color at any time. Your cutout layer should sit atop the Solid Color layer and beneath the *top clipping mask* layer, as shown above.

3.) BACKGROUND LAYER — The bottom-most layer is our background color layer, which is gray by default. Feel free to adjust this Solid Color layer any time to your preference. Now with the basics covered (your cutout, middle portrait background color, and background color), let's add a texture or two! Since we're on the background layer now, I've downloaded and resized this unsplash texture and made it a new, clipped layer.

Experimenting with the Blend Modes and Opacity is key (and super fun)! Here, I've set my texture layer to Subtract with a 50% Opacity.

On top of the texture layer, I've added a couple of adjustment layers and color layers using the Brush tool for the sizzle.

4.) PORTRAIT LAYER — Back on the middle portrait layer, we can add a texture layer here a s we've done for the background, though if you prefer you can leave the portrait background as a solid color. For the purpose of the tutorial, I've downloaded this graffiti texture from unsplash and added it as a new layer, changing the Blend Mode and Opacity.

By experimenting with the Blend Mode on your texture layer, adjustment & color layers, you can create all kinds of wild effects to fit your subject and mood of your playlist.

In addition to fiddling with the portrait layer, I've also sharpened my Vi cutout and added adjustment layers above it - such as Vibrance, Color Balance and Curves - to make her shine against the saturation of the colors surrounding her.

When you're all done, save your cover as a .png to retain high-quality compression.

You may have noticed that we didn't make any adjustments to the 3rd "white border" layer after all, which is on purpose! Depending on what look you'd like to create for your cover, and knowing how a clipping mask works from previous steps, the set-up has been prepped to change as you please, if you please.

And if you've read this far, thank you! I appreciate you, and I hope you found some useful information. You're welcome to download the finalized Vi psd cover I made for this tutorial.

Happy Creating! 🧡

[gasterofficial]

@kanrix too many pictures to put in a reply or anything so i'm just gonna make a post FHLDSKJFHDLSKf this also goes out to anyone else who could benefit from my little gaster cosplay tutorial fhjkghkfg

aight this is the earliest picture i have but basically I cut an oval out of 4mm foam, and used scrap pieces of the same size foam that i just had laying around to do another layer on top for added support and thickness. after that i did my best to roughly mark where my eyes, nose and mouse were and cut the eyes out so that they would line up with my own, and used the markings for the mouth and nose to cut a hole into the inside of the mask for my nose to fit into. the mask has a higher layer of foam only on the very tip of the nose because i had to keep my nose from sticking out or pushing the mask too far off my face lol.

anyway after all of that i used a heat gun to heat the foam (WITHOUT melting it and preferably in a well-ventilated area) on both sides and then held it to my face in position to help it mold better to the shape of my head. it looked like this when i was done (i also cut into the upper layer of foam to make the eye scars)

after that I covered the entire thing with this amazing thing called foam-mo, it's basically like foam in a water-based binder that behaves like craft clay. it's easy to work with and SUPER lightweight when it dries and it's absolutely perfect for making organic textures

it lost a bit of the dimensionality in the drips after it dried, but I just went over it with another layer where I wanted more texture, and used a dremel tool with a sanding bit to sand down parts that I wanted more depressed.

then after that were the first and second paint jobs. this included using an ultra dark carbon nanotube ink in the scars to get them as black as possible (and matte). after the second paint job I used a type of fabric called "speaker cloth" to cover up the eye and mouth holes. I hot glued the speaker cloth down from the inside and then painted over the fabric on both sides with fabric stiffener on the mouth hole ONLY (it can make it harder to see through the eye holes) since the mouth hole is so wide and is most subject to the shape distortion from how the mask was heat-shaped.

then finally the last paint job which included final shading touchups AND some extra work with white puffy paint, which I used to give the effect of the face dripping down.

the very last step was adding the pupils as a dot of intense blue glow in the dark paint. it took a few coats to get it thick enough, and then on top of the bead of glow in the dark paint i added a tiny dot of plain white paint to make them pop even more. add a 1/2 inch elastic strap around the back of the mask glued down on the inside and you're done!

also, here's some pictures of the first glove I painted, if the reference would be helpful. The gloves were sewn using a self-made "hand turkey" pattern from tracing the shape of my hand onto paper. it's not a perfect pattern, but it's serviceable enough for stretchy fabrics. and I did use a stretchy fabric: white moisture-wicking athletic wear fabric, because I was worried my hands would sweat a lot. and I was right! but this choice of fabric makes that much less of a problem. and also makes you feel like your hands are freezing off (being in the void simulator ig)

the painting job was done with just plain black and white acrylics mixed with a fabric paint medium. i traced the finger joints where my fingers actually creased, and just kind of... did my best to make the palm holes match up lmfao

As for the cloak and robe, I did sew those both myself, so I can't point you to a seller. BUT what I CAN do is tell you what patterns and fabrics I used and whether or not it was worth the intense labor of love! (short answer, for the cloak? yes! for the robe? NO.) I'd have to go dig up the patterns though, so let me know if that's of interest to anybody

but yeah, hope this post is informative and potentially helpful!

[voidshrub]

Someone asked me how I made the window effect on my recent boots n bombs post! I learned how to do it from a tiktok video by @/crhysille (there’s an artist here with that username but I don’t know if they’re the same person…) but if you don’t have the app or want a slow step-by-step tutorial to follow along easier, check under the cut!!

So!!! For our silly little window effect we first need a subject, a background, a copy of that background, and an optional backup of your subject for if things go Wrong! Because at least for me, procreate likes to glitch out when I make this effect!! Rude!!!!

Second! We copy our subject and modify it however we want!! Here I stretched her out a little!

Now! We can make our window! It can be anything you want!! I made a phone :)

Now that we have our window, before we make the cool stuff we should do something first! Merge your subject with one of the backgrounds! I forgot to put an example of why, but the effect will just look wonky if you don’t do this! The subject and the modified subject will both be visible at the same time like above, that’s not what we want!!

Now that we’ve done that, we can do the fun stuff! Go to your window layer, use select, tap on automatic to make your life easier, and tap on the space you want your window to be! It’s blue now!

Without deselecting anything, go to your subject layer, create a mask, and invert it!

Wow! Almost ready!! Now all you have to do is select your window, and your layer mask together!

And now move them around!!!!

Wowee!!! You’ve done the Cool Effect!! So proud of you right now!!!! Now you can customize and add layers to your heart’s desire!! Just remember to select them all when you move your window!!! (One second I reached the image limit gotta reblog with just a couple more things…………) (Nevermind!!!! For some reason I can’t add any more videos even on reblogs… whatever!! It wasn’t anything important anyways! I hope this was!!! Coherent!!!!) Thank you @beepiesheepie for asking about how it worked! Good luck if you use it :D

[yoruqueenofnightsims]

How I edit my Sims' shadow in Photoshop

as requested by @adelarsims

& based on this tutorial.

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1. Taking a screenshot

First of all take a screenshot of the Sim - I always do CAS but in-game works too ofc.

I take mine in front of a background that loosely matches the color of the background of my edit, in this case white. If you have a fancy CAS background, I recommend this CC by @sonyasimscc to easily get a simple background for screenshots.

I also use this tutorial by @katverse to get really good screenshots, I use 4000x3000px resolution, and this tutorial by @vyxated to not have a CAS UI in your screenshot if you use a reshade like me.

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2. Setting up the Photoshop file

Now in Photoshop create a file, I use 1250x2000 px.

I made a few guidelines, pink being the middle of the image and dark blue guidelines for my shadow editing.

I have a usually white background and a slight Curves adjustment layer with a gradient layer mask so it gets slightly darker at the bottom, completely optional ofc.

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3. Removing the original background

Import the screenshot and place it however you want. I try to align the Sim in the middle and make it as big as possible.

Then select the layer and go to Select - Subject.

This will usually do a decent job.

If there are some leftover unselected areas (like on her left hand on the hip) you can either add them to the selection now or edit the layer mask later.

Then create a layer mask.

Since the screenshot has a similar background, it shouldn't show too much if it is not perfect.

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4. Creating the shadow

First duplicate the Sims' layer (Shortcut: Ctrl + J).

The layer is probably a Smart Object, so you need to rasterize it and right click the layer mask to apply the layer mask.

Now lock transparent pixels and paint the layer black.

Next unlock the transparent pixels again and move the black layer below the actual Sim. Leave it selected.

Now you will need the Perspective Warp tool.

Draw the grid over the Sim, it doesn't have to be perfect, but make sure every part of your Sim is in the grid and nothing pokes out.

Press enter.

Now you want to drag the upper 2 corners separately wherever you want the shadow to be. I always put mine to the left and around the upper thigh area. I also try to match how slanted the left and right side are.

Now move the bottom 2 corners to try and match the shadow with the Sims' feet kinda. It won't work perfectly and you will need to fix it by hand after.

Press enter again.

Now go in by hand and fix the shadow around the feet.

Simply paint with black on the same layer and erase parts if necessary.

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5. Making the shadow look nice

I like to change the layer opacity to 35%, but it depends how strong you want the shadow to be.

Next I apply a tilt shift blur, unlike in the video.

I use a blur of 15px.

Move the circle at the edge of the image basically or a bit below by dragging the middle of it. Then rotate it on the bottom line by around 10°.

Next move the solid line to the middle of the circle and the dashed line around the ankles.

Then press OK at the top.

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6. Optional: Gradient layer mask

Lastly I like to make the shadow fade out a bit towards the top.

Apply a layer mask to the shadow.

Then get your gradient tool and the default black to white gradient.

Hold shift to make a straight line and drag the gradient down.

This is how I roughly place mine so it's not too strong.

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And that's it!

If you have any questions, let me know~

[antlerqueer]

hii, megan! I hope everything is going well for you. I was wondering if you'd be willing to share how you created the gifs and images overlay effect in this /post/727210103698259968/scott-pilgrim-2010-lgbtqcreators-bingo pretty set? Have a nice day.

I will do my best!

First and foremost shout out to @nelsonnicks Norah whose beautiful gif set here inspired me!

In order to make this as succinct but also thorough as possible, there are some assumptions this tutorial makes:

We are working in photoshop

You know how to make a gif using photoshop

You know how to use the timeline feature to make/edit gifs

Okay let's learn how to make this gif:

(Due to Tumblr's image number limitations, there is a PART TWO linked where I add that "item" and gif, which you can find by clicking this entire sentence.)

STEP ONE: The Image Overlay

Pick your image! Here's the one I've picked, I cropped a page of the graphic novel:

From there, I'm going to click on that magic wand tool:

And select subject (crudely circled for emphasis)

If it's not perfect, you can either use the quick selection tool to refine the selection before or continue on with these steps and use the eraser later. I do both, but it's up to you.

Now I have a lasso around the subject, and I'll click that "Select and Mask" button next to "Select Subject"

Now I can see what my lasso'd image looks like against a white background, and I see that it's pretty good, nothing I can't fix with an eraser if I really want to later.

If the image looks rougher than you were expecting, use the SMOOTH option and play around with that slider.

If it looks a bit more smooth than you wanted (not clear defined lines where you were aiming for clear defined lines) use the CONTRAST option and play with that.

And if you wanted a little more or less around the edges, you can use the SHIFT EDGE tool to grab like 1px-ish of additional space.

Anyway, I like what I've got, so I am gonna CLICK OK

And I'll either cut or copy it onto a new file, and throw away my scraps.

Now it's time to add my character details! I'll use the same format I did for the original set here, and create 3 equal-sized rectangles using this lovely shape tool tool:

So my working file now looks like this:

I move the rectangles closer, I'll want them behind the image of Ramona after but here's just what it looks like while I'm adjusting them.

Then I add the text:

Now, it looks like when I put the bars behind her it'll cut off her name! I don't want that, so I'll adjust the side of the bar for her name and scoot it over....

Nice!

Now I'll adjust those layers to be closer together and behind Ramona...

And this is what my screen looks like now!

It looks how I want it, so now I'm gonna merge all of the layers EXCEPT the background layer. This makes it so the part that's merged has a transparent background.

Highlight the layers, right click, and find the "Merge Layers" option

And now it looks like this:

Step one COMPLETE. Great job. Have you been drinking water? It helps you think clearer. Or something.

STEP TWO: Make the gif you want. Sorry I'm not doing this step-by-step it would be so long I'm sorry!!!

STEP THREE: Put Ramona on the gif!

So I just use the selection tool and make a square around my bestie Ramona here to create this:

And then paste her right on top of my gif here:

Woah! She's ginormous!

Let's resize her by hitting CTRL+T....

This is where we get a little creative. Personally? I think the font is legible, but doesn't look nice now that I've resized it. So I'm going to back to the original file and UNDO my last action (merging the files):

And hit CTRL + T on the Ramona layer (Layer 1 pictured) and adjust her size:

Time to merge these layers again, and redo the process:

MEGAN SHE'S LARGE AGAIN! I know, I'd rather work with big files I have to make smaller than small files I have to make bigger. Sue me.

Resize the layer, make any adjustments to the gif you have under it in terms of placement/size:

And WHEW we got this part done.

STEP FOUR: Add color overlay

I'm gonna make her color overlay blue like her cartoon hair, so I'll eyedrop tool her hair:

Go to Layer:

Add new, and then using a regular brush at like 5000px just click onto that new layer, and...

Bump that layer under your Ramona cut-out,

Go back to the layer drop-down menu, and select Blending options...

And this little menu will pop up:

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE PROPER LAYER SELECTED FOR THIS. Otherwise you're going to be very confused.

See where it says "Blend Mode" and it has a drop down under normal? For these purposes, I'm gonna use the drop down and select COLOR:

Now you can see that all-blue layer in the background now is showing the original gif behind it, but you know your original gif? "I know of it." It's all blueee. /ref

This is what it should look like:

Before I go any further, I'm going to check my timeline to make sure this is covering the WHOLE duration of the gif:

It does, so let's drag that bar on the right to line up with the end of the gif:

All fixed!

So now we've got this:

Oh man! See those white spaces between her arms? I'm gonna go back and fix those now, fortunately I can edit it directly on the full file itself, by just editing that layer.

Using my magic wand tool, I'm selecting those white spaces between her arms and her jacket and deleting them-

She's not perfect but you can always be nit-picky and zoom in really close and refine with the eraser.

PART TWO

[cal-kestis]

hi nik, happy new year! i was wondering if you had any tips for scene selection because your blending/choice of scenes is always so pleasing :) thanks for all your help!

hi!! happy new year <3 ah thank you so much! i'm terrible at explaining blending bc i tend to just slap stuff on top of each other and hope for the best sldkfjlksd but i'll try to give a couple of tips using the miles set i posted today!

tip 1: choose scenes that match your lyrics/quote if you can this is my usual first step when choosing a scene bc i want to emphasize the themes of my set. i worry later if it's even photoshoppably possible to blend them lol. for the gif i'm using as an example, i wanted to convey a sense of anxiety and contemplation, as well as show a moment where miles was surrounded by the "everyone" mentioned in the quote

tip 2: map things out before spending too much time on the final if you screencap like me, you know this is the most tedious step in gifmaking 😪 so instead of screencapping a bunch of potential scenes for 20+ min, just grab one frame from each scene you might want to use, and test if they'd be possible to blend. i layer them, resize them a bunch of times, move them around, until i get something i like and seems doable in gif form. then, once you know it's possible, you can screencap the whole scene and make it into a gif. these are the static images i played around with before coloring or fully screencapping:

(i also like to map out my typography beforehand sometimes!)

tip 3: choose scenes with large sections of darkness or solid colors when you blend with "screen" mode (as most gifmakers do), it means the light area of scene A will be visible over the dark area of scene B and vice versa. i like to choose scenes that look like silhouettes, scenes with large portions of solid colors, or scenes where the main source of brightness comes from the subject's face. here's what each of my scenes looked like before and after coloring, so you can get an idea of what i'm trying to manipulate for a smooth blend:

tip 4: use a soft brush to erase bits you don't want i almost always erase some bits from blended gifs! especially if it's intersecting with a focal point of my gif and causing a distraction. sometimes, i even use a levels layer to darken things and then paint over the layer mask to create the darkness i need as explained in tip 3

i think those are my best blending/scene selection tips! again, i'm super bad at explaining this particular effect. but there are tons of amazing blending tutorials on the usergif resource directory you can check out too! i hope this helped a bit! :)

[cressidascowper]

I would love if you could give some tips on making blended gifs with two dominant colors - for example your friends cheesecake set. I would love to make like that but I have no idea were I’m going wrong

friends cheesecake set

hi!! blending is honestly so hard to give tips on bc it's so dependent on the scenes but i can try! below, i link some tutorials that i have used and try to explain the methods i personally use :)

btw this is very image heavy with gifs as visuals to try and explain my processes!

the tips i give assume you have basic giffing knowledge and at least some knowledge and experiencing of both blending and coloring. if you have any questions on anything i explain, please don't hesitate to come ask!

firstly, here are some very very helpful general blending tutorials that i have used in the past: this one and this one go pretty in depth (both by the lovely @yenvengerberg.

secondly, here are some coloring/color manipulation tutorials that i love:

general color manipulation (different methods) again by @yenvengerberg

manipulating the background by @fionagallaqher

coloring gifs for rainbow sets! by @rhodeys

now, as for combining the two techniques, i use trial and error. again, both blending and coloring are very fickle and the methods can change based on the scene i'm using.

there are two ways that i blend gifs with two dominant colors:

color the gifs separately and then blend

or blend the gifs together and then color the whole gif

first method: color first and then blend —

i usually use this method for gifs with little movement and where the colors can be easily manipulated (see the coloring tutorials i referenced above).

an easy way to tell what colors are dominant in a gif, go to the hue/saturation adjustment and turn saturation all the way up to 100.

for instance, this gif of anakin has little movement and i can see the background has hints of blue.

this gif will be easy to manually color on its own, seeing as i can use selective color and brushes to color the background. here is the same gif but now i have colored the background, and i used the method outlined in this tutorial:

NOW, moving onto the second gif. the second gif/scene i chose also has little movement and a background that can be easily manipulated:

using the same method as the first gif, i'll now color this padme gif on its own.

TIME TO BLEND!!! after converting the two gifs to smart object and putting one on top of the other, i set the top object to screen. for this example, i put the padme gif on top of the anakin one. this is what the blended gif and my layers panel looks like:

now, i'll create a layer mask on the padme gif and get rid of any parts i do not want or expose any areas of the anakin gif i want to see.

next, as you can see, the left side of padme's face is purple and pretty transparent. so in order to make it more visible, i will add a blank layer in between the two smart object and use a black brush to paint the areas i want to see (see this tutorial!!)

and here is the final blended gif:

now, you can totally stop here, but for me, it's pretty purple-heavy and i'd like to see some more orange. so i simply take an orange brush and color some areas i'd like to add more orange, and then set the layer's blending mode to color.

and HERE IS THE FINAL PRODUCT!

second method: blend first and then color —

i usually use this method when at least one of the gifs/scenes i want to use has colors or a background that is difficult to manipulate. or sometimes i do this because i just don't know what i want my coloring to look like and blending first gifs me a better sense of the whole gif.

there are two different ways you can blend first and then color. using the brush tool or the gradient tool.

brush tool:

using the brush tool is the best method when there is little movement and when you have distinct subjects to color around.

for instance, this gif of rhaenyra. while there is little movement, the background is a similar tone to her skin so it would be difficult for me to use selective color.

i could possibly use a brush to color the background, but i do not know how that will blend with my other gif and i don't know what coloring will work best overall. this is why i want to blend first!

and now for my second gif. similarly to the rhaenyra shot, the background of this alicent shot has very similar tone to alicent's skin color, so selective color would not work:

TIME TO BLEND!! i do the same thing as the last method (placing one smart object on top of the other) and this is what it looks like:

following the same steps as last time, i erase what i don't want and paint over areas i want to be more visible. this is what i came up with:

because there is that orange light on the left hand side of the gif (on rhaenyra's side), i decided to play into that and go with orange as one of the colors. sometimes the color scheme i go with depends on the colors i find in the gif bc that's just easiest!

now is when i use a brush to color the background! i color the left side with an orange brush and set the blending mode to 'color':

for the second color, the background on alicent's side is kind of neutral so i'm going to pick any color i want! i decide to go with green bc that is her color lol, and i do the same method, coloring with a green brush and setting the blend more to 'color'.

this is what i came up with:

you can totally stop here, but i like adding colors to the bottom, orange on the right and green on the left, so it kind of ties it all together.

HERE IS THE FINAL PRODUCT! (notice how in the bottom left corner, there is some hints of green. similarly for hints of orange in the right corner)

gradient tool:

another tool i use is the gradient tool (not to be confused by an adjustment layer).

this tool is really good for blended gifs that have lots of movement or where there are subjects that are difficult to draw around with a brush.

for example, this blended gif of yennefer has lots of movement so the brush tool may not be the best method.

here is where the gradient tool comes in! i add a new layer and draw a gradient in the direction i want. this is what my gif and layer panel looks like:

next, i change the blending mode. this heavily depends on the scene and also what looks good to your eye, but i usually alternate between 'overlay', 'soft light', or 'color'.

for this gif i chose 'overlay' and this is what it looks like:

again, you can stop here...BUT i want to go back in and intensify the pink/purple color at the top in the white areas. to do this, i am going to use a large soft brush and paint areas, setting the layer's blending mode to 'color.'

HERE IS THE FINAL PRODUCT:

and those are my methods!! if you made it this far, thank you for reading and following along. i hope that this was at least somewhat helpful and huge shout out to @yenvengerberg who's coloring and blending tutorials basically taught me everything i know.

if you still have any questions at all pls feel free to hope in my inbox :D