#also idk if it's noticeable but i'm experimenting with my sharpening and coloring

[swallowedabug]

SAIRA in every episode (1/ ∞) ⟶ 1.06 Sparta

[torchickentacos]

Behind the art- step by step of how I made THIS post! https://at.tumblr.com/torchickentacos/happy-valentines-day/wb89h200y8qy

1: thumbnail art for idea at 11 pm the night before starting the real deal.

ACTUAL step 1: sketch, kind of map out the planes of the face. I STARTED with the asaro head planes but eventually just kind of ended up making my own little system that probably isn't great but whatever, it works. spend ten bajillion hours and 75 references on this stage to make the proportions right or at least close enough and also swear off trying to draw open eyes in profile view or at all, if possible.

2: block out grey underneath, will be made into the base for clipping layers. I'm grabbing layers after making this, so if it doesn't align entirely, that's because it was altered and moved around a bit for the final product and not in accordance with the first sketch.

3: start adding where the divots (shadows?? deeper parts?) in the face are. I used a semi-soft?? round brush that kinda blends or could be harder depending on opacity, idk how it works but I used it pretty much exclusively. Here's how I sort of see the light and dark areas??? but tbh it's less of a 'science' and more of an 'experiment in some random ass garage'.

4: no more guidelines since we've blocked out in grey what goes where, roughly. Darken the eye sockets, add shading under the nose, sort of find where the cheekbones and jaw are, and go from there. Start adding deeper creases and stuff, leaning towards detail work. Ignore that Drew's side has lighting and more shading, I accidentally did all of that on one layer fjgdjfgdjk.

5: add eyelid top because you forgot

6: get sidetracked and draw the eyebrow before remembering to sharpen the black lines. At this point I'm writing this all out live as I draw. It's been... 5 hours???

7??: work more on shading in her face. Remember to blend his out because it looks janky in comparison.

optional: congratulate yourself on that nice eyelid.

Blend stuff out, alter stuff there, end up here, ignore the hole in her head

8: spend literally 3 hours blocking out hair and realize drew's fucKING EAR IS MISSING

step idfc anymore: FINALLY START COLORING OH MY GOD IT IS COMING TOGETHER

Step???: coloring hair and adding a jacket and stuff!!! hair looks janky but with the lighting plans I have it's fine.

Decide you hate parts of it so you redo it. Go back to messing with hair. It is now 9:47 PM. Notice that Drew looks like a corpse. add warmer shading to him.

change mroe stuff. it is now the next morning. add backlighting. his hair is bugging me but i literally have no time to care about that.

FUCK AROUND WITH LIGHTING HELL YES I AM SO CLOSE. What I do is blue shadows in multiply and light peachy gold overlay for light. IMPORTANT NOTE: SUBSURFACE SCATTERING IS YOUR BEST FRIEND FOR LIFE!!!!!! That's the orangey glow you get from being backlit.

Final touches!!!!

[aliciavikander]

Hi Szabina! I wanted to ask you a somewhat technical gifmaking question but it's totally okay if you don't want to answer, i simply don't know if you answer these kinda questions or not.

You are one of the few gifmakers I follow who has really quality edits --regardless of color settings etc, which is sth personal i think. I really like gifs that similarly look like when we're watching that scene, sharp but like smooth sharp. Like a 4k quality of tumblr idk.

I'm new to gifmaking game, and i've found some people kindly sharing tutorials, and i've been experimenting on ps too. But i haven't quite figured out that 'smoothly sharp' thing. I had a 4k video, and it looked really shitty --like pixels-- when i sharpened it so edited it without sharpening settings but it still didn't look the way i hoped, and i'm not sure if it's about coloring or contrast etc either. And at this point i guess adding grain woulf make it even worse? Idk

So I was wondering if you could have any advice on that or perhaps you know some people here who have tutorials on that kind of details. I'm constantly trying stuff myself but i'm one of those people who best learn with some guidance so i thought i just asked.

Thank you for yor time in any case ✌🏻

Hi! Thank you for your nice words, and let me start by saying I'm really bad at explaining stuff, so I apologize if I say something confusing and feel free to send me an ask again if that happens <3

First, there are a few questions that popped in to my head: which version of PS are you using? (i have cs5) Do you use clips or frames? And how do you normally sharpen your gifs?

You usually don't really have to sharpen 4K clips a lot since it's already pretty sharp and clear. But when I do work with them I just sharpen them with my regular sharpen settings (put it under the cut) and then I adjust the opacity if it's too sharp.

What I've noticed over the years that the more adjustment layers you use the more "grainy" or "lossy" your gif will be. It could be that you have a lot of adjustment layers? Idk if you use brightness/contrast layer but too much of that will also have a negative effect on your gif. I usually use exposure or levels instead.

Since I don't see your gif it's pretty hard to tell the root of your problem tbh. If you want to, you can come off anon and send me a link/screenshot to it or something (I will answer to your privately and I promise I won't judge or anything <3).