#bc it's not paying for photoshop either is it!!!

[tyrannuspitch]

learning so much about computers against my will while im just trying to find a stupid little video editing program that Works

[krytus]

spent the last two hours trying to break photoshop so i wouldn't have to pay adobe $20 and i failed. computers truly have the mark of the beast

[transmascissues]

it's silly but the biggest reason why im not into t yet is bc im so afraid of losing my hair. do you have any solutions/tips for it?

first of all, i don’t think it’s silly — it’s natural to be worried when hair loss is talked about by so many people as like…one of the worst results of aging for men. listening to my dad talk about how much he hates balding definitely did not make me feel particularly good about the knowledge that i may very well be joining him someday. i’m not saying the fear is right, because i don’t think hair loss is something awful that we should avoid at all costs, but it’s an understandable fear given the beauty standards we’re working with, and it’s one that a lot of us (myself included) feel.

one thing that’s helped me is just…paying more attention to the guys that i interact with on a daily basis. i’ve learned two things from it: 1) hair loss is super fucking common. i’d say it’s much harder to find an adult man who isn’t balding at all than it is to find one who’s completely bald. and 2) if you forget everything you’ve been told about how bad hair loss is, you’ll realize that quite frankly, every single one of those guys looks totally fucking fine. it doesn’t ruin their appearance and make them ugly, it looks totally natural and isn’t really even something you’d notice if you weren’t looking for it. we put so much weight on it but it’s really just not that big of a deal. i’ll hear my parents talk shit about men in my family who are losing their hair when i didn’t even notice a difference last time i saw them. it’s one of those things (like so many other appearance-related things) that you really only notice at all because you’ve been taught that you’re supposed to care about it.

this isn’t something i’ve done personally, but if you really want to desensitize yourself to the idea of it, embrace the time-honored queer tradition of just shaving your whole damn head! find out what you’d look like without hair, find out how you feel about it and what you can do that makes you feel good about your appearance without hair, test the waters while it’s still a temporary change and not something permanent. that way, it won’t feel like this big scary unknown, and you’ll actually have a frame of reference for your feelings about how you look without hair rather than accepting the societal assumption that you’ll inevitably hate it. if you don’t want to actually shave your head, you could also just fuck around with bald filters or photoshop and see what happens.

oh, and if you’re attracted to men, keep an eye out for guys who are bald or balding and also hot as fuck. in my experience, there’s no insecurity or potential future insecurity that being gay for other men hasn’t helped me with. just off the top of my head, i can think of a couple actors who i think are absolutely fucking gorgeous who have helped me get over my fears about losing my hair. despite what our anti-aging-obsessed world might want you to think, there is no such thing as a physical feature that automatically makes someone less attractive, and while making attractiveness less of a priority in your life is good, it can’t hurt to also give yourself some proof that actually, you might lose your hair and look hot as hell doing it.

basically, entertain the possibility that it won’t be a bad thing at all! whether that’s just because it turns out to be a neutral thing for you or because you end up actually liking it, it’s not an inherently bad thing. i’ve ended up liking a lot of things that were “supposed to” be bad effects of t — i love the weight i’ve gained and the new shape it gives my body, i get a lot of gender euphoria from the fact that my acne is now on parts of my face that i saw a lot of guys in high school get it and i’m not complaining about the scars i get from it either because i’ve always liked the added texture that acne scars give my skin, and so on. i think there’s a lot of joy to be had in the changes we’re taught to fear, once we look past that conditioning and actually explore how we feel about it.

but if it’s something you really don’t want and you just want to improve your chances of not having to deal with it, it’s not like there’s nothing you can do! products like finasteride (oral) and minoxidil (usually topical but i think there might also be oral versions) are pretty commonly used among trans guys, for the purpose of avoiding hair loss and for other reasons, and there are plenty of other anti-hair loss products out there (though i don’t know how effective any one of them might be). if it’s a big enough deal for you, you can just decide that you’ll go off of t if/when you start noticing signs of it, since no longer having higher t levels would stop the process in its tracks. and if you don’t find prevention options that work for you so it ends up happening, you can always explore different hair styles (judging by the pattern of hair loss i see in my family, i suspect that keeping my hair long would make it less obvious if i started losing mine), find your preferred method of covering it when you don’t feel good about it (personally i love a good beanie generally and would probably wear them a lot more if i didn’t have hair to worry about because my main complaint is the way they press my hair onto my neck), or just shave it all off if you don’t like the look of the partial balding but don’t mind a shaved head. the point being — you have options!

at the end of the day, whether you go on t or not, you’re going to see your body change as you age in ways that aren’t always going to be attractive to others or aesthetically pleasing to you. that’s just the reality of having a body. even if you never went on t, you’d get older and you might see your hair thin out even if you don’t bald, you’ll see your skin start to wrinkle and sag in places that used to be smooth, your metabolism might slow or your body fat might start to gather in new places; hell, you might lose your hair for a totally different reason and end up in the same place but without the benefits of having been on t that whole time. life is full of bodily changes like that. transphobes will fearmonger about the permanent changes of testosterone all day long but the truth is, there is no escaping permanent bodily changes. whether or not you go on t, your body now isn’t the same as it will be in 1 or 5 or 10 or 20 or 50 years, just like it isn’t the same as it was at any point in your life before now. our bodies are never supposed to stop growing and aging and changing throughout our lives. there’s no guaranteeing that we’ll love every single change our bodies go through, but that’s okay! there are so many things in life that are more important than the way our bodies look. even if you go on t and lose your hair and don’t like how it looks, your life won’t be ruined; plenty of other things will bring you joy and more than make up for the insecurities.

just think about the gender euphoria and relief from dysphoria that t could give you. would losing your hair be bad enough to outweigh all of that? or is it just the pressure of a society that decided balding is bad that’s making you fear one single change despite how much joy you could have if you let that fear go? only you can decide if going on t is worth the potential downsides for you, but i suspect that for most of us, the benefits of going on t far outweigh the possibility of side effects like hair loss happening down the line.

[bi-animated]

The Patakis Week Day 2!

I’m honestly so proud of this one, I just finished it today so I can post it in time. (I really don’t wanna fall behind like Inktober ☠️)

Following the prompts, here is the scenario:

Arnold and Helga are volunteering at PS 118 for their summer program that is essentially just a glorified baby sitting gig, which is why they’re letting high schoolers do it in the first place. We all know why Helga took the job, and it has nothing to do with kids. So when a young student in her cluster, Daisy May*, becomes overly attached, Helga exploits Daisy’s love of pudding. Arnold has been watching Helga too, and notices that she’s up to her old tricks. “You can’t just sit the kid in a corner with a pudding cup, how is she going to learn?”

“That’s how Bob did it and I turned out fine”

“Okay Helga, just be big enough to clean the mess”

*Fun fact: Daisy May is the name of the love interest in Lil Abner, where Arnold’s pet pig gets his namesake. Daisy May pursues the main character even though he shows no interest. It’s a Helga-ception.(credit to my bf for that)

One thing that I LOVE about Helga is her tenacity to break the rules (law😝) for the sake of her personal mission. Since it’s just a blurb for a picture, I didn’t get too detailed with the plot but I’d like to think that Helga was getting up to something Football related 😏

I wanted her face to look frustrated for being caught out, but also totally elated that Arnold was paying attention to her 😍

@opthepatakis

————————

Since I’m using my Tumblr as more of an “art diary”, I’d like to include some more info behind what went into this piece:

Much like Inktober, I’m using this challenge to learn more about Procreate, experiment with brushes and figure out what’s “right” for me.

To be frank, it has been a mildly frustrating experience internally because I already know that my weakness is color. Digital painting and traditional are just not the same, they don’t work the same (to me anyway). The interface of Procreate is so different from Photoshop too, finding and remembering to use tools isn’t a simple transition, either. It makes me self conscious of my art, even though I’ve gone to art school, and it throws me off to have to stop and Google stuff. But! I think with this piece, I’m FINALLY in a good groove of how I want my art to look and how to get there.

TLDR; I cry bc the lesson I refuse to learn is that you never stop learning 🙃

PS - skipping Patakis Week Day 3 to put the amount of effort and time that I want to put into Day 4’s prompt, however, I’ll still post something fun! 💜

[f1-stuff]

How to Make High Quality Gifs

A few people have asked me for a gif tutorial, so here we go! As a disclaimer, there are many parts of gif-making that are subjective, and this is just my personal process/preferences. If anyone is confused about a particular step, or wants more in-depth info about something, just message me!

Tools: ✧Laptop/computer ✧Adobe Photoshop 2024 ✧External Hard Drive (mine is 250GB) ✧Video Downloader (I use the Video Downloadhelper extension on Firefox)

PHASE ONE: Make Animated Gif

1. Download high quality video This is very important! You should download the highest quality of the video you can find. I use the free Video DownloadHelper extension on Firefox, but it doesn't download audio sometimes (it could be me not using it properly, or they want you to pay to get audio). No audio is fine for gifs, but if I'm doing a video edit, I either need to record the audio separately with Quicktime or use a free online downloader for youtube, twitter, or instagram videos.

For this gif, I downloaded an HD interview from the F1 website with the Video DownloadHelper extension on Firefox.

Tip: Make sure your video file is an .mp4 -> photoshop can struggle with .mov files bc they're larger

2. Import: Video Frames to Layers...

File -> Import -> Video Frames to Layers... -> Open your video -> Selected Video Range -> Make Frame Animation

If photoshop has to load a while to make the frames, it means you should select a smaller portion of the video to animate.

Tip: If you discover that there are duplicates of every frame or that there are way too many frames for the portion of video you want to gif, you may need to re-import and check the "Limit to Every _ Frames" box, and write in "2". This will import every other frame of the video and get rid of duplicates or too many frames.

Once your frames are imported, make sure you're working in the "Motion" workspace by going to the top to Window -> Workspace -> Motion.

Now, all your frames should appear at the bottom in the Timeline. Make sure that the box in the left corner is set to "Forever", and now it should play the frames and loop back to the beginning each time.

3. Choosing your frames I usually aim for around 60 frames total for a gif, but sometimes I'll go under or over that number. This particular gif is 55 frames in total. In general, I want my gif to be around 3 seconds in length bc under that feels too short and over that starts to be a large file size. Totally subjective, though! (edit: I have started to experiment with up to 80 frames for some gifs, which comes out to about 4 sec.)

Play through your frames and if you want to delete some, select them and click on the trashcan icon, which you can see in the screenshot above. (If you don't delete them this way, you'll have issues later.)

4. Set Frame Delay

Once you're happy with your frames, select all of them and click on the part that says "0.02", then go to "Other..." I usually choose 0.05 or 0.06, to land my gif around 3 seconds, but it depends on the video and how many frames you have. This particular gif is set to 0.06 because it looked good and brought me to around 3 seconds.

You can always choose a delay and if you don't like it, go back and change it! Just do what looks good to you.

5. Convert to Video Timeline

Click on the symbol that looks like 4 lines stacked, and choose "Convert to Video Timeline". Now is usually when I play through the gif to see what the speed is looking like/if I like the frame delay and it's landing somewhere around 3 seconds. If not, you can just Undo and adjust anything when it's still in the frame animation stage.

Next, scroll through the Layers on the right side and delete any layers that don't have the "eye" symbol next to them -> these are frames you deleted in the frame animation stage, but they need to be deleted in the timeline stage as well. Lastly, select all your remaining layers (which should all have the "eye" symbol) so they're all highlighted.

6. Convert to Smart Object

With all layers selected, go to the top to Layer -> Smart Object -> Convert to Smart Object. Ta da! You have a gif.

I always make sure to save my file at this point (you can do it before, but it just depends on how fast you work). Remember to frequently save your progress while gif-making: sometimes, photoshop gets overwhelmed and quits while you're mid-color correction 🥲. You never want to start over from scratch...

Now, some people like to crop & resize their gifs first. Or do sharpening before color. Or color, resize, then sharpen. It's really up to you. The order I like to do is Color, Sharpen, Crop, Resize, Export.

PHASE TWO: Color & Sharpening (the fun part!)

1. Brightness/Contrast

So here's where we start getting into the really subjective stuff. I always use the Brightness/Contrast and the Selective Color adjustment layers to do my coloring. I rarely touch the contrast bc that can be adjusted in selective color, but almost always, the gif needs overall brightening.

Tip: Even when I think a video looks bright to my eyes, sometimes I post the gif and they look dark once they're in the app. My advice is to always brighten a little bit, even when you don't think it's needed...

Here shows the very subtle shift in brightness I did for this gif. It can be a lot more intense depending on the video quality/lighting. The difference will also look a lot more stark after the color layer is applied.

2. Selective ColorNext is color. This is totally up to you and what looks good to your eyes. Make sure you have any software turned off that might change the color of your screen (like a nighttime filter or something that removes blue light).

I use selective color bc you can adjust the levels of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black in each color channel independently. This is how I adjust the specific color of red that Charles and Carlos wear, or the amount of cyan in the blacks, etc. The "Neutral" layer effects the whole image, so I'll sometimes add some yellow there if I'm wanting a warmer image, or I'll add or remove black to brighten or darken the mid-tones.

Just play around! Sometimes, I'll take the slider from +100 to -100 back and forth just to see what it's doing to the gif. And I frequently turn on and off the color layer to see what the gif looked like before and after color. (I've found that most F1 content is really magenta-skewed, which you may not even notice until you've corrected it out).

Above is Color vs. No Color. It might look extreme to you presented this way, but when the whole gif is colored, no one questions it! As long as there's consistency across gifs, that's all that matters. I frequently copy and paste my adjustment layers onto another gif from the same interview/video so the look stays consistent.

Above is Color w/ Brightening vs. Without. This gives you a better idea of how much of a difference that Brightness/Contrast layer makes.

3. Sharpening I got my Sharpening routine of choice from this tutorial on gif-making. To be honest, I don't know if it's the best sharpening procedure bc I haven't taken the time to in-depth compare to other ways of doing it, but it looks good to me! So I've stuck with it. (edit: I've also added a Reduce Noise filter to my sharpening routine. But as always, just do what looks nice to you!)

I copy and past the sharpening from my other gifs onto new ones so I don't have to do all the steps again. There are quicker ways of doing this, like using quick actions and stuff, but how I do it is fast enough for me.

If you want to figure out your own Sharpening routine:

With the gif layer selected, go to the top to Filter -> Sharpen -> Smart Sharpen. It will bring up this window:

Here you can play around with the amount, radius, noise reduction, etc. and see what you like.

I also add a Gaussian Blur effect, which you'll find under Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur.

^All of your Sharpen and Blur effects will stack up underneath your gif layer like this. To adjust the opacity of one of these effects, double click on its adjustment/slider symbol to the right, and it'll bring up the Blending Options window.

If there's any sharpening or blurring layer you don't like, you can easily drag it into the trashcan symbol to get rid of it.

Above is a visual of Sharpened vs. None. You can really tell with the difference in the Snapdragon logo on either shoulder. But I also personally love how much more Carlos' eyes pop to me on the Sharpened side.

As you can see, it's up to your preference. Sometimes, I really love gifs I see that aren't sharp, but rather really smooth and almost painterly. It's up to the gif-maker!

PHASE THREE: Crop & Resize

1. Cropping

Go to the toolbar on the left and choose the Crop Tool. Above where it says "Ratio", you can choose from preset ratios that photoshop has, or you can make your own. I like to use the presets, or at the very least, clear numbers that you can apply to a whole gifset. Free transforming without a ratio makes it nearly impossible to maintain consistency across a gifset.

If it isn't already, uncheck "Delete Cropped Pixels". This will allow you to move the gif around inside the cropped area later if you want to adjust what's in frame. It also gives you the option to increase the frame later, if you want. You can also click the gear icon next to "Delete Cropped Pixels" and change how you view the gif during cropping.

When you're done, click the check mark or hit Enter. Now, you've got a cropped gif!

2. Resizing

Go to the top to Image -> Image Size...

Make sure you have Pixels selected. For the Resample tab, I have it set to Automatic here, but sometimes I'll use Bicubic smooth or sharpen, depending on what I'm doing. Here's a cool post that compares the different settings. Just experiment with it.

(edit: I no longer change the resolution to 150. I've found that increasing the resolution, and therefore the size, before ultimately resizing down to 540 px means you are compressing even more (the larger something is, the more it has to be compressed within 540 px). I now leave the resolution at 72, which is what it's set at originally, and if the image composition allows it, try to crop in as close to 540 px as I can get so that when I resize, there's the least amount of compression happening.)

If I know a gif is going to be the full width of a tumblr post, I'll resize the width to 540 pixels (the height doesn't matter). But if I make a portrait-style gif which will be sharing a row with another gif, I'll resize anywhere from 270 px -> 350 px. If it's smaller than 270 px, tumblr will enlarge the gif and it'll look bad. If it's wider than 270 px, tumblr might reduce its quality a bit and it won't look as good. But personally, I prefer that if someone clicks on the gif to enlarge it, it looks better enlarged, so I usually will leave it around 345 px as long as the file isn't too big.

PHASE FOUR: Export (last one!)

Once you're happy with everything about your gif, it's time to export. (Remember to save your progress frequently!)

Go to the top to File -> Export -> Save for Web (Legacy)...

^It'll bring up this Save window.

These are the settings I like to use for gifs. You'll find a lot of differing opinions out there about Adaptive vs. Perceptual/Pattern vs. Diffusion, but you should always have "GIF" selected, "Transparency" checked with "No Transparency Dither" selected, Looping set to "Forever", and Colors set to "256". I like "Bicubic Sharper" for my Quality tab, but there are whole tutorials just about comparing those settings. The best thing to do though is to try them out and compare for yourself.

(edit: I've discovered that if a gif is slightly too large and I don't want to shorten it or resize it down, I can try to reduce the colors from 256 to 128 to get it under the limit. I'll never go below 128, and sometimes I will go to 200 or 170 to try to eliminate as little color variety as possible, but often there is not a noticeable difference in your finished gif. But always compare, of course, to make sure.)

On the bottom left is where the size of the gif is shown -> tumblr requires gifs 10MB and under, but in my experience, gifs load/play best on tumblr when they're around 6MB. I always leave a little growing room as well, bc it might say 5.8MB in this window, but after it saves, the file will have grown a little bit and will likely be over 6MB at that point. (edit: I now regularly post gifs that are around 9.5MB and tumblr seems to be able to handle it better.)

AND THAT'S ALL!

If you've made it this far...congratulations! haha

I know this is a whole lot of information and you might be feeling overwhelmed! But I hope, if anything, this shows you just how complex gif-making can be, and how it is absolutely an art! No one should be stealing anyone's gifs, as a lot of hard work and love goes into the process.

This doesn't include things like adding text to a gif, or more complex adjustments and corrections like masking or key frames. But I'm happy to do more of these if there are specific questions people have.

Let me know what you're curious about or if something is unclear! And happy gif-making! ❤️

[eleni-cherie]

ok nobody's gonna see or care this but I'm gonna rant bc I am sick of my life and maybe someone can relate: so long story short, I'm a 27 year old graphic designer who was working 2 years at a big e-commerce shop until the new asshole supervisor didn't want to continue my contract that expired bc of his hurt ego bc I (along w pretty much everyone else bc he liked to pick fights w ppl from all departments bc he got into everyone's business) dared to argue w him BC HE KEPT CHANGING HIS MIND EVERY TWO MINS AND KEPT CONTRADICTING HIMSELF ALL THE TIME. so I lost my job last October and ever since I'm unemployed. I live in germany (Berlin) so I get unemployment money, but it only lasts for a year and it's already the end of July and I still can't manage finding a job although I've probably applied to 90 jobs by now of which only about 10-15 turned into job interviews - or the new trend "getting to know you meetings". of which only 1 invited me for a 2nd interview. now I get there's sadly so many designers, the job market is kinda oversaturated and for one job probably 20-30 ppl apply. but then sometimes this isn't even the problem. I had an interview for what seemed to be my dream job so I was super excited for this but then when I met the two guys doing it, they were very underwhelming. I mean little to no reaction to what I was telling them about myself and at the end they only asked 3 quite superficial questions. that's it. meanwhile others for companies I'm less suitable for, ask me like 20. then there's this other case, where they give you tasks and I don't mind tasks but one time I'd have needed the whole creative suit for them and like - hello? I'm unemployed and don't have the extra money to spend 60 euros every month on Adobe? I only an old Photoshop Version and that's it. then another time they gave me tasks that were only 40% graphic design related (but very vague descriptions/no real info) and 60% marketing/copyright related and like sorry, but I only have basic marketing knowledge and I'm not a fcking ad writer? there's this trend nowadays, they say they want a graphic designer but what they really want is a graphic designer / marketing expert / social media manager / copywriter / photographer / editor / etc. but still w only a graphic designer salary, so they don't have to pay five different ppl. like FCK YOU!

and thing is, in my desperation I even applied to random jobs (which said "No experience needed" in the description) like vendor or barrista. even in a copyshop where I thought I should fit in bc of my knowledge of print products, but either no response at all or I "lacked sale experience". bc Idk how it's in other countries but here you need a certificate for anything. even for a shop vendor you need a 3 year long apprenticeship. for a moment I contemplated going freelance or self-employed but a) I got no fcking clue how and what I have to do and b) taxes and insurance system in Germany is insane, I read an article and was overwhelmed.

So yeah, I'm getting fed up and sad and mad mostly also very anxious about my fcking future bc it honestly seems like I'll end up just moving back to my parents at this point. idk what to do anymore. I try and try and try, but nothing happens and I'm just done. the pressure is overwhelming and the sad thing is, I purposely decided not to visit my relatives/my grandparents this summer (the live in greece) thinking I "might find a job" and even if not, I don't have the extra money for plane tickets! they're extremely overpriced. and it's sad bc whenever I talk to my grandparents they say they miss me and how they're worried about me being unemployed. and my grandparents aren't the youngest anymore either (83 and 89) and I haven't seen then in a year, so that only saddens me more on top of feeling like an overall loser.

[proxylynn]

https://www.tumblr.com/crybabycomet/718487687239254016/has-anyone-done-one-of-these-yet-so-apparently-i

OP, i wanna see you try this template! 🥺

[Oh hey, it's my buddy Comet's stuff. Um...Sure. Let me just...*opens photoshop* Okay, I think I got this right. I'll try to explain it too.

Like me, BC!Lynn is cursed with being oblivious to when someone is interested in her unless they're blunt and upfront. So she autos to friends and gets stuck there a long time before she herself even recognizes that she has feelings too. Interaction is key, the more time they spend with her the more she becomes aware, which is why her view on Shadowman didn't move the longest because his shyness kept him from speaking to her and she's not one to just start a conversation.

Damon's interest was instant after their meeting and his subsequent breaking into her apartment. He'd stop by more often to get to know her and when she asks to be friends he agrees while still remaining interested, but that was merely a cover. Boy was already head over heels but he didn't want to show it and scare her off. He's taking his time yet it's paying off, he's beginning to notice her signals.

At first, the only interest DG had was messing with her, maybe even killing her. That was dashed when Damon called dibs. As they hung out he grew to like her. She made Damon happy and wasn't a bitch, so he accepted her into his life. Slowly though as she got more comfortable around them, DG couldn't help but feel interested again but this time of a different calling. It was tipped over the edge one night when one of his pranks got her soaked and her power went off, her baggy clothes badly singed hardly hid anything as she stormed off to change. And it was in that moment he knew he wanted to tap that.

Ras from the start didn't like her. He didn't know why. Maybe it was her familiar sweetness that reminded him of his mom and how she isn't here anymore? Who knows. But he gave her hell when she started working with him that first month. He didn't expect on day for her to snap on him after he unloaded on her. Brave bitch pissed him off but he respected her for it. After that though, things chilled. She acted differently around him but it was never bad, and she remained helpful even after his venting. She didn't kiss his ass but she didn't look down on him either. It was nice to have that in his life. Someone who was there and willing to understand. Maybe that's when he started to see her differently. Maybe someone he could be close to.

With Shadowman it's hard to say what happened. One moment he stopped in to a little convenience store to use the ATM and the next thing he knows is he's struck by love's arrow. Overwhelmed, he locks up when even able to gaze upon her. Lord help him if she even looks his way, his heart thunders like a thousand storms and he struggles to recall his own name or speak. She is a goddess in his eyes and a kind one at that. Offering him aid when his mind goes blank. After some time, she even addressed him as a friend. A crushing blow but it made things easier. The jitters of his shyness weren't as strong, he could speak...all be it in a whisper. Sadly though, the interest never faded and it only grew. He could deny it no longer! He was enraptured!]

[oldmilfenjoyer]

mentally ill over super cool sugar mommy jackie and her extraordinarily weird, lame as hell sugar babies jim and oluwande.  jackies like “babies the credit cards out mommy’s buying you something nice” and ends up dissociating in a pantsuit at the mall bc jim wants hot topic pins and oluwande wants claires earrings. jackies internal meltdown when she takes them shopping for home decor bc oluwande loves tacky marshalls/target/ross live laugh love shit and jim is in the home goods section of spirit halloween.  jackie vs the geriatric cats jim keeps sulk-begging her for (oluwande is also vs the geriatric cats he doesn’t want to deal w their medication routines either).  jackie pays for jims photoshop or w/e subscription so they can make edgy emo edits of Disney characters.

[rotanawrites]

What do you use to gif if you don’t use photoshop?

Thank you for the question, anon!

Because I’m a broke bitch, I don’t use PS. I use a free open source application called instagiffer instead. I download videos mostly from YouTube, but some of the websites I use to watch international TV shows are easy to download from as well. Idk how to gif from streaming platforms yet and I’m scared to torrent 💀

Anyway!

I put the video file into instagiffer and I move the time toggle as I make the gifs. I typically set them to gif 4 seconds of footage at once, 10 frames per second, and I trim off a few frames as needed. You can’t adjust the coloring or sharpen the gifs unfortunately, so I know why people say my gifs aren’t HQ enough or whatever, but I find as long as the lighting in the OG footage isn’t bad, if you use the brightness toggle and adjust it once on either side of darker or lighter, depending on the lighting, it does make the FC you’re giffing clearer.

Sometimes I’ll edit 8 seconds of footage at once if the FC is in one position and camera angle for that long and use the “delete even number frames” option to make a gif of them make several expressions while they talk. Sometimes the gif looks good as is, other times you’ll need to slow it down by one speed.

You can adjust brightness, size, crop, FPS, and frame speed with Instagiffer. If anybody has suggestions for free programs where I CAN color and sharpen gifs I’d love to hear them. But I like Instagiffer because it’s very easy to crank out gifs quickly. This is a hobby. I don’t take commissions (largely bc I don’t feel my gifs are HQ enough to OFFER commissions, and my turnaround time would suck), and nobody has ever donated to my kofi for my gifs, which is fine!!! But this is a free hobby! I have a full time job, I’m autistic and have adhd so even HAVING FUN can be hard for me to want to do because of burnout from working full time. I’m hopefully to go finish my degree this time next year too. Instagiffer is free and fast and to ME what’s fun isn’t sharpening and coloring gifs painstakingly. To ME sharing tons of cool FCs I giffed is fun hence my numerous 25-50 count gif packs.

If anybody likes a fc I gif but hates my gifs they’re welcome to pay someone who takes commissions to make really pretty ones or to find the time and PS skills to make their own, I’ll stick with free programs 😂

[tuiyla]

Thank you SO much for posting the screenrecord of the making of your latest Naya gifset. I admit I downloaded and took screencaps of it (I hope that's okay? I'm never going to share it anywhere anyway) in order to be able to actually pay attention to and take notes of your gifmaking process and wow it allowed me to learn quite a few useful tricks and how to play with some tools that I'd never used on Photoshop before. It actually turned out to be one of the most helpful tutorials I've ever came across and, while I know that was not the point of the video when you posted it, I wanted to say it anyway bc I'm so grateful that you shared it, tysm once again <3333

Wow Anon thanks so much for this message, really warms my heart. The point of the video was just general sharing, really, because I thought it'd be kinda cool to look at. But to hear that people are actually finding it useful is delightful.

More than okay for you to screenshot but I just wanna say, please reach out for anything specific! I guess you've already analysed it but I still have the original speed video files and the psd files of course, so if there's anything you wanna hear more about I'm happy to answer. Also happy to do an actual tutorial haha. I feel kinda bad that you screencapped a 64x speed video 😅 I mean amazing that you did that, but happy to make it easier for you!

I'm also just curious to know which tools and methods you found useful, that's really interesting to me. So yes please reach out again (either on or off anon whatever feels comfortable). Not just with this gifset but anything I do, I try to help. I have an ask about one of the comic ones I've been doing so I'll be publishing that as a proper tutorial too. And bottom line, thank you for sending this in <3

[kangyeosaang]

how to pan gifs

were u ever like gahd these camerapeople again making yet another stage ungiffable. yeah me too.

sooo here in this tutorial i'm gonna try to explain how to pan gifs so ur subject can remain centered or at least not be out of frame, sth like this:

this is a more advanced tutorial, in a sense that i'll assume you know how to make gifs, not in a sense that this is complicated lmao, okay let's gooo:

essentially this is what's happening and what we gonna do:

before we dive into the how tho, it must be said that photoshop's timeline can only do linear movements so no easing. at times it can look unnatural or choppy or... frankly both. (if you want to know more about this look up ease-in-out animation curve, or easing curves)

part 01 · prepping gifs

as i wrote in my gif making process post i usually crop my gifs bigger than they usually will be. e.g. a 268px gif will be cropped to anything between 468-540px. sometimes because i want to have the opportunity to position the gif a bit differently but most of the time because i know 268px is a reeeaaalllyyy tight place and i need to make some movement adjustments especially for weekend music shows where the camerapeople seem to be on crack or just very into experimenting

part 02 · let the keyframe madness begin

whichever way you are making gifs just open up your gif and crop it to the final size, colour it and whatever else you fancy. once you have everything ready just open your video layer on your timeline (if you don't know where you will be able to see it in the video later)

you will see 3 tracks, transform, opacity and style. for this we will use the transform because it contains movements (but also resizing if that's what you fancy).

all we need to do is create keyframes which will define what is the position of the video layer at a certain time. so e.g. here we are moving this box to the right by 50px in 1 second.

to create keyframes click on the timer icon in front of the position label and photoshop will create you one. the active one will always be yellow. if you move on the timeline with your playhead (that thing that is moving) and you resize/move your layer photoshop will create yet another keyframe for you without you needing to click on it, because it will recognise the change. so all you need to figure out is when the movement starts and which position your layer should be, and the same for the end and ps will take care of the rest.

part 03 · some things to consider when panning gifs

now this is the part where it gets subjective and less tutorial like. so all i can provide is some explanation how i go about it and what i pay attention to.

tip #1: match the movement speed to the gif

whenever you are panning a gif it may result in the gif being choppy bc the framerate and your movements are not matching up, so it's either too fast and photoshop needs to move your image by too many pixels frame by frame or it's too slow resulting in basically the same thing but kinda reversed, either way it won't look smooth. this mostly happens when the original footage is moving (there is a quick camera pan/movement) and you are trying to keep it in place, less when the original is kinda still and the subject is moving. this is kind of a trial and error process: try moving your keyframes closer to each other or maybe further, add more/less movement between two keyframes and just see which results in a smoother gif.

tip #2: try moving your gif once in one direction

there are times when your subject might go out of frame multiple times and you have the urge to keyframe the whole gif and keep them in center the whole time. however, as we do not have easing curves in photoshop the switch between moving something from one direction to the other one will be very visible. so try placing your subject in a way that you'll only need to make one movement and it's kinda okay all the way thru or pick the most annoying 'placement' you want to correct. here in this example it mostly bugged me that the gif was not centered at the end, but onda kinda remained in frame.

tip #3: pan your gifs when there is a quick zoom/movement

sometimes whatever i do the gif will look choppy regardless one movement or not. in these moments, and these moments ONLY we can be thankful for the sometimes unnecessary zooming that's happening and reposition our gifs while the zooming is happening. since there is already a drastic movement you can get away with basically anything, as long as you time the beginning and the end where the zoom begins and ends. also i must add that you can pan stage gifs way more and more drastically bc there is a lot of things happening in the background, so adding a bit of movement on top of all the other movements is less noticeable than... moving footage where e.g. the background is static.

✨something extra✨ · panning/moving other things

so what we looked at is moving the whole gif to fit into the frame we have, but with this technique obviously you can move all sorts of stuff, text, texture whatever you fancy. you can apply this process to the layer you wanna move and this is when you get these:

a sidenote: the fade effect is literally the same keyframe business but instead of playing with position keyframes you change the opacity keyframes.

aaand that is all, if you have any questions my askbox is always open so hmu <3

tagging @sanhwalynight bc of requesting reasons hehe

[beesmygod]

ok you dinks. here’s my thesis in defense of my needlessly picky needs for a product i will eventually have to make myself. you need to understand first that i am completely untethered from reality and have monetary expectations that cannot be met but i will goddamn get it as close as i can to my ideal price. this is about the PRINCIPLE of the thing (in addition to the fact that im not paying full price on a product im not going to be fully happy with)

RULE #1: ULTIMATELY THIS THING IS JUST A NUMPAD/KEYBOARD

there is no way in hell im paying for a stream deck or some shit with LED screens. 30-40 dollars is a reasonable price for something that isn’t a full sized keyboard but is also a specialty product. 50 dollars i start to narrow my eyes and grumble. i will not go past 75

“bea why don’t you just get a keypad then” because i dont want a keypad. i want a product that should exist. i found fucking QUAKE buttons before i found art ones. QUAKE. FUCKING QUAKE.

RULE #2: FINGER-FEEL

this one’s entirely on me lol. listen man, if my left hand is going to be glued to this thing, im going to be touching buttons all the time. and if im touching buttons all the time and i feel sticker edges im going to make myself crazy. this is my needlessly picky demand that i will cop to being a little ridiculous. but i know whats wrong with me so im not going to go through all the time and effort to just create a device that pisses me off.

RULE #3: THEY DON’T HAVE TO BE THE LITERAL ART SYMBOLS BUT THEY DO HAVE TO BE SYMBOLS

listen, i already have numbers and F keys assigned to things in my brain. im running out of room. i need to either have a paint bucket key or like a rain drop or a honeycomb or SOMETHING representative even if it’s really abstract. just something to differentiate the functions enough for me to build the associations i need.

problem 1: individual key caps are expensive

problem 2: doubly so if you try print/make your own. a printer will also take a VERY long time (the keyboard modding scene is in disarray rn bc of supply chain issues and afaik things have never been very good) and making your own necessitates a cricut (for efficiency) which as far as im concerned is destined to be very expensive paperweight someday soon.

problem 3: this product exists. not only does it exist it exists for a reasonable price. cooler master sold photoshop keycaps for 20 bucks. and they’re like fucking perfect

sold. because they’ve been perpetually sold out for years, as far as i can tell, with no plans to restock. they’re still on the website though. taunting me, just out of reach.

RULE #4: IF I HAVE TO BUY RELEGENDABLE CAPS ILL JUST BUY A BLANK NUMPAD AND FUCK IT

im not doing all of that. i have things to do. like play video games or argue with my cat. the time to effort payoff ratio for something i objectively won’t be happy with is too much.

i dont really need people to suggest solutions (though i do appreciate them!) bc i am perfectly willing to die mad about this. im just pissed off this somehow isn’t a mass marketed runaway success idea that’s so obvious no one would think to suggest it. why can i buy counterstrike buttons but not an “undo” one.

grrr growl grr whatever. i’ll survive until more stuff pops up or i think of something else.

[kiisaes]

I'd like to know the answers for 1, 11, and 30 from the art ask game!

1: Art programs you have but don't use photoshop ^^' i use it for image editing but literally nothing else; i should probably figure it out since it's industry standard, but i just really don't understand it. i also have firealpaca that i rarely use for drawing nowadays, but it's my go-to for simple animations

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what yes ALWAYS!!! it's typically a 50/50 toss-up: either it's a song that i feel fits the vibe of the drawing i'm making (and if i feel like it's a perfect match, i usually link it in the caption when i post), or it's a video where someone is talking a lot so i can sorta tune it out as background noise. usually these videos are commentary videos i've already watched so i don't need to pay attention, or long video essays about basically anything

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated i have just the worst self-esteem so i don't think any of my pieces are underrated. that being said, probably any piece that i've spent considerable time on ... that isn't from the mha series lol. those tend to get ignored since i'm mostly a mha fan artist at the moment. BUT i also don't really mind bc i don't want people to feel pressured to like a drawing of mine that they genuinely don't care about ^^

thanks for asking! (list of questions here)

[red-enby]

even though i got accepted into the art college i wanted to go to, im probably gonna have to drop out and leave in december when we go on christmas break bc my dumbass brain can’t handle this. i can’t remember anything from one of my classes and im already almost failing. im not gonna do the presentation in said class either bc what it’s about has overwhelmed me so much that i told my teacher i have to take the zero. im realizing that a lot of this stuff that we’re learning, i have no interest in learning whatsoever like adobe illustrator and photoshop. and i have an incredibly hard time trying to learn something im not interested in.

and on top of all that, im wanting to get tested for adhd (hence my dumbass brain not remembering shit) and possible autism but i don’t want to bc we’re already paying so much for me to go here. like i seriously want to be here bc of the people i’ve met and the one amazing teacher i have but i don’t think i can mentally. so idk.

but also i don’t want to leave bc then i’ll just be back at my house with my mom and i hate that house so fucking much now, all i am is angry and irritated while im there. like that’s been gone since i’ve been away and at college (im just happier when im not at that house, specifically with my mom) but idfk what to do.

[mythiccheroacademia]

“Private villa and the fur chinchilla, When he post me, all the hoes get sicker. Fuckboy killer, I don’t need fillers, Never been a lame so the real bitches feel it.”                          —Saweetie

Word Count: 1.3K Pairing: Dabi X Reader Context: Everything is the same, but the LOV are rich af bc they be scamming the hell out of people. Warnings: explicit language, drug and alcohol use, sexual content (no straight up smut tho), nudity ig but implied bc this takes place at a strip club lol

All characters are 21+

A/N: When I tell you I had way too much fun making this little header...someone needs to take photoshop away from me. Quickly! Also, sorry if your name is Rebecca, MJ, or Rinah. I promise I like you. Anyways, I hope y’all enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it <3

Dabi | Tap In

It had been a long week.

After dealing with the authorities and keeping tabs on his sperm donor—as he liked to put it—Dabi needed a way to take the stress away.

And he knew the perfect way to do so.

Dabi took a long inhale of the thick blunt in his hand before puffing out a cloud of smoke that mixed along with the misty air. The multicolored strobe lights shined over the dancers who skillfully spun around the pole. The cheers and chatters within the crowd swirled well into the music and quickly became background noise.

He sunk into the couch, watching the scene with a lazy gaze, and relaxed as the hands of giggling waiters and waitresses smoothed over the expensive material of his coat.

“Feeling good, big boss?” a pretty redhead asked. She’s no stranger to him, but he cant remember if her name started with a C or an R.

Regardless of her name, she was good with her hands. After a minute of staring at a dancer performing an impressive back hook spin, Dabi was quick to groan in relief when she massaged a knot out of his neck.

“Fantastic,” he sighed.

An attractive man, with hair like gelatin, popped up on his other side, stealing his attention with the drink in his hand. The woman glared at him in distaste.

“Would you care for a Martini? I know you like them stirred,” he purred, eyes on the dark-haired man’s crystal embedded watch before they slowly eyed his exposed chest.

Dabi took another puff, thinking about if he was in the mood for it. He was just about to answer when someone else chimed in.

“You had that last week. What about a Whiskey Sour?” This time it was a woman with snake like features. She leaned in, slim tongue hissing dangerously next to his lips. “You can never go wrong with that.”

“Everybody knows Dabi prefers that on Saturday’s,” the first women huffed.

“And everyone knows Dabi prefers a Screwdriver on a night like this,” another person said, their hand gliding along his chest. Dabi shrugged but didn’t pay much attention to them. The waiter sent a challenging smirk to the redhead. “Something you probably wouldn’t know much about, Rebecca.”

Ahh so that’s what her name was. I knew it had an R and a C in it.

“Fuck off, MJ.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“Here we go,” the man with gelatin hair grumbled.

They ignored him and continued their bickering.

“Just say your jealous of me and go!”

“Jealous? Baby, I wouldn’t be jealous of you on your best day. Like, ew.”

The snake-like woman rolled her eyes in irritation. “I can’t stand you bitches,” she muttered under her breathe.

Rebecca’s eyes turned a violent red as she seethed in anger. “Why you dirty little—“

“Am I interrupting something?”

For the first time since he got to the club, Dabi’s eyes found focus. Real focus. His crystal blue eyes lit up against the darkness of room when your voice silenced the petty argument going on.

You stood in front of him, chin high and eyes confident despite the four pairs of unfriendly glares on you. It was always like this. The dark-haired man could walk into any room and be immediately surrounded by people who shamelessly fawned over him. Whether it was for his money, his power, his undeniable looks, or the mysterious aura that followed him, they were on the man the moment he made his presence known. They’d light his cigar, buy him drinks, and flaunt whatever body parts they needed to for a second of his attention.

Sometimes, Dabi would mess around when he had the time. Other times, he’d just enjoy the attention. But all of that went out the window when you came into the picture. And whether they wanted to admit it or not, everybody knew it.

For some reason, he just couldn’t get out of his head no matter how many times he fucked you silly.

Dabi liked the knowing smirk on your lips as his eyes raked over your face and body, committing every feature to memory as if he hadn’t had the pleasure of indulging in it before.

It was something about the way you wore the clothes he bought for you so well. It made his pants uncomfortably tight in the best way.

“Nothing at all, doll-face. Mind keeping me company?” he said.

“Sure thing,” you shrugged.

You squeezed through the small parade he had going on, and plopped yourself right on his lap. Dabi happily attached his grip to the meat of your thigh, enjoying the way your hand raked down his tattooed neck.

“Why don’t you guys give us some privacy?” he off-handedly said. “Oh and Rinah was it? Can you get a Tequila Sunrise for Y/N? Two cherries. Gin tonic for me.”

“You remembered,” you chuckled, sensually dragging your thumb across his bottom lip.

“Of course I did, babe.”

The four internally groaned as Dabi seemed to become enraptured in your gaze. 

“It’s Rebecca,” the woman muttered before going off to get the drink. They all dispersed, leaving the two of you alone.

After your drink was made, you two spent the next half hour talking, laughing, drinking and smoking together. You enjoyed each other’s company. It was easy between you two. Your adventures were wild from leaving the country to spending nights skinny dipping in random pools. It was fun and there wasn’t much commitment on either part, however, despite indulging in your separate endeavors, you always came back to each other. And you would never admit it to one another, but there was comfort to be taken in that.

Before you knew it, your legs were seated on either side of his hips and his hands were feeling on your ass. The curtains surrounding the lounge chair had been closed long ago and it was only a matter of time before you’d take advantage of the privacy.  

“So remind me again why I haven’t heard from you in two weeks?” you questioned, a teasing smile in your voice.

You rolled your head and fluttered your eyes closed as Dabi trailed hot kisses on your chest and shoulders.

“Police were on our ass. Had to move locations. Important shit,” he responded between each kiss.

“More important than lil’ ole me?”

“Can’t finance your shopping addiction if I’m in jail, sweetheart.”

You almost gave up your playfulness when his veiny hand gripped your jaw and his tongue slowly traveled up the length of your neck. If the bulge against your thigh was anything to go by, he was more than excited, but you wanted to have your fun.

A slight grind of your hips had him growling against you. You threaded your hands through the back of his hair to pull his head back. 

“But you promised we’d go to that Italian restaurant downtown. I was really in the mood for some pasta,” you faux pouted.

Your puffed out lips and slow grinding took him over the edge.

“Then I’ll take you to fucking Italy next week to make up for it,” he rumbled before swinging you down so you were on your back. You laughed at his antics but it was short lived as he gave you a kiss that made you see stars.

Once you separated, a silver line of saliva breaking your connection, a devilish smile took over your lips as he hovered above you with one of his own.

“I’ll hold you to it,” you said.

He laughed through his nose and shook his head. You were a pain in the ass, yet here he was ready to devour you at any second.

Dabi licked his lips before lowering himself down your body.

“Now if you don’t mind,” he began. Your stomach erupted in butterflies as his eyes remained on your own. He slowly pulled your pants off you in waves and sent you a smirk that gave you goosebumps.

“I’m in the mood for something a little different.”

[golbrocklovely]

Ok i saw ur posts about the guys' merch and i couldn't not get mad at what people were saying. If u do not like their merch bc it is "mid" Don't buy it or don't go looking for it. I personally find it really good and when it comes to merch, I'm very picky, because i come from a long list of different artists' merchandises and I've seen things. I would say their merch was mid like 3 years ago when they would only come up with xplr merch in camo, black and white. Now, it looks much more professional and i think u can see the hard work throughout the years of coming up with merch. I, on the other hand, would say that Colby's merch is really mid because he mainly keeps it plain, other than the always tired merch where he scored with the white sweatpants and the matching hoodie.

Oh and the quality is amazing, i mean u pay for really amazing and comfortable material (as a side note)

it's fine if you like their designs, and i do agree that they have gotten better over the years. there was a long period of time that it was literally the same design over and over again, just in a new color.

but they're basically repeating that again now, which is frustrating. yeah, sure, the design is professional, but it's not interesting. at least to me and a couple other ppl.

the most recent merch they came out with was literally the merch they made for xplrclub, except without the "authorized personnel" on the front and the barb-wire going thru the X. it was the same design, just slightly tweaked. and that's what a lot of their designs have become after all this time.

my problem isn't fully with snc. obviously they agree to these designs so they definitely play a hand, but i don't expect them to hand create the designs at the end of the day. fanjoy just needs to do better. their designs are lazy and repetitive at this point and xplr either needs a full revamp or just let it go since snc don't even xplr anymore.

now there have been designs in xplr that i've liked, same as for sam's merch and colby's. but personally, i just feel like if you're going to make a simple design, ie the X logo, or just "skin" on a tshirt, you shouldn't be charging full price for it. it's barely a design. and it's sure as hell not worth $25 + tax and shipping. OR CUSTOMS if you don't live in the US.

the skin merch that colby is dropping today is what's pissed me off the most, just bc skin is such an amazing song, and it deserves better merch. like, a simplistic or minimalistic design is fine and i get why they make designs like that. hell, i like and wear designs like that often. but it can't be EVERY design bc it just looks lazy. it looks like you ran out of ideas or forgot you had to release merch, so you did the quickest thing in photoshop and called it a day.

and quality is a hit or miss at best. sure, their sweatshirts are decent. and the pants are fine, as long as you have no ass or thighs. the shirts are the real problem. bc i've gotten some that fit great and are nice, and then some are just like a plain hane's tee that i paid $25 for that barely fit. not to mention but i'm a plus size gal, and i'm a 2x. their 2x 9/10 is form fitted, and the occasional times they do go up to 3x, they sell out before i could even consider getting that. god forbid if i was bigger, i wouldn't be able to buy merch at all.

also plenty of ppl on here and twitter have complained about the design literally crumbling off after one wash. you have to treat fanjoy shirts with so much delicate-ness that it's borderline ridiculous.

if you genuinely like their designs for merch every time, that's great. i hope you can buy every release if that's what you so choose. however, just bc you like it, doesn't mean i can't complain about it. and even tho i'm not buying the merch, i'm still upset about design. especially with colby's skin merch. i love skin. it's literally one of my most listened to songs. but i can't buy that merch. it's boring and i'm not spending money on it. but if you like it, that's great. i'm not saying you shouldn't. i'm just saying why i don't like it.