#cool cool cool fucking. neato. such a smart take

[transsexula]

Also let's not mention that their take is fucking stupid because it DOES materially affect many students in these schools that are protesting. Are we really gonna fucking pretend that it isn't horrific to learn that your own university is funding the genocide of YOUR FAMILY????

There are STUDENTS at these schools with family who have died in these attacks. Their family is ACTIVELY DYING IN THE GENOCIDE. A GENOCIDE WITH BULLETS AND BOMBS BUILT BY COMPANIES FUNDED BY THEIR TUITION.

centrist guy in 1970 seeing university anti-vietnam war protests in the news

[sunlitmcgee]

A List of Birds for the Avian Characters in Heal What Has Been Hurt

I’m in a bird watching mood yall. Let’s look at some birds that the various avian characters in HWHBH have the wings of, and let’s you all listen to me talk about the birds.

Firstly! Because he is the most specialist of boys, let us begin with the prince of the cosmos himself: Tommy, a teenage golden eagle avian

This here’s a golden eagle.

Look at that. What a pretty birdie. Now, this here is a JUVENILE golden eagle.

and this here is an adult in flight to compare their wings. notice anything particluar?

that’s right! young golden eagles have little white bits on their undersides! These turn darker as they get older, and because HWHBH!Tommy is still a baby birb, he has the white patches under his wings, too! :D

Now, onto Eryn, whom is a black falcon avian with a robotic prostetic for a left wing

what a baby. their eyes are so big. so very round. they are swelled with kindness and the urge to make little dragon boys pissed just for the lolz.

I chose a black falcon for HWHBH!Eryn for a few reasons, most of which fall in the “it is a cool looking bird with real niftly looking wings. plus it’s a falcon, and falcons a fucking badass.”

also! Tommy being an eagle and Eryn being a falcon is a neat lil contrast. Both belong to the same bird of prey family, but they’re still very different and have led drastically different lives. Is neat :) I like it.

Beauty is a magpie. She is a magpie because magpies are neato. Also the black and white goes well with her shiny green eyes.

here’s a magpie with wings like her’s going out on a stroll. Where are they strolling? Nobody knows...

HWHBH!Phil’s a crow because crows are symbols of death in many cultures. him being a crow should make him smart and cool, but instead he’s just gross, and also very bigoted

imagine this very beautiful creature without any of the grace, mystic, chunning, cleverness, or general cool-factor that all crows possess. Make it withered and make it gray. Make it be a bitter and smarmy and vindictive piece of shit that has never cared for a single other person’s well being in its entire life. Make it a shitass husband and an ever worse father, and sprinkle in some none too subtle fake ally flavored bigotry, and lo, you have HWHBH!Philza. He is not a very pretty crow. This one is tho. It’s fluffy, too.

He hasn’t shown up yet, but HWHBH!Quackity is a Mexican duck! Both cuz their wings are very pretty, and cuz the idea about the Hispanic-coded ducky man being related to a bird native to the general Mexico-esque area equivalent(the version of which that exists in the HWHBH setting he most likely grew up in before moving to the SMP) made me giggle and want to play out on the naming convintion behind our beloved Mexican Dream. Also! It makes sense that avians whose ancestors settled in specific parts of the world with certain species of birds would adapt to mimic them and take on similar traits. HWHBH!Quackity’s family likely lived in an area with lots of Mexican ducks, other water fowl species, marshy wet terrain, and big bodies of water, so lo, they became the ducks so that they could better adapt to the marsh enviroment. Or something like that. IDK I just thought it’d be neat.

they have shiny wings. very pretty birdies!

speaking of Mexican Dream...he was a scarlet macaw. May he rest with Mamacita <3

and finally, HWHBH!Wilbur was an osprey. what a bird.

....

....

...i lied. there’s still 1 more. a character you’ve all had named one time and one time only is a woodthrush. she’s gonna happen. soon, mayhaps

this has been birds with me, SunlitMcGee

[macklives]

homestuck recap

i hated this so fucking much bc my 2 am bitch-ass didnt want to read a recap thats probably longer than any slowburn out there

anyways here it is

also, uhhH sorry im using this as a end of session discussion bc that shit gets explained in her as well. and im not writing up more recaps of a recap so this is where im done for the day. (by done for the day i mean last nights session, im still doing a liveblog soon. i just wrote this yesterday)

also that this is long

you dont have to read it, theres nothing of importance

ive been coping with humor to get me through it

neato.

have fun with what i suffered through:

why was “beta” the only thing unhighlighted?

like did i miss a page???

OH its the beta version of HS thats why

damn its like 5 pages and thats it

mmh

well youll all be happy to know im clicking every single one of these links again bc i like looking back like ahh i remember that. good times. also in case i forgot some shit existed.

do you think andrew had fun writing this? or was he like “fuck”

thats a lot of fucking package talk. good thing im not confused as of now and remember it pretty clearly. of else, this early on in the recap, id be screwed.

god remember when i did an analysis on each item and what it did

i feel as if i have the technology engrained inside my head right now

cruxite, alchemeter, all that jazz

flashbacks are starting up already

yeah, that was the good part in homestuck where i knew 100% that i probably would continue on this liveblog in its entirety, ngl

that one explosion scene. bc it kept me going.

OH W A IT SHIT

i just realized how the intermission spades probably fucking foreshadowed the whole jack revolts thing and gains the ring, which was also technically JOHNS fault considering he slashed up the doll in the first place

my god, i guess thats the only good aspect of the recap. looking back at things and realizing the missing pieces.

oh that makes sense for the whole “this prototyping had no effect on the enemies, since he was already in the medium” i didnt actually think about that

little did rose know where that would get her right now

oh yeah

there’s still the whole entire lab terminal thing and how mom basically knows the place exists. i guess we’re still venturing onto that and itll come up later when we find out how mom knows SO MUCH about the game.

still think shes some weird spy or secret agent

i kinda love her ngl

anyways, theres literally no reason for skaia to produce a cloning machine. so technically, they only sent the meteors in, right? so who put the cloning machine in if not mom?

oh yeah that impact was nerve wrecking asf

and still at this point in the comic i called dave fuckboy red

huh, how times change

i hated reading that whole paragraph ngl, the frustration just kicked me in the boobs again

yeah nobody else got tornadoes, huh?

OH that makes also much more sense

bc she did prototyped them before she entered the medium.

i gotcha

man one of my favorite edits i made, rose hitting that meteor with a bat

are you

telling me

the exiles structures they arrived on were in the form of the items the kids used to enter the medium?

THE EGG

THAT EXPLAINS “EGG”

of course it was 413 years ago. that was never explained. simply vague “many years in the future....” but i expected no less from this

man serenity is the most wholesome character in hs no doubt

damn thought andy here was really gonna spoil us jade’s planet

okay cool, im glad i now have the layout to the whole “their stations went to the coordinates of the home button” shindig

man i honestly dont know what else to say besides “yeah cool recap” when i already pretty much know what went down? ofc im looking into each link and shit and adding in things when i see fit, but otherwise its just me going “ah good times” yknow

the whole meteor thing kinda makes sense now?

we’re still missing a few pieces of info but we’re getting there, folks

oh yeah that reveal

god jade and dave have it in the shits for parents huh

bro isnt the best and jade has a fucking dog

who lowkey

is doing better than bro

who knew a fucking dog is a better guardian than bro lmfao

dreambot = terminator. im telling you.

sorry im still on that idea and it will never leave unless i have the actual proof in front of me that its not going to become a thing. meaning, ive finished hs and theres still no terminator dreambot or either andrew himself gives me a canon letter with “the robot is not arnold, mackenzie, pls just let it be”

why is the entire game session highlighted

i swear to god if this is like to a second recap or smth of the whole game session i may fucking CRY

okay thank god its just a design of the skaia layout

which is honestly cool

idk why its blurry tho but i can at least see the layout now. which is honestly how i pictured it anyways.

yeah, john did make a huge impact in his friends’ life and i find that so fucking touching

yep. got that. everything loops around. cool.

especially when the trolls come in. god we havent even gotten to that recap portion yet, we havent even gotten to the INTERMISSION

pls can this be the halfway point to the recap

AT LEAST

so they were exiled after the whole jack: ascend thing, right? considering theyre way in the future. man no fucking wonder.

speaking of jack

man that whole dad and jack interaction was gold, ngl

OH THAT EXPLAINS THE RING THEN

and wow, andrew’s really giving us the best female content huh. andrew is the true god of equality and diversity.

also hey, i didnt realize that wow. so PM tricked the queen in showing the parking ticket to be able to take the present from jack. she’s a smart cookie, that one..

she and PM basically snitched on jack and it was the best thing that has happened to me so far

oh yeah okay

but why did AR panic over bec? bc thats something we havent learned yet, right?

anyways

exile town, the only town which should exist. facts. i dont make the rules.

noice

i love PM being queen. like.. thats canon now. shes an actual queen.

yeah that was a fun game and the consorts were cute

fuck yeah the dick head

hate them even more now that i know john was killed because of them

anyways, i wonder what dick move dave’s denizen did? maybe thats why its filled with lava bc the denizen was like “fuck it. make the land red. kill them all”

UH WHAT

WHAT

OH MY GOD HOW DID I JUST FORGET NANNAS LETTER LIKE THAT LMFAO

THEIR TITLES WERE THERE THE WHOLE TIME!

so i still dont know what they mean but i can gather it has something to do with the game giving them abilities. considering dave is the “knight of time” and he can go back in time. whack.

which means john can either control someones breathing or simply wind. and rose is... like that one girl in the winx club who does the sun shit. bc whenever i think of light powers, i think of stella.

and jade is space. witch of space.

nice

i have no idea what that means ngl

okay finally

we’re at the trolls

maybe this recap will end soon

i remember when i thought they were internet bullies

yesss

someone asked if i basically knew the trolls were on a different veil than the kids, so not presently with them, and i know lol. i was making a joke before btw. jsyk. dont think im incompetent to forget these things when sometimes i choose to forget it so i can add in a joke

it be like that, i annoy many

then again, pls dont assume im trying to say im not incompetent bc im also a fucking dumbass and DO forget shit and i have no excuse

imagine being so bored on the meteor, your last resort is speaking to aliens

ngl me if i was ever trapped on a meteor and could potentially do that

nah ik its bc its their only hope at helping with their session or whatever tf CG said to john. but there was BOUND to be a conference meeting between them like “okay guys. humans. that needs to be sorted out” and you just hear CG screaming in the background

i cant wait to meet them honestly bc im growing on all 4 of the ones we’ve seen already. and on top of that, i know what they look like and i know theyre not THAT bad, just a little on the crayy zee side sometimes

but theyre trying

OH MY GOD

I GET IT

FUCK

DOES THAT MEAN THE INTERMISSION IS *APART* OF THE MAIN FUCKING STORY??

AND SPADES IS WV FOR THE TROLLS

GOD D A M N

wow

i didnt expect that. but maybe the signs were there and i was just willingly choosing to ignore it or smth bc “haha couldnt be, right”

flashbacks to how i thought the trolls were humans

anyways, i guess he got his revenge on the kids version of “snowman” ie the black queen. but really

he did not have to do that. he could have cut off the finger and fled. but he decided “nah, lets implode her” so the loml is dead and all i got was a catchy song

i knew they were different types of “bullies” but now i just have to replace bullies with uhh

trolling strategies

anyways, this is cute. i love how they’ve come to be friends through mutual frustration. good part in the comic.

i wonder why it explodes

more importantly

....

terminator time?

this was my favourite sequences of dialogues in the whole entirety of homestuck. that is to say the back and forth thing that the kids went through to become a sort of wingman for the other.

absolutely gold.

all except AT’s rap.

GC was the only smart one with the linear shit

anyways fuck he still has to kill the denizen now but apparently its hard to beat for a sleeping dick head so

that will be fun for the future

john will probably need to kill A LOT of imps to get there

yeah rose is a badass bc she slayed that thing with needles of all things

OH and the white queen was the cursive

damn did AR ever do the whole guide process to a kid yet? maybe he will with dave, idk

oHHH

i fucking SEE

thats why he said DNA

to use it and replace all the life forms in the ocean

fucking neat wow

man that sounded sarcastic but im genuinely impressed bc all i got was bullshit as i read jaspersprites log

so thats the secret. it was “meow” bc that somehow translates to the genetic code she needs then. and that code apparently took fucking years to write as well. sick. whack. oh man.

derse is very pretty, ngl

and wow shit

“dave had already been awake in his tower all along without realizing it” how tf does someone just

do that, awake in both places at once

i didnt even fucking realize that fact as i read that pesterlog wow

ah yes, around the time things got confusing

okay so the capsule makes sense bc at first i didnt know it was a fucking time capsule so i got confused as to how it just apparated the game lmfao

the more you know i guess *twinkle*

i find that a neat concept tho

like the whole whatever you prototype affects the imps and shit

yeah so that whole “he had no advice” basically impacted his future

no shit dave wanted to reset things bc he probably thought he caused some sort of bad butterfly effect and killed his best friend

fuck calsprite thats all im gonna say

i read that first sentence and i think i got an aneurysm

and then everything else just made me sad again

i mean good thing he fucking did amirite?

we got pain at first but now we got cool shit like idk

fucking DAVESPRITE

damn idk how that works

will rose have like two minds now? or will this be some steven universe fusion shit?

“and understood their meaning” course well i fucking didnt so could you pls elaborate, rose?

okay but then what the fuck did he use that was inside the fucking box

bc i thought he used his knife?

im only every going to refer him as that now, thank you andrew

alright okay..

god that was a lot

i dont know what will happen once i click on those links but i am going to see that for myself bc i refuse to add ANYTHING ELSE

[ifishouldvanish]

Editing tips, I guess?

Hey uhhhhh, so I've gotten lots of new followers over the past few weeks and wanted to do some kind of thank you?? Also, I have seen a fair share of "omg HOW" in the tags on my edits (which??? always make my day?? my week??? my life????)

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of my ~techniques with y'all? So here goes:

(lmao this got really fuckin long so cuuuuuut)

1. Make EVERYTHING a Smart Object

Okay, maybe not EVERYTHING, but seriously. Do it. It will save ur editing life. You ever shrink something down and then an hour later change your mind and decide you want it bigger? If you're not using a smart object, it’ll get blurry when you scale it back up and you’ll be fuCKED!

To make a layer/group a smart object, just right click on it in the layers panel and select "convert to smart object". This makes Photoshop store the layer's original data in a separate space for safe keeping (an embedded .psb file, to be exact) -- so you can shrink it and enlarge it as many times as you want without any lossiness.

As soon as I paste/place a screencap, texture, or whatever into my document, the first thing I always, ALWAYS do is convert it to a smart object!!

Why, you might ask?? Continue to item No.2 :)))

2. Harness the POWER of Smart Objects!!

The reason I am obsessed with Smart Objects is because I am obsessed with making any edits as non-destructive as possible. If you use “Image > Adjustments > Levels/Selective Color/etc” on a regular layer, that’s a destructive edit. Same goes for any Filters (such as blur/sharpen) and transforms (Warp, distort, perspective). You lose the original data that was there and the only way it can be undone is with ctrl+z. Might not seem like a huge deal at first, but if you keep chugging along for an hour and decide, “hmm, maybe i went too hard on that levels adjustment after all...” your only options are deleting the layer and starting over, or uh... hoping it’s still in your history panel.

However, it's really easy to avoid destructive edits when you use smart objects!! Because all those adjustments, filters, and transforms become “Smart Filters”. Smart Filters have all the non-destructive advantages of performing these adjustments via adjustment layers, but have the added bonus of ONLY effecting the layer they’ve been applied to, instead of cascading down and effecting all the layers beneath. (Which can be a good thing sometimes, but that’s a whole other topic)

Smart filters are attached to their ‘parent layers’, and can be hidden, deleted, or modified (by double-clicking their names) at any time:

Can I hear a wahoo???

Other cool things about Smart Objects:

You can copy a Smart Filter with all its settings to another layer by alt+click+dragging it over

You can change the order in which Smart Filters are applied by clicking and dragging them around

You can edit a smart object independently/in a sort of 'isolated' mode by double-clicking on its thumbnail!! I like to use this for edits that are specific to a given screencap-- like cutting out the background and any initial adjustments, like levels and selective coloring. Once you’re done editing the contents of the smart object, hit ctrl+s and it will automatically update in the main document!

But really, the biggest thing for me here is psychological. I know I’m much more willing to try things and experiment when I know that I can easily go back and tweaks things at any time. Otherwise, I’d stick with adjustments I don’t really like all that much simply because it would take too much time/effort to redo them.

3. Don't even THINK ABOUT using the eraser tool or I will STOMP YOU to death with my hooves!!

Use a layer mask instead. Please I am begging you. It all comes back to making your edits as non-destructive as possible. If you erase something, it's gone forever. When you mask something, you can make changes to which parts are visible/not visible as often as you want.

For the newbies or the otherwise unacquainted, a mask is a greyscale ‘map’ attached to a layer (or layer group) that controls its opacity. Black areas give the layer 0% opacity, white areas will give it 100% opacity, and you can use shades of grey to achieve partial transparency. You ‘draw’ on these layers with the your trusty brush and paint bucket tools.

You can create a mask by selecting a layer and then clicking the little mask icon at the bottom of the layers panel (it’s the one with the little circle inside the box). Draw black on the parts you want to hide, and if you erase too much on accident? Just paint back over it with white!

I love masks, and sometimes i will throw an already masked layer inside a layer group and apply a second mask to said group. This way I have two masks that can be edited independently from each other. Like layer mask-ception.

So anyway, yes. Eraser tool? Don’t know her.

4. Try using channels to create masks!

This is a technique that works REALLY well for cutting out complex shapes, such as wispy hair (or feathers!) -- provided there's strong contrast between the subject and the background, and the background isn't too busy.

This is also a fantastic method for capturing alpha transparency. For example: If you have a neato paint stroke/splatter/watercolor texture you want to use as a mask, but has a solid background that’s getting in the way of things. This method will capture all the semi-opaque areas flawlessly!!

While editing your image (which you had better have made into a Smart Object!!!) do the following:

Switch from the "layers" panel to the "Channels" panel.

Toggle through the R, G, and B channels, and decide which one has the most contrast for the areas you are trying to mask.

Ctrl+Click that channel's thumbnail. This will create a selection marquee.

Switch back to the layers panel

Click on the target layer/group (the one you are trying to mask)

Click the mask icon at the bottom of the panel (the one with the circle inside a box)

Release the selection and invert the mask if necessary

If you're using this method to cut out a subject from its background, you probably won't want alpha transparency. In this case, select the mask thumbnail and use a levels adjustment on the mask itself to bump the contrast until you have more of a cutout effect!

It sounds like a lot of steps, but it’s really simple! So I made this handy GIF: (click to view from beginning)

Sometimes you won’t want to use this method for the entire image, but just a specific part. For example, if you’ve cut out a character with some other method (magic wand, manual brushwork), but are having a hard time with their hair in particular. Use this method to create the selection, but instead of converting the whole selection into a mask, use the brush tool to apply the mask only where you need it! You can invert the selection itself with shift+ctrl+i.

5. Outlining text

The font I used here is Salomé, which is actually a solid typeface with no outlined version. But you can make virtually any font into an outlined version if you so desire!

There's two possible methods here, actually:

The Easy Way:

Add a stroke layer effect to the text layer (by selecting the layer, clicking the little “fx” button at the bottom of the layers panel, and choosing “Stroke...”)

As far as settings go, aligning the stroke to the inside usually yields the best result/maintains the integrity of the letterforms.

Make the color of the text itself match the background.

If necessary, use the lighten/darken blend modes to create the illusion of transparency.

If you need true transparency (which I didn't until I decided I wanted to apply a gradient over the text), you'll have to try something else-- The Also Easy But Less Than Ideal Way:

Right click the text layer in the layers panel and select "convert to shape".

Now you can edit the fill/stroke the same way you would any other vector shape.

Again, you’ll want to set the stroke alignment to ‘inside’. For vector shapes, those settings are a little hidden. You’ll wanna open up that little dropdown in the toolbar with the line in it, and click “More Options”.

This is semi-destructive, so if you're working with a lot of text you might have to edit later, consider duplicating and hiding those text layers first so you'll have a 'backup' of it.

And while I’m on the topic of text...

6. Try breaking up your text layers!

I know a lot of people like to draw a neat little text box to put their text in, and then they center it all nice and neat and probably use a small font size to make it subtle and stuff... and that’s cool. Everyone’s got their different styles and things they like to emphasize in their edits and there’s absolutely merit to that sort of thing (case and point: the bulk of my dear @herzdieb’s work), but. Listen.

I love typography. I love a good typeface. The stroke widths, the letterforms, the ligatures, the serifs... I get like, horny on main for a good typeface. I like to make the text on my edits BIG, so that those details can shine. I also like doing interesting things with the text. Jumbling words/letters around, distorting them, deconstructing them and just...  letting the text really ~interact with the rest of the composition instead of just kinda politely floating on top of it.

I’m not saying you have to do that kinda stuff. Or that I think neat little floaty text boxes are boring, or lazy, or whatever. It’s just... personally, I get really inspired by type. Fun type treatments are one of those things I LIVE FOR, something of a ~signature of mine, and I encourage everyone to just... try it? To use text as more of an integral Design Element and less of a... idk. A caption?

So if you have a quote, or even just a word... put each word (or letter) on its own text layer. And then: make ‘em different sizes. Make the words so big they don’t fit on the canvas. Rotate each one at a fun angle. Scatter them around. Go nuts. Use masks to chop parts of the letterforms off. Make ‘em overlap. Just have at it. Or, as the kids these days are saying: go absolutely fuckin feral.

If that really just isn’t your style, or doesn’t work/make sense for the edit you’re doing, fine. Delete all the layers and just do a text box or whatever. But. I’m tellin u.

Give it a try.

At least once.

Just... a lil taste.

7. Understand the difference between lighten/darken vs screen/multiply

For a while in my photoshoppin' youth, my understanding of these blend modes basically amounted to "darken makes things darker, and multiply makes things really darker", and vice versa for lighten/screen. But there's an important difference between how these blend modes work, and if you understand them, you can use them more... strategically? I guess?

Darken and Lighten are kinda misnomers tbh, because they technically don't really darken or lighten anything. What they actually do is make it so that only the areas of the layer that are darker or lighter than the content of the layers beneath them are visible. This produces some pretty nifty layering effects that you can't achieve with screen and multiply.

Here’s an example: (if you’re reading this on a phone with the brightness dimmed down you probably won’t be able to see the differences)

Without any the texture applied, you can really see the noise/graininess of Crowley’s jacket in the screencap. You can also see the ‘seam’ where Crowley fades into the background-- the jacket is a green-ish black, while the background it’s fading into is more of a purple-black.

With the texture set to ‘Screen’, the whole image becomes lighter across the board. Crowley’s jacket gets lighter, and so does Aziraphale’s jacket and the pink cloud thing. This does little to nothing to obscure the poor image quality and disguise that ‘seam’.

But with the ‘Lighten’ blend mode, ONLY the dark parts of the image appear lightened, and not only do they appear lightened, but they get kinda equalized. Notice how the patchy jpeg artifacts on Crowley’s jacket disappear, how that color seam smooths out, and how the brightness of Aziraphale’s jacket and the pink cloud doesn’t change at all.

This isn’t to say that lighten/darken are better and that you shouldn’t use screen/multiply. They each have their uses. But most often, I find myself using lighten/darken because the way they work is honestly really helpful? And just cool af?

8. Masking individual frames on gifs

If you ever feel like torturing yourself by making a gif that has frame-by-frame masking, my advice is don't try to mask each frame from scratch. You'll get patchy/wobbly results from the masks being slightly different on each frame.

Instead, mask the first frame, then alt+click and drag that mask onto the next frame. Make any minor adjustments to the new mask as needed, and repeat for each frame. This saves time and more importantly, keeps the masking consistent on areas with little to no movement, which makes a HUGE difference in how smooth the final product will be.

If you look at the edges of the animation, they’re nice and steady and consistent. It’s only the parts that have a lot of movement (like the back of his neck) where you can see any ‘ghosting’/wobbly-ness happening.

Sometimes the mask will move when I copy it to the next frame. Like, for the whole document. It gets nudged 20 pixels down or to the left or s/t every time. I have yet to figure out why, but I’m betting it has something to do with shooting myself in the foot with the frame 1 propagation settings at some point during editing?? ANYWAY, when this happens, just unlock the mask from its layer (click the little chain icon between their thumbnails) and move it back into place.

In these cases, I also like to pick a spot with a hard edge (such as the shoulder in the above gif) as a reference point of where it needs to be moved to. It kinda sucks having to do this for every frame, but you already signed up for some suckage when u decided to mask every frame of a gif, so I mean... 👀

9. Don't be afraid/too intimidated to do manips as needed!

Manips can be tricky if you're really striving for realism. There's light sources and color grading and perspectives to reconcile!! But when you're doing an artsy Edit with a capital E, odds are those kinds of discrepancies will be thoroughly camouflaged by all the levels, black and white, etc adjustments you're doing!

Something I run into often is, "I like this screencap, but the top of their head/hair is chopped off :(" But if I go back through all the screencaps from the scene, there's usually another frame where the camera is planned/zoomed out enough that I can steal the rest of their head/limb from it! And since it's from the same scene/shot, the lighting and color grading should already be a perfect match!

A super simple example:

So I wanted to use this picture of David and Michael for this edit, but 1) They’re standing on the wrong sides for their characters, and 2) part of David’s arm is covered up by Michael’s.

Of course, the easiest course of action would be to just mirror the photo so they’re on the correct sides, but 1) mirroring faces tends to yield wonky results, and 2) that still wouldn’t give me a perfect, free-standing cutout of Crowley to place wherever I want in my composition (as opposed to being forced to awkwardly position him off the edge of the canvas to hide the fact that the other arm is missing)

Fortunately, it only took all of like, two (2) minutes to draw a crude selection around his good arm, copy and paste it into a new layer, flip it around, and add any necessary masking to get the shape right.

My point here isn’t to teach y’all how to do manips, or to pass this off as an impressive example of one. Because it’s really, REALLY not. My point here is to demonstrate that even something as tiny and simple as this can really open up your options for what you can actually do with an edit/composition.

So next time you’re feeling limited/inconvenienced by the crop of a screencap, just... you know. Consider whether or not it’s worth attempting a quick and dirty manip to fix it.

Another Example:

Sometimes you’re torn between two screencaps. You like one element from Screencap A but also want some other element from Screencap B. What to do? Just frankenstein ‘em together. Layer one on top of the other, get them lined up, and mask out the necessary parts.

It’s easy to get hung up on stuff like “Uh... should Crowley’s shoulder be doing that?” but let me assure you that like... the people looking at the final product are none the wiser to your butcherwork and will not notice. Especially if you’re going to add a bunch of contrast and color adjustments later on. (in fact, sometimes I’ll apply those adjustments first so I’m not distracted by any discrepancies that are going to come out in the wash anyway)

“I dunno... 🤔🤔 doesn’t seem anatomically correct... 🤔🤔🤔🤔” thought no one.

Point is... point is... dolphins you can get away with a LOT more than you think you can. Don’t let the desire to make these kinds of manips perfect get in the way of just... making them good enough. The bar isn’t that high, I promise.

10. Know what inspires you

What types of edits get you EXCITED? What kind of work do you see on your dash and go, "oh, I'm reblobbin' THAT!!1!"

I know for herzdieb, she's all about emotional pieces. She likes matching words/lyrics/poetry to on-screen moments and punching you in the feels with both. She hears a song, or reads a poem, and the lightbulbs go off for her, and she does her thing.

As for myself, I just live for the aesthetics of an edit. The colors, the fonts, the composition. I almost never know what text/screencaps I'm going to use when I start an edit. I just see a font I like, or a color palette, or a texture, and think, "I wanna use that!"

And once you know what inspires you, collect that inspo! I hoard textures and fonts. I have them organized into neat lil folders. When I wanna make an edit, that’s where I start. I just browse through them all until one or two start calling my name. Herzdieb collects songs and quotes and poems. Maybe your thing is color palettes, or aesthetic-y photos. Or whatever.

The point here is make the kinda stuff you like/want to see. Not the kinda stuff everyone else is making or the kinda stuff you notice gets the most notes.

11. Be able to let go of things that aren't working

I often begin an edit with a rough idea of the style, colors, or layout I'm going for. And I almost always end up doing... something totally different.

So don't get too fixated on what your initial ideas are. Be open to experimenting and just let the edit be what it wants to be. If something looks nice, do it. If it doesn't, don't try to force it just because, "well, I was inspired by this piece that did xyz and I wanna try it too".

When you see a certain effect that inspires you, just keep it in mind as a possible solution for the next time you make something-- don't make it into a benchmark, or some imaginary 'goal' you have to meet for This Edit You Are Working On Right This Moment. In fact, sometimes the elements I end up ditching are the very ones I started with, that initially sparked my inspiration. And that's okay. Inspiration can be a moving target, and if your vision for something changes, let it.

You wanna know what inspo reference I was looking at when I started that “Temptation Accomplished” edit?

Fucking this: https://search.muz.li/YTdiNjkwN2Rh

You might be thinking, “how the fUCK was that the inspiration??!! Your edit looks nothing like that at all!” ...and you would be 100% correct, and that is 100% my point. I spent a good hour or two trying to incorporate that cutout text layering effect before finally accepting the fact that it just wasn’t working for the edit I was making. And it wasn’t until then that it actually started to come together.

12. Be patient, and take the time to explore all your options!

I’m not gonna lie, y’all. I spend hours on my edits. I usually complete them over the course of 2-3 days/sittings. I rarely have a plan. 99% of the time I'm just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. When I get stuck (when, not if), it helps to step away from it and come back later with a fresh perspective/set of eyes.

Every single edit I've posted, I have at some point felt like giving up on because I thought it looked like garbage (and not just because I was being self-deprecating/doubting myself, but because at those points, they simply weren't finished/something about the composition just wasn't working for me)

Work through those moments, and if necessary, take a break/sleep on it. It's always after I've exhausted my early ideas that the really good ones start to come to mind!

Here’s how the character poster edits I did progressed:

In Classic Me™ Fashion, I literally started off with just... textures I liked, and a font that I liked. Now, there were obviously a lot more ‘steps’ involved in both designs, but hopefully at the very least this gives a sense of how things get from point A to point B.

So uh... thanks 4 comin 2 my TED talk. I hope u learned at least one (1) cool new thing or maybe just feel vaguely inspired by this rambling mess?

[avoresmith]

LET’S TALK ABOUT HOW GOOD SHIN SEKAI YORI IS

FUCK FRIENDS, YOU KNOW WHAT I LOVE

I LOVE SHIN SEKAI YORI

I will try to tell you about Shin Sekai Yori without spoilers so if you want to go watch it yourself (it's on Crunchyroll! and probably other legal streaming sites!) you can do so without spoilers. I do think with as little spoiling as possible is the best way to approach this show.

But also I want to talk about all of the spoilers because it has one of the best meta narrative arcs of anything ever for me, and I think is ultimately a fantastic example of perspective and why I think the idea of the 'unreliable narrator' is kind of silly but rather that all characters should have their own biases and stories need to be regularly considered in the perspective of all characters.

SO HAY FIRST OF ALL, WATCH THIS COOL AMV, IT DOESN'T HAVE SPOILERS BUT IT LOOKS GREAT AND IT SHOWS A LOT OF THE NEATO ART:

(IF YOU LIKE IT, GO TO THE YT CHANNEL AND LEAVE A COMMENT)

So obviously Shin Sekai Yori gets pretty fucked up, but it starts off quite idyllic.

SSY is the slow, careful, and detailed deconstruction of a fantastical utopia. A series that doesn't so much rip it apart at the seams but just stretches it far enough that you can take a look at the stitching, then lets it settle back into place.

I really like this, but it's brutal in a way that a lot of deconstructions of this nature aren't, but I guess that is getting into spoiler territory.

SSY is told in chunks following the life Saki as she grows up to become a leader, so first and foremost I like it because it's the sort of story often allowed men but distinctly given to a young 'ordinary' girl here. The first part of the story is told with her and her friends in elementary school, and it follows them as they go into their teen years and find their places in society.

Obviously the whole POINT of a utopia in a narrative like this is that it isn't perfect, and I think the story does a great job at how it introduces the flaws of the world. Because you start following the kids AS kids, you get a child's perspective on their reality. A lot of complex issues seem simple, a lot of alarming things are overlooked while other things are fixated on because kids haven't yet been as indoctrinated as adults and you still see their moments of disbelief and alarm at the sort of shit that will eventually become part of their world.

The world itself is not one of technological perfection but a sort of homey naturalistic type. It's a universe where everyone has psychic powers, and the community is small and tight knit enough that you can know all of your neighbors, grow up with the same group of kids your whole life, and never have to fear violence or danger. Humanity has more or less overcome having a discernable caste system, there is no obvious poverty, no outcasts. Children learn about their world with a careless sort of freedom and are taught fables about times in human history where everyone didn't do their best to look out for each other. It's taught and understood that you don't indulge petty emotions and in a time of trial, you sacrifice yourself for others.

It is, by all appearance, a good world where everyone can be happy.

And it's fairly believable, even.

The story itself is about how this world was created, why the choices that were made were made, and the past and present costs of creating such an idyllic world. We learn about it all alongside the protagonist as she grows up and discovers more about the intrinsic flaws in the systems that has governed her life and determined the fates of people she cares about.

And that's really the absolute furthest I can go without spoilers. SO IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT AND WANT TO DO SO. GO FUCKING DO SO.

Now time to discuss spoilers. UNDER THE CUT:

So here is the thing, the thing I fucking love about SSY.

It never fixes the world.

Saki learns every facet of what is wrong with their system and doesn't become a revolutionary.

Which is what I mean about how it's a deconstruction that doesn't deconstruct in the sense that it takes it apart, it just shows you how it was put together and then with brutal honesty admits that we all like it better when the beautiful fantasy is in place.

"We" being the privileged ones who benefit from the construction.

One of the things I love is the careful design of the entire world and how everything kind of slots up against each other to form fantasy construction that I find quite believable and extremely interesting. Let me see if I can remember them all.

All humans have psychic powers which make them incredibly strong, nothing can challenge them but another human.

But because the strength in psychic abilities can vary so widely, it's possible for one psychic with too great a power to rule in a terrible dictatorship, to stop this, humans found a way to actually make themselves allergic to killing each other.

So if one human kills another, or rather, PERCEIVES they have done so, they will feel so much miserable empathy they will themselves die. It's called the death of shame.

This works pretty well except for the rare but possible outliers: what if for some reason a human can't feel empathy? What if a human doesn’t develop psychic powers and thus isn’t bound by the rules around them? They would be able to kill indiscriminately and more over, other humans wouldn't be able to protect themselves with lethal measures.

So you need to make sure only children who fit within certain parameters make it to adulthood.

For the good of protecting society, then, it makes sense that children are not considered individuals possessing their own rights until they are eighteen. This means not only can you kill them, but you can freely fuck with their memories without it going against your society's established morality. You're protecting the world from potential destruction, after all, but it means anyone who makes it into adulthood can be trusted with phenomenal cosmic power. How ELSE do you raise a species of super powered beings?

Then there's the monster rats, sentient creatures created by humans to serve humans. Because why have phenomenal cosmic power if you have to use it to do all of the boring day to day chores?

The best way to get rid of the class divide is, of course, to create another species to handle the work of the lower class for you.

Just tell them you're a god.

And if some of them don't want to work for you, it's religious warfare when you order the ones who do believe you're god to wipe out the others.

But what happens when monster rats start reading about human history? Start learning from your texts? Discover you are not gods just beings with a different, more advantageous skill set, with a longer history to have learned from?

And what happens when they get ahold of a human child and raise it thinking it's a monster rat?

SSY ends with Saki, our courageous, tactical, considerate, tenacious protagonist having a conversation with the tortured and deformed body of Squeara, a monster rats she'd met as a child and seen grown into a terrifying revolutionary who justifiably hated humanity for forced enslavement of his entire species.

She knows. 

She knows more about their society and its inherent flaws, who it hurts, and why all of those choices were made than probably anyone else alive. She knows the monster rats personally as well, and has seen that they are smart, capable, that they have feelings, fears, flaws. That they are no less than humans.

She knows they were created by introducing mole rat DNA to the last of humanity that never developed psychic powers.

She said herself that for the number of monster rats they had killed, they should have died the death of shame thousands of times.

Yet, while Squeara's tortured and still living remains rest in a jar, on display in a memorial as penance for his crimes against humanity, she she wistfully reminisces over the first time they met.

Then she mercifully kills him.

Because she can understand monster rats, she can know their origins, she can see who they are people, she can pity them. But she can't see them as human. And the death of shame isn't about reality, it's about perception.

And in fact, not seeing them as human is an essential component of her status above them, not just as a member of the privileged caste, but as a future ageless leader of their people.

And the show ends on a hopeful note. She wants to build a better world for her child. She believes that humanity can change. From her personality we know she will seek out the truth, and try to make good choices that balance both morality and the future of her people. And she pities the monster rats, she wants to take care of them, I don't for one second doubt that she wants them to have a better life in the future as well.

But she isn't willing to tear down society as it stands to achieve it, she isn't even really willing to be particularly disruptive. She wants to make the slow and subtle changes necessary to improve the world that they have, not rip up anything by its roots nor shame the people born into this world for the advantages it has offered them.

And you understand her, because you saw her learn every piece of information up until this point. Maybe you want to believe it’s not what you would do, but you can understand why it’s what she does.

It's not the story we usually get, or at least not the story I grew up on.

When you grow up in a utopia only to discover it is built on a network of lies and hypocrisies that cause some group to suffer so that the privileged can maintain their comfort, the next step is anger, resentment, betrayal, revolution. Within a generation one society is crumpled and the hope is that a better one will be built in it's place.

SSY shows that story from a different perspective, one that is I think less naively kind and optimistic about the likelihood of privileged people, if given all of the knowledge, power, and opportunity, to upturn their own lives, sacrifice their comforts, their position, in favor of doing 'what is right'.

It is in fact, brutally honest about the likelihood of such a person even really grasping 'what is right', of them even truly being able to empathize with people who live in such a different world from them that they fully recognize their humanity and connect with their deaths in the same way they would with someone they 'recognize'.

Saki is a good girl, a good friend, she's smart, thoughtful, empathic. You'd probably vote for her to be president. I know I would.

But she isn't going to upset the establishment. She's going to gently guide it toward a better path in marginal increments, and she will more or less sleep soundly with the understanding that change takes time, secure in the belief that life isn't inherently fair, but everyone is doing their best to bring about the best possible future.

It is, to me, an amazing character piece, and an amazing world building piece.

And I think it does something interesting that a lot of shows don't.

It gives you all of the pieces, but it doesn't tell you what to take away from it.

I think you could easily criticize the tone of the narrative and say it wants you to not be critical of Saki, to be proud of her, to think she is amazing, that she did everything she could, that she's a hero because she's the protagonist.

But it doesn't give you the pieces to that story, that's just what you get if you take 'protagonist' and the way she gets a happy ending and a hopes for a good future.

The pieces it gives you unilaterally are that monster rats are the same as humans, but that from the human perception they are grotesque, inexcusable, unrelatable.

Humans shudder in horror at monster rats for lobotomizing their queens to use them for breeding but humans murder and alter the memories of their children to weed out anyone not neurotypical or who doesn’t develop psychic powers.

In a scene that gives me chills, Squeara screams that he is human to a room full of humans who mock him and condemn him to a fate of eternal suffering, a fate that can only be bestowed by a god.

And then Saki, the merciful god, puts him out of his misery and in doing so proves that she never saw him as being human, right until the end.

She will do 'her best' to help the monster rats, to keep a promise she made. But she will always do it as someone who stands above them, can't be hurt by them, and may not ever see them as equals.

And I fucking love it.

[amourete-blog1]

(( i don’t get to interact with as many people as i’d like to but if you’re ever looking to interact with more ancestors: (this got long so i put a cut)

handmaid: @moegidos - a young handmaid, but still a handmaid. wonderful, precious cinnamon roll who deserves so much. easy to relate/talk to even if your character isn’t an ancestor. mun (jubilee) is a sweetheart, 10/10

summoner: @pupapanofficial - he’s a fucking emo punk nerd i have nothing more to say. just kidding, i do: this summoner is currently in the midst of his rebellion. character combines serious events of alternian history with a reckless nerd of a leader with too-big horns. great for laughs and memes, but also holds a lot of potential for srs stuff. mun (jade) is one of the most patient and talented writers i know.

psiioniic/helmsman: @tabescentabasement - will i ever get tired of talking abt this character? sources say no. this helmsman is dead - or at least last time i checked? shrodinger’s helmsman - and yet so full of life it’s unbelievable. he started out stiff and “automated” and has since developed a more personal voice as he’s tried to open up to people. all of the meme-loving ridiculousness of mituna captor, now with more dorkiness and a tragic past. mun (bamf) is so kind and patient it’s absolutely unbelievable. their writing is top-notch. @h3lm5m4n - this one is a sideblog from @bamf-main. this helmsman is currently on HIC’s ship, part of the ship, and communicates with the user as sassily as a computerized troll can - which is to say, very sassily. again, mun (bamf) does a wonderful job at combining humor with serious subject matter.

signless: @roseredmutant - “lil” is just about the furthest thing from the fanon signless you could possibly imagine, but that’s because he was purposefully designed that way. this signless takes a lot of influence from alpha kankri vantas. he retains all his memories of his previous life on beforus and it impacts him in profound ways. he’s the biggest little shit you’ll ever see, but he still has the spark of revolution that is so much a part of the signless as a character. mun (mj) and i have known each other from before i joined the tumblr crowd, they’re sweet as hell, incredibly talented and very relaxing to rp with. @hereticalsym69ls - xanthe is a resurrected signless, long after his execution, who just wants to be left alone, please give this troll a fucking break. his timeline incorporates a lot of biblical influence to match the “troll jesus” story we’re given from canon. he’s a simple carpenter who loves bad fashion and memes. mun (sel) is creative and hilarious, definitely one of the best signless rpers i’ve encountered in all my time rping ancestors.

disciple: @nemaeus - i don’t interact with them personally but i see them quite a lot through mutual... mutuals. this disciple has a lot of fire to her and that’s so nice to see. she’s bold and takes no shit, but has also shown herself to be kind and loving towards people she cares for. @nyanclaw - A lighthearted take on a post-execution Disciple, currently aiding the rebellion efforts of a Summoner. All of Meulin’s horrible puns, Alternyan edition!

dolorosa: @gentleaegis - this dolorosa combines carrie fisher’s online “voice” with a well-intentioned parent that can’t use a computer to save their life, and it’s the most beautiful thing. she will take approximately 0 (no) shit. she lived, died, and has been revived, and puts a very “real” and “tangible” life into the bare-bones story we’re given in canon. mun (jade) is a big nerd. also the mun of pupapanofficial. @genesisaberrance - she is the omni-mom. momni. this dolorosa, currently dead and without her own family, kind of just adopts the people she meets in need of motherly guidance. as would befit a maryam she also 110% capable of kicking your ass 7 ways to sunday and will not hesitate to do so. mun is very kind and fun the times we’ve spoken, i enjoy writing with them when i do!

redglare: @littleredridingglare - i can put a redglare here now! w h o o p! “little red,” as she is affectionately called, is 8′ of Attitude smushed into a 5′ troll. she’s smart, she’s sassy, and she’s completely devoted to justice and “right,” even as she struggles to understand what “right” really is. mun (jj) also runs riddlesinpaint and is absolutely phenomenal, their doodles are quirky and fun and their characters even more so.

mindfang: same as with redglare, but i actually remember a url this time: @8uccaneer - don’t have personal experience with them, but they interact with neato and i’ve seen them in more casual settings (streams, etc) a couple of times, and from just those it’s been pretty easy to pick up light conversation with their character.

darkleer: @crepuxulum - let me tell you about dhanus. let me just... listen. resurrected darkleer, brought to the present and kicked in the shins by life, learns to confront his past (slowly, very slowly) and create a better future. he’s got all the stubbornness of a horse and all the goofiness we find endearing about equius, except he’s genuinely trying to be “Good(tm)”. doesn’t know what memes are. mun (hannah) is so sweet, writes a lot of humor into their character, and their writing is to die for. listen... listen. @indulgentarcher - although far removed from canon, dilwyn is a darkleer. he regrets his past an has tried to move on since then. he’s like your good guy parent figure, trying to look out for all these rambunctious kids, with some memes and jokes in-between. mun (feather) is fun and lighthearted with their characters, we’ve had some great discussion and i love rping with them.

grand highblood: @riddlesinpaint - riddles is fucking great. riddz meshes “villain trying to become better” with “clown” with “vaguely(?) unsettling vibe” in a way that keeps you engaged and on your toes. he posts a lot to the dashboard so he’s very easy to interact with. chill former highblood just wants to have a cool day. mun (jj) is warm, friendly and welcoming, very easy to talk to, very enthusiastic about what they do. @amusedmuralist - a really interesting take on a character we don’t know much at all about. muralist’s ic speech patterns are very unique. haven’t interacted as much as i should, but the mun is a wonderful writer and extremely thoughtful about the world they’ve built around their character.

dualscar: @trolljacksparrow - nadaya stands out here because he is actually a hemoflip dualscar. he’s also fucking awesome. escaped slave runs regular, dangerous, rebellious raids in a timeline out for his head and will stop at fucking nothing. for what? nothing in particular. he just won’t fucking stop. he’s full of energy 25 hours out of the day, super endearing and very fun to rp with. mun (emm) is the fucking best, easy to talk to and fantastic to write with. @caepaecaesurae - a post-game dualscar that has meshed with his beforan self, from what i can tell. big weenie, tries not to pick sides and isn’t always successful. i don’t know if i’d call him morally gray but he’s definitely got something under mostly-benevolent intentions. mun (wirp) has been kind and cordial the few times we’ve spoken, i love rping with them. @seahorsegun - czunah gets an honorable mention here because he’s the biggest nerd. multilingual, smart as hell, doesn’t give half a shit about anything except the people that have forcefully broken down his walls and made him care about them. (effort. ugh.) very much your typical salty old sailor, except now he lives in space. hates his job. hates everything. mun (mj) is also the mun of roseredmutant and i still love them.

hic: @sugary-empress - and the crown jewel: tyfora. sugary is fucking hilarious. she’s bad, don’t get me wrong, but she’s really fucking funny while she does it. trickster!condescension, only wants to be “good” so people leave her the fuck alone, doesn’t actually understand the ramifications of most of her actions because she’s been privileged all her life and listen. listen. i love her. mun (skylar) is the actual nicest ever, knows their character is bad and isn’t afraid to write them bad. i really admire them for that and honestly just... if you can handle her, sugary is such a wonderful character to interact with, an absolute joy made of sugar candy and questionable intentions.