#desaturated sunset

[crimsalwaysawake]

Hey AvA/M fandom, take my desaturated sunset/secpurvic (tsc x purple x victim) crackship nonsense!

I only just got into the series and I'm already infecting myself with something that only I'm gonna like

[wonderdrive14]

A continuation of this post  <3 | The boys deserve a proper kiss!

[jack-the-fool]

It occurs to me that in the ISAt universe, they would quite possibly describe the ocean as 'wine dark' as a matter of course

[qeyond]

You're my safe house.

[reddish-bush]

Ever look at pics like these and they just hit?

[ph-cutie]

i loveee the clothing design in disco elysium so much it's honestly the aspect of the game im most directly artistically inspired by because I've never before seen a (somewhat) realistic media in which every rando still serves cunt. kim k's perfect form that came seemingly just god himself on the first try. all the outfits are believable but often a bit *weird* in cut and size, like evrart's huge ass shirt collar or klaasje wearing a bolero rather than a normal length cardigan. whatever the fuck the ravers have going on. the characters like renè who use flashy clothes to prop up their own egos, and on the opposite side, joyce, who's dressed in modest looking and desaturated pieces made out of silks the average man will never be able to afford. or SF/charles, dressed the most boringly formal and with nothing to say other than diplomat babble. mrrr tequila sunset's snakeskin shoes and bellbottom pants in general. the green goes well with the orange. the fact that harry and Kim also juxtapose eachother in the silhouette (harrys clothes taper out in straight lines, kim's clothes are bunched up and round with his ankles/wrists left narrow). it's half an hour past midnight I just like clothes

[softerhaze]

sunblind;

*The landscape images above, excluding the title image, were taken with only dof, edge smoothing, and mxao enabled. none of the coloring has been edited in any way*

Created with patch version 1.95.207.1030

Sunblind is a fully custom, realistic lighting overhaul created for The Sims 4. Unlike my previous mods, none of the lighting in this mod is based on existing EA lighting and each world is individually tuned to ensure the best possible fit. Some other features include:

∴ Vivid color shifting sunsets and sunrises, with deep, saturated shadows and a unique summer sunset

∴ More realistic daytime lighting - less blue than ea's default, but still somewhat saturated to better emulate light bouncing (Unlike no-blu mods, which entirely desaturate daytime lighting and shadows)

∴ Ultra dark, desaturated lighting and shadows late at night

more details and download over on itch! (free)

PS: This was a pretty massive undertaking and required a lot of testing on my part. I feel pretty confident that I caught all of the weird little lighting bugs (that I caused <3), but if you see something that seems off when compared to the various previews I’ve posted, please let me know! Even if you’re unsure if what you’re seeing is odd lighting, send it my way and we’ll figure it out ✨

Update 2/13/2023: fixed sunrises having the wrong shadow color during spring, added files for EP11 (cottage living) which were not present somehow (?!?!?!?)

Update 2/19/2023: fixed overly bright daytime lighting on Mt. Komorebi’s summit and base camps, fixed “negative shadow” bug that sometimes occurred late at night in seasons other than summer

s/o to @/pictureamoebae for helping to find this bug and testing these changes out!

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

did I ever tell you guys about how I would adapt (the tragedy of) Hamlet (prince of Denmark) if ever given the chance. because I have so many thoughts and I’m adding onto them all the time so here’s a post with all my ideas compiled.

- firstly, it would be an animated mini-series of five episodes, each one corresponding to an Act. I think Animation is a highly under-utilised and underappreciated medium that would suit this particular story well in terms of what it could achieve visually and also these are just a bunch of words to say I’m heavily biased towards animation and just love it so much.

- there are so many fun little character design tidbits i would implement. including but not limited to: Horatio being the shortest, Claudius/Hamlet Sr identical twins (and Claudius having a Scar reminiscent scar on his face for the drama… and also the eventual Act 5 Scene 2 parallels when Laertes wounds Hamlet with the rapier in an incidentally similar way), Laertes having a silly curly moustache, Horatio and Ophelia resembling the other, Hamlet looking tired, pale and ghostly at all times, character’s hair being used as a way to show passing of time (Hamlet having hair on the long side of short in Act 1, growing but in a little ponytail over Act 2, medium-length and unkempt in Acts 3 & 4, and cut shortly and neatly in Act 5. also Ophelia’s hair growing noticeably as well and being often neatly braided with little flowers in Acts 1-2, loosely braided without flowers in Act 3, but being down and wild in Act 4 etc), and so on so forth.

- I would shamelessly be including flashbacks to pre-tragedy memories of the castle/inhabitants. Baby R&G&H running through the castle halls and playing hide and seek. Hamlet actually, god forbid, practicing fencing. The Players entertaining at the castle in Hamlet’s youth. Ophelia and Hamlet sneaking out into the garden beneath the willows by the pond, Hamlet braiding flowers into her hair while they sit together. Yorick entertaining baby Hamlet. All coloured with the softest, goldenest glows that nostalgia can manage to contrast the desaturated depressive hues of the current day. I think a lot of the tragedy of *Hamlet* specifically lies in comparing what was to what ended up being, and since the play starts after Hamlet’s entered his mourning period, it’s hard to fully comprehend the true nature of such a fall.

- Each Act having a lovely stylised title card in its introduction with themes and motifs that are specifically prevalent throughout. Act 3 would have curtains, for example, given the play staging and Polonius’ later poor choice of hiding place. Act 5 introduces the classic skull we all know and love.

- Very purposeful dramatic lighting and colour throughout. Daylight lighting and then the switch to a lot of Hamlet’s soliloquies seeming to appear under more ‘spotlight’ lighting. Early evening during the play, sunset during the scene where Claudius prays (golden light tricking through beautiful stained-glass windows), nightfall when Hamlet yells at Gertrude. Lighting also being used to dramatise entrances perhaps, such as Claudius’s prayer being interrupted by the shift to ‘spotlight’ lighting before we even see Hamlet at the door.

- Same goes with music and motifs, interwoven character leitmotifs and themes that shift keys and qualities and work together to make larger pieces and show up to herald the arrival of a character, or turn sour to match their emotions.

- the visual humour of the play being upped, as well as the wordy humour being emphasised, in order to really contrast the shift in tone throughout the halves of the play. I’ve always been a tragicomedy truther when it comes to Hamlet, I think if done well it could be a really neat way to get the audience to invest more in the characters while also really highlighting how quickly everything goes south.

Probably add more on as I go

[mothpawbs]

more royal dragons, this time the ones from arc 2/3! these were really fun, and the previous designs helped me get comfortable with more detailed jewelry designs, so these are a bit more extravagant.

design notes under the cut!

RUBY: i didn't realize how young she really is when i read escaping peril the first time, i thought she was in her mid-twenties at least but apparently she's only 12/17? wild. anyways i made her ruby red with some orange accents to point to tourmaline. her tiara is meant to look like laurels, studded with rubies, and the gems on her brows and wings are citrine.

GLORY: i already had a design for her, i just touched it up a bit here. she's very pretty, but her scales are notably duller than my other rainwing designs. she has pouches she wears around her neck because she likes to be prepared and is trying to connect more to her culture. at least one of those pockets has snacks for silver. the flower on her ear is a plumeria india, one of my favorite flowers.

THORN: easily my favorite design in the set, oh my god i love how she came out. she has the same colors as my sunny design but desaturated, and almost the same markings. her jewelry is mostly gold with onyx and lapis lazuli insets. the design for the eye of onyx is inspired by @dragonsndoodles's design, which looks absolutely gorgeous and way more elegant than the graphic novel version.

SNOWFALL: i think i made her too round and soft-looking? idk i think she's cute though. i definitely had to get those pale sunset colors in there, and she has similar colors/markings to glacier. the tiara is one she found in the treasury after the racism crown™ was destroyed, and the shawl was a gift from luna as a thanks for helping her tribe. silk doesn't help much against the cold, but it sure is pretty.

WASP: SCARY BITCH. i had to mess with her colors a lot, i wanted to make her kinda greenish with red accents but it just was NOT working. i do like where i ended up though. i don't know that she would wear much jewelry, probably more armor than anything else, but i wanted to do hivewing jewelry so here we are. the neck piece was really fun to design. these are steel and gold with amber and peridot accents, and the cape is silk with gold embroidery. i have this headcanon of her having breath of evil growing out of her like a cordyceps fungus, and she uses the cape to cover the tendrils on her back.

SEQUOIA: ooo she was a challenge, i'm not great at designs with a lot of green or a lot of dark colors so she was fun. her colors are inspired by @daily-wof-designs, and the brown tones were pulled from pictures of giant sequoias. she wears braided leather straps hung with aquamarine, and the scarf might be silk? or some kind of natural fiber? i'm not sure. but it has leaf designs and is probably batik dyed (which is super cool btw look it up)

[soporine]

here's my proposal for ...

... a new otherkin flag !! <3

[ flag meaning & explanation + desaturated vers. + id under the cut ! ]

ㅤ ★ flag explanation & meaning ㅤ

i've been aware of the fact that i was otherkin for two and a half years now , and each time i have gone to put my identity in the bio of social media websites or express myself there was not an existing , general flag for the otherkin community . i saw one for those who identify as kingender (or therians and alterhumans) specifically , but never an otherkin specific flag ! sooo .. ㅤ

the specific yellows, oranges, pinks, purples, and blues were selected as many peoples otherkin identity revolves around past lives and self discovery - and so , they represent a sunset of sorts , what me and some friends figured would be the perfect embodiment of new beginnings and the deepest sense of self! ㅤ

the variety of colors in the sunset theme also represents the diversity of otherkin , and how everyone's perception of their kintypes & identity varies depending on how they perceive things! ㅤ

the different colors can also be perceived as a representation of the different reasons one might identify as otherkin - from psychologically to spiritually , everyone has their own shade of reasoning as to why they resonate with the term. ㅤ

the star in the middle is the classic otherkin symbol, hence its emphasis and blending with the flag - here , it is meant to represent the long lasting community and everything it stands for! ㅤ

it can be reused or reinterpreted in any sort of media , without any need of credit towards me ! i do love being tagged in posts , but there's no need necessary <3 i just find comfort in knowing there's finally a flag that can unify us together ! ㅤ

(note: updated 03/03/2024 to make things a little more easy to read!)

★ a bit more desaturated version of the flag :

★ image ids ㅤ ( listed from top left, top right, bottom left, & bottom right. also attached as an alternate id to each image! ) ㅤ

1.) [Image ID: A rectangular flag with seven stripes. The flag is horizontally symmetrical. The stripes are in these colors, as follows: yellow, orange, salmon pink, hot pink, magenta, purple, & a deep blue. The symbol in the middle is the seven-pointed Otherkin star, with the gradient on the inside following the yellow-orange-salmon pink pattern, and the outer stroke following the magenta-purple-deep blue pattern. There is a dark purple shade behind the star. /End ID] ㅤ

2.) [Image ID: A rectangular flag with five stripes. The flag is horizontally symmetrical. The stripes are in these colors, as follows: yellow, salmon pink, hot pink, purple & deep blue. The symbol in the middle is the seven-pointed Otherkin star, with the gradient on the inside following the yellow-orange-salmon pink pattern, and the outer stroke following the magenta-purple-deep blue pattern. There is a dark purple shade behind the star. /End ID] ㅤ

3.) [Image ID: A rectangular flag with seven stripes. The flag is horizontally symmetrical. The stripes are in these colors, as follows: yellow, orange, salmon pink, hot pink, magenta, purple, & a deep blue. /End ID] ㅤ

4.) [Image ID: A rectangular flag with five stripes. The flag is horizontally symmetrical. The stripes are in these colors, as follows: yellow, salmon pink, hot pink, purple & deep blue. /End ID]

[nugromancer]

Veilguard Photodump (Spoiler Edition)

End Game Spoilers (mostly me gushing ab art direction (￣y▽,￣)╭ ) under the cut

I can't get over how stunning the light and colour design is in this game. Funniest thing I noticed was that, while treading through any area, there were a lot of very obvious "Photo Opportunities" where the map designer was like Hey. Hey. Come over here for this little bit of treasure haha. Oooohhh but maybe you can take a moment to enjoy the view? (we worked so hard on it please look pleasepleapspslelpeas) And it's banger after banger of beautiful scenery!

I want to get on this level where I can convey something so gd big. It's much more obvious how massive a Titan is when Rook is in frame, but even without, that's a big lad!!! Huge sucker for a good cloud cap that lets the sun peak through. Literal Silver Lining.

This shot from the end of the Corruption questline (and if you complete the Dreadwolf's Memories + Convince Mythal to help) is great. Like our lady's dragon form is beautifully lit, she's got a spotlight and everything!! And it looks natural. It looks like the sun managed to poke through the blight on this one place.

Also allow me to giggle and kick my feet because not only does Dragon!Mythal's design FUCK (look at that tri-crown horn formation like YEEESSSSSS THAT'S MY BITCH!!!!)

She's also PINK AND PURPLE?? LIKE HELLO??? The lighting is absolutely saturating her scales (plus she's breathing lightning, which glows violet/blue, adding to the effect) so it's brighter than it probably is. But what a fantastic coloration none-the-less!!

End-game Arc doesn't fuck around either. The gold ring from the eclipse against that eye-searing magenta is just. Augh. Ough. Foreboding has never looked so damn pretty.

(Also this general area is one of my favourite places in the Lighthouse. The lighting is just so on point. I have a dozen other photos of this section bc I always stop to admire it lmao.)

That magenta is striking. You'd expect it to be solid red across the board! But once we're in the "real" world we get those warmer tones you would normally associate with this sort of thing... But now that I think ab it, it's probably from the amount of smoke rising from the antaam encampment. The Crossroads don't have pollution! Of course it'd be more jewel-toned! I wonder what our sunsets would look like if there was less of that. Sigh. Anyways--

The Regret Prison. Probably my favourite sequence in the game. Yes I love colour, but let's not forget CONTRAST.

It's soooo easy it end up with a horrible clashing of shapes if you don't balance contrast. So you gotta Contrast the Contrast... by reducing the Contrast. Yes there's depth-of-field shenanigans (making lines blur the farther from the viewpoint they are) but there's also mist/dust/atmosphere. I love this shit.

Not to mention that subtle introduction of colour by incorporating greenery (still heavily desaturated, as to not be glaring/distracting) as you make your way through the map. Like. The starting area was desolate and devoid of life. Any plants you saw were dead. Bare-bone roots. But as your proceed you find Life scattered around. Hope.

I didn't get a proper shot/video clip of the end sequence for this quest, where you're walking across a barren expanse and can see the ritual sight erect itself piece by piece in the distance as you get closer. That sequence knocked me out it was so fucking good!!! To the person(s) who all made that happen, I'm sending them a big sloppy kiss on the cheek it was so elegantly executed. <333

Anyways I feel like I said a lot without saying anything at all but hopefully this was somewhat interesting to someone thank you for coming to my TEDtalk <3

[lunastral]

Tulip DPD (Dependent Personality Disorder) flag ✨

PT: Tulip DPD (Dependent Personality Disorder) flag [Sparkle emoji]

[ID: two almost identical flags, the one on the right having a divided sun symbol representing the dependent personality disorder. The colors of the horizontal stripes are pastel/desaturated, and are in the following order, top to bottom: purple, peach pink, orange, yellow, and green /End ID]

DPD Symbol by @/revenant-coining, and also credits to @/dependencypersonality for the idea of the tulip being representative of DPD, very thoughtful! Those two together made something click in my brain.

I wanted to make my own take on the DPD flag, seeing as how much it affects my life. I wanted it to be full of meaning and hope for a better future while acknowledging it isn't all sunshine and rainbows.

Stripe Meanings:

Purple: Darkness when without the guidance of others, being lost in the dark.

Peach pink: Depended person, being dependant on them. (Can also represent the love one feels for them, though not necessarily)

Orange: Anxiety, Feeling anxious and stressed when forced to make own decisions

Yellow: Hope for a better tomorrow, new beginnings (rising sun rays)

Green: Growth, constantly trying to be more independent and growing as a person. (Recovery)

As you can see, the majority of colors (3 out of 5) are warm, and the orange is centered. This is because orange is associated with anxiety and cluster C pds are the "anxious" ones.

The colors are in negativity to positivity in meaning, atleast to me. Going from feeling lost and depending on someone, to anxiety but being a bit more independent, having hope, and finally being in recovery and healing,

I chose to use the theme of sunrise colored tulips for two reasons: firstly, the DPD symbol is a setting/rising sun. Secondly, tulips and flowers in general are seen as a "needy" because of how fragile and sensitive to various factors they are, so they depend on their gardeners to stay alive and healthy

I used common tulips colors, except white and the darkest purples to keep some harmony in the color pallette and to maintain the sunrise/sunset theme.

[flutteringwings-coining]

Positropinkic

A gender related to tropical themes, the colour pink and any variations of it, positivity, sunrises and sunsets!

coined for day 2 of @/dragonpride17's birthday event for "fun/positivity/happiness" !

coined by raleigh of the verdant system, not a request, please do let us know if this has been coined before!

[Flag ID: a horizontal nine-striped flag, all stripes being equal width and length. the first three stripes are a gradient from dark orange to pastel orange, the fourth stripe is yellow, the fifth one is light pink, and then the last four stripes are a gradient from a slightly desaturated hot pink to slightly desaturated dark pinkish-red. End ID.]

Original, more eyestrain-y flag under the cut:

[Flag ID: a horizontal nine-striped flag, all stripes being equal width and length. the first three stripes are a gradient from dark orange to pastel orange, the fourth stripe is bright yellow, the fifth one is light pink, and then the last four stripes are a gradient from hot pink to dark pinkish-red. End ID.]

[fadewalking]

Open Starter— Solas is alone. See tags for content warnings.

Had it been a week? Two? Since Rook last visited him? Perhaps it had only been a few days. Even if time in the Fade did mirror the waking world—and it did not—Solas could not track it. There was no sunrise or sunset, no shifting shadows, no stars to chart. Even when exhaustion pressed him into closing his eyes, he found no reprieve. His dreams were bound within the prison’s confines, in the same desaturated emptiness. Eyes open, eyes closed—it was all the same. A cage of relentless monotony and regret.

The only thing he could do here was think, and the solitude of his own mind was a torment. Sometimes.. he could not stand it, to be so trapped.

Yes, there was a plan, but it hung by a thread, a desperate hinge of Rook defying impossible odds. If they fell, it would all collapse. There was no contingency this time, no second act waiting to salvage what remained. Even if Rook survived, there was no guarantee the plan would come together in time. He might already be too late. The thought clawed at him: he might remain here forever. Forever. Or else be crushed beneath Elgar’nan's tyrannical hand. He didn’t know which was worse.

How had it come to this? He had been so close to making it all mean something, to ensuring that the sacrifices, the betrayals, had a purpose. But no. He had failed. Again. That was all he could do: fail. Everyone who had faith in him, every life lost in his name, every death he had justified for this cause.

Varric. Felassan. Mythal.

Each name cut deeper than the last, and there were more. A legion of ghosts haunting him across centuries. What was any of it for now?

This.

To die alone.

It was his greatest fear realized. Dread filled him. No one he hadn’t betrayed could reach him here. He had failed her. The Elves. Himself. And had betrayed every value that had once made the fight worthwhile.

Solas knelt on the jagged rock, the sharp edges digging into his knees. He welcomed it. It was the barest fraction of pain he deserved to feel. The true weight of it all bore down on him, an avalanche he could not endure. The walls of his mind closed in; his vision tunneled, edged with black. Tears blurred what little clarity remained, falling in sync with deep, ragged sobs that burned as they tore from his chest. Each one hurt, an agony that felt earned. He was history’s greatest fool, and fate would give him exactly what he deserved.

He was pathetic. Useless. A mockery of a villain, an insult of a hero. No one would ever dare to mourn him. Few would even spare him a thought if he were never heard from again. And perhaps that was how it should be. He was a lost cause. He was worth giving up on.

He should—he should just..

His head lifted, his gaze catching the precipice of the chasm that stretched beneath him into the infinite Fade below.

He should just do it.

A voice came unbidden, like his own but colder and sharper. It urged resignation.

Do it. Fall. Accept.

The suggestion coiled in his mind, insidious. At least then there could be no more expectation for him not to live up to. His eyes locked on the edge, wide and unblinking, tears streaking his face. His muscles froze, save for the trembling of his hands and the uneven rise of his chest.

No more devastating responsibility. No terrible purpose. Just the release of letting go. Perhaps that was the only escape left to him; the third option he'd been missing...

But he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. He was too much of a coward. Too afraid to admit that the only way out might be off. And wasn’t even that cowardice? What right did he have to give up, even when there was nothing to hope for?

No.

Even his adversaries deserved more from him than that. He would keep going, giving every last piece of himself to the cause until his breath was gone or his mind finally shattered. He owed that much. Everything. No matter what.

At least he could mourn himself, here and now. And he did. He wept into his open palms; his cries would have echoed but there was nothing to reflect from.

Lost in his despair, he didn’t notice the ripple in the Veil; the faint pull across the chasm. Someone was coming, someone was already here. His gasp broke the stillness, a sound caught between exhaustion and shock. He pivoted sharply, turning his face away from the presence. He didn't want to be seen like this.

[stevie-petey]

Decided to just send this in directly but! I have explanations for everything so buckle in bc when i say i have brain rot about this fic I MEAN IT ITS SO GOOD

1. BI BUG CONFIRMATION. ENOUGH SAID.

2. I will never forget reading that scene from season 1 of steve driving bug home w her bike in his trunk and her all flustered about it and i dont super remember what time of day it was in the scene but in my head it was right after sunset where the sun has set but its light creates this contrast that makes everything look cool toned in comparison to whats in the light n i wanted to play w that in the coloring also im a sucker for steve n his big arms so this was almost entirely self indulgent

3. The cardigan bc i needed to. I re read that chapter constantly it gives me all the warm n fuzzies and thats good for the soul

4. The phones were both an “i need to put this in here immediately bc my brain never stops thinking about it” and a filler for blank space. The colors for each are tied to what s3 bug and what s3 are associated w in my head like you cannot tell me bug isnt soft ivory coded and steve is not light grey-blue coded in s3 it just feels right for them (plus i needed to reference the nicknames at least once my very soul craved it)

5. Dustins hat was a lil bit of a last minute thing, i was working on a bigger piece w all of this kids n their looks for season 3 but it wasnt coming out the way i wanted it to so i scrapped it but i still wanted a something in there that wasnt steve or bug related and it felt fitting to put in dustins camp know where cap both bc of his relationships w steve n bug and bc every now and then i think about how dustin felt ditched by the party at the beginning and how heartbreaking that scene was when i read it n how much i just wanted to hug the lil guy bc feeling lonely at an age like that is so devastating it made my heart hurt for him so i wanted to have a lil thing for dustin in there somewhere

6. In the show i really liked the whole bit w steve asking girls out and robin keeping score n before you wrote this scene i was curious as to how you were going to go about it and it ended up cracking me up dude i love that scene if him just being awkward and so not “king steve” suave and i needed to put down how my brain saw that scene to something visual bc it was so ugh hes such a dork i love steves himbo self

7. Follow up is the lil doodle of steve n robin running around high as hell and there was no way i wasnt going to include that somehow if i am given the chance to write the phrase “trash popcorn” and draw robin frolicking i will take it with both hands and bolt

8. Going back to the whole “steve is a desaturated light blue in s3” thing i just wanted an excuse to draw my boy being cute in my head this is when hes helping bug put away books at her job and yes the anatomy is a lil wonky but i luv him and his hair swoops and joes side profile is so very fun to draw <3

Over all come home is wonderful n amazing and i love it n ur brain is so big n full of wrinkles

i genuinely cried when i first saw this im not kidding. im speechless, its so fucking beautiful and everything you drew from the fic is captured SO perfectly i cannot even begin to explain how much this means to me :(((( thank you so so so so much. truly.

the DETAILS ???? you brought the cardigan to life. its exactly how i envisioned it in my head, its BEAUTIFUL :((((( and bug being ivory and steve a blue ,,,, god you really truly nailed this i again cannot put into words how PHENOMENAL this is. the telephone lines being connected with their nicknames, steve carrying a box of books at bugs job, him driving and the setting sub (which you got EXACTLY. it was the same i envisioned in my head writing that scene), the bi colors on the lady bug like are u kidding me !!!! youre insane and i LOVE YOU !!!

steve n high robin doodle is so <333 and the steve scene at scoops with his flustered monologue in the background made me giggle so hard oh my god.

i know you dont know this, but my birthday is tomorrow and this is the best gift ive ever been given. i want to frame the doodles and put it on my bedroom wall because i am astounded and in awe of your talent and still so baffled my fic was brought to life !!!!! its mind boggling and i cannot thank you enough for this experience <333

(obviously with ur permission in reference to wanting to print n frame the doodles because theyre so dear to me and i respect ur talent !!)

[watercolorsam-arts]

Why the Minecraft Movie looks so bad

Okay, let’s see if I can make this work

Hi, I’m Watercolor, currently a student learning animation and visual effects. I’ve got some more technical explanations for why exactly the trailer looks god awful

I’m gonna do my best to explain this in simple terms, but if I don’t explain something very good, let me know and I’ll explain more. Alright, this is gonna be a long post

Starting off with the obsession with backlighting. See how it doesn’t really match the environmental lighting? That’s one of the major things that makes it look so weird to a lot of people. It could have been done to better distinguish the actors from the background, but it does that a little too well and makes them look way too out of place. The environment has a very nice constant (most likely singular) light source, which is most likely an HDRI.

An HDRI (or high dynamic range image) informs the animation software on how the scene should be lit, and is often a weird panoramic image of whatever physical area you want to replicate.

In a reverse case, adding a CG character into a real set, you could take an HDRI of the physical set, and use it to apply similar lighting. Adjustment will most likely have to be hand adjusted by the lighting team (and tbh they add a lot of extra lights in anyway. It just needs to look right) but it’s a fantastic starting point for the compositing and lighting teams.

However, the McM’s live set has way different lights set up then what is seen in the environment.

Here, for example, the live set is most likely being lit by standard 3 point lighting, which are not only the wrong color (the lighting on the environment is much more yellow) but also washes out any shadows that would help define the actors. If this movie wasn’t obsessed with backlighting, you could fix that by lighting the actors and environment from the front, but because the sun is in the back, they have to make the front of the actors unnaturally brighter to see them more properly. I have a slight idea on why the kid in red looks especially “photoshopped” in, and it’s mostly because his hoodie doesn’t have a similar reflectiveness to everyone else’s outfit, and his hair is a more neutral color, causing the highlight to be even more washed out. Also, while we’re here, the cube is a physical prop, but it was not lit up during filming, and all the light output was tossed on after. And it’s really inconsistent and honestly, lazy. For the most part they just hit it with a blue blur effect in post, it doesn’t actually cast any light.

Another major issue is the color difference between the actors and the environment. The color balancing on the actors is particularly garbage, they’re somehow desaturated while also being too saturated, I don’t know how they managed that. But the technical issue on why it looks odd, is because the physical camera cannot physically pick up the same vibrancy as the “camera” in the CG world. You might have seen an example of this when trying to take a photo with your phone, especially of a very colorful event like the sunset. It’s also why “ugly sonic” looked particularly out of place, he was 10x more saturated than anything else around him.

Having the actors on a very low effort green screen stage also completely ruins any chance of getting the proper ambient light or ambient occlusion.

Ambient occlusion is basically the bounce light from other objects in your scene, gamers might know this as a form of ray tracing (ray tracing is live changes in ambient occlusion, games without ray tracing bake in ambient occlusion to get a similar result)

When everything is CG, (again art style aside) looks pretty darn good actually!

I attempted some edits to see if anything could make it look better (left is original, right is mine), and I don’t think proper lighting or anything could actually fix what this movie has wrong with it. They should have made the whole thing animated, I don’t think any amount of bullying would fix this, the studio basically has to scrap the actors, and make new CG characters from scratch in the same style as the rest of the world.

All of this is not the fault f the animators, or any of the vfx team, they did their absolute best with what they had, this is 100% the fault of the higher ups on this project. I have no idea how this good this far into production without ANYONE saying that it was a bad idea (Either that, or a lot of people got fired, which is unfortunately a likely possibility)