#i did try multiple times to make different gifsets

[mulderscully]

since it's bi week i wanna talk about henry's reaction to alex coming out to him. my feeling from reading tags in gifsets and comments on videos is that people think henry's pause and little chuckle of disbelief is him being like "obviously, we just had gay sex." but i do think it's also partly him being, like, really aware of how wrong he was. and how right he was! it's like in the book where he has this waging war of feelings that is "i had suspicions you might want me too." vs. "i never imagined you'd love me back." etc. he probably SENSED alex was queer for a while, at least since he genuinely became friends, but in that moment it really is confirmed that.

and it's special that alex shares that part of himself with him.

that entire scene has so much charged energy. because they are in the afterglow but there is also the fact that they very obviously have feelings for each other that they're trying to make seem smaller than they are. but coming out and specifically coming out to henry is a big deal to alex, because coming out as bi can be a different kind of terrifying because biphobia exists within and outside of the community. what made rwrb so special to me is that henry never makes a big deal out of alex being bi, i'd argue he even enjoys it since he named his dog after david bowie, so was very openly bisexual.*

*david bowie did retract coming out as bi at a certain point because he felt it was all people talked about and overshadowed him/his work, however later on in life he did clarify multiple times that he was always bisexual. which furthers why characters like acd are so important as well.

i just really love how rwrb handled alex's sexuality and henry's reaction as a non-reaction. as if it's of course. because it is of course. no one should ever push back against it, but we always expect them to. and that scene showcases both of those things in one go.

[eddiediaaz]

Hi! Your coloring on that recent may day gifset of eddie and buck is so incredibly gorgeous, do you think you could explain how you managed to color the scene like that, despite how dark and blue it is, with flashing lights? Only if you want to! Love everything you post 💌

hiiii, oh my gosh thank you so much!! yeah this scene is so dark and cold, and with the flashing lights it's not the most ideal scene to color. what i did is mostly just worked on bringing back some warmth and light back into the scene, and keep the shadows deep enough.

you're lucky, this is one of the very few times where i actually kept my psd, so i can give you the exact details 😅 steps under the cut! (reference gifset)

this is how the gif looks sharpened without any coloring layers:

i usually start coloring by trying out the automatic settings of a curves layer, see if that helps. it sometimes does the heavy lifting for me, but for this particular scene it didn't do much. so i just brighten up the scene a bit with some levels, curves, and exposure layers. i prefer doing it little by little over multiple layers than all at once.

don't worry about the blacks being too lifted and gray, i'll fix that later.

when the brightness is where i want it to be, i usually use channel mixer and/or color balance to bring back some colors in (or remove tones i don't want). for this scene i only used color balance to bring back some warmth (reds and yellows). i always use color balance in all three midtones, shadows, and hightlights (usually in that order too, but i often go back in between them to change the values as i need).

when the tones are where i want them, i go play around with the separate colors with a selective color layer (or two or three, depending. usually at least two). for this one i went in the blacks and added some more blacks, so the shadows are a bit more deep. then i went in the reds and yellows to bring more warmth.

and the magentas to make sure the skintones aren't too pink, then i went to the blues and cyans to enhance the blue tones from the lights i didn't touch the greens, neutrals, or whites for this scene.

i then like to add some vibrance and saturation with a vibrance layer. it's at this point that it really comes to life, and that i really see what difference a good selective color layer makes. sometimes i use multiple selective color layers to separate warm and cold tones, but i didn't feel the need to do that here.

i wanted the yellow stripes on their turnouts to be less green so i fixed it with a hue/saturation layer in yellow.

then i added my usual brightness/contrast and black & white layers on top to add more depth and contrast.

after these final touches, the skintone was slightly too deep for my liking so i went in and fixed it with another selective color layer in the reds, but you could always go back to the first selective color layer and edit the red sliders there, if you prefer to have less layers. i placed this layer between the vibrance layer and first selective color layer.

and that's it! here's the before after:

that's my process for most gifs i make :) i hope this helps

[usertiff]

the worst part about disability and struggling, is that the struggle just seems to continue, and honestly? get worse and worse. so yes, i know, like, "hey, it's me again! needing help..." but as my wait for disability/SSI continues, the harder and harder it is getting to survive. i'm on the verge of losing my home and my car (that transports me to health appointments and my partner to work). like many others in america, they took away our food stamps. to make things harder, as you may know, my mom has recently had 2 heart attacks and 3 different surgeries, which has only increased my struggle by tenfold, because instead of paying certain bills, we had to use our very limited income to pay for gas to get back and forth from the city hospital (3hrs away) multiple times, bandaging and other medical expenses her insurance doesn't cover, and things of the like.

being disabled is catching up to me, being the caretaker for my disabled mom is catching up to me. i'm so far behind it's absolutely terrifying. under the cut you can find my more important bills and a breakdown of things i need.

i know that life is really hard for everyone right now, everything is so expensive and assistive programs are so depleted, so i definitely want to offer what i can for any help received. this idea was 100% inspired by lomapacks, and i did ask permission to use it before doing this! so here we go.

how much do i need? basically i'm $2,291.11 behind in bills, plus have literally nothing for food or gas, which if we add it up for a month or so would then be like almost $3k.

how does the raffle work? for every dollar spent commissioning, you will earn an entry! for every dollar donated of good will, you will earn 3 entries! example, if you order $15 worth of gifs (150 gifs), you will have 15 entries! if you donate $15, you will have 45 entries! (or if you donate $1 = 3 entries, $3 = 6 entries, etc)

what are the prizes?

first place: 1500 gifs, 5 manips of your choosing, 1 crackship gifset

second place: 1000 gifs, 3 manips, 1 crackship gifset

third place: 500 gifs, 2 manips, 1 crackship gifset

every single person that commissions or donates gets: 1 manip

when will the raffle end? the raffle will continue until i've reached the massive goal, so it really depends on how quickly i can climb out of this financial grave! i'm hoping that it can be as quickly as possible!

what do you do to join? you can find my payment info below to donate or commission. if you plan to commission, please message me first so we can sort out what it's for/how much! then, please fill out the form in the source link when payment is completed. :)

when will everything be delivered? commissions will be completed in the order they were received, and delivered as soon as i can possibly get them done. once the raffle ends, the raffle prizes will be delivered upon your request for them and completed as soon as possible! i will try to deliver the manips for everyone same-day!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING, FOR SHARING, FOR BEING KIND, AND FOR GIVING ME ANY TIME OF DAY.

payment information:

kofi! https://ko-fi.com/tiffanyvalentine

paypal! selinaaakyle@gmail.com

venmo! oraclelauren

cashapp! $selinaaakyle

amazon wishlist! https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/259VCVX9R5LCS?ref_=wl_share

so, here are screenshots of the most important bills i'm behind on.

RENT (update is the top screenshot, i have late fees)

CAR PAYMENT

UTILITIES (2 mo overdue, power will be shut off soon) PAID!!!!!!!!!!

other important things i don't have screenshots of:

some things are on my amazon wishlist like my cats special food.

FOOD: we have no food stamps. the need for food money will not necessarily end. food banks only provide so much.

car maintenance: overdue for oil change and the brakes are squeaking badly (oil change is like $50 around here plus brakes idk maybe $80?)

gas: to transport myself to health appointments and my wife to work.

[sam-loves-seb]

gallavich questions

thanks for the tag (and the questions) @callivich !!

What’s a fic you’ve read more than once? intro to quantum dating by @spoonfulstar, i think i've read it 3 or 4 times now, it's one of my all time favorites

What’s a gifset you always have to reblog? anytime i see a gifset from that one s5 deleted scene, yeah that one, i have to reblog

What’s a headcanon you can’t stop thinking about? i have a very specific headcanon for a tattoo ian gets post-canon for mickey, and i hesitate to even explain it now bc i think one day i do wanna write a fic about him getting it, but whatever--my headcanon is that he gets an M tattooed on his left ring finger and it's a subtle yet sweet nod to his husband. (i could talk about this for 9 hours but i will limit myself and stop here)

What’s a fanart you love looking at? i've spent an obscene amount of time staring at this fanart by @doodlevich it just checks all my boxes (domestic, husbands, fluff, etc.) and it's so well done, i'm obsessed with this pieces

What’s an idea you’d love to create if you had the time/inspiration? listen, i have this idea for a rock band au that lives rent fucking free in my head, and if i can find the time and the inspiration to actually turn these vibes and unorganized plot points into actual words and a coherent story in the new year, then maybe it'll see the light of day in 2024 but no promises. for now, i leave you with this: four milkovich siblings are in a rock band that is rising to success with the launch of their second studio album and subsequent tour, and ian gallagher is lead singer mandy's (fake) boyfriend--at least in the eyes of the public--and he spends some time that summer touring with the band and hooking up with their lead guitarist in secret until the band's manager/father catches wind of what's going on behind closed doors

What’s something you’ve discovered since entering this fandom? A new trope you love? A different analysis of the show? Something else? i've always been a post-canon enthusiast for almost all of my ships, but i think before gallavich i always envisioned them with a very cookie cutter standard american dream family with the house and the careers and the 2.5 kids, which usually fits a lot of my ships, but with gallavich i... don't have that same vision ?? i think they're actually my first ship that i hc more often than not without kids in their post canon life, which is a new vibe for me entirely but i kinda love reading/writing it. idk if that answers the question you asked, but it definitely answered a question

What’s an underrated trope or concept you’d like to see more of? honestly i want more s9/10 prison era gallavich fics (and/or fanart). i think it's a gold mine era with so much untapped potential, and there are very few fics/series/whatever that really get deep with it and get to the good stuff of these two boys who haven't spent any significant time together in years but still love each other like they did way back when

What’s your favourite season? And has this changed after multiple rewatches of the show? it flip-flops for me between s4 and s5, like right now i think it's s5 but idk if i could actually pick one or the other as my absolute favorite

What’s a plot hole you wish had been answered or resolved? i would give my left arm to know how the fuck (and why the fuck) mickey started rolling with his dad again in post-prison s10 era, like in 10x08 he's going to terry for advice on how to protect ian, just for terry to try to kill him again 3 episodes later ??? make it make sense john wells i'm under your bed

What scene or moment do you feel isn’t discussed enough? personally i think the promise ring scene in 10x09 is criminally underrated and not talked about nearly enough, like you don't understand how happy that scene made me (stay with me here) seeing mickey stand up and fight for the future he really wants with ian and not settling for anything less

What line/dialogue/description from something else (a poem, a book, a tv show, a movie, or something else) do you feel describes Ian and Mickey’s relationship? can i do song lyrics? i'm gonna do song lyrics--i've always thought the song godlight by noah kahan was very gallavich, especially the chorus, and especially during s4/5/6 era and it may or may not be a piece of inspiration for my big bang canon divergent fic

What do you think is next for Ian and Mickey post-finale? i think they take a while to really settle into their new place and and make it their own, and it's a bit of an adjustment (for both of them) to fit in with this new crowd and this new environment, but they're learning how to grow and evolve together and at the end of the day that's all that really matters to the both of them

tagging: literally anyone who wants to play bc my brain is tired and i am too tired to try and remember everyone i probably should tag

[ssaalexblake]

i did Not just see somebody say they’ll remove their own gifset that they spent time and effort on if somebody else had made one of that scene before, like what the fuck has this site done to people? Your fan works have as much right to exist as everybody else’s, Especially in the game of making gifsets of scenes where we all know there will end up being multiples of things! Nobody has a corner on the gif making game and the speediest and luckiest person is not Owed the notes that you’ll get by posting a different set of the same scene. 

while this sentiment isn’t New new, this is extreme. 

(Back in the day (so a long time ago in tumblr years) i remember somebody getting bitchy abt me making a set of the same scene they’d giffed like i was trying to sabotage their note count when no actually it’s just the topaz colouring on the gifs was butt ugly, like every other gifset with that colouring during that deeply unfortunate gif trend, and i thought they sucked and didn’t want to reblog them so i made my own. And i never said anything abt it bc Yikes why start that confrontation, but i have no idea whether that would have made it better or worse for them l o l)

but still. That’s even more of a reason to have multiples. You have no idea how many people want the scene giffed in a way they actually think is pretty. 

[marwan-simposium]

✨ Year of Marwan ✨

Hello, and welcome to this year’s Marwan Simposium Event: Year of Marwan 2023!

This event will span the entire year until December 31st, 2023.

This event is run on a monthly basis. Each month has a list of different prompts, so there’s plenty to chose from! In its essence, it works the same as a prompt week. That means that you can create something for a prompt that you like, and the posting deadline will fall at the end of each prompt’s specific month.

Rules

For your work to count for this event, at least one protagonist needs to be a character of Marwan’s. This can be from any of his work. Canon pairings or Kenzarelli are both welcome, but not mandatory!

The prompt chosen for the work needs to be posted in the corresponding month of that prompt. For example: a work based on a January prompt needs to be posted by January 31st. Prompts can be combined with other months, but only the prompt of the month you post it in is the one that counts. Posting multiple works with the same prompts is allowed, as is posting multiple works with different prompts in the same month!

Requirements

ART: any medium of art is welcomed and encouraged: digital, traditional, gifsets, collages, video edits, textile arts etc. AI art is not allowed.

FIC: there’s no minimum nor maximum for the wordcount. The only requirement is that each work is original, and not a chapter in an ongoing series. Recording a podfic for this event is welcomed.

We ask that the work you create for this event not be cross-submitted for a different event, unless it’s an event hosted by the Marwan Simposium Discord.

Posting

When you upload your work to AO3, we ask that you add your work to the Year of Marwan 2023 Collection. When you upload your work to tumblr, use the hashtag #YearofMarwan2023 and @ us on @marwan-simposium so we can promote your work!

You can find the full prompt list below! We hope you have fun, and we’re very excited to see what you come up with!

(full prompt list in Image ID and under the cut)

JANUARY

reluctant allies

old traditions

"I'm just looking out for you"

doomed relationship

wet dream

FEBRUARY

love confession

coffeeshop au

"I think I'm in trouble"

praise kink

cock warming

MARCH

taunting

accidental voyeurism

"I'll be there in a few minutes"

kidfic

idiots in love

loss of virginity

APRIL

unrequited love

blindfolds

"I saw a hickey on your neck and now I'm jealous"

oral fixation

spies au

MAY

codependency

mermaid au

spin the bottle

"what did you just say"

dub con

soulmate au

JUNE

time travel

"stop making love to me while I'm trying to fuck you"

poetry

choking

lingerie

bookstore au

JULY

fisting

punishment/reward

pirates au

striptease

five times +1

fake relationship

AUGUST

enemies to lovers

day at the beach

doomed mission

bondage

magic au

morning after

SEPTEMBER

royalty au

mistaken identity

7 minutes in heaven

bdsm

“you’re not worthy”

overstimulation

OCTOBER

vampires and werewolves au

temporary amnesia

one night stand

artist and muse

sex pollen

edging

NOVEMBER

seducing an authority figure

fwb

hurt/comfort

romantic stabbing

sun/moon imagery

daemon au

DECEMBER

there’s only one bed

snowed in

a/b/o

superhero au

face fucking

historical fic

Inspired by Year of the OTP Event

[clara-is-brave]

I just have some thoughts about I Married a Witch (1942) that I need to let out because this gifset got me to thinking about the film before my rewatch of it this month.

At the start of the film, Jennifer curses Jonathan Wooley. Her exact words:

"Jonathan Wooley, thou hast denounced me as a witch. For that thou shalt be accursed. Thou and thy children and thy children's children all will be under the same curse."

His mother asks:

"What was the curse?"

He replied:

"I and all my descendants… will be unhappy in love. The marriages we make will be disastrous until-"

But didn't finish because he said it was "too wicked" to say. Perhaps till the end of time? We see in a montage of his descendants in unhappy marriages, with arguing and running away. We can quite easily assume that these marriages only produced lone sons, seeing as Wallace appeared to be an only child.

We know how the rest of the story goes with Wallace and Jennifer, but I just wanted to point out the ending and compare it to the beginning, to Jennifer's curse and the descendants marriages.

At the end of the film, it is the future and we see Wallace reading a book with he and Jennifer's two sons beside him, on each side. Jennifer herself is knitting. It is quiet and he and Jennifer shoot smiles at each other. Trouble arises when it appears that their third child, a daughter named Jennifer, may take on her mother's witch ways as she pretends to ride a broom. They then look at each other with worry while Daniel sings with glee in his trapped bottle.

Notice the difference between the marriages of the past to Wallace and Jennifer's of the future? There's no arguing or running away. They have two sons and a daughter. They may have worry about young Jennifer trying to take on the role of a witch, but nothing suggests trouble for their marriage in the future. I think its safe to assume that with Wallace and Jennifer married, with multiple children, that her curse on the Wooley's was broken. She wouldn't have her sons bear it, seeing as happy as she was with Wallace. While the love potion did affect her, I think its also safe to say that she really grew to love him on his own, and her own humanity as well.

It is hard to say if Jonathan Wooley would've found it a curse or a blessing.

But after all, love is stronger than witchcraft…

[bargalaxies]

how did you learn to make gifs? all of yours are insanely gorgeous and idk how you learned to do that

Thanks, glad you think so! ^^ I learned how to gif from some random tutorial on Tumblr and I learned to color by finding basic coloring guides on Tumblr (how to brighten a gif with curves, how to use selective color and hue/saturation, etc.). I’d also look up how to do things I saw looked cool in gifsets (how to put multiple gifs into one gif, layer masking, text effects, etc.). You can find a lot of good stuff on here tbh, @asleepinawell has a whole series on gifmaking where they’ve explained all the basics of making gifs/coloring/etc. pretty concisely. Here is also another masterpost that explains the process more in depth, and has additional resources at the bottom.

I think though the best thing to do when learning to make gifs is just trying different stuff out on your own. Each coloring for a scene/show will be different, so you should try to figure out your own basic process. I spent time trying different adjustment layers and stuff to see what they did to a gif, and gradients + filters, etc. Also, whenever I saw coloring on a gifset I liked, I’d try to make my gifs look similar. For instance, my favorite gifmaker was @celebritiesandmovies, specifically their The 100 (💀😔) sets. They really influenced me when I was figuring out my own colorings because I liked how colorful and clear they were. Which I think my own gifs reflect now lol

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Reacting to Contemporary Comics (Without Context) 4/?

What's up it's cold as shit here, my bosses said stay the fuck home, so let's read another comic book.

Back at it again at the Thor: First Thunder

I don't like this cover

Spoilers for all of First Thunder now.

My boi living his best life. Out of the tree, took a shower, had a spa day, thriving

I hate Blake's idea of flirting, but I love that Thor had to endure his alter ego carrying around a little statue of the brother he hates for 2+ days

No one in this is likable

Why is Odin punishing Thor? It can't be because he's a violent, angry, destructive little fucker. That would make Odin a hypocrite. Wait. That's absolutely why. Fuck Odin as usual.

Listen, if MCU Loki needed someone to weep over him to get out of the tree like in the comics, he'd be free several times over by now just by me. Fuck, I just saw a gifset of Tom spinning in the cape and tearing up over the crown, and I cried real multiple tears twice on that post.

Loki if you're trying to blend in, dressing like the Riddler is not going to do it

I wasn't gonna comment on how ugly the art is, but god he looks like green Heat Miser. He looks like a ventriloquist's dummy.

Can't believe the Loki show stole his God of Stories outfit from Thor: First Thunder when he's bullying Blake while pretending to be a fortune teller at Coney Island.

Supposedly the fucking fortune teller is "working" (loosely) for Loki but isn't actually Loki himself

Loki taking on a mortal minion (and convincing him he's super mega powerful) is coming back to haunt him

TONY!!!

Odin is such a motherfucking hypocrite and I hate him

Thor, why are you staring at his ass enough to make that observation?!

Thor will never go for it, but god I want them to fuck with Odin.

...I was very very wrong.

Odin really just fuckin went: "Blake, you fix it. I don't wanna. I'm too busy hanging out in the cosmos being inexplicably huuuuuge."

I feel like whenever Odin does these monologues for Thor: "You're my son and you're worthy and I've loved you all along" he means it. Like he's still a dick, but he means it. But when he does them for Loki it's because he's panicking, because Loki outsmarted him again and it's his last-ditch effort to survive before Loki fucking murders him for being a shit father. It's just this moment of Odin giving Loki what he knows he's always craved, love and acceptance, in order to just try to save himself from his lifetime of fuck-ups. And the tragic thing is that Loki buys it every time.

On a different note, do y'all think "Thou art Odin's first thunder" sounds like Thor's conception was the first time Odin came? [I'm very aware this is canonically inaccurate.]

OH MY GOD what in the Christian iconography is this nonsense?! He looks ready for crucifixion and everything.

This comic was... insane. The art was weird, the Christian themes were uncomfortable (and I'm Episcopalian), the issue on China did not feel entirely unproblematic, and Loki was an ass (this was pre-JiM I think, so this is not a criticism to the authors I'm just sad about it). And the scene on the cover never even canonically happened! They just wanted a hyperrealistic rendering of Thor beating Loki to shit. Because they hate Loki and love upsetting me.

[bieddiediaz]

i think this is going to sound quite stupid and obvious so bear with me for a moment. i absolutely love your gifsets. the colors are always so pretty i always stare at them in awe. recently, i stumbled on this (/post/748295441463099393/i-can-be-in-love-forever-if-i-die-first) post, and i was wondering how did you managed to make that layout? and if you have any tips for coloring when working with multiple gifs in one canvas

no not stupid at all! thank you so much, you're so sweet!

i usually make up layouts as i go, but because this time because i was working with such a large long set i actually planned some stuff out lol. i'm gonna try to lay out some rough steps —

i did first what i always do — i decided which scenes will go with what lyrics, and then i divided those into rough chunks of how many individual gifs would go into one actual gif

before i worked on each large gif, i sketched out a rough layout of how i wanted it to look like — not very planned, but whatever felt right in the moment

assuming you have basic knowledge of how to import and colour gifs, i then imported the smaller individual gifs into photoshop. before i combined them all into one canvas, though, i created a canvas on photoshop and drew out the rough sketch layout i had made. i created and adjusted the exact shapes until it looked about right

i then copied all of the smaller gifs into the bigger canvas. the good thing about creating shapes for my layout was that i could just select them one by one and add layer masks to the gifs accordingly, and then just resize them within the mask until they looked right

once all the gifs were laid out, i started colouring. it was a little tricky to colour and sharpen multiple gifs in this layout because i was convinced they all looked like different shades of red/blue and weren't going together at all

i don't know if this will work for everyone but because i had so many gifs to colour, i started with the ones that seemed the easiest to get to work with the colour scheme — the scene of eddie outside watching as the factory blows in buck begins, eddie laying on the ground after he got shot, buck telling bobby he couldn't protect eddie. once those were done, it was easier to go around and make some of the scenes that didn't work with my colour scheme black and white, or put a gradient mask over them

layer masks and clipping masks are your best friend! every time i added an adjustment layer i clipped it to the gif i was working with, or it would go over the whole gif and ruin my own perception of what i wanted the gifset to look like, even for a moment

for the individual gifs, i chose a hue/saturation/aesthetic style with the first gif in the set and tried to make every subsequent gif match it. that was the only way i would get it looking somewhat cohesive, because they're all such different scenes with different lighting and colouring requirements

i hope this makes at least some sense! if it doesn't help, let me know and i'll try to be more specific

[boxenstopp]

hello daily czech it out post! i missed yesterday which technically removes that title but i don't care because genuinely carzzy saying "your girlfriend my husband" is something i would say to my friends about blorbo and it makes me go absolutely bonkers.

EPISODE 4!

firstly!! carzzy desperately trying to not carry this series on his back (if you can't carry ur games ig that's what you do. i appeciate it.) literally like getting your bf to try to talk at family dinners tho. he's like!! say something!! and humanoid just declines and carzzy has to sit there. teehee. light tap to humanoid's cheek. cause he's annoying and we can't dare forget that.

random ass argument time! carzzy is literally wrong again but he's carzzy so i can't really say who won this. literally just lying <3

+ marek's reaction to carzzy calling him bad. (btw calling him marek bcs carzzy did and that makes me happy :3) my man just leaves. collecting these reactions now:

sad pout

agree that you're bad

leave the screen

ignore him and say a completely different sentence that just so happens to be about carzzy being shit at the game.

ANDDD he's back. with this beautiful freeze-frame. i also don't know shit about one direction so if "one direction, we disbanded" means something to you emotionally, i'm sorry. i mean humanoid forgives him anyway (even though he's the one that left- i mean.)

also just look at him looking at carzzy. ALSO to anyone who fucking reads these a) ily b) should i take up giffing. cause sometimes i think screenshots really arent enough and i should make gifsets. cause carzzy has this really cute shrug here that i need. in motion. on this post.

NOW we get to the insulting carzzy part. i was not worried as the first half had been insulting humanoid time. also humanoid's impression of carzzy's voice as this high pitched girl voice... it's the same as his "yes master" voice lmao. and carzzy laughs way too hard at this. if i made the same "how does carzzy react to being insulted" list it would just be:

laugh really hard and try not to make it obvious that you're infatuated

and then humanoid just makes carzzy hold his mic box. for some reason. and they don't mention it. (carzzy holding onto it in his arms like it's precious btw.)

NOW IT'S THE WORST FUCKING SEGMENT OF THE VIDEO. how humanoid will kiss you. after he wins mvp. WHAT PROMPTS HIM. WHAT TAKES OVER HIS MIND TO JUST FUCKING. MIME KISSING THE AIR. WITH TONGUE. but i mean then carzzy has to go. "hmmm how do i make this worse. ah." no he didnt!! no he didn't kiss me like that >:( i want you all to know. so i'm going to say it multiple times. cause he didnt kiss me like that i need you to know.

btw carzzy laughing at being called humanoid's dog. again. not that funny. also, according to these videos, he must call you that like 10 times a day. don't you get sick of it, carzzy? isn't it at some point enough? or are you really that down bad?

anyway episode already over :<. humanoid gets up and then remembers he's literally tethered himself to carzzy.

the second pic is great cause a) carzzy looks great yes and b) the editors pause way too long on carzzy's face as humanoid's now gone. like bitch he's probably 5 meters away.

shadow's here say hello and then

VIDEO END.

final thoughts: honestly. apart from whatever the fuck the kissing thing was, not too torturous. had coherent thoughts throughout most of this. humanoid did not want to be in this video, his mind was probably not okay and that's why the kissing thing happened, i imagine. see you tomorrow.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Friday, December 15

JOYCE: Oh. You know, honey, I was thinking. Maybe we should invite Faith to spend Christmas Eve with us. BUFFY: I don't know. Faith and I don't really hang out. Or talk or make eye contact lately. JOYCE: Do you really wanna let her spend Christmas Eve all by herself in that dingy little motel room? BUFFY: (smiles) You're still number one with a guilt trip, Mom. JOYCE: I try. BUFFY: (gives in) I'll ask her.

~~Amends~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Weekly Drabbles #54 - Whole by veronyxk84 (Spike, R)

age differences by Amina (romanticinpanic) (Oz, Willow, Buffy, T)

Sidewalk by TheOriginalLovelace (Buffy/Faith, T)

Nice by honeygirl51885 (Buffy/Spike, G)

[Chaptered Fiction]

Forgivenss..... - Ch. 11 by slaymesoftly (Buffy/Spike, R)

Advent Calendiles - Ch. 14 by HAL1500 (drabble collection, Giles/Jenny, this chapter G)

Advent Calendiles - Ch. 15 by HAL1500 (drabble collection, Giles/Jenny, this chapter T)

Christmas Cheer on the Hellmouth - Ch. 5 by QuillBard (Buffy/Faith, Bring It On xover, T)

New York - Ch. 34 by drsquidlove (Xander/Giles, M)

Breaking Broken Hearts - Ch. 8 by Jess_Ann_Perreault (Jenny/OFC, Giles/Jenny, T)

Buffyverse Flashfic - Ch. 12 by NotASlayer (Buffy/Anya, Xander/Anya, T)

With Arms Wide Open - Ch. 23 by jaybird023 (Buffy/Giles, E)

Out of Africa - Ch. 1 by Passion4Spike (Buffy/Spike, PG)

Poems in A Minor - Ch. 4-8 by all_choseny (Buffy/Spike, R)

As You Wish - Ch. 4 by Melme1325 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Forgiveness Doesn't Come Easy - Ch. 11 by slaymesoftly (Buffy/Spike, R)

Goodbye to Everything That I Knew - Ch. 12 by fortes775 (Buffy/Spike, R)

The Neighbor's Point of View - Ch. 65 by the_big_bad (Buffy/Spike, PG)

Drive - Ch. 21 by Holly (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The day of the doctor - Ch. 1 by Pupbandit (Xander, multi xover, FR18)

Out of Africa - Ch. 1 by Passion4Spike (Buffy/Spike, PG)

The Merry Month of Magnus Presents... A Clean Slate Can Still be Cracked - Ch. 1-3 by MissLuci (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) COMPLETE!

Poems in A Minor - Ch. 4-8 by all_choseny (Buffy/Spike, R)

Spuffy's Little Helper - Ch. 15 by Alyot (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

A Very Summers Winter - Ch. 15 by VeroNyxK84 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Forgiveness Doesn't Come Easy - Ch. 11 by Slaymesoftly (Buffy/Spike, R)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Fanvid: JibJab video: The Spikendales by Double Dutchess (Spike, NSFW)

Artwork: A dream come true by JSBirsa (Buffy/Spike, worksafe-ish)

Manip: Cozy Little Christmas by honeygirl51885 (Buffy/Spike, worksafe)

Moodboard: moodboard: aro lovequeer they/them autigender demigirlflux tara maclay by purgeshubble (Tara, worksafe)

Photos with text: [poetry by] jason b. crawford by normalgirlisms (Buffy/Spike, worksafe)

Gifset: Spotify Wrapped Meme 2023: No. 42 + Buffy the Vampire Slayer by sulietsexual (Buffy, Bangel, worksafe)

Gifset: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Alphabet ↳ V ✫ Vampire by buffysummers (Buffy, Angel, Spike, others, worksafe-ish)

[Community Announcements]

2031 BTVS roleplay by hellsmouthhqpromo

[Fandom Discussions]

The "Spike didn't love Buffy, just lusted after her" crowd... [is wrong] by elysianfieldsarchive

POLL: Spuffy vs Captain Swan by Enemies-To-Lovers-Tournament

The Ritual of Restoration [Angel's soul] by TheAnnoyingOne and multiple others

Foreshadowing I Never Caught Before [in The Dark Age] by HisMrs and Nothing13

Buffy Soundtrack [what songs would you add?] by Empty-Dimension-5737

question for real-time OG buffy watchers [ATS popularity vs BTVS] by katywell

Kendra's death [blood drinking talk] by JewelerDear9233

If you could convert any Buffy big bad into a teammate, who would you convert? by george123890yang

The sex appeal of Rupert Giles by Emerald_Tress_28

Wes is such a nepo baby. His dad totally got him the gig to be Faith's watcher. by alrtight

Wesley [hate] by pengchod

Why didn’t Willow and Tara use magic to fix Buffy’s house? by ladysimplyhadenough

Did Angelus ever really want to kill Buffy in Season 2? by spiritualdesai

Angel/Liam/Angelus [soul talk] by ck-kd-king

Season 2 Darla arc [ATS] by modeyink

POLL: Team Jenny or Team Olivia? by alrtight

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

SMG: The secrets out... I finally get to be judge on @rupaulsdragrace via her Instagram

EW Weekly: 'RuPaul's Drag Race' season 16 guest judges: Sarah Michelle Gellar [trailer and details on S16]

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

[elevnns-archive]

The six wives of Henry VIII 5/6

Catherine Howard - beheaded

[googledocsdyke]

what would have happened if bbc merlin ran for fifteen seasons do you think. answerer's choice if that means 2008 to jesus christ 2023 or 1997-2012 or anything in between.

sam first of all i need to let you know that i have been thinking about this ask for the last nine days. not to any productive effect just rolling it around in my head like a shiny little marble and not denting its surface whatsoever

secondly i'm going to roll with the original 2008 pilot date here because i TRULY do think that the concept "what if we did a show about arthurian legend but completely randomly and arbitrarily made the central idea of the show that magic is both illegal in camelot and a metaphor for homosexuality, an idea which is not even remotely present in the original myths that revolve around the CENTRAL premise that merlin is 1) an ancient man and 2) does magic with arthur's full knowledge consent and encouragement" could really ONLY have been pulled off in its particular homophobias of that era. well i wouldn't really know i was like doing multiplication tables in 2008. but it's just SO early 2000s network tv. also as previously established anthony head was doing buffy in 1997 and i refuse to sacrifice rupert giles for anything.

ANYWAYS. i really do think that a 2013-and-beyond merlin would have to finally sacrifice its core premise of "nobody KNOWS about merlin's MAGIC" and actually you know sort of conceptually attempt to deliver on what was promised from the pilot. again like merlin would still be terrible i need to make this what merlin WOULD be not what i would WANT it to be but i AM picturing like. arthur survives by the skin of his teeth in diamond of the day part ii. merlin carries his wounded body home and maybe like....... seasons 6-10 are The Slow And Painstaking Legalisation Of Sorcery Across Camelot. like i'm talking star wars prequels space bureaucracy level of vibes. merlin has never been particular interested in the "details" of how "a government" might "work" so i'm picturing like whole episodes dedicated to arthur pitching up to some town where his father enacted unspeakable crimes of heinous genocide and being like "right listen chaps! why don't we all just get along :)" and some pale limp-wristed local sorcerette gets all pissy at merlin specifically and tries to do murder about it and there's a Very Big Fight that lasts for Twenty Minutes except for merlin gets to use magic in front of arthur and the knights this time and it all ends with some brisk handshakes and "the treaty has been reached good job old chap :)" and they gallop on home with some light-to-medium horseback slapstick

merlin starts dressing differently throughout this, to signify that He Is A New Man Who Has Earned Arthur's Grudging Respect. his neckerchief is purple now and he's getting into burlap cloaks. the whole shenanigan is interspersed with Soft Touching Scenes of arthur Trying To Figure Out His Fraught Relationship With This New Magical Merlin where they like almost brush cheeks before somehow making physical fart noises about it. like they will play this queerbait fiddle till the cows come home. the phrase "two sides of the same coin" increases to a frequency of once every 2 episodes. nobody does anything about it.

season 11 gaius dies. it's DEVASTATING. people make gifsets upon gifsets about it. colin morgan does that little scrunchy thing with his eyes and hearts break everywhere and there's a whole episode musing on the nature of fatherhood. luckily nothing ever stays dead on [bbc merlin] and the entire 11th season the big bad is like The Notion Of Ghosts Themselves. they bring EVERYONE back. buddy they're running out of ideas i'm talking ghostmorgana, ghostgaius, ghostelyan ghosttom and of course our dear best friend ghostuther. they pull some tertiary arthurian character completely out of context to be the Ghost Mastermind and it's all very heavy-handed stuff about how you can never escape the bearing of the ones you love. web-weavers go wild.

season 12 ratings are dropping like a stone and someone points out that maybe it's like, not a great look that gwen is the only living woman and only living black character on the show and has been reduced to like a clothesrack for medieval gowns. so this season is SUPER gwen-centric. arthur gets stuck in an enchanted megabog or something so the whole season is just merlin desperately hunting down arthur (why mess with perfection?) while gwen rules the kingdom with the knights by her side. it's executed incredibly poorly, and everyone eats it up. she girlbosses her way to like finding an optimal way to redistribute albion's grain stores and gets really into forging weapons agai wait actually i love this. gotta circle back to make it worse.

season 13 big bad is some totally real guy who actually lived in a completely different period of history. quite possibly king louis the xivth. there's discourse about merlin's nascent francophobia. there's only one bed. there's a gag episode where the guest star is david walliams with the head and tail of a donkey. season 14 they REALLY double down on the hibernophobia for no reason and also, unrelatedly, ealdor burns down. the villain is like king mark of cornwall or sir lamorak. merlin is like a total mary sue by this point who can dissolve castles with a snap of his fingers. he still cleans arthur's armour.

season fifteen and GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH IS BACK BABY to engage in constant recording of arthur and merlin's exploits. the whole season is a VERY poorly conducted but nevertheless compelling debate around how "greatness" is to be "remembered" as albion crests into its age of great glory and good english hearts swell or whatever. there is no conflict until the final episode WHEN arthur is randomly stabbed by a farm boy raiding the food stores. merlin's powers are incapacitated and he dies in his arms as before, BUT NOT BEFORE, muttering and uttering the words, "i love you," sending the internet into a tailspin. sorry for doing supernatural again but it's the only way i can conceive of anything occurring, ever, for all of recorded time. just call me geoffrey of monmouth.

finally, and this is key: merlin never once apologises

[sandibullock]

I was wondering if you could do a tutorial on this gifset that you did i really like ittt

Thank you for sending this in, anon! I’m glad you liked it and wondered how it was made :) Fun fact: the day before you sent this, I had just started working on my next set in that “Select Filmography” series. I hope you like that one too when it’s ready!

I think I should start by saying I’m pretty new to giffing myself and there might be more efficient ways of getting to the same result. However, the point here is to show you the process I went through to make this gifset and hopefully help you understand how to make a similar one.

To follow this tutorial, you will need some version of Photoshop and some giffing knowledge. I know there are multiple ways of making gifs so I’m just letting you know I��m using the timeline and the “Convert for Smart Filters” option (I don’t really know how else to call it).

Now let’s get started!

STEP 1 - CHOOSE THE SCENES

It might sound obvious but, in my opinion, this is the most crucial step. It’s also the one that takes the longest (along with step 7, aka the coloring).

At this stage, you need to have a general idea on how you want your set to look like so you can choose the scenes accordingly. In my case, I knew I needed two types of shots for each movie: one close-up for the main gif and one mid shot for the shape. I also needed to take two other criteria into consideration: the movement (because of the shape) and the lighting (because darker scenes are such a pain to color). Last but not least, I didn’t want the characters to be talking (but that’s just a personal preference).

With all of that in mind, you can start saving a few screenshots of scenes that meet your criteria (or at least some of them). In the end, there won’t be that many to choose from so be prepared to make compromises.

STEP 2 - MAKE A DRAFT

Now that you’ve preselected a few scenes, you can make a first draft. This will help you turn your general idea into something more concrete.

Basically, this is your opportunity to organize your thoughts. What size do you want your gifs to be? What shape are you going to use? On which side do you want the close-ups to be? Do you want all of them to be on the same side or do you want to alternate from one gif to the other? Do the scenes you chose work together (gif-wise but also set-wise)? Are you happy with the way it looks, overall?

By answering all of the questions you might have now, you’ll save yourself a lot of time, trust me. Of course, you can totally skip this step if you already know exactly which scenes you’re going to use and how you’re going to present them together.

To give you an idea, this is what my draft looked like for Atomic Blonde.

STEP 3 - PREPARE YOUR GIFS

Once you have a clearer view on how you want your set to look like, you can finally start giffing like you usually would (i.e. importing, cropping, resizing, etc.).

It should then look something like this.

The important thing to mention here is that you want both of your gifs to be the same number of frames (32, in my case).

Ideally, you should also aim for the ~same~ coloring (especially for the skin tone, since both gifs will be so close to each other). This bit is particularly difficult when you chose scenes which have opposite lighting (see my two uncolored gifs below). Remember how I insisted on steps 1 and 2? It was to help you avoid this. So my advice would be not to choose these types of contrasted scenes, unless you can’t do otherwise and you’re ready to suffer!

STEP 4 - MAKE YOUR SHAPE

To make your shape, you can click right on the Shape Tool (U) and select the last one, Custom Shape Tool. From the Shape menu appearing on top, you will be able to choose the shape you want from the drop down list and start drawing on your gif.

To be more precise with the dimensions, you can manually adapt the length and height from the Shape menu itself. I decided to go with the same ones as my gif.

Once your shape is positioned like you want it to be, you can drag and drop the shape layer under your gif. Next, you will have to click right on the gif layer/smart filter and select Create Clipping Mask. The result is as below. Note that if the size of your shape was smaller than your gif, you would still be able to reposition your gif with the Move Tool (V).

You can now export your shape gif, reopen it in Photoshop and convert it again to the video timeline and to a smart filter. This is where I’m not sure it’s the most efficient way of doing things but it’s the only way I found to keep the coloring of each gif separate. I also find it easier to work with a smart filter.

STEP 5 - COMBINE YOUR GIFS

To add your shape gif to your main gif, you can simply click right on the shape gif you just reopened and select Duplicate Layer. You can then choose the project which contains your main gif to duplicate it in there. Now go to your main gif and reposition your shape gif where you want it to be (how many times did I say gif here?). Finally, you can draw a new shape, using the same dimensions as in step 4, reposition it and choose any color you want from the Shape menu.

Since you will be repeating this process with your following gifs, I suggest you add a few guides so you know exactly where you should place everything to make all of your final gifs look the same.

(In case you’re wondering, the “Base” folder contains my adjustment layers/basic coloring for the main gif.)

STEP 6 - ADD THE TITLE

This step is pretty simple: go on the web and type “[name of the movie] title”. Download the png you like most, open it in Photoshop and resize it to a length of about 150-200 pixels. Next, duplicate the layer to your main gif and reposition it. In case you need to resize it again, select the title layer and go to Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl+T).

This is optional but in case you want to change the way it looks, know you can always duplicate the title layer and play with the blending options (see below). The good thing with a png is that you can also add some effects by clicking on the “fx” button.

STEP 7 - ADD COLORING (OPTIONAL)

To be honest, I had not planned on coloring my gifs. But I had already spent so much time on them and I was still unhappy with the way they looked. I mean, see how grey-ish they are? Not great...

So the only thing left for me to do was to add some colors. Now, since coloring is worth a tutorial on its own and it already exists, I suggest you read through becca’s mega coloring tutorial (and especially steps 3 & 5). Seriously, shoutout to her for making this incredibly useful tutorial. She is so talented and I love everything she makes!

My Atomic Blonde gif barely even needed coloring so I’ll show you what I did for my Tully and The Old Guard gifs.

For the first one, once I had found which colors to use with which blending option and opacity level, I only had to remove the colors from the left side of the gif because there was barely any movement in that scene (phew!). For the second one, on the other hand, I decided to color frame by frame because there was way more movement, in comparison. This is quite a tedious process, which is why you want to limit yourself to a certain amount of frames.

I’ll conclude by saying there are so many things you can do with coloring and what works with one scene might not work with another. So experiment with it: try different colors, play with the blending options and opacity levels, add some gradients and/or gradient maps, etc. Just know it will take some time to get to a somewhat satisfying result!

And that’s it... I hope this tutorial made sense and was somehow helpful. Of course, don’t hesitate if you have any questions! Also, if you do end up making a similar edit, pleeease send me the link or tag me in the replies or something ‘cause I would definitely love to see it!!

[sixth-light]

I have come to the disappointing conclusion, as someone who backed the Kickstarter and who has listened to/watched the Briarwood arc multiple times, that The Legend of Vox Machina is going to be a show I experience through gifsets for maximum enjoyment. Which is kind of a bummer, and I want to work through why that is, exactly, for my own peace of mind. (This is not intended as a declaration about the show's objective quality and it isn't in the relevant tags for that reason. Rest assured there are no plot spoilers below for the first three episodes, which is where I tapped out.)

First off, stuff I did like: the animation and character design is all absolutely fine, I have zero problems with the CGI dragon, and there's a lot of little vignette moments that I enjoyed a lot (the guards and Trinket, Matt's coat-check character). I also thought the fights/use of spells and checks was translated pretty thoughtfully to a narrative story, esp one where they presumably couldn’t use trademarked D&D things.

On the level of things that simply are not to my personal taste: the regular hyperviolence and heavy reliance on jokes where the punchline is that a subject or act is taboo (e.g. Scanlan peeing on someone, most of the sex jokes, 'ball tag'), plus the equally heavy use in the episodes I watched of cringe/'fish out of water' humour. I am fully aware all of these things were a part of the original show; they were just a much less concentrated part of it. Some of the material also lands differently for me in a visual medium than in theatre of the mind, particularly the violence.

It also makes a huge difference to me when these kinds of jokes or scenes are being told by people I am watching play roles, for each other's amusement, vs by characters in a fully fictionalised story. A lot of Sam's Scanlan stuff I never liked but clearly the other players did, and that smoothed it out. It doesn't get that smoothing in an animated show. Same with all the bits where VM are completely failing to read the room/act like adults - in Critical Role you can see Matt enjoying it. In TLoVM, absent that context and with characters in-story disapproving/annoyed, it comes across as much more puerile. To a degree I think it flattens out the characters too, because they ARE pretty broad stereotypes and when you’re not seeing the actors construct them, it’s less obviously a Choice to make them that way, and at least for me it renders them less interesting. Biggest case in point: Grog.

(Additionally, my golden rule is Some Of These People Have To Like Each Other and three episodes in, I don't believe ANY of these people like each other, aside from Vax and Vex I guess. And they did at this point in the original work!!!)

On the level of things I think there's an objective argument could have been done better...the pacing, oh MAN, the pacing. This is a fanservice show first and foremost, and it means they're trying to introduce fourteen named, important, recurring characters as well as cram in a bunch of in-jokes. In three 22-minutes episodes. There isn't time and it means the action frequently pauses for funny 'bits' which don't contribute to the overall plot, and character arcs are...not really visible. I think the only way it could have been less disjoined is if they had bitten the bullet and picked a couple of members of the cast to focus on as leads, and gradually built up the others. And killed some of their darlings in terms of funny one-off scenes. I also understand that they're apparently having Pike leave the same way Ashley did in CR even though obviously that constraint does not exist here, and like - this is completely inexplicable to me. How hard would it be to write around her presence??? Not that hard! 

There's also a defensible though likely not universally accepted argument that because they're leaning so much on a fairly crude form of comedy while trying to tell a very serious story, it's tonally incongruent in a way that works better in improv than in a traditional narrative.

All up I feel like, if this story was going to exist as a coherent narrative that would attract non-CR watchers, it needed to be worked up by people who were familiar with the genre but NOT big fans of CR. Instead what's been made is a show that is aimed at people who are intensely familiar with the source material and have a particular view on which parts of it make it great, i.e., the parts I liked least.

Which, again. This was a fan-funded project originally, there's some logic to this. And I will freely admit that if the bits that hit my personal buttons were toned down, I'd probably be a lot more forgiving about the writing.

But it turns out that when it comes to adaptations, especially when I think about my reaction to WoT, or how I feel about comics!TOG vs TOG-the-movie...I'm not actually very interested in one-to-one adaptations or adaptations that largely exist to create visual representations of an original text. I want to see adaptations that stand alone as coherent stories within the confines of their new medium. So, for example, this REALLY changes my expectations about what I might enjoy in, e.g., a Rivers of London tv show if one ever happens. TBF that's a bit different in that the original author started as a scriptwriter, but still; I think I'd actually want to see a lot more change than I've discussed in the past. This goes all the way back to LoTR twenty years ago, so it’s pretty clearly now a part of How I Enjoy Stories. 

Anyway, like I said: clearly TLoVM is working out for a lot of people, good for them, I'm going to stick to gifsets or maybe curated highlights when the first season is done. The bits I like don't outweigh the bits I don't like and sometimes that's how it goes.