#i mean my blog can just be this scene giffed again and again in different colours and that's it that's it my work here is done

[eightyfours]

The Karate Kid (1984) dir. John G. Avildsen

[vidavalor]

Hello! I trully love your metas ♥️

And I want to believe… but how do you match the fact that they have kissed (even fucked) for so many time with the only kiss we have seen which is so clumsly, so fist-time-type, and so turbovirgin?

Thank you!

Hi @margotmignard-blog Thank you and nice to meet you. :) Ok, this is for you and the few Anons who have sent me more or less the same Ask in the last 2 weeks or so as some of my posts have circulated a bit more so yeah, alright, I'll take it on. All of you please help yourself to hot chocolate and holiday M&Ms, even if you are making me think about Every again to write this lol.

Why do I think Crowley & Aziraphale are long-time lovers when Every is an awkward kiss? Because you know what looks just like clumsy, first-time kisses?

Old-married argument kisses of desperation when all other communication is failing that then wind up failing, too, that's what.

Two people kissing in distress is clumsy and messy no matter what stage of their relationship they're in and if they're upset and think the other is about to walk out the door and conflicted about opening up to the kiss because of the argument then all of that makes for a truly gut-wrenchingly awkward kiss. It didn't read as a first time kiss to me at all but I can understand how it might to someone.

I actually think that's the insanely evil genius of it lol. This show is such a bastard worth knowing, I tell ya. :) Right now, they have everyone being all "they need to have a better second kiss!" and just well... if you were them, wouldn't you want that? Would seem a good way to bury the surprise of an older kiss, wouldn't it? Would be a good way to sleight of hand some doubt into *checks notes* apparently everybody but me and a handful of others lol and so help to have everyone flailing again but for a better reason when they throw in an older, better kiss.

It's also a bolder move, both story-wise and performance-wise. Sadly, it's still a big deal that they've even kissed at all and it shouldn't be but, thankfully, it's becoming more common. In a way, though, that makes the fact that they made the first kiss you saw less than ideal a better choice and a better story.

Some more thoughts on this under the cut below that is beneath some gifs of these two who haven't apparently ever kissed before moments away from sex in the wall slam scene in S1... which is Every's parallel scene. By design. To illustrate a contrast. The first kiss we saw is a mirror of oh, just the start of some casual public sex that got interrupted by SatanicNun!Nina. Haven't we all had that relationship where we let someone throw us against a wall before we ever kissed? I mean...

Look at Aziraphale and his little 'getting up to some sexy trouble' smile here... does he not look like he knows *exactly* what he's asking for here and does Crowley not know what the request is and give it to him in a way that screams that this is not the first time? The tone here is a bit... You know, Crowley, I've always said I wanted to fuck in an empty broom closet in a former satanic nunnery and luck of the devil, you just kicked in a door and found one so you are sooooo nice throw me against the wall baby let's go... oh terrific of course this is exactly when the damn nun shows up oh well at least I can enjoy you slurring your S's in sexual frustration for now...

Good Omens throws something down and then gives you context for it later on that causes you to revisit what you thought when you initially watched it, right? They do this all the time. The scenes themselves always work fine on first viewing but they change and morph into a different scene when viewed with the added context the show gives you later. If you're writing a show in that way, you absolutely would make Every the first kiss you showed the audience... *especially* if it was in a cliffhanger-y season finale. Your Ask is exactly the reason why. You and I and a bonkers number of others are engaging with one another on the topic and we're engaging with the show as a result. Some of us are apparently willing to fight to the death insisting that Every is their first kiss. Some of us are like how you appear to be from your Ask, where you're willing to keep an open mind but you're leaning towards it was the first kiss. Some of us are like me and are feeling that, when all is said and done, they are building a relationship that is millennia old and that the show will wind up illustrating an entire history of it by its end and the idea that we have scenes out there already like Rome and The Globe Theatre and 1941 and Tadfield Manor but people think that they just kissed for the first time in 2023 is kind of head-scratching to me.

I've had people ask me how an ancient times vavoom would advance the story and I've answered in other meta how I think it would but I have an ask back for you all: how, honestly, would 2.06 being their first kiss advance the story? They've written characters who have had a relationship of some form with one another since before the Garden of Eden and have shown us that story throughout different points in time. S3 is going to be, at best, set a couple of years out from S2 and is probably set a lot sooner than that, so we're going to end their story sometime before 2026 on their timeline, probably... and the first kiss was in 2023? When you have the opportunity to write an entire millennia-old romantic relationship with all of its highs and lows and show it in the flashbacks and how they inform the relationship in the present? Because that story is already there. That's the story I see watching this and have since the first time I watched it. I'm frankly kinda floored by the number of people who insist that it's their first kiss, especially two seasons into the show. The same show that gave you this before it gave you The Blitz, Part 2?

I got accidentally spoiled for Every like a lot of people and when I saw Crowley's glasses on, I had the feeling that it was probably going to be a terrible kiss. I was hoping that it wasn't the only kiss in the season but when 2.05 finished without it showing up yet, it became obvious that it was going to be a big thing in the finale (hahaha oh God, remember when we didn't know? simpler times lol) and that meant that it was likely the only kiss in the season and while it ripped my heart out like it did everyone else, I never saw it as a first kiss for a second.

If you've been with somebody for a long time and, like everyone else, you have your disagreements and your things to work through but you tend to be the kind of couple where you can always or almost always rely on a baseline of physical communication that helps you express what you feel for one another-- which is a wordy way of saying 'when you've been with someone forever and the sex is amazing' lol-- maybe the worst thing that can happen between you is if that feels like it's falling apart, too. That's what I see in that kiss and, in particular, Aziraphale's reaction to it.

It's not 'turbo-virgin', in an unfamiliar with kissing way, imo-- it's a situation causing conflict for Aziraphale over whether or not he wants to give into the kiss. We've all seen it from every damn angle by now lol. We see him unable to not give in, just a little. He kisses Crowley back a bit. He touches his shoulder and his side. He doesn't pull away because he just can't, really, because he never really wants to not be kissing Crowley, but he also can't just give in because that's the situation that Crowley's set up by kissing him the way he did. Crowley wants him to run away with him and that's not a solution to any of this, either, and everything is a total mess and if Aziraphale just gives in and opens up more and really kisses Crowley, he's saying yes to just running off with him and they can't. There's really nowhere to go.

Even with all of that, he still can't resist kissing Crowley a bit and touching him because Crowley and because what he really wants is for them to be literally anywhere else, somewhere safe away from all of it, without having to worry about Heaven & Hell, but they aren't and he can't pretend that they are. That'd be even crueler, really, to really kiss Crowley and then still go to Heaven, right?

It's not a first kiss and at a bad time panic-- it's oh God, I think we broke it. It's the heartbreak of suddenly being in this place together where they aren't communicating well on any level and that going past having a verbal disagreement and into the pain of having an absolutely brutally bad kiss with someone with whom you've had countless passionate ones and the terror that it might be the last one and you're never going to feel any of that again.

That's happened to them before.

It's the brutal 1862 scene. Aziraphale in 1862's comment about The Agreement is the most embittered you won't touch me anymore thing ever. They've gone from The Arrangement in their looser, flirtier Globe Theatre era to now what Aziraphale calls The Agreement in 1862. The difference between an arrangement and an agreement is basically where the future is concerned. An agreement is, well, an agreement lol but it tends to be more formal, more restrained, while an arrangement is an agreement that contains more of a view to the future. It's a plan. You agree to meet up but you arrange how, basically. They don't have The Arrangement in 1862 anymore, they have The Agreement and it sounds like the exact fucking opposite of The Arrangement. The Agreement is "stay out of each other's way. Lend a hand, as needed," according to Aziraphale.

Read that again: "Stay out of each other's way. Lend a hand, as needed." See a problem here? If we're just talking about helping each other out with work assignments then this literally just doesn't make any sense at all as how can you both stay out of each other's way but lend a hand as needed? It's one or the other. It can't be both. It's "stay out of each other's way" when it comes to work assignments. It's "lend a hand, as needed" in their love life and Aziraphale is bitter as all holy fuck about it. They're barely having sex anymore.

That scene in 1862 actually also parallels part of the scene that contains Every. Funny how alike "we have a lot in common, you and me" sounds to what Crowley says in 2.06, isn't it? Dude has got to stop asking for holy water or to run away when they're both a mess-- it not working lol.

The point is that they've been together a long time and they've also both experienced a lot of trauma. They've have times where miscommunications snowballed and it felt broken beyond repair but it's not and it's not because they love each other and they eventually figure it out. That's part of the pain of Every, though, because what happened after Crowley came back from Hell in 1827 was bad and it took a long time to get to a better place with it but they did and better than before and then this kiss that they think could wind up being their last is a complete disaster straight out of the mid-1800s on top of the fact that they're in what feels like in the moment irreversible disagreement.

It's a painful kiss. It hurts to watch. It's supposed to. Not because they've never kissed before but because they've kissed a trillion times and this is by far the worst of the lot.

And these bastards decided it was the first one we should see lol. It's okay, though. These are coming soon, in the past and present:

[calumhoodgoss]

horror story of a teenage 5sos blogger

let me set the scene - its the mid 2010s, I'm 17, in the height of my 5sos fan career, im watching keek compilations all day and scrolling tumblr all night. Life is good.

Fast forward a few months and I start talking to this cute boy at school. we start going on dates, having first kisses - and first everything elses. we're falling madly in love. it's intense (and so cringy to look back at as an adult) but again, life is good! not a worry in the world!!

eventually.. it somehow comes up that my boyfriend and i both have tumblrs (of VERY different nature's mind you). we wanted to show eachother things we'd found online but we were both adamant we didn't want to see eachothers blogs (FOR OBVIOUS REASONS). instead of following each other, we would send each other screenshots of funny textposts, pictures, etc. - blacking out our respective blog names and url's to protect our online anonymity. life is good!

now by day, I'm spending all hours messaging my totally hot boyfriend but by night... by night, I'm reblogging hot gifs of calum hood, smut fanfics, imagines, general gifs of hot couples making out (ifykyk). it's the HEIGHT of tumblr fanfiction and imagine culture and I could not get enough. i was exploring things in real life with my boyfriend while also exploring online through fics. reblogging every single thing along the way. i was having my cake and eating it too and it was a fucking good time to be alive. life is so good!

of course, like any normal person, I was using my tags as a stream of consciousness. a way to get out my feelings about cal, about my boyfriend, about being a teenager, about LITERALLY EVERYTHING. Unfiltered, hormonal, teenage girl writing about the boys she likes. every. damn. night. life! is! good!

until.. all until.. my boyfriend and i were lying together in a park, under a tree, light filtering down on us as we talk and laugh and kiss - a perfect afternoon UNTIL he says there's something he has to tell me. 'what does *name of my blog* mean?'

TURNS OUT, the very first time I sent him a screenshot of something, I didn't black out my url properly and he had been SECRETLY STALKING MY BLOG FOR MONTHHHSSSS.

MONTHS

MONTHS!!!!!!

Literally just months worth of calum hood smut, so.much.smut, smut requests too!!!, soft porn gifs WITH TAGS LITERALLY EXPLICITLY ABOUT MY BOYFRIEND, countless text posts about our dates and whatever the fuck I was thinking or feeling that day, 5sos drama, EVERYTHING. EVERYTHINGGGGG. ABSOLUTELY EV ER Y THIN G

needless to say that blog was immediately scorched from the surface of the earth. and since then, I virtually haven't been on 5sos tumblr - until now. I was so mortified that I wasn't just throwing my thoughts into the void, I was literally scarred.

we're still together though lol I guess he some how liked me enough to look past the 5sos blog HAHA. he's a much stronger person than I because if the roles were reversed and he had some obsessed teenage fan blog, I think i would have gotten the ick straight away. Especially since I literally NEVER talked about 5sos with him because I was soooo embarrassed that I was obsessed with them (this was album one era guys HAHA and my boyfriend was way cooler than me in highschool). now I don't care, I play them in the shower all the time - he can deal with it hahaha

moral of the story is, idk don't tell your teenage boyfriend you have tumblr cause he will find your blog

[letstalkwhump]

Let's Talk Whump No.5

Welcome to Let’s Talk Whump, a series of interviews that spotlight the amazing people in our whump community! ! I’m Malice and I’ll be your host. 

Today I’m talking whump with the wonderful @painsandconfusion! 

So good to have you here today, @painsandconfusion! Tell us a fun fact about yourself!

I'm a lawyer but don't seem like a lawyer at all - everyon'es always confused when I say so. I'm a fan of jumping between fluffy pink dresses, standard hipster vibes, emo styles, and who knows what else. It's different every day. I just like variety!

What does whump mean to you?

Oh dear, tricky to answer...

Whump is when a character is at their highest stress point (or...at least higher than average). I suffer from severe and vivid nightmares, but I found out that when I write whump, I can process my fears and anxieties through those characters and their experiences. I can only go about two weeks without writing before the nightmares start again. It's kinda amazing to see just how effective and healthy it is for me. I live vicariously through my whumpees for a moment, and they help my brain keep its shit together. Then I get to meet all these lovely people online and it just makes my heart so happy!

Wow, that’s really great to hear! Whump can be really cathartic at times. How did you find the whump community? What made you want to join? 

I think this is a standard story, but I discovered the hero x villain community first, and it wasn't /quite/ my cup of tea, but it was close. After I saw a few people reblogging things with #whump, I checked it out. 

I have a vivid memory of skipping class for the first time in my life, just sitting in my apartment, all but crying as I scrolled through everything. I was so relieved to find that I wasn't alone. I spent so much of my life hating myself and hating whumperflies and hating that I was drawn to violence and not understanding why. After I found this community I felt so much more at home. 

I made a blog and started reblogging.

Then of course, I relapsed into hating myself and deleted it.

Then I made another. Started posting gifs I made from my favorite whumpy movies.

The kink community kinda took it over - which is fine and lovely and I'm happy to share content, but....they were the only ones who saw my blog. So everything I made was taken in a way I didn't mean and I felt very isolated and unheard.

So I deleted it again.

A couple years ago, I tried again. I started just reblogging, then I impulsively added to a prompt list in one of my reblogs and people really liked it? So I made more. And more and more and more- eventually I started posting scenes, and I've been having a lovely time here ever since! 

Do you think your view on whump has changed since you joined? Are there tropes you now love/hate that you didn't at first? 

Absolutely. Like. Wow so much. I used to dislike pain a lot and only enjoy the fear leading up to it. While I still prefer the suspense, nothing really squicks me out anymore. I used to hate pet whump but now I'm a fan. 

I have started making whump art as of late, which has been a fun new adventure! I picked it up almost solely because there's so many fantastic writers in this community who deserve some good fanart. I'm having fun working through a list of my favorite creators!

Tell us about your favourite whump trope!

Dear goodness, do I love a chin tilt.

No no...hmmm.....I get to run wild with this question and there's nothing you can do to stop me! Muahhahahhaaaaaaaa~

Okay so. Picture this.

Whumpee stumbling slowly backward, breath catching in their throat and burning at their lungs. Their feet drag against the ground as they stare up at Whumper, eyes shaking and sparkling with tears that cling to their lashes, refusing to fall. Not /quite/ yet. 

Whumper strokes a knuckle down their cheek, drawing a twitch - not quite a flinch, no no, Whumpee wouldn't dare to pull away. Whumper's hand flips softly as it reaches their jaw, pressing to their throat instead.

Whumpee finally lets a sound pass their lips, a soft whimper as their back hits the wall. The momentum topples the wetness from their lashes, and Whumper's eyes roam down to follow them as they soak hot into the fabric of Whumpee's shirt. 

Whumper's hand turns up just /once/ more, curling a finger under Whumpee's chin to tip their head up, drawing hiding eyes back into place.

Then they say something whumpy, I guess - you get the picture.

LOVE that shit. 

Intimate whumpers? Slow pacing? Vivid sensation? Yes!

Absolutely loving the detail in that! It’s all about the sensations! And speaking of favourites, do you want to share a piece you've written?

Hard Question!

First one that comes to mind is The Party. It's one of my favorites because my hands were shaking so hard while writing it. It was a great way to kick off that event (@thewhumperssoiree) which I'm inadvertently yet shamelessly plugging by answering with that piece I guess! It's very very fun, I loved what that piece created. Everyone who wrote for it did such a great job! (Event is still open, I don’t know why I'm talking about it in past tense)

Do you have a standard writing style/routine or does it vary?

I absolutely change up my paragraph style depending on the intensity of the scene or the place in the scene. I'm a big fan of elaborating and writing moment to moment so the oc's sensations and emotions bleed into the reader. I don't write much on visuals at all - almost entirely on sensation, which I think works well in this medium.

When I'm writing, I kinda forget everything else exists, so I don't have food or drink or if I do, it's neglected. If anyone tries to talk to me, tough luck to them, I'm in the Write Zone and I cannot hear them!

I write solely when inspiration strikes which.......is a lot!

Is there a noticeable difference in how easily you write things? Do the words always flow or do you have to beat them out sometimes?

There's characters who don't get in my head nearly as easily, and ones that are effortless. Getting fucking Alec in my head? Impossible. He's a bitch, then does bitch things once there. Ethan? Dream. Miracle boy. So easy to write that emo little shit. For clarification, the seven chapters of Alec's series vs the thirty of Ethan's. Alec is a bitch. End of story.

But, I also do much better describing little moments rather than full scenes. I'm good at scenes, but it takes so many spoons. Hence why I have three hundred or so random drabble posts or lists, but only like fifty total from my series. It just takes more effort to have to think about plot and pacing and all that good stuff. 

Fun? Yes. 

But hard.

Is there anything you're working on at the moment? Finalising the final chapter of your series? Starting a new au? Trying a different style of writing/pov? Revisiting fanfiction? Maybe you've really gotten into poetry....

Oh dear goodness, I'm working on everything all at once and I need to stop!

I also need to roleplay less and write more for you lovelies! I’m so sorry I’m just really distractible…

Give us some writing advice. Bless us with your wisdom!

I have posts for this but:

1. Keep your descriptions to the textured senses. Less visuals, more sensation. Caretaker has brown hair? So what? Tell me about how Caretaker's hair curled at the ends, just barely tickling at the corner of their eyes until they flicked it away with a twitchy shake of the head.

2. Personify the shit out of your nouns. Whumpee bled? No. The blood soaked through Whumpee's shirt. Make it an external factor that's affecting them. Much more engaging.

3. Pacing. Whumpee got dragged into the car, then into a house and chained in the basement? That's not one scene, that's at least three. OR. It's a two sentence summary that Whumpee is musing about while already in the basement. 

4. Speaking of, don't start with the boring, just get right into the action. You can weave the 'how we got here' bits in after a few sentences, but get your reader hooked right away. Don't start with "Whumpee got out of bed, glancing at their blaring alarm". Try instead "Their hands were shaking so hard they had to try three times to dial the number, fingers as clumsy as they were that morning, trying to slap their alarm off through the fog of blissful sleep." Or just don't mention it at all! Skip to the good stuff!

Lastly, let’s hype up some of your favourite blogs! Any friends, writers or just really cool people you want to shout out?

@whumblr was like my idol before I started! It's so cool just casually knowing her now? Still not over that, to be honest.

I always tag her but @distinctlywhumpthingmpthing is so good? Seriously, you want to see some god-tier writing, go over there. (minors read tws well please, its not all for you.)

@brutal-nemesisemesis is always a delight. Castys gives me life.

And of course,  I'm gonna give a shoutout to @wormwritinging, my beloved. We met here and as much as I adore this community, they're hands down the best part of it. 

Anything you'd like to add? 

I can't think of anything but thank you for doing this. This blog is so cool!

It’s been a honor to have you here, @painsandconfusion!

And to all you folks at home, have a whump-derful day!

[celestial-sapphicss]

bad buddy fandom getting-to-know-you meme! (created by @fiercynn)

tagged by beloveds @nobodynobodyno & @cornflowershade & @solana-ceae thank you for tagging me this was so much fun! 🌹💖

note: i consider "fanworks" to pretty much everything people create related to a fandom, including but not limited to meta/analysis/discussion, gifs, fanvids/edits/fancams, filk, fanart, fanfic, fan food, fan crafts, etc. please include this note with the meme unless you have a different definition!

name and whatever you want to share about yourself

im vi! i'm queer, 23, born & living in India, but brought up in south-east asia!

when did you watch bad buddy/join the fandom?

i saw the show as it aired but i joined the fandom (and tumblr) around ep3!

favorite ship(s)

PatPran (duh!), but also InkPa because they're such a good pair like how Pa is a badass but around Ink she just melts and gigges (both the jundapat siblings are the same skskks)

favorite character(s)

Pran. he is me, i am him. he is a feral, musky scented hoe and i love him.

favorite episode(s)

episode 4! first we got ink and pa projecting her crush pn pat! then we saw pran AND A LOT OF PINING AND JEALOUSY. my boy had gotten his hopes up and then absolutely shattered. we got "only i can have these super cute dimples" & "if you were ink, would you like me?" and that absolutely heartbreaking last scene <3

favorite scene(s) 

i mean there's the obvious ep5 4/4 fight followed by the best kiss in cinematic history. but also pat in the music shop discovering that he likes pran. and pat shouting his love to pran in the architecture faculty. and pat and pran's scene in the corridor with the guitar. and inkpa hotpot date and the photography room scene. the entire episode 8 & 11 (im cheating ik). i will keep on listing all the scenes if i don't stop.

one thing you would change about the show if you could

i wish there was just one discussion about wai being a dick to pran in ep8/9. like i wouldn't change what happened but like after all the dust had settled and all the friends were ok with patpran, i hope there was a discussion or even a mention of that wai apologised to pran somewhere behind the scenes and pran mentioned this to pat. (and i'm not sure if os2 counts but i would most def change ep3 of the crossover where they are just getting lost and screaming each others' names again and again sksksks)

what are your some of your favorite fanworks made by other people

this is very unfair ok i love them all but here are a few

i'll just link all the fics here & the post i made about it some time back! (special mention to a soft boy in soft sweaters by @dimplesandfierceeyes)

the entire @badbuddyingifs blog

fanarts by @hereforlou (x) & @architectxengineer (x)

bad buddy costume colour theories by @dribs-and-drabbles

InkPa edits:

this edit by @pranink

this one by @akingyouniverse

episode 7 by @mantrisanu

developer stopper fixer by @oswlld

darkroom confessions by @forcebook

just the way you are by @snimeat

another darkroom edit by @chinzillas

FMVs

iris fmv by @prantically

enchanted fmv by @thranduel

patpran x zara zara fanvid by @prany

Quotes & Stuff

this cursed (affectionate set) by @guntapon

this quote that makes me cry everytime by @machikeita

yet another one of my fav quotes by @nanons

when we were younger by @alexshenry

you'll never be friends by @taeminie

myth by @tipsyjaehyun

love story by @fourthnattawat

another one by @freensrcha

v. imp kissing patpran set by @patspran

already home by @sunsetandthemoon

pran's life anthem by @morkofday

Character & Dynamics

pat-ink edit by @pranpats

pat saying ma ni by @casualavocados

best boy pat edit by @louwilliam

feral musky scented hoe pran by @seanwhites

best siblings by @ardentlytess

ink by @angelbesideme

Misc

page to screen series by @actually-yikes

inspired movie posters by @nanonkorapat

bad buddy rewatch series by @baifengxis

bbs2 by @dimpledpran

concept sets by @i-got-the-feels

episode 7 edit by @ayan-sukkhapisit

(if you create fanworks) what are your favorite fanworks that you’ve made?

i did make some edits but my favourite one is the PatPran x Bollywood edit!

a song that makes you think of bbs (the ones in the show don’t count lol)

well obviously same page? by tilly birds. but also way too many taylor swift songs (seven, labrynth, gold rush, our song, the 1, betty, i think he knows, daylight, the great war, mine, enchanted), sleepwalker by julie byrne is so pran coded, home by reese lansangan, straberries & ciggarettes by troye sivan, i'm yours by alessia cara, doors by ben&ben etc. etc.

idk anything else you want us to know?

cursing your feed with this

tagging everyone i tagged above! (if you want) <3

[pdouwes]

Hi, I'm a big fan of your blog and your gifs in general! I was wondering if you had any tutorial on how you color? Particularly your Wicked and Hadestown gifs look incredibly gorgeous and the colors really pop, and I'm so curious as to how you achieve those effects. Amazing work overall :D

hiii, oh my god thank you so much!! 🥺❤️

i'm happy to show you how i color my gifs but pls note that i basically have no idea what i'm doing, everything i know i taught myself via trial and error and this is just something i found works for me.

that being said, here's a quick (and very messy) bootleg coloring tutorial under the cut!

okay so, when it comes to making gifs and coloring in general, good source material is key. bright and clear videos make the coloring process SO much easier.

i picked an old 2010 wicked oberhausen boot for this tutorial. it doesn't have the highest resolution but the colors translate nicely and the lighting is pretty good as well.

now, this is our base gif cropped and sharpened. i usually want my gifs to look as natural and as close to their base version as possible with just colors and contrast enhanced slightly. baby steps are important here!

first thing i do is add a brightness/contrast layer. these are my settings for this gif:

i rarely ever go above 20 with either brightness or contrast. adding too much early on will make your gif look grainy in the end. our gif now looks like this:

not much has changed but a little goes a long way, trust me. next up is a curves layer. i click the little arrow to open the drop down menu and select increase contrast (rgb). afterwards i reduce the opacity. for this gif i set it to 52%.

this will darken the gif again but it also gets rid of these white spots on elphaba's dress which is great.

next, we start playing around with colors. i usually use 3 color fill and one or two selective color layers. this really is just playing around until you find the settings that you think look good. for this gif i wanted to enhance the green and neutralise some of the yellow, so i went with two color fill layers first.

green to slightly enhance the green of elphie's skin and blue to neutralise the yellow in glinda's hair.

next we're going with a selective color layer. think of the colors you want to pop. for this gif the obvious choices are elphie's skin and glinda's dress.

i added a second layer to further adjust the greens

and ended up with this gif

i then added another color fill layer, set it to multiply and reduced the opacity to 12

followed by a color balance layer

the purpose of these layers is to slightly "cool down" the gif, meaning they decrease orange/yellow undertones while enhancing the blue and purple ones.

next up is a levels layer to add a tiny bit more brightness

followed by a vibrance layer to make existing colors pop

and another curves layer for more brightness/contrast with the opacity set to 50%

our gif now looks like this:

almost done! we're finishing up with a black and white gradient map layer for some more depth

and a cooling filter to further reduce the yellow/orange tones of glinda's face and hair

and that's it!

so, here you go. this is my coloring process most of the time. sometimes i add more layers (on top or in between), other times i use less, it all depends on the specific scene and the mood i'm in lol.

now, could you leave out some of these steps? yeah, definitely. some layers probably don't even make that much of a difference but i like adding them anyway.

you can download the psd here. feel free to play around with my settings and add or delete layers as you see fit. hope this was at least somewhat helpful!

[gyllenhaalstories]

Hi there! Love your blog 💕 How and when did you get into Jake? What was your first film with him? The film that made you become a fan? Thanks!☺️

hiiiii! thank you, i'm happy to know you enjoy it! oh my god, you're giving me another opportunity to ramble? you're too generous! 🥰❤️ short answer: i started mostly around 2019 and the movie that did it for me is demolition. long answer? this novel i wrote below!

my first jake movie had to be prince of persia although i have no memory of watching it as a kid. i just know i did because my dad played the video game and this sounds like a movie he'd watch too. when prisoners came out on dvd in 2013, i asked my parents to rent the movie because i liked hugh jackman as wolverine. if wolverine is funny, that means prisoners will be funny too, right? WRONG. i was so wrong. i spent almost the entire movie hidden under a blanket, i remember the stares my parents gave me. i was so embarrassed. but i also remember that one good looking man on the screen, wink wink (or well, blink blink) the only jake movies i watched after that were love & other drugs and brokeback mountain. both made me cry, so i loved them. i would stay up late (back in the day when i thought midnight was late) and watch them on television. other than that, my life used to be a sad dark lonely gyllenvoid.

ah, the glorious day when i saw the poster for spider-man far from home. i took a photo, i made sure to crop the guy with the cape, i didn't care for him. pff. i wanted spider-man! i kept telling myself that there was this one dude in the trailer that reminded me of someone, but i couldn't replace him. until i connected the dots!!! that hello quentin / yeah hi honey scene had me shaking in my seat. i came home, i tried googling his name in five different spellings until i got it right. i asked a friend at the time if she knew about jake because i had this new crush on him and she was like "this crush isn't new, you just forgot he existed" (i was juggling with other famous hot men who are double my age, i was busy). so apparently i was into him and i didn't even know about it! anyway! i started looking through jake's tag for gifs and photos, then for fics, then i thought it'd be nice to make a blog to appreciate and reblog the fics (this is when i became a fan of nat and maria from afar! and now they're my friends and i love them so much). a few months after that, i was like sure why not maybe i can write my own stories too. i made this blog at the end of 2019 and here i am, five years later!!! my obsession for jake is stronger than ever.

i stuck to mysterio and jake fics for a while, his filmography was intimidating and it lacked in barbie movies so i was not THAT motivated to get through it at first. i kept an eye on movies that played on television for something he could be in and i found one: enemy. i know jake recently suggested enemy as one of the first movies of his to start with but i could not disagree more. the spiders? yeah no. enemy was my enemy. i saw that it played on a different channel, in english this time, so i gave it a shot. i was intrigued... i went to his wikipedia page and picked one of the shortest movies in his register: demolition. i've said it before and i'll say it again, i loved demolition so much that i watched it twice in the same evening. demolition is the movie that got me hooked. i couldn't understand how underrated it used to be, people barely brought it up! it almost made me forget the spider debacle of enemy, i just wanted to see more of jake.

i'm almost through with his entire filmography now! it's taken me a long time, but i'm proud of myself for watching so many movies that are out of my usual taste. it made me discover so many sides of jake's talent and so many characters that live rent free in my mind. if i could go back in time, i would still choose demolition as the great leap into the jake gyllenhaal multiverse. you didn't ask for all this rambling but shhhh details. i'm curious to know your answer to this question too!!! thank you again, anon! 💖💖💖

[ronsenthal]

hi! do you have tips and advice for making gifs? i love your gifs so much!

awww thank you so much, that really means a lot to me as I'm still rusty and a bit insecure because I've learned how to make gifs like 10 years ago? things didn't changed that much in terms of method and yet it's still scary, but at the end people like you make it worth!! 🥺🥺🥺

a little disclaimer: I'm colorblind, I can see colors okay! but I just see them a little bit different than most people so sometimes my edits may seem a little weird and that's the reason

Okay It will definitely be a long answer so I'll put under the cut ☺️

My advices would be:

- Just go for whatever scene you like the most, and try to focus on things you enjoy. I like to gif what I love, things I find beautiful as it gives me so much joy to look at the final result 😌

- Fortunately tumblr is full of people willing to share their knowledge and skills and there is lots and lots of blogs with the main theme being tutorials or even inspo and sources, so I always try to follow them to keep up with whatever is trending and just to learn new tricks and tips, some of my faves are @completeresources @gifmakerresource @allresources and @chaoticresources

- Be patient with yourself, if you are trying a tutorial and it is giving you a hard fight you can always stop and try again another time. It happened to me more than once that a tutorial or a particular idea I was trying gave me such a bad fight that I ended up so frustrated, exhausted, angry and feeling shitty but then I would pick another time to give it try and the thing worked hahahaha, so don't forget to respect your time and wellbeing

In terms of tips and tricks:

- Always use high quality videos, like the best quality available as it really makes a difference in terms of the final result

- Oh always resize your gifs!!! I use the crop tool and then I adjust the image size to keep it high quality, I think this is BY FAR the best tutorial as it explains quite well if you are new to editing

- So far I have tried many many different methods over the years, my fav is to cut the scenes I want to edit and for this use any video editing software really and after choosing a couple of scenes I import all of them to Photoshop (my version is the 2022 edition) and then I use the video timeline method (i don't really remember where I learned it but I found this really good tutorial that might be helpful)

- I slow down the gifs I make (idk how to explain it in english I'm sorry) but I set the speed for something in between 50% to 70%, depending on the scene

- In terms of colouring I don't really have a specific preset or fav PSD, I adjust them one by one just trying to focus on what the scene gives and then I work my way around it depending on what I'm trying to achieve or how do I want my gifset to look like (a good example was the Ron one on my last gifset i didn't wanted to look so yellow as it would be too different from the other gifs, it was a nightmare) BUT I guess I tend to use lots and lots of adjustment layers like I start with brightness/contrast, curves, and levels and then I proceed to selective colors, hue, vibration and saturation, sometimes I even use gradients and/or solid color layers with different blending options like soft light, overlay, opacity and fill settings to correct colors (I always use the color wheel principles of opposites and/or complementaries)

- Use smart sharpening!!! Peopel are so brilliant that they gave us actions, it is literally just a click away from all the trouble to do it manually, and it speeds up my process. Personally I have been using this amazing one I found quite recently, and it's really doing wonders to my edits

anyway thank you so much for being so kind and supportive, my ask box and dm are always open if you have any doubts or just want to exchange ideas. Really hope it helps you ❤️

[heartshapedcreaturefromcriptoon]

One such example of the difference between "Good" and genuinely bad form vivziepop/Hazbin Hotel Fans that drive everyone to hatred, is that are those of us who are absolutely avoiding the leaks and want fuck all to do with that shit and will block you if you so much as mention it to us, and can afford to do such a thing as a fully matured adult audience with lives and interests outside of just constant cartoon consumption....

And then there's genuinely off putting pigfucker bitches like petitprinces1 who are so sloppy they can't be bothered to find a header that isn't a moving gif with the freaking "AMAZON" logo still attached and they're just like:

"Erm....Yusss.....x3 I seen da leaks.....x3 Nope wont spoil anythin' even tho im answering asks abt it right the fuck now n' addressing Viv herself like shes in da room w me rn anyway KUDDOS Viv i did NAWT see dat 1 cumming!!!! x3 If da rest of u who put the dumb in fandumb literally want lil' ol' meh, ur reigning princess of stupidity, to send u the leaks so u can potentially spread them moar bein an idiot like i am plz DM meh cuz u kno ill delete u if ur dumb enough to actually ask in a reply id rather if u ask me to spread the leaks 4 u in meh DMs if ur gonna ask 4 leaks cuz im not a regular fandumb mom im a 20% COOLER fandumb mom!!! x3 Im so cool that if u ask me for leaks in my replies I GUESS....... ill prolly just delete ur comment instead of just blocking u like everyone else would bc im different and *i* have no boundaries and *i* dont know *HOW* to block ppl!!! x3 i also apparently wrote DISNEY JUNIOR FANFICTION at one point when i was in my late late teens/early early 20s which would imply i went directly from *THAT* to HAZBIN which explains a lot about me dont it? x3 ANYWAY HMU VIA DM IF U WANT ALL DA SEASON 2 LEAKS!!! x3"

Like gurl ...

Like, gurl...

Fake arse fan here to stress real people out just like like all the shitty clickbait bros here only you're a little Candace Owens about it it...

Speaking of Candace...

Uh, once again, my name is NOT "Hearts" and yes the fuck I did Ashface Snitchdale, again, it's free internetz, it's my hot blog and I do what I want, and yo' mama's been blocked for over 4+ years even before she tried and failed to troll me via block evading on anon... I just use an incognito now sometimes when I wanna roll my eyes because my block and stayfree options get broken and I'm forced to perceive she exists and re-block her anyway, keep scrollin'!

Oh and again, it's not "a real double edged sword" or whatever the fuck fandumb centrist bullshit that petitprincess1 is spouting as she's helping spread the leaks to people and let us be very fucking black and white about this okay? Okay. READY? I DON'T CARE! :D

If you indulge the leaks or help spread them, in public or in DMs... You are not a true fan... You are a fake fan... And you need to delete and leave the fandom!

If you: "Feel bad for being happy or excited over something that was so devastating for the crew and feel guilty for finding joy or even 'relief' in those leaks 'because of the results' of the US election.." or whatever the fuck bullshit excuse you made up to help you feel better or whatever... I'm paraphrasing because I don't fucking care what made you do it ... You SHOULD feel bad, you SHOULD feel guilty... You are not a true fan, you're a fake fan.... You not only need to delete and leave the fandom, BUT, you should feel even WORSE for confiding all of your bullshit to the tumblr fandumbs biggest bullshitter, Leeanne, (petitprincess1) someone who should've deleted her online presence years ago for presenting and behaving with all the tackiness and immaturity a of young/republican Trump Supporter anyway... THERE I SAID IT, and I'm probably not the only one too! I mean Viv herself is like... The cutest lil' Scene Kitten/Drunk Girlie at the party who actually thought Coconut Charli XCX Lady would win while raving to that Practical Magic Margarita Song all night long while making Actual Margaritas ...Those of you of you who've actually indulged the leaks and spoiled yourselves for ANY reason are selfish and entitled (as I always knew some of you were) and should be ashamed for doing that to her! You are not true fans. You are not one of us. Leave the fandom.

To think I once called out petitprincess1 for stealing my friends shit and running them off the internet and block evading to further harass me and now I'm calling her out for being complacent and helping spread leaks of the second season of Medrano's entire show! I was going to make a sort of Deep Cut TMI (for some of you people, not for me..) joke about how me and Leeanne ("apparently") shared "the same" Blorbo in the "Lion King" fandom albeit in two entirely Different Eras of Fandom ( mine being the superior one) but I think all of the obvious caveats and quotation would imply how I don't even so much as acknowledge disney junior shit as canon and because I don't watch shows meant for toddlers and therefore it's not the same fandom and not even the same "blorbo" at all and then I got angry and went on the other, more important, vent session because, yeah... It really did all just come down to one big, full circle of bullshit with her this time, didn't it? I'm truly done!

Like, bye bitch I'm never tipping your lolcow again.

Speaking of tipping... She's probably never actually paid an artist in this fandom or brought any actual art in like a while has she? No.

I peek at her blog to see if she posted her playbill if she even paid for one and I find something so much worse.

Oof.

[soldierboys]

Oops I didn't mean to post that anonymously. Yes, if you have the time to post more about giffing, that would be awesome!

Okay so I'll make a quick tutorial and I hope it's easy to understand ksjsk. It's very image heavy and I apologize for any typos. We'll be making this:

So I start by taking the screencaps with Potplayer. Just open your video (preferably 1080p x264). The shortcut to take your screencaps is Ctrl + G, it'll open this window:

(those are my configurations, it's in portuguese but it's easy to understand)

I usually create a folder in Documents for each gif. Also remember to start capturing a little earlier because it takes a few seconds to start, same thing when you finish.

Now it's time to open it on photoshop! Make sure you have your timeline set up, if it's not showing up go to Window > Timeline. Now go to File > Scripts > Load File into Stacks

When this window opens, just choose your folder and click okay after it loads (might take a while if there's too many files)

So when it opens, you'll click on the 'Create Frame Animation' option in the timeline

It'll create a single layer, so go to the little button at the side and click on make frames from layers

they'll show up backwards, so go back and choose reverse frames

Now you're all set. It's time to delete what you don't want. Since tumblr accepts up to 10mb, I usually keep it between 60 frames. Really it depends on the scene and the dimensions you're gonna make your gif. (for example, if after your coloring, the background of your gif is completely black, you can go up to 175 frames, even if you make a 540x gif, i did that once lol)

So when you have your scene ready, select all frames and set your frame delay to 0,05.

Then, with all your frames still selected, convert them to video timeline

Go to your frames, select all of them and convert them to smart object

So after that, you can crop your image! Check the tumblr dimensions here. When making big gifs I like to use 540x400, 500 or 600. Just what I think it'll fit best. For 2 per row, I usually use 268x180 or 268x200. For this gif I used 540x400 and cropped it, I always try to crop the borders so there's no risk of the gif having that weird white border around it.

Then go to Image > Image Size on top of the screen

Set to the dimensions you used when cropping, so for me it was 540 x 400:

I use bicubic smoother to resample but honestly i don't really know the difference kdjsk

Now let's sharpen it! I usually use this one for big gifs (comes with a better tutorial than this kdjsk) but it's got a lot of steps to it that i like to do it myself, so i just use to sharpen it. And if you're following this tutorial, we already did all the steps on the action, so just click on the Smart Sharpen.

I also recommend this action for when you're making 268px gifs (two per row). I love this action too. Btw if you're just downloading your actions, you have to load them on those 3 little lines:

So for coloring! I use a base for most of my gifs and I edit them from there. Here's a great blog for coloring psds. If you want, I can make a separate tutorial on how I color my gifs, because it won't fit it all in 1 post.

Then I added my subtitles. Make sure the subtitle layer is on top of the coloring one so it doesn't look weird. Here's the settings I'm using for this one:

Now we're gonna add blending options. Go to the bottom of the screen with your subtitle layer selected and click on that little Fx:

I added drop shadow, outer glow and stroke:

When you're done, you're gonna want to Save for Web. The shortcut is Ctrl + Shift + Alt + S. All at once. This window will open up:

This is how I like to save them. Don't forget to make sure your gif is set to forever and less than 10mb (you can check at the bottom of the screen, below your gif, mine is 5,5mb). And you're done!

Or not. I don't know why I have this problem, but after save it, my photoshop sets the frame delay back to 0,07, and that's too slow. So I open my gif again in File > Open. Or Ctrl + O.

Select all frames and set your frame delay to 0,05 again

Do not convert to video timeline. Just Save for Web again. And now you're really done.

[tana-draws]

imagine wasting all your energy hating on angel when you can spend that energy on characters you love.

ok

The “who hates Angel the most” poll was not done out of personal hate for angel, but curiosity of what other fans of the show think other characters think about him.

A lot of my posts involving Angel have to do with me thinking the dynamic (or at least, potential one) between him and Giles in s3 was interesting. For example, recently I reblogged a post and tagged it “Giles with angel.” This has nothing to do with my own feelings towards angel, more so a statement towards how I feel another character feels about him.

i don’t really hate angel as a character, my criticisms are about the narrative treatment of him (amends reminding us of how he murdered people, including a character we knew, just as an attempt to make us feel bad for him, s3 trying to acknowledge the events of s2 but rarely acknowledging how it effected anyone other than Buffy and angel, etc) and how fans treat him (acting as though characters are in the wrong for not liking him in s3/being upset about his resurrection/being upset about the resurrection being hidden from them)

Angel can piss me off at times (amends, also his crimes in s2 but I’ll exclude those cause soul or whatever) but I also find him funny sometimes. I also haven’t seen ATS so I’m not going to say I HATE him until I’ve seen the show he’s the protagonist of.

Most scenes I’ve reblogged seeming anti-Angel are scenes between Giles and Angel (because, as I mentioned earlier, I find their dynamic interesting,) specifically referring to three scenes I’ve reblogged: -reblogged the arson scene in passion and cheered Giles on in the tags (angel/us is currently soulless and also just murdered Jenny). -reblogged the scene between them from amends encouraging Giles to hurt angel (if angel has the nerve to ask Giles for help with an existential crisis after everything that happened I think Giles should have been allowed to respond by stabbing him a little. He’s a vampire he’ll be fine. Besides it’s not like he’s doing it unprompted angel if you’re going to seek out someone who hates you because you murdered their partner and tortured them, hoping they’ll help you, you have to expect that you might lose a bit of blood). -reblogged the scene right before angel/us tortures Giles and said I was going to stab angel/us (again, still soulless and about to commit torture). In none of these cases did I, to my memory, reblog a random gif set talking about how much I hate angel, because not only is that a dick move, I myself would not want people reblogging, say Fanart, of a character yapping about how much they hate them, but I’m also mostly nuetral on him in general, except when he pisses me off. (I have criticized the godawful take that people were “too mean to poor innocent angel” in s3 but pointing out that the other characters are allowed to have negative feelings towards him when someone claims otherwise is different than reblogging a random post about how they like him as a character that doesn’t use their opinion to villainize characters for having emotions, or a gifset of scenes where he doesn’t do anything wrong posted by someone who likes him, and going “actually you’re wrong he’s awful and I hate him”) I only reblogged gifsets and commented hyper-negatively when he’s doing/has done/will do something shitty, two of which, depending on how you interpret soul lore, weren’t even technically him.

I talk way more about characters I like than I shittalk angel. The last post I made on this blog about Buffy, if I remember correctly, was about how I had rewatched some assembly required and how Giles had no game. Look through the Buffy tags on my account and I think most of the posts will be about Jenny and Giles, and then some that aren’t about them but also aren’t about angel.

most of my issues are related to characters I like. I know it wasn’t technically him cause soul or whatever, but he killed Jenny, tortured Giles, tried to kill a bunch of other major characters, probably would have killed them if not stopped, made Buffy’s life hell, and tried to end the world (not really a character but still kind of a big deal.) even if it wasn’t technically him, it effects my view of him (AND AGAIN: most of my issues aren’t even because of the events, but because, in s3, those events were rarely acknowledged outside of “you should feel sad that angel is guilty for murdering a bunch of people” or “it’s so sad Angel and Buffy can’t be together (cause he murdered a bunch of people).” Which is more of a writing issue than a character issue.)

I can do what I want

[erikiara80]

favorite/least favorite Byler and M!leven scenes?

Ciao, anon. Thanks for the ask.

If you follow my blog I hope you know that I'm not a fan of Mike and El as a couple. I like a few scenes, but I don't think their relationship is good for them or that they're actually in love.

Ok, if you're still reading, let me explain.

I never found them cute, not even in S1. When I watched it I didn't understand why the writers were writing such a good story set in the 80s, but with El and Mike it felt like I was actually watching an 80s show with the typical story, boy and girl kiss/end up together because... boy and girl must date. It felt wrong to me. It wasn't what ST was about. Now I understand that I was supposed to feel that way.

That being said, El and Mike are beautiful, complex characters, so these are the scenes I like.

1. El would (understand). Ok, not saying this is a Mlv scene, but Mike can be vulnerable with Will and say how he really feels. And I love what he says about El. He's right. She would understand. The funny thing, is that I think she would (and will) understand Will much better than how she understands Mike.

2. I feel for them here. El's been isolated for so long, and Mike misses her and feels guilty for what happened to her. Interestingly, Castle Byers is playing here...

3. From one look you can see the joy, the relief and all the pain this kid must've felt. Amazing (one of Finn's best performances)

4. If I remember correctly, this was actually Millie being exhausted, not El, and Finn helped her. But it's in the show, and I love it.

This s pretty much it.

My least favorite mlvn scene: 3x01. How they left their friends on Weathertop, and them making out and laughing at Hopper's face. Lol, those little shits.

With Byler, it's the opposite. There's only one scene I don't like. The dnd campaign in S3. I know it's important and even foreshadowing of events in S5, but like the rain fight it reminded me of something that happened to me. That's all I'm going to say.

Now, my favorite Byler scenes...

1. Probably my favorite scene of the show, imo one of the best and also Finn's best perfomance. The shed scene is such a pivotal moment, when we learn, along with Will I'm sure, that asking him to be his friend was the best thing Mike has ever done. It all started with Will and Mike. Their bond is special, and it's forever. They were the ones who started the first party and they will start a new one together.

2. You can feel how much they need each other and want to be close again. A precious moment that almost made me cry.

3. He's quiet today. Four words that mean so much. The fact that Lucas says He's always quiet informs us that Will and Mike's relationship is different. That Mike knows Will better that the rest of the party and that Will opens up to him. And Mike does the same, as we see in the Crazy together scene.

4. Mike's head on Will's heart. Adorable

5. Another little moment that is so important. Just a Not possible, a flirty look and Mike's smile. They don't need anything else. Steve would've felt it, the electricity.

6. Speaking of Mike's smiles, the ones in the van are something beautiful

7. Crazy together. What else can I say?

8. I love Will's sweet voice here: "It was you guys who saved me. It was you guys." Mike tries to hide a smile (he's so happy that Will is saying that he helped save him) Then Will's flirty: It always is, isn't it?" And Mike melts. It was too much for him.

Honorable mention:

And this (Gif credits to Celebslive)

[wistful-pigeon]

https://www.tumblr.com/cartoons-asfuk-blog/131237661529 This really got on Cartoon Network. It’s the episode that was delayed and screened at sdcc to. That had to be fun lol. Teen titans go probably does worse but still wow

I mean I assume that whomever you are, this is in my inbox because of my recent Ramblings-

I'll be honest, I don't quite understand the tone implied in this message but I know that I remember the character (Cheshire? Listen it's been a solid 5 years since I had the emotional capacity to watch YJ again but I did in fact watch Season 1 at least 3 dozen times)

I'm going off of context cues alone here and granted, I don't have a whole lot but I feel like this is about Her Legs; and man I can't think of any way to fight in a long skirt (or skirt in general) that doesn't involve Your Opponents Seeing Your Whole Ass and that's why I personally always wear shorts or leggings underneath if I'm wearing a skirt/dress (one has to always be prepared for combat at any moment).

I *did* check just now to make sure, but Cheshire is 19 already in Season 1 so honestly? I don't necessarily see this as being an "inappropriate" or even particularly sexualizing scene- I've seen clips of the latter seasons and whenever Starfire is introduced (no spoilers there please y'all istg I'm going to be watching it soon I just need to emotionally prepare myself and after Good Omens Season 2 I'm still reeling here) I have seen a multitude of GIFs involving... a more sexual nature than what this gives off to me.

So like I think what I'm saying here is that given how female superhero outfits have always been, this scene is nothing particularly raunchy in my eyes; I'd say the whole "Oriental" aesthetic of her character may or may not be in the best of tastes (I would listen to what people of East Asian ethnicity have to say about it rather than say "it isn't problematic at all" cuz I don't know the intricacies of it all) and the overall sexualization of Cheshire's character does sorta play in to the whole "sexualizing East Asian culture" trope that IS indeed a long existing problem; but in the way they tell her story (as far as I recall and up until S2), I think that the overall story of her character is generally handled well without anything that my younger self noticed as being particularly problematic.

Although I do feel there is a difference between how one can show that a certain character may display their attunement with their sexuality (and I don't mean sexuality as in sexual identity per say it's more about one's own image of themselves and how one wishes to be perceived by others, as a Sexual Being) as opposed to the perception of the character through the lens and to the audience and the OVER-sexualization of characters and people that is an ongoing Issue and remains one of the reasons why I have never gotten fully otaku-level obsessed with anime bc it is a very prevalent issue within that form of media.

Don't have a clue why this answer became an essay but here I am, 7am, and I hope that this all comes across in a more cohesive manner than it felt writing it.

And I swear I'll go ask my girlfriend for the HBO password and finally WATCH the show again and the new seasons and maybe then I will understand better? Honestly if you can't tell from all of this I'm AUDHD so if I misconstrued things lmk

[winxclubsource]

Hi! I love the blog and I would like to make Flora gifs of the newest seasons but I hate how they whitewashed her skin tone (and I'm using my older psds for her and they still make her look the same skin ton as Bloom, because that's what the show did 😥) I'm wondering if maybe anyone can help me on how I can get her original skin tone back in gifs and without making other character in the same gif (like Bloom) look so yellow? I'll take all the tutorials, sorry for the bother!! ❤

Hi!

It's very hard to fix Flora's and Aisha's skin tones without affecting other characters in the gif. If you have access to After Effects, I highly recommend using it as it has a Color Correction section that works a little more than just PS.

First, pick the scene you want to gif and upload it to After Effects. You can upload it as a gif, but there is no gif option when exporting so you would need to export it again as a gif in PS. Once you have your scene in AE, go to the right of the screen and look for the Color Correction option. Click on Color Correction so you see the list and look for Change Color.

Once you click Change Color, this is what you'll see to the left of the screen:

Select the eyedropper in the Color to Change section, and click the character's skin tone. I recommend avoiding picking from their cheeks as they usually have blush. Then go to Lightness Transform and lower the lightness until their skin gets closer to the original skin tone. Save your work and do what you would usually do to make it into a gif ready for coloring. Once in PS, use the Selective Color to adjust the reds and yellows till you get an exact or close to an exact match of their original skin tone.

For example, here's a very simple Color Correction edit with Flora:

The only thing I did was turn the lightness down after color picking her skin. With Flora, you often have to color pick both her shaded skin and her unshaded skin in order to darken everything. If you just color pick one or the other, only the one you pick will change (in most scenes at least).

The program reads her hair as being the same color so her hair has also darkened, causing the lines to fade as well, however, she definitely looks much better.

And here I've done the exact same thing with Aisha:

Again, you can see that her hair has also changed color, and the shells in the background were also affected, but still much better than before.

Unfortunately, even with this fix, it's hard to combat dealing with other characters in the same scene. Below, I've used the exact same fix, only color picking Flora's skin and lowering the lightness. But...

As you can see here, the other characters now have a bit of a tan, as their skin tones are very close to Flora's in S8 (but it's not that bad since they were all lightened lol). Thankfully, Flora's S8 skin tone does have more yellow and red than the others, so her skin will still end up darker. Depending on the scene and character, you may be able to lower the yellow hues in the white section of Selective Color in PS without affecting Flora's skin tone, as seen here:

You'll also notice some unfortunate "glitching". This is due to the background matching their skin tones. If you're going to use this fix, I'd recommend sticking to scenes where the background is a very different color from their skin (like the above solo examples of Aisha and Flora on the beach). That means avoiding reds, beiges, and yellows as those will change.

Now, if you don't have After Effects, here are two psds for Flora and Aisha respectively. These aren't meant to be all-around fixes; you will likely have to play around with the adjustments depending on what scene you're working with. More often than not, these psds will not work with group shots. Occasionally they will, but usually, they make the other characters very yellow.

PSDS

Happy creating!

[oneawkwardcookie]

[Image ID: Small text reading "Tumblr 2022" followed my larger text reading “my year in review," surrounded by moving icons of tumblr things; crabs, reblog button, the Pikachu man, etc /End ID]

I posted 7,283 times in 2022

327 posts created (4%)

6,956 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@octobertulip

@tawaifeddiediaz

@astrallouis

@bethanyactually

@bieddiediaz

I tagged 6,915 of my posts in 2022

Only 5% of my posts had no tags

#911 fox - 2,646 posts

#gif set - 2,046 posts

#television - 1,396 posts

#eddie diaz - 1,203 posts

#evan buckley - 1,170 posts

#911 spoilers - 957 posts

#fanedit - 836 posts

#buddie - 811 posts

#image described - 718 posts

#911 season 5 spoilers - 597 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#but when you’re in the right environment you thrive. you’re lowkey mean to everyone even when you’re in a good mood but we still love you.

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

And I can easily understand How you could easily take my man But you don't know what he means to me, Jolene

Thumbnail by @bieddiediaz

62 notes - Posted February 5, 2022

#4

Your name has echoed through my mind And I just think you should, think you should know That nothing safe is worth the drive And I would follow you, follow you home

Happy birthday @diazchristopher!!!!!!

Thumbnail by @tarlosbuddie

66 notes - Posted June 13, 2022

#3

911 resources spreadsheet

Just boosting this spreadsheet again, which has lists of scenes for different character pairings, and now has a listing of source blogs (who runs them, the tracking tags, etc.)

86 notes - Posted June 27, 2022

#2

Love is friendship (iykyk)

104 notes - Posted September 30, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

And up until now I had sworn to myself that I'm content With loneliness Because none of it was ever worth the risk Well, you are the only exception

110 notes - Posted September 19, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[translationandbetrayals]

Tenshi no Tamago: Searching for meaning.

Spoilers ahead.

As most teenagers do, when I was around 13 years old I was hyperfixated on searching for a sense of deeper meaning in every piece of media I consumed. Being a fan of anime and manga, I went down the "pretentious obscure anime" route: I read whole books of the Bible to wrap my head around the ending of Evangelion, watched anything with the Studio 4°C on it, got into old Japanese painting techniques just to say I appreciated Shōjo Tsubaki on a deeper level, and totally desensitized myself to gore via reading everything Junji Ito and Shintaro Kago had released. I filled notebooks with theories and observations, and started to surround myself only with media that I thought was profound and complex. This is the context in which I found Tenshi no Tamago (天使のたまご ), an 1985 OVA written and directed by Mamoru Oshii. At this point I was already familiar with Oshii's work, and I was an avid Ghost in the Shell fan. However, any expectations I had for this film were shattered, again and again, as I watched it.

I don't want to be misunderstood here, Tenshi no Tamago still is one of my favorite films ever made. But it did shift my perspective on the way I was consuming art and how, in my opinion, I was getting it wrong.

When the ending credits appeared on my computer screen, I found this weird feeling numbing my senses and blocking my thoughts. The only way I can describe it is as an uneasiness of sorts, a void in my stomach I had only gotten close to feeling when I finished watching Serial Experiments Lain, although it wasn't quite the same. The main difference was that I didn't want to go and read about it, I didn't want to organize my thoughts into carefully curated essays to post on the internet. I just wanted to sit with this discomfort, listening to the soundtrack of the film, but not really analyzing it.

Then, of course, my obsession with the film began. I wrote it's japanese title on my wall, I started filling my tumblr blog with gifs from my favorite scenes, I memorized its brief dialogues by heart. At the time I didn't have many friends, and I didn't know anyone who had seen the film, so everything remained inside my head like a buzzing that wouldn't stop. Of course at some point I tried getting into the lore of the film, reading what other people made of it, but they didn't really resonate with me. I got the Noah's Ark references as anyone would, and I could easily make connections between this post apocalyptic world and the others that Oshii had created, and yet it didn't sit right with me. At some point I thought "okay, maybe I'm just dumb and I didn't understand the plot at all".

But later in my life I would realize that over-intellectualizing everything was keeping me from actually enjoying art. You see, I was so caught by this search of deeper meaning, that I wasn't really paying attention to what these pieces of media made me feel. So, whenever I re watch Tenshi no Tamago, I don't try to link every stone fisherman's move to the human condition, neither do I try to break down every word spoken by the two main characters as an allegory to the end of the world. Instead, I watch the shadow fish and the water bottles and I allow myself to feel the emptiness of this abandoned Earth, the eerie sounds of the wind and every thread of the girl's hair moving with it. When I see those last ten minutes after the egg cracks, I focus on the movement of the feathers and the empty beach, and simply enjoy the beautiful pacing of the scene and the harmony it creates alongside the soundtrack.

So, in conclusion, I don't like explaining this film to other people, neither do I care for people explaining it to me. And maybe I truly didn't understand it, maybe I never will. But I'm okay with it, as long as I'm still allowed to watch it over and over again, searching for the unique feeling it can leave me with.

- Melián Trujillo.