#i might fix it later bc the colours on the screen are washed out but in my defense i did this on my own scratched up android

[iras17514]

i must be stopped

[pateldevs]

Hi! I hope I'm not bothering you, but I love your mood board edits and was wondering if you could explain how you go about making/colouring them? I see lots of places to find gifs but turning them into a set is so hard. Thank you in advance!

hi! first of all thank you so much and second of all it’s not a bother at all! i am happy to give some of my own tips even if my explanation probably isn’t super helpful. i won’t give like a ps tutorial but below the cut (since i included example gifs, it’s VERY long) is my process for my latest jily aesthetic:

i keep track of all my ideas/sets in a spreadsheet (which i won’t show bc there’s a lot of info i’d have to blur/black out) but i always have a list of what scenes i need to gif/what gifs i’m editing and where i’m getting them from. i also include a couple extra ideas in case the gifs i have planned end up being too hard to color or don’t fit in the set. i’ve found it’s best/easiest to start w the list bc there is literally nothing worse than spending hours on a set and then not being able to complete it.

as for actually finding the material, i have a pretty healthy number of scene packs saved in my giffing folder, esp. for things i know i will gif frequently. most of the time i will peruse youtube, vimeo, and instagram for any aesthetic scenes. i also have a lot of gif packs saved specifically for the purpose of making mbs (usually i mix my own gifs w gif packs), if you msg me i’m happy to direct you to some gif packs i use regularly or you can check my #resources tag. a couple tips for finding material: 

always opt for download when possible, i used to screen record and the difference when i switched to downloading was astronomical. (it’s easy to lose quality and esp if you’re on mac, quicktime duplicates frames so either you have to manually delete those extras or you get sort of choppy gifs when you load them into ps.)

always use 1080p or better, 720p will work in a pinch for 268px or 177px gifs since you can make up some of that resolution loss with sharpening, but don’t go any lower than that, just love yourself. 

for pale sets, look for the right colors. i tend to look for scenes w high color contrast especially if it features poc so it’s easier to color without whitewashing, ie if the subject is a person then i look for light colored or blue/green/violet/white backgrounds. it’ll make your life wayyyyy easier. this also means if you’re making a set try to find scenes with already similar lighting bc you won’t have to work so hard to make it look cohesive.

here’s a quick rundown of what i do before coloring:

import all frames and save all the files in a folder together!!

play around with frame delay so all the gifs are moving at about the same speed, usually keep it between 0.03-0.05s

crop and resize gifs (i use 268x145 most of the time)

convert to timeline

when it comes to coloring it can be really hit or miss, i’ve recently gotten back into my groove but i was having sooo much trouble earlier this year. in general, don’t stress yourself out!! sometimes it’s easier to just find a new scene/gif (hence my list of extras!) than to try too hard to fit a gif into your set. i color all my gifs by scratch (ie no psds) but i tend to follow the same pattern, i’ll explain using these gifs/psd as an example since then i can also explain how to fix white-washing:

first off when you’re coloring gifs with poc always always always make a layer mask so you can compare the edited and unedited skin tones directly! i use the marquee tool to make a selection in the middle of the character’s face, select the folder of my adjustment layers, and hit ‘add vector mask’ (the third button from the left on the layers panel, it’s a white rectangle with a circle in it). 

i almost always begin by using hue/saturation layers to highlight and delete certain colors. here i highlighted red and raised the lightness on yellow by a lot since it’s a very yellow scene. then i use a combination of brightness/contrast, levels, and curves layers to brighten the scene. here’s what i have now:

i add a gradient map set to black/white, change the blending to exclusion, and lower the opacity to between 5-10% (depending on the scene) to lighten the contrast further:

then i add back a little depth with selective color in neutrals and blacks:

now i have two main goals: 1. add contrast between the background and the subject, and 2. brighten the scene into a pale gif. to do this, i use color balance to tweak the color of the background, taking out the yellows. this step works best if there’s at least some shade difference between your subject and background, otherwise isolating the two will be impossible. here’s what i have after adding color balance:

i use hue/saturation to selectively highlight the background color. in this case i chose to adjust magenta and used the color picker (the first eyedropper on the left) to identify the exact shade i wanted to lighten. now i have a fairly neutral background and a colorful subject, which gives a sort of pale effect:

and now i use a curves layer and a selective color (white) layer to brighten further:

before i go further, i start fixing white-washing. keep in mind that some variance is normal since you are naturally changing the lighting of the scene; this gif shows it rlly clearly bc of how yellow and dim the lighting is, so some lightening is to be expected. however, both because the vector mask shows a lot of whitening and because i’ve giffed dev patel before and have a general idea of what he looks like in this type of lighting, i know what needs to be fixed, so i go back in under the psd/adjustment layers with a combination of selective color (red and neutral) and hue/saturation layers to darken his skin again:

now that some more contrast has been added in, i can go back to working on the psd and use curves and selective color to play around with the background again:

i use another hue/saturation layer and a black/white gradient to tone down oversaturation:

usually i leave those layers on top, so if i want to make any adjustments (like lightening the background more), i go in under those two. in this case i tweaked the whites and reduced the contrast a little to get this:

again, you can see his skin tone has changed from the original, but variation is to be expected given how much brighter the room is, the fact that i took out a lot of yellow lighting, and the brightening effect of the computer screen in front of him. some other things to keep in mind when coloring:

when you add layers to correct white-washing, you’re likely to end up with overly red/orange skin tones (red-washing). this can be fixed by upping cyans in the reds, desaturating/darkening the reds, or adding b/w or desaturation later on.

when in doubt, it’s better to be darker than lighter (the issue with white-washing is that it promotes colorism, and there is nothing inherently wrong with a darker skin tone) but really. just put in the effort to color poc correctly.

when changing the lighting a lot it helps to look at pictures of the subject in natural/bright lighting, since you get a better idea of what their normal skin tone is. 

don’t try to squeeze all your selective color layers into one. you’ll get less grainy gifs if you separate them out and work one by one. 

TURN OFF NIGHT SHIFT/NIGHT MODE! yes i KNOW it’s bad for your eyes (especially if you’re like me and gif at night, when the lighting outside isn’t changing every 20 seconds) but your gifs will look VERY different under f.lux or night mode compared to daytime screens. especially if you’re giffing at different times of day, blue light filters can really change the way your coloring appears. best to keep it consistent.

my sharpening settings vary depending on what i’m giffing but in general i do two layers of smart sharpen (500% with radius between 0.2-0.4, 10% with radius at 10px) and then gaussian blur at 2.5px and adjust the opacity so it’s somewhere between 15-20%. i try to strike a balance between smoothing out the graininess from selective color, and sharpening details like clothes and hair. here’s what i ended up with for the gif above:

then i rinse and repeat for the rest of the gifs in the set! i tend to start with the gifs that i know will be hardest to color, which is usually the darker ones (coloring is limited by how much i can brighten the scene) and those that include poc (again, limited by how much i can brighten and adjust the scene’s lighting without white-washing). then i check set cohesion as i go, using those first few gifs as benchmarks. once i have all 8 (or 9 or 10) gifs, i play around with composition and try to balance and vary the subject, colors, and composition of gifs next to each other. i go back and make a couple of adjustments here and there according to what i observe and what i think might improve the overall appearance.

and that’s pretty much it! i hope this was helpful, if you have other questions feel free to message me and i’d be happy to help/troubleshoot. happy giffing!

[topimagines]

Inferno

Gluttony

Summary:  Where do people go when they die? Well, for the least lucky people in the world, hell is waiting. But what happens when these people do go to hell? And how did you end up there?    

Warnings: I actually dunno if there are any warnings? torture by mud? obviously death bc its hell, but not really much

Authors note: Shout out to my friend carol for helping me think of ways to add angst. She doesn’t have a Tumblr but I'd totally tag her. She's the best

Part 1// Part 2// Part 3// Part 4// Part 5// Part 6// Part 7//

"They don’t care about anyone walking through here, they just want to continue their game of chess," Tyler said, noticing you looking at the group of occupied tables, "admittedly, the most boring circle unless you like chess."  

"I never learned how," you said absentmindedly, "Tom didn’t either. We were gonna learn eventually."  

"I never cared for it."  

Tyler forgot there was only one bed in the room, and offered to sleep on the small red couch in the corner, not wanting to pressure you into anything you were uncomfortable with.  

You had just met two days ago, after all.

However, Tyler felt as if he’d known you for years, and he probably had, considering how time passes on earth compared to hell. It was a dice roll how much time would pass after one day in hell, one day could be five minutes, or three months.  

You forced him to sleep on the bed with you, insisting that it was alright and that you trusted him.  

That’s a first, was all he could think while he laid under the blanket next to you. You had fallen asleep long before Tyler, who stayed up later than usual, thinking about the day ahead and behind you guys. You were going through the third circle, Gluttony, tomorrow. We're gonna need umbrellas.

-

You woke up feeling more tired than you did when you fell asleep, another night full of nightmares that made you wish you could just die all over again and not come to this place. Tyler was up before you, showered and changing into the same outfit he wore the day before, but cleaner. He wasn’t lying when he said he had stayed there before, multiple versions of the same exact outfit were in the closet.  

"You can change into the clothes I laid out in the bathroom," he said to you. He was drying his hair with a pastel pink towel, only wearing a simple white t-shirt and his black pants unbuckled. He was stood in front of the body length mirror at the back, right-hand corner of the room when you slipped into the bathroom.  

The mirror over the sink was heart shaped and the sink was white porcelain. You noticed a fresh toothbrush sat out for you, still in its wrapping, and a pastel pink towel, the same one as Tyler was using, was laid out neatly next to it. The outfit laid out for you was different than what you thought, a nice black jacket, a white t-shirt, black leggings, and rain boots. He even included a fresh pair of underwear, a tank top for some breast support, and socks for your boots. They looked warm.  

You slowly stripped down before getting into the shower, pulling the magenta shower curtain back, you stepped in. There was a small cubby hole with a neatly folded wash cloth and a fresh bar of soap waiting. To control the water, were two knobs, one for the hot water and one for the cold water. They were both adorned with small love hearts, red and blue, helping differentiate the two knobs. You adjusted the temperature, finding the perfect one for your body, before taking the pink washcloth and lathering the soap on it before thoroughly washing yourself with it.

The lukewarm water cascaded down your body to wash the soap off, and after all the soap wash off, you stood still. The water was soothing, compared to everything you just went through.  

"What're we gonna do if something happens to one of us?" You asked Tom, the day after he asked you to move in with him. You were currently sat on the couch in your studio apartment between Tom's legs.  Your back was against his firm chest, scrolling through your phone as he watched television.  

"Well, I hope nothing does happen," he answered, running his hand soothingly up and down your right arm, "I love you, and nothing will happen to us."  

"I love you too," you sighed, turning your head and puckering your lips expectantly. Tom laughed and kissed you lightly on the lips before going back to watching the TV show.

You were dried off before you knew it, and dressed in the monochromatic outfit that was left for you. When you were finally finished getting ready, having brushed your teeth, and brushed your hair out, you stepped out of the bathroom.  

Tyler was sat with his feet up on the red couch, waiting patiently for you to be done getting ready. As soon as you made yourself known, he stood up and fixed his clothes before leading you toward the door wordlessly.

"Before we get outside, why did I have to leave my shoes?" You asked, looking down at the rain boots you now wore instead of your vans.  

"Gluttony, the ring of rain and sludge," he answered. He handed you an umbrella, that you didn’t know he was holding, and led you out of the bright pink halls of Ashley's sex hotel, "Admittedly, it's not my favourite ring of all time, but it's not as bad as some rings. We’re gonna have a blast.”  

You internally groaned and followed him silently. You had to admit, you never liked rain and mud when you were alive. It was good for the ecosystem, and led you to amazing lazy days with Tom, when he was home, but you never enjoyed running around and getting dirty for no other reason than the sake of rain.  

Tyler grabbed hold of your hand and you decided to pay no mind to it, you were too busy wanting your fiancé.  

“It’s raining,” you said to the picture if Tom on your computer screen, “and you’re not here to cuddle with.”  

“I know babe, but two more days before press tour is over an’ then we can cuddle all we wan’,” he answered. You saw a mischievous glint in his eyes, but before you could ask him what he was up to, there was a knock on the front door of your studio apartment, “someone at the door, love?”  

“I’m not expectin’ anyone,” you said, “should I answer it?”

“I dunno, maybe you should jus' in case,” he said, “I’ll let you go s’you can answer it. Love you.” Before you could reply his face was replaced by the Skype home page and the person knocked again. You groaned and rolled off of your leather couch to answer the persistent person on the other side. You opened it slowly and was greeted by the smiling face of your, at the time, boyfriend.  

“Tom!” you exclaimed, jumping into his outstretched arms and wrapping your legs around his waist, “I thought you had two more days?”  

“I lied so I could surprise you,” he said before burying his face in your neck, letting out a muffled, “I missed you so much.” You felt wetness growing on your neck and realized he was crying, but you didn’t care because you were going to cry too.  

“I missed you, too.”  

-

Tyler had led you out of Lust, and before you knew it, the sky had darkened with clouds. The red sun was no longer visible behind the dark gray puffs in the sky. There was a solid hundred yards before you saw the rain dumping out of the sky with so much force, you would think it was a hurricane.  

“Might wanna open your umbrella now,” Tyler said, “we have to walk through all that.” He pointed to the storm clouds and whatever was ahead of them. You assumed he had another friend somewhere in this ring based on how many he seemed to have already. Although, he never did mention taking a detour for sleep and food. You complied and opened the pink umbrella. Not surprising, you thought. Tyler already had his open, it was a dark red colour that matched the couch from your room earlier that day.  

You didn’t notice the mud that had you sinking slightly into the ground until you were closer to the rain. You had sunk at least an inch into the ground once you'd felt the rain hitting the top of your umbrella with a soft pitter patter.  

"You're gonna have to hold tight to me because the damned sink into the mud," Tyler explained, "I honestly don’t know how it works, but when a demon nabs a human from the mud, they can stand with no problem, so just keep close to me and you won't get covered in mud."  

"Nice to know," you muttered bitterly, lifting your feet from the slop on the ground. It didn’t look pleasant, and smelled worse. Needless to say, you felt for the people stuck sinking in the substance.  

You looped your arm with Tyler's and let him lead you farther into the circle of rain and disgusting, smelly sludge.  

-

You didn’t pay much attention to how long you and Tyler were walking, but you knew you had to be almost out of that rain. You tried to just focus on the semi-trail ahead of you, although it was just a slushy gravel path that even Tyler's boots sunk through, but you couldn’t help but look at how the damned souls were tortured there. From the looks of it, a person was to hold an umbrella over their demonic captures as they play chess with one another. Meanwhile, the person sunk lower and lower into the ground until they could no longer hold the umbrella over the demon, and when that happened, the demon took the person by the hand and pulled them out to restart the continuous process.  

"They don’t care about anyone walking through here, they just want to continue their game of chess," Tyler said, noticing you looking at the group of occupied tables, "admittedly, the most boring circle unless you like chess."  

"I never learned how," you said absentmindedly, "Tom didn’t either. We were gonna learn eventually."  

"I never cared for it."  

You and Tyler continued walking in silence, arms looped.  

-

A few hours later, the rain was letting up. You glance over at Tyler, who hadn't talked since he first explained the chess games. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, but it was odd. Yesterday you two talked like you had known each other for years, but you didn’t mind. You saw him staring at you with his red eyes filled with something you didn’t quite recognize. You smiled his way, and he quickly looked away.  

"Um, we're about to come up on a camp, if you want to take a break," He said after clearing his throat. He was very obviously flustered, but you didn’t draw attention to it. That would embarrass him more.  

"Yeah, I could use some sleep and food," you answered. He finally looked back at you and met your eyes. He flashed you the smallest smile, someone inobservant would miss it, but you saw it and you felt butterflies in your stomach before returning it.  

Then, you slipped in the mud, out of Tyler's grasp.