#it's got a lot of gifsets but also some actual text and stuff

[perilegs]

i got inspired and did Nøkk's enneagram and damn it's REALLY calling him out

His results put him at type 6, and considering that he's a resisting Dark Urge, his holy idea being faith is ironic to say the least

Now for some unassorted analysis of the type from various sites

"Key Motivations: Want to have security, to feel supported by others, to have certitude and reassurance, to test the attitudes of others toward them, to fight against anxiety and insecurity."

"They will defend their community or family more tenaciously than they will defend themselves."

"The reason Sixes are so loyal to others is that they do not want to be abandoned and left without support—their Basic Fear. Thus, the central issue for type Six is a failure of self-confidence. Sixes come to believe that they do not possess the internal resources to handle life’s challenges and vagaries alone, and so increasingly rely on structures, allies, beliefs, and supports outside themselves for guidance to survive. If suitable structures do not exist, they will help create and maintain them."

I think that bit is especially interesting and mostly accurate to Nøkk, because he does have a deep need for people to like him and be there so he can acquire what he wants. But also, it gives insight into why Nøkk stayed at the Bhaal temple all those years. I think Durge was pretty secluded from the rest of the world, and relied heavily on the temple in general.

"This does not mean that they do not think. On the contrary, they think—and worry—a lot! They also tend to fear making important decisions, although at the same time, they resist having anyone else make decisions for them. They want to avoid being controlled, but are also afraid of taking responsibility in a way that might put them “in the line of fire.”"

Next bit only applies to pre-tadpole Nøkk, but it's interesting to consider that in the context of the Bhaal temple once again.

"Sixes attempt to build a network of trust over a background of unsteadiness and fear. They are often filled with a nameless anxiety and then try to find or create reasons why. Wanting to feel that there is something solid and clear-cut in their lives, they can become attached to explanations or positions that seem to explain their situation. Because “belief” (trust, faith, convictions, positions) is difficult for Sixes to achieve, and because it is so important to their sense of stability, once they establish a trustworthy belief, they do not easily question it, nor do they want others to do so. The same is true for individuals in a Six’s life: once Sixes feel they can trust someone, they go to great lengths to maintain connections with the person who acts as a sounding board, a mentor, or a regulator for the Six’s emotional reactions and behavior. They therefore do everything in their power to keep their affiliations going. (“If I don’t trust myself, then I have to find something in this world I can trust.”)"

And then!

"The biggest problem for Sixes is that they try to build safety in the environment without resolving their own emotional insecurities. When they learn to face their anxieties, however, Sixes understand that although the world is always changing and is, by nature uncertain, they can be serene and courageous in any circumstance. And they can attain the greatest gift of all, a sense of peace with themselves despite the uncertainties of life."

YEAH!!! That's a big part of Nøkk's arc!!!

The development levels are also fascinating. I think Nøkk starts the game with level 4. I wouldn't say these are necessarily accurate to him, but the levels do help me with fleshing him out a bit more. Like, I do love the unhealthy levels, but Nøkk is also highly preoccupied with how others view him so it takes some grade A turmoil for his facade to crack even a bit.

For the wing thing, he's 6w5, and his weaknesses are spot on lmaoo

"Enneagram 6w5s tend to be stressed and drained by needing to express themselves emotionally," YEAH HE DOES. Nøkk is soo unbelievably emotionally constipated. It would kill him to speak his emotions out loud.

He also had a pretty high score in types 3 and 5, and the next bits are so Nøkk

"Key Motivations: Want to possess knowledge, to understand the environment, to have everything figured out as a way of defending the self from threats from the environment."

"Become image-conscious, highly concerned with how they are perceived. Begin to package themselves according to the expectations of others and what they need to do to be successful. Pragmatic and efficient, but also premeditated, losing touch with their own feelings beneath a smooth facade. Problems with intimacy, credibility, and "phoniness" emerge."

I know Enneagrams are pseudoscience and don't capture the full range of multitudes humans and characters contain but this was so much fun and very useful for fleshing my boy out further!

[kinetic-elaboration]

February 17: Today's Writing Work

My main (only) accomplishment today was finally sitting down to re-read the old Jonty fic and write up my notes on the rest of it. I have to admit that I re-read it and really didn’t feel much of anything. I wasn’t inspired or emotional or even all that gung-ho about jumping back into the universe and playing in it some more. I really is true that that story had its time and that time was 2017 and if I didn’t finish it then, it wasn’t because it was done or because I had nothing else to say, but because I just… didn’t, I didn’t have the drive or sufficiently immediate ideas or whatever. The story had no notes, not outline, nothing but the 6k of text that it looks like I wrote over a couple of weeks, t I don’t even have any particular memories of writing it to help me out.

Still, I don’t want to abandon it. I don’t want to publish it unfinished when it could be finished in so few scenes and I don’t want to just stuff it back in the vault and continue lying to myself about finishing it later. And I don’t want to just admit I’ll never finish it because I’m way too stubborn.

Also, it’s okay for some writing to just be workmanlike. A lot of the last scenes of the Time Loop kinda were, to be honest. But I didn’t worry too much about it; I knew I wanted to finish it, so I finished it, and writing itself feels good more often than not, regardless of what I’m writing, and there’s a lot in the last 1-2 chapters that I really like and am proud of. It’s always work. Like it’s way easier to be excited about something hypothetically than to actually DO it, that’s always true, so maybe it doesn’t matter too much if that initial excitement about the concept isn’t there? I just got to do it.

I will say that allowing myself to just think about it casually, and then actually doing some work on it, got me a little more excited, at least to be accomplished if not to get into this particular ‘verse. I also looked at old J/M gifsets and stuff and then I accidentally reread all of Iridescent, which, honestly, holds up really well. It made me feel soft for them again.

I still don’t feel, like, super psyched? But I do have that anxious sort of gearing up energy that I hope will lead to actual writing, maybe even tomorrow. That’s always part of it for me: I actually write things when I get so jittery about having the words in my head I just NEED to let them out and then I just RUN through them and see what happens. I also wrote a lot of notes for myself for the two canon scenes in particular, kind of just wrote out all of the dialogue points but skipped the specific wording and the description. Maybe it was too much and it will hurt the finished product but… I did it basically as proof of concept and because I wanted to give myself as much of a crutch as possible. Like literally all I need to do is set up the scene, then move back and forth between these predetermined dialogue points. I don’t usually go that detailed in notes, though it’s not totally unprecedented, but knowing that this story did have a particular purpose and that I’m only writing 3 more scenes to finish, I really wanted to make sure there was a place for every bit of dialogue I wanted to include and that I wouldn’t miss anything at the last minute. There’s a lot of not-talking and not-explaining in the first 6k I won’t lie. It probably will be jarring to read it and see that all of a sudden in the last third or so, everyone knows how to communicate suddenly lol. But I’ll try to make it all fit as well as possible!

[leedongwook]

-> re: reblogging issue convo

Thank you for the kind answer, as always. I hope you get all the reblogs and more people support your work, you really deserve it! 🩷

I'm one of the "old bloggers" too, been around here for 15 years and just turned 30 last month 🥳 and you're right, could be the age why we dont understand the conceptual change 😭😂

I'm also pretty sure we both have the same idea of tumblr and how to use it respectfully and politely, so as to not make this ask even longer, I'll skip it if that's ok?

The thing is, some content creators I follow occasionally post rants and warnings about not wanting any opinions in the hashtags, comments, any text added to their gif sets, positive thoughts included. It's not that I've ever received a msg directly, but I do feel like I'm being yelled at too in those rants because I type things like "this is so gorgeous and I love that character so much" in the tags.

I definitely don't reblog as much as before and tbh don't even want to anymore. That, however, doesn't include your work, which I often reblog without thinking twice. So thank you, for everything you're doing here. Wishing you a nice week 🫶🏻🩷☀️🌺

I am so happy to see you back, I was worried my answers were maybe a bit too direct and harsh. Thank you for your kind words and wishes, I appreciate it 💕 We are the "oldies" on here huh :) yeah I think we both know the true Tumblr etiquette and how to blog the right way (I wish some more people had that common sense again duh!)

Oh, I see what you mean now. I think I've said it in one of my asks, how much we love to read other people's thoughts and opinions (= you screaming about how much you love the character/person or show or scene or whatever in the gifset) on our gifsets/content. So please always reblog stuff and yell about how much you love it, it's the best thing to see :) I know some content creators don't like when people add stuff to their gifset in the comment section and not in the tags. So it changes the layout/style of the original post a bit. I don't mind if people add their thoughts in the comments section and it's defo no reason to send hate to other bloggers.

What I personally dislike tho is, when people reblog my gifset and add negative tags to it (like I fuckn hate this show, or the character sucks). Why reblog something you don't like, that makes no sense to me. That's actually the only reason I don't like people reblogging my gifs. Thankfully most of the reblogs I get are lovely and happy reblogs which makes me happy too :)

Anyway, I think I got what you mean and I think you also understand my points. Thanks for talking about this and clearing things up. I get why it's a bit discouraging for you to reblog stuff, no one wants to get hate and no one should get hate, ever. I do hope your Tumblr experience will get better and you can enjoy reblogging again.

Thank you for supporting my work and for reblogging my stuff, it means a lot to me. All the best to you and have a wonderful week 😘

[sohmiya]

I’ve had some of these Miko x Evren hcs in my head for days soo naturally I have to slide in your inbox, hope you don’t minddd:

Since you reblogged a gifset, in my head they’re our ‘Starstruck’ ‘Jessica Olsen x Christopher Wilde’ kinda otp <3

So you have a peak meet-cute for Miko and Ev; her having no clue who he is and being all smug about her Miko’s dance cover to his song when they meet. so I hc that after, Ev starts following Miko on social media to see her dance covers, but follows her from a private account so she doesn’t know it’s him.

I always think that Ev’s mind blown by how flexible Miko is, not even in a sexual way but just in a ‘how the actual fuck can someone do that??’

Ev genuinely liking the fact that Miko doesn’t know him as some famous superstar/model—like of all the things to attract him to someone, that’s it.

^ but before getting together I think he’d really worry and stress about Miko finding out fake scandalous stuff about him that changes her perception of him.

Fast-forward to their relationship, after a lot of persuasion, I expect Ev to hop on these coupley TikTok trends and before like award/fashion shows they go to together, I see Miko and him doing videos like this and this to show their outfits (<- especially the second one w/ Ev just admiring Miko)

If Miko asked Evren more than once to teach her guitar then he’d literally buy her a brand new one, ask her to name it, probably have it at his penthouse and say it’s hers so she can practice with it whenever she wants.

At home dates because Evren realises that his fame can be intimidating to Miko.

Hugs with the occasional playful tap on the bum

Evren doing the rich boy stuff like renting out a dance studio for Miko to use whenever she likes, but also gifting her tickets to dance shows regularly.

Him asking Miko what she thinks of a particular song he’s writing because he knows she just won’t say ‘oh, it’s great’, he genuinely trusts her opinion.

I imagine the media realising they’re in a relationship, and the media being them, they’d probably link Evren to someone else.

^ And whilst Evren’s reading or smth Miko would probably end up saying “I think [insert celebrity] fancies you” “right…okayyy” “that’s all you’ve got to say?” and Evren’s all invested in his book but looks up and says “It’s probably bullshit, but even if it’s true I’ve only got eyes for you, Sanada. I’ll remind you of that everyday.”

Ev realising that Miko is the best escapism from his famous career, especially whilst he’s on tour. Even more so when the media are being particularly difficult. And that’s evident when he texts her at stupid o’clock when he’s feeling anxious.

Ev wearing Inter City jerseys with Miko’s name on the back…but at some point realising that Acevedo on her football jerseys would look cool too, so in his head he’s thinking “gonna marry her one day.”

^ okayyy, I don’t know Miko’s thoughts on marriage, but I hc that if/when Evren has these thoughts he goes to Cypress and has this heart to heart with him and says “you’re my best friend and I value your opinion, do you think I’d be a good person to marry?” (<- because self-doubt!)

A sweet and genuine interviewer asking Ev about his relationship with Miko and Evren having the sweetest Cheshire cat grin when he gets to talk about her.

Annnddd, Ev rolls his eyes but he’s all loved up soo this!!

you calling them OUR starstruck otp makes me so 😭😭😭 but no fr when i reblogged that gifset my immediate thought was i wish i made miko a hater LMAO

Ev starts following Miko on social media to see her dance covers, but follows her from a private account so she doesn’t know it’s him

EVREN IS SO UGHHHHH my love for him just 📈 i just know he’s also the type to make a stan account for his lover

especially the second one w/ Ev just admiring Miko

🧎🏻‍♀️ i am so weak for him istg

okok but miko is ALWAYS on tiktok. like she’s either doing dance covers or that trend where she’s like doing a 360 of her fit so like given how famous evren is, the moment something’s going on between him and miko it’s just a matter of time until both of their fandoms start making theories and like i imagine ev and miko doing a hard launch on tiktok JDHSJSJSJ

and i can 100% imagine evren constantly leaving flirty comments or “😍😍😍” “🥵🔥” under her posts like you two pls GET A ROOM

If Miko asked Evren more than once to teach her guitar then he’d literally buy her a brand new one, ask her to name it, probably have it at his penthouse and say it’s hers so she can practice with it whenever she wants.

miko is so spoiled. that should be me 😭😭😭 no cause i legit still think about that guitar drabble like i haven’t known peace since

Hugs with the occasional playful tap on the bum

GODDDDDD not a want but a NEED!!!!!!!!!!!!

also the dates 🥹🥹🥹🥹 and omg evren renting a dance studio just for miko :(((((( no cause like i know evren would be teasing her like “i heard you can do ballet. teach me” but they’d also start goofing around and do something like this

i saw this on pinterest a while back and the only reason i can’t add it to ev’s section is because idk if he would even TRY to do a split HDHSJSJSK

Ev genuinely liking the fact that Miko doesn’t know him as some famous superstar/model

And whilst Evren’s reading or smth Miko would probably end up saying “I think [insert celebrity] fancies you” “right…okayyy” “that’s all you’ve got to say?” and Evren’s all invested in his book but looks up and says “It’s probably bullshit, but even if it’s true I’ve only got eyes for you, Sanada. I’ll remind you of that everyday.”

okokokokokokok this is literally one of my favorite parts about their relationship and i didn’t realize how well they go together like we already know that miko only knows evren at best as her coach’s son. like all he was to her was a nepo baby 😭 but evren being so vocal about what he likes about miko is just…. what she needs. like if there’s one thing she needs from evren, it would be that i think. she trusts him and she’s generally not insecure but she sees the celebrities being linked to him and they’re everything she’s not so hearing evren tell her he only wants her is just UGH her heart would go whoosh actually and she’d feel herself fall in love with him again and again each time 🥹💓

also “I’ve only got eyes for you, Sanada.” is the hottest thing ever i am on my knees

OH and when evren’s on tour, miko always keeps track of which city or country he’s in so she can look up the time zones and no matter how big the time difference is, she always waits for his texts to let her know the concert’s done and they’ll text or video call for HOURS and if it’s already super late for miko, evren would probably say something like “don’t you have training tomorrow?” “correction. it’s later” “my dad’s gonna kill you” “i’ll just tell him i was talking to you” “then he’ll kill me” dhdjssjsjsk and like afterwards i think miko would scroll on tiktok for a few minutes just to see if anyone’s posted anything from evren’s show hehe

at some point realising that Acevedo on her football jerseys would look cool too, so in his head he’s thinking “gonna marry her one day.”

ALSO WHAT 😭😭😭😭😭 i gasped cause i literally thought headcanons like this would be more up cy’s alley

“you’re my best friend and I value your opinion, do you think I’d be a good person to marry?”

i need to know cy’s answer and it better be an instant yes 😤 sjdjskska ok but now i can’t stop imagining ev and miko getting engaged and cy congratulates them and tells evren “see? i told you” and miko just looks at two of them like “what did you tell him?” 😭😭😭

ALSOOOOO !!!!!!! imagine miko’s first game in her acevedo jersey and the camera pans to evren and he’s all smiley and lovesick holding his hand up to show his wedding ring then the camera moves to javier who just playfully rolls his eyes because now he’s not just miko’s manager but also her father in law and he’s already preparing himself because he already knows he’s gonna be asked about it in the press conference after the game JDJSKSJA

A sweet and genuine interviewer asking Ev about his relationship with Miko and Evren having the sweetest Cheshire cat grin when he gets to talk about her.

STOPPP if miko is in the room during the interview they would 10000000% make eye contact before ev answers the question 😭😭😭😭😭😭

AND I WAS NOT EXPECTING THE BARBIE DANCE COVER SHSJAKDJAJSJA evren acting all 🙄 but i just know he’d serve cunt!!! and pls i’m thinking about miko’s caption going from “just missing a partner” to “finally found a partner” UGHHHH IM BLUSHING like the development 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼

[sineala]

How would you say fandom culture has changed over the years? What are some differences you notice between older and younger fandom folks?

I’ve been thinking for a while about how to answer this, and I’m not sure I have a really good answer, but I’m going to try.

I’ve been in fandom since approximately 1995. Maybe 1994. At that point, the world wide web was a relatively new part of the internet, and the fandoms I was in had most of their activity on privately-hosted mailing lists (predating eGroups/OneList/Yahoo Groups) and on Usenet newsgroups, with fiction beginning to be available on websites as part of either fandom-specific or pairing-specific archives as well as authors’ individual pages. Fanfiction.net did not yet exist. LiveJournal did not exist. AO3 definitely did not exist. If you wanted real-time chat, there was IRC. I was coming in basically at the tail end of zine fandom; zines were no longer the only way of distributing fanfiction, as fandom started to move online. So I have a selection of zines from 90s-era Western media fandoms but even by then zines weren’t where I was doing most of my reading.

I think in terms of generally “what it was like to be in fandom,” the big-picture stuff hasn’t changed. Fandom still produces creative fanwork and likes to, y’know, get together and talk about fandom. Also, almost every fight or complaint that fandom has about something is a thing that has been going on for actual years. People complain that, say, the kudos button is ruining comment culture because back in the LJ days the only way you could comment on a story was, well, by leaving an actual comment, or sending an email on a mailing list, and this might mean that people who would have otherwise commented have left a kudos instead. But back in the LJ and mailing list days, people were complaining that commenting was going downhill since the days of zines, when in order to comment on a story you had to write a real paper letter and mail it and because you had to do that, the quality of feedback was so much better than you got nowadays because people could just dash off a quick email or comment. You get the idea. Top/bottom wars are not new either. Pairing wars are not new. If you’ve been in fandom a while, you will pretty much have seen all the fights already. I think one thing that is new, though, is the fandom awareness of things like privilege and intersectionality and various -isms, as well as things like “providing warnings might be nice” (do you know how much unwarned deathfic I have read? a lot!) and I sure won’t say we’re perfect at any of this now, but I think fandom is trying way way more about all that stuff than it used to.

There are some fights we actually don’t have anymore, as far as I can tell. I feel like it’s been years since I’ve seen the “real person fiction is wrong” battle, but also I don’t hang out in a whole lot of RPF fandoms, so it’s possible that’s still going and I just don’t see it.

There also used to be a recurring debate about whether gay relationships that were canonical were slash or not. When slash started, obviously this wasn’t a question because there weren’t canonical gay relationships in fandoms, period. But as gay characters began to appear in media, people started to wonder “does slash mean all same-sex relationships, or does slash mean only non-canonical same-sex relationships?” Now, you may be reading this and think that sounds like an incredibly weird thing to get hung up on, but that’s because what appears to have happened is that the term “ship” (originally from X-Files Mulder/Scully fandom) has, as far as I can tell, come up and eaten most of the rest of the terminology. Now people will just say, “oh, I ship that.” For any pairing, gay or not, canonical or not. Fandom seems to have decided that for the most part it no longer actually needs a term specific to same-sex relationships as a genre.

Similarly, there are a few genres of fic that we used to have also pretty much don’t exist anymore. There are also plenty of genres that are well-entrenched now that are also extremely recent -- A/B/O comes to mind. But there are some kinds of fic we don’t write a lot of now. Like, I haven’t seen smarm in years! I also haven’t seen We’re Not Gay We Just Love Each Other in a while. There was also a particular style of slash writing where you’d basically have to explain, in detail, what made you think that these particular characters could be anything other than straight. You’d have to motivate this decision. You’d have to look at their canonical heterosexual relationships and come up with a way to explain why all those had happened in order to reconcile how this one guy could have romantic feelings for another guy. When had he figured out he wasn’t straight? Who might he have been with before? How does he interact with people in ways that make you think he’s not straight? That kind of thing. You had to, essentially, show your work. And these days a lot of fanfic is just like, “Okay, Captain America is bisexual, let’s go!” It’s... different.

Fandom also used to skew older, is my sense. A lot older. I don’t know, actually, if it really was older, but I get the sense now that there are some younger people who are surprised that adults are still in fandom. I have seen people saying these days that they think they’re too old for fanfiction because they are not in middle school anymore. And I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that the barriers to access fandom are a lot lower than they used to be. You used to basically have to be an adult with disposable income (or know an adult with disposable income who was willing to help you out; but even then if you were reading explicit fiction you also had to swear you were 18+, usually by sending in an age statement to whoever you were buying the zine from or to the mods of the list you wanted to join, so a lot of fandom was very much age-gated). Internet access was not widely available. Even if you had internet access, you maybe didn’t have your own email address, so you couldn’t sign up for mailing lists; free email providers didn’t exist. If you wanted to buy zines, you had to have money to buy them. If you wanted to go to cons, you had to be able to afford the cost of the con, travel to the con, et cetera. If you wanted to have a website you had to know HTML. Social media did not exist. You want to draw art? Guess what, you’re probably drawing it on paper! You might be able to upload a picture to your website if you have a digital camera or a scanner, but both of those things are expensive, and also a lot of people don’t have the capability or the money to download pictures from the internet (some people have data caps with overage charges, and some people have text-only connections!), so they won’t get to see it. Maybe you can sell your piece at a con! You want to make a fanvid? We called them songvids, but, anyway, you know how you’re doing that? You’re going to hook two VCRs together and smash the play and record buttons very fast! If you want anyone else to watch them, you are either making them a tape personally and mailing it to them or bringing your vids to a convention. Maybe you can digitize them and upload them, but it’s going to take people hours to download them!

(Every three hours my ISP would kick me off the internet and I’d have to dial in again. If it was a busy time of day, it might take me 20 or 30 minutes to get a connection again. And that was assuming no one else in the house needed to use the phone line. Imagine if your modem went out every three hours now.)

And now, for the cost of my internet connection, I can read pretty much whatever fanfiction I want, whenever I want it. I can see all the fanart I want! I can watch vids! Podfic exists now! Fanmixes exist! Gifsets and moodboards exist! If I want to write fic I can write it with programs that are completely free, and as soon as I post it everyone in the entire world can read it. If I want to draw or make vids that may require some additional investment, but I may also be able to do it with things I already have. Do you have any idea how good we all have it?

There are a couple of kinds of fan activity that don’t seem to exist anymore, though, and I miss them. I know that roleplaying still goes on, but I feel like these days most people who do real-time text roleplay have switched to things like Discord. I know that in the LJ days, RP communities were popular. But I really miss MU*s (MUDs, MUSHes, MOOs, MUXes..), which were servers for real-time text-based RP with a bunch of... hmm... features to aid RP. There were virtual rooms with text descriptions, and objects in virtual rooms with descriptions, and your character had a description, and they could interact with the objects as well as with other characters, and you could program things to change descriptions or emit various kinds of text or take you to different rooms, and so on. Just to, y’know, enhance the atmosphere. It was fun and it was where I learned to RP and I’m sad they’re pretty much gone now.

I also don’t think I see a lot of fanfiction awards in fandoms. Wonder where they went.

Going back to the previous point, the barriers to actually consuming the canon you are fannish about are way, way, way lower now. You can pretty much take it for granted that if right now someone tells you about a shiny new fandom, there will be a way to read that book or watch that show or movie right now. Possibly for free! Of course you can watch it! Why wouldn’t you be able to?

This was absolutely, absolutely not the case before. I’m currently in Marvel Comics fandom. If there is a comic I want to read, I can read it right now on the internet. I have subscribed to Marvel Unlimited and I can read pretty much every comic that is older than three months old; the newer ones cost extra money. But I can do it all from the comfort of my own home right now. I was also, actually, in Marvel Comics fandom in the nineties. If I wanted to read a comic, I had to go to a comic book store and hope they had it in stock; if they didn’t, I had to try another store. Not a lot of comics were available in trade paperback and they definitely weren’t readable on the internet. I used to read a lot of Gambit h/c fic set after Uncanny X-Men #350. I never found a copy of UXM #350. I still haven’t! But I did eventually read it on Unlimited.

Being in TV show fandoms also had similar challenges. Was the show you were watching still on the air? No? Then you’d better hope you could find it in reruns, or know someone who had tapes of it that they could copy for you, otherwise you weren’t watching that show. It was, I think, pretty common for people to be in fandoms for shows they hadn’t seen, because they had no way to see the show, but they loved all the fanfic. The Sentinel had a whole lot of fans like that, both because I think it took a while for it to end up in reruns and because overseas distribution was probably poor. So you’d get people who read the fic and wrote fic based on the other fic they’d read, which meant that you got massive, massive amounts of fanon appearing that people just assumed was in the show because it was a weirdly specific detail that appeared in someone’s fic once. Like “Jim and Blair’s apartment has a small water heater” (not actually canonical) or “Blair is a vegetarian” (there’s an episode where his mother visits and IIRC cooks him one of his favorite meals, which is beef tongue).

Like, I was in The Professionals fandom for years. I read all the fic. I hadn’t seen the show. As far as I know, it never aired in the US, and it certainly never had any kind of US VHS or DVD release. I’d seen a couple songvids. I eventually saw a couple episodes in maybe 2003, and that was because my dad special-ordered a commercial VHS tape from the UK and paid someone to convert it from PAL to NTSC. I didn’t get to see the whole show until several years later when I got a region-free DVD player someone in fandom sent me burned copies of the UK DVD releases and then I special-ordered the commercial release of the DVDs from the UK myself. But if I were a new fan and wanted to watch Pros right now? It is on YouTube! For free!

I think also one of the things about fandom that’s not immediately evident to new fans is the way in which it is permanent and/or impermanent. There are probably people whose first fannish experience is on Tumblr or who only read fanfic on FFN and who have no idea what they would do if either site, say, just shut down. But if you’ve been in fandom a while, you’ve been through, say, Discord, Tumblr, Twitter, Pillowfort, Imzy, DW, JournalFen, LJ, GeoCities, IRC, mailing lists. And sure, if Tumblr closed, it would be inconvenient. But fandom would pack up and move somewhere else. You would find it again. It would, eventually, be okay. Similarly, if you’ve been in a lot of fandoms, if you’ve made a lot of friends, drifting through fandoms is like that. You’ll make a friend in 1998 because you were in the same fandom, and then you might go your own ways, and ten years later you might be in another fandom with them again! It happens.

But the flip side of that is that I think a lot of older fans have learned not to trust in the permanence of any particular site. If you like a story, you save it as soon as you read it. If you like a piece of art, you save it. If you like a vid, you save it. Because you don’t know when the site it’s on will be gone for good. I have, like, twenty years of lovingly-curated fanfic. And I feel like people who have only been in fandom since AO3 existed might not understand how much AO3 is a game-changer compared to what we had before. It’s a site where you can put your fic up and you don’t have to worry that the webhost is going out of business, or that the site might delete your work because they don’t allow gay fiction or explicit fiction or fiction written in second person or fiction for fandoms where the creator doesn’t like fanfiction, or whatever. Because all of those things have absolutely happened. But, I mean, I still save pretty much everything I like, even on AO3, just in case.

So, basically, yeah, fandom is a whole lot more accessible than it used to be. I think fandom is pretty much still fandom, but it’s a lot easier to get into, and that has made it way more open to people who wouldn’t have been able to be in fandom before. There is so, so much more now than there ever was before, and I think that’s great.

[mckkachins]

gif cut-out tutorial

ok ok so @subtledean requested a tutorial on how to do stuff like this post with the gif cutouts and the text effects. hopefully this helps aria ;w; i’m not the best at explaining things but i included some screencaps for clarity. i’ve tried to compress all the sample gifs and screenshots down to under 3mb to avoid tunglr compression on mobile so if they look a little different from the actual gifset, that’s probably why!

what you’ll need:

photoshop, i’m using PS 2021 but any version of photoshop will work out

a basic knowledge of gif-making (i’m assuming you already know how to make a gif and color it).

step 0: storyboard

this isn’t strictly necessary but i HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend it. you don’t have to do any photoshopping this first step, but it’s really important to check out your footage and the shots you have gathered to see what works, especially if you’re trying to combine three or more gifs onto the same canvas. like literally take a piece of paper and draw out where you want the character’s faces to be, where you want the cutouts to be in relation to their faces, and think about whether or not there’s enough empty space to the right or left of characters heads for a cutout to be placed. is there too much movement that would be distracting or messy in an already busy gif?

things like that really help, and it also makes you double check on your footage quality and feasibility. if you end up making a gif where you want one character’s face to be on the left side of the gif but it turns out there’s not enough empty space on the right side of their face to place a cutout and you then have to hunt for new footage or start all over, it’s kind of a trainwreck and you just waste another hour of your time as you deepen your procrastination hellhole. that’s not a real story—

step 1: make the base gif

i’m assuming you know how to color it already. and aria i KNOW you know how to color already so :) size it accordingly to your desired dimensions.

as you can see, i left enough space on the right side of abaddon for the knight cutout to be placed.

save this as a .psd file. you don’t actually have to sharpen and do everything that comes at the end of making a gif right away, but make sure your layers are clearly labeled. do NOT convert to video timeline/smart object just yet.

step 2: make the cutout gif

this is critical: make absolutely certain your cutout gif has the same number of frames as your base gif. otherwise it could get really messy! abaddon has 20 frames, so the cutout will also have 20 frames. again, do not convert the cutout gif to a video timeline/smart object. just keep it as a frame animation. here’s my cutout gif. it’s just a simple b&w gif but i added a touch of purple for color consistency sake whatnot.

now for this particular gif i’ve actually cropped abaddon to be roughly exactly where i would want her face to be in relation to the first gif, but that is unnecessary. helpful, but unnecessary. you do NOT need the cutout gif to be cropped exactly perfect in order to make this work.

step 3: combining the two gifs

there are many different ways to combine two gifs onto the same canvas. some people like to do it via video timeline. i prefer to do it by frames and convert everything to a video timeline only at the end (it’s just a personal preference). here’s a tutorial if you prefer working with timelines, but i’m gonna go over how to do it by frames.

first group everything in your base gif into one folder. then group everything in your cutout gif into one folder as well. you can name them however you want to keep track of things.

then, select all of the frames in your cutout gif. in this case, all 20 of b&w abaddon get selected. make sure its not just frames 4-20 or whatever, but all the frames you made. you can click frame one and then shift-click your last frame to double check.

click the timeline tab group options bar and then go to options > copy frames

now go to your base gif canvas. select ALL the frames of your base gif as well (it’s critical that all of them are selected).

now do options > paste frames.

a popup should appear and you’re going to select the “paste over selection” option. do not link layers.

your cutout gif should now be completely or partially obscuring your base gif. however, now you should see two groups on your sidebar of layers. one for the base, one group for the cutout. if you labelled them with names you can tell which one is which.

step 4: creating the cutout

in order to create the cutout, we use my favorite thing in the whole world of photoshop. layer masks.

to make a layer mask, you simply select a layer or group you want to mask and then click this little icon on the row of icons at the bottom of your layers panel.

white on a layer mask means whatever group or layer is getting masked is completely visible. black on a layer mask means that the group or layer is invisible. if there is 50% gray on a layer mask, then its 50% visible. so on and so forth.

i love these so much i abuse them on the daily. i’ve made a few gifs where i’ve masked every frame one by one because i wanted to get some cool effects. admitting that kind of embarrasses me but oh well.

anyway this is simple though. just find a picture or an outline of a knight. i used these boyes:

obviously i cropped out the knight of the bunch, got rid of the watermark, and then i placed it on the canvas where i wanted it to go.

select the interior of the knight with the magic wand tool. should be pretty simple since it’s all black.

now click over to your layer mask. make sure you have selected the mask and not the group. you can tell you have selected the mask when a little white rectangle pops up on it.

when you know you have the mask selected, click command+i or control+i to invert. if for some reason you do not have this keyboard shortcut, just take a brush tool and color over the area in complete black. as long as the magic wand tool is still selecting just the interior of the knight, it should be fine.

now once again, black means a layer will NOT be showing, white means a layer will be showing. so right now after i disable the visibility of the top layer we used as a reference for the silhouette, it looks like:

do not fear the clownery. layer masks are great because they are always non-destructive. meaning that even if you somehow mess up and your canvas is showing something completely gross, you can always go back and edit your layer mask and your original gif would be unharmed as long as you did not touch any layers in the group, only the mask. simply invert the mask (again, make sure your mask is selected and then command+i or image > adjustments > invert) to get:

for a layer mask that looks like:

you could have also just made a black layer mask to begin with and then inverted the knight outline to be white. many different ways to do the same thing.

another tip: if you select your outline and then click layer mask upon a group or layer with no mask at the current moment, it will automatically make a layer mask with your selection as white and the unselected pixels as black. this is normally how i do my cutouts, because it’s a time-saver even if it like. saves a few seconds max. but i typed out the above for explanation and clarity, so hopefully i didn’t just make anyone more confused.

anyway.

now say you don’t like where the cutout abaddon is positioned. layer masks can also be linked or unlinked, depending on the little link icon you see between the group and the layer mask in the image above. if the icon is visible, the layer mask and the group are linked. if you cannot see the link icon, they are unlinked.

linked layer masks will move in conjunction with the group if any type of transform is done upon them. if the group moves, the layer mask also moves. but if a layer mask is unlinked, you can move the mask and the group independently of one another. for instance, i can change where the cutout is located on the overall canvas of the gif by simply moving ONLY the layer mask (and thereby changing where the blacks and whites of the layer mask occlude the cutout gif contents). but i can also transform the cutout gif layers without changing where the overall outline is located relative to the canvas itself. basically, i can transform the interior contents of the cutout independently. so here (make sure all of your frames are selected):

group unlinked. i’m also making sure that now i am selecting the GROUP (ie. the frames of the layers you are actually going to move) and not the layer mask. you can tell because the little white rectangle around the layer mask can no longer be seen.

now i can transform/adjust the contents of the cutout solely “within” the cutout, and i don’t have to worry about changing where the cutout is located in relation to the overall gif. when transforming, make sure all the frames of your gif are selected. like select the whole group and not just an individual layer, basically.

i’ve seen a lot of how to combine and cut out gifs tutorials on this website, and here is a really good one that i know sully also used <3 big shoutout to all the photoshop queens being inspired by each other!! however i haven’t seen anything that mentioned the linked vs. unlinked layer masks, which i really feel like deserves a shoutout. you don’t have to crop your gifs out perfectly every time, you can always adjust them later. for demonstration, i’ve positioned abaddon in a few different positions with an unlinked layer mask.

step 5: creating the outline

so in order to emphasize the shape of the cutout (the knight), i simply delete the white space surrounding the picture of the knight in the original silhouette that i used. magic wand tool + delete. you can also make a new layer, then paint bucket tool it. many ways to do the same thing.

now with only the knight on a transparent background, i double click the layer to pull up the effects. select outer glow. i used these settings:

when you are doing this, make sure you are on frame one of the frame animation and the “propagate frame one setting” is selected, otherwise you might end up only applying the effect to one out of your many frames, which blows.

then i go change the fill setting to 0%, BUT i leave opacity at 100%. fill is basically like opacity, but it doesn’t affect layer effects (whereas opacity does). so you basically get only the outline but not the black. you can also set the blending mode of the layer to screen and get the same effect, etc, etc. feel free to adjust however you see fit, in addition to the outer glow settings.

i move this layer over a couple pixels to give it the little offset effect, but you don’t have to.

step 6: adding the text

okay the two fonts i used are avenir and perla. i think a LOT of gifmakers use them because they’re really pretty.

i make TWO different text layers, one with avenir in a smaller size and one with perla in a bigger size. this is because for the perla one, i’m going to be changing the blending mode whereas i don’t want to be changing the blending mode for the smaller text. i position the text where i want it to be and make sure the perla font is in the color i like:

then i change the blending mode of the fancy text (perla) to difference. ONLY that layer, and again make sure to check “propagate frame 1″ and make changes on the first frame to apply the change to all of your frames.

but i still don’t think it produces enough of a difference. so i right click on the text layer for knights of hell, and then go to: select pixels.

then i click the curves adjustment layer. this will automatically make a curves layer with a layer mask that occludes everything BUT the area you selected. beautiful. i drag the curves around until i get enough of a difference that i like. normally i make the lights lighter and the darks darker. yeehaw.

again there are sooooo many different ways to achieve the same effect on photoshop. this is just want comes easiest to me, and it’s totally okay if you find a different way that works better for you at producing the contrast you want or the colors you want.

step 7: export and cry

NOW you can convert everything to a video timeline, put your video frame layers to smart objects, and then apply your finishing sharpening filters. export, cry, and hope tumblr compression doesn’t screw you over.

hopefully this was helpful! pls like... idk support my edits if you found this helpful or reblog this post. feel free to dm me about how u do some of the text effects as well bc i’m always trying to learn new things and i am by no means an expert on like. any of this.

aria please go write your fucking thesis before i delete this entire tutorial challenge. :D

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 20, part two

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff) (Previous Post)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

So much happens in this episode that I couldn’t stop the meta and had to break it in thirds. Part one is here, part three is here. 

Owie Owie Owie

Wen Zhuliu takes exquisitely tender care of Wen Chao, despite presumably disliking him quite a lot. He wipes his tears away, saying that the tears will infect his wounds, which...isn't likely, but ok. 

I will note that he didn't get the "no sting" kind of medicine, however, so maybe there's a limit to his kindness.  Wen Chao screams and yells at him while he puts a tiny amount of medicine on one tiny spot of owie. It's going to be a long night for these fellas. Except it isn't because they're going to die, so at least they won't have to put more medicine on.

The candles blow out and we hear the sound of a flute, which Wen Zhuliu hilariously says is just the wind when Wen Chao starts freaking out. They have two days to go before they get to safety, and Wen Chao is pretty sure he's not going to last two days. And you know...he's right!  

As usual he blames Wen Zhuliu for the situation, but then gets afraid that WZL is going to leave him, and starts making promises of status. WZL says that's not necessary. He is a loyal sonofabitch, I'll give him that. 

The Man Comes Around, Redux

And now Wei Wuxian enters the scene, climbing menacingly up the stairs carrying his own hair fan, just like Lan Wangji did in the previous episode. (Gifset here). Wen Zhuliu doesn't look optimistic. When the boys on the roof see Wei Wuxian they don't look too happy either.

Wei Wuxian stops in front of Wen Zhuliu and proceeds to have a philosophical conversation with him. Wei Wuxian has come to fuck your shit up, but he has also come to pass judgement on your ethics because he is, fundamentally, still himself. 

Wen Zhuliu takes the opportunity to justify his actions, giving a heartfelt statement about what he owes to Wen Ruohan. Wen Zhuliu knows his number is up and that they obviously didn't kill Wei Wuxian hard enough, but he still feels righteous.

(more after the cut)

Here Wei Wuxian asks a question that shows the fundamental difference between himself and Wen Zhuliu. In many ways they are similar: neither of them was born into their clan. Both were appreciated by the clan leader and placed in high positions. Both feel an obligation to those clan leaders. When Wei Wuxian asks "why do other people have to pay for your gratitude?" he's foreshadowing the moment when Jiang Cheng demands the death of the Dafan Wens.  

Wen Zhuliu doesn't hesitate to murder people because his clan leader wants him to. Whereas Wei Wuxian doesn't hesitate to pay a terrible price--his golden core-for his gratitude to Jiang Fengmian. But he won't let the Dafan Wens pay the price of his continued membership in the Jiang clan; he chooses exile while Wen Zhuliu chooses murder.

Wei Wuxian is done talking and very very slowly brings his flute into position and starts to play. Wen Zhuliu doesn't make a move to stop him, but he might be frozen in place...everything happens at weird speeds in this scene.

Lan Wangji is super horrified when he sees what Wei Wuxian is doing with his flute. So horrified, in fact, that by the time they are face to face, he's moved past any other emotion.

Lady in Red

As Wei Wuxian plays the flute, the camera moves around him (or they spin him on a turntable) and the scenery around him shifts to a 360 view of...the burial mounds! That's so fucking cool! 

You can take the boy out of the graveyard but you can't take the graveyard out of the boy. He is carrying it within him now.

He summons up the hottest ghost lady ever, to scratch the shit out of the Wens with her fancy fingernails. She's all in red, not the dark Wen red, but super-saturated bridal red. 

She's not dressed as a bride, but she is very pretty and the color is awesome, particularly when she turns into red smoke. Presumably having actual ghosts attacking people is ok with the censor board as long as they are pretty ladies in nice clothes, since there are two in this episode and this one is absolutely definitely a non-corporeal being when she wants to be.

Camera Operator: What did I ever do to you?

She fights with Wen Zhuliu, who tries to put his core-melting hand on her, unsuccessfully, and then figures out that Wei Wuxian is the better target, so tries to put his core-melting hand on him. 

Wen Zhuliu, you need to have some different moves! Not everybody has a core for you to melt.

Zidian’s Revenge

As soon as Wen Zhuliu targets Wei Wuxian the boys break in from the rooftop, with Jiang Cheng snapping Zidian up over a rafter and down around Wen Zhuliu's neck in a single move, and then hauling him up and hanging him. 

This is a pretty gratifying moment; Jiang Cheng finally gets his vengeance using the weapon his mother gave him before this fucker killed her. He also gets to come back at the guy who melted his core and kill him with a spiritual weapon. All around nice work, Jiang Cheng.

Meanwhile, Lan Wangji initially placed himself between Wen Zhuliu and Wei Wuxian, which is a pretty strong show of devotion, given that his chest was directly in line with Wen Zhuliu's hand. 

He watches intently while Wen Zhuliu dies...Lan Wangji is actually a pretty vengeful guy, isn't he? He's not into torture but he seems to like executing bad people, and he enjoys chopping off arms a whole lot.

Welcome Back

Having disposed of Wen Zhuliu, Team Where The Fuck Have You Been is ready to greet Wei Wuxian. This is Lan Wangji as he prepares to turn around and face him. 

This is not "relieved that my soulmate is ok" or even "feeling betrayed because you didn't even send me a text." This is cold, hard, fury. He's plowed right past relief and joy into full on disgust and vehemence.

Jiang Cheng is also pissed at him, but he's so used to being pissed at him that it's not a remarkable emotion, and it passes quickly. He gives him his sword, calls him a prick, punches him in the shoulder while Lan Wangji looks grumpy Wang Yibo tries very hard not to smile, and fails. 

Then Jiang Cheng gives Wei Wuxian an enormous squishy hug. 

Wei Wuxian, who has probably wanted that hug for the past decade, does not return it, and looks stricken, eventually raising his flute hand behind Jiang Cheng's back.

Lan Wangji glares at him while Jiang Cheng hugs him, and then shifts to glare at the flute.

Let's talk about Lan Wangji's body language here. This scene is often talked about, including by OP, as "Wei Wuxian picks a fight with Lan Wangji in order to push him away." But since their very early days,Lan Wangji's nonverbal communication has been an essential component of his relationship with Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian has been reading his microexpressions from the very start, and he's the only one besides Lan Xichen who does that. 

Lan Wangji's anger and disapproval are written all over his face and posture, so much so that even a casual observer can tell what he's feeling.  For Wei Wuxian, with his extreme awareness and having shared actual literal telepathy with the guy previously, this has got to feel like Lan Wangji is screaming at him.

Lan Wangji is the one picking this fight. Wei Wuxian is trying to defuse it by giving him time to calm down before engaging. For perhaps the first time since meeting him, Wei Wuxian ignores Lan Wangji to focus on Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng asks him a bunch of questions and Wei Wuxian slides out from under most of them, giving half answers, non-answers, and what All The President's Men calls a non-denial denial.

Wei Wuxian, who is adept at sounding like he's speaking truth when he is lying, here sounds like he's lying when he's speaking something very close to the truth. He spins a particularly outrageous-sounding tale of finding a cave and learning an ultimate power there...but that's actually what he actually did, actually.  Xue Yang does this "lie so much that the truth now sounds like a lie" thing by accident, years later in Yi City, but Wei Wuxian is using it as a deliberate tactic to hide the truth from his brother. Which is basically his main occupation at this point.  

He acts offended that Jiang Cheng doesn't believe him, but he does it playfully to cast everything in the conversation as a joke.

Lan Wangji is not as inclined to accept utter codswallop as Jiang Cheng is, and he has already figured out an important underlying layer of the situation--the turn away from the way of the sword--while not seeing the very bottom layer, the "I don't have a golden core" layer.  

Unfortunately, he continues to be judgy and pissed off. He says "Wei Ying" gently enough, but his body is braced for conflict. 

Wei Wuxian looks at him wearily and stands up to have the fight Lan Wangji is asking for.

Maybe you were right But baby I was lonely I don't want to fight I'm tired of being sorry

I'm standing in the street Crying out for you No one sees me But the silver moon

Soundtrack: 1. Sympathy for the Devil, The Rolling Stones 2. Tired of Being Sorry, by Ringside

Writing Prompt: Who is the lady in red and what is her deal?

[blakegallo]

i thought you said you shipped buddie first but then you saw that they probably never gonna go canon, which is kinda stupid cause before most of the last ep, there was firm evidence. now you're a defence blog for all of taylor kelly's bad traits?? also the part about the copaganda. yes, there was copaganda in the first few eps. it doesn't matter if others are liking the new ep. there was still copaganda in the first few eps. it doesn't matter what their motives were and are. there was still copaganda in the first few eps. and you saying stuff like that isn't gonna change that.

let's clear some things ups.

1) yes, i have stated that the very first watch through of the show i went in to ship buddie. if you go back to my monte watches 911/chrono tag you'll see that i was waiting for the gays i was told about to arrive. esp when i got to s2 of the show. as of s5 i have come to the conclusion that i don't see them going canon and so i still engage with buddie in fanfic, because i think that fanfic!eddie is usually more interesting to read because he's actually emotionally available, and in gifsets that i think i'd like to have on my blog.

2) a defense blog for taylor kelly's worst traits? i mean, i'm a taylor kelly positive blog. i am a bucktaylor positive blog. bc i like what the writers are doing with them. while i don't fall into the camp of thinking buddie is going to be canon and shipping bucktaylor i do think that those things can be true at the same time and that there are certainly people on this platform that think that way. i recognize that the person taylor kelly was at the end of dosed wasn't a nice person. but again if we are looking to canon, as in the things that have actually happened on the show, in buck actually buck talked about taylor to bobby. bobby did not tell that man "she tried to exploit me she's a horrible person", in that very episode he expressed wanting to be more than a hook up. and when she popped back in breaking point it was clear that buck still harbored no ill will towards her. that's the thing about people saying "i like them as friends" bc breaking point established them flirting, they were friends yes, but it was always portrayed as something that was going to be more than that. and s4 showed us the side of taylor kelly that was still driven to succeed in her job, but wasn't going to use people's worst moments to further herself. so clinging to a s2 depiction of a character would be like looking at eddie in eddie begins and saying he's the same father as he was then. megan west is not a series regular, of course there is going to be character development off screen. that's just gonna be what happens when first you were brought in for a couple guest spots and then a few years later writers decide that there's more to that story they started to tell, that was left open ended?? and when they brought her back they gave her scenes to show how much she had grown?

3) i would agree that there was a time that buddie could have gone canon. the only real evidence that i would point to is how between s2 and s3 the writers decided to give buck and eddie this close friendship that didn't exist in s2. they were friendly, yes, but definitely not on the level that i would have assumed buck was playing babysitter and being told that he was the person eddie trusted most with his son. this rapid relationship progression was definitely something they did with a lot of their romantic couples. the thing is the show has never stretched getting two characters out over so many seasons, or this long. i also just think that the writers are sloppy with how they've chosen to depict their friendship, litterally just yesterday i wrote this tome of a text post where i go into a little more, but i think the sloppy nature, the broad strokes and being open to interpretation have come home to roost. while i would never accuse the writers of the show of queerbaiting i think that the way fandom has chosen to highlight those scenes to the point where it is now an in fandom joke that people outside the fandom think 911 is the gay firefighter show shows this. bc the majority of that isn't coming from fox's marketing department. and it certainly hasn't come from the marketing department anytime recently.

4) i am not saying that you can't say that there wasn't copaganda in the blackout arc. this isn't my first rodeo. i think i started watching the show weekly in s3, definitely watched it every week with tumblr in s4 and now s5. so i watched all summer as people started to build their theories about how a blackout arc was going to lead a to a buddie love confession. it was going to lead to that for this character. and then when we got the episodes and they were athena centric it was "copaganda" every other complaint. and again, i'm not saying that element isn't there. but it's baked into the core of the character and has been since the pilot. but it is only ever brought out as a complaint when certain corners of the fandom feel that they were robbed of something they feel they were promised. and it's weird. bc all of athena's stoylines that center around her doing her job are always going to have that element. i'm not saying that people have to like it, but it's obvious that they want to pick and choose when it seems to matter to them. when they can talk about how her doing her job and being dubiously murky with bobby destroying evidence as they flirt to get in a dig at bucktaylor fans they go with it. but when athena and harry are in the middle of a crisis it's fuck the propaganda we wanted buddie locked in an elevator i'm not supposed to see through the bullshit?

[inessencedevided]

(You can find the set that this gif belongs to here 💙)

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours

I was tagged by @aheartfullofjolllly. thank you so much Pat! it was really fun to reflect about my own process 💗 You can find her post here and @lan-xichens' post that started it all here :)

Also thank you @huigusu 🥰 (who tagged me for my nie brothers set) I'll get to that one in a few days!

Now Pat gave me two sets to chose from to show my process, so obviously I chose the more complicated one :P

I only work in Photoshop CC 2018. I know that there are programs out there for easier cutting and sharpening but I have only just figured out how to do that in PS and I am too lazy to figure out any other programs right now xD

1. Idea and Planning

This set, like most of my sets with lyrics started with me reading the poem, clutching my heart and going "oh shit this fits my favourite characters!!". The idea actually started with me thinking that the first stanza of the poem would go really well with wwx during the burial mounds arc. Then I realized that the last stanza fits lwj better than him and from there came the idea to contrast the both of them next to each other. This is when I realized I wanted to do a dark-light contrast set, though I did not know that I would go with red and blue at that time. My idea in the beginning was just to do a black and white set

I was really impressed by how Pat said that she plans her sets around exact timestamps. Because I don't do that at all ^^ I just get ideas for which scenes would fit (in this case the wwx burial mounds scenes and lwj's kneeling and punishments scene) and then I watch the scenes to narrow them down.

Back when I made this set, I still used a screenrecorder (AceThinker Screen Grabber Pro to be precise. They have a test version that allows you to record up to 3 minutes) and recorded the scenes I needed from Netflix. This worked well enough but now I have the entire show saved on an external drive and it makes a world of difference when it comes to gif sharpness

Now, in this case I had to repeat this step once because when I was almost finished, I realized that I wanted a gif for the lwj corner but let's pretend I didn't do that and that's the way this gif was always going to look because otherwise this post will be way too long ^^

2. Creation

Short disclaimer: The creation process for this gifset was anything but linear. Multiple effects I used here were things I had never tried before. I just had a vague idea and tried to realize it through trial and error. So whenever I say "then I did xyz", it is implied that I ultimately went back to that step several times and changed stuff ^^

I started with the Wei Wuxian part of the gif. I usually use a frame rate of 0,06 (with some variation depending on gif length and size). I work in timeline so I converted all the layers to a smart layer. Then I resized the gif into a square, leaving big chunks of the gif empty (as can be seen below.) I flipped the gif horizontally, so he is looking inwards. This was simple because I felt it fitted the composition better. Then I imported the Lan Wangji part of the gif, again with a frame rate of 0,06. (Image 2)

After that I created a layer for masking in a separate PS document by rotating a square until it was point down (is that a rhombus?). I sized it to match my gif (540x540 pxl) and copied it over. (Image 3) a bit of masking magic and ta da! There's the basic layout (Image 4)

I put a layer of solid black behind wwx to get rid of the transparent bits (Image 5) and then started adding more white and black to both sides by adding solid whit and black layers that i put masks on and changed the opacity as i needed (Image 6)

("reading" direction: from the upper left to the lower right corner)

Then I fiddled with the colours a bit. The first thing I always do is using the curves layer to get more contrast. Then I use the colour balance tool and the selective colouring tool to get rid of that cql-typical cyan tint after that it's just trying to have it look "natural" while the colours still fit the overall scheme. This was difficult here because wei Wuxian’s side of the gif was very dark and when i turned up the saturation to see which colour dominated it was a very weird mixture of multiple colours. That's when i decided that I'd just go with red on his side, since lwj's side was already so blue and those to look great as contrasts.

After that just came a lot of fiddling with selective colour layers and brightness and contrast unti I has happy. There really wasn't much to it ^^. (Image 1)

After that I added the text. I knew I wanted the two lines to for a square of some kind. So I tried different fonds until I arrived at the one below. The two lines are in seperate layers so I could move them around and change the spacing between the letters until I was happy with the layout. I also changed the layer mode for the text to "difference" (is that what it's called in english? my PS is set to german sorry ^^), keeping their colour white. (Image 2)

I originally hadn't planned adding anything else but I felt like the gifs (plural because I switched between the gifs of this set) was still kind of empty and lacking, so I added the tear down the middle (a tutorial for that is either coming up later or already posted. I recently got an ask for this :)) (Image 3)

It still felt empty after that, so I tried different overlays. Okay no, first I wasted a lot of time on different free image sides but then I tried out different ones until I chose the one you can see in the finished gif. I liked that one because a) I felt the round shape was a nice contrast to all the straight lines already there and b) because once I applied a black and white filter to it and switched the layer setting to "difference" (again, i hope this is the correct translation) it looked a bit like a moon. (Gif at the top)

("reading" direction: from left to right)

And that's it! :)

Although in general, these gifs took so much fiddling! I went back and forth between them a lot and sometimes almost redid the entire thing because I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning and by the time I noticed an error, the only way to fix it was ti redo everything. So yeah, this set definitely is the the one that took me the longest out of all the ones I've posted so far.

3. Posting

I save all my gifs to my drafts first to see what they look like put together and to check if they look any different on mobile. Usually i do this several times and change stuff until I'm happd enough with it to hit post. Once i am happy enough, i can't hold back. Doesn't matter if it's at a time when nobody is online, i hit post 😅

And that's it!

Tagging:

@lanwuxiann for this gifset (I adore it so much. I've looked at it and read it severat times since you posted it and the poem just kills me every time!)

@suibianjie for this gifset (The combination of static images and gifs in your gifs is always absolutely perfect! This one is only my favourite of yours because the light coming from behind wwx is just so pretty!!! ^^)

@sweetlittlevampire for this piece (It was soooo hard to pick a piece of yours because I have so many favourites! But this one is just so out if this world, I want to know how you worked that magic :D)

@wei-gege for this set (sparkling shijie! 😭 that set is so incredibly beautiful! I love how you matched the colour of the overlay with her dress!)

@purplexedhuman for this set (your gifs are always incredible! I chise this one because it showcases both your colouring skills and some really intricate effects)

If any of you have already been tagged or don't have the time or energy for this, obviously no pressure to do this at all! 🥰

(btw, I originally tried to place the actual text of this under a "read more" cut but somehow it always messed with the order of the images, so this ended up as a rather long post. sorry!)

[sirtadcooper]

10-20 please 🥰

Phew! Thanks for putting me to work, Joy! <3

10: An old creation that will always have a special place in your heart

Answered here and here. Another one is this Pearl Mackie edit. I made five edits in this style of the Doctor Who cast and Steven Moffat, but this one is the neatest I think. I drew the doodles myself, I like the navy colour and of course Pearl’s orange nail polish in the middle photo!

11: A new creation that you’re very proud of!

Answered here and here. Another one is Starring Pedro Pascal - it came out pretty well, I think! I used to make edits like this with a fading effect but I was doing it manually with opacity and duplicating layers (I think there is a way to do it in Timeline but I don’t know how to do it) but this time I just went with no transition between the photos in the background and I think it actually looks better for it.

12: Pick your favourite creation of yours based on the colour palette

These Jim Kirk icons. I made these slap bang in the middle of two huge editing breaks, but I was very pleased with them. I was obsessed with Star Trek: TOS at the time and I wanted a new icon so I made these. I ended up keeping the green one with stars as my icon from October 2019 up until February this year. This colour palette suits this screencap perfectly, well done me, haha!

13: What is your preferred format? Moodboards, gifsets, poster sets…?

Any of these done well I will fall head over heels for! @radiantskywalker does fantastic moodboards, @sylvia-tilly made many inspiring ones back in the day. I have made a few myself but they’re not on par with those two at all. @millenniumsfalcon and @trashcora spring to mind for their stunning gifsets. Guess who I immediately thought of for posters? You have three guess but you won’t need them, it’s @sith-maul.

I realise I have not answered the question, and I guess that’s because I don’t stick to one format - I jump around all over the place. In terms of edits I have recently developed a clear style of inverted colours, best demonstrated here and here and here. So I guess I love edits because they get more notes than headers or icons, but! That feeling you get when someone uses one of your headers or icons? Unmatched.

Wait, I’ve got it! My answer to this question is anything but gifs. I have a love/hate relationship with gifs, in that I mostly hate them but I love to know how they are made.

I really belong on Tumblr, huh?

14: A fandom you want to create more content for!

I want to make some things for Star Wars and Rogue One! I haven’t made anything for them at all yet because I keep getting distracted by how much I love Din and Grogu and that’s perfectly understandable, I think. 

15: Talk about some of your favourite creators: what do you love most about their creations?

Oh gosh, okay! I’ll try to keep each of these to a few words as I am prone to writing essays.

@ewan-mcgregor | What can I say? Quality and Quantity. 

@sith-maul | Creativity, thought, precision, technical prowess.

@javier-pena | Coloured to perfection, every time, without fail.

@voidlila | Beautiful gifs and graphics with perfect colour palettes.

@millenniumsfalcon / @thernandalorian | Gorgeous colouring, not always what you’d expect, but perfect.

16: List some creators that always inspire you with their creations and talent!

Those mentioned above are a given, but a few more, in no particular order: @abednadir, @300mirrors, @cvanth, @skyshipper, @darksber, @kenobismullet, @trashcora, @sharoncarrter, @spotchka, @whimsicalrogers, @sugardaddyahxu, @djarsdin, @argetnallison, @perfectopposite and many more besides.

17: Do you enjoy working with gifs?

Gosh, no, I find them so stressful! Sometimes I fancy making a gif but the fancy doesn’t last long once I actually go to make them. The process of making gifs is so long and arduous and there’s only so much you can do with a gif and I just don’t enjoy the process at all. As I said I hate gifs but I also love to see what others have done with them! 

18: Do you enjoy creating graphics?

Gosh, yes! I find the whole process so much more rewarding, that you have the freedom to do anything, really, as long as you can work out how. I’m able to zoom in and put a lot of detail into my graphics which pleases me no end. I think it’s far more creatively exciting to work on a graphic, whether it’s an icon or a header or an edit. You’re transforming the source material completely, you know what I mean? I just get excited about graphics. It’s wonderful that so many people are learning how to make gifs but graphics? That’s where the fun really is in my opinion!

19: Do you like mixing up your style and trying new stuff, or do you prefer to have a more consistent style?

I’ve sort of answered this above, haven’t I? Oops. I like to try new stuff sometimes but always with a view to doing it my way. It has to fit in with my style or I’m simply not interested. Like the trend at the moment for text to be warped slightly into a shape? Not my style at all, I like my text boring, thank you. I have an inkling how it’s done but I’m not bothered either way. Almost everything I do now is informed by my love of making icons and headers - nearly everything is cut out from a background and put onto one of my creation. I’m an obsessive cutter-outer.

20: A creator you look up to!

Just one!? @sith-maul. I’m obsessed with Nik’s creations and I will not shut up about it. I’m like an embarrassing parent telling everyone how talented my child is because I’m so proud of them.

creators ask game | send me an ask

[dearemma]

fav gifsets of 2021

i remember seeing a post where people were listing their fav gifsets of each month and I went: that’s neat, I should do that, but forgot to save the formatting, so I came up with my one, and I also ended up listing 5 or so each month (and then there is april where I listed so many because I posted a lot that month). Also there is a gifset in july which I actually hate, and felt like babbling about it.

This is filled with random comments and just some babbling about what I like in each gifset.

january: 

Emma 2009 - George and Emma

My first gifset of the year and I just love it! Emma 2009 still has such a special place in my heart and that specific portrayal of George/Emma just warms my heart. Also, this is a series I’ve giffed a lot, so I really enjoy seeing how good these gifs look and remember how bad my first sets were.

pride and prejudice 2005 - movie set 

I love the colors of this gifset, I’m gonna babble more about this in a february set, but I really got so much better with playing with selective colors last year!

Star Trek - USS Discovery Captains

This was my first attempt of putting several gifs into one canvas and as you can see if you look closely... it looks kind of bad. I had not really understood how to do it yet, so each set looks a little bit different. but!! It was a nice first attempt and I’m still proud of it.

Daisy Johnson - quote set

I have a love/hate relationship with gifsets with text over them, as I never think they look as good as they did in my head, but I still really enjoy this one, the choices for gifs, the text over it!

Star Trek - Beverly in the Captain’s Chair

Once again... a hot gifset that I’m very proud of.

february

Star Trek - Pike Uniform

My second attempt of putting several gifs into one canvas and this one looks so much better, it was nice to see me getting better!

Doctor Who - vibrant Rose set

I don’t usually do a lot of hiper-vibrant gifsets, it’s not really my style, but I enjoyed this attempt! I think it looks pretty neat!

Grace Kelly - High Society

A continuation of my attempts to play into the trend of putting several gifs into one canvas, but I mostly added this one because it ended up being one of my most popular gifsets of the year and it was such a random gifset! I made it for an rp edit, posted it here mostly so I could have it saved somewhere else and it ended up getting almost 2k notes! I grew fond of it!

Misc - Dousy, Star Trek && You’ve Got Mail

So, this is a collection of sets in which I can really see/remember me spending some time playing with selective colors, trying new things, I love to see my different attempts and their results! I still really love these three sets!

Star Trek - Jonathan Archer holding Porthos

This one is just... scott bakula holding a dog. No explanation.

march

Star Trek - Georgiou (gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss)

here is me, probably after reading that popular guide from @anya-chalotra about how to use exclusion, trying out a set. I made it as a joke for a friend, and it ended up being one of my fav sets of the year!

Emma - 2009 / 2020 comparison

even though I apparently figured out how to use the several gifs into one canvas trick in february, this one has a few mistakes, which I’m like ??? but it’s still a very neat gifset, and I distinctly remember the work I put into it, and it was very enjoyable to do, I got to rewatch two of my fave austen adaptations!

Star Trek - gays

just gays and the gifs looks very neat, so kudos for me.

Raya - this one and this one

I don’t gif a lot of animation, I find it harder than real life stuff and I’m not that into a lot of animated shows/movies so I’m very proud of how these two sets looks!

Star Trek - Keiko and Data

when I posted it, I remember being confused at how popular this gifset was, because I had just gotten into tng and did not know yet that Data is everyone’s fave.

Emma 2009 - Emma set

seeing all the cute sets of Emma 2009 I made in the beginning of the year is really making me want to sit down and gif it again. I just really like looking at these sets and seeing how they turned out! though, I don’t like the bottom gif of this particular set, I wonder if I could gif it bette now!

april (which was a very prolific month, so more gifsets)

Star Trek - Michael Burnham

star trek discovery, especially season one, is horrible to gif. It’s always dark, very shadowy, and like, it works with the theme of the show, but it’s annoying as a gifmaker, so to see such a pretty gifset made me happy

Star Trek - Kira and her friends

and the only thing harder than working with star trek discovery, it’s ds9 as we don’t have a proper 1080 version (thank you to @queerspaceworm for their work in making the available version better!). This set looks pretty neat, so I’m glad!

Marvel - Dousy set

this was another fun experiment set I made this year which I’m really proud of! God, I miss Dousy.

Poldark - colorful set

LOOK AT THE CULMINATION OF ALL MY RAMBLINGS OF ME GETTING BETTER WITH COLORS. THIS SET IS SO PLEASING TO ME STILL. THE VERY YELLOWS AND THE VERY BLUES, THE WAY THEY COMPLIMENT AND CONTRAST! FAVE GIFSET

Emma 2009 - sexy george set

Another entry in period drama week for @perioddramasource and tbh it looks great! I love how the center gif looks, but the other two also look pretty great, despite their huge size. I feel like it really captured George!

Anne with an E - Bash

Another entry in period drama week, and this one is @sentichefuoripiove’s fave set of mine and tbh she isn’t wrong. This set is pretty great, I was able to really master the whole several gifs into one canvas at this point and I used some techniques (like gradient maps) which I don’t usually use and the result was pretty great!

Star Trek - Julian and Miles

Considering this show doesn’t have an HD version these gifs look incredible, plus its been ages since I’ve done a set where the two gifs are connected to play together, so that was fun!

okay so, april was also the month shadow and bone dropped and a lot of my gifsets of that flopped and I’m still sad about that... So without commentary, some of my fav sab gifsets of that month!

Kaz and Inej / Darklina / Kaz and Inej / Darklina / Alina in season one / the crows bullying Jesper / beware of powerful men / Kaz and Inej / Darklina / Alina - refusing to be a captive again / another Darklina gifset because it was a scene

may

Shadow and Bone - textposts

This is not my most technically advanced set, but it was my most popular set of the year

Anne with an E - fav location

Another entry in period drama week, and I love the colors, I love the big gifs, I’m still not happy with all the scenes I choose for the compilation gif, but it’s probably my most creative set up!

Star Trek - DS9 gifsets I love ( parallels, Sisko laughing, Past Tense )

This is the year I lost my mind about DS9 I guess. I love those gifs, they aren’t that good, but they bring me joy. the parallels ones look so good together (and I cry about one of Sisko’s last actions being promoting Nog), the Sisko laughing ones look so good!!! Past Tense doesn’t look as good, but I love them.

Cinderella 2015 - Lily James as Cinderella

These gifs just look so good, their colors, the sharpness, the vibrancy of all of them. I’m super proud of this set and I had lowkey forgotten about it, so I’m super glad to have rediscovered it!

Star Trek - Ensign Ro

A great end result and since I hate adding subtitles to gifs (I’m lazy) seeing a good gifset with subtitles I made... it made me happy. I just love how good these gifs turned out, this is the result I usually try to get in all gifs. Well colored, crisp and well lit!

Shadow and Bone - amazing Darklina one and funny one

These two sets have very different energies. The darklina one is probably one of the best things I ever made. Look at it, its interesting, it covered most of their scenes, I tried various arrangements. And the funny one... its funny.

june

star trek - shirtless archer

you all let this flop!! pls, look at this man, why is he shirtless so much! he was nearly fifty when this show aired and they said HE IS NEVER WEARING A SHIRT!

community - annie and jeff (bonus this set)

not my best gifset, but I’m currently annoying @sentichefuoripiove and she likes this set, so it gets added! the bonus set is pretty good, but mostly being added for the tag ‘i made this to torture chiara’). Also, I recently made a jeff and annie gifset trying to choose caps I don’t usually use and this set includes like 3 of the same gifs, including one which is colored exactly the same way (aka i dropped a black and white psd because i hate the colors of that scene). love being consistent.

star trek - bullying a vulcan

10/10 my fav scene in star trek. considering once again I hate adding subtitles, this set with various people talking made me go insane, nice end result, so here is a shoutout to it.

star trek - avery brooks quote

this is probably one of the most interesting quotes I’ve ever read, I love the idea of Star Trek as contemporary mythology. This might be one of the gif sets I’m most proud of.

star trek - klingon discussion

everything about this gifset brings me joy. the colors, the simplicity of it, the conversation (one of my fav star trek scenes, something I think about a lot!)

july

jane eyre 2011 - jane

A very pretty gifset which I’m still very proud of!

leverage reboot - our mr. wilson

ACTUALLY I HATE HOW THIS SET TURNED OUT. IN SOME GIFS I REPEATED THE WORD OUR, I MEANT TO ACTUALLY PUT OUR MR. WILSON IN YELLOW, NOT JUST MR. WILSON, GAH THIS ONE ANNOYS ME.

emma 2020 - vibrant set

Another vibrant set attempt. The result looks pretty good, but I do think this is not really my style. But i enjoy looking back and seeing some diversity in my giffing techniques.

Quantum Leap - Scott Bakula as a priest

Not only do the gifs look good... he looks amazing.

Marvel - disaster team

I was torn between this one and a Star Trek Disco one as my last entry of july, but I know @bobbiamorse really liked this set, so when I look at it, I think of her, and that makes me happy!

august

star trek - sisko and jadzia

Another entry which... sure, it looks technically fine, but being added because I find it hilarious! I love this duo.

newsroom - tswift + will and mac

I love the typography of it, it looks pretty neat, especially the last one. And the very washed out coloring (with only reds) looks pretty interesting, looking back!

star trek - ezri set

A very precious scene, I love the color change (I got into a kick of making everything purple during august-october and this is one of my best ones, I feel)

star trek - miles and julian

once again, considering the fact I’m not working with 1080 but a remastered version of the show made by a fan, I really like some of the results I get from ds9, and this one especially, considering its not a close up, so it usually looks very grainy

potato movie - juliet and dawsey

Like the Ro gifset, this is one of those gifsets that just makes me go yes this is how I like to gif. It’s not one that has a lot of specific coloring, or difficult canvases, or anything like that. It’s clean and pretty and just looks very good!

september

doctor who - rtd is coming back

considering I made this gifset in 5 minutes it looks incredible (it doesn’t, its very basic) BUT Y’ALL. DO YOU REMMEBER THE HYPE OF THIS DAY?? just the insanity of it??

doctor who - ten set

I changed the colors of this scene a lot and I’m extremely proud of the end result.

marvel - daisy set

another entry in me making everything purple trend and I really love how it fit into the scene, and considering purple is Daisy’s color... I’d say it was the correct choice. But I like other elements of it, Daisy’s skin tone looks really great as well!

lost in space - judy robinson

a very great set. I’m really pleased with the colors of it, I was able to pull a lot of them while still maintaining a more natural palette in most gifs! just one I’m really proud of!

anne with an e - anne set

I have no specific comments for it, just love the end result. It looks very pretty!

october

gilmore girls - rory gilmore outfits series (1, 2, 3)

I don’t usually do outfits series as I’m chronically lazy, but these look pretty neat!

greys anatomy - nick marsh

Y’ALL. CAN YOU ALL BELIEVE THE GUY I KEPT TALKING ABOUT INCESSANTLY THAT ONLY APPEARED IN ONE EPISODE IN SEASON 14 RETURNED TO GREYS ANATOMY??? i’m still in shock, nice gifset tho.

star trek - sisko + history

this is a great scene, and a great speech. we love racebending characters in spaces that they wouldn’t usually be welcome in and I feel like this might be one of the best rebuttals to this trend. and like... i love this trend, I always have, and probably always will because its about being seen in a world you love. but i find this take very interesting and I’ve loved the discussions i’ve had because of this set. 

doctor who - fav ten hugs

this gifset brings me joy. his smile in all of these, i just got into doctor who again all over this year and i’ve never loved ten more <3

star trek - goodbyes

this gifset gives me psychological damage. i love it.

doctor who - ten and astrid

this is a very nice gifset, i’m proud of the coloring, but i’m mostly adding because of the amount of angry americans who complained about the metric system. y’all are amusing and your system doesn’t make sense

november

greys anatomy - mernick

not only does this gifset look good (and still feel like a fever dream), i appreciate the fact it currently has 69 notes).

star trek - julian looking pretty

this is such a look. julian is just the most pretty man in the world, huh? anyways, it looks very good and I’m extremely proud of how it turned out.

doctor who - ten set

i just love everything about this gifset. the scenes i choose, the coloring, the way it all works together. it’s one of those sets I look back with nothing but joy and I’ve used it as my pinned post a lot!

doctor who - dan lewis

and this was the moment I decided to stan this man forever. good god, what a line, this is something to live by.

december

star trek - jonathan archer being hated

like, this is an actually pretty great gifset considering the terrible scenes I was working with, but its mostly here because i love it when archer is being bullied <3

manu gavassi - gracinha

i adore her. you guys should really watch her visual album on disney plus, its super pretty and the songs are great and I love how this gifset turned out, I loved playing with the red in her hair!

marvel - dousy

THIS IS SUCH A HORRIBLE SCENE TO COLOR, I HATE IT. but i’ve done it so many times that I actually achieve a pretty good result very fast, and I like how this turned out! honestly... thank u @rowingtherubicon for pestering me with sets of this scene until i watched the entire show

star trek - beverly set

It’s very simple, but I do like the results I got with her hair and skin, plus how her eyes look blue without it being creepy (which is a result I sometimes get).

[blinkplnk]

#showyourprocess

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES — When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Big thank you to @fengqing for tagging me and I’ll do my best to explain how I made this set for Jiang Yanli! 

1. Planning

The beginning idea for this set actually stemmed from my Yanli birthday set for the @mdzsnet event, wherein I was working with this palette: 

The one thing I had to learn with using palettes, and is my biggest help to others, is SCENE CHOICE. It can make a difference between tearing your hair out and being happy with your final result, though there’s definitely some trial and error to it.

So I knew I wanted to make a gifset using each of the colours, and, for the light blue, immediately my mind went to the Gusu Lectures period of time, due to Cloud Recesses having a much more blue and light palette than many of the other settings in the show. The lightness of the blue made me lean towards outdoor scenes, and I immediately recalled the interaction between Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan where she slips and he catches her (episode 6). Thus off hunting I went until I found it. The final set actually came about because I had more footage than the original gif needed and I didn’t want a colouring I was quite proud of to be a one-and-done kind of thing. I also found the scene featuring the second gif, which had a similar palette in the episode, and decided to work it in as well (because I have weird moments of fussiness where two gifs isn't enough lol). 

2. Creating

I have all the episodes saved on my hard drive, so it’s a matter of finding the right scenes in the episodes and going from there. With my scenes found, I wrote down the timestamps in order to put it through Vapoursynth, which I use to crop, resize, sharpen, and denoise my gifs before importing them into Photoshop (I use a portable version). I trim them down to a relatively similar length (bc I like those sets to be similar), adjust the timing and, with all that done, we’re left with our base gifs like so!

Now onto the fun part! Colouring! I’m going to pop the rest under a read more because it’s image heavy!

I already had a pretty set colouring since this was overflow from another set, but I’ll break that down a bit as well. My first step is always to plop a couple of spots of the desired colour onto the very top layer of the canvas, because it makes judging if its in the right realm or not much easier, like so:

My go-to’s for base colouring is curves (which does a lot of heavy lifting on colour correcting for me) and a vibrance layer (to see what colours we’re working with). 

Then it’s about manipulating those colours into something closer to my desired one. Thankfully here my scene choice made life much easier as it’s already a light setting but it’s also already got a lot of cyan to work with. Threw on a few selective colour layers (focusing on lightening the cyan;

making the blues stand out more by removing the warmer tones;

correcting that green-ish tinge back to blue and making the cyan lighter again;

Now here is a little something I tend to do thats negligible but it makes me feel better about the colouring and thats a gradient map set to soft light, low opacity (20% here) using the pale blue and black. It just helps making the image a little more cool in tone in my opinion, and I put that UNDER my original curves layer;

And this is where we break out the brush! Obviously the darker colour on the left needed to be lightened up, so I went in with the palette colour on soft light at 100%;

and lighten at 50%;

Then I added another selective colour layer to lighten up the cyans and get closer to the palette colour;

Back to our brush! A layer on the right with soft light to give a bit more uniform colour across that expanse;

And lastly, I pulled a gradient of just the blue across the left to smooth out the colour on the edge of the frame, like it is on the opposite side (bc I’m obsessed like that);

Amidst all of this, I was using masks on the brush layers to account for Yanli’s movement and keep it from overlapping her skin, until finally I was happy (you’ll notice above the two circles are barely visible now) and we have this result!

My process was basically the same for the other two gifs in the set, with the second requiring a few more brush layers and gradients until we had all three looking spick and span!

Isn’t she pretty?

3. Posting

This here is where we pray Tumblr doesn’t destroy our hard work.

I mean, ahem. I don’t tend to save stuff to drafts unless I can’t finish it then and there, or I’ll pop it into the queue if it’s for a deadline. The gradient text is one of my favourite ways to caption on sets and I use a palette generator from an image website (google adobe colour palette from image) to pull out colours to use (I fiddle sometimes to get a gradient that looks good), before popping them into Cuvou's text fader (I’d link but Tumblr don’t like that but if you google it should come up). I then switch the text editor here over to HTML to pop in the code generated by the fader, add any other text styles I want (bold, small font or header size font, etc), preview the HTML, preview it on my blog a couple times and then once I’m happy, usually that’s it! It gets posted or queued and out into the aether it goes!

In this case, this was the final result of the gradient text in the caption;

Phew so that was... a lot for what amounted to a colouring and I’m sorry if y’all didn’t want a tutorial but here it basically is xD For the tagging I’m going to go outside the fandom just a bit and tag, but if you’ve already been tagged, don’t stress it!

@offtodef with this set

@sugarbabywenkexing with this set

@gusucloud with this set

@wanyinxichen​ with this set

@sarawatsaraleo​ with this set

[papa-evershed]

Tagged by the lovely @anna-hawk (Jon fandom is extremely lucky to have you BTW ♥)

1. Why did you choose your url?

Yes I just used this as an excuse to change back because I’ve been meaning to do it and I’m lazy. It started as a joke with friends that I worshiped Jon much like some folks worship Jesus and almost immediately I told them “Yep, gonna make a Tumblr URL from this” 🤷‍♀️

2. Any side blogs?

None that I use

3. How long have you been on tumblr?

Since July 2012 according to my archive

4. Do you have a queue tag?

Nope. Keeping up with a queue just seems like more work and who has the energy for that? I just like stuff I wanna reblog at some point and eventually when I’m bored I go look at my likes and reblog the shit.

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place?

My sister had also just made one and I wanted to get in on the action for access to Michael C. Hall and Dexter related stuff and thangs.

6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

He’s beautiful

7. Why did you choose your header?

Same reason, he’s beautiful.

8. What’s your post with the most notes?

This gifset of Jon on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. (which just proves we all want more softer Jon content)  Also my dumbass had to google how to find my post with the most notes lmao and if anyone else is interested use this website

9. How many mutuals do you have?

No idea!

10. How many followers do you have?

Iunno, l got some

11. How many people do you follow?

I don’t feel like closing this to look but I think it’s about 300ish

12. Have you ever made a shitpost?

I’m not entirely sure what qualifies as a shit post but lbr, any text written by me is a shit post.

13. How often do you use tumblr each day?

Some days a lot, other days I don’t even look at it

14. Did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog once?

I’ve been dragged very hard for my thirst tags, one girl even had to go all the way to Twitter to CaLl Me OuT and there was definitely an explosion of shit because of her actions. IDK? Is that a fight? I get yelled at a lot by the purity police on Tumbly. I used to anyway. Now I just don’t have the mental energy to care enough to thirst tag anything, maybe I’ll find my groove again tomorrow. Or never.

15. How do u feel about “u need to reblog this” posts?

The second I read any variation of that phrase I scroll without even finishing the rest. IDGAF.

16. Do you like tag games?

I actually really love reading other people’s answers especially when the questions are something a bit different, ya feel?

17. Do you like ask games?

Same answer. (keeping @anna-hawk‘s answer)

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

You’re all famous to me. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual?

There are a lot that I’m genuinely inspired by for a variety of reasons! ♥

tagging: YOU if you’re reading this and want to do it. For serious. Just put that I tagged you because I am and I want to read everyone’s answers, thanks.

[konstantya]

Frankenstein’s Meme - Day 22 & 23

(Full list of questions at the bottom, under the cut.  Previous answers can be found here.)

22.  Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

Probably Hungary from Hetalia.  Most of the time my favorite characters are the type(s) I’d want to steer clear of IRL (because they’re fucked-up assholes and/or because I would just find their personalities unbearable), but I actually think she and I would get on pretty well!

23.  Your rarest fandoms.

I’m assuming this means my smallest, most obscure fandoms?  Without a doubt it would be This Gun For Hire, and I guess Black Angel and Catherine and the Pirate, too, as I am the sole fic writer out there for all of them.  (Though TGFH, as a result of it being well-known in the noir/classic film communities, at least has its fans and people making gifsets.  Black Angel also has its fans and a few gifsets, but it’s definitely more obscure.  And fucking no one knows about CatP, save for the few reviewers on Goodreads who read it as a kid, pfft.)

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(Originally posted by trobadora, on DW.)

1. What’s changed about your fandom life in the last 365 days? 2. Your newest fandom. 3. You’ve got your OTP, you have to throw a third into the mix (from the same fandom), creating an OT3. Who is the OTP, and in your opinion, why would they make a perfect third for them? 4. What are the origins of your penname/username? 5. What’s a fandom that you wish had a bigger following? 6. What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom? What fandom was it? Not necessarily your oldest fandom, but a fandom that you started and still continue to read/write/create content for in some way. 7. What would make you leave a fandom, or prevent you from getting into it in the first place? 8. Squicks - What are some things that squick you in fandom - not necessarily “icky”, though it can be. From anything involving blood, to bad grammar. 9. What’s the hardest thing about writing, and why are titles the Worst™? 10. Do you have a fandom that you follow - either regularly or casually - with little to no knowledge of canon? 11. Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed. 12. A ship you have never liked and probably never will. 13. Do you prefer art, fic, or vids? Why? Bonus: If someone was to give you a fandom gift, what format would it be? 14. A pairing – platonic, romantic or sexual – that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind. 15. What was the first thing you ever contributed to a fandom? 16. Do you remember your first OTP? Who was in it? 17. What is your favourite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)? 18. How many fandoms have you written for? How many have you been in, and how many are you still in? 19. Has social media caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why? 20. What fandom broke your heart? 21. Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you dislike or even loathe.) 22. Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend. 23. Your rarest fandoms. 24. A fandom you’ve abandoned and why. 25. Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? 26. A trope which you are virtually certain to love in any fandom. 27. A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom. 28. How did you first get into fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote fic for? 29. Have you ever tried to write for a fandom or ship, and found you couldn’t? 30. Name three things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

[seance]

2020 content creator tag

RULES: answer the questions and then tag 10+ other creators to answer the questions! 

finally got around to do this, terribly late i know and i’m sorry but i swear i wasn’t ignoring all the incredibly talented people who tagged me! thank you so so much for thinking of me guys ♡ probably lost some @ in the process cause my notifs are a mess. @goinesjennifer @juliesmolina @faeryglass @almondchestnut @olisgifs @andyoudoctor @yenvengerberg @iridescentides @juliesmolinas 

first creation and most recent creation of 2020: god, i already said this but giffing really became my #1 coping mechanism this year so i have a LOT of stuff just from this year. the first one is this THE WITCHER INTRO CARDS gifset and the most recent is actually my julie’s gifset from yesterday but i’m not satisfied with it so! i’m gonna say this KLAUS AND FIVE PARALLELS gifset instead.

one of your favorite creations from 2020: oof, this is super difficult because i get attached to most of my creations, even if they don’t come out as i initially hoped. i’ll go with this five gifset BIRDS HOVER THE TRAMPLED FIELD just because it’s a perfect example of a rare occurrence aka when both my inspiration and my vision and my skills align and i manage to create something exactly how i first imagined it. and also because i think there’s not better fitting poem for this man.

a creation you’re really proud of: i have a few but maybe this ODE TO NUMBER FIVE gifset just because i had a very specific vibe i wanted to give off and i think i managed alright with the colors, texture and design choices! and then i can’t not mention this YOU WERE ALWAYS GOLD TO ME gifset just because i literally poured all my heart into it. this song and these people mean so so much to me.

a new style you tried this year and a gifset that uses it: my style really evolved at the speed of light starting july and i still can’t believe the things i learned once i just let myself try. i keep having new ideas and trying really hard not to dismiss them and see if they work out, telling myself it’s okay if they don’t! i think this ALLISON HARGREEVES gifset basically has it all: the blending, the font work, the shape play. or even this JATP + BODIES OF WATER type of style, complex blending such as this one WILLEX SUPERSTAR is slowly becoming my trademark and i’m not mad about it, i love playing around with fonts like i did in this ALEXREGGIE gifset even if i know it gets really crowded and hard to read sometimes, or even with lines and block of colors like i did here JATP BORN FOR THIS, i finally got back to play around with textures JATP SCRAPBOOK and even JATP DISCOGRAPHY i also tried my hand at creating entire new “atmospheres” playing with specific visual choices like i did in the HARGREEVES AS PARANORMAL INVESTIGATORS set.

your favorite coloring: okay you guys know coloring is easily my favorite thing to do in the world and i’m usually pretty proud of every outcome because i remember how difficult it was for me, for years i thought i would never learn but i still did it, all by myself just keeping trying like a madwoman lmao basically all my the umbrella academy gifset are my pride and joy because did you see that show? how shitty the lighting is? gifmakers need a miracle every single time. so i’m gonna list a few that i still look at fondly ♥

THE SEVEN HARBINGERS OF THE APOCALYPSE

WILLIE AND CALEB 

YOU CAN SET YOURSELF FREE (HARGREEVES)

SEASON ONE FAVORITE EPISODE

ALWAYS GOLD TO ME

THE OLD GUARD + RICHARD SIKEN

a creation that took you forever: basically everything i do ahah just because one way or another i always get stuck on something for hours at end be it the fonts or the colors or the scene choices. but i’d say this STRONGER + HAGREEVES SIBLINGS gifset just because my inspiration went off and i decided i wanted to try a bunch of different techniques all at once and my brain didn’t let me rest until i did it all. to think it all started with just that “everyone will know me by a different name” line, oh my god.

your creation from 2020 that received the most notes: this VANYA + HER SIBLINGS LOVE gifset with 15.406 notes that i kinda hate because what’s up with that font? and the ugly coloring?! totally gonna remake this one because they deserve far better.

a creation you think deserved more notes: oh my god deep down i want to be selfish and say so many because that number never really match the effort i  put in most of my gifs but i’ve also learned not to get too bitter about that, few people rb it, even fewer people comment on it but those people are worth more than anyone else. if i had to chose i’d say either the ALWAYS GOLD TO ME set just because it means so much to me, this ALEXREGGIE set that was so fun to make and i love how the colors and the font work came out, this VANYA + EMPATHY set, and this SWEETIE LITTLE JEAN one.

a creation with a favorite scene/quote: i rarely do actual, canonical quotes and i never use just one scene gsjds- so i’ll go with this DIEGO + LOVE FOR HIS FAMILY one even if i don’t like the font and again ALEX&REGGIE being themselves.

a new fandom you joined and a creation you made for it: considering i was already the umbrella academy and the witcher obsessed i’d say the old guard (YOU KNOW ME WELL) and julie and the phantoms (FAVORITE FRIENDSHIP)

a creation you made that breaks your heart: oh, if you know me even one bit you also know i thrive on angsty feelings, they’re usually my main inspiration not gonna lie so choosing is not that simple! again, this KLAUS AND FIVE parallels gifset because of the sheer tragedy of their lives, this SWEETIE LITTLE JEAN five gifset, this KLAUS HARGREEVES one and this I WANNA BE NUMB AGAIN, this DEAR FORGIVENESS, YOUR BOOKER because this man is a walking tragedy (and this PIECES OF ME DIE ALL THE TIME too for good measure) and then this HARGREEVES SIBS + DAUGHTER gifset.

a ‘simple’ creation that you really love: i have brainworms and once i’ve learned how to do something i never manage to come back to the things i did before so i’ve rarely made “simpler” things lately. maybe this JATP + TIMES OF DAY still qualify.

a creation that was inspired by another one (add both your creation and the one that inspired it!): this FAVORITE JATP CHARACTERS with the circle text inspired by this gifset by the loml @evakant // this JATP ROLES with the triangles technique inspired by this work of art by @anya-chalotra and this WARRIOR JULIE set with the text layout inspired by a lovely gifset that now seems to be deleted :(

a favorite creation created by someone else: i love everything my mutuals make but there are some people who really pushed me to always learn more and their gifs are still my absolute favorite thing to date. for example: this THE OLD GUARD TAROTS set by @milkovivhs // this incredible HARGREEVES SIBLINGS one by @yenvengerberg // this GERALT OF RIVIA masterpiece by @anya-chalotra // this CROWLEY set by the queen of colors herself @meliorn

some of your favorite content creators from the year: really too many to count, my mutuals inspire me every single day, the keep my creativity alive and seeing their creations on my dash is always such a treat! so, all the above for sure and then: i‘m stupidly proud of @sunsetscurving i saw her grow into the giffing process with such speed and such vision, everything she does is so pretty, but all my mutuals are incredibly talented. they don’t do anything half-assed, everything they do perfectly mirrors their efforts! @captainheroism @emeraldphantoms @nora-reid @amandaseyfried @rockyblue @juliesmolina @juliesmolinas @lettersdeeplyworn @jakeperalta @kennyortegas @merceralexs @alexreggieluke @calebcovington @andyoudoctor @almondchestnut @iridescentides @number5theboy @evakant

 and for good measure, another a couple more creations of yours that you love: excluding all the above i’ll go with

JATP FAVORITE QUOTE  

HARGREEVES AS GREEK DEITIES 

YOU ARE HERE TO RISK YOUR HEART

THE JATP GEMSTONE SERIES x / x

SOBRIETY IS OVERRATED

AMOR C’HA NULLO AMATO

IF MEMORIES COULD BLEED

this took me so long that everyone else already did it before me so i don’t think i can tag anyone, if you’re reading this and feel like doing it please feel free!

[swiftiephobe]

thoughts on edit discourse, aka “you all realise this is meant to be fun?”

okay so buckle up swifties because i have some THOUGHTS about the whole edit discourse, the idea of needing to support editors by reblogging their posts and where i think some of you are a bit... misguided in how you approach sharing content on tumblr.com. this is a long post (i have put it under a cut because it is that long) because i am incapable of saying things concisely and i cannot think of another way to get my points across without having them misrepresented. i know a lot of people might ignore this because it’s a long ass essay, and that is valid <3 i just wanna get these thoughts out there. i do appreciate anyone who chooses to read this and try and understand my point of view. i love editors and the content they create. i do not love the idea that people have to run their blogs and engage with content on this website in a very specific way in order to be acceptable to the community.

also this isn’t directed at any one person in particular. the attitudes i am talking about are pervasive in a large portion of the fandom, and i’ve seen them building for quite a while now. i’m happy to have a respectful discussion about many of the points i’ve made here, as i know a lot of you will disagree with them. the purpose of this post isn’t to “attack” people, it’s to provide a different perspective.

i wanna preface this by talking about when i first started posting edits. i don’t do it a lot now mostly because i’m busy and don’t often feel like it but back in 2017/2018 i really got into editing. i remember when i first taught myself how to make gifs in photoshop, and i made my first gifset, and i was so excited to post it because i was so proud of myself for having created something. so i posted it, and then i kept making and posting gifsets. most of them didn’t get many notes, and frankly a lot of them were not very good because i was still learning, but i still posted them because it was nice to have created something. 

one day i posted a gifset and tagged it with some appropriate tags, including tagging some big source blogs. well, one of those big source blogs actually reblogged my gifset! and i was so excited by that. i even went and sent that blog an ask profusely thanking them for reblogging my edit. it’s a bit embarrassing to think about having done that now, but the point is i was so excited to have a blog that i considered “important” reblog my stuff, and of course that led to more notes on the gifset which made me happy. that gifset ended up getting about 150 notes, which still isn’t a lot but it made me happy at the time.

why am i telling this story, you might ask? because i want to put it out there that I GET IT. getting that reblog on that gifset made me, a baby editor, very very happy. ecstatic, even. the fact that i can still remember it now shows how much it meant to me. i was already proud of myself for having created something that i thought was good, but getting that extra bit of external validation to tell me that what i had created was actually good felt special. so i understand why editors want people to reblog their work. it makes us feel good to see that others are enjoying what we’ve made enough to want to share it with others.

so i kept making edits, some of them got a lot of notes while others really didn’t. i continued to learn new things about editing, i played around in photoshop and got excited every time i realised a new thing i could do with one of the tools. some of the edits i made were a lot of work, and i was very proud of them, and i still am very proud of them. a lot of those edits that hold a special place in my heart did not get many notes. one edit that i made (which was a url graphic for another person) took hours and a lot of hard work trying to figure out how to make my idea happen, and i think now it has less than ten notes.

sometimes i look back through my edit tag and i see edits like that one, that i loved making and thought turned out very well, but have relatively very few notes. and honestly? when i look at them, i don’t feel sad about the number of notes they have. sure, i think “well, it would’ve been nice if more people had seen this”, but for the most part i still feel damn proud of myself for having made it. i feel happy looking at them because they remind me of when i was making them and how much i enjoyed the process. 

at the end of the day, editing isn’t something i do as a job, for the sake of meeting a quota or reaching a benchmark of external achievement. it’s a hobby, something i do because i enjoy the process of creating something. i post my edits here so that they can be hosted publicly on my blog, and yes while getting notes is very very nice, it’s not my primary motivation. this year i’ve mostly been making edits for albums that i have enjoyed, some of which have practically no audience on tumblr and so don’t get many notes. and that’s fine. i don’t make them for other people.

which i suppose brings me to a point that i feel like will upset some people, but... the way some of you talk about editing, sometimes it seems like you don’t even enjoy it? i know that’s ridiculous because you all do, and many of you are crazy talented, but when i read people posting about how getting less than 100 notes on an edit makes them want to give up and never post an edit ever again, i frankly have to wonder if you even enjoyed making the edit in the first place, and if not, why did you do it? it just seems like a lot of you have a warped idea that the end goal of making an edit is notes, when in my opinion it really should be for fun. we’re in the taylor swift tumblr fandom. this is meant to be fun, remember? it’s okay to be upset when something you thought was great doesn’t receive as enthusiastic a reception as you were hoping for, but it happens to everyone and it doesn’t mean you, or others, are doing something wrong. if you enjoyed creating something, and you are proud of it, that’s what really matters in the end.

something else i’ve noticed is the extreme policing of how people interact with edits, mostly the notion that you HAVE to reblog edits and anything else is offensive and unacceptable. and sorry, but no. everyone runs their blogs in a different way. some people use their likes as bookmarks for things they want to reblog or queue for later. some people have a specific aesthetic they want to keep for their blog so don’t reblog every single thing, but they still want to acknowledge that they saw your edit and liked it. people have a million reasons why they don’t want to reblog something, and since it is their blog and their space, all of them are valid. 

when you post something to a public social media website, you have to accept that people are going to interact with it in the way that suits them most (this is of course excluding hate or stealing, those are not acceptable). if you are seeing a like on your edit and somehow extrapolating it into some “this isn’t good enough” statement, you are reading way too much into it. if people are liking your edit, it’s because they like your edit. is it nice when people reblog your stuff? yes. but people aren’t obligated to do so.

this also applies to the idea of keeping comments in the tags. i agree that commenting in the tags on edits is proper etiquette, and it’s something i always do. but the absolutely vitriol i have seen directed towards people who comment on their reblogs is not okay. i’ve seen people talk about blocking people who comment on their edits. it’s not nice. if you see someone say “i love this!” about your edit and your first thought isn’t “that’s so nice!” but instead “this person said this in the wrong place so i hate it”, please get your priorities straight.

i think most of the discussion surrounding edits starts off in a good place. it’s good to remind people that reblogging edits is the best way to support them, and that it will make people happy. i think that message has been made clear time and time again, but now it’s turning into something more aggressive. you all say that the fandom is “dying” because people don’t interact with edits (as a side note, edits aren’t the only valid form of content in the fandom. funny text posts, theories, discussions and ask games all contribute to the feeling of the fandom being alive just as much as edits do), but all that these rules you’re trying to implement do is scare people away. people will become more and more afraid to interact with anything, for fear of not interacting enough, not interacting in the right way, or not interacting with the right people. and that, ultimately, will do a lot more harm to the fandom than people liking your edits.