#now with added screencaps!

[ageless-aislynn]

Now, yesterday, I told you the epic tale of Noble Six and her struggle to get the par score on "The Package" level of Halo: Reach. I still can't make GIFs or capture video but it dawned on me... I can make screencaps from the Theater!

Noble Six, running through the gloom, to get that darn par score!

I always wanted to get those giant AA guns to blow up at the same time. I managed it on this run!

Awwww yeahhhh, Six making her epic parkour sprint-bounce-jump off the statue, aiming for that window to the right. Will she make it???

Six: *believing in herself SO HARD right now*

Score! And also was immediately shot by that blue bolt coming at me from a camouflaged Elite. 😑 But I lived to run on through, avoiding that darn General Elite with the concussion rifle who will be running down that ramp at the back annnnny minute now, only to realize I outsmarted him!

HOLY MOLY, HE DOUBLED BACK THROUGH THAT DOOR AFTER ME! 😱 Seriously, I knew he was shooting at me but I was running for that green button to trigger the cutscene and get me the heck out of there, so I didn't look back. I had no idea he was THAT CLOSE. I don't honestly know how he missed me with that concussion rifle. If he would've lobbed a plasma grenade at me, it would've been Bye Bye Noble Six. 👀 Whew.

And we're now flying the friendly skies with Noble Six and her jetpack, on the way to hijack that Banshee. 😇

Six: Hello, sir, would you like to have your Wraith hijacked today?"

Six: Of course you would! Heh.

Wow, Six is even better than I thought she was, she's looking at a blank wall while she's driving AND shooting the mortar bombs!

SIX IS TOTALLY NOT PANICKING RIGHT NOW, about to jump out of the Wraith and try to get past that Elite who's in between her and the sweet, sweet button of Ending This Level! It's a little hard to see but there's a line going diagonally from left to right across the Elite. I could hear somebody providing cover from the lab but didn't know who it was...

...until now when I could use the Theater camera to look. It was Carter, my beloved!

I'm contractually obligated to use this picture every time I say "Carter, my beloved." Sorry, I don't make the rules. 🤷‍♀️😇😉

In a dramatic ending, Six leaps from the Wraith as the counter is ticking down, failure is imminent if she can't get to the button by the door. So she activates her sprint and... wait, she's wearing the jetpack. Oops.

This is called "Panicked Jetpacking" and was done Entirely On Purpose™

Six must go, her people need her...

Also, note the enemy Wraith mortar bomb coming at the lab. 😱

Six remembers she has to go UNDER that opening to get to the button. It's not on the frickin' roof. 😑 Also note the Elite continuing to shoot at me. 😑😑😑

It's hard to see but that's Carter waiting for me next to those sandbags! I'm doing the most awful, awkward jetpack spluttering hops up this ramp because I continued to forget I don't have sprint. IT WAS AN EMOTIONAL TIME, OKAY? 😭😂

YESSSS, the button that only I, Noble Six, can push! The level ends and I achieved the par score at last!

Achievement accomplished! Noble Six can put her jetpack down and get a good night's rest, now that she has Pushed The Button No One Else Can.

Annnnd yes, you might notice that I have over 1,200 hours on the MCC, now! 😎👍🤷‍♀️😉

And there you have it! 💖💖💖

[luciuscodedswedeboy]

this y’all’s hard dom??

[anthonyzoxide]

Today on drawing crossover False art despite not having seen a second of the crossover (I just think she's neat)

[yuripoll]

KNOCKOUTS: I Don't Know Which Is Love (2021 - ?)

I Don't Know Which Is Love (or, I Don't Know Which One Is Love) is an ongoing harem series by Tamamushi Oku about a college student desperate for a girlfriend.

Mei Soraike tries to confess her love to the best friend she has harbored a secret crush for…only to have her hopes crushed. But a little heartbreak is fine—because she’ll absolutely, definitely get a girlfriend in college! - AniList

ENG published by Yen Press; JP available on Comic Walker.

CWs under the cut. General severity rating: moderate.

sexual content <- ecchi level, not quite explicit? every time something starts it gets interrupted, but it'll probably go there at some point.

adult teacher/student <- the power dynamic is not used maliciously against the student, but concerns about the teacher getting fired are regularly brought up

dubcon / sexual harassment <- ch1, a stranger undresses another girl in her sleep without her knowledge and then sleeps nude beside her, though no sexual activity occurs. multiple instances throughout of creepy behaviour, like recording someone's voice without knowledge for sexual reasons or making advances when the other party is protesting. pretty much works on porn logic so no one is hurt by it, but may make some uncomfortable.

incest <- offhand reference as part of a fiction within the fiction.

mentions of misogyny

jealousy <- between the various love interests; never gets especially heated

[jake-is-screaming-in-tune]

this is a redraw of the following screencap I took

[fortitudina]

*OOC. ------ My ass is mildly lazy at times so I'd like to give a big shout out to @tuppencetrinkets for their work at providing wonderful icons and screencaps! My Icons are going to be a mixture of square and rectangle ( all rectangular ones are from the lovely being tagged above! ). I like to write above making my blog look aesthetically pleasing. So, whilst I make most of my own icons, I simply have too many muses to constantly make icons for which is why I'm giving this little shoutout, so that I still have some icons to go with my posts, especially for those muses that have been lowkey hard to find square icons for, or screencaps for.

[crownedcaps]

★ Wonder Egg Priority - // Episode 13

Download Batches Here. (now in .zip format!)

Please consider liking/reblogging if you download!

[crossbackpoke-check]

V random but I’m in my Brockpetey feels could I listen to your 46 60 playlist!!

of course!! the first playlist i mentioned in the tags is actually not mine—it belongs to ash @notthequiettype and is a soundtrack to their wonderful fic Lake Rules (go read it if you haven’t already!!! highly recommend!!!)

annnd this one is my personal brockpetey vibes playlist

happy listening!!!

[citylighten]

I love learning how differently writers work 😭

[soupblr]

lisa rowe & daisy randone (narrative foils/parallels) + meta

cont. tags/commentary from this post, other meta post I am referencing is here (linking any future posts i make on these two here as well: x)

**At that point, Daisy's father had not only broken his daughter down to such a fragile psychological state that she could not continue living after Lisa's aggressive confrontation (unfortunately, the only way Lisa does confrontation with anyone about anything…), but he & the abuse he enacted on his daughter (that the system additionally seemed to turn a blind eye to on every level) had now added to & reinforced the life schemas Lisa sees the world through:

...that being Good in a world where the people in power/their influence are corrupt is an invitation to be taken advantage of at best and a life spent complicit in your own abuse & dehumanization at worst. According to the system, Daisy did everything right, yet she ended up in a gilded cage, still under monitoring, never truly Free.

(As compared to, say, the hospital that Lisa somewhat sarcastically refers to as her home. One she admits to Susanna that she has no hope of legitimately leaving ("Then you're a lifer—like me."). Interestingly, the suicide of her former roommate mirrors Daisy's suicide: both by hanging, both after some interaction or lack thereof with Lisa (you might imagine Georgina taking Susanna's place as mediator if it were an altercation), both in cages; one gilded and the other somewhat more literal.

...that this is the system working as intended. Whether at home, in the hospital, or on the highway, people are out to get you—the world is Cruel, and the only way to Survive without being defeated by this is to internalize the cruelty and turn it back out (thereby shirking her own humanity).

...that true Freedom is not to conform to the system or to make the best choices for yourself according to everyone else but to reject it completely and to instead parody, dodge, and dominate the cruelty levied at you at every turn. to affect without being affected, to choose your own path without regard to your effect on others.

 …as well as messing up her plans with Susanna. Feeling that she had finally seen Lisa for who she truly was, she abandoned their plans together, regardless of what that meant for the other girl—unable to consider sticking together with her and running away as a possibility anymore (rightfully so)—which, with Lisa's unwillingness to return to the hospital, unfortunately meant that she, in turn, abandoned Lisa.

[lyrics & film analysis break]

The last song Daisy chooses to listen to specifically deals with themes of abandonment, emotional insecurity, and black-and-white thinking—all of which are extremely central both to herself and to Lisa. We last see her robotically ascend the stairs as if walking upward to heaven, and this song almost seems to be her making ironic commentary from the afterlife. Every line seems steeped in a thick layer of irony, all wrapped up in a heavy melancholy.

"Why do these eyes of mine cry?"

This line of the song plays as Susanna enters Daisy's home through the veritable arch of flowers adorning the wallpaper around her front door and up the staircase, surrounding her with orange and yellow gerbera daisies (symbolizing innocence, purity, strength, warmth, and happiness) as well as silver sparklers (optimism, resilience, beauty, and transformation).

Lisa is sitting at the kitchen table wearing her sunglasses despite the weather and her being indoors, the lenses tilted slightly forward as if they were indeed making the room too dark—her eyes obscured as she fidgets with half of a clean percolator, haphazardly flicking cigarette ash in the general direction of the ashtray and looking as if she has been absentmindedly considering making coffee. A small flowerpot containing three yellow tulips* sits off to her right, usually representing cheerfulness, hope, and friendship. Obviously, these things are relevant to point out for a character named Daisy. But everything is wrong here. With the pancake money inexplicably pressed into the ashtray on the other side of the table, Lisa has seemingly decided to use the tulips to stub out her cigarettes, where they remain lodged between the petals. Seemingly impatient and irritated about the loud music, she does not follow Susanna upstairs, and she does not remove her sunglasses. Altogether, she seems clearly perturbed and has been chain smoking while awaiting Susanna's return.

*These flowers are generally given as a birthday gift to a friend. This might be a nod to the book, in which Daisy commits suicide on her birthday.

"Why does my heart go on beating? Hmm, hmm"

This line is sung as Susanna comes into frame at the bottom of the staircase with the camera overlooking Daisy's cat, Ruby, staring down as if waiting for her to follow. Obviously, the name Ruby literally refers to the deep red-colored gemstone—a symbol of love and passionate romance—but the colour red is furthermore associated with blood, strength, courage, sexuality, and danger.

"Don't they know, it's the end of the world? It ended when you said goodbye…"

The song in this scene initially started playing during the last verse, and the outro finishes up just as Susanna gets upstairs and peeks into Daisy's bedroom, where we can see that the wallpaper has changed to a pattern of various pink-tinted butterflies. Except for an unmade bed, her room is pristine, and resembles that of a much younger girl. Susanna watches as the needle of her record player lifts up and drops back down at the start of the song, which begins again (and again, and again, and again, according to Lisa's outburst).

"Why does the sun go on shining?"

The sun is not shining brightly on the day of Daisy's suicide—it's overcast, foggy, and rainy—"suicide weather," as the book describes it.

"Why does the sea rush to shore?"

This line plays as Susanna starts slowly making her way toward the bathroom, where Ruby was clawing at the door as if she needed to get in.

"'Cause you don't love me any more Why do the birds go on singing? Why do the stars glow above?"

These lines are sung as the camera focuses in on Susanna's face, showing her trepidation. We can see that the walls here are white and bare save for two gold ornaments as she hesitantly calls Daisy's name.

"Don't they know it's the end of the world? It ended when I lost your love"

These lines are sung as Susanna opens the door to the bathroom, and we see her horrified and devastated reaction to the scene in front of her, her face and reaction exemplifying the meanings of ending and loss.

"I wake up in the morning and I wonder Why everything's the same as it was I can't understand, no, I can't understand How life goes on the way it does"

Lisa comes into frame exactly as these lines are sung, facing away from the camera, even as she is easily in sight of Daisy's body; she stiffly climbs the stairs one at a time, finally removing her sunglasses only as she comes into frame behind Susanna, looking unsurprised at what she sees. The first two sentences out of her mouth are wildly inappropriate, as if this scene is to be expected, as if it changes nothing to her (or, as if she had already seen/expected it after waking up that morning, perhaps wondering why the music was going on and on). She seems to find the other girl's reaction amusing and follows her retreat into the bedroom with her eyes, then takes several points to bring her gaze back up to where Daisy is, making an ambivalent expression that settles into her usual smirk after telling a joke, which has again fallen into an unreadable expression when the camera pans to her again.

With one hand in its usual confident place atop her hip, she leans slightly against the wall, looking thoughtfully at Daisy's body as her other hand again fidgets, tentatively and with the railing this time, before using that hand to pull herself forward, apparently having made the decision or found the resolve to take money from Daisy's housecoat, or perhaps she was simply taking one last look at this girl who had been alive at the other end of her taunts just the night before.

[lyrics and film analysis break end]

Lisa refused to accept the cash to emphasize that it was dirty money—perhaps why she felt it belonged in the ashtray. because of how Lisa sees the world and moves through it in unhealthy ways, she was unwilling to view Daisy's situation as anything except her own fault, seeing as it would challenge too many of her own beliefs, instead casting her as a willing victim… rather than the truth of the matter being that she was repeatedly victimized despite all attempts to empower herself through circumstances often beyond her control, to the point where the gilded cage seemed like the best option—a very dark place to be in.

Daisy was constantly faced with denials of her agency concerning all areas of her life. Most obviously, her bodily agency was violated, and her ability to regain control via disordered eating was then restricted via over-reliance on laxatives, which were always in short supply due to her abusing them. Furthermore, Daisy's attempt to regain her sense of control only ended up compounding the reason she felt powerless in the first place, as her abuser was then able to completely control her diet, secure more visits, and create a wider gap between victim and hospital staff, all while further alienating her from other patients who might've understood her, were her situation already not so advanced that she was impossible to reach.

Intentionally so, as she continually felt she had to push people away to maintain what little bodily autonomy and environmental control she had left. Such are your options when your ability to discern your own wants and sense of self is damaged by enmeshment. Daisy, like the nyctinastic silver sparklers decorating the walls of her home, was increasingly enveloped in a shadow that caused her to completely close herself off to others, leaving her trapped in a disempowered state. Lisa, in comparison, was closed off to herself and to her own emotions, as a way to empower herself despite any circumstance. She felt Daisy had more power in her situation than she was willing to acknowledge/act on and judged her sorely for it (…that being a repressed judgment of herself).

Similarly to Lisa, Daisy continually chose quick fixes. She had to choose: suffering the indignity of other patients being allowed to invade her room*, or not having the pills she needed, which would mean a loss of control/agency. Lisa had to choose: suffering the indignity of other people being allowed to invade her sexually/physically, or not having the money she needed, which would mean a loss of control/freedom. Neither of these girls wanted to put themselves into the situations they ended up in; each was picking the option they found the most tolerable in that moment.

(*Metaphorically, I see this as an example of how conditioned she is to accept temporary boundary violations/grin and bear it, considering how symbolic her private room in the hospital is of her body itself/her need for boundaries.)

Daisy would repeat this pattern with her move, again ending up in a worse situation in which she had less control than before, her enmeshment and desperation leaving her in a state of chronic disconnection to her own reality. The wearing down of her very personhood becomes extremely obvious when, even in what she considers to be her own domain & supposedly her pride and joy—her home—she is easily relegated to the upper floor. However, despite Daisy's situation resulting in such a damaged sense of self-worth that she probably felt utterly powerless without her usual false image of superiority and semi-normalcy propping her up after Lisa pointed out the cuts on her wrist, she still attempts to create and enforce boundaries, perhaps specifically wanting to assert herself to Lisa as a person who has boundaries, and (politely) demands they be respected: "Please be gone in the morning."

Lisa would also continually repeat this pattern of helpless self-destruction, seeking her freedom only to find herself in police custody, in a padlocked room, in a state of lethargy after being administered shock therapy, "blowing guys at the bus station" for cash, etc. She is able to see the hypocrisy in the way that Daisy presents herself as being recovered despite her situation (and takes great personal offense to the idea that any kind of freedom could ever be found within a cage…), but is willfully ignorant about her own level of denial and delusion concerning her own "freedom". That is, until Susanna attempts to level the same amount of verbal abuse back at Lisa, to "push her buttons," in the same way she witnessed Lisa do to Daisy… all for daring to understand her. Compare what Daisy said to Lisa with what Lisa cried about herself at the climax of the movie:

Daisy: You're just jealous, Lisa. Because I got better. Because I was released. Lisa: You think you're free? I'm free! You don't know what freedom is! I'm free! Daisy: Because I have a chance, and a life. Lisa: I can breathe! And you… you'll go choke on your average fucking mediocre life! Daisy: My father loves me. Lisa: Why am I so neglected? Why doesn't anyone […] tell me… that I'm a fucking whore, and that my parents wish I were dead?

Daisy doesn't say so maliciously, or to "press buttons," but Lisa is unable or unwilling to interpret her words any other way for how they offend her. Tragically, Daisy displays a deep understanding of Lisa that no other character seems to have, which Lisa responds to by completely rejecting and maliciously going after her weak spots in an effort to tear her down and shut her up, resulting in a tragedy of which she readily deflects the blame (as is her specialty) back onto Daisy, a perpetual victim: the person most like herself, who she was unable to influence and so chose to destroy.

I would have liked for Daisy and Lisa to both survive, to become friends, and for Daisy to have been able to hear some of Susanna's great speech at the end of the film:

"I've wasted a year of my life… and maybe everyone out there is a liar, and maybe the whole world is stupid and ignorant. But I'd rather be IN IT. I'd rather be fucking in it, than down here […]"

Daisy offered her genuine thoughts, which ended up benefitting Lisa down the line. It's so unfair for her to die... Ideally, Lisa could have accepted the criticism Daisy readily offered to her, rather than lashing out and postponing her development until much farther in the future, under much worse circumstances—but, of course, having cut down the one person making an actual attempt to get through to her, she pushes herself further into her illness and recommits to those patterns, unwilling to accept the parts of herself that drew her antagonistically towards Daisy in the first place. Lisa so easily could have helped her learn to be less tolerant of having her boundaries crossed, and by accepting and helping Daisy build up her fragile self-image, Lisa could come to accept those parts of herself as well. They could have helped each other to recognize the ways in which they have harmed themselves (and others) and both found more secure identities outside of trauma and victimhood. but for someone victimized for so long that it eclipsed her identity in totality—groomed to be a Good and compliant girl—to take it to her grave… Lisa's cruel psychological attack was her breaking point.

[end meta]

The song continues to loop.

Why does my heart go on beating? Why do these eyes of mine cry? Don't they know it's the end of the world? It ended when you said goodbye...

Daisy hung herself without saying a word to anyone, the only sort of "note" left being the bills in her pocket, also taken from her. These lyrics beget the audience to consider the complicity of all parties involved in her short life, present or absent, while solemnly acknowledging that the world has indeed continued to agonizingly turn for all but one.

Susanna flicks the music off, silencing the reminder. She collects Daisy's heart- her Ruby, and waits outside.

[aria0fgold]

My brain just beamed me thoughts of my childhood anime and the realization that the moment I noticed how much I like Inuyasha's dynamic with Sango a lot more, they would've turned out to be my very first rarepair but alas... It instead became the catalyst of me finally losing my hyperfixation of 10 years on it.

[nonasuch]

Miss Universe National Costume 2024, Part 2!

Splitting this off into a new post so I'm not clogging up everyone's dash quite as much.

Miss Malta is some sort of environmental protection Sailor Scout. I think the giant bow would look better on the back of the skirt but otherwise this is solid.

It has just come to my attention that I skipped over Miss Albania and several other A/B countries, back at the beginning. I sincerely apologize! She went to all this trouble putting together a Fifth Element cruise ship passenger costume, and I nearly missed it.

Miss Armenia, in what even I have to admit would be a legit Princess Leia fit.

Miss Bahrain, adding some green to her Gold And Vaguely Historical look, along with what is either a comically large prop chalice or an upside-down lamp.

Miss Bangladesh appears to believe that adding two plush tigers from the toy store around the corner from the pageant venue will conceal the fact that she is just wearing a tiger-print evening dress. Miss Bangladesh is incorrect.

Miss Belgium. Girl. No.

Miss Belize let the seventh-grade art class do her whole costume, which was a bold choice.

Okay, I think that's everyone I missed! Back to alphabetical order. And I should have to rely less on shitty screenshots, now. Some countries were benefiting from the low resolution, tbh.

Kind of feel like Miss Maldives had a luggage mishap and she's just wearing the outfit she packed for a slightly dressy dinner.

Miss Martinique's costume would honestly have looked better in the shitty screencap version. The construction is... bad. It's bad.

Feel like we're in a little bit of slump here. Miss Mauritius did not stick enough butterfly appliqués to her gown to conceal that it is, in fact, just a regular evening gown.

Slump officially over! We are so back. Everyone say thank you, Miss Mexico.

I would like this better if it had just committed to the giant skirt and not felt the need to make it a Sexy Miniskirt look. Sorry, Miss Moldova.

Miss Mongolia wanted to stand out from all the other gold armor on stage, so she decided to a) wear cooler armor and b) bring a bow and arrow instead of a sword. Great work, Miss Mongolia.

Starting to feel like I'm picking on the smaller countries that probably don't have a huge pageant culture or the budget for really elaborate costumes, but on the other hand Miss Montenegro's costume is super low-effort AND the fabrics look cheap, so what am I supposed to do?

Okay, this looks like a pretty standard Miss Universe Sexy Bird, yes? Well, THIS is how Miss Myanmar entered the stage:

She had to fight her way out of that thing! God only knows what the visibility was like in there.

I think the hat is doing most of the heavy lifting to keep Miss Namibia's costume from being Just An Evening Dress, sadly.

Oh, yikes. It's more obvious in motion but Miss Nepal's bodice looks like it's made of craft foam and it fits real weird. The rest of it looks a little like she got together with Miss Cyprus and a pile of tablecloths for a sewing bee last night, I'm sorry to say.

Miss Netherlands has chosen a Tribute to Delft. I think if I were in charge of this costume I would do a much fuller skirt that falls from the waist, instead of the weird trumpet-skirt-with-hoop we've got here. And, obviously, I would make the windmill on the bodice actually spin.

It looks like she's having some issues keeping the wings and peplum in place, but I really like Miss New Zealand's costume from a design perspective. It at least slightly resembles the bird it's supposed to be (New Zealand fantail) and I think the feather pattern is meant to be in a Maori art style.

Miss Nicaragua is a Sexy Cathedral, which I think might be a Miss Universe first and is definitely a big old step closer to drag.

Okay, pausing here to get the next batch ready.

[dailyohara]

i need to buy both the digital and physical copies of atsv or i will wither away

[mscribbles]

oh my god i just realized how badly the new header image cropped for desktop wtf lmao i better fix that

[redshiftsinger]

OH MY FUCKING. OK so I was gonna go screencap for one thing and then I noticed ANOTHER THING and realized a third thing and my socks are blown clean fucking off.

Jeff's Inn By The Sea, right.

THE HAIR.

Starting out, Ed's in his usual half-up everyday practical style (it's out of his face a bit, looks good, but nothing too fiddly).

Then in the next shot, he's pretending to be Jeff, and his hair is all up.

So adding to the thing from S1 where he puts his hair all the way down for his Blackbeard Persona on raids and when Krakening around, and half-up when he's being more himself, not hiding behind a persona.

Now we know the hairstyle that indicates Jeff. Jeff's hair is all done up. Like at the fancy party, except this time he had to do it himself and he doesn't have any flowers to put in it. Jeff is polite. Jeff is posh. Everyone likes Jeff. (except he's not really good with people, is he, because "Jeff" is still Ed, and Ed still struggles with wearing masks that aren't violence, with hiding the angry part of himself instead of the soft part. "Jeff" couldn't maintain the illusion of being a posh aristocrat at the party, and he can't keep it up now either when Hornighost starts being rude).

Hair all down, he's hiding his vulnerability. Hair all up, he's hiding his darker side. Half-up, he's expressing himself more honestly and completely.

There's one other time we've seen him wear his hair all up.

And as we know, here he's planning suicide by storm. He's hiding his intentions, keeping everyone thinking he's more stable, getting everyone out of the way so he can pull off his attempt without being stopped. Again, he's hiding his darker side.

And the updo starts to fall apart as he confronts Izzy and then tells Frenchie to take the day off, as he gets closer to not pretending anymore.

Then, in the storm, he's back to the half-up style again.

He's not pretending anymore.

[userpeggycarter]

hi! someone requested me to do a tutorial based on this gifset!

this tutorial requires an intermediate knowledge of gifmaking. i won’t teach you how to do gifs from scratch, there are other tutorials for that out there.

[tutorial under the cut]

THE BASICS

AN INTRODUCTION

first off, the gifset in question is based on this gifset by @/eddiediaaz and i got permission from them to explain the process. i won’t be sharing the template because it’s a near replica of theirs (that isn’t shared to the public) and i don’t feel comfortable doing so, but you can recreate it by yourself just like i did!

also, ESL, so please pardon any mistakes.

THE FONT

Circular ST (Medium & Black). download it here & here.

CLIPPING MASKS

clipping masks are the way i put images and gifs inside of shapes. i used that method in the first and second gif of the Spotify gifset as you can see here. what does a clipping mask do? basically, it links two or more layers together in a way it follows the “shape” of your base layer. ie, everything that is shown follows the “shape” of your main layer and nothing more. your base layer can be anything: a shape, an image, a gif, a text, an adjustment layer, really everything. let’s see an example:

CLIPPING MASKS & SHAPES

the original image (Gun 'n' Roses logo) is intact, as in, it’s not cut like a circle, something that cannot be undone. instead, everything outside the limits of the blue circle is just hidden. if i delete the base layer (the circle layer), the original image will appear as it originally is, as an rectangle. talking about layers, let’s see my layers panel (some things are in Portuguese, but i think you can understand):

notice the little arrow pointing downwards to the “circle” layer. that is the clipping mask symbol. the base layer always needs to be below what is being clipped. if the base layer is deleted, the chain is broken and every layer clipped will now act independently and have its original shape. you can have as many clipped layers as you want. you can also have multiple chains going on in a .psd, each one with its own base layer. to clip a layer, you just need to press ctrl+alt+G or cmd+option+G while having the layer you want to clip selected (NOT your base layer). or, you can go to LAYER > CREATE CLIPPING MASK.

CLIPPING MASKS & TEXT

let’s see the same example, but with text instead:

A TIP

because adjustment layers are clippable, you can completely gif by using clipping masks. this is very useful when you have more than one gif inside a canvas and don’t want an adjustment layer to affect everything besides a certain layer/element.

let’s take my first gif of the Spotify gifset as an example.

the circle is the base layer. the “Carol smiling” layer is my gif converted to a smart filter. above that “Carol smiling” layer, there is a black and white gradient map and two color fills of white so i can achieve the coloring you see. all those layers are clipping onto the circle layer, making my now b&w gif have the shape of a small circle as well. those layers are in a folder in the .psd of my first gif, so i don’t have multiple files sitting on my PC to assemble just one gif. i could have giffed that small gif separately and pasted it onto my canvas as well, but i like to do this way so i can adjust everything i want in real time instead of redoing a gif over and over every time i want to change something.

HOW TO MAKE EACH GIF

all gifs are 540x540px.

THE FIRST GIF

the first gif has 6 elements. the elements are: a big gif serving as a background (a close-up of Carol), a smaller gif inside a circle (a b&w gif of Carol smiling) as a profile picture and four static images for the featured artists. i giffed as i normally do (loaded screencaps, resized the gif, sharpened the gif, etc) for my background gif. to achieve the coloring, i’ve added a gradient map (layer > new adjustment layer > gradient map) purple to pink. to the profile picture, i made a 160x160px circle in the top left corner. the color of it doesn’t matter. the next step is a matter of taste: i giffed the smaller gif in the same .psd thanks to clipping masks that i explained earlier, but you can do it in a separate canvas too. for the featured artists, i made four circles with 98x98px each. for the images, i had to check Spotify for their selected PFPs. after that, i googled “[band/artist] spotify” to find the images. the PFP of bands and artists in the Spotify app are displayed in black and white, so you might have to make them b&w if you happen to find them only in color. to make the artists PFPs pop a bit more, i transformed them into smart filters and added a bit of sharpening to them (intensity 10 x radius 10). you can adjust the colors and the brightness if you want, too. the sizes of the texts in the gif are: 58px (username), 20px (top artists of the month), 15px (name of the artists), 12px (only visible to you + show all + profile) and 11px (following and follower numbers).

SECOND GIF

for the chart, i created a black rectangle (490x308px) that i set its blending mode to lighten (thus making it transparent) and i added an internal white stroke. i added the text and the little squares next to the top 6 numbers. the font sizes are: 17px (top tracks this month), 11px (only visible to you), 14px (song title, show all, top 6 numbers), 13px (artist/band, album title, length of the song). i added the album covers — that i made b&w — by clipping images onto 32x32px squares. for the coloring, i added a gradient map (dark purple > light purple).

THIRD GIF

there are three types of playlists in this gif: a Spotify original playlist, a playlist made by a user and a Mix. you don’t have to follow this formula if you don’t want to, but in the case you do, here’s how i did it: browse Spotify for an original playlist of theirs. chances are, if you google the playlist’s name, you can find its cover on Google Images. at least, i found the “All Out 80s” cover that i used in my gifset. you can also create your own. for the user playlist, just pick four songs and find their (album) covers, also on Google. create a square canvas on Photoshop and make four squares, each in one quadrant of the canvas. paste your images onto your canvas and clip the images to each square. then, add a gradient map (black + whatever color you want) to all those images and title your playlist (font size: ). save that collage as a PNG and load to your gif canvas or merge all the layers+transform into a smart filter and drag the smart filter layer onto your gif canvas. now, the trickiest one. while you can invent your own Mix, i wanted to use a real one, but i had no idea on how to find them. thanks to reddit, i discovered that, if you search “made for you” on Spotify, you will find their Mixes! some of them are very whacky and specific! i just picked the Mix that made the most sense for Carol from that (gigantic) list. before doing the next step, i would advise you to google the name of the Mix you picked to see if you are able to find the cover of it with good quality. i wasn’t able to find mine (Karaoke  Mix), so i just screenshotted my Spotify app, pasted that screenshot into Photoshop and cut the Mix cover and pasted that onto my canvas. the quality wasn’t great, so i transformed the cover into a smart filter, added a bit of gaussian blur and then sharpened it (intensity 10 x radius 10). the color wasn’t what i wanted either, so i used Hue/Saturation to change the hue. because the original image for the Mix was smaller than i wanted and i stretched it to make it bigger, the quality of the text and the Spotify logo was botched. i painted over the Mix cover and created a text with the font i linked earlier to replace its now pixelated title. i also painted over the little Spotify logo, found a logo in the internet and pasted over the Mix cover about the same size of the original logo. to achieve the “3D effect” of the gif, i made my b&w gif, the base. then, i duplicated all layers and added a gradient map (black > pink) and merged all the layers of that duplicate. i made a second replica of my gif, now with a different gradient map (black > blue). i set both replicas to the ligthen blending mode. you will notice that the replicas will "disappear" and only the original b&w gif will remain. if you move the replicas a bit, that colored border will appear. this doesn't work much in very bright gifs without a lot of dark areas, btw.

FOURTH GIF

this gif used an altered (by me) version of this template. (i changed the fonts to match the rest of the gifset, too.) for the color text effect, you will have to gif with the timeline bar. take your gif’s length and do the math to find how many frames are ⅓ of it. take your lyrics’ layer and cut it into three equal parts or close to it by using the scissors icon in the timeline panel. in each third, change the color of just one line, line by line. when you play your gif, the colors of the lyrics will change like in Karaoke. you can do the same thing with frames iirc, though. i explained the timeline method because that’s the one i used in this gifset and use in general gif making. for the coloring, i added a gradient map. to make the colors pop a bit more, i add two gradient maps: the first one is in black and white, the other is in color. that adds depth to the blacks and darker colors of the gif.

FIFTH GIF

like in the Top Playlists gif, i wanted for my Daylist to be real as well. to achieve that, i listened to my Carol Danvers companion playlist (that you can listen here) for a long time until my Daylist refreshed itself. (Daylists refresh in certain times of the day — don't worry, Spotify will tell you when.) then, i just copied what it told me — the title and the genres i listened to generate such a Daylist, plus the genres i should check it out. you can invent your own Daylist if you want, but because it is generated by AI, i find very difficult to mimic its crazy titles, but you can try! you can also search in the web for other people’s Daylists if you want, but usually people don’t tell you what they listened to to get those playlists and nor what was recommended for them to listen to and i, at least, find that information important for the gifset. be aware that Daylists aren't available for every country yet (like in mine), but i found a way to work around that. the browser Opera GX offers a free "VPN" — not exactly a VPN, but it works close enough — so you can set your location to the US and listen to in-browser Spotify. i recommend not log into Tumblr while using Opera's VPN as there is a myth (that could easily be true!) that Tumblr terminates people's accounts that use a VPN. font sizes: 43px (daylist title), 13px (text), 12px ("daylist" & "made for"). for the flare effect, i searched for flare overlays on YouTube and downloaded one of those videos with 4K Video Downloader, a free software. i loaded the overlay into Photoshop and added a gradient map (purple > pink) over it, thus changing its color. i pasted the overlay onto my b&w gif and set its blending mode to screen. voila!

that's it! i hope you liked it and that i was able to express myself well. if you have any questions, feel free to contact me, i love helping people about their gifmaking questions! 💖