#photoshop elements 7

[noctisroyalrebel]

!!NO ADOBE SUBSCRIPTION NEEDED!! Free Photoshop - Complete With Serial Key

Everyone, I’ve had this for YEARS in my MediaFire account and I think it’s time I help some of you out of the Adobe mess.

I actually have Photoshop Elements 7, complete with the serial key, as a file to download.

It does NOT require having an Adobe account, or Subscription. I purchased this LONG back in 2009 before any of that subscription stuff happened.

Here’s the MediaFire Download

And here’s to show it actually works 👇👇👇

I also made a small video of me opening the program

[technicallyoneofakind]

Also don't forget White Rabbit (Photoshop CS5) and Photopea (online Photoshop.)

Also also, Aggie.io for sketches.

Or if you really don't care- there's Microsoft Paint on Windows PCs that comes preinstalled.

[angiestown]

I finished that dressup game I said I was working on !! would very appreciate people giving it a go because I spent literally a week on this. like 7 days off work doing nothing but drawing clothes lmao

in order to make the different body types work without ballooning up the file size way more than it already is, I had to make it so you choose your skin tone twice. in meiker you can't arrange the order elements appear in, but I recommend starting with these two options to pick out your body type and skin tone first, since some options look better on certain bodies imo

also !! meiker !! I don't hear people talk about it much, but it's really cool I like it a lot! it's like picrew, but instead of uploading a bunch of pngs, you arrange and label your layers in folders and upload a single psd file. personally I liked the process a lot more than picrew because I'd rather work with one big file than a million tiny image files, but that's just me. plus you can make the images bigger than you can on picrew too

also posting this again since I can attach it to a post with the game, but I made a tutorial on how to create a bunch of colour options super fast if you want to make your own dressup game. there's no way I'd have nearly as many options if I didn't know how to do this. once you understand the actions feature you can do so much stuff so much more efficiently it's insane it's like my favourite photoshop feature

[blkkizzat]

Tutorial: Manga Banners

Basic Manga Text Change/Coloring/GIF creation in PS

Hey, so as promised making a very basic tutorial for making banner gifs in photoshop for fics/drabbles/layouts, etc.

I'm going to keep things super simple here for beginners.

END RESULTS↴ 

(NOTE: This gif I made will be used for an unreleased story of mine so please don't use this exact gif/images but you are free to follow the tutorial to create your own).

All I ask is if you find this helpful to REBLOG! :) No need to credit me.

For this tutorial you will need ↴ 

Photoshop

At least 2 manga panel images (non-transparent*)

Optional: Manga fonts. I mostly use CC Wild words (speech bubbles) & Manga Temple (narrator boxes)

Basic knowledge of photoshop layout/where tools are.

*this tutorial is essentially the same if working with transparency but if you do work with transparency you will need to have knowledge of clipping masks which i do not cover here.

Tutorial ↴ 

(optional) Prepwork: so i didn't think to include this do this but you are going to need to crop and resize your image. make sure the width is either 540 or 1080px. This is the recommended width for pictures in tumblr. Height can be what you want it to be. This is done image > image size (make sure the link-chain is pressed for aspect ratio)

Step 1

This is what you want your setup to look similar to. Delete locked background layer.

Steps 2 & 3

Make a new layer. It might be helpful for beginners to re-name all their layers so instead of "Layer 2" you might name this ⇢ "White fill layer or Text cover up". (doubletap layer name to change it).

Use rectangular marquee to select text you want to change. If you are just replacing a word or two you dont need to white out everything. But you could choose to cover up all if you wish. I just wanted to remove "senpai".

Steps 4 & 5

Use Paint Bucket Tool to fill in selection area with white (make sure the new layer you made is selected when you do this).

Select Text Tool. There is no need to make a new layer as once you are done typing it will become a text layer. I used CC Wild Words bold font for this for emphasis. If you do multiple lines of text use a new text layer for each line.

Step 6 - Optional Step - Highly recommended if you did multiple lines of text.

Rasterize Type by right clicking the layer. This is an optional step. I tend to do it out of habit and rasterizing lets you use the move tool to give you exact px distances between other rasterized elements but nothing we are doing requires this tbh and if you do decide to do it you can't go back and edit text.

If you did multiple text layers you cause space them out evenly using the move tool (zoom into 200%-400% if necessary to get exact pixel distances). Tip: Manga text is centered in the bubble and leaves a good distance away from the edge.

When you are done ctrl/cmd to select all text layers then right click and merge the layers. This is so incase you have to move the text layer for whatever reason they are all on one layer now, evenly spaced and you won't accidentally mess that up.

Step 7

Create an exposure layer (half filled in circle in layer bar for menu). This is important as it can lighten/darken image to make the colors we will add later pop by playing with the sliders for each setting.

Step 8

Apply exposure settings. On the right-hand side there will be 3 slider bars. The screenshot shows my settings but your settings will vary depending on the image. The one that gives the biggest benefit for manga is Gamma Correction which affects the midtones to make them lighter/darker and adds better contrast to the image so it doesn't look as muddy, often in black and white images it is easy for midtones to look muddy. Offset affects mid to dark tones of an image. Exposure affects midtones to highlights to make brighter or darker, overall use this the least. TIP: If you want to make an image brighter or darker you usually want this to apply equally to the overall image so then you would create a brightness/contrast layer instead. most manga images skew muddy and need a midtone and dark adjustment rather than highlights. the better the manga scan images the less adjustments you will need.

Step 9 - Optional

Apply a gradient map (half filled in circle in layer bar for menu). This is optional. a Gradient map adds gradient but preserves the shading in the image so essentially adds a gradient to the shading. I do this in black and white. But if you are happy with how it came out in the exposure phase you don't need to.

Step 10 & 11 -

Apply a gradient (half filled in circle in layer bar for menu). So when you add a gradient there are a ton of preset color combos you can use or you can create your own. I think this one is a preset but can't remember. I like a diagonal gradient from light to dark depending on where the light source on the image is but it is completely up to you. I tend to set the gradient angles near these 4 settings: -145, -45, 45, 145 depending on what corner I want the lighter part in.

One thing to note is brighter colors work better with a darker background. Lighter backgrounds can get washed out. One you add this as you can see it will be solid color.

*note* once this layer is applied any edits such as moving text, etc. around you want to do to the lower layers beneath it click the "eye" button to hide the gradient (same for the map) or there's a good chance it will move the gradient layers around and not the layer you want.

Change layer blending mode. By default it's set to "normal". You can play around with these. Depending on the effect you want and whether the image has darker or lighter colors will decide the blending mode. My typical blending modes are screen, overlay, hard light, vivid light or pin light. You can duplicate this gradient layer and play around with multiple settings and opacities to create something you like.

Step 12 - Optional

Add a Brightness/Contrast layer (half filled in circle in layer bar for menu). Brightness/Contrast on this step will look wildly different than if you added it right after the exposure step. It's not necessary but if you want more overall contrast or brightness then you can add it.

You can see my settings below on the sliders on the right-hand side.

Step 13

Create new layer for highlights. (also good check point to see how your layers are organized).

Step 14

Select the brush tool and ensure brush settings are a soft round brush with a hardness of 0% for the highlight effect. (if you click the brush image you can see my settings better)

Step 15

Select the dropper tool and pick a color from the gradient image. I usually pick the darkest colors available as it will have the best dodge effect for highlights. Since this is pink/redish I only have one highlight color but if you were doing a green/blue gradient you would pick the darkest from both. (ignore the purple here its not being used)

Step 16

Create highlights with brush tool. Do a few tests placements randomly around the image for positioning and then swap the blend mode to either color dodge or linear dodge. I usually do color dodge. You will get awesome highlights like below. You can play with the sizing of the brushes and opacity to decrease the effect.

Step 17 & 18

Export as PNG. Do this even if you want to make a gif as I always recommend a clean canvas for gif making. If you want to be done here and don't want a gif thats fine too. File > Export > Quick Export as PNG (do not save as jpeg/gif you will lose image quality).

Repeat for second image. You don't need to open a new file unless it helps you to not get confused. You can just make a new layer and paste your new image into that layer (if you just right click copy the file in the window/finder folder you can directly paste it into a layer in PS) and use the transform tool to resize. However you can totally just open the image in PS. The benefit of same canvas is you save yourself some time as you can just duplicate gradient layers/adjustment layers and move them. But this is kinda more advanced so if you aren't comfortable with photoshop just make a new image.

Step 18-19

Create new file/open one of the PNG in PS (more advanced can just create new layer, select image, then copy > copy merged and paste on new file for each. Otherwise open one file, create a new layer then copy the other file. The bottom later will be the first image in the gif.

Create Frame Animation on the timeline window. (if the timeline window does not appear then window > timeline) *note* if this is your first time working with the window it may be set to "create video timeline", if that's the case create it then from the frame menu (in step 23 theres an example of where this is) select "convert to frame animation".

If done correctly your setup should look like the below with two images. One for each layer and one for each frame.

MAKE SURE PROPAGATE FRAME ONE BOX IS CHECKED IN THE LAYERS WINDOW.

lmao, not to be dramatic but this ensures most effects you would add to frame 1 (which corresponds to layer 1) is applied to all frames. I'm not too sure its super vital for this super basic gif I'm showing you but its better to get in the habit of always having it checked. otherwise it will fuck you over later down the line in my next tutorial where I show how to add frames to gifs.

Step 20

Select both layers, then select both frames (ctrl/cmd) and finally select tween from the timeline window. It is the multi-faded dot option on the bar below.

Step 21

Add Frames to Tween. Tween is the fading effect adding more frames is the longer the fading effect is. I added 20 for this step, you can play around and add more or less.

Once you do that you can see 20 new frames being added onto the timeline. This will not automatically add new layers, this is fine. Frames and layers don't need to be a 1-to-1. (Another reason why propagate frame 1 needs to be checked as you can still adjust those layerless frames by adjusting frame 1's layer)

Step 22

Adding delays. Automatically the delay on every frame is at zero. But especially if you have text you want people to be able to read that so you need to add in a delay. Your delays can be in increments of 1/10th of a second. I add a 1 second delay to the first frame only.

Step 23

Select and Copy the first frame and then select the last frame and Paste. A paste window will appear in this case we want to paste after selection. I circled where the menu for frames are. (sorry used a different gif as an example so ignore everything but the circled menu)

Step 24

Adding additional delays. I add a 1 second delay to the last two frames.

Step 25

Add more Tween I added 5 frames this time as we want the transition to be much quicker to reset the image. You can see frame 23 in the previous step are now frame 28.

You can add more images in than 2 and follow these steps to add tweening.

DONE! Now to save.

Step 26

Export your gif. File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy) and the screen below should pop up. Here are the settings I use for gifs. You can play around with it but I really wouldn't lol. (again ignore image size, this is from a different gif) it will also tell you how big in file weight your gif is. This isn't something you have to worry about for something simple but the bigger the image size and the more transitions/images you use the more frames you will have. Reducing image size (make sure chain link is on like in the below) will take off more sizing then removing frames will and I would recommend that. But tumblr allows 10MB MAX per gif so just something to keep in mind.

Let me know how this was! If you have questions just drop me an ask. ❤

[iolite-moodboards]

𓈒༷♪˚.✧ How to make a mockup like this for smaus, ocs, etc. (step-by-step tutorial ☆ no Photoshop, easy, free) (requested by @lovebittenbyevans) ✿

guys this took me two hours to make and you could probably get this done in like, 30 minutes :) I hope this is coherent <3 Please look back this image for comparisons, if my explanation is not well explained, etc.

first of all, if you dont already have one, make a free canva acount. once you're signed in, hit the purple "create design" button on the sidebar. A pop-up will appear with different design template options. For this design, we want the dimentions to be 1080 x 1080, so you can either make a custom size or choose the instagram post (square) template by either searching or scrolling through the list.

2. Now you have a blank page. Zoom in with the slider at the bottom of the page if you need to (Mine is currently zoomed in 41%). Click on the page and change the color to an off black (hex code #111111).

3. Now that the color is changed, click the "elements" tab and search "line". Click the shape and it will add it to the page automatically. These line are particularly hard to navigate and hard to get it at the right angle and length so this part might take a little longer than the rest.

4. stretch it from top to button and turn in a 90 angle so its straight on the left side of the page. Change the color of this as well to a grey tone (hex code #2F2F2F).

5. Now we'll add the Instagram logo. Click the "text" tab then click the purple "add text box" button. Write "Instagram" in the box and change the font to "apricots". This is the closest font I could find that resembled the logo font but if you find a better one, feel free to use that instead. Make the font size 19.3 (you can do this manually or do it in the text options). Change the color to grey color (hex code #707070). Add it to the upper left corner of the page like this:

6. now we're adding icons and a menu inside the border we just made. Click the "elements" tab again and search for "instagram home icon" and add the element by sketchify to the page. Click the home icon, an options icon with pop-up above the page. Look for the "Position" button and click it. Scroll to find the advanced options and you can manually type in the width and height at 26.6 and 28.7.

Move it inside the border, under the logo (photo below). Change the color again (the hex code is #707070).

7. Open the text tab and add a text box. Change the font to Canva Sans and write "Home" in the box. Change the font size to 18.1 and align with with the house icon. It will look something like this,

8. Go into the elements tab again and search "instagram search icon". Scroll until you find the one by sketchify and add it to the page.

9. Shrink it so the W and H is at 36.6 and 31.3. Move it below the home icon until a purple "67" pop ups and aligns under it. Change it to the same color as the Home text and icon (#707070). Go ahead and Duplicate the the "Home" text box and clicking it and a pop-up will show up then edit the text so it says "Search" and align with the searcch icon we just added.

10. You know the drill. We are continuing to search up more icons in the "elements" tab. Search "instagram compass icon" and choose the one by sketchify (are u seeing the pattern?). Add it to the page and change the width and heigth to 33.1. align it under the search icon just like how we did before and change it to the say colors as the other icons.

11. Do the same as before and write "Explore" in a text box and align it with the icon. We're doing the same thing for all of these.

We'll be using the same search prompt for all of these icons so just change the type of icon you're looking for like we've done before hand. Next look for the Instagram reel icon and add the outlined one by sketchify and change the W and H to 31.2 x 30.9. Change the color to the ones we've used before, align it underneath the icons above and add your text ("Reels").

12. The next icon is an outlined, "sent" one. W and H is 31.1 x 27. The text will say "Send". Then an heart outline by sketchify; W and H is 34.2 x 29.1 and the text is "Likes". Next is the "create" outline icon by sketchify, W and H is 36.8.

(p.s if you are struggling to align the icons and text correctly, shoot me a message and I'll send you the X and Y positions ;D)

If you followed it through, it should look like this,

13. Now onto step 13, we'll be adding the Threads logo. You don't have to add this but to make it look more like the actual website, I will be adding it. Open the "text" tab and add a text box. Write an "@" symbol in the box and change the font to Nanum Sqaure and the size to 24.9. Add in the bottom corner below all the icons we just added to our page. We need another text box now (Color is still #707070), write "Threads" and align it to the "@" symbol.

14. We're adding another icon now. Search "Instagram menu icon" and find a wireframe menu icon by sketchify. the W and H are 42.5 x 24.6. Add a text box that says "More". It will look like this:

We are a quarter way done now :D

15. Search in the elements tab "circle frame" and look for the one with a little border around it.

At first, the circle will be green and inside the circle will be white. Change the white to color of the background of the page (hex code #111111) then change the green to a grey color (#8D8986).

16. Add a new text box, change the font to Canva Sans and the size to 22.8 and the color is white. I just wrote "user.name" in the box. the W and H will be 153.3 x 35.7.

Enter the "elements" tab and search for a blue checkmark and find the icon by Victor Aguiar. The W and H is 28.1 by 28.

17. Search in the search box for a rectangular shape and add it to the page. Place it next to your username and checkmark icon and make the W and H to 149.6 x 38. Add another and place it next to the other rectangle shape. the W x H is 111.4 x 36.7.

Change the color of both boxes to #2F2F2F. Add a text box and write "following" then change the W and H to 82.6 x 21.8 and fit it inside the first box. Add a second text box and write "message" in it then change the W and H to 77.8 x 21.8. Change both text colors to #7A7A7A

18. Add another text box. Write "<" and turn it upside down and place it beside the "following" text inside the rectangle. Adjust the size as you need to. I also like the round the corners to around 8 so its not so pointy and square.

19. Add 3 new text boxes. Write the amount of posts, the amount of accounts you're following and the amount of followers your have. Write "20 posts", "30 following" "40 followers". Bold the numbers and change the text W and H to 116.4 x 32.7. These are just place holders that I use.

20. Open the "elements" tab again and search "frame". Choose the first one.

We want the height and width to be 268 x 252.4. Place it at the bottom of the page but we want some space between the frame and the page.

Now we'll duplicate the frame we just placed (the icon between the comment and trash can on the pop up above the frame). Place it next to the previous frame but we want to leave a bit of space between them like this:

If its a little wonky, don't worry. You can always adjust it so it looks right.

Duplicate the frame again and place it next the second frame you just placed, same distance between. Make sure they're even. Now we have a row.

Select all three frames and duplicate them. Move them above our original frames but leave a little space between them.

Again, if they're uneven, adjust them as you need to.

21. Select the line again from the elements tab. Stretch starting from the top frame to the last frame and make the color grey (#2F2F2F).

Because the line is stupid hard to navigate, use something like a text box to mark where you want it to end like this:

Delete the text box and the line with be where we want it.

22. On to the highlight reels. Seach for "add button" and find the one by Barudak Lier.

Change the heigh and width to 81.1 and move it above the border.

Search for circle frames now and add this one to the page (The same one we used for the pfp), change the width and height to 85.4 and move it next to the add button. Since this is a generic, blank template, I add about 4 of these highlight frames but you can do however many you want. You can change the border color to a gradient or leave it grey.

Add a text box now. The font will be Canva Sans, the size will be 18.1 and the color will be white. Change the text to "Add" and place it under our add button. Make more of these text boxes to place under the circle frames. Depending on which frame its under, write "Highlight 1", "Highlight 2", etc. etc. or you can give them different names and such.

23. Add another text box, write "name" and bold it, change the size to 19.1 and the W and H to 69.2 x 28.8. The font will be Canva Sans and the color will be white. It will go under the amount of posts, followings and followers.

Add another box. The font is Canva Sans, font size to 20.1, the W and H is 40.8 x 31.3 and the color is white as well. This is our "bio". Place it under "name".

Yay!🎉🎉🎉 You're halfway done!

24. Search for a shape in the elements. Look for the rectangle again and add it. Change the width and height to 460 x 760.4 and the color to an off black/grey color (#191919), placing it like this:

Get the same kind of square frame we used before to make the profile grid and make it the same size as the rectangle we just added. Place right up against the rectangle like it's its other half. Add another line like before and span across the upper half of the black rectangle as a border then add a circle frame inside the border.

Add a text box, "user.name" and align it with the frame. The text is white and the W and H is 111.5 x 25.9

25. Add more circle frame along the inside of the rectangle to resemble the comment section. Make sure the W and H of the frames are 46.1.

Add more text boxes that align with the frames you just made and write "username" again and bold them. Add even more text boxes that align with the usernames and write "comment". These are place holders for when you decide to use this template.

Add another rectangle on the lower part of the rectangle and make the color black. and search for "instagram heart icon", "instagram comment icon" and "instagram send icon". Make sure the lines are thick. Find the heart icon by sketchify, and the the comment and send icon are by Mirazz Creations. Make the lines white and make sure the W and H are the following:

Heart icon: 38.7 x 32.9

Comment icon: 35.2 x 35. 8

Send icon: 35 x 32

Next, look for "instagram bookmark icon" and find the one by Adricreative. Change the color to white and the W and H to 29.7 x 40.2. Move it to the other end of the rectangle.

26. Now add three circles frames and change the W and H to 37.2. Move them below the heart icon and have them overlap each other some. Then, add a text box and write "liked by username and 1000 others". Change the font size to 13.6 and change the font to Canva sans. the color will be white. Align this with the three overlapped frames.

27. Look in the elements tab for an emoji icon and choose the one by Soni Soukell from Noun Project. The W and H will be 32.8 and the color is white.

Now add a another text box and write "Write a comment". The color will be white, the font size will be 14.2 and align with the emoji icon you just placed.

Search for "next arrow button" by Pixeden and make the W and H 42.8 then add it to both sides of the post.

And you're all done with your template! All that is left to do is fill it but before doing that, duplicate the page so you always have an extra blank mockup if you want to use it again.

To fill the frames, upload an image (or use a Canva stock photo), drag and hover it over the frame and it will fill the frame.

Hope this was helpful and you you successfully made one :D <3

[a-devious-route]

Thank you so much for answering my question. The animations like the ones you have in your Ben Barnes gallery catch my eye (that would be the third avatar). The animations of Lee Dong Wook's avatars too. The first one above is beautiful. Have an excellent day <3

Hello again dear anonymous person!

Well, it's nothing fancy, but I made a short video. I recorded the steps to make this kind of animation! I hope it helps you! Unfortunately, my Photoshop is in French. But here are the steps will be available bellow the video :

1) You have to open your avatar (jpg or png) in Photoshop. > I like to use one that is already styled. I just need to add the animation.

2) Create a folder (I named it ANIM) in your layers panel. > This step is optional, but I like to do it to keep everything clean and easy to find.

3) Create your first empty layer in the folder, name it clearly. > I choose 1 because it'll be my animation's first frame.

4) Draw the elements you want in your animation with the pen tool in the color of your choice. > Here I choose the rough shapes of the flowers

5) Create a new layer in your anim folder and draw the second frame of your animation. > In this step I like to keep the old layer visible so I can see where I put my first animation layer. This is optional.

6) Repeat step 5 and create a third layer for the animation. > I like to do 3 to 5 layers, depending on the animation I decided to do, but nothing more to make them really light.

7) When all your layers are done with drawing, hide them all with the little eye in the layer panel.

8) Open the Timeline window. > If it's not already open, you can find it in the "Window" menu of your Photoshop) and make sure you have the "Frames" selected (if you see a timeline, you're not in the right mode, you can easily change it by selecting the 3 little squares at the bottom of the window).

9) You should have an existing frame once you are in the timeline mode. If not, click on "create frame animation".

10) Then click on the little [+] button at the bottom to add a frame near the trash. If you have 3 layers, make sure you have 3 frames

11) Select all 3, then click on the 0s and choose 0.1s (this will control the duration of the frame animation)

12) Select your first frame > then make your layer 1 visible. // Select your second frame > then hide your layer 1 and make your layer 2 visible. // Select your third frame > then hide your layer 2 and make your layer 3 visible.

13) Then you can "save for web" and play your gif to see if you like it!

Again I hope this helps! Enjoy your creation time! May you make a lot of nice things that makes you happy!

[chiwwydawgdraws]

AAAAAYYYYY WE FINALLY MADE IT!!!!!

Six years later, and Lost Souls is in it's final chapter (and will be completed before the year ends YIPPEEE!!!) and I realized that I hadn't made good on something I said I would do: frequent comparisons between appearances of the characters to show how my art has changed and improved throughout the comic's run. Completely forgot. Oops...

So I figured what better way to celebrate how far we've come than to visually SHOW how different the start and the end are! Here we go! (LONG POST AHEAD!)

PROLOGUE

Not much to say about the first chapter--other than it shows its age. 💀 At the time I really struggled with contrast and color theory, because everything is muddy and blends together.

I found all the Fazbears challenging to draw, but I especially remember struggling with Chica the most SOLEY because of her beak--I was having difficulty wrapping my head around making it look the way I wanted it to. Once I let myself treat Chica's beak less like an actual beak and more like a pair of extra thick lips she became one of the easier characters to draw.

CHAPTER ONE

Its so weird seeing where my blood children started and where they ended up design-wise. Cody's hair is a lot more tamer in style in these first chapters, and it took a while to get the hang of how I wanted to depict Bridget's wavy hair.

CHAPTER TWO

UGGHH MORE MUDDY COLORS GET IT AWAY GET IT AWAY

Back during this chapter the fog looked more like actual fog than a manifestation of all the animal souls Gold had collected and tenuously tied together with sheer force of will. All I can say is I guess I was still figuring out the art direction I was going.

CHAPTER THREE

I was REALLY proud how I subverted expectations by not letting Cody or Bridget faint upon meeting the Fazbears. XD

I also did this dumb thing where I would block the farther limbs in shadow to try and save time (you can see it most notably on Halo and Bonnie's ears.)

This did not in fact save much time and ended up looking kinda dumb and making people think characters were missing limbs. >_<

CHAPTER FOUR

Character designs are notably more consistent.

Here was where I dropped using Photoshop Elements 7 for my drawing and used Krita. I still used Photoshop for finishing details etc.

CHAPTER FIVE & SIX

If I had to pin a chapter in which character designs were pretty much solidified, it would be these chapters.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The only major characters here are Cody and Regan.

I made this chapter during the height of 2020. So naturally I was in the throws of a MAJOR depressive episode.

I took a lot of short cuts in an attempt to just get this chapter DONE. Don't know if it's noticeable or not, but yeah it was rough.

I didn't include the Bidibabs and Minireenas because there's too darn many if them, and they're not always grouped together for the most effective comparison shots.

CHAPTER EIGHT & NINE

Grouped because eight wasn't particularly noteworthy.

Other than it's where I made the switch to Clip Studio Paint.

I had experimented with it when I made the prior Crybaby chapters and fell in love with the program before I even finished the free trial.

CHAPTER TEN

Ooh I was SO anxious for this chapter, because here was when the story would reach the point of no return--it was literally all downhill from here and I wouldn't be able to just drop the comic if I lost interest.

(But I didn't! )

Point being, lots of anxiety surrounding this chapter.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Here is officially past the event horizon. At this point I had no idea how much farther I had to go in spite of the fact it was the start of the final night.

CHAPTER TWELVE

We officially enter the labyrinth here, and it is here where I officially decided I HATE the color green.

I really don't know what it was, but there wasn't many things I could do to make the characters stand out from the sheer GREEN of the vicinity, and it muddied up a lot of the colors of the characters.

Thankfully I had more experience under my belt to balance it all out (I hope 😬)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

More green.

So much green.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Which is why when Cody's group went into the mirror maze I switched it up and went more aquamarine/turquoise to make it more bearable for me.

Making the light emit from the glow-in-the-dark floor panels was a happy accident--I wad playing around with layer modes and the Add Dodge (Glow) layer mode in CSP caused an interesting effect that I took and ran.

Markiplier cameos here. (And dies. Sorry Mark.)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The double uploads started here and OH MY GOD I can't believe I managed to survive it. I really put my pedal to the metal here, and I came out on top!

(It was a race against myself really but HOT DAMN I WAS ON FIYA.)

Side note: this chapter went through SO MANY rough drafts guys it's not even funny.

The vibes weren't jiving, the pacing was all skiddly-wompus, and at one point the chapter was FIFTY PAGES LARGE (HELL NAW)

Its a miracle I'm alive man

Do your stinkin thumbnails guys--they saved my life

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

This was the hardest chapter to finish, if you can believe it.

It took the longest production-wise, because after SIX YEARS of non-stop comic work I was definitely burned out. Thank god I had already solidified the script and thumbnails beforehand because with that guide rail in place I could drag myself across the finish line by my fingernails because if there was ONE THING I DIDN'T WANT IT WAS A FRICKIN RUSHED ENDING. >:[

(Burned by too many unsatisfying webtoon/webcomic endings that basically went "and we lived happily ever after 😌")

Visually this is my favorite chapter. I love how the colors turned out, and all the characters felt truly "mine."

And that's that!

Man I started writing a whole paragraph and I realized that I should PROBABLY save it for the Afterword, when the comic is well and truly finished. So I'll hold off on that big ol' schpiel until then, but I will say:

THANK YOU FOR STICKING WITH US THIS FAR!

💖💕😘💕💖

[petitepatateuwu]

I'm not late for my digital art challenge, time is actually extremely early. Also my sister allowed me to use her photoshop and I am just confused because I can't adapt after looking at the same one software for four years. Also I hurt myself in Paris subway and I'm unhappy.

Don't look at the colour palet thingy, it's 5:00 am and I don't know what I'm doing.

So I decided to use this challenge to develop my dumb au ideas without taking any time to introduce you to it 😈

But because I feel like I should give some context, I'm still gonna yap about it😈😈😈

So actually, Jay isn't the one I should start with, but I'm chaotic so here you go 🫠

But it originally started when I realised that Ninjago gave Cole so little screen time that I started to make my own Cole lore in my head (sometime my brain does this on its own). And basically, I went from "what if Cole had a backstory?" to "what if I gave Cole my childhood trauma because I relate to him way too much?"to "what if Jay had siblings?" to "what if Zane was the only one with a perfect childhood?". And before I knew it an alternate timeline came tickling my circuits at night.

This then became me being mad at season 7 for bringing back Kai and Nya's parents, and decided to give (almost) all the ninjas childhood traumas based on what I understood of their character.

So in this au, Jay doesn't really have any "childhood trauma", but I kinda designed his family to be problematic in a way that he would grow with many insecurities because he lacked parental attention. And this despite his parents being awfully nice and caring to him and his siblings. It's just something that can happen, especially in large families or when the parents are so invested in their work/hobby that they tend to unintentionally neglect their kids, and I think that both are happening in Jay's family.

I'm also thinking that his parents would have difficulties understanding most of their children exposing neurodivergent symptoms. I strongly believe that Jay is on the ADHD spectrum, and as a person with ADHD symptoms as well, I'm using my personal experience to explain how he could've grown with it. (I'm not very good when talking about neurodivergence, just know that I based most of Jay's childhood problems on this video, which I think explains very well how parents can have the best intentions but still hurt their children because they don't understand them)

So of course, the final personalities of the ninjas are a bit different from canon, but I did try to make them similar at best, or close from what I understand of them, which might not be correct X). In this au, Jay is very insecure about his abilities, which results in him hiding most of the time to build/model/create/whatever artistic stuff he said he did, but also in him having more difficulties to unlock some of his powers (like the elemental dragon). After spending some time with him, the other ninjas learn how to properly encourage him to open up and make him gain some self-confidence. When he is not in a stressing situation, Jay acts rather childishly, because he was used to be mothered by his parents and his older siblings, and he is more open about his emotions than others can be, he even has trouble hiding them when necessary.

[lightspringrain]

Some Drawing Resources

I saw @freesia-writes asks for some drawing resources and I thought I would share some that help me along the way. List is below.

Some drawing programs (prices may vary):

Autodesk sketchbook (free)

Krita (Free)

Adobe Photoshop ($11 USD A month)

Clip Studio Paint (80 USD a year)

Procrate ($10 USD) For tablet

3D Programs:

Blender (free) - great for learning anatomy and 3D space of a figure.

Maya ($300 USD for 100 days) - used to be a lot cheaper but not anymore.

Books:

1. *** Human Anatomy for Artist: The Elements of Form - by Eliot Goldfinger *** (Must have)

2. Anatomy for Sculptors: Understanding Human Figure - by Uldis Zarins (fan fave)

3. Figure Drawing: Design and Invention - by Michael Hampton

4. Classic Human Anatomy: The Artist's Guide to form, function and movement - by Valerie L. Winslow

5. Classic Human Anatomy in motion: The Artist's Guide to the Dynamics of Figure Drawing - by Valerie L. Winslow

6. Dynamic Human Anatomy: An artist's Guide to Structure, Gesture, and the Figure in Motion - by Roberto Osti

7. Anatomy: A complete Guide for Artists - by Joseph Sheppard.

Online Art Pose References (where to find):

Artstation Marketplace (not free)

Deviantart (mostly free)

Pose Space (pricey)

Gumaroad (not free)

Background:

I actually have a degree in 3D and 2D animation from on the the top art schools in the USA. However, I really didn't learn much about drawing in school. I learn more about 3D/2D programs and how the 3D animation industry works. I learned how to draw/paint mostly on my own.

I started out as a digital artist and still am a digital artist. It not so much the medium in which one draws on but what one is learning how to draw. Much like music - doesn't matter which instrument one is learning how to play, one needs to learn their scales. In art those "scales" are learning anatomy (which nobody learns), color theory (which is my pride and joy), perspective (super hard), gesture and form (super fun once you get it).

Remember, everyone learns differently and at their own speed. Find what makes you want to learn and a fun way to learn for you. Hope this helps! Best of luck on your art journey.

[chelstory]

At first I thought I wanted to start a path in animation, but then looking at your Elemental art and storyboards makes me want to try my hand there too! (Yes, I love Elemental that much, watched it 7 times).

Not sure if you’ve been asked this a lot, but where does one start on the path to becoming a storyboard artist (or anything relevant to the animation industry)?

I’m a vocational nurse who is hoping to use her free time to slowly go on that journey of “animation aspiration”. Someone told me that the best way to start would be getting a wacom if I want to try more animation.

Does that also apply to storyboards? Like what technology and apps do I need?

How do I put myself out there like you did?

Apologies if this question has been asked too many times. I just feel so inspired after seeing your work!

- Abigail

Apologies for answering this a million years later 🥲

You should absolutely go for it!!

If you want to do anything within the animation industry, my general advice would be

1. Watch loads of movies and shows! Animated and live action. Make a note of shows you like and are inspired by

2. Draw a lot. Get a sketchbook (I like to call them shitbooks) and just draw any and everything, no matter how ugly. Just get used to drawing whatever on paper and when you’re ready, move to a digital medium like an IPad or any other small drawing pad that you can comfortably draw on

3. Study story structure! Knowing how to properly tell a story is really vital, especially if you want to be involved in a show or a movie. YouTube has a BUNCH of resources. Also read books!!

4. Learn how to visually tell a story! When you watch movies/shows, pay attention to how the scenes play out and what shots the director used to get the idea across. Make a list of shots/scenes you really like and study what makes them work

5. When you’re ready, invest in a desktop setup! Tablet, PC, monitor, all of that. Most animation professionals use ToonBoom, Storyboard Pro, Photoshop, Blender etc. There are cheaper alternatives to all of these too

6. Just make stuff and put it out there. Whatever interests you, whatever gets you pumped, just draw and post it. Post into the ether and eventually people will see it and want to know more about you.

Starting and putting yourself out there is scary and hard (I still lowkey hate it lol) BUT part of living is sharing yourself with others! Because I faced my fears and put myself out there, eventually I inspired you! 🧡

All in all, go for it! If you have any other questions, you can DM me!

Edit: I just looked at your page and saw that you already draw a lot and draw digitally which is GREAT

I’d say def focus more on your own stories and post that stuff separately from your fandom stuff! You’re already putting yourself out there and allowing people to get a peek into your personality, now just sort of direct that to your own characters, stories and other stuff that interests you!

[sketchmre]

do you have a favorite piece of venture maidens fanart you've drawn???

This is a great question! Honestly, I've been wanting to make a environmental piece with whimsy, food, and fashion, for like.. 2 years? when thats done it will probably be my favorite piece LMAO but for the time being? let me go through my venture maidens folder

read more break because im going to be going on and on

This applies to most aspects of my life, but I don't really have a top "favorite" thing in most areas! I mean, Madoka Magica Rebellion is my favorite movie (very closely rivaled by Coraline), but that's an outlier. In every other case, I have a collection of my favorites with one coming out on top depending on how I'm feeling that day.

It's also influenced by eras, I think. I don't want to compare my most recent art to my venture maiden 2020 art, because I've improved and will prefer my newer style. However, there's still a sense of nostalgia and homeliness to some of my old art that can bring it above the rest, you know?

Going through my venture maiden campaign 1 folder, here's probably my favorites:

These two are from 9/3/20 ("sawYEAH.png") and 11/23/22 ("arent you tired of being nice.png"). I think Sawyeh's relatively simple design has always lend itself well to gesture drawing, especially with the relatively simple silhouette shape. Theyre just fun :) I like them a lot.

I don't know if I'd rank a lot of my campaign 1 art among my favorites, not because I think less of the campaign but because a lot of that time period was me feeling my way into an art style. I see it as the time period after I started feeling confident in my art, but before I kind of became the "unique facial features and color jitter" artist.

For fun (and food), here's some of my unposted campaign 1 stuff.

10/23/20 and 10/27/20 (gidget and vlad, back when i was drawing in paint tool sai!)

1/2/21, 1/5/21, 6/18/21 || 1/6/21 (put out of order because i like this image composition more).

Here's some 2020 (and 2019, apparently?) photoshop files! I like some more than others. None of them have previews since they're photoshop files, so I'm opening them blind in krita. Note the layers/colors may seem off, it's probably because the clipping masks and editing layers break between programs.

8/12/19, 8/21/20, 8/31/20 || 9/5/20 || 10/23/20, 10/23/20, 10/28/20 || 11/4/20

From 10/21/20, technically in 2020 but close to 2021. I think it's unique because it starts to show a shift to more.. unique concepts, I guess? It was of a water elemental who uses an ice mask to mimic having a face. It's cool, I should revisit it.

3/17/21, 3/18/21

I think that's pretty much it for the art while campaign 1 was going on. Here's some post-campaign 1 stuff from 2023 that maybeee got put on the discord?

8/16/23, 8/25/23.

GREAT now I'm moving on to campaign 2.

My favorite? My favorite piece of artwork so far? It's of a one-off npc, the garlic princess. I was studying old strawberry shortcake designs for her. It was a lot of fun.

9/10/23

My other favorites? Probably any art of Tandy

1/2/23 || 1/2/23

I also really enjoy these unfinished sketches: the first being a wildes-influenced lu, inspired by butterflies and gemstones; the second being Toni and a Wyrd sister ("thats no angel.png"); the third being halloween outfit designs; and the fourth being aoife and toni going clubbing in the wildes;

7/11/21, 10/11/22, 9/2/23 || 1/26/24

As for unposted sketches? Oh boy, I've got a lot more for this campaign. So much that I have reached the image limit per post, whoops. I'll add them in a reblog.

[stimmers-please-interact]

Want to start a stim blog? Have some tips!

1. YouTube and Instagram video downloaders are our friends, but so is Adblock. Some of these download sites are blatantly just infected with all sorts of worms, so stay protected.

2. Crediting your boards means that the video creator can be credited for their original work. This matters because a lot of sensory GIFs come from accounts of small artists! Make sure you source their work.

3. You don't need Photoshop. Alternatives most commonly used for free are Photopea and Ezgif. I personally use Honeycam GIF editor but it costs money to remove the watermark.

4. Learn the lingo! You'll want to know about colour correction, frame rate, dithering, and aspect ratio primarily. Master the four elements to become the GIFmaking Avatar

5. Pick a theme or niche to get people hooked. Supply and demand, if you offer a good interesting content experience it'll entice more folks to follow! See @y2kstims and @stiminality for examples of specific niche GIF content.

6. DNIs generally don't work and a long convoluted one can turn people off of interacting. Especially those who rely in screen readers. If you need one, keep it short and sweet. Type it in plain text.

7. Fill your queue and let it run! This keeps your blog on a generally consistent schedule, even when you're busy offline.

8. Respect boundaries when interacting with others. Remember the human and be kind. There is a person behind that screen.

9. Have fun!

[derwahnsinn]

31 Days Idol Challenge - Oliver Riedel

Day 10 - Favourite Look in a Group Photo

When I made this challenge before this year's tour, I was not sure which photo I would go for. As soon as this Adieu photo by Jens Koch was published, it became easy.

Of course, it is separate shots put together, but it's still presented as a group photo - and Oliver looks fabulous. I like how he has a prominent placement, how his posture and facial expression is so different from how we normally see him in photos, and how he looks hands on and ready to go. It totally fits the character he had in the Adieu music video, where he totally rocked that mini-gun.

Seeing this photo blown up and used for Rammstein's merch booths this tour, was amazing. The details were mind-blowing. I actually took photos of one of those banners, and while my angle and lighting was not perfect, I have tried to adjust the colour balance and aspect to resemble the original. The spots on the photo are spots that were on the actual banner I photographed.

Since this photo is photoshopped and not accurate, please do not circulate it. I put a disclaimer on it as well, so no one will think of it as the original photo. While it is not perfect, it does show a little bit of the crazy detail in this fantastic photo.

Bonus material: 1) Dreamy young Oliver with hair, by Fritz Brinckmann 1995. 2) Pile of Rammstein where Oliver has more hair than Schneider, by Joachim Gern 1995. 3) Barefoot Oliver front and centre, by Jan Hinrich Hoffmann 1995. 4) Photo where you can really see that Oliver is younger than the rest of Rammstein, by Frank Lothar Lange 1997. 5) Oliver and Richard sharing a moment, by Ross Halfin 2001. 6) Shaved Oliver with glasses, by Olaf Heine 2004. 7) The Rosenrot photoshoot, by Kasskara Agentur (Mat Hennek and Felix Broede), 2005. Oliver looked confident and proud, perhaps because the band was dressed up by his wife? 8) The German Conference, Sonoma 2008, by Olaf Heine. I like how the others are listening to Oliver (well, apart from Richard, who is posing for the camera). 9) In LIFAD costume, by Paul Harries 2010. This was a really good look for Oliver. 10) Oliver in his element, by Frédéric Batier for Mein Land 2011. 11) Smiling Oliver on the photo shoot for the Untitled album, photo by Jes Larsen 2019.

--

Others doing this challenge:

Till: @endlich-allein Flake: @anwiel13

[lethedwarddavidsonworld-blog]

Signalis Doom - 5

Not much today either, it was mostly a mix of overcoming issues with 3d models in doom and figuring out some workflows.

3d models are still considered sprites, so to get models to display properly, it involves a degree of pointing the engine to look at invisible dummy sprites and then swapping those with the model. Odd stuff. There's better formats than this one and i'm going to look into those. That being said, i'm unsure how much i'm gonna commit to 3d, right now it's just experimentation. what I'll prob end up doing is spending a day banging out a buncha mockup sprites to approximate some chars and start mapping. Just enough to get the idea. tbh i could be doing way more mapping to establish a level language than i am, i'm kinda putting it off to play with textures and i gotta diversify.

I'm considering commissioning some artists for some spritework, either on specific characters or UI elements or such. I know i'll want something done for the opening splash. Most of my time today, and the next few days, is going to be spent reacquainting myself with a host of tools. I've been doing gamedev for years, i went to school for 3d animation, and i've spent a great deal of time in alot of art tools. However, i tend to forget how they work very easily. I realized i'm not gonna get anything done unless i take the time to remember how the following tools work; 1. Maya for core animation(could be a problem, iqm is the newest doom format and the community pipeline is best setup for blender, but we'll see how it goes) 2,. Blender for import/export/better compability with some aspects of gzdoom 3. Photoshop for photo manipulation of the existing textures and as a means of either creating new textures, or givng more nuance to ones i create elsewhere. 4. Aesperite for core pixel art. Signalis is a mix of low rez painted works and pixel art, and knowing when to deploy each is a good idea. 5. I'll need to get a proper toolkit up for the model to 2d pipeline, i have options but they need to be tested. 6. FL studio for audio manipulation. 7. and imma be real i don't know how spreadsheets work and i'm gonna need a hell of a spritesheet to organize what assets i'll need to recreate. That sounds like a lot but i've used them all before, and i'd need to more or less do the same thing for any real production anyway.

On the plus side, i think i've figured out how to do the floors. i'll just take elements of the original textures, and build a larger one out of them with built-in variation for tiles and color variation. I'll add more variation as needed in-editor.

I'm realizing i'm spending alot of time in odd spots. To be honest, i've never done a fan project like this before, much less one working with OG textures. I'm having a tough time getting my head around not only the unique nature of doom modding (releasing contnet packs taht can slot into any game) with full game production (Og maps, mechanics, story with bespoke stuff) ontop of fanworks (fanfiction, recontexualization of original assets). part of me wonders if my focus on getting og textures working is a mistake, as it's putting me in a mindset that's not the most useful for my project. But we'll see, I'll get my priorities straightned out, this ain't getting done overnight either way.

[midorisudachi]

Happy New Year!

Let's hope that this year is more gentle, kind, and comforting to all! The past few years have been rough, so I am hoping & praying that 2023 will the polar opposite!

First fan art of the year! I drew this for my son last month, as he loves Minecraft Story Mode. I had previously drawn the 6 main characters and then the Blaze Rods in my style (please check my gallery/archive to see them). I decided to draw MCSM season 1, episode 7 ("Access Denied"), after the main 4 enter the desert biome & come across those zombies with the glowing eyes. I ran out of room to draw Ivor, though! Jesse is supposed be holding that enchanted sword of his. (I guess it depends on how you chose the character & the weapons, as to how it looked for you.) I find that weapons are hard to draw, even if it is something as "simple" as a sword.

I hope you like this! It's fun to draw the characters in my style, to give them a bit of a semi-realistic style (mixed with my manga/graphic novel style), and also figure out how their outfits may look. I'm not great that backgrounds & environments, so please excuse the background! This was drawn with Sakura Pigma Micron pens, then coloured in with a mix of Copic Markers & Ohuhu Markers. White accents were done with a gel pen. Sparkles around Jesse's sword was done in Photoshop Elements. I also added in the clouds with Photoshop Elements, since the sky came out a bit streaky with the markers. (I may go back to watercolours for backgrounds...I haven't used watercolours in 13 years!)

Minecraft/Petra/Jesse/Lukas Ⓒ Mojang Studios & Telltale Games

Fan artwork Ⓒ Jacqueline E. McNeese

[que-de-metal]

HI i love your art (as you well know), i was wondering, what's your technique for drawing water?? i love your bgs in general but i was wondering how you drew the waterfall+lake in your sanae/tsukasa illustration

Thank youuu

I don't have a specific technique for water overall, I switch it up every time I draw it depending on the feel I want it to have, usually I pull up references either from photographs, artworks, or former plein air life drawings of mine (when I draw from life I got the habit of scanning it and putting it in neatly organized folders, so that even 5 years later a tree or a building i sketched can be repurposed in an actual illustration, I highly recommend it)

In general when coloring digital illustrations I work in photoshop and I use a fuckton of layers. My hand is always on the "hue and saturation" shortcut ready to do adjustments and that's how I build up patches of color until I'm satisfied.

The specific process for the tsukasana illustration:

After sketching the background with rough shapes + looking at some reference pictures of forest streams I could already see the kind of water I wanted: a shiny waterfall / with a lot of foam / foam bubbles at the bottom / the scum smudging into the actual water / shiny water in the pond / and since it's not murky you can see tsukasa's feet in it / then a ring of mud transitioning between the pond and the grass (so 7 parts total). I feel like it's easier to do environments when you really think about the separate parts of each element.

Then I did the lineart and the flats (every color on a separate layer). For the flats since the property of the water was "shiny" i picked the lighter colors first knowing that I'll work some darker colors in when painting. If the water property was "deep" I would have done the opposite.

Then for each element in the order I did them (every step = a layer, a mask or a color adjustment)

And then by the end of the illustration I finished up by adding some white reflections around Tsukasa and painting over some of the splashes where the lineart was distracting

I hope you'll find something useful in all this ahaha