#sorry for the shitty 720p quality

[interstellarvacuumcleaner]

also a new hard drive where I can safely put everything else but One Piece from the old one

it won't survive copying 400+ Gb of series ^^"

fuck i need to double down on some downloading / archiving, and FAST

[mesetacadre]

streaming anon sorry i meant streaming sites not as in netflix amazon etc but as in the uhh online websites where you watch things for free that are horrid without adblock 😭

gkdnsk it's okay

I really dislike streaming piracy, it's just shittier in every way. torrenting/ddl (although ddl is also dogshit) does not compromise the quality of the piece of media if your internet isn't good enough to stream a 1080p or 720p video from whatever shitty servers the site has. it's always more unresponsive and confusing than a file on your computer played with VLC. If the site does not offer subtitles you're fucked. With the exception of sports and most animes, streaming is also just harder to find with a decent quality and reliability. every time I want to watch a movie I check the 2-3 usual sites and then it's on my SSD forever. If the torrent site goes down it does not matter becaude it's on my computer.

I refuse to believe that the people who say streaming piracy is easier are saying that from actual experience. in most cases it's either an unwillingness to learn how to put a magnet link into qbittorrent, or just a preference for the type of service normal streaming services offer, which is stupid. the only justification I'll ever understand for preferring streaming is for computers without a lot of space or maybe phone piracy mains.

[zackmartin]

UGH!!!!!!! Okay so I bought paramount+ for £32.99 instead of £74.99 for the year cause it's literally the only place in the UK with all nickelodeon shows and I was desperate to watch them again!! Anyway I also bought it so I could record the episodes on my laptop and make edits specifically the thundermans which I'd been dying to edit forever and they haven't released the DVDs or what not here only to find out they only have the episodes in SD not HD and the quality is pretty shitty and no good for editing :( I don't get it though as nickelodeon on TV here does air the thundermans in HD they have an SD channel too but the HD channel defo has the episodes airing in HD cause you flick between them and man oh man the difference!!!

It makes no sense to me that paramount+ would only have the SD version especially since the show isn't that old and HD was available when the show was bloody airing :'(

sorry I just had to rant lol

no, don't apologize!!!!! I crave the random asks <3

I'm wondering if the difference in price is why it's SD?? (If I'm reading your ask right). Because here it IS available in HD?? Either way that sucks and I'm sorry, I know your pain. It's annoying trying to edit a show that's only available in 720p or less, it's so ugly 😔

[thatbluebox]

hi Lizzie! I hope you don't mind me asking where did you get "the game" (2014) in such a good quality for your tomione videos? I've been looking everywhere for a long time and all I can find is a shitty 720p with bbc watermarks on top and it's killing me

hey - so sorry i missed this earlier! i believe you can find it on zoe's (SunnyVids) discord (in the logoless section)! ❤️

[crowley1990]

New Years Resolutions

[simplyrose8]

“Welcome home”

[malecsbiscuit]

✿ endless appreciation ✿ ⟶ izzy

[captainsspnanon]

C3E03 - ‘Live’blog and reaction

Episode THREE!!!!

I will admit, I watched just under an hour of it last night, so granted reactions for that bit won’t be immediate, but oh well.

One thing I’m sad about the art reel?  The commissioned art seems like it’s all the same.  I’d be more into it if it were varied.

(am I going to rewatch the first hour now?  YES I AM)

I have gotten used to the new voices pretty damn quickly, to be honest.  I think the only ones throwing me off still are Sam and Travis, and Travis only because Bertrand sometimes slips into Fjord, though it’s stabilizing more and more.  Laura’s just sounds natural now.

While the bit is cute, I’m still not a huge fan of the cut aways and such.

...look.  I fully respect the entire cast and crew of Critical Role, and recognize that they are human beings deserving of full respect and treatment as such.  BUT I’m sorry!  When Marisha stands up in the crop top! BELLY.  When Liam tugs at his shirt later in the episode and COLLARBONE.  And just ASHLEY.   ….I’M SORRY I’M THIRSTY.

….did trying to switch to chrome just crash my entire computer and I had to restart. WTF.  I just want to watch in 1080p without it lagging every 10 seconds!

Well, chrome was worse than firefox.  *sigh*  I really don’t want to have to wait for the rebroadcast to start, I can’t pause as needed then!

….I messed with everything I could and it STILL lagged.  My choices are wait almost two hours for the rebroadcast to start, or watch at 720p.  *very frustrated sigh*  I DID NOT SUBSCRIBE FOR SHITTY QUALITY.  I’m genuinely wondering if I’m just going to have to start waiting for the youtube upload, except I’ll miss tumblr.  Where there will be constant spoilers.

….720p is lagging. Wtf, I hate twitch.  Alright.  Switched back to 1080p, I’ll try to see if I can just let it ‘pre-load’ a bit.  If not, I guess I’ll wait til the rebroadcast?  AAARGH.

Lolling at Sam calling out Ashley for not wearing shoes

Yes, this is DnD. Nobody remembers SHIT from the end of last episode!

REALLY interested to see more of Fearne!!  I love how she’s just tapping and scratching and banging the door and thinking she’s being helpful.

I’m also interested to see where Orym is going to go, Liam’s giving him good physicality, which adds a lot of characterization to a milder PC.

...Laudna’s still my favorite though.  Along with like, everyone else in the world too.

Okay, (again, I saw basically the first hour last night) so rather than do a beat by beat reaction to Travis and Laura, I just want to say that it’s AMAZING, I love ALL OF IT, and also I feel like C3 is much more of a trash fire than C2 was.  Like, are the players actively getting WORSE with things like planning and such?  I don’t know and I don’t care, it’s hysterical and I love it all!

THEY KEPT THE CREEPY WHISPERS.

Yes, these reactions are out of order because I’m going off of memory while the video lags WHATEVER DON’T CARE.

Character wise, I’d be fine if Bertrand stayed or left, honestly I’m fine with him as ongoing PC, and I’m also fine if Travis ends up switching him out. Ashton and (shockingly) FCG still don’t have me yet, but they’ve also not really had too much?  Like, I saw the interview with Sam so the idea of a therapist bot is interesting, but so far neither PC has really grabbed me.  I’m sure that will change soon!  All the rest? Yeah, invested!

The making my way running gag is sloowly dying out, oh well.  I’m okay with it being basically a C2 gag.

Oh god I forgot that Bertrand went full on Lockheart with the ‘beasts’ he defeated

Laudna has darkvision!  Innnnteresting.

I don’t know how I feel about them CHANGING the things that Laudna says as creepy whispers.  I like just the echos.

I am not complaining!  I have no clue why, but the lagging has stopped.  SO HAPPY.  Also, eff the rebroadcasts, they don’t even have 1080p!

I thought they did sleep at the spire by fire, and it’s just that they had their breakfast the next day at the weary way.

I wonder what would have happened had Bertrand and Imogen caught up with Danas.  (I’m also wondering if that will happen once I caught up, as they hadn’t returned to the group when I was still watching)

Interesting that Matt says that the purple hair isn’t actually that distinctly noticeable, which does give a good context to the location.

Not necessarily relating to the episode, but I think one of the biggest reasons that Critical Role works so well is because everyone in the cast cracks up at SO MUCH.  Like, they all laugh SO HARD at so many situations, they all cheer certain situations, they all gasp and shriek, it’s a group that has very very similar reactions which aren’t faked, and I feel like that’s a very big influence in creating watchability and likeability.

I feel like the ‘meet me outside’ was the first Hamilton reference of the campaign.

I jinxed it. Frequent lagging again.  And I’m just about at the point where I stopped watching last night, which was right after Ashton and FCG’s conversation about wants and desires.

I’m interesting to see the Laudna and Fearne dynamic, as part of me wonders if it’s residual Beauyasha rather than new character interaction, or is it just that these characters are drawn to each other as well?

NOT SHIPPING YET.  I didn’t start shipping until mid-C2 I think as well.  I can see why certain ships are drawing people’s attention, but not for me yet.

I soooo want to know what Laura wrote on Ashley’s paper that made Ashley gasp while Laura was nodding smugly.  TELL ME

NIGHT TIME.  And here’s gonna be all new for me, now!  (also, I’m still mixed feelings on the night mode.  They get so washed out!)

...Orym just slashed the inner door lock.  Laudna had damaged the front door.  Like, there is NO subtlety here!  They’re gonna get found out like right away!

I love that Bertrand is consistently making Laura crack up.  It’s so cute!

I’m SO glad that Ashley gets to be the impulsive one now.

Danas with a group of 10????

Is that the hag voice?  A little, maybe not as drawn out, but it’s got that rasp and jolt to it.  Not the same NPC, I’m sure, but fun to recognize!

Illusion??  Or trap??

Vampires?

DOUBLE NAT ONE ON ROLLIES!!!

I like Laudna and unnamed antagonist having a mini creepy-off, it’s like Matt and Marisha flirting in a nightmarish way XD

Zoom in on minis! That Laudna mini is awesome!

Rogue with four attacks????  It’s only one combatant (for now), but it feels like these early fights are much more intense than the C2 early fights. Granted, they started at level 3 instead of level 2, but still!

Like, I know it’s 8 PCs, so this is probably a balanced fight, but HOLY SHIT that’s a lot of mooks!

Oh SHIT, this is the same day as the last fight???!! I FORGOT.   ….it’s too early for a TPK right?  ...it’s too early for someone to DIE, RIGHT??????

The stresses of watching live, I don’t have these things spoiled anymore!

Dooon’t say Counterspell as Caleb, I STILL MISS YOU even though I’m also watching C2 I STILL MISS YOU

...is Orym going to die?

THEY MISS THANK GOD

It’s only episode 3, but already FCG’s name seems natural and not jokey anymore.  I do like everyone figuring out how they’re going to call him though. Letters?  Freshy?  Fresh Cut?  FCG?  

Also, now we know what happens with that empathic bond thing that lets them take half the damage as temporary hit points.  Glad to know it’s not guaranteed to hurt them!

BERT AND FEARNEY I LOVE IT

I like that the map is on the table in front of them, but they’re still watching the zoomed in screen.

AND LET’S GO FEARNE WITH BLINDSIGHT

Travis I question you and your choices.  I’m not saying they’re bad!  I’m saying I question them.

What the fuck was that song??  I almost thought Toys’r’us kid, but that doesn’t seem right.

You can see “just don’t” on Ashton’s mini!!!  I’m not sure how I feel about them as a PC yet, but as a DESIGN???  Best designed PC of the campaign.

I don’t know if it’s because of ExU, or just from Ashley being back for so long, but she seems so comfortable in Fearne, and so comfortable with making decisions and explaining her HDYWTDT.  I love her so much!  I know she’s said that improv is the hardest for her, so I hope this really helps her become more comfortable and confident in it!

Dead Danas.

Iiiinteresting.  I wonder if this is going to be a relationship like the Gentleman, where there are jobs available and they might do a few, but the plot will move on and it won’t be a main quest giver, or whether they’ll do something new this time around and Lord E. will be like a hub point where all quests come from.

CAAAAKE

Asking for a name already??? Only episode 3!!!

Hints at backstory! An outfit for Orym, and a one-eyed creature for FCG!

Awww, that was genuinely a cute conversation!  I like this NPC.

“Yes, if I want to” I love you SO MUCH Fearne and Ashley

ASHTON WHAT IS THAT BACKSTORY HINT AAAAAGH

and of course now that the episode’s almost over, it’s back to constantly lagging again.  It’s taken me almost 6 hours to watch this episode! (granted, doing some stuff while it was lagging helped pass the time, but still).  I wish I could watch the entire episode live, but I just can’t handle being up that late.  I AM OOOOLD.

...Imogen is actually a horse girl, omg

Wait the dwarf comes up to Bertrand’s shoulder-ish?  That’s a pretty tall dwarf, innit?  Well, to be fair, DnD heights confuse me.

Ah ha.  I guess Bertrand was a temporary PC then.

DUST CLOUD EFFECTS DUST CLOUD EFFECTS

So Imogen can dream deaths?

LOL OMG LIAM PUMPING HIS FIST WHEN BERTRAND SAYS “Lieve’tel”

Hindsight, Travis was massive forshadowing his exit.  Wonder if Robbie was as well?  He was also a bit maudlin.

Saw Matt’s tweets. I wonder why Travis wanted his character to come in later, rather than at the start.  A bit relieved that I don’t need to worry about dementia jokes, like came in a little bit during the first episode. That just….hit a little too close to home right now, and I was worried about how it would play out.  I was also wondering why Travis had gone full melee again, when his whole thing with Fjord was that he desperately wanted spells after 3 years without it, so I would have thought mixed combat again.  Looking forwards to meeting his new PC!

Wait, does this confirm that his new PC is going to be less than Orym’s INT?  OH FUCK

@suicidallyreckless

[bretthowden]

hi il your gifs! can you give a tutorial??

Wow thanks so much! 💖💖Under the read more, I managed to put together a gif tutorial that I (hope) makes sense. Let me know if you have any questions. I rambled a lot in this and wrote most of it at like 1:30 in the morning, so apologies in advance if it gets weird lmao.

Keep in mind, I have been using photoshop for years, but I really have only been making gifs for like, 8 months and I still think I can improve in soooo many ways. But, that being said we all gotta start somewhere!

Let’s make a gif!

Alright, y’all. Let’s make a fucking gif. You will need:

Photoshop. Kind of a given lol. I use Photoshop CC 2018 and I pay 9.99 a month for the photoshop/lightroom package that you can get online from Adobe. I used to use a downloaded version that I found on tumblr for the longest time as well. So if you don’t want to pay monthly, there are free versions out there that work. Just download at your own risk!

A basic knowledge of photoshop. In this tutorial, I’m just gonna assume you have used photoshop before and know how to use its basic features. If not, I’d recommend finding some beginner photoshop tutorials to help you out! Also you can totally feel free to shoot me any questions if you need me to clarify anything, and I’ll do my best to answer them!

Patience and practice. Making gifs can be frustrating and tedious sometimes. If you don’t love what you’re making or aren’t having fun with it, it can be really difficult. I literally love making gifs for some weird reason, which is really the number one reason why I make them. Also, remember that every gif isn’t gonna come out perfect. I make so many gifs and then look back and think ugh that coloring was awful wtf was I thinking?? But it’s important to keep practicing and keep at it because that’s how you’re gonna get better!

Alrightyyyyy let’s get started!

STEP ONE: Download your video. You’re gonna need the video of whatever you’re trying to gif saved to your computer. If you’re giffing a video from youtube/social media or something, there are a bunch of different websites out there that will download videos for you. However, I’m a fucking weirdo and usually just screen record whatever I want to gif because I just think it’s easier. I use Quicktime to screen record which is included on Macs!

We’re gonna be making a gif of my angel rookie Brett Howden for this tutorial. I just screen recorded his postgame video that I wanted to use and saved it in 1080p.

[PRO TIP: Keep in mind, if you want your gifs to look nice and HQ, it starts with a high quality video, and that means, using videos that are 1080p. I very rarely will gif anything in 720p, unless it’s something I really really want to gif, and I def won’t use anything below 720p because it just looks really low quality no matter how much you try to edit it, imo.]

STEP TWO: Open photoshop and go to file -> import -> video frames to layer and this window will pop up

These are the settings I use. I choose selected range only so that it will only select what I want it to, and not the whole video. I also limit to every 2 frames because for the most part, using every frame is unnecessary. See those little toggle icons at the bottom of the screen that I’ve circled in red? Drag those around to select what part of the video you want to gif. Then click ok.

Here’s what you’ll get once you hit ok.

As you can see, your timeline with all your frames are on the bottom. On the right are all the layers!

STEP THREE: Select all the frames, and set your frame delay. The frame delay basically just controls how fast or slow your gif is gonna move.

Select all the frames and click on the bottom of one of the frames (where i’ve awkwardly circled in red) and you should get the dropdown menu shown above. Click other. I almost always choose 0.07 for my delay because it’s not too fast and not too slow and that’s how we want our gifs to look, right? 0.07 is a good starting point and you can always adjust slightly if need be. I wouldn’t recommend going below 0.05 because it’ll look way too fast.  

STEP FOUR: Convert that shit. We’re gonna convert to a video timeline by clicking the button in the lefthand corner of your timeline window. I’ve circled it in red. Make sure all your frames are still selected!

Then we’re gonna convert the layers for smart filters. This makes it easy to edit and color the gif because it’ll basically condense all the layers into one. Select all your layers and go to filter -> convert for smart filters. Bam, converted.

STEP FIVE: Crop and resize your gif!

Tumblr has specific dimension sizes that are pretty important when cropping your gifs, so you’ll have to decide what kind of gifset you’re making. If you’re making a gifset with just one gif across (example), the width needs to be 540px. If you’re making a gifset with two gifs across (example), the width needs to be 268px. The height doesn’t matter and can be whatever ya want!

For this gif of Brett I’m going to be cropping it to 540x270 (my personal standard gif size that I use for gifsets with one gif across). After that, go to image -> image size and adjust the width and height to 540x270.  

After all that crap, we’ve now got a very basic, unedited gif!

This gif looks okaaay, but looks kinda flat and plain and dull. Which brings us to……

STEP FIVE: The most important step, sharpening and coloring.

To sharpen your gif, go to filter -> sharpen -> smart sharpen

I use the same settings as everyone on this website which is this:

This is what the gif looks like now. Brett is looking SHARP. 

Sharpening is so important and it’s literally the best like look at how much better this gif looks already!! But we still gotta color it.

Coloring is a different ballgame than sharpening. Everyone has their own preferences on how to color and what they want their gifs to look like. There’s no right or wrong way to do it imo, as long as you like the way they look! Some people like really bright, vibrant gifs with whites so bright they’ll blind ya, and some like gifs with more muted colors. My personal preference depends on what I’m giffing and the lighting. If you look through my gifs you’ll see that my coloring changes depending on if it’s an on-ice video, a locker room interview or something else.

When I first started making gifs, I downloaded different psds from tumblr, which are basically just colorings you can download and use on your gifs. They’re a really great starting point if you have no idea what you’re doing and also just super convenient. A quick google search “tumblr psds” “tumblr photoshop resources” or even just searching “psds” on tumblr, will give you tons of stuff to choose from.

Anyway, if you’re not gonna use a premade psd, the two biggest settings that I use to color (and as a beginner they’re really the only settings you need to use) are brightness/contrast and selective coloring.

First, we’ll add some contrast. Go to layer -> new adjustment layer -> brightness/contrast. For the most part, my brightness/contrast settings stay the same and look like this:

My contrast almost always is set to 60. I’m all about high contrast in my gifs. My brightness setting is set to 0 in this gif because it’s already bright enough (just look at the light reflecting off Brett’s forehead lmao) Oftentimes I’ll set the brightness to 10 or 11 if the gif seems too dull or dark, but I usually won’t go higher than that. Just play with the setting until it seems right to you!

This is what it looks like now:

Looks good! But it still looks pretty yellow and Brett’s face is still too bright. This is where selective coloring comes in. Selective coloring basically helps you enhance or change specific colors in your gifs. It comes in handy a lot with videos that have shitty or weird lighting (looking at you, Rangers video department). 

Go to layer -> new adjustment layer -> selective coloring. Like I said before, every gif is different so there’s no one specific way to set your selective coloring settings. My biggest thing with selective coloring is making sure the subject doesn’t look too yellow/red and enhancing the darker colors to create more depth/contrast. Play around with the colors until you like what you see!

And this gif is done! Brett looks beautiful and so does this gif. But we have one final step

STEP SIX: Save your gif.

To save your gif go to file -> export -> save for web (legacy) and this window will show up.

For your gif to work on tumblr the file needs to be under 3M otherwise when you post it, your gif will be frozen and won’t move and uh, that’s not ideal. The lower left hand corner will show you how large your gif is. Mine is 2.817M so we’re good.

Finally, please, please PLEASE make sure your looping options (found in the lower righthand corner) are set to forever.

If you don’t have your gif set to loop forever it literally will stop moving, so it’s real important you remember to check that it’s set to loop forever. One time I forgot to do that and now there’s a dumb gifset of Nolan Patrick that only loops once and then freezes and I didn’t notice it until it already got a bunch of notes and it’s just out there on fucking tumblr dot com and it drives me crazy and makes me so mad that I forgot to loop it. So don’t be like me and remember to loop your gifs! lol.

Anyway that’s the tutorial! I hope this helped! Again, sorry it’s so long and full of rambles. Remember you can ask me ANY questions you may have and I’ll do my best to help! 

[aflawedfashion]

hey, may I know your gifmaking process please? i mean which ps version you use and if you use screencaps or anything! your gifs look incredible good (specially the big ones). thanks! and sorry for bothering

Thanks!

I use Photshop CC

I do use screencaps which I take in KMPlayer and then turn into gifs via some actions I saved for different size gifs (this doesn’t change anything - just makes it faster). This is just how I’ve always done it - I’m not really making recommendations about this method one way or another, but it works for me.

As for the large gifs, I rip my blurays. I think that’s the key to extra large gifs, and that’s why I’ve never made an extra large gif for something like Xena which I cannot get in HD (dvd rips are usually pretty good for small gifs though)

720p downloads are probably what most people use for gifs, and those can be pretty good quality, but not amazing.

And sometimes 720p downloads are too compressed to make very good gifs. If you see a 720p hour long episode with a file size of 200 - 300mb, it’s going to make shitty gifs in comparison to a higher quality file. You can make it work for small gifs, but you won’t be happy making large gifs with it.

In comparison, my Lost blurays are the best thing I’ve ever gifed - the files are around 10 to 11gb per episode. They’re gorgeous. 

Now for some real world examples

Example 1: The first frames of this gif are from a 720p copy of the episode as it aired. The last frames are from a bluray rip from my personal collection. Note: identical coring has been applied in photoshop - the base colors are just different in each file. 

It’s not horrible, but the downloaded files are mushier than the bluray files.

Example 2: Dark scenes tend to lose a lot more detail in the 720p copies (look at her freckles):

Hope that answers your question.