#this tutorial is probably not very helpful

[tinytowns]

hi cotton 🌸 would it be possible to know how you managed to make your header for the mobile version? it looks so good quality it's amazing!

A very messy guide for my mobile header, presented by yours truly. This tutorial has very few visual aids this time around, apart from one video reference. this is because i didn't want to show my computer during the vapoursynth process :((( for this tutorial, you will need to know how to work with blending modes, timeline, clipping masks, and smart objects in ps.

✩ ― programmes ⨾

4K Video Downloader   ( HERE )

Photoshop CS6 

Vapoursynth 64 PORTABLE 200722   ( HERE )

✩ ― setting up ⨾

First we’re going to load up our programmes.  For Vapoursynth I will usually open up two File Explorers,  one with my 4K Video Downloader folder and the other with my Vapoursynth folder. 

I’m unsure how well this tutorial will translate into Photopea. 

✩ ― downloading videos ⨾

Once we’ve got everything open we’re going to find the video we want to edit on Youtube and copy the link into the 4K Video Downloader.  In this tutorial we’ll be using Vernon’s Black Eye M/V.

Heads up,  for my Video Downloader I have smart mode enabled as it saves me an extra unnecessary step of choosing the settings.  You may want to enable this option,  too.   

Mine is set on Any Video & Best Quality. 

When the video has downloaded you’ll find it in File Explorer through videos  &  a folder named 4K Video Downloader.  

To ensure our gif comes out with the best quality possible please make sure you’re using a video from Youtube with at LEAST 1080p.  If 4K is available that’s great.  

✩ ― vapoursynth note ⨾

Now,  this is where Vapoursynth comes in.  It’s not technically necessary for this tutorial,  you could very much do it without Vapoursynth if you just cut your clips in like …. The editor that comes with Windows,  but this is just how I do it because I like the resizer as opposed to the resizer tool in Photoshop. 

Vapoursynth may look intimidating,  but it’s really not.  All you’re doing is copying your code in and letting it encode. 

Be cautious on lower-end computers,   though,  as the fan will make quite a bit of noise for a few seconds to a minute,  depending on how many frames you’re extracting. 

As this is hefty on your computer for a minute,  maybe don’t have a lot of tabs open.  

We’ll get to this step later on,  though.  

✩ ― vapoursynth ⨾

Right now we’re just going to open our two File Explorer folders  -  Vapoursynth  &  4K Video Downloader.  On the Vapoursynth folder scroll down to the very bottom. 

From 4K Video Downloader,  we’re going to locate the M/V we just downloaded and drag + drop it onto “Vapourscript (drop video file on me”. 

From there a small black box will appear.  This is where you will input the timing of whatever you want to clip. 

It’s best to have your M/V open so you can refer to the time - for me,  I wanted to gif the part where Vernon is rubbing his ear and yelling at the camera.

The timing for that was 2:29,  but in Vapoursynth we’re going to write it a little differently.  Please note that I ALWAYS add an extra second at the beginning and the end,  to capture all frames possible.  

so,  instead of my clip starting at 2:29 it’ll start at 2:28. 

Vapoursynth’s format follows an hours, minutes, seconds format. 

00:00:00. 

For a clip that begins at 2:28 on Youtube,  we’re going to type it in like this:

00:02:28

Hours,  minutes,  seconds.

When you’ve input the start time,  hit enter.  Another line will appear,  seemingly asking you to do the same thing - this time we’re going to input the duration of our clip.  How many seconds does the clip we want to gif last?  Again,  I always add an extra second at the end.  

Vernon stops yelling at the camera at 2:31 on Youtube.  This,  from 2:28,  is a difference of 3 seconds.  Add an extra second,  and that’s 4 seconds. 

We’re going to type in, 

00:00:04

And press enter. 

Allow the box to do its thing and soon a new tab should open up in your browser.   Along with it,  Vapoursynth will open up as a programme.  

✩ ― setting up vapoursynth + warning ⨾

If you’ve just downloaded Vapoursynth and yours is BLANK,  press File -> open script -> script.vpy  and that should be it all ready to go. 

If you have any issues then let me know through ask.  

The most important step is to REMOVE the “#” from line 9 beginning with “core.max_cache_size (etc.)”  because if you don’t then Vapoursynth will take a HORRENDOUS amount of time encoding.  You need to do this every time you open Vapoursynth.

It may also freeze your entire computer for several minutes for a few frames if you don't.  It doesn’t break your computer but boy is it a pain in the ass. 

Don’t ever forget to take that pesky “#” out in line 9. 

Back to the resizer. 

✩ ― vapoursynth resizer ⨾

On the left side you’ll see two boxes beside the word “Gif Size” - the sizing I used for my gif, and I believe is the general sizing for mobile headers, is 640x360.

You may notice that the canvas has been resized but your gif hasn’t moved - if you hover on the bottom right edge of your gif your cursor will change. Click on that edge. You can push, pull, drag your gif around.

By clicking it and dragging outward ever so slightly the gif will snap to the size of the canvas.

I usually just leave mine like that.

We’re going to turn our attention to “Preprocessor” and change it to qtgmc 30 fast. Once that’s done we copy the code on the right side.

With your code copied, open that Vapoursynth window sitting in your taskbar. On line 16, where it says, “Whatever you copied from the resizer goes here,” we’ll highlight it and paste our code from the resizer over it.

From there, Script -> Encode video -> change ��Export to Gif” to “Export to MOV” and press start.

You might be wondering, we’ll … we’re making a gif so why are we exporting to mov? Answer is, I don’t know. My computer just refuses to export to gif for some odd reason. But I know that it works for some people, if Export to MOV doesn’t work.

When it’s done, keep Vapoursynth open and keep it on the backburner because we’ll need to redo this * vaguely gestures * entire process again from the two folders step for another clip later. Sounds like a pain in the ass, just two minutes in reality.

The entire process summed up is drag, drop, input time & duration, resize it, copy code, paste it into encoder, delete the “#” on line 9, and actually encode it. That’s it. It takes me two minutes.

✩ ― photoshop ⨾

In Photoshop, we’re now going to File -> Import -> Video frames to layers. Navigate through the Vapoursynth folder to Gifs & click on the mov file named “Output”.

Photoshop will open up a little window! It’s not really important what you do here, but you can select where your gif starts and ends. I prefer to do it in photoshop for a more accurate cut, but I do sometimes use it if there’s an annoying amount of frames before the clip i want to edit.

Then it’ll open in Photoshop. We’re going to convert the gif to timeline, select all of our layers with shift+click, right click and select “convert to smart object”.

✩ ― sharpening ⨾

Now, my sharpening settings are available in this post HERE in action form. This is what I used on my header and it’s what I’ll use now.

To use an Action, make sure it’s got a tick next to it on “Window -> Action”.

On the right side of your screen, maybe next to the color wheel / gradient, it’ll look like a play button.

Click on it, navigate to “SHARPEN - tinytowns”, open the little folder up and click on “sharpen your giffies :]” and press the play button which is at the bottom of that window, next to a folder and a circle.

If anything pops up just select Okay.

✩ ― re - do the process ⨾

Now,  our first part is done.  We’re going to re-do the Vapoursynth process for another clip that we’ll overlay.  For me I chose the timestamp 2:47.

Once you’ve imported that clip into Photoshop using the Vapoursynth process,  we’re again going to sharpen the new clip with the action.  

✩ ― blending ⨾

Now,  drag the smart object layer you want to overlay onto the clip we worked with first.  Move it around a little and find a place you think fits well.  Somewhere with empty space usually works best.  

We’re going to fiddle with the blending setting on the overlay layer.  It can be found in the layers tab and will at first be titled “Normal”,  but if we click on it we can scroll through a few different options.  I can’t remember what specifically I used,  but re-making it I’m noting that “Lighting” or “Screen” work best for me.  

Once you’ve settled on your blending,  we’re going to apply a mask to the overlay gif.  To do this look at the bottom of the layers window and you should see a rectangle with a circle in it - next to “fx” and a circle with half-color.  Click on the rectangle with the circle in it and a white box will appear next to your gif in the layers. 

Make sure you’re clicked on to the white rectangle.  If you’re not Photoshop may stop you with a pop-up asking if you want to rasterize the layer - don’t.  That will make your gif stop working.  Always work on the white rectangle. 

With a very soft eraser brush set on 0 hardness and maybe an opacity of 30%,  we’re going to begin gently rubbing at the sides of our gif to blend it in better with the base gif. 

Once you’re happy with the eraser blending we’ll color our gif.  

✩ ― coloring ⨾

For a more vibrant and consistent color I’m adding a Black & White layer on top of my overlay gif and right clicking on the B&W layer and selecting “create clipping mask”. 

Then,  I’m making a new layer and also making a clipping mask for it.  With my selected colour,  I’m literally just coloring in the new layer.  Then we’ll mess around with the blending again - for me,  this time “Overlay”,  “Soft Light,”  or “Color” work best.  Go with whatever pleases your eye more - for me,  I’m going with Soft Light. 

As for our base gif coloring,  I use a combination of curves,  levels,  and selective color to achieve something I’m happy with. I’d recommend putting those layers under your overlay layer so that they only apply to your base gif.  

I won’t get too much into coloring because I’m not actually very good at it.

✩ ― back to frames ⨾

But when you’re done,  make sure your blue tab in the timeline is dragged all the way to the beginning - not sure what it’s called. 

Then select all of your Layers with shift+click and select convert frames -> flatten frames into clips & reselect all of ur layers !! 

then convert frames -> make frames from clip -> convert into frame animation. 

You can actually see this exact process on another tutorial i did linked HERE  &  starting at 01:28

Set the speed of the frames to 0.5

Export that sucker as shown in the video linked above and apply it to your header. If you have any questions or concerns please send me an ask !

[birdietrait]

these are the two tutorials i followed when i first started out with sims renders! they’re super easy to follow along with (and as you can see, i go back to the first one all the time for help) !!! links: 1 / 2

[goobygnarp]

.

[emeraldblonde]

I tried to mod something and the good news is, it didn't crash the game. 🥳 The bad news is, not what I was looking for lmao.

Like, don't get me wrong. I've seen way worse (the stuff of nightmares) on a modding channel I've been teaching myself this stuff lately, so. It's not like I completely fucked this thing up or anything like that.

It's just... I still gotta ask though.

What went wrong here?

[lunaticpsykers]

im hshntdgj im so sorry for asking smth again i really aaaa hope its not a bother bbbut in spirit of october i just wanted to know if you got any tips for drawing gore and stuff? antway thnx heres a little guy w a hat in compensation for being annoying: <]:D

HI okay um. im terrible at explaining things but!!my process for drawing blood before i talk about the guts and stuff!

ik this looks kinda fucking terrible BUT ITS OK

^^this is the more boring method. i feel like there isnt as much depth to the blood, but that's cuz i only use this for blood splatters! but since i got less time during goretober, ive been using this lol

NEXT METHOD! sorry this might be a long post

here's an example. i have no damn clue how i did this, so dont ask

i really cant explain this better, so ill show u an explanation by kaworunakano on twitter

i add more hints of blue and yellow, but this sums up the way i draw blood. regarding the whole guts thing ....uh

...i dont really know anything about anatomy or whatever. my number one tip is just remember that they fold .like

they fold !!!

highlights really enhance the way i draw guts and stuff, which is why i like using blue! for contrast and all that jazz. im very new to drawing gore, but ive heard lots of people say that u should visualize them as sausages or something

[salted15]

How in the world do i render drawings i need to know i'm desesperate to get good at art pls

i am very tired this might be a bad explaination but

rendering is the trickiest imo outta all the types of shading and it involves defining shapes with value (value is how dark an object is) like a black and white image . if you want to learn it my best suggestion is to reference black and white images- and also to remember that if two objects are touching , there will be no light between them so the (small) shadow where they meet will be very dark

rendering is also- not the only way to get good at art if you want to shade things . there's other ones that may be less intense (although that can depend) but still look really good !!! i don't know that many offa the top of my head but ik a few ways i typically shade

this is cell shading- it's just shading how one would color , and it's good for simpler drawings . you can also make some edges lighter by erasing them with an airbrush but i didn't do that here dfjgkdfjgh

and this is soft cell shading !!! it's like regular cell shading except i smudge the edges

[tofupixel]

⭐ So you want to learn pixel art? ⭐

🔹 Part 1 of ??? - The Basics!

Hello, my name is Tofu and I'm a professional pixel artist. I have been supporting myself with freelance pixel art since 2020, when I was let go from my job during the pandemic.

My progress, from 2017 to 2024. IMO the only thing that really matters is time and effort, not some kind of natural talent for art.

This guide will not be comprehensive, as nobody should be expected to read allat. Instead I will lean heavily on my own experience, and share what worked for me, so take everything with a grain of salt. This is a guide, not a tutorial. Cheers!

🔹 Do I need money?

NO!!! Pixel art is one of the most accessible mediums out there.

I still use a mouse because I prefer it to a tablet! You won't be at any disadvantage here if you can't afford the best hardware or software.

Because our canvases are typically very small, you don't need a good PC to run a good brush engine or anything like that.

✨Did you know? One of the most skilled and beloved pixel artists uses MS PAINT! Wow!!

🔹 What software should I use?

Here are some of the most popular programs I see my friends and peers using. Stars show how much I recommend the software for beginners! ⭐

💰 Paid options:

⭐⭐⭐ Aseprite (for PC) - $19.99

This is what I and many other pixel artists use. You may find when applying to jobs that they require some knowledge of Aseprite. Since it has become so popular, companies like that you can swap raw files between artists.

Aseprite is amazingly customizable, with custom skins, scripts and extensions on Itch.io, both free and paid.

If you have ever used any art software before, it has most of the same features and should feel fairly familiar to use. It features a robust animation suite and a tilemap feature, which have saved me thousands of hours of labour in my work. The software is also being updated all the time, and the developers listen to the users. I really recommend Aseprite!

⭐ Photoshop (for PC) - Monthly $$

A decent option for those who already are used to the PS interface. Requires some setup to get it ready for pixel-perfect art, but there are plenty of tutorials for doing so.

Animation is also much more tedious on PS which you may want to consider before investing time!

⭐⭐ ProMotion NG (for PC) - $19.00

An advanced and powerful software which has many features Aseprite does not, including Colour Cycling and animated tiles.

⭐⭐⭐ Pixquare (for iOS) - $7.99 - $19.99 (30% off with code 'tofu'!!)

Probably the best app available for iPad users, in active development, with new features added all the time.

Look! My buddy Jon recommends it highly, and uses it often.

One cool thing about Pixquare is that it takes Aseprite raw files! Many of my friends use it to work on the same project, both in their office and on the go.

⭐ Procreate (for iOS) - $12.99

If you have access to Procreate already, it's a decent option to get used to doing pixel art. It does however require some setup. Artist Pixebo is famously using Procreate, and they have tutorials of their own if you want to learn.

⭐⭐ ReSprite iOS and Android. (free trial, but:) $19.99 premium or $$ monthly

ReSprite is VERY similar in terms of UI to Aseprite, so I can recommend it. They just launched their Android release!

🆓 Free options:

⭐⭐⭐ Libresprite (for PC)

Libresprite is an alternative to Aseprite. It is very, very similar, to the point where documentation for Aseprite will be helpful to Libresprite users.

⭐⭐ Pixilart (for PC and mobile)

A free in-browser app, and also a mobile app! It is tied to the website Pixilart, where artists upload and share their work. A good option for those also looking to get involved in a community.

⭐⭐ Dotpict (for mobile)

Dotpict is similar to Pixilart, with a mobile app tied to a website, but it's a Japanese service. Did you know that in Japanese, pixel art is called 'Dot Art'? Dotpict can be a great way to connect with a different community of pixel artists! They also have prompts and challenges often.

🔹 So I got my software, now what?

◽Nice! Now it's time for the basics of pixel art.

❗ WAIT ❗ Before this section, I want to add a little disclaimer. All of these rules/guidelines can be broken at will, and some 'no-nos' can look amazing when done intentionally.

The pixel-art fundamentals can be exceedingly helpful to new artists, who may feel lost or overwhelmed by choice. But if you feel they restrict you too harshly, don't force yourself! At the end of the day it's your art, and you shouldn't try to contort yourself into what people think a pixel artist 'should be'. What matters is your own artistic expression. 💕👍

◽Phew! With that out of the way...

🔸"The Rules"

There are few hard 'rules' of pixel art, mostly about scaling and exporting. Some of these things will frequently trip up newbies if they aren't aware, and are easy to overlook.

🔹Scaling method

There are a couple ways of scaling your art. The default in most art programs, and the entire internet, is Bi-linear scaling, which usually works out fine for most purposes. But as pixel artists, we need a different method.

Both are scaled up x10. See the difference?

On the left is scaled using Bilinear, and on the right is using Nearest-Neighbor. We love seeing those pixels stay crisp and clean, so we use nearest-neighbor. 

(Most pixel-art programs have nearest-neighbor enabled by default! So this may not apply to you, but it's important to know.)

🔹Mixels

Mixels are when there are different (mixed) pixel sizes in the same image.

Here I have scaled up my art- the left is 200%, and the right is 150%. Yuck!

As we can see, the "pixel" sizes end up different. We generally try to scale our work by multiples of 100 - 200%, 300% etc. rather than 150%. At larger scales however, the minute differences in pixel sizes are hardly noticeable!

Mixels are also sometimes seen when an artist scales up their work, then continues drawing on it with a 1 pixel brush.

Many would say that this is not great looking! This type of pixels can be indicative of a beginner artist. But there are plenty of creative pixel artists out there who mixels intentionally, making something modern and cool.

🔹Saving Your Files

We usually save our still images as .PNGs as they don’t create any JPEG artifacts or loss of quality. It's a little hard to see here, but there are some artifacts, and it looks a little blurry. It also makes the art very hard to work with if we are importing a JPEG.

For animations .GIF is good, but be careful of the 256 colour limit. Try to avoid using too many blending mode layers or gradients when working with animations. If you aren’t careful, your animation could flash afterwards, as the .GIF tries to reduce colours wherever it can. It doesn’t look great!

Here's an old piece from 2021 where I experienced .GIF lossiness, because I used gradients and transparency, resulting in way too many colours.

🔹Pixel Art Fundamentals - Techniques and Jargon

❗❗Confused about Jaggies? Anti-Aliasing? Banding? Dithering? THIS THREAD is for you❗❗ << it's a link, click it!!

As far as I'm concerned, this is THE tutorial of all time for understanding pixel art. These are techniques created and named by the community of people who actually put the list together, some of the best pixel artists alive currently. Please read it!!

🔸How To Learn

Okay, so you have your software, and you're all ready to start. But maybe you need some more guidance? Try these tutorials and resources! It can be helpful to work along with a tutorial until you build your confidence up.

⭐⭐ Pixel Logic (A Digital Book) - $10 A very comprehensive visual guide book by a very skilled and established artist in the industry. I own a copy myself.

⭐⭐⭐ StudioMiniBoss - free A collection of visual tutorials, by the artist that worked on Celeste! When starting out, if I got stuck, I would go and scour his tutorials and see how he did it.

⭐ Lospec Tutorials - free A very large collection of various tutorials from all over the internet. There is a lot to sift through here if you have the time.

⭐⭐⭐ Cyangmou's Tutorials - free (tipping optional) Cyangmou is one of the most respected and accomplished modern pixel artists, and he has amassed a HUGE collection of free and incredibly well-educated visual tutorials. He also hosts an educational stream every week on Twitch called 'pixelart for beginners'.

⭐⭐⭐ Youtube Tutorials - free There are hundreds, if not thousands of tutorials on YouTube, but it can be tricky to find the good ones. My personal recommendations are MortMort, Brandon, and AdamCYounis- these guys really know what they're talking about!

🔸 How to choose a canvas size

When looking at pixel art turorials, we may see people suggest things like 16x16, 32x32 and 64x64. These are standard sizes for pixel art games with tiles. However, if you're just making a drawing, you don't necessarily need to use a standard canvas size like that.

What I like to think about when choosing a canvas size for my illustrations is 'what features do I think it is important to represent?' And make my canvas as small as possible, while still leaving room for my most important elements.

Imagine I have characters in a scene like this:

I made my canvas as small as possible (232 x 314), but just big enough to represent the features and have them be recognizable (it's Good Omens fanart 😤)!! If I had made it any bigger, I would be working on it for ever, due to how much more foliage I would have to render.

If you want to do an illustration and you're not sure, just start at somewhere around 100x100 - 200x200 and go from there.

It's perfectly okay to crop your canvas, or scale it up, or crunch your art down at any point if you think you need a different size. I do it all the time! It only takes a bit of cleanup to get you back to where you were.

🔸Where To Post

Outside of just regular socials, Twitter, Tumblr, Deviantart, Instagram etc, there are a few places that lean more towards pixel art that you might not have heard of.

⭐ Lospec Lospec is a low-res focused art website. Some pieces get given a 'monthly masterpiece' award. Not incredibly active, but I believe there are more features being added often.

⭐⭐ Pixilart Pixilart is a very popular pixel art community, with an app tied to it. The community tends to lean on the young side, so this is a low-pressure place to post with an relaxed vibe.

⭐⭐ Pixeljoint Pixeljoint is one of the big, old-school pixel art websites. You can only upload your art unscaled (1x) because there is a built-in zoom viewer. It has a bit of a reputation for being elitist (back in the 00s it was), but in my experience it's not like that any more. This is a fine place for a pixel artist to post if they are really interested in learning, and the history. The Hall of Fame has some of the most famous / impressive pixel art pieces that paved the way for the work we are doing today.

⭐⭐⭐ Cafe Dot Cafe Dot is my art server so I'm a little biased here. 🍵 It was created during the recent social media turbulence. We wanted a place to post art with no algorithms, and no NFT or AI chuds. We have a heavy no-self-promotion rule, and are more interested in community than skill or exclusivity. The other thing is that we have some kind of verification system- you must apply to be a Creator before you can post in the Art feed, or use voice. This helps combat the people who just want to self-promo and dip, or cause trouble, as well as weed out AI/NFT people. Until then, you are still welcome to post in any of the threads or channels. There is a lot to do in Cafe Dot. I host events weekly, so check the threads!

⭐⭐/r/pixelart The pixel art subreddit is pretty active! I've also heard some of my friends found work through posting here, so it's worth a try if you're looking. However, it is still Reddit- so if you're sensitive to rude people, or criticism you didn't ask for, you may want to avoid this one. Lol

🔸 Where To Find Work

You need money? I got you! As someone who mostly gets scouted on social media, I can share a few tips with you:

Put your email / portfolio in your bio Recruiters don't have all that much time to find artists, make it as easy as possible for someone to find your important information!

Clean up your profile If your profile feed is all full of memes, most people will just tab out rather than sift through. Doesn't apply as much to Tumblr if you have an art tag people can look at.

Post regularly, and repost Activity beats everything in the social media game. It's like rolling the dice, and the more you post the more chances you have. You have to have no shame, it's all business baby

Outside of just posting regularly and hoping people reach out to you, it can be hard to know where to look. Here are a few places you can sign up to and post around on.

/r/INAT INAT (I Need A Team) is a subreddit for finding a team to work with. You can post your portfolio here, or browse for people who need artists.

/r/GameDevClassifieds Same as above, but specifically for game-related projects.

Remote Game Jobs / Work With Indies Like Indeed but for game jobs. Browse them often, or get email notifications.

VGen VGen is a website specifically for commissions. You need a code from another verified artist before you can upgrade your account and sell, so ask around on social media or ask your friends. Once your account is upgraded, you can make a 'menu' of services people can purchase, and they send you an offer which you are able to accept, decline, or counter.

The evil websites of doom: Fiverr and Upwork I don't recommend them!! They take a big cut of your profit, and the sites are teeming with NFT and AI people hoping to make a quick buck. The site is also extremely oversaturated and competitive, resulting in a race to the bottom (the cheapest, the fastest, doing the most for the least). Imagine the kind of clients who go to these websites, looking for the cheapest option. But if you're really desperate...

🔸 Community

I do really recommend getting involved in a community. Finding like-minded friends can help you stay motivated to keep drawing. One day, those friends you met when you were just starting out may become your peers in the industry. Making friends is a game changer!

Discord servers Nowadays, the forums of old are mostly abandoned, and people split off into many different servers. Cafe Dot, Pixel Art Discord (PAD), and if you can stomach scrolling past all the AI slop, you can browse Discord servers here.

Twitch Streams Twitch has kind of a bad reputation for being home to some of the more edgy gamers online, but the pixel art community is extremely welcoming and inclusive. Some of the people I met on Twitch are my friends to this day, and we've even worked together on different projects! Browse pixel art streams here, or follow some I recommend: NickWoz, JDZombi, CupOhJoe, GrayLure, LumpyTouch, FrankiePixelShow, MortMort, Sodor, NateyCakes, NyuraKim, ShinySeabass, I could go on for ever really... There are a lot of good eggs on Pixel Art Twitch.

🔸 Other Helpful Websites

Palettes Lospec has a huge collection of user-made palettes, for any artist who has trouble choosing their colours, or just wants to try something fun. Rejected Palettes is full of palettes that didn't quite make it onto Lospec, ran by people who believe there are no bad colours.

The Spriters Resource TSR is an incredible website where users can upload spritesheets and tilesets from games. You can browse for your favourite childhood game, and see how they made it! This website has helped me so much in understanding how game assets come together in a scene.

VGMaps Similar to the above, except there are entire maps laid out how they would be played. This is incredible if you have to do level design, or for mocking up a scene for fun.

Game UI Database Not pixel-art specific, but UI is a very challenging part of graphics, so this site can be a game-changer for finding good references!

Retronator A digital newspaper for pixel-art lovers! New game releases, tutorials, and artworks!

Itch.io A website where people can upload, games, assets, tools... An amazing hub for game devs and game fans alike. A few of my favourite tools: Tiled, PICO-8, Pixel Composer, Juice FX, Magic Pencil for Aseprite

🔸 The End?

This is just part 1 for now, so please drop me a follow to see any more guides I release in the future. I plan on doing some writeups on how I choose colours, how to practise, and more!

I'm not an expert by any means, but everything I did to get to where I am is outlined in this guide. Pixel art is my passion, my job and my hobby! I want pixel art to be recognized everywhere as an art-form, a medium of its own outside of game-art or computer graphics!

This guide took me a long time, and took a lot of research and experience. Consider following me or supporting me if you are feeling generous.

And good luck to all the fledgling pixel artists, I hope you'll continue and have fun. I hope my guide helped you, and don't hesitate to send me an ask if you have any questions! 💕

My other tutorials (so far): How to draw Simple Grass for a game Hue Shifting

[tilly-tittle]

This would’ve been so helpful two days ago

I was just about to post this and I immediately saw this first thing on my dash :/

As promised, here's my Rodimus Prime breakdown/ref sheet!

[joanna-lannister]

hello, could you make a tutorial explaining how you make your gifs? thank youuu x

Hey Nonnie,

I found you a tutorial which is very similar to my own procress on how to make gifs. You can find it here. I think their explanations would be better than mine, and not all over the place. They have also a bunch of tips that can be useful. Hope this is helpful, have a nice day! ❤️

[stellophiliac]

how to build a digital music collection and stuff

spotify sucks aaaass. so start downloading shit!!

file format glossary

.wav is highest quality and biggest

.mp3 is very small, but uses lossy compression which means it's lower quality

.flac is smaller than .wav, but uses lossless compression so it's high quality

.m4a is an audio file format that apple uses. that's all i really know

downloading the music

doubledouble.top is a life saver. you can download from a variety of services including but not limited to apple music, spotify, soundcloud, tidal, deezer, etc.

i'd recommend ripping your music from tidal or apple music since they're the best quality (i think apple music gives you lossless audio anyway. .m4a can be both lossy and lossless, but from the text on doubledouble i assume they're ripping HQ files off apple music)

i also love love love cobalt.tools for ripping audio/video from youtube (they support a lot of other platforms too!)

of course, many artists have their music on bandcamp — purchase or download directly from them if you can. bandcamp offers a variety of file formats for download

file conversion

if you're downloading from apple music with doubledouble, it spits out an .m4a file.

.m4a is ok for some people but if you prefer .flac, you may wanna convert it. ffmpeg is a CLI (terminal) tool to help with media conversion

if you're on linux or macOS, you can use parameter expansion to batch convert all files in a folder. put the files in one place first, then with your terminal, cd into the directory and run:

for i in *.m4a; do ffmpeg -i "$i" "${i%.*}.flac"; done

this converts from .m4a to .flac — change the file extensions if needed.

soulseek

another way to get music is through soulseek. soulseek is a peer-to-peer file sharing network which is mainly used for music. nicotine+ is a pretty intuitive (and open-source) client if you don't like the official one.

you can probably find a better tutorial on soulseek somewhere else. just wanted to make this option known

it's bad etiquette to download from people without sharing files of your own, so make sure you've got something shared. also try to avoid queuing up more than 1-2 albums from one person in a row

tagging & organizing your music

tagging: adding metadata to a music file (eg. song name, artist name, album) that music players can recognize and display

if you've ripped music from a streaming platform, chances are it's already tagged. i've gotten files with slightly incorrect tags from doubledouble though, so if you care about that then you might wanna look into it

i use musicbrainz picard for my tagging. they've got pretty extensive documentation, which will probably be more useful than me

basically, you can look up album data from an online database into the program, and then match each track with its file. the program will tag each file correctly for you (there's also options for renaming the file according to a certain structure if you're into that!)

there's also beets, which is a CLI tool for... a lot of music collection management stuff. i haven't really used it myself, but if you feel up to it then they've got extensive documentation too. for most people, though, it's not really a necessity

how you wanna organize your music is completely up to you. my preferred filestructure is:

artist > album > track # track

using a music player

the options for this are pretty expansive. commonly used players i see include VLC, foobar2000, clementine (or a fork of it called strawberry), and cmus (for the terminal)

you can also totally use iTunes or something. i don't know what audio players other systems come with

i personally use dopamine. it's a little bit slow, but it's got a nice UI and is themeable plus has last.fm support (!!!)

don't let the github page fool you, you don't have to build from source. you can find the releases here

click the "assets" dropdown on the most recent release, and download whichever one is compatible with your OS

syncing

if you're fine with your files just being on one device (perhaps your computer, but perhaps also an USB drive or an mp3 player), you don't have to do this

you can sync with something like google drive, but i hate google more than i hate spotify

you can get a free nextcloud account from one of their providers with 2GB of free storage. you can use webDAV to access your files from an app on your phone or other device (documents by readdle has webDAV support, which is what i use)

disroot and blahaj.land are a couple providers i know that offer other services as well as nextcloud (so you get more with your account), but accounts are manually approved. do give them a look though!!

if you're tech-savvy and have an unused machine lying around, look into self-hosting your own nextcloud, or better yet, your own media server. i've heard that navidrome is a pretty good audio server. i unfortunately don't have experience with self-hosting at the moment so i have like zero advice to give here. yunohost seems to be a really easy way to manage a server

afterword

i don't know if any of this is helpful, but i just wanted to consolidate my personal advice in one place. fuck big tech. own your media, they could take it away from you at any moment

[senjuop]

New void state technique? (must read)

Okay so I'm no pro with the void state yet, but I just wanted to share sth I just found. Cus we're gonna live our dream life no matter what. And I don't gatekeep. A few moment ago, I came across this video The man is talking about an ancient technique to enter the "no mind state" which means the "void state" and it's really simple. Everything he's talking about in the video is literally about the void state. This is his video's description: "In this video I share a technique you can use to access no mind or the void. The technique detaches the mind from the body and allows the spirit to roam free. Experience anytime the ultimate truth with this simple and easy technique." He mention things like:

-leaving your body -relaxing and peace -knowing how to exist without the limit of the mind -being in oneness -being connected to the source -calm mind You can check the video for the tutorial. Personally, I tried it and I have a problem with holding my breath for a long period. But even just by doing this for like 8 sec, I felt this calm sensation, idk how to describe it. I just tried it at the moment, and now I'm just writing this to share immediately. In the comments, people share their experiences with the technique, and they said things like their body detaching. I really hope this help anyone who are into shifting, and manifesting their dream life. I'm telling you if I entered the void state, my consciousness will probably not be living in this reality, bc I plan to manifest my dream life and it's very different from here. 😭😭😭 Looking forward to all your success!!!

[vinceaddams]

Any tips on learning to make buttonholes? I've been putting it off for.... *checks notes* like three years.... but better late than never and all that. I don't have any fancy machines so I gotta do it by hand but that seems right up your alley.

Thanks!

It IS up my alley, yes, I do most of my buttonholes by hand!

I'm actually part way through filming an 18th century buttonhole tutorial, but I expect it'll be a few more weeks before I finish that and put it on the youtubes, so in the meantime here's the very very short version. (The long version is looking like it'll probably be about 40 minutes maybe, judging by how much script I've written compared to my last video?)

Mark your line, a bit longer than your button is wide. I usually use a graphite mechanical pencil on light fabrics, and a light coloured pencil crayon on dark ones. (I have fabric pencils too, but they're much softer and leave a thicker line.) You may want to baste the layers together around all the marked buttonholes if you're working on something big and the layers are shifty and slippery. I'm not basting here because this is just a pants placket.

Do a little running stitch (or perhaps a running backstitch) in fine thread around the line at the width you want the finished buttonhole to be. This holds the layers of fabric together and acts as a nice little guide for when you do the buttonhole stitches.

Cut along the marked line using a buttonhole cutter, or a woodworking chisel. Glossy magazines are the best surface to put underneath your work as you push down, and you can give it a little tap with a rubber mallet if it's not going through all the way.

I'm aware that there are some people who cut their buttonholes open using seam rippers, and if any of them are reading this please know that that is abhorrent behaviour and I need you to stop it immediately. Stop it.

Go get a buttonhole cutter for 10 bucks and your life will be better for it. Or go to the nearest hardware store and get a little woodworking chisel. This includes machine buttonholes, use the buttonhole cutter on them too. If you continue to cut open buttonholes with a seam ripper after reading this you are personally responsible for at least 3 of the grey hairs on my head.

Do a whipstitch around the cut edges, to help prevent fraying while you work and to keep all those threads out of the way. (For my everyday shirts I usually do a machine buttonhole instead of this step, and then just hand stitch over it, because it's a bit faster and a lot sturdier on the thin fabrics.)

I like to mark out my button locations at this point, because I can mark them through the holes without the buttonhole stitches getting in the way.

For the actual buttonhole stitches it's really nice if you have silk buttonhole twist, but I usually use those little balls of DMC cotton pearl/perle because it's cheap and a good weight. NOT stranded embroidery floss, no separate strands! It's got to be one smooth twisted thing!

Here's a comparison pic between silk buttonhole twist (left) and cotton pearl (right). Both can make nice looking buttonholes, but the silk is a bit nicer to work with and the knots line up more smoothly.

I've actually only used the silk for one garment ever, but am going to try to do it more often on my nicer things. I find the cotton holds up well enough to daily wear though, despite being not ideal. The buttonholes are never the first part of my garments to wear out.

I cut a piece of about one arm's length more or less, depending on the size of buttonhole. For any hole longer than about 4cm I use 2 threads, one to do each side, because the end gets very frayed and scruffy by the time you've put it through the fabric that many times.

I wax about 2cm of the tip (Not the entire thread. I wax the outlining/overcasting thread but not the buttonhole thread itself.) to make it stick in the fabric better when I start off the thread. I don't tend to tie it, I just do a couple of stabstitches or backstitches and it holds well. (I'm generally very thorough with tying off my threads when it comes to hand sewing, but a buttonhole is basically a long row of knots, so it's pretty sturdy.)

Put the needle through underneath, with the tip coming up right along that little outline you sewed earlier. And I personally like to take the ends that are already in my hand and wrap them around the tip of the needle like so, but a lot of people loop the other end up around the other way, so here's a link to a buttonhole video with that method. Try both and see which one you prefer, the resulting knot is the same either way.

Sometimes I can pull the thread from the end near the needle and have the stitch look nice, but often I grab it closer to the base and give it a little wiggle to nestle it into place. This is more necessary with the cotton than it is with the silk.

The knot should be on top of the cut edge of the fabric, not in front of it.

You can put your stitches further apart than I do if you want, they'll still work if they've got little gaps in between them.

Keep going up that edge and when you get to the end you can either flip immediately to the other side and start back down again, or you can do a bar tack. (You can also fan out the stitches around the end if you want, but I don't like to anymore because I think the rectangular ends look nicer.)

Here's a bar tack vs. no bar tack sample. They just make it look more sharp, and they reinforce the ends.

For a bar tack do a few long stitches across the entire end.

And then do buttonhole stitches on top of those long stitches. I also like to snag a tiny bit of the fabric underneath.

Then stick the needle down into the fabric right where you ended that last stitch on the corner of the bar tack, so you don't pull that corner out of shape, and then just go back to making buttonhole stitches down the other side.

Then do the second bar tack once you get back to the end.

To finish off my thread I make it sticky with a bit more beeswax, waxing it as close to the fabric as I can get, and then bring it through to the back and pull it underneath the stitches down one side and trim it off.

In my experience it stays put perfectly well this way without tying it off.

Voila! An beautiful buttonholes!

If you want keyhole ones you can clip or punch a little rounded bit at one end of the cut and fan your stitches out around that and only do the bar tack at one end, like I did on my 1830's dressing gown.

(I won't do that style in my video though, because they're not 18th century.)

Do samples before doing them on a garment! Do as many practice ones as you need to, it takes a while for them to get good! Mine did not look this nice 10 years ago.

Your first one will probably look pretty bad, but your hundredth will be much better!

Edit: Video finished!

And here's the blog post, which is mostly a slightly longer version of this post.

[trashbatistrash]

,

[novy2sirius]

uranus persona chart notes

your uranus persona chart can tell about what’s unique about you, technology related things, friendships, and more. to find yours follow the tutorial below and select uranus ♡

the entire uranus pc matters as well as what’s in your natal chart, so take this with a grain of salt. these are just notes that may help you to read your own ♡

tw: family trauma, manipulation ♡

persona chart calculator ♡

♅ venus trine neptune · you have musical or artistic talent in general that stands out a lot from others which can cause you to become very successful online and accumulate a large following

♅ moon in the 4th house · you can experience lots of ups and downs emotionally due to your family and possibly have experienced a chaotic home life that has caused you to become someone who’s very introverted and sensitive toward the things people say to you

♅ venus in the 9th house · you’re a very free spirit and independent person who has a positive addicting energy about them. you make the most friends when you’re being your true self and not caring what others think of you

♅ saturn in the 2nd house · you can experience lots of struggles surrounding ups and downs with self worth, finances, and discovering your true values in life until you’re older (usually after your first saturn return)

♅ uranus at 28° · with this degree in uranus you can gain wealth from technology related careers. karmically this means that you can have a lot of ups and downs if you are holding onto a lot of negative energy or are constantly spreading negativity

♅ venus sextile mars · not gonna lie this aspect in a uranus pc does give me player vibes. these people are extremely charming and know how to flirt so well that they can easily manipulate others or exploit them

♅ mars in the 10th house · people with this placement in their uranus pc make amazing rappers and can become very famous from rapping

♅ stellium in the 11h · you probably are someone that makes friends very easily or comes off very friendly. even if you’re not the most outgoing you have a lot of charisma and can talk to people well when you are in a social setting and need to communicate

♅ neptune at 9°/18°/27° · you can become a beauty symbol online and someone who lots of people copy because they idolize you so much. this gives you a unique beauty that really stands out from others and turns heads

♅ stellium in the 7h · although this stellium in your uranus pc can make you very charming and a smooth talker it can indicate lots of ups and downs with relationships. often these people are just very independent and love their freedom which makes it hard for them to commit to a relationship long term

[obscure-entity]

your shading is AMAZING specially when its conveying organic forms..... do you have any tips for people who dont know wrf going on (with shading)

ok so HI. hi. my old tutorial pisses me off so i will make a new one

i made a guy whose sole purpose is to be shaded so dont worry he likes it. and his name. his name will be mr. Boob. mr boob does not have to be blue

theres probably way better explanations of how to do it but unfortunately trying to "emulate" shading does ask you to somewhat understand ur character in a 3d way. like what would the 2d shape be if you "sliced" it? mr boob is made of so many circles. his tail also does a kind of weird perspective foreshortening thing because its pointing at you. is this being conveyed

you obviuously dont have to draw a horrendous grid on your characters skin to do this . BUT it helps you put down (or at least envision) the lines of the form shading :

dont worry about cast shadows or the shading color because this is FORM SHADOW time only. think about what surfaces of the character are obviously facing away from the light source and put down the "separation line" of the shading based on that. thr most important thing is that youre trying to separate light from dark

im going to pick the first one for cast shadows bc it will be the most obvious to me

ok so. his ears and snout are blocking other surfaces of his body from the light, which means a shadow is cast!!!! bam. i saw someone describe cast shadows as what the light's pov "can't see." his entire body is putting down a cast shadow on the ground too

im impatient so i blended the form shadows now. its usually the easiest to just NOT blend cast shadows as a way of conveying that they are still cast shadows. but you can still blend them if you want to show "distance" between the obstruction and the surface its blocking. but its just a way of saying form and cast shadows should not be treated the same even if their softness coincides

im going to lump reflection and ambient light together because theyre like. similar. reflections dont just happen in mirrors

since the sky is blue, making the ambient lighting, i tinged mr. boobs existing shadow to be a bit blue. (*this is kind of important because it can help you decide a shading color, which should USUALLY be based on the environment) (unless your character is just in the transparent void then it doesnt matter)

since the ground is pink, i made pink light bounce off of him. pointed and labelled. i dont rlly know how to go more in depth than that

contact shadows are literally shadows formed from direct-touching contact. very little light can reach in there, even from how reflections disperse, which means youre free to use the darkest color available (black). in this case mr. boob is making contact with the floor. because he is sitting on the floor.

i touched him up a bit and wow!!!!!!!!!! look at mr. boob!!! he is so beautifully sculpted.

and one more thing

thats right. i made mr boob PINK. hes fucking ruined now. just kidding i would never say that to him

what im trying to convey here (its the easiest with really light colors) is a transitional color. this can also show subsurface scattering depending on how you use it which is fun to look at. the mistake i made on my last tutorial was "Just pick a warm saturated color!" which is really wrong in examples like Blue mr boob. because it would be weird to use a warm color to transition from blue to blue.

if you have a character that isn't bright enough then obviously the shadows wont be as visible. its BEST to bring more attention to highlights and reflections to reveal the form a bit. they play the biggest role with darker colors

thats all i can think of. fun things to look up:

structuralization + contour lines + foreshortening etc. 3d lingo

form shadows

cast shadows

ambient light

contact shadows

subsurface scattering

im also just speaking out of my ass otherwise. i didnt look up any of these terms until the end now im inferring and hoping i got them right

and remember every time you shade mr boob will be rooting for you

[lunarlando]

girl dad lando doing his babygirl's hair (she has his curls for sure hehe)!! he struggles a little but does a decent job at the end ~ maybe following a tutorial video or wifey is guiding him but creative freedom to you ❤️

so cute, thanks for the request! x

feel free to request more :)

“You’re in charge of one thing before we have to leave for brunch with your family.” 

Lando glances up from where he's laid out on the carpet tickling a wildly giggling Estelle to see you with your hands on your hips. 

You’re still one of the many shirts of his that you’ve resorted to using as pajamas since your currently seven month pregnant belly has popped, and you’re looking at him very pointedly, but he still smiles fondly at the sight of you. It’s just an unconscious thing that his face does, that it’s been doing since the day he met you. 

“Mama!” Estelle squeals, pointing at you excitedly. 

“Hi, my darling!” You wiggle your fingers at her, beaming at your little girl with enthusiasm.

“What’ve you got for me, babe?” 

“Be the best husband ever and do your daughter’s hair.” 

“Pretty sure I already am the best husband ever, but alright. Reckon her hair looks just fine the way it is, don’t you think?” He aims a sideways glance towards the toddler. Estelle’s hair is an exact replica of her father’s, tight curls that like to do whatever they want, as evident by the tornado of brown framing her chubby cheeks at the moment. Lando smacks his lips together, bobbing his head understandingly. “Yeah, okay, I’ll try my best.” 

“Thank you, love.” 

He scoops Estelle off the floor with an over-exaggerated grunt, climbing to his feet with her slung over his shoulder the way she always loves to be held by him. She shakes with peals of cute toddler giggles, patting him on the back surprisingly firm for a one year old, making him groan. “Woah, you’re getting so big and strong, Stell! C'mon, let’s go do your hair.” 

You press a grateful kiss to his cheek as he passes you, booping Estelle’s nose playfully before they make their way down the hall to the bathroom. 

Lando sets Estelle down on the bathroom counter, squinting at the items you’ve left next to the sink for him. A few combs, a small brush, a tiny water mister thing that he has no idea what to do with. 

As if you sense he’s confused, you call from the bedroom, “D’you need some help getting started?” 

“No, no. I’ve got this,” He calls back, grabbing a comb off the counter. “Dada’s got this, doesn’t he, lovebug?” 

Estelle is too preoccupied with looking at herself in the mirror to hear him, though if she did, she probably would’ve said no. He has no idea how to do her hair. Sure, he knows how to do his own hair (barely), and hers is similar to his, but it’s different. 

He pulls up the photo album he’s got on his phone of pictures of Estelle—ones he’s taken, ones you’ve sent him whilst he was away—hoping one of them will help him draw inspiration for today’s look. 

One that particularly catches his eye is a photo from the mini holiday you all took during summer break a few months ago, where Estelle’s springy curls are pulled into two bunches towards the top of her head. From what he remembers, those bunches quickly ended up smeared with applesauce, but they were adorable while they lasted. 

“Think this might be the one, how ‘bout you?” Lando turns the phone towards Estelle, showing her the photo. She aims a gummy smile at him, wiggling around happily. “Yeah, s’cute, innit? Alright, here we go.”

—

“Babe, would you c’mere for a second?” 

Lando’s voice rings out from the bathroom after twenty minutes of silence, save for the occasional giggle. You’re all done getting ready, and as much as you want to pop your head in to see what’s happening, you’ll give your husband the benefit of the doubt. You pad down the hallway as fast as your pregnancy waddle will let you, not knowing what to expect. 

“How’s it going in here, my loves?” 

Lando stands back with his hands propped on his hips, head tilted. “I think I did pretty decent, no?” 

Estelle’s got two tiny sort of space buns on her head, a little messy, but better than you were expecting, given Lando’s inexperience. She leans in your direction upon laying eyes on you, making grabby hands at you until you scoop her up. You shift her in your arms so she can see herself in the large mirror. 

“Look, baby! Who’s that over there?” You coo encouragingly, pointing at her in the mirror with a big smile. Estelle mumbles something unintelligible, patting herself on the chest happily. “That’s right, it’s you! Dada did a fantastic job with your hair, didn’t he? You look so cute!” 

Lando tosses the comb he’s holding behind his back and up over his shoulder, catching it and pretending to run it through his own curls in one smooth motion. “Call me Stell’s personal professional hairstylist.” 

He’s serious about it too, giving a straight face until you manage to come up with a response. 

“Is the racing not working out for you? Had to find another job?” You joke, chuckling lightly. He scoffs, bumping your hip with his. You reach up to give him a kiss on the cheek, then hold Estelle up too. “Give dada a kiss?” 

Estelle knows the word kiss very well. Execution, not so much, but she tries her best as she plants what has to be the world’s wettest kiss to Lando’s cheek too. A younger Lando might’ve wiped the slobber away immediately, but dad Lando has no problem with it. He’s changed a lot since his younger days, especially since becoming a first time parent. 

You’re both still navigating that journey together, but you’ll have a year and then some more experience once baby girl number two makes her arrival in t-minus two months time. But for now, you’ll cherish every moment with Estelle before your focus is split between two kids. 

“Oh, thank you for the kiss, lovebug!” Lando chirps, booping her nose gently. “Usually I’d charge top dollar for a mint hairdo like this, but I’ll take that as payment since you’re so cute. You get it from your mum, don’t ya?” 

“I dunno about that,” You hum, leaning into him. “Her dad’s pretty cute too.” 

You don’t have it in you to tell him one of Estelle’s bunches sits higher than the other, not when he’s smiling down so proudly at the two of you like you’re his world.