professorafesilveira

[hopesallwegotleft]

Chapter 2 — The Briefing

[jung-koook]

are you making those gifs just from the yt shorts/ig reels of I AM STILL that they are posting? it doesn't even look like it bc the quality of the gifs is so good D:

If you want to talk about quality you've come to the right person! LAKSKSALKS everyone loves high quality files but sometimes I do crazy things for files that not even my friends can do. such as my paid weverse files. I always want the original quality and with screen record we don't have that, so I literally gave my email and password to someone on a forum so they can download my files from my weverse account in the original quality. this person just said "hi, I know how to download paid files from weverse using codes, do you want me to do it for you?" and I, who don't know this person, said "omg please, thank you so much for doing this for me". 😅😭 also download torrent files from suspicious websites. the list is long LKASKLAKSAS but I can give you some tips on how to always find good quality files, at least files that are free or easier to find.

try to join in exclusive forums like kpop24hrs or a harder like jpopsuki and avistaz. I had an account on jpopsuki, but maintaining an account there is very hard for me, I am someone who doesn't keep files saved on my laptop. there is a forum called "torrent invites" where some people go there and offer invitations or even exclusive forum accounts. I got a jpopsuki invitation account for a friend there. check torrent invites forum if you want an invitation to another forum! now youtube videos. to download youtube videos I use 4k video downloader. but before downloading the videos you can also try to change the format of the video to see if the quality changes too. sometimes videos in mkv format have better quality, so it's always good to check if the quality changes.

I always do that on bangtantv like bangtanbomb or the episodes videos which most of the time are always only uploaded on youtube. BUT we have some videos that are not only uploaded on yt but also on instagram and tiktok~~~~ and this is where we win heheheh~~ if a video is uploaded on these three platforms ALWAYS download it from tiktok. 99% of the time, videos on tiktok have a thousand times better quality than those on youtube and instagram. or you can also download the video on these three platforms so you can compare and see which quality is better, but I'm sure that tiktok's quality will always be the best. here's an amazing example, jin video that I giffed earlier.

first i only saw people sharing the instagram link but i went and searched if the instagram account also had a tiktok account and BAM they did 🥹 I downloaded the video from instagram and the quality was poor:

but when i download the tiktok video the quality was:

damn... this is sexy🫦

when instagram doesn't always make videos available in 1080p, most videos on tiktok are 1080p. just go and search "where to download instagram videos online" "where to download tiktok videos online" and open a website that does that and that's it.

another example, my tae and jeongguk recent gifset that you talk about here in this ask.

the quality of the video uploaded on youtube and instagram is very similar.

yt:

instagram:

but look how the quality is a thousand times better on tiktok:

🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 so beautiful that I almost got emotional LAKSKASKASKA

my advice is to always look for other platforms they may have uploaded the files to! like for example jeongguk vogue photoshoot. many people thought that the videos were only uploaded on twitter and instagram but no, they were also uploaded on facebook! always look for accounts on facebook as well. but facebook is weird… from what I understand they won't upload all the quality at the same time so sometimes it takes a while for a video to be in 1080p there. another thing, sometimes they will also change the quality lol. for example, when I downloaded jeongguk photoshoot there the highest quality available was 2k but now it only has 1080p.

now:

😭😭😭😭😭😭

now torrent files~ I don't recommend the websites I download my files from because I'm not sure they are trustworthy but as I have a good program to protect my laptop so I feel safer lakskas. for torrent files I use eztvx, kpkuang, 1lou. "are you sure" files I had to search for jung kook or jimin to find the files on some of these websites.

and now free websites where we can download high quality bangtan files are namuspromised, sharemania, soowoozoooo and ouranxingg.

there are others but I feel like these are the ones who always share high quality files.

this was me trying to explain to you guys how to always find high quality files with my bad english LAKSKSKASK I just love helping people find good quality files ♡

EDIT: I forgot to talk about vimeo but @galatariel reminded me of them too ♡ many photoshoot are uploaded there with high quality so also check vimeo when a photoshoot comes out! I downloaded most of my recent tae photoshoot there~

[basilone]

I want to hear your thoughts on fandom and the recent influx of the term content creation!

Well, anon, you are in luck! (Or not, depending on your definition of luck. 😉) I just so happen to have many Thoughts & Opinions™ about this. I will get wordy, this will get lengthy, and I will be social and put most of my thoughts under a readmore cut.

I personally try to avoid the terms ‘content’ and ‘content creation’ when talking about fandom works and a fandom’s creative pursuits nowadays. Occasionally, sure, it happens that it slips out anyway – it’s a term we’re all really used to using! – but I want to be as mindful about its use as possible. This is a personal decision on my account and I won’t get uppity about other people’s use of these terms, though.

But, Killy, you might say... why would you avoid using these terms? For me, here’s why:

Content is not synonymous with art;

Content creation indicates something different than art creation;

Fandom should not be subject to consumerism;

Fandom is about connection.

If all a fandom puts out is classified as content, that fandom is going to die.

Yeah. I know. Melodramatic much? I’m on my fainting couch here, folks. 😂 But let’s dig in, shall we?

You know, maybe it’s just the archivist in me that balks at the term ‘content’. Content is a data entry field in the archival system we use at my real-life job: literally speaking, this data entry field is where we put a brief summary of the document attached to that specific archival file. It contains information that tells you the key takeaways of what the document is about, but it will not contain the full text of the document itself. Content is one of the points of access for our archival search: I know what I’m looking for, so I put a few keywords into our search and it pulls up the relevant file. But what do I need, really need, in my line of work? It’s the document itself, not the data entry field. The document tells me the whole story that I need to be able to truly do my job well. The content-field is a cliffnotes edition of that story.

It’s the same way with the art we create in fandom. I’m gonna take myself as an example here, because I create a fair bit! (Shocking, I know. Local Tumblr cryptid sighting, more at 11. 😎) I spend hours writing fic. I spend hours sorting through screencaps before screeching at Photoshop for a lengthy amount of time. I spend days pouring over quotes, books, documents, photographs, tutorials, and other things that will help me create something cool. I apply color theory, art framing/perspective, narrative focus, and many other theories and techniques to my writing and my giffing. If I were to put my finished work or any of my WIPs in that same archive system, it would be the document within the archival file. The tags I use on my posts? Those are markers similar to the content-field. They tell you who my gifset depicts and from which show it is. They tell you which OC of mine my fic is about. My work contains these things I tagged.

But my creative work is not content itself.

Content is marketable, easy access, blurb-y stuff. Content is something you absorb within one minute flat. Content is the highlight reel. It’s what fills a page, something you’ll scroll past in a heartbeat, something that barely stands out in a long long long list of stuff. Content is what you consume on a lazy Sunday afternoon without ever being forced to read lengthy pieces, take in the details of what you see, pause mid-scroll to ponder the meaning of life, whatever else have you. Create content and you create a flash in the pan, a quick laugh maybe, before it fizzles back out again. Create content and it’s here today and gone tomorrow without anyone mourning its absence for too long.

Art should last longer than that, don’t you think? 😉

So when I see people put a fic request in an askbox and it’s phrased like “Speirs x spy!reader fluff” and that very same request makes its way into about ten more askboxes before the fandom starts comparing asks? I might be inclined to classify us all as slot machines. Put an ask in and out rolls a fic. Who cares which slot machine it came from? As long as you’ve got your painstakingly crafted fics that you consume the same way you do actual content, right? We, its writers, are just lucky if we get a pat of acknowledgement on our little slot machine head for our troubles, aren’t we?

When I see an overly detailed summary of what sounds like a full-fledged fic in an askbox and the demand is “write this for me”, I recoil from the screen and go “child, who the hell birthed you, were you raised in a barn?” out loud. If you can tell a story in the space of an askbox, consider asking for help to let that story – a story you own, a story that is more yours that it could ever be mine – grow into what it has the potential to be.

When I see fics and gifsets and other creations get likes but not reblogs, I mutter something about the state of fandom economy these days. We exist in a little fandom bubble. Our bubble can’t expand or blow from place to place without a little help from our friends. And you’re my friends, right? I know the follow-button says follow, guys, believe me, I’m not that far gone, but for me ‘follow’ means ‘friend’. 💚 You’re my buddy now. Suck it up. We’ll share a can of peaches. 🍑

When I see fics and other creations get reblogged without tags or comments attached, I die a little on the inside. I feel like a little Victorian orphan child going “please, reblogger, a little penny of thought for its creator, if it pleases?”. I feel like commentless and/or tagless reblogging is giving me nothing, nothing at all, about who you are.

And I want to get to know you! I want to know who’s in my notes. I want to know who’s scrambling through my MotA gifsets like a fat little raccoon inhaling its third helping of a box of jelly-filled donuts. I want to know who is adopting which character and why. I want to know that it’s your birthday, or that you had a bad day and needed a pick-me-up, or that you are locked in an Ikea at three in the morning reading my blog by the bright lights of countless Solhetta bulbs. I want to know that you love my OC Darlene but that you ain’t sure what the hell my OC Lottie’s got to do with anything. I want to know what tickles you – a turn of phrase I used, a color in a gifset, a little detail I captured that made me go !!!!!! on the inside while I was creating too – and I want to know what moves you.

What reaches into the soil of your being and nourishes you enough to blossom into whichever lovely self you can grow to be? What is precious to you? What comforts you in the dark nights of your soul, when all light feels like it’s faded out? What do you love, truly love? What feeling and thought and idea and love love LOVE do you consume – truly consume, head to tail, no takebacks – and what are you consumed by in turn?

Let me connect with you. Let me know the little internet scraps of you that tell me you’re a DeMarco girlie, or that you’re here for Hoosier only, or that you’re as feral and batty about Speirs as I am, or that you actually really can’t stand the one dude everyone else raves about. Let me know that you like angsty quotes on gifsets – feel free to yell at me for making you schedule an impromptu therapy session – or let me know you saw what I did in my fic there and you’ll be demanding compensation from me while you lie down and wail about it. Let me know you’re very into those lovely blues on a gifset (I know, SO good, right??) or that you are side-eyeing me because that close-up of your fave turned you into a little puddle.

Let me know what moves you, because I created these things with love. I created them because they moved me, too. I created them because I have a story to tell, somehow. I created them because the whole world is a string of stories and I want to pass the heart of them on to you. I created them not because I want to jump on a hypetrain that races past all the episodes and all the alternate universes and all the stories without stopping, but because I want to soak up the sun and point at something and tell you “look, isn’t this beautiful?”. I created them not because I am looking for a quick fix or a distraction or an escape, but because I want to give you something that nourishes you as it has nourished me.

That’s so much more than that quick flash in the pan, yeah? That’s so much more than what content could ever hope to be. That’s something that lasts beyond the clicks and gives you an ever-expanding horizon that leaves you wondering just what in the world is next.

Let me repeat point five: if all a fandom puts out is classified as content, that fandom is going to die. Because content doesn’t sustain you. Connection does. And connection? That happens with meaningful interaction. That happens when you stop getting followers and start getting friends. That happens when you treat all forms of art as something unique that can be precious to someone, rather than something to like today and forget about tomorrow.

Can I do a lil mic drop? Yeah. I think I’m gonna. Just this once. 🎤

[nataliescatorccio]

hi becca!! i recently found this post of yours (714868807194312704) and it is AMAZING. the detail is seriously awesome, it must've taken ages, and i admire it so much!! when doing the animation, can i ask what method you used? i know some people use programs outside of photoshop, so i was curious if you have or will do a tutorial on it?

hi anon! this was perfect timing from you because i was actually working on a similar set for a different fandom! for that reason i apologise for responding a little bit late, but i didn't have the psd from the gifset you're linking anymore, and wanted to get some screenshots for you, and knew i was making another version!

i just use photoshop for all my animation and this set is very simple as it's just altering position! you need to be on timeline view to do this, and all you do is:

1) select the layer you wish to animate, click the little triangle next to it (circled in red in the screenshot below) and you will see a panel of options appear - each of these will allow you to add animations

2) for this set, we're interested in position, so i hit the little stopwatch next to it. this will create a little gold diamond, which you can see in line with the 'position' bar. this is where your animation will start. the diamond will be created at the point where your play line on the animation bar sits, so i would recommend positioning this first, but you can move it along to the spot where you would like it if you change your mind by simply clicking on it and dragging

3) make sure you progress the play line on a little (ideally to the spot where you would like your animation to finish, but again, you can move this later if you want to adjust it!). you can then adjust your to the animation you see fit. this was super simple in that i dragged the 'covering' layer towards the left off screen. some things i would say is just be careful you are lining this up properly! if you move it up or down a little then photoshop will track that movement and your animation may end up being diagonal - which if that's what you want is great, but otherwise, isn't very helpful! photoshop will mark the change in your animation with a grey diamond (see screenshot below)

4) you can continue like this if you wish to create further position points. for example, i moved the right arrow a little to give the impression they were being 'clicked' on, for this i had a third point, so that the first was the 'original position' the second 'moved down' and the third 'back to original position'. this created that movement! this ended looking like this:

5) if you mess up, you can delete your keyframe by right clicking on the diamond and pressing 'delete keyframe'. you can also copy keyframes and paste them, this can be super useful if you're trying to do a set like this which repeats the same animation, so that everything looks uniform and the speeds match across each gif

you can use this really nicely for other things too, as you can see on the side in the first gif there's an opacity option, which allows you to fade gifs or text in or out, and you use this the same way by setting points by changing the opacity of the layer. the style option allows you to alter layer styles, and this is particularly handy when it comes to animating font, as you can use it to warp your text and edit your warped text, creating movement through it!

the only warning i would give is that photoshop animation can mess with your frame rate. this is because of the way animation view works, what happens is that your animation movement gets out of sync with your frame movement, which means that when photoshop processes it for saving it creates extra frames. photoshop is clever enough that it will adjust the speeds of this, so don't worry about your gif looking messed up, however your gif may be larger in size because it is processing extra frames. you can flatten frames into layers > convert to frame animation > load in layers as frames, reset speed and delete extra frames if this is causing you difficulty!

i'm sorry this ended up long but i wanted to try and be as detailed as possible for you and anyone else who may be interested! i hope it helps and good luck out there with your animations<3

[go-see-a-starwar]

Hi! I recently joined tumblr because I’ve been looking for a fandom community for my obsession with Anakin (and Obi Wan) which morphed into my obsession with Hayden. I saw the prequels in my early 20s when they first came out and didn’t think much at the time, other than feeling really bad about how all the actors were being treated, but jfc the Obi Wan series has done something to me. Like, I need spend a certain amount of time watching clips of Hayden all emotional and being all awkwardly speechless during standing ovations or my day doesn’t feel complete. I’ve blocked off time on my work calendar today to watch the Variety interview. Anyway, I’m sorry for the odd confession, and this isn’t an ask, but I really wanted to say hello and thank you because your tumblr is one of my favorites. Your Hayden gifs live in my head rent free. ❤️ I want more, but I know I shouldn’t.

Hi there! Sounds like we had a very similar fandom trajectory down to seeing the movies in the Aughts and just not really thinking much of them until Kenobi series unlocked the obsession. So, glad to hear I’m not alone! I keep waiting for my celeb crush on Hayden to subside into a manageable ‘actor I like’ status (like I mostly have with Ewan, at least until some beard stroking gifset comes across my dash and I lose my mind again). But every convention or interview clip of Hayden’s that drops just makes my crush three times worse. My iPad photoroll is pretty sure he’s my boyfriend and you know what I’m not gonna argue with it. Thanks for the message and welcome to being a full-blown Stanakin!

[mikelogan]

What is the best way to get noticed when I post my own posts? I use hashtags but it still doesn't work?

anon, i'm genuinely so sorry for how long this ended up. i just wanted to try and cover all my bases and share things that i wish i knew when i first started giffing!! as always, take my advice with a grain of salt because i can only speak for myself! 💙

so the fun thing about tumblr and gifmaking (or any kind of editing) specifically is that engagement is shit garbage. for real, take a peek at the like-to-reblog ratio on any decently popular gifset and 90% of the time it skews heavily toward likes, which, on tumblr, do absolutely nothing. this is why you'll see me periodically rant a little about how people have to reblog things they enjoy! no one's going to see the hard work someone spent on a gifset if all the average user does is give it a like and keep scrolling. quite honestly, i've had to work a lot to manage my own expectations when it comes to notes. i now consider anything with over 300-400 notes to have done well when Back In The Day, it used to be a lot closer to 1k. but you also have to know your audience. when i post a law & order set, i expect less than 30 notes. the good wife? less than 10. it really just depends on how active the fandom is.

secondly, it definitely depends on which hashtags you're using. your post will only show up in the tag of the first 20 hashtags you use, so those are the ones that count. i never go over 20 unless i'm just adding my own commentary about the set i'm posting. i can only speak for how i use tumblr myself, but i don't track "regular" tags. let's take Friends as an example (bc i'm still heartbroken over matthew perry). i don't track #friends -- it's virtually useless to me. i track edit tags instead: #friendsedit. check out those tags for whatever media you're posting and see who those blogs tag! i would recommend sorting by recent rather than top posts for that as well so you can see what's relevant now, not whenever the most popular sets were posted. what you'll most likely see are the following:

edit tags (#friendsedit, #ofmdedit, #rwrbedit, etc.)

source blogs, whether they're general source blogs for film or tv, specific forms of media (animation, period dramas), or specifically for that media (heartstoppercentral, ofmdaily, etc.)

other tumblr users: i'm not entirely sure when this started bc back when i regularly giffed (8-10 years ago), everyone just tracked their url tag and that was it. i started giffing again this past may and was very confused at first about all the tags on gifsets that were #user____ and similar. and a lot of the time, it's next to impossible to figure out who that person is, what their url is, unless you check the notes and see who's reblogged the post, tagged it as "tagged" or something similar, and go to their blog to check their description and see what their tracked tag is. that's why i highly recommend starting a directory and/or taglist if you're going to be posting a lot of your own creations. i wish i would have started doing so sooner, but i now have a massive google doc sorted by who wants to be tagged in what and what user tag is associated with which url. i have a terrible memory as well, so that definitely didn't help matters.

a note on tagging etiquette:

you should be following the blogs you're tagging. this is my personal opinion as well as what i believe to be a general "rule." i'm sure not every person cares whether or not the people tagging them are following them, but i think it's polite to do so. when someone tags you, they're both saying "hey, look at this cool thing i made!" and "would you maybe consider reblogging and boosting this?"

i don't know that it's exactly a mistake per se, but when i first started hopping on the train of tagging users as well as sourceblogs, i kind of just tagged whomever in whatever. now that i've established taglists of who wants to be tagged in what, i don't really worry about this much anymore. but i would say it's again good etiquette to check out what the person you're tagging posts themselves and reblogs. if i see someone posting a bunch in #thohhedit and i follow them, i'll probably start tagging them in my own hill house edits because i know they enjoy that media! again, this will vary from person to person as to how discerning they are about what they reblog. i have some of my hard no reblogs listed on my about page, but not everyone will do this.

tagging someone doesn't necessarily mean they'll reblog your post! i can almost 100% guarantee you that it's not personal as well. i don't reblog everything in my tag, either bc it's someone/something i don't know, don't like, or is listed in my "won't reblog" section. at the end of the day, tagging someone is a kind way to ask them to reblog your post. it's not a guarantee and you're not entitled to anything. it's their blog! also, some blogs queue their tagged posts rather than reblogging them right away, so you might not see them do it for a while, especially if they're tagged in a lot or have an extensive queue!

lastly, and in no way do i intend this to be mean or rude or condescending -- or at all negative -- but a lot of blogs prefer to reblog creations of a certain quality. if you've just started out, there might be a chance that your gifs or edits just. aren't the greatest right now. and that's okay!! everyone starts somewhere, and i mean that in the sincerest way possible. for reference, this is one of my first gifs ever:

i'm showing you this bc not only am i proud of how far i've come with gifmaking, but because literally you have to start at this level to go anywhere!! there are multiple ways i've gotten better (both over months and years), but i think the two most valuable have been resource/tutorial blogs and gifmaking networks. i joined LGBTQ Creators in early September and it was hands down the best decision i could have made for myself. not only do i now have a network of likeminded, extraordinarily talented individuals i can go to for inspiration, advice, etc., but i also have a ton of motivation to make new sets and continue improving my skills and try new techniques! so yeah, maybe there are some users you'll tag who might not want to reblog your gifs because the frame rate is too slow or the coloring is off, but please don't take it personally. is it the nicest feeling in the world? of course not. but compare that stelena gif to one of my more recent gifs:

anyway, i hope that at least some of my ridiculous rambling is helpful to you! if you have further questions, i'm so happy to help in any way i can whenever i can. obligatory thesis statement: notes don't determine your worth or the quality of what you've created. gif or edit because you enjoy it! (this is quite literally the only reason i've made and posted hundreds of gifsets of law & order and the good wife lmao) 💙

[aceofwhump]

A thought just occurred to me. I was looking through the Tumblr trending page today and saw "bisexual" was trending. I scrolled through and saw an interesting infographic on what % of LGBT adults identify as, like 58% bi, 1.3% ace or something, whatever.

I identify as asexual. Way back when, I thought I might be bi because I didn't know what asexual was and, as Jaiden Animations says: zero = zero. I guess I like both, but also neither at the same time?

Anyways, I kept scrolling down on "bisexual" and I start to see like sexy bunny drawings and half naked girls and blah blah. "Sex sells" is completely lost on me. The appeal of boobie pictures or muscular dudes is completely over my head, always has been. I think you, Ace, probably get what I'm talking about here. So, I keep scrolling past thinking "who cares about this shit, literally who would want to look at this? .... Well I guess according to that infographic, like 98.7% of people probably understand this sexy lady crap more than I do". Then I think "whatever, I'm going to go back and look at some whump. There are some LOTR gifs that Ace posted recently that come to mind as well as some super whumpy fanart in my likes. Good shit.

All of this to say: Is how I like to look at, read, watch whump kind of like how people like to look at sexy bunny art? Is "sex sells" kind of like how I watched all of Graceland because you posted a gif of Mike handcuffed on the bed going through withdrawal? I completely understand "whumperflies" I caught the whumperflies from a single gif enough to watch that entire show, which I had never even heard of until seeing that gif. I got completely sucked into the Sonic fandom because of a collection of screenshots of Sonic carrying Tails. It happened to me with Teen Wolf, Outlander, others? (Now that I think about it your blog got me to watch a bunch of shows I don't think I normally would, so thanks!)

Is this somewhat what allo folks experience? Is whumperflies akin to sexual attraction in a way? I do wonder and I never thought about it this way until today.... I'm curious of your thoughts on this, Ace?

I also know that a large chunk of the whump community also identifies under the asexual umbrella so if anyone else has opinion?

Hi nonny!

Lol yeah I too do not understand the sex sells thing in society. I look at commercials like that one Rally's burger one where it's just a half naked woman sitting on a car eating a burger and I'm like "how does this shit work on anyone? Why would this make anyone want to eat a burger??" It genuinely makes no sense to me. But this is actually a theory I've seen once before on here! That our interest in whump/whumperflies is our version of "sexual attraction" which is definitely very interesting. I can see the connection very easily and there definitely are a lot of similarities in the feelings. I do wonder if how we feel whumperflies is how allos feel when they experience sexual attraction but who knows lol. Personally in my brain the two things are separate and I like to keep them separate. I don't like thinking of my whumperflies or my interest in whump as a sort of replacement for sexual attraction. Just feels super weird to me to think of it that way. I don't feel sexual attraction so I don't know what that feels like but I do have a sex drive and feel arousal and it's never happened with anything related to whump and it feels physically different to me than my whumperflies so it's all been kept separate for me. Just my own feelings though!

The sex sells/whump gifs thing is SO INTERESTING! I never thought about that but yeah you're right! For us it's definitely "whump sells" and not "sex sells" lol. Nothing gets me to watch a show faster than a good whumpy gifset lol. Sex? Sexy poses? Absolutely nothing for me. Actually it's much more a turn off than anything. Whump? Hot damn sign me up. I'll watch the whole damn thing for whump. Sidenote I love that you watched all of Graceland because of my mass posting lol.

It's fascinating and a very interesting theory for sure! Totally okay if others feel differently. Like you said there are a lot of aspec whumpers so I think there's definitely something to the theory. I don't know though! Very interesting idea!

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

mutual bingo mayhaps?

ELLE FRIENDDDDD (I was actually really hoping you’d send one in XD)

You give off like… older cousin vibes. The cool older cousin vibes :) With lots of Life Experience and Knowledge.

You’re so hekkin kind and sweet and you’ve got such a lovely outlook on life and when I think of you, I think “the wonders!! trees!! nature!! beautiful things!! life is beautiful!! friendship!! so much love!! friendship!!” And I just think it’s really cool how… positive you are, I guess? In a super refreshing way; a delightful difference from the rest of the world.

Shared interests yes :D I’m mostly thinking about how we’re both Christians who are into DSMP XD There’s not very many of us out there! We also both like the MBTI, though you definitely know way more about it than I do :)

YOUR POETRY. YOUR MOODBOARDS. AAAH. THEY’RE LIKE. SO GOOD. OH MY GOODNESS. Your poetry is so soothing and comforting and soft and beautiful, like falling asleep in a dim room lit by fairy lights, and your moodboards just… flow together so well. I can say with confidence that you make the best moodboards I’ve ever seen!! All the similar colors and themes and text… yes :D

I LOVE IT WHEN YOU GET EXCITED ABOUT THINGSSSSS!!! Like just recently, with… Hadestown, I believe? Aksgaksgajs I don’t know much about the fandom, but seeing you reblog gifsets and textposts and art, complete with happy tags, is so nice :D And your diary-style posts are super cool as well!!

Gosh you have the vibes of like, a dim room lit by fairy lights. And your diary-style posts are so soothing! Just gives off bedtime vibes :)

Met on tumblr, yep yep! You were one of my first mutuals, I think :0

Less of “putting you in my pocket” and more of “I want to walk around forests and ponds and towns with you!” You seem like a lovely person to take walks with :)

You are hands-down one of my favorite tumblr blogs XD And you’re also the sort of person I’d love to know irl :))

FREAKING OUT WHEN YOU INTERACT WITH MEEEEEEEEE AAAAAAAH!!! I could barely contain my joy when you sent me that ask about Ghostbur & Wilbur/their relationship to each other alsgakfsajfskagskagsjs

[ivashkovadrian]

💕 self-love time! talk about which ones of YOUR creations (edits, artworks, fanfics) you like the most then send to other creators to do the same 💕

OH MY MAUREEEN, thank you for thinking of me for this 💖🥺

You know when they say you're your own harshest critic? yeah that's me alright

very recently made: i guess i'll go with my current pinned gifset "everyone has a little bit of Geralt in them", which despite the pain of Henry's departure as Geralt, I had a lot of fun making! it was the first time i experienced with colored blending + b&w and it worked out! the "dj geralt" was actually a last minute stroke of genius, i initially had thought of "swingin' geralt". i am still cackling about that one. i spent a whole saturday afternoon on this, dropping all other plans i had in order to make this gifset 🤡

graphicking in the year of 2022: Arianne Martell + arrows graphic about one of my favorite quotes from this series "words are like arrows, once loosed you cannot call them back" (HAUNTS ME FOREVER). the typewriter text in the first part is meant to be "decipherable" not "plain readable", but it features only powerful quotes from that house <3

witching ladies: Triss + blue and pink gifset in which i tried out a bunch of effects I hadn't tried before! also, Triss, my beloved!! Yennefer + Venus Fly Trap lyrics featuring one of my fav color combos both for giffing and in real life, truly, the lyrics were written for her. And Yenskier s2 dynamic in pink (guess Jaskier is a witching lady too 😌) for the typography, the color and the hilarious "co-presidents of the 'fuck geralt' club" (interpret that one as you will ofc 😌)

still giffing my favorite movie of all times in 2022: i cannot decide which one of these color combos turned out the best, pride & prejudice + royal blue and gold or p&p + lavender and jasmine (low-key inspired by house dayne btw)

still me pushing the graphic renaissance agenda in this ask ("older" graphics, 2020-2021): this starklings + horror graphic, and mind you horror is NOT a genre i really know but this one i look back to with pride. and this Arianne Martell graphic about ruling which I know i have mentioned before in similar asks, but honestly, i am so proud of that throne!!!

[userpeggycarter]

Would you do a blending tutorial? The blending on that first gif in the Peggy set is unreal

hi anon! first of all, thanks! i'm quite honored :)

i can make a tutorial if you still really want one, but really, i don't have any new technique to show you that other blending tutorials haven't. if have a few tips to tell you, though, hope this helps! don't be shy to ask for clarification, english isn't my first language and my PS isn't in english lol so sometimes i get the terms wrong

half of the work is picking the right scenes or editing them right. the pink Peggy in the first gif in that gifset that you mentioned? i just erased a little of the background details to make it work! the nature of that scene was very appropriate for blending in the first place - it has a lot of contrast and a dark background without many details. that's the gifmaker's dream for blending, really. the more dark spots you have in your image, the more transparency the layer has while in lighten/screen mode, making it easier to blend. so, ideally, you should pick scenes as similar to that as possible for your gifs.

but i gotta be honest with you, "picking the right scenes" is easier said than done. not every scene has a simple dark background and little movement, after all. i spend a lot of time trying different combinations to see what works and what doesn't. in that first gif's case, it was quick and easy, because i thought both shots were good examples of Peggy being smart and i was lucky that they were an easy match. but it's not every time that i get lucky, in some dire cases i need to blend layer by layer, using the layers method of giffing. (i don't know about you, i'm a timeline gal, so using layers is a nightmare for me, but sometimes there's no other way!)

BUT… sometimes you can force your scene to be the "right scene" by editing it. in that cases, you could:

add contrast;

use curves/levels to add "dark spots" in your image (i don't know how to call it). here's an example:

take the original shot (in b&w & with a bit of editing) that i used for my most recent Buckynat edit (gif 1). i didn't want Bruce in it, i wanted Bucky instead, so with a curves layer, i darkened the whole gif (gif 2). then, inside the layer mask of the curves layer, with a black brush, i erased the effects of the curves layer on Natasha (gif 3).

you can still see his face, so in another layer, so i painted above those gaps with a black brush and black gradient (gif 4). that way, i created a region to put a gif of Bucky over it (gif 5). without my retouches, you still would be able to see Mark Ruffalo's face (gif 6).

play with colors & b&w! the first Peggy gif wouldn't have worked as well if the smaller Peggy wasn't entirely pink, because more of the background would show up over the main scene, for example.

play with size, too! having a big pink Peggy in the first gif was easier to blend than a smaller Peggy.

hope this was useful 🙈 i too wish there was a secret technique for me to tell you, but i discovered through trial and error that picking (and/or editing) the right scenes is the gifmaker's best friend. and while there's a "theory" for it (using scenes with a lot of dark and bright spots, filling missing gaps with black brush strokes in an underneath layer), you get better at picking the right scenes (and blending in general) with practice!

[fuckyeahisawthat]

damiano david and the voyeuristic gaze

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(I started writing this quite a while ago but it turned out to be perfectly timed for @maneskinweek​ so here we go...)

One of the most interesting things to me about watching Damiano David perform is how self-aware he is about being the object of a gaze. As in, he is extremely aware of when, and how, he is being looked at, and he wants you to know that he’s aware of it.

While they obviously wouldn’t have gotten this far without a ton of musical talent and hard work, I think all the members of Måneskin are aware that their looks, style, and public image of self-confidence and comfort with their bodies and their gender expression are all part of their appeal. Simply put...they’re sexy, they know it, and they’re very comfortable and unapologetic about that being part of their public image.

They all clearly put a lot of thought into how they style and present themselves for public appearances, be it a concert or an interview. But Damiano as the lead singer is the most deliberate about constructing a particular performance of sexiness, and subtly (and sometimes not-so-subtly) nudging the audience into looking at him in certain ways.

In general Damiano is extremely good at catching the audience’s attention and then directing it where he wants. This video is a great breakdown of how he does that. On stage he is frequently the center of attention (although he is also very intentional about directing the audience’s attention to his other bandmates when it’s their time to shine) and he seems to quite enjoy doing things that get a reaction from the audience. They don’t even have to be big, obvious things--one of my favorite Lesser Damiano Moments is this trick he does in a few of the Il ballo della vita tour shows of blowing water into the air after taking a drink. (What is this? Is it sexy? Why is it sexy? How does one even come up with this? In any case, you paid attention to it, didn’t you?) It’s a clever way of taking something as quotidian as drinking water and turning it into a little performance.

One thing he does very frequently--in live performances, in music videos, and in unscripted BTS moments--is acknowledge the audience’s gaze. He is constantly doing things that signal: I see you seeing me, and this is a performance I'm putting on for you.

When he’s performing live, and when he’s performing live for a camera, you can frequently see him pointing, gesturing or making direct eye contact with the audience/camera. There are many examples of this but here’s one from a recent performance:

(x)

I wrote a whole other post about the band’s camera-savviness and how I think that contributed to their Eurovision win, but suffice to say that getting a moment like this just right relies on knowing where the camera is and how it’s moving, and being able to keep track of it while not losing the connection to a live audience.

In BTS footage and other unscripted moments you can frequently catch him winking or doing something raunchy, flirty or silly when he realizes the camera is on him (there are at least 4 examples in this gifset). While these interactions may be unrehearsed, BTS, making-of and slice-of-life footage is produced with the knowledge that it’s for public consumption, and thus absolutely part of the public image the band is projecting. Even the content on the band members’ personal Instagrams is made to be shown to an audience. Thus all of this is fair game for analyzing how Damiano presents himself to an audience.

All of these forms of acknowledging the audience communicate a similar message: a sort of playful, cheeky exhibitionism, signaling that Damiano knows you are looking at him and he is not only allowing it but enjoying it, and maybe about to put on a little show just for you. It draws you, the viewer, into a sort of complicity with him; it’s a way of saying, Yeah, I see you looking. It’s okay. I like it, and I know you like it too.

This sort of invitation or direction into a voyeuristic gaze at him is most obvious in the band’s music videos, where the way the band interacts with the camera has obviously been thought out in advance. My absolute favorite example is this shot from the Vent’anni video:

(x)

By looking directly into the camera he creates the sense that he is checking to see if you are watching before he sensually strokes that mic. (He is particularly, uh, handsy with the mic in general but this is one of the more blatant moments and yes you are absolutely supposed to notice it.)

The Vent’anni video is shot in a style that frequently breaks the fourth wall, and it’s therefore particularly rich with these moments. Here’s another favorite of mine:

Thomas is looking back at Damiano (as much as you can look at someone who’s directly behind you) but Damiano is looking at us, the audience.

And of course, you knew I was going to talk about this:

(x)

Watching the band’s frontman make out with his own reflection sounds like it should come off as insufferably self-absorbed, but the way this is shot and framed (and the way we have been primed to look at it by other shots earlier in the video) creates the effect of something private, intimate and a bit vulnerable being put on display for us.

In the video for Morirò da Re, the camera actually becomes the mirror in shots like this:

So now we are watching Damiano watch himself as he assesses the image he is about to show to an audience. (Specifically, the image of his gender presentation...we’ll get into that more in a bit.)

And when we see the final product later in the video, Damiano is once again watching us watch him:

All of these details really stand out to me because this kind of intense awareness of other people’s perceptions of you is, let’s just say, not the mainstream way most straight cis men are socialized to perform their sexuality. You know who is socialized to constantly be aware that people are watching them and think about the image they are presenting for others’ consumption? Women. (Cue Margaret Atwood busting through the wall with that “you are your own voyeur” quote.) Another category of people who spend a lot of time thinking about the image they present in this way? Queer and trans people. We do it for the purpose of passing--as someone you are (ie. being gendered correctly), or as someone you’re not (ie. not looking “too queer” in situations where it’s not safe). And we also do it for the purpose of signaling to other queer people, hey, I’m like you.

I think this kind of self-conscious recognition of the audience’s gaze, just as much as the makeup, high heels or corsets, is what makes so many of Damiano’s performances read as gnc and queer. Even if Damiano himself is not queer...we see something we recognize.

The crucial difference is that in Damiano’s performances, the awareness of others’ gaze is not something hostile or dangerous. It’s welcome, consensual, playful, intimate and fun. It’s acknowledged with a saucy wink and a confident, sultry look. I think that’s a lot of what makes Måneskin, and Damiano in particular, so much fun to watch, and so sexy in the particular way that they are sexy. Even though we know it’s a performance, it’s a performance of what confident gender and sexual expression could look like without fear.

[midzelink]

So, as some of you might know, one of my GIFs was recently featured on the Tumblr Radar - which is pretty cool!  I was fairly happy with how that one turned out, especially considering that I made it rather last-minute on a whim to acknowledge Valentine’s Day.  It understandably received a lot of attention as a result of this, and I’ve loved reading through all the comments and tags (especially all the ones about how people want to eat the heart containers from TP); however, I wanted to clear up a bit of a misunderstanding surrounding the creation of that GIF, as there were additionally a lot of tags along the lines of #3d art or #artists on tumblr in that influx of reblogs.  I don’t want to take credit for something I didn’t do, even accidentally, and so allow me to be perfectly clear: the heart container GIF is not something I modeled and rendered myself! It is the original in-game model, recorded in-game using the Dolphin GCN/Wii emulator, with very little done in the way of post-processing in Photoshop.  If that sounds impossible or confusing (which is perfectly understandable, for those of you unaware of what Dolphin is capable of), I’d like to take this opportunity to give you guys a bit of a “peek behind the curtain,” as it were, to show you guys exactly how I made that particular GIF, as well as similar ones I��ve made (such as those in my #items tag).  

I didn’t take screenshots of my initial process (nor did I save the edited textures I used), so I’ll be recreating it from the ground up for the sake of demonstration, but that shouldn’t be a problem.

First thing’s first: finding a heart container! For this particular GIF, I wound up using the one that spawns after the Morpheel fight at the end of Lakebed Temple.  I’m sure many others would work just as well (I think, at the time, this one just happened to be the most accessible to me), but let’s use the same one for the sake of it.  

Morpheel: defeated.  And I didn’t even need Zora Armor! (Seriously, we do that in the speedrun.  But I’m getting off-topic.)  Of course, we’re going to need clean, close-up footage of the heart container rotating in order to do what we want to do, so let’s shift into first-person mode and and get a bit closer to the thing.

Now, because the only UI-element in this shot is Link’s health (and it’s in the corner and relatively non-obtrusive), removing it isn’t strictly necessary - but I’ve already made a texture pack that removes UI elements as part of my Text Free TP project from a while back, so let’s load it anyway, for the sake of being thorough.  This shot is also still a bit too far away, so next we’ll be utilizing Dolphin’s free cam feature (which can be accessed by going to Graphics > Advanced > Free Look and checking “Enable” in Dolphin) in order to get the heart container in a more central position. Now we’re left with this:

And we’re already looking well on our way to making a nice, solid color background GIF.  But how do we get the solid color? Well, that’s where more texture editing comes into play - and here I have to give credit where credit is due, as this is a trick I picked up from 186px, after wondering how they were able to make this GIFset of Link fighting Ganondorf in The Wind Waker in a great, black void.  (Seriously, shoutouts to them, their stuff was and still is amazing.)

But, very basically, we’ll be using Dolphin’s texture dump feature in order to find the textures that need to be edited so we can replace them with pure black ones.  Texture dumping can be enabled by going to Graphics > Advanced > Utility and checking “Dump Textures,” and the file path for these dumped textures by default is Documents > Dolphin Emulator > Dump > Textures > [Game ID].  (In the case of Twilight Princess, the Game ID is GZ2E01).  After dumping the textures in the Morpheel arena, my GZ2E01 folder looks like this:

When editing textures, sometimes you’ll have to endure a bit of trial and error until you find the correct ones.  Luckily, in this scene, the textures making up the sand floor and the stone walls are rather large, so let’s isolate the ones we’re pretty sure are responsible (plus a few others that are obviously environmental, just to be safe).

Now, when loading custom textures, it’s important that the file name you��re trying to load matches up exactly with the original texture that you’re trying to replace.  I have a plain, black, square PNG that I keep on my desktop specifically for this purpose; I copy the file names of the textures I’ve isolated, then rename and drag and drop the black PNG into the folder where custom textures are loaded (Documents > Dolphin Emulator > Load > Textures > [Game ID]).  Like so:

And now, to refresh our custom textures by disabling and reenabling them in Dolphin’s graphics settings:

And voilà! We have something that very nearly resembles the GIF I made (well, a still of it, at least).  I skipped over a few details, such as the fact that TP has a pretty significant amount of bloom surrounding just about everything, which I’m fairly certain I disabled using cheat codes when I made the original GIF in order to give it an overall cleaner look.  It’s hard to tell from this still, but TP’s heart containers also sparkle considerably in a way that’s random and not loopable; I found the texture responsible for this sparkle and replaced it with a transparent 1x1 PNG, in order to remove it entirely (as well as the texture behind the “glow” of the thing).  After that, it was as simple as recording the game with OBS, dumping the MP4 into Photoshop, cropping and cutting it to make it loop, and adding some adjustment layers for contrast and color.  So...yeah!

I hope this has served to clear up any confusion about some of the things that I’ve made in the past.  I’m not a 3D artist - just a person with an emulator and way too much free time on their hands.  This stuff is really, super simple, and also lots of fun, so I would highly encourage anyone with the means to mess around with emulation on their own some time to see what they can do!  (Even if you don’t have Photoshop and can’t make GIFs, there are always edits, such as this one I made of Midna.)  For Twilight Princess in particular, I also highly recommend checking out TPGZ; it’s a patch you can apply to a clean ISO of the original game, designed with the purposes of helping folks learn and practice the speedruns (yes, I had to bring up speedrunning one last time, kill me), but it’s got nifty features like built-in savestates, cheat codes, and HUD removal, as well as the ability to freeze actors while maintaining the ability to move the camera freely, among other things (all things that are very useful as far as making unique graphics go).  Sorry this post got as long as it did, but I at the very least hope that some of you found it educational and/or interesting.  Cheers!

[camelotsheart]

It has recently been brought to my attention that there has been a lot of reposts happening in regards to Merlin edits, so I want to make a post to talk about this issue. Both to speak up for editors who’s edits are being reposted and to help new editors with resources and tips so they don’t end up turning to reposts.

Consider the gifset above. The left gifs are unedited, while the gifs on the right are. This is to give you an idea of the amount of adjustments we do to scenes on a show, which are often dark, have horrible colour balance, and lack sharpness. This applies to fanvids, photo edits and any other kind of edited content. It is not fair, then, for someone to take an edit from a creator’s account and use it to make their own. You are disrespecting the creator and the time and effort they spend into making these edits look presentable. You are also violating Tumblr’s rules regarding reposting and attribution.

For our reposters who don’t know any better because they are new to tumblr and haven’t yet been told of the rules regarding reposting and gif-making, consider this your first lesson: never, ever use other people’s edits as part of your creations . This includes gifs, photos, manips, fanvids, and all other kinds of original content (e.g. don’t use a gif to make your own, don’t make a gif from a fanvid, don’t take photos of a gif to make a photo edit, don’t use another person’s fanvid in your own fanvid.... you get the idea). Doing so will run the risk of the owners of these creations reporting you and your account getting suspended.

Now that the nitty gritty part is done and over with, I’ll offer solutions to three of the most common complaints I’ve seen with creators who are at the initial stages of trying their hand at creating content 😊 :

1. “I don’t have HD files of my show so any edits I make are bad quality.” Try asking around! Make connections, join a tumblr group, join a discord server, heck -- ask your favourite giffer! They’ll certainly prefer you asking them for files than stumbling across a repost of their gif. Lots of people are willing to help new editors ✨

2. “I don’t have fancy programs to edit with.” Photoshop is by far the most efficient and popular program for editing. Again, don’t be afraid to ask around for download links! (Here are some very detailed step-by-step tutorials for giffing on photoshop: 1, 2, 3) Another option would be Da Vinci Resolve, which is free to download here.

If neither Photoshop nor Da Vinci works on your laptop because it takes up too much RAM, there are also online programs that are free to use like photopea, which has similar functions as photoshop. Here’s a tutorial on how to make gifs using free onlline websites. The above gifsets were made using this method.

3. “My editing skills are horrible.” Practice, practice, practice! Editing is a hobby and a hobby should be something you love. Believe me, it’s much more satisfying when you learn to edit scenes the way you want it to look instead of mix-matching from other people. The gifset looks way prettier, and you won’t run the risk of someone reporting you and getting your account suspended.

All in all, have fun! Don’t stress if your first edit doesn’t end up as good as you want it to be - we’ve all been in that position. Keep on learning and growing, don’t compare yourself to other people, do what you love to do and never stop as long as it makes you happy ✨

[wickedpact]

life's hecticness has finally kinda caught up to me and im just feeling super worn down and im seeking comfort in the old guard and because your blog always sparks joy ive come to you. on the subject of comfort do you have any thoughts on coping mechanisms/ways to comfort themselves the members of the old guard have? and similarly, ways they help comfort the others too? i would love to hear any and all thoughts you might have on the matter <3 - 2ta

in terms of comforting others:

nicky: words. i think its kind of interesting, but every time in the movie we see as character in emotional distress nicky speaks up (its okay nile, tell us, sono qui, everything happens for a reason boss) the only time he breaks this habit is when booker talks about grief in the lab.

booker: we dont rlly see booker explicitly comfort people much but he does seem to tend towards expressions of solidarity or subtle check-ins/expressions of concern (for the former he tells nile about his family, he tells nile big wounds take longer to heal, he reminds andy that ‘this is what you wanted’ and for the latter he asks andy post-stab if shes alright, he tells andy he wont see her again, etc)

hes also quick to (rightfully lmao) accept blame (after the kill floor, when he wont get up when the squad escapes, and the scene where he and andy get captured)

joe: he doesnt do a whole lot of comforting to the non-nicky’s out there interestingly enough. he encourages andy like the others do just after the baklava scene (i know you needed a break but its been over a year boss) he also tends to make little light hearted jokes/comments to lighten the mood sometimes (this plus 'faster than the elevator', etc)

and i suppose one could say him answering nile’s questions during the dinner scene are a type of comfort in itself, tho .. .... his answers arent exactly reassuring lmao

nile: So are you good guys or bad guys?

joe: Depends on the century

(j o s e p h you could have given her a more reassuring answer than that!! altho depending on the person, straight honesty can be very comforting in of itself, and joe prolly knew that andy would dance around nile’s questions and be generally unhelpful)

but additionally joe is a pretty strong protector and worrier about his friends’ well-being. he advocates for finding nile in the train scene and tells the others to ‘cover andy’ when they find out shes mortal

(plus the little touch he does to andy’s back!)

andy: andy’s mileage varies when it comes to comforting (primarily nile of course bc shes the Distressed One in the movie) but a lot of the time she tends towards offering stability and loyalty (me and those three men in there will keep you safe, you’re one of us now we would do the same for you, [to nicky] this changes nothing) which of course makes sense for her. stability and loyalty obviously probably mean so much to andy and as Team Leader shes probably very used to offering those things

nile: nile is more the comfortee than the comforter in the movie for all the obvious reasons, tho i think its interesting that at the end she tells andy ‘youre gonna [spend the time you have left] with us, andy’ not only bc shes delivering that stability/loyalty right back at andy but also bc shes also a leader (in the marines) so she might have a similar situation as andy with offering stability & loyalty as a Leader

being comforted:

nicky: the most notable instance of nicky being upset and getting comforted is obviously the van speech, tho like ive said i doubt joe’s go-to method of comforting nicky is a Speech. tho also (obviously & as ive talked abt a lot) i think he takes a lot of comfort from the idea of destiny/fate and the idea that he and The Lads were all destined to be together. he lomves his friends and hes happy when theyre happy

booker: alcohol.

honestly im not even sure how booker would really like to be comforted/comfort himself besides his given Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms. i think he does take a lot of comfort in his Solidarity with andy tho. considering his ‘that way madness lies’ comment about the immortality and his comment in the comic about ‘whats the purpose of an uncertain immortality?’ and his tendency towards tech, i think he’s the kind of person who likes when things are explainable and logical (and u could say thats a way he foils with nicky i suppose)

joe: him touchy

ive been meaning to make a gifset thats just Joe + Reassurance Through Touch but i keep forgetting about it. hes a very tactile boyo. in the comic while theyre having the nile nightmare joe reaches out and physically grabs nicky’s arm/shoulder in his sleep, like hes subconsciously checking hes still there. he worries So Much about the others (nicky in the armored van, nile in the train scene, andy post-mortality) and their well-being that i think he takes a lot of comfort in knowing all the lads are okay and safe (esp nicky)

andy: like i mentioned i think she likes loyalty and stability, which is obvs something shes had a serious lacking of throughout her life. ik u arent super into the comics but the recent tales through time story about andy went over how she takes comfort in the idea that her axe belonged to her mother once, even if her modern-day axe has had all its parts and pieces replaced so many times its not the axe her mother gave her 7000 yrs ago anymore. however andy still clings to this idea of her axe being her mother’s axe (‘this is the labyrs she held in her hands’). the memory of her family/mother and the stability of having the same axe with her through her history obvs comforts her a lot.

nile: again similarly to andy i feel like loyalty/family comforts nile a lot. she followed her father’s footsteps into the marines and worries about her loyalties to them through the first half of the movie, and tries to go home & thinks about her mom and brother through the whole thing.

(plus, music obvs means a lot to her)

[onlylaboum]

To be honest, I usually don't reblog your posts BECAUSE of the passive-aggressive tone you often use. It's just kpop. I like Laboum but it won't end my life if they're not world famous. I just want to enjoy music and stages and all their content happily, not create a second job for myself as their unseen manager. It's okay if that's how you stan and have fun but it's not for me.

I'm worried you'll answer this really angrily but I saw your recent post and wanted to let you know how some people might be feeling. I'll still be following for updates and gifsets and stuff! 💜

people were (also barely) liking instead of sharing my posts also before i expressed my frustration w this stuff so idt that's the issue.

on twitter i'm much more active nowadays bc at least there there's a few more active latte, but still very few compared to even other nugu groups that have similar numbers in streams.

i never said i liked spending so much time on LABOUM. i am aware i have an internet addiction and have been hyperfixating on the group to avoid stressing out about worse things in my daily life.

not just me but also other latte i talk to on twitter and tiktok are really fucking burned out from how much we try to do. i don't think being a stan should be a day job. i sure would love if people shared shit we post though instead of keep scrolling or give a like once a month, which does virtually nothing. we wouldn't have to stress out so much if people actually engaged with things we did. we try to encourage ppl to use apps to win youtube ads for Laboum (which worked but slowly, it's how we made Kiss Kiss finally reach 1 million views), we ask people to give feedback, to maybe watch a video or play a streaming playlist, or partake in a game, or to buy an album or share an MV with friends.

the way that a lot of people don't do that sht, the way that in MONTHS no new people have followed their twitter or youtube, the way that barely anyone talks about them online, does in fact signify that people don't care about Laboum. not everyone needs to be an active social media user or anything ofc, but this degree of lack of attention? unless when it's about a disbandment prediction, joking about the girls' horrible experiences at their expense, or fake interest in the group only on certain conditions, shit doesn't get attention.

the girls had viral tiktok videos a bunch of times, but the majority of the people watching have no fucking clue who they are or that they aren't just actors, and it's just me and 1 other Latte trying to respond to tired comments calling the members by names of characters they played, or "ZN" which is Jinyea's old stage name. if ONLY there were a few more Latte who would leave a comment or two for once as well, the few of us wouldn't have to deal with trying to inform the general public abt Laboum.

people not sharing shit abt LABOUM is one of the main reasons why so may ppl now think they disbanded, and why you see a bunch of kpop fans who claim they're a fan of LABOUM but have been out of the loop w them for 3-6 years. it doesn't help that their domestic fanbase consists of mainly loser incels who don't dare to fucking talk about the group unless when being petty about Yulhee or creepy about their bodies.

and i know tumblr kpop fans LOVE only looking at stupid fucking gifs and not clicking on the videos they're from, acting as if streaming is a fucking punishment from hell instead of just playing a fucking song or playlist you like in the background, and acting as if it's a shocker when groups aren't doing well when so fucking few people who pretend to be a fan actually listen to music or read or watch anything new or buy music. considering your purple heart use, you should KNOW how supporting musicians works. as much as i hate the competitiveness and commodity in the music industry, likes alone never helped artists.

so yeah i'm passive-aggressive bc im trying to fucking encourage people to do something more than say they like Laboum but never dare to mention their name nor recommend a song nor share anything about them. i wouldnt be so fucking frustrated if i saw some more hype aside from from clickbait content and gg stans who just namedrop them for edgy crappy jokes.

Laboum don't need to be world famous and i don't think they will be per se, but they are really unknown. unless people do something more than just quietly listen to them once every blue moon and don't engage in anything Latte are asking or encouraging people to do, they will remain as extremely unknown as right now and disband when their contracts end in summer 2023.

other Latte are feeling the same frustrations as i do and feel exhausted. anyone who knows Laboum's story and the international, knows how small it is and how frustrated we are. this shouldn't be a surprise if you've talked to any Latte. i am familiar with how reserved fans are in this fandom. when trying to set up projects before for their anniversaries, it ended with me and only 1 other Latte in a skype call, no communication from the rest, and them not daring to partake any projects or plans anymore. that felt really disappointing.

so no, i don't find fun in being so stressed and active in trying to promote LABOUM to such an extent bc me and a few others are trying to do work for multiple ppl and for free at that. but all we ask is basic stuff like 'please also share posts' or 'hey check out and share this new song cover'. it's already ridicilous i have to ask ppl to share posts bc they refuse to, whether i ask or not.

if that's too much work, are people really interested in the group???? the thing is also that if other people, at least a few more, do a little more than nothing, it would actually make more people discover the group on their own socials, become fans, and partake in fandom. we wouldn't be so burned out if there were more than like 5-20 accounts trying to do so much bc no one else will. e.g. we emailed the company to demand translators and it hired one, but then barely anyone watched LABOUM's newer youtube videos and so that was kind of abandoned too. no views or attention = a sign that people aren't interested = no new content. that's how it works.

[aredhels]

Let's spread the content creator love! If you get this, show us five of your favourite edits you created recently. Doesn't matter whether it's a gifset/video/moodboard or poster! Send this to five other creators once you're done 💓💕💖💗💞

💖💖💖 i took "recently" very liberally because i haven't been making all that many edits lately but anyway:

this russingon edit: i'm very proud of this one because the coloring turned out so great and i think the textures and the typography are rly cool too

this hamlet picspam: i've been experimenting with a lot less desaturated coloring style with picspams lately and i think i really like it?

this sharp objects poster edit: idk i really like the soft vibes and the contrast to the fucked up source material you know?

this the night circus picspam: this is coloring is very similar to the hamlet one but i love them both and couldn't choose between these so jhfgskhd

this elias bouchard poster edit: this is a very simple edit but i really love the otherwise monochrome color scheme with the red accents it's very hot