"I Want To Ride You 'Til You See Stars"

I’ve found that I often work with weirdly tinted scenes which are sometimes challenging to colour, so I’m here to share how I tend to work around them.

There is no one way to colour gifs, and something that works for me may not work for you! This post just contains some things I wish I’d known when I started making gifs years ago.

To understand this, you need to:

already know how to make gifs on Photoshop

have basic knowledge of different adjustment layers

I personally use Photoshop CS5.

Night shots are honestly the biggest pain in a gifmaker's ass. And a really neat and quick way to brighten them up, get rid of the blue hues and bring back what resembles normal daylight colors is a blue fill layer set to Divide. You're gonna have to fiddle with the specific blue shade as well as possibly the opacity settings, but with the right color the instant effect is goddamn amazing.

This here is literally just the original screenshot and one layer of color #2f5e82, 100% opacity, set to Divide.

This already makes it so much easier to work with further coloring (like I'll probably clean up the greenish hues bc I'm not a fan of them), but even slapping a quick Levels on top already makes it look pretty damn decent.

For anonymous, my beloved

When making edits of characters of color, its imperative that the original skin tones be left as they are. In characters with brown skin tones, it can be all too easy to unintentionally lighten the skin and whitewash them or over saturate the skin and make it look orange or red.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to keep the original skin tone. This is not a tutorial on how to make a gif, but I will link mine at the bottom. This tutorial primarily focuses on Taika Waititi and his skin, but I do have a tutorial that focuses on black skin with the BBC Merlin fandom that will also be linked at the bottom. However, the process is pretty much the same.

This tutorial will work for Photoshop and Photopea.

Step 1: Make your gif. Crop it, sharpen it, etc. This is my gif, which has only been sharpened.

Step 2: Basic recolor Here I’ve added Curves, Selective Color, Hue/Sat, and Vibrance. When setting your Curves layer, keep an eye on the character of color. Make sure you’re not overlightening the gif and washing the character out completely. It can be helpful to do your Curves layer last or edit it after you finish. In this one compared to the first, you can see how red and oversaturated he is and that’s not at all what we want. He can look better.

Step 3: Reduce redness To reduce the redness of his skin, we’re going to add another Hue/Saturation Layer. Set the Range to Red. Set the Saturation Bar to -30 and the Lightness to -5. This isn’t the hard and true way of reducing redness. There are other methods, but this is the one that I think looks best. Alternatively, you can play around with the amounts and duplicate as needed.

Step 4: Bring back warmth He no longer looks abrasively red, but he does look washed out and crusty. To fix this, we’re going to add a Vibrance Layer at 30. I oftentimes duplicate this layer once to make the colors richer, but use your best judgement.

This is what your gif should look like. Taika looks normal again, he doesn’t look washed out or red. From here you could add in whatever extra stuff you’d like to or post it as is.

Here’s another side by side of the original (left) and the edited version (right).

Hi there! I just want to make sure you know that I am not the same creator of that gifset, but I can definitely explain how this person made that gifset.

This is the Natasha gifset, as you can see it’s gorgeous.

Before I begin I want to start by saying it’s totally fine to take inspiration from other gifs, to see something that someone has done and replicate it in your own way. With giffing, at the end of the day, we’re all using the same source material, the same amount of scenes and minutes of screen time to create something so there are going to be similarities in gifs across the same fandom. However, it is never okay to steal someone’s gifs and repost them as your own, nor is it okay to directly and blatantly copy someone’s gifset frame for frame to post even if you make the gifs yourself. Copying to learn a technique is fine so long as that gifset stays in your drafts or stays in your groupchat.

It is always a good idea to give credit where credit is due when giffing, in that if you use a text post/tweet/a specific set of graphics or theme, to credit the person you got the idea from by linking back to where you got it.

I’m assuming you’re asking specifically about the third gif. The process is going to be similar to the one I detailed here, however the gif on the left has either a grayscale or black and white filter on it, or you can even open a Hue/Sat layer and take out as much saturation as you want. It all depends on the look you’re going for!

The gif on the right has cyan added to it, whether they did that with a brush or layers idk and I’m not going to try to recreate it exactly, so if you want to know for sure I recommend asking them. But I can show you a similar process with Photopea, which is what I’m assuming you’re wanting (although to be completely honest I primarily use Photoshop now😂😭)/

Lately in my own gifs I’ve been doing blend types other than Lighten (like Screen for example), and this kind of looks like that but I could be wrong! Again, it all just depends on what kind of look you want, the vibe or aesthetic you’re going for.

The tutorial I make for you will use Lucas from Stranger Things S4 because that is the only live action on my hard drive at the moment😂😭 I mainly gif anime now (anime sideblog: @icythot-bakubitch) and I could absolutely do a tutorial with it but it won’t come out the same as what you’re wanting to see.

This tutorial is made on the basis that you already know 1) how to make a gif 2) how to make overlays and 3) have a good sense of familiarity with photopea/photoshop.

If you don’t have those things, you’re welcome to look at my other tutorials:

Make A Gif | Anti-White Washing (BBC Merlin) (OFMD) | Overlays

Please remember that this gif is made with Photopea and not Photoshop, so there is going to be a deficit in quality compared to the set you’ve shown me. Your quality will come out much better if you’re able to use Photoshop.

Basically all I really did was add a Black and White layer to the bottom gif, making adjustments to keep as much quality as possible and adjusting the brightness to my taste. The original gif is already pretty dark, I probably should have picked something else but for a tutorial I’m not that pressed.

On the top gif, I used Selective Color and Hue/Sat to change the cyan of his background to purple.

Using a soft round brush I cleaned up their faces and got rid of any parts of the background that I felt was too distracting.

Attached below is a side by side of the original and recolor respectively, and then a screenshot of my layers.

Again, this is my way of doing things. It’s going to look different from someone else’s. Focus on finding a style that you like and that works for you. Just because a style of giffing is popular or something a lot of people are doing doesn’t mean that you have to do that.

I’m sure there are better or more efficient ways of doing things as well! And there isn’t one set way of doing things, this is not a be all end all of doing overlays or giffing.

HEADER TUTORIAL (requested by anonymous) 

First of all, I’m insanely happy that you, dear anon, found my header worthy of having its own tutorial made. I’m genuinely surprised, but it’s a good kind of surprise. Second of all, in no way am I fluent in Photoshop–in fact, all I do is follow a couple tutorials made by some very talented people here, while making my own adjustments and adding textures until the result is not Terrible. It’s just a heads-up. And, finally, third of all, I’m not a native English speaker, so forgive all the following mistakes. I try very hard with both punctuation and grammar, I really do. :’) So, let’s begin!  

TEXTURE PACK TWO | CHTHONIC

A TEXTURE PACK THAT CONTAINS 49 DIFFERENT IMAGES INSPIRED BY STRANGER THINGS

Like or reblog this post if you download.

Do not repost as your own.

hello! sure! i'll explain how i made the ripped paper effect from this gifset in more details under the cut 😊 (it’s a different method than what i did on my previous tutorial here)

— so i decided to immortalize these brush presets i had lying around into a pack, so that it would be easier to use! These brushes will make jazzing your headers up super easy, and will also be easier to have a definite shape without fucking around with the pen tool for four hours (since i’ve done it for you 😌). please do rb if you plan on using! credit is not necessary, but is nevertheless appreciated.

HERE IS A PREVIEW OF THE BRUSHES BELOW ON AN IMAGE: (click on the image and expand it if you’d like to get a closer look).

the file is linked under the cut and in the source of the post.

If you’d like any other presets, feel free to ask <3.

FIND THE FILE HERE  !!

Soph’s Header + Doodle Tutorial (requested by anonymous)

Hi! I’m back again with the sequel to my icon + colouring tutorial, this time with headers and doodles! 🥰 You will need:

I’m using Photoshop CC 2018 to make these headers and doodles, but you could easily make them with earlier/other versions.

Basic gif making knowledge.

A screencap you want to use, some fun textures, and some time and patience!

You will need:

A an edit with layers.

A paint brush texture.

Photoshop (I’m using Elements 18).

Difficulty rating: ★☆☆☆☆

We’ll be going from this:

to this:

Tutorial under the cut:

HEADER TUTORIAL

Hey you guys! This was requested by a few people so here you go! The tutorial is under the cut. ps: sorry about my photoshop being in portuguese, I couldn’t change it. 

Some people have asked for help on how to properly size gifs and edits when creating tumblr posts. So I’m going to try and explain it (in crazy detail!) here. It’s going to get complicated bc tumblr sucks, but please bear with me.

BASICS 1. You can have anywhere from 1 to 10 edits/gifs per set. 2. Each gif has to be under 3MB. If it’s bigger than that, they won’t move.  3. You can have anywhere from 1-3 gifs per row. (remember that row is –> and columns are  ↓ ) 4. All gifs in the SAME row have to be the same height. 5. The gifs in row 1 can be a different height than the gifs in row 2, etc. 6. Sizes:               Old: 500px | 245px | 160px               New: 540px | 268px | 177px 

(I have basic giffing tutorials [here] and [here])

(Script everyone should install regardless of whether you make your own gifs or just like to look at them [HERE]. It will make posts on your dash look better!)

OLD SIZES VS. NEW SIZES This is what I’m referring to when I say tumblr sucks. A while back (omg 3 years now???), tumblr changed their code and it affected how sets appeared on people’s dashes. Basically, it widened the post width. Along with this, tumblr was resizing people’s gifs to in order to fit the wider posts. This made everyone’s gifs look blurry (especially apparent with text…the gifs just don’t look “crisp”). People were PISSED. It was bad. So people figured out NEW sizes to make the gifs so they look good on people’s dashes. Sounds straight forward, right? WRONG. 

While the posts on the dash got bigger, posts on people’s blogs (your main page) are still the old size. So if you started using the new sizes, they looked good on the dash, but looked bad on your blog page (because tumblr needs to resize the bigger gifs to fit in the smaller post width). Basically, when tumblr resizes gifs (up OR down), it makes them look shittier than they really are.

So now every gif-maker must face a choice: Do you want your posts to look good on the dash (use the new sizes!) or on your/people’s main blog pages (use the old sizes!)? This is s shitty choice to have to make. Most people see your stuff via the dash, so honestly most people might want to use the new sizes. But it just makes me super depressed to go to my page and scroll through my blog and see my posts look shitty. Also, I harbor illusions of grandeur and think that people actually go to my page and scroll through old stuff (lol right). I want my stuff to look good when they do this. SO I STILL USE THE OLD SIZES! So if my posts look kind of blurry and shitty to you on the dash…this is why. If you reblog something of mine and look at it on your page, it should look better (unless your theme is one that makes posts 400 px or blows them up super huge. If that’s the case, WHY??? WHY DO YOU USE THAT THEME??? ::cries::).

Also, THERE’S A STYLISH SCRIPT EVERYONE SHOULD INSTALL [x] that makes everyone’s posts look good on your dash regardless of whether the gif-maker is using the old or new sizes. I installed this, so I can live in ignorance and pretend like everyone is seeing my gifs look good instead of crappy. In this case, ignorance is bliss. lol. I also delude myself into believing that EVERYONE has this script installed, so the fact that I’m using the old sizes doesn’t matter bc they look fine on everyone’s dash bc everyone uses the script (REALITY is that most people don’t use it but SHHHHH leave me alone!).

In case you’re curious and want to investigate this, I use the old sizes and I know @mabesies uses the new sizes. So you can compare how our sets look on your dash. If you don’t have the Stylish script installed, Mabel’s should look nice and crisp and mine will look blurry and gross. Then go to my blog page and look at posts I made vs. posts of Mabel’s that I reblogged. Mine should look crisp, and hers will look a bit blurry. NO FAULT OF EITHER MINE OR MABEL’S!!! Just stupid tumblr. >.<

OLD SIZES 500px | 245px | 160px

The total width of the post is 500px. The 10px (seen below) indicates the white space between the gifs, which is why when you have two gifs in a row, they’re 245px, not 250px – you need to account for the 10px of space between the two gifs: 245 + 245 + 10 = 500px. And for 3 gifs you have: 160 + 10 + 160 + 10+ 160 = 500px.

If you want one gif in a row, it needs to be 500px wide. It’s height can be anywhere from 1px to…idk. 810px I think??? (I really am not sure the max height for gifs, so don’t take this as absolute fact)

But honestly, If you’re making a 500 px gif and you want it to be more than a few frames, you’ll probably aim for the height to be around 300 or less, otherwise it’s really hard to keep it below the 3MB limit. You can have a post with just one 500px gif. Or you can make a post with ten 500px gifs (and anything in between), but they each need to go in their own row. When I make 500px sets, I usually make them all the same height bc I think it looks aesthetically pleasing, but if you wanted them to be different heights, that’s totally cool. The top gif height can be 200px, the second gif height can be 300 px, the third 250px, etc. But the width on all should be 500px.

If you want want 2 gifs in a row, they need to be 245px wide and their height can be anywhere from 1px to 400px. (I think this is the height limit)

Each gif in the same row needs to be the same height. So, for example, If you have a gif in the top row that is 245 x 150, then the gif next to it ALSO HAS TO BE 245 x 150. But if you also have 2 gifs in the second row, they don’t also have to be 150px. They can be any other height (between 1-400). But again, the two gifs next to each other (in the SAME ROW) need to be the same height. So your second row of gifs might include 2 gifs that are 245 x 300. It doesn’t matter that the gifs in row 1 and the gifs in row 2 have different heights. Every row can be different heights, as long as the gifs IN THE SAME ROW are the same height. So you CAN do this:

Same rules apply for 3 gifs in a row. They need to be 160px wide and their height can be anywhere from 1-400???px. (I honestly aren’t sure how tall they can be…I never make tall skinny gifs and this is always tough info to find out. It might be less than 400px??). All 3 gifs in the same row need to be the same height. But different rows can be different heights (same concept as above). 

And you can mix and match all you want, but remember you can only have a total of 10 gifs per set. So you can have a set that looks like:

Top row: 1 gif that’s 500px x 250px Second row: 3 gifs that are 160px x 200 px Third row: 3 gifs that are 160px x 300px Fourth row: 2 gifs that are 245px x 190px Fifth row: 1 gif that is 500px x 150px

That’s 10 gifs, so you can’t have more. Notice that all the rows have different heights, but all the gifs in the same rows are the same dimensions.

NEW SIZES 540p | 268p | 177p

The SAME rules apply here as above, you just need to substitute the new numbers where the old ones are. ALSO NOTE: the space between the gifs is only 4 px, not 10. That’s why the math is a bit different. Just roll with me here. Don’t think about it, just accept it. lol

theme twenty-nine ♡ by userbru

live preview | code | support me on ko-fi?

400px, 500px, 540px posts

optional 300px sidebar

60px sidebar icon

responsive side menu with search bar

pop up about with optional 640px header 

80px icon on about pop up

npf fix by glenthemes THAT SUPPORTS BOTH EDITORS (aka turns gifsets posts on beta editor into regular gifsets instead of text posts)

base code by seyche

full credits on code!

recommend doing a reset before installing this theme.

to make sure the pop up box for the about works, on the basic customizations tab in your customize page, scroll down to “About Pop Up” and type: #!” class=“click. IMPORTANT: TYPE IT OUT!! don’t copy paste.

if you want to change the icons of the side menu, you can find them at boxicons.com.

if you need any help with the customization of the theme or any issues, shoot me a message and i’ll help you!

hey guys! this will be a quick tutorial for blending gifs in photoshop (i use cs5, and i make my gifs using the timeline) i included pictures and everything, so i hope it’ll be helpful so let’s say you have your two (or more) gifs ready, nicely cut, sharpened and colored. i’ll use these two of lucifer and chloe

firstly, drag one of your gifs on top of the other, and arrange them a bit (you can obvs drag them around any time if it doesn’t look good) (i circled the timeline in yellow, always make sure that your gifs are the same length! obvs if one of them is longer, you can drag around the end of the timeline to align them up)

now we’ll need a mask. select the top layer, and click on the Add layer mask icon in the bottom right corner. a white rectangle (our mask) will appear next to the layer

the next step is to select the Brush tool,  set the size to as big as you want (generally it looks better if you use a bigger brush, it’s much more seemless), and the color to black

then just paint around the edge of the top gif, you’ll see on the mask where the brush affects the layer. it’s generally better to just click around a couple times, than dragging the brush accross

now you can save it like any other gif, and this is what i ended up with

there are obviously many other ways of blending gifs, and this is far from the best one, but i feel like it’s the easiest if you have two similar gifs

sometimes setting the top layer on linear dodge looks great. if you’re using a dark and a light scene, you can play around with setting them on screen or soft light

How I make gifs for a simple scene + coloring + captions under the cut:

I’ll show you how to make this ^^^ gif (including the sharpening, coloring and captioning process).