Saladscream's den

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Edit:

Merlin is really getting the hang of this sailor thing... ⚓🥰⚓

Still inspired by @the-pen-pot's Sigh No More AU world.

Ok, this is one of my absolute favourite manips ever. I know it doesn't seem like much, and other manips have been vastly more popular, but to me this manip stands out because it was a 100% joy to make, and it was all about the challenges.

Challenge #1 was the source picture itself,

Challenge #2 was finding the right headshot,

Challenge #3 was getting the colours and lighting to match.

And I cannot even begin to tell you how satisfying it was to overcome each and everyone of those challenges.

Left: found a really poor quality version of this picture on pinterest. It looked too good to be true, but the fact that the quality of all the versions I could find was so crappy led me to believe it was genuine and not AI - which was great news. Had to do quite a lot of detective work to finally hunt down a bigger cleaner version from a pdf. (FYI, this is the cover picture from an old issue of a niche French magazine) I felt mighty proud of myself for getting my hands on it. Challenge #1 unlocked! 🏆

Right: Took me a little while to find the exact right scene, but I knew there had to be a Kilgarrah scene where Merlin looks up at the camera, so I rummaged through the episodes until I screencaptured The Headshot. Challenge #2 = done! 🏆

So you immediately see that the camera angle and the head tilt and light angle are all a great fit... except that Merlin is a nighttime shot (or "night" filtered)!! 😅 So I had to play with the temperature, colour, lighting, painted over some layers, etc, until I got a suitable skin tone. Challenge #3 was overcome! 🏆

And I hope by now you understand why I love this manip. It was awesome to create and I loved the result. 😊

So to sum up...

Right: "vintage" source picture Left: wristwatch removed + hands smoothed a bit + equipment on the deck of the ship made less conspicuously yellow + blond windswept hair removed

Merlin's learning the ropes... And someone gave him a pointy sabre! 😉

Still inspired by the Sigh No More AU world by @the-pen-pot. 😏⚓

Still no AI.

To celebrate, here's a little sneak peek behind the scenes at one of my manips, because some of you seemed interested in that sort of thing.

I didn't do much in terms of body modification, because long-haired guy was actually a good fit for Merlin, but I played with colours!

Left: a promoshot from Black Sails (no idea who the guy is, I haven't watched that show yet) Right: turned the top/tunic blue and the jacket brown to give a more Merlin-y feel + erased all the wind-swept blond hair + kept Merlin's neckerchief + erased the ring on the right hand

Merlin's learning the ropes... And someone gave him a pointy sabre! 😉

Still inspired by the Sigh No More AU world by @the-pen-pot. 😏⚓

Still no AI.

To celebrate, here's a little sneak peek behind the scenes at one of my manips, because some of you seemed interested in that sort of thing.

I didn't do much in terms of body modification, because long-haired guy was actually a good fit for Merlin, but I played with colours!

Left: a promoshot from Black Sails (no idea who the guy is, I haven't watched that show yet) Right: turned the top/tunic blue and the jacket brown to give a more Merlin-y feel + erased all the wind-swept blond hair + kept Merlin's neckerchief + erased the ring on the right hand

Colin Morgan got to meet up with Jane Casey at HarperCollins Ireland’s Big Book Live event in Dublin on May 14th. Jane Casey wrote The Killing Kind book, in which Colin starred as the leading role in the TV series adaptation

You made a fabulously evil Uther Pendragon, thank you for getting me through my teenage years along with the rest of the amazing cast and crew of BBC Merlin.

I also hope all the Buffy fans out there are doing okay.

Truly a treasured actor, the world will miss you.