#*tj

so, once i decided to use a scene of my girl samira, i actually went to my fave color palette generator website -- coolors.co -- for some inspo for a new theme for the blog. as i am a cool colors connoisseur (self-imposed), i ended up choosing this one:

hex codes from left to right: #1f2421, #216869, #49a078, #9cc5a1, #dce1de

i made my gif with the header dimensions of 640px x 360px and colored it normally with my psd for the pitt, so we have this once sharpened:

then i slapped a good old gradient map on top that looks like this:

the two colors are from the color palette above, with the darkest color on the left and the second-lightest on the right. i pulled the right one in a bit just to brighten up the gif. that brings us here:

i then decided to add a couple video overlays, one of shifting light leaks and one of bokeh. i put these both beneath the gradient map layer and set the blending modes to screen. here's what that looks like now:

now for the text! here are the settings i used for the main "gifmaker resource" text:

and the layer style settings:

note: for this gradient overlay to work, you have to have your text written in white and set the blending mode of the layer to difference or exclusion!

for the outline of the text, duplicate your text layer. turn off all the layer effects and set the blending mode back to normal. then, right-click on the new layer and select "rasterize type." once it's rasterized, right click on the layer THUMBNAIL (the highlighted part in the below screenshot where you see the checkered background) and choose "select pixels."

then go to edit -> stroke. set the color to white and while i usually choose just 1px, i went with 2px this time. i then set the blending mode to soft light.

here are the settings for the script font in the middle:

and here's the (technically) finished gif!

to do the ripped paper bottom edge, select all your layers (including the gif itself) and using ctrl+g, put them into a group. then add a layer mask using the highlighted button at the bottom:

choose your ripped paper brush (check my brushes tag or use google if you don't have any) and make sure your color is set to black. with layer masks, a black brush will take away your image and white will bring it back. size your brush as necessary so it covers the width of the image and simply stamp it near the bottom!