#tutorial: blending

ONE. first, you want to have your canvas ready with your base gif. your base gif should have a central point (this is the part of the gif that will peek through the overlay gif) and it should also have some dark parts on it (in this case, it’s isa’s hair).

i made this gif on a 540px canvas and it’s a fairly common dimension for these sorts of gifs but any dimension should work as long as it fits into the tumblr gif size limit :D and at this point, there isn’t any sharpening or colouring on it.

TWO. now this is the colouring for the base gif. i added some basic curves to balance the light out and decrease the slight washed out look of the original gif. 

then i increased the black in selective colouring and the darker the better, as it allows the overlay gif to be more visible when we reach that stage!

it’s often useful to keep your layers organised in folders. the original gif and the adjustments for it can go into a folder and you can call it whatever you want. i called mine ‘BASE GIF’ - short and sweet.

THREE. well, now we’ve reached the overlay gif. i’ve added it onto the SAME canvas and i’m adding my colouring onto it. the same colouring as last time - so a curves layer and i’m increasing the black in the selective colour. you can also tweak around with the neutral selective colour and drag the slider slightly to the right (+3 or +4).

FOUR. now this is not a part of the tutorial but it is very useful is understanding why the selective colour can matter so much in this process of blending gifs.

i’ve set two examples of the same overlay gif. one of the gifs has had its black and neutral increased in the selective colour while example two has had the opposite (i decreased neutral and increased white).

then i placed the gifs on a solid colour and set the gifs to screen. as you can see, the gif WITH more black and neutral creates a better and clearer image than the one WITHOUT the black and neutral. personally, i don’t prefer the washy-looking gif on the right.

FIVE. now, we are still working with our overlay gif that is placed on top of our base gif. i’ve added a black and white layer onto the overlay gif (you can use a clipping mask). this will make our monochrome colour pop out better and prevent weird colour mixtures like a weird blue-orange-green if i placed a blue solid fill onto the gif.

SIX. so basically, we have our BASE layer underneath and our OVERLAY layer on top. the overlay layer has a solid colour layer on it but it’s worth mentioning that this step is not always needed! some people forgo the solid colour layer but in this case, we’re gonna add some blue onto the overlay gif.

SEVEN. as i’ve stated in the image, go to the dropdown for the coloured rectangle and go to multiply (you can do other settings as well and i will show those settings in the next few steps) but i chose multiply for that slightly darker look. i’ve placed all the adjustment layers in the folder titled OVERLAY GIF.

EIGHT. so this isn’t a part of the tutorial either but it’s for reference! these are all different settings you can do on the solid colour that’s on top of your overlay gif. they all produce different results which i will add in the last step! this part is all personal preference and they will vary on the colour that you choose.

NINE. now here is the final and arguably the most crucial step. you’ve got your base layers and adjustments in one folder. you’ve got your overlay gif and its adjustments as well as its colour layer in another folder. now both folders are closed.

for the overlay folder, click SCREEN. and this should give you your blended gifs. you can always tweak the final product (by playing with the selective colours and curves and so on) and in the previous step, i mentioned different settings for the colour fill and they are included at the bottom of this image.

TEN. now just add your sharpening and any final touches to the gif and you’ll end up with your final product!