Thinking about Kodiak and Ambrose and their early years on Minerva.
Thinking about the first time it rains and they run outside, the two of them getting soaked to the skin but laughing so delightedly and dancing together in the sudden downpour, their footprints glowing.
Thinking about Kodiak being unable to put baby Yarrow down in his crib once he has him in his arms because he has these vague memories of being in the orphanage and never getting held, he's desperate to give his tiny son all the love and affection he can so he never knows that kind of loneliness. Ambrose has to gently coax him, promising that Yarrow won't mind if he sets him down to sleep, that they'll be right next to him in their own bed if he needs them.
Thinking about the first time a storm hits and little Yarrow knocking on the dad's door, his little sister clinging to his other hand because she's scared of the noise but won't admit it. So Yarrow says he's very frightened of the storm, can he and Owl come sleep with you guys? And Kodiak and Ambrose just smile, making as much room as they can for their little ones to snuggle up between them, holding them so safe.
Thinking about how Ambrose has never seen Kodiak cry until they lose one of their babies and then he sobs like he's never going to stop and all he can do is just hold into him and pray his arms are enough to stop him falling apart completely.
Thinking about Kodiak and Ambrose calling each other husband because sure, that doesn't mean much out here and there's no legal meaning to it anymore but they made promises to each other one quiet night and that means everything to them.
Thinking about one time Kodiak checks his list of tasks for the day and is confused to see it wiped off its usual chores to keep the homestead running. Instead there's just one job on it and reading it makes him blush. He turns and Ambrose is leaning in the doorway to their room with a huge flirty grin on his face, pointing out that their children are out playing for the next few hours and they have their first alone time in who knows how long so he took the liberty of adjusting your schedule appropriately. Kodiak just shakes his head fondly and lifts Ambrose right off his feet, carrying him to their bed while he laughs.
sometimes i think i’m like actually so cool and funny and successful and like every one is so lucky 2 know me and then i go to a party and i’m like there has never been a bigger loser than me
you have to be careful reading too many things that are good/smart/well-written bc then you encounter something that isnt and you get confused like ? why didnt they just make this good ? were they stupid
Hello!! A couple years ago I posted this tutorial for making gifs with a moving overlay effect. In the two and a half years since I made that tutorial, I've learned some new tricks for this gif effect but most importantly I've learned how to explain things better.
For that reason, I've created this new and improved tutorial for my overlay gif effect. The basics are the same but it's simpler, I go into more detail, give better explanations, and have more comprehensive instructions.
The easiest way to do this effect with this method is to use smart objects and work in timeline. For this tutorial, I’m assuming you know the basics of giffing like cropping, resizing, colouring, etc. If you need help with this I’d suggest you look at some other tutorials and guides!!
First, we’re going to start off with three things.
1. A completed gif converted into a smart object that is going to be the base gif. I'm going to call this "gif1". You’ll want this gif to be at least 3 seconds because it needs to last as long as the overlay plus a little bit of extra time in the beginning.
This is the base gif I’ll be using in the example (except I trimmed it so that I could meet the size limit).
2. A second completed gif converted into a smart object that is going to go over the base gif. We’re going to call this "gif2". This gif should be at least 2 seconds but I’ve made it work with shorter. Gif2 needs to be the same dimensions or bigger than gif1.
This is the gif I'll be using in the example (except I trimmed it so that I could meet the size limit).
3. An overlay in video form. These can be found on tumblr and youtube by search for overlay or transition packs. For this example, I'll be using an ink drop overlay I found on youtube.
Step 1: Turning the overlay video into an overlay gif
Most overlays aren’t going to instantly fit the gif effect you’re trying to achieve right away. This is the overlay I got from youtube and as you can see it’s too slow and needs a crop/resize to be usable.
To fix it, I sped the frame rate up, cropped the overlay, and resized the overlay so it fits over my base gif. I also sharpened the overlay (500% amount, 0.3px radius) so that the edges were smooth. This is the new overlay gif and the one I’ll be using for the gif effect.
A tip: I also like to add a brightness/contrast layer to get rid of the grey on the overlay gif. Because we’re working with blending modes to achieve this effect, any parts of the overlay that are grey will be a blended mix of gif1 and gif2. If you think this will look good for your gif effect then don't worry about it!
Another tip: try to get the entire overlay movement to fit into a 2-3 second window. Anything longer than that will likely be cut off when you have to trim your gif to meet the upload size limit and it would suck to only have half of the overlay.
Step 2: Creating the gif effect
Drag a copy of gif2 and a copy of the overlay gif onto the gif1 canvas. I like to use Ctrl+Shift+V so that the layers are pasted in the same position as they were on the previous canvas. MAKE SURE that both overlay layers are in the same position on the canvas. If one of the overlay layers is higher/lower/etc. than the other then the effect won't work properly.
Then, make a second copy of the overlay and invert it (Ctrl+i). These are the layers you should have:
Before you go any further, trim gif2 and both overlay layers so they are all the same length.
Now, we need to rearrange the layers and set blending modes. The top layer should be whichever overlay goes from black to white. This is because when we change the blending modes, the white part of this layer will disappear and look like its being replaced by gif2. In this case, that is the overlay (inverted) layer. Then we want gif2, the other overlay layer, and then gif1.
A tip: this process can be done the other way where the top layer is the overlay that goes from white > black however, you are much more likely to have an error where there is a grey/black line around the overlay effect in your final gif. In order to avoid that, I always use the black > white layer on top.
Next, set the top overlay layer to darken. You should only see the black part from the overlay and gif2 should fill in the white part. Here’s how that looks in my example.
Next, select the top overlay layer and gif2 and convert both layers into one smart object. Your layers tab should look like this now.
Now, set the new layer’s blending mode to lighten and the overlay layer’s blending mode to darken. Once you do this, you should be able to see gif1 as well as the overlay gif.
Step 3: Timeline and exporting
At the moment, gif1 is still significantly longer than the overlay gifs. Since this gif is just over 10 mb (which is pretty small for this effect) I’m going to trim about 1/4 of a second off the end of gif1 and then drag the overlay layers so they all end at the same time.
Now you’re free to export the gif! This is the finished effect for the example gif!
A tip: sometimes, when I convert to from timeline to frames, the gif becomes a little longer and slower. It has to do with different frame rates across the videos and photoshop but I'm not smart enough to understand it. If that happens, just set all the frames with the overlay layers to 0.04 speed instead of 0.05.
And we're finished! I hope that was helpful and made sense. If you have any questions feel free to drop them in my inbox or send me a message!! <3
remember when teachers would tell you to fold paper hamburger or hotdog style. kind of sounds like some fake shit but just another example of burger centric american thinking
gracieabrams
origamiaround
baratheonpilled
turnnoffyourmind
amandla
