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As a thank you for so many new followers, here's a brand new edition of my editing resources masterposts āØ (you can find the previous editions here). Make sure you like or reblog the posts below if theyāre from other blogs to support their creators! A friendly reminder that some of these are free for personal use only, so be sure to read the information attached to each resource to verify how they can be used.
Textures & Things:
Collage Kits from @cruellesummer that I find myself using basically every single day
Taylor Swift Wax Seals from @breakbleheavens that I also use literally every day
here is the colouring tutorial i promised to go with my beginner's gifmaking tutorial.
to save image space, i've written up a simple explanation of how each adjustment layer works here, so i'm just going to over my colouring for these 4 different gifs.
as always, very image heavy underneath
there are many ways to get the same results and i'll use various methods usually just based on what i'm feeling at the moment. some of it is a little convoluted, but hopefully this will give you a rounded idea of how it all works so you feel more comfortable playing around with your own colouring
NADJA
this is the base gif with zero colouring adjustments, just resized and sharpened.
unless the base gif is already very bright, which doesn't often happen because directors nowadays are allergic to light, the first layer i add is always a brightness/contrast layer. i don't adjust any of the sliders, i just change the blending mode to "screen", and then adjust the opacity if needed. this gif was pretty dark, so i left it at 100%,
my next layers are always curves to even out the white and blacks. i use two curves layers, one for white and one for black. i used the white drop-picker and selected just below the lightshade on the lamp behind her, and for the black drop-picker i selected her hair near her neck which gives us this
it's already looking much better, it's not as green tinted, but i want to make the red of her dress pop a bit more. in order to do that without making her face too red, i'm gonna remove some of the yellow. so next i'm gonna add a selective colour layer, and under the yellow channel i moved the yellow slider to -5 and the black slider to -52. now
now that the yellow is reduced, i add another selective layer, and under the red i move the cyan slider to -66 and the black slider to +29. now the red of her dress pops and her face is still a realistic tone. when i first made the gif, i added the red selective layer first, then added another selective layer under it and adjusted the yellows to offset it. you can always shift layers around or add a new layer underneath as you go.
voila
TOMMY
here is our base gif
this scene is better lit than the nadja one, but i prefer bright and colourful gifs, so i'm gonna once again add a brightness/contrast level and keep it at 100%
and then the curves layers to even it all out. since there isn't a spot that is immediately noticeable as white, you can hold the alt button with the white dropper selected and it will highlight all the white/very near white pixels. you can also zoom real close in to select specific pixels. i selected a from the white area around his chin/mouth. the same process works for finding a black spot with the black dropper, and for that i selected from a dark spot in his hair
the curves layers evened it out but also made the gif a bit more red and warm toned, and since i've decided i want the end result to be more blue/green, so i'm gonna add a colour balance layer. in the shadows channel i moved the cyan/red slider to -16, and the yellow/blue slider to +11
now the gif already looks great, it's bright, skin tone is accurate, he's not washed out, but like i said i like my gifs colourful, so i'm gonna add two more selective colour layers. in the first i'm gonna adjust the greens, bringing the magenta slider to -87, and the black slider to +81. in the second layer i'm gonna adjust both the blues and cyans, because when you see blue in a gif it's rarely ever straight blue or straight cyan, so always adjust both. (you could adjust the blue and green in the same layer, but i prefer to do them separately in case i need to move the layers around)
now finally i'm gonna add a hue/saturation layer because i think the blue of his suit is too blue when the sky behind him is more cyan. (also, since you only have 256 different colours to work with, you don't want too many different colours otherwise it will distort the colouring.) in the blue channel i move the hue slider to -12 to make the blue a bit more cyan, and i also move the saturation to +38 to make it pop more
and voila
RHAENYRA
here is the base gif
(this one is going to get very convoluted and imo best exemplifies what colouring gifs is like most of the time)
as always, a brightening layer set to screen
now the curves layers. for the white i clicked on her hair at the top of her head, and for the black i i clicked in the shadows to the left of her.
but as you can see, while it added contrast, it also made the gif more green tinted than it was. you could click around more, or manually adjust the red, green, and blue lines on the curves until it looks better but i decided to add a channel mixer layer instead. in the green channel i set the greens to -95, and in the blue channel i set the blue to -97
next i wanted to add a little contrast, but i find that using the contrast in brightness/contrast can saturate it too much, so instead i added a levels layer. first i adjusted the bottom bar, moving the right slider to 230 which reduces the overall brightness of the gif, so when i adjust the top bar it doesn't brighten the gif too much. on the top bar, i moved the right slider to 212, and the left slider to 9
now, i'd like it to be not exactly warm toned, but less cool, and while i could use colour balance or a photo filter, i'm instead going to add a gradient map, using the default gradient pink 08, and setting it to blend mode soft light at 50% opacity
next i just want to increase the blacks a little, so i'm gonna add a selective colour layer and under black i'm gonna set the black slider to +10
it's still not as warm as i'd like, so i'm gonna add a colour balance layer, in the midtones setting the cyan/red to +10 and the yellow/blue to -5
we're almost done, but i want to make her dress pop a bit more, so first i'm gonna add another selective colour to bring the yellows down a bit, setting the black slider to -15
and finally one more selective colour layer, in the reds, setting the cyan slider to -50, the yellow slider to +10, and the black slider to +15
voila
NATALIE
here's the base gif
as always the brightness/contrast layer set the screen
now the curves layer. for the white, i zoomed in and selected a pixel on her cheek under her right eye. for the black i the dark spot just above her head
now she's very yellow, so i added a channel mixer layer. in the red channel i set the reds to +88. in the blue channel i set the reds to +10
she's still a little too yellow for my liking, so i'm gonna add a hue/saturation layer, and under the yellows i'm gonna adjust the saturation to -60
finally, i want her to be a it brighter, so i'm gonna add another curves layer, but instead of using the drop, i'm going to manually adjust it. the two points along the line are where i selected it and then i dragged until it looked how i wanted. i start with the upper dot, which made it brighter and moved the line into an arch, and then selected at the lower end of the line and dragged in back closer to centre to add some darkness and contrast
voila
and that's how i do my colouring. it's generally all trial and error, using a layer to fix one thing and then needing another layer to fix something the previous layer did.
play around, have fun, see what works for you and what doesn't. it will take a while for you to develop your own method and style, and even then you'll come across scenes that make you question if you have any sills at all. you do, directors just hate us
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How do you get that square frame on some of your gifs? Is it a template?
Hi I'm assuming you mean like in the first and last gifs of this set?
I don't use a template I just manually draw the rectangle/square in. It's super easy and only a few steps (see below for the cut)
Start with your gif, colour it as you'd like for your set. For this example I'm going with a blue and yellow :)
Right click on the rectangle tool and select "rounded rectangle tool" from the drop down list. (you can use the normal rectangle, but I prefer the rounded corners personally)
use the cursor to draw from the top corner to the bottom corner, you'll get an outline something like the below screencap.
When you finish drawing a rectangle will show up
Change the settings in the above tool bar to match how you'd like your outline. Always change it so there is no fill
I have changed my stroke to be a blue and yellow gradient
This gives the below result
I think this is a little too strong, so I adjusted the stroke to 2
I also would like it to blend in a bit more with the gif so I changed the blend mode to screen. I also adjusted the angle of the gradient from 90 to 28
To make it a bit softer still, I'm also going to adjust the opacity of the rectange layer to about 30 which gets us the below result
One last step, is because I didn't draw it perfectly in center I align the layer to the center of the gif by pressing ctrl + a to select the whole canvas (should give the below selection lines)
then click over to the move tool
then press the highlighted option
then press this option
this just shifts the layer to be centered
press ctrl+d to clear your selection
this gives the following result
Last step is to make sure your rectangle layer is the same length as your gif. You just either drag the layer to match the bottom gif layer (or you could also just adjust the gray gif slider instead)
and now all you need to do is add text and other effects as needed :)
Hi! I got asked if I have an icon tutorial so I thought I'd do my best to go through my (probably way too long) process :) I'm going to show how I made that icon up there š
When I first started making icons I used this great tutorial by @/strwrs and then slowly added my own preferences to make this chaotic process š
First for getting screencaps of things i normally just google "[name of show/movie] screencaps" but one of the ones I use a lot is this site.
1. Open the pic in photoshop and crop it
Here's the full image:
Here's where I'm cropping it:
I like to make the size of my icons 250x250 but it can be more of a preference thing, a lot of people use 200x200 or I've seen 100x100 too.
I also like to crop a little above the image sometimes to give more space above the head
2. Removing the background
Removing the background is way easier on animation than on real people sometimes so I can show 2 examples even though I do it the same way...
First I go to select > select and mask:
Then I use the quick selection tool to select as much of the head as i can and the brush tool to remove/re-add parts that got missed so it should look like this:
(is the quick selection tool great? not all the time but when it works well it's great š¤”)
For something like this where her hair has a lot of texture in it and it's difficult to get a good outline, I'll zoom in really far and use the brush tool to get as many of the big pieces as I can so it looks a little more natural when the background color is added
Sometimes there can be a white/black line around the icon that got missed from erasing the background and you can use the brush tool to erase that as well.
3. resizing and sharpening
Now everything should look like this:
I'm going to go to the right where my layers are at and create a new group by clicking on the folder at the bottom
Then I drag the layer mask up to link it to the group instead of just the image and drag the image into the folder:
Next I like to sharpen before I resize the image so I open the group and highlight the image layer and then go filter > convert for smart filters and then for sharpening: filter > sharpen > smart sharpen with these settings:
Now with the image layer still highlighted i go to image > image size and set it to 250x250
4. the fun part āØ
Now we can add the background color and everything else āļø
I have a lot of previous templates saved to save me time so what I normally do is open a psd template I have then highlight the group layer i just made then right click > duplicate group and have the destination be the psd and then I can just change the colors of gradients i've already made (For this tutorial though I'll show you how I make the gradients/paint layers)
For coloring this is pretty much what my process usually looks like (im probably going way overboard with it but oh well lol) it really depends on the pic being used, some don't need to be colored as much.
I have found that over brightening/upping the vibrance isn't necessarily a bad thing sometimes (not all the time though) because of how small the icons are it kind of helps the image stand out more when they're used but it's up to you!
(I also put all the adjustment layers into one group because it gets a little chaotic if I don't)
Next we're going to make a gradient āØ first i go to the adjustment fill button (?) and pick gradient
Then I just pick one of the generic photoshop options that kind of has the look I want ( it doesn't matter too much since it will be edited so it can be any color)
Now to change the color of the gradient click on the color part in the gradient section and you'll see this
I deleted the bottom middle square because I didn't want it, but to change the colors double click on the bottom left or right squares and a color wheel will pop up.
When I pick the lighter color i normally just go up to a lighter section above the darker color
This is the change i made, you can move the middle diamond slider to have the darker or lighter color be more prominent
Next is playing with the angle/scale until it's how you want it, these are what mine ended up being
I also normally adjust the angle so that the lightest part of the gradient is in the top corner where the light source is coming from in the icon pic to make it look more natural
Next I add a solid color layer over the coloring layers with a color that's similar to the background gradient color im using and switch to the brush tool with black paint and with the layer mask selected on the solid color layer paint over everything i don't want colored with black
Then I do a second solid color layer set to a lightish brown, normally on just the hair, to add a bit more contrast
then i set the color fill layer that matches the background to either overlay, soft light, or color (depending on which one looks best for the image) and adjust the opacity/fill to where I want it.
I always set the brown layer to soft light with the opacity at around 80%
And NOW just when you think I might be done...I'm not...because I have to make this process as long as possible š
Now I do another color fill layer but this time over the entire image group layer. I normally make the color a slightly lighter color than the darkest part of the background color, set it to soft light, lower the opacity/fill to about 50% or lower, (depending on how much it changes the pic) and then right click > create clipping mask so it only effects the image and not the background
This kind of just tints the image a little with the color to bring it together a little more
Now the icon looks like this:
You can add more fun stuff like doodles/background textures i've used these and these but there's a lot of resource blogs like @/completeresources and @/allresources that have long lists of different textures
If i wanted to add a texture though i would put it over the gradient layer and set it to overlay or soft light
And to add a doodle you just put it at the very top of everything and resize it/turn it using the move tool :)
Then you're done! you can go file > export > quick export as png and thats it š
Hopefully this makes sense! I've uploaded the template i made in the tutorial here if that's easier to follow but feel free to ask if you have any questions!
I would appreciate a tutorial for the first gif blending and colouring
Hi anon! thank youuu, i'll leave the tutorial under the cut ą«®(Ė¶ĖįŗĖĖ¶)
As always, basic knowledge on making gifs is required to do this type of edits. I linked some useful guides on my previous tutorial here.
PART I: BLENDING
STEP 1, BASE GIF
I recommend getting ready the gifs you're going to use before any try on blending them. And which ones are right to blend? That's just depends on the scenes you're working on. On this gifset, I made two previous blends that didn't make it to the final version cause I didn't like how it turned out. It's all about trial and error.
For this specific blending, as I'm working with only 2 gifs, I'll start editing first the base and then the one "blended". Adjust your BASE GIF in your canvas as you want.
I sized mine like this cause I imagined the second scene of Glinda behind this one.
STEP 2: BACKGROUND
i followed becca's coloring tutorial for this part, except I didn't add any adjustments yet. only coloring the background for a later gradient blending.
STEP 3: BLENDING
Duplicate your other gif into the canvas and change its blending to screen
Now add a layer mask (the button marked with red in the picture) and, with a soft brush at 200px/300px, start erasing whatever you don't want. Remember black is 0% opacity and white is 100%.
STEP 4: THE BLENDED GIF
The problem I noticed by this point is that my background coloring on the BASE GIF was kinda irrelevant cause now the BLENDED GIF completely covered it (ļ½”ā¢Ģļøæā¢Ģļ½”) and I also wanted this one to be pink. In order to do this, I created a gradient map layer and made it as a clipping mask so it wouldn't affect my main gif.
PART II: COLORING
STEP 5: BASE
For the base coloring, I always follow this tutorial cause it's literally how I learned how to do it. Honestly, check all maziekeen's tutorials (she made A TON) cause they are so good and your learn a lot. However, I tend to give my personal touches like adding another vibrance layer if i feel like it, cause I like the colors to pop; or skipping steps if I don't think they fit my gif/style. Anyways, this is the result for now:
and these are my settings
i tried to translate as much as possible (,,>ļ¹<,,)
STEP 6: SMALL TOUCHES
Could leave the gif as it is, but when I was working on it, I felt like something was missing. So the last step is to apply/paint some small touches of pink (or whichever color you're working on). This trick I learned it from this beautiful and very detailed tutorial from dani (she is awesome!! and her tutorials and gifs are flawless!!)
Create a new layer, use the soft brush tool at 1000px, zoom out your gif and start painting out of the canvas (you can totally paint inside if you feel like it) Play with different opacities and blending modes of the layer, this is literally how I created all these gifs. I know it sounds stupid ajskjas but it's true!! Try what best fits the structure of the gif. The first one I made is with multiply at 60% and you can see how much the gif changed already.
The second being color at 100% and the third one hard light at 30%
STEP 7: THE CHERRY ON TOP
Finally I added an animated overlay from this post. Changed the blend mode to screen and erased a bit of it on glinda's face creating a layer mask and with a soft brush. Added my texts... and that's a wrap! :D
I used the same process on gifs 3 and 5 āø(ļ½”Ė įµ Ė )āøā”
Hi everyone! I got an ask from @adamusydneys about how I coloured the scene from my header.
The scene in question started with an ugly yellow filter which can be super annoying to colour correct. Luckily I still had the psd open with all my colouring layers so should be easy to go layer by layer with what I did
Tutorial below the cut as this is screenshot heavy
Full disclaimer - there is no real set method for what I do to colour my gifs, as it changes depending on the gif and my mood. In the case of this gif I used lots of selective colour layers, but I have also used channel mixer in the past to correct similar issues or have done most of the correction in curves (like in my basic gif tut). I will also add in the case of my header gif, I applied the previous colouring from my theolizzy gifset, so I'll try and recreate how I got the curves but it may not be exact.
Step 1: Start with your base gif sharpened and ready to colour
I always start any gif with a Curves layer.
I select the white eyedropper tool and select a white point on the gif to get a base to begin my colouring.
For this gif I selected the bit of confetti in the red box
This is what the result of the curves was there
As it can be seen this added some brightness but the scene is still very yellow
To start with I go into my curves layer and start by manually adjusting the RGB channels.
Normally to get rid of yellow, I would add more blue. But this will not work for this scene. This is what happens when adding more blue:
So instead of just adding more blue I go into each channel and adjust to get a better foundation for what I can colour later.
I started with the green
Then added more red in
then added a bit more blue
After that I went into the main channel and dragged the little black slider down to add some depth/contrast
This is what my final curves layer looked like
My next step is to add a Vibrance layer (which I do for all my gifs)
After that I started working in the selective colour layers. As the tint is quite strong I used a lot of layers and built upon them.
For the first selective colour I adjusted the reds and yellows
These adjustments resulted in this, which is already looking more natural but needs some more adjustment still
I went back in the reds and yellows again and adjusted further
leading to this which is a pretty good result:
The gif now is mostly colour corrected but I still want to do some minor adjustments (cos I'm a perfectionist) so I make another selective colour layer.
This time I just add some more cyan to the reds, which is a small change but neutralises a bit of the shadows which were too bright for me
Next I take out some more yellow as the tint is still there a bit
The above is pretty good, but I decided I wanted to do another curves layer on top to do a final bit of colour correction.
I manually went into each colour channel and adjusted as so:
I started by adding more blue as now I can use this to get rid of the remaining tint without it looking weird
the gif was now slightly magenta/pink so I added a bit of green to balance it out and slid the bottom slider a bit to add some depth back into the shadows
Then I added some red. I also dragged the black bar at the bottom to add a bit more depth/cyan to the shadows.
This is the final result of the basic colouring for the scene I did.
Since you also asked about the header in particular I'll expand on how I did the pink colouring for the header. tumblr is telling me this post has too many images so i'll include this info in a reblog as part 2 :)
anon asked š¬ : \kitconnor\754446373230919680 Hey, do you have a tutorial for how you created this layout style?
easy done! i've also attached psds, found in my layouts folder, that you can use too, but i've laid out the steps as well if you want to change things up for your own layout.
want a tutorial on anything? send an ask!
set up the layout
make sure you are following these dimensions, if you're working on a 540x540px layout (it only really works with this layout anyway š)
if you DON'T want spaces on your gif:
1st gif: 180x540
2nd gif: 180x540
3rd gif: 180x540
and if you DO want spaces on your gif:
1st gif: 177x540
2nd gif: 178x540
3rd gif: 177x540
just use the rectangular marquee tool, using fixed size settings to get the shapes. also, make sure they're completely centered if you're using gutter sizes! additionally, ensure you use seperate layers.
2. use the angle tool
you're going to select your three layers, and then angle them to whatever degree you want. you WILL have white spaces, but don't worry about that for now.
(i'm so sorry the quality sucks, i can't go any bigger and get the whole process in one š)
3. fill the gaps
now, you need to fill it in. i probably use a "sloppy" method, but it does eliminate the need to fiddle around with other processes.
to do this, i literally just pull the corners until i fill it. after that, i center the layout as much as i possibly can, so everything is adequately filled.
4. clipping gifs
to match the angles of the layout, you will add your gifs on, then angle it and size it to fit, the same as what you did with the layout and then clip. this part was too big to clip, but stepped out below:
repeat this with the others, then you're done!
find the psds, ready to have gifs sized to fit, here.
tip: sometimes it can give a weird jagged looking line when it saves, like this:
if you choose to do the no spaced layout, i'd suggest adding a black or white background underneath the layout, or adding outer glow to the rectangle shape which you can see in my cover gif!
however, if you use the spaced one, you will notice it. there's not really a way to get rid of them, but it is a common "problem" amongst gifmakers, so i wouldn't worry too much!
I wrote up my basic gif colouring process for a friend recently, but a couple of people here mentioned they'd also find it helpful! so, as requested, this is a beginner-friendly walkthrough of the way I colour my gifs :) it's aimed at brand new gif makers with no prior experience with photoshop or photo editing.
when I first started gif making I found colouring and photoshop in general suuuper daunting, so I've tried to simplify everything here as much as possible. hopefully this will be relatively easy to follow and not too intimidating!
a couple of things to begin with:
I'm only talking about colouring here - this is not a full gif making tutorial. I've linked to some of my favourites of those here!
I personally like to make bright, 'clean' looking gifs with vibrant but natural colours, so that is the style of colouring this tutorial is geared towards. most of gif colouring is subjective and about personal taste - the only thing that I'd say is possible to get wrong is skin tones, which I talk about a lot in this guide.
as I mostly gif Thai dramas, most of the advice is geared towards colouring for East Asian/South East Asian skin tones - but the techniques should be fairly universally applicable (and here are some tutorials that talk about gif colouring for other skin tones).
I'm not an expert! I'm not claiming this is the best or the only way to colour gifs - it's just how I do it.
this post is very image-heavy. if the images aren't loading (or the gifs are running slowly or cutting/looping weirdly), then try viewing the post in its own tab (rather than on the your dash or someone's blog) and refreshing the page.
okay, full walkthrough beneath the cut!
contents:
1. intro
a. natural gif colouring goals
b. very very basic colour theory
2. super simple colouring (the essentials)
a. curves
b. selective colour (and skin tone correction)
c. hue/saturation
d. saving and reusing colouring
e. another simple colouring example
3. other adjustment layers
a. brightness/contrast
b. levels
c. vibrance
d. colour balance
e. channel mixer
4. troubleshooting
a. curves
b. saturation
5. fin!
1. intro
the colouring part of gif making can be super overwhelming, especially if (like me when I first started!) you're completely new to photoshop and/or have no experience with colour theory or photo/video editing.
if you're opening photoshop and making gifs for the first time, I highly recommend getting used to making a few basic, uncoloured gifs to begin with. just to practice, rather than post anywhere (though you can always come back and colour them later if you want) - but it'll make the rest of the process much easier if you're already beginning to get used to working in timeline mode of photoshop. give yourself a bit of time to practice and get a feel for things like how many frames you tend to like in a gif, where you like to crop them for the best loop, what kind of aspect ratio you like etc* - so that you're not trying to navigate all of that for the first time on top of everything else!
* frames: for me between 60-90 frames is ideal, but 40-120 frames is the absolute min-max I'd personally use in a normal gifset
loops: for the smoothest loops, try to avoid cutting someone off mid-movement or mid-word if possible.
aspect ratio: for full-size (540px) gifs, I tend to go for either 8:5 (slightly 'skinnier' gifs), 7:5, or 5:4 (particularly big, thick gifs lmao)
āØ natural gif colouring goals
part of what can be so daunting about starting gif making is not knowing where to start or what you want to achieve. this is definitely something that gets easier with practice - the more gifs you make, the more you'll get a feel for what kind of look you like and the more instinctively you'll know how to get there. it also helps to see if any gif makers you like have made "before and after colouring" posts - these can help with getting a sense of the kinds of changes made through gif colouring. here's one I made!
in general, I like to make my gifs bright and 'clean' looking, with vibrant but natural colours. these are the things I'm usually hoping to achieve with colouring:
brighten dark scenes
remove muddy, yellowish lighting or filters
saturate colours
correct any skin lightening filters or overexposure
make lighting and colours as consistent as possible between gifs within a single gifset, especially gifsets featuring gifs from multiple scenes/episodes/videos
this guide is focusing on natural colouring, but of course there are many cool ways to make stylised/unnaturally coloured gifs. imo you'll need to master these basics first, but if you want to learn how to do things like change the background colour of gifs or use gradients or other cool effects, then @usergif's resource directory has loads of super helpful tutorials!
āØ very very basic colour theory
[disclaimer! I don't know shit about fuck. I do not study light or art. this is just an explanation that makes sense to me exclusively for the purposes of gif making.]
the primary colours for light/digital screens are red, blue, and green. having all three colours in equal measures neutralises them (represented by the white section in the middle of the diagram).
so to neutralise a colour within a gif, you need to add more of the colour(s) that are lacking.
in practice this usually means: the scene you want to gif is very yellow! yellow is made of red and green light, so to neutralise it you need to add more blue into your gif.
it can also mean the reverse: if you desaturate the yellow tones in a gif, it will look much more blue.
looking at the colour balance sliders on photoshop can make it easier to visualise:
so making a gif more red also means making it less cyan.
removing green from a gif means adding magenta.
taking yellow out of a gif will make it more blue.
tl;dr:
neutralise yellows by adding blue (and vice versa)
neutralise reds by adding cyan (and vice versa)
neutralise green by adding magenta (and vice versa)
2. super simple colouring (the essentials)
starting with a nice sharpened gif in photoshop in timeline mode. (these are the sharpening settings I use!)
some scenes are much harder to colour than others - it helps to start out practising with scenes that are bright/well-lit and that don't have harsh unnaturally coloured lights/filters on. scenes with a lot of brown/orange also tend to be harder.
I usually save a base copy of my gif before I start colouring just in case I end up hating it, or find out later that it doesn't quite fit right into a set and need to redo it etc.
so here is my base gif!
it's an okay gif, but it has a bit of a yellow tint to it that I want to reduce.
colouring is easiest to do in adjustment layers, which can be found under layer -> new adjustment layer - or for me they are here:
there are lots of different types of adjustment layers that do lots of different things - but for me the absolute essentials for colouring are curves, selective colour, and hue/saturation.
I also use brightness/contrast, levels, exposure, vibrance, colour balance, and channel mixer sometimes, depending on the gif - but I use curves, selective colour, and hue/saturation on every single gif.
āØ curves layer
the first thing I always do is a curves layer. when you first open one it will look like this:
first I usually click the āautoā button, just to see what happens. sometimes it makes a big difference (it usually brightens the gif a lot) - but on this gif it didnāt do much.
if it had made the gif look nicer then I would have kept it and added a second curves layer on top to do the rest of these steps.
the next step is selecting the white and black points with the little eyedropper tools.
the bottom eyedropper lets you pick a white point for the gif. click somewhere super light on the gif to see what happens - for this gif, I clicked on the lampshade on the left. if it looks weird, I just undo it and try somewhere else - it usually takes a few goes to find something that looks good.
here's what that did to the gif:
then I pick the top eyedropper and use it to pick a black point by clicking somewhere really dark, again playing around until I find a black point that looks good.
here's what the gif looks like after picking the white and black points:
this can take some experimenting, but you can make super easy drastic changes to your gif just with this. in this case, the curves layer took out a lot of that yellowy tint.
and this is what the curves graph looks like now:
you can click and drag those lines to make further changes if you want - I usually leave them alone though. the colours of the lines indicate which colours have been changed in the gif - for example, you can see from that steep blue line on the graph that blue has been added to neutralise those yellows.
next I usually do another curves layer and just press the āautoā button again to see what happens. usually it brightens the gif a bit more, which I like.
ā¼ļøif nothing is working: usually with a bit of fucking about a curves layer works well - but sometimes you canāt find a good white and black point anywhere, and instead your gif turns wacky colours and nothing looks good. this happens more often with very heavily colour tinted scenes :( the troubleshooting section at the end goes over some options, including starting with a levels layer instead.
āØ selective colour (and skin tone correction)
skin tones are made up of a mixture of yellow and red.
removing yellow (or adding blue or red) to a gif will make the skin-tones too red - and removing red (or adding cyan or yellow) to a gif will make the skin-tones too yellow.
adding blue to this gif with the curves layer took out the yellowy tint, which I wanted - but it also took the yellows out of Kim's skin tone, which I donāt want. soĀ I need to put yellow back into the skin tones specifically - without putting it back into the rest of the gif.
selective colour layers let you select an individual colour and adjust the levels of other colours within that colour. you can change how yellow the green shades are, or how much cyan is in the blues, for example.
I need to add yellow back into the red tones to correct the skin tones on this gif. this is the case for most gifs in my experience - the vast majority of the time, unless a scene is very heavily tinted in another colour, a curves layer will add blue/remove yellow.
in the 'colors' dropdown, select the 'reds' section and drag the 'yellow' slider higher - this will add more yellow into just the red shades within the gif.
the amount of yellow you need to add back into the reds depends on how much yellow was taken out of the gif initially - I just play around with the slider until it looks right. if you're not sure, it helps to have some neutrally-coloured (not white-washed!) reference photos of the people in your gif to compare to.
here's the result. Kim's skin is a lot less pink toned and much more natural looking:
āØ hue/saturation
this adjustment layer lets you adjust the hue and saturation of the gif as a whole, and also of each colour individually.
I don't use the hue or lightness sliders unless I'm trying to do something more complicated with the colouring.
clicking the dropdown menu that says 'master' lets you edit the saturation of each colour individually. this is useful if your gif is still super tinted in one colour.
I thought the yellows on this gif were still slightly too bright, so I switched to the yellow channel and desaturated them slightly. (remember if you do this then you need to go back to selective colour and add more yellow into the red skin tones to balance out the desaturation!)
then I increased the 'master' saturation of all the colours to +5:
I usually find the right amount of saturation is somewhere between +5 and +12, but it depends on the gif.
ā¼ļøif the gif feels undersaturated, but the saturation slider isn't helping/is making the colours worse, try a vibrance layer instead.
done!
āØ saving and reusing colouring
you can copy and paste adjustment layers between gifs to make your colouring even across each of your gifs for one scene - so if you're making a set of multiple gifs of the same scene, or you think you might want to gif the same scene again in the future, you can save it as a psd so you can reuse the colouring again later.
each gif's colouring will then still need tweaking - different cameras/angles/shots of the same scene can still start out with slightly different colouring.
I recommend uploading the gifs as a draft post on tumblr so you can see what they all look like next to each other and catch any inconsistencies.
āØ another one! (speedrun!)
HI KEN!
the white point for the curves layer was in the window behind them.
the curves layer removes the muddy yellow tint, but again it makes their skin tones (especially Ken's) very red toned, which is adjusted by the selective colour layer.
3. other adjustment layers
imo many many gifs can be coloured really nicely with just those three adjustment layers, but some need different adjustments.
āØ brightness/contrast
pretty self explanatory!
I personally usually avoid using the 'brightness' slider because I rarely like the effect - I only tend to use the 'contrast' one.Ā
the 'auto' button is sometimes useful though, especially if youāre struggling with the curves layer.
āØ levels
levels alters the white and black points of the gif, like curves - but unlike curves it doesn't also alter other colours.
use the sliders beneath the graph to alter how dark/light the gif is. you can slide the black slider further to the right to make the blacks darker, and the white slider to the left to make the whites lighter.
levels is a good place to start if your curves layer isn't working.
(I'm going to hit the image limit for this post lol so here are some screenshots of a table I made to demonstrate this rather than actual gifs. sorry!)
on both sides, I dragged the sliders up to where the big jumps are on the graph - this is usually a good place to start!
āØ vibrance
vibrance... makes the colours more vibrant. it's more subtle than saturation.
it's really helpful for gifs that feel grey. sometimes adjusting saturation just makes the greys kind of weirdly tinted, but a vibrance layer can fix that.
vibrance is much more subtle!
āØ colour balance
colour balance affects the overall balance of colours within a gif.
it's good for scenes with heavy tints.
I tend to stick to the 'midtones' dropdown, but you can also alter the colour balance within the shadows and highlights if you want.
āØ channel mixer
I avoided channel mixer for such a long time because it scared me. but it's great for scenes that are very heavily tinted in one colour.
basically, it works with the levels of red, green, and blue within a gif. you select an output colour and then play around with the levels of the colour you selected within each other colour.
kind of the reverse of selective colour?
so in the 'blue' channel, the levels of blue are at 100%, and the levels of red and green are at 0% - but you can impact how much blue is in the reds and greens and blues.
this tutorial explains it well - but imo the best way to get to grips with channel mixer is just to play around with it a bit (sorry)
(when I made this guide for my friend, I also made a slightly more complicated gif colouring walk-through that included using channel mixer. there isn't space to include it within this post, but if anyone is interested I could always upload it as an 'intermediate' gif colouring tutorial - lmk!)
4. troubleshooting
ā¼ļøcurves
usually with a bit of fucking about a curves layer works well - but sometimes you canāt find a good white and black point anywhere, and instead your gif turns wacky colours and nothing looks good. this happens more often with very heavily colour tinted scenes :(
for example, with this base gif:
using many of the brightest points as a white point turn it wacky colours, like this:
yikes :(
some options for these cases:
try brightening the gif first with the 'auto' button on the curves layer or with a levels layer. having a brighter gif to start with can give you better options for picking a white point.
try finding an alternate, whiter/brighter white point. look for places the light reflects - on this gif, using the light on Porsche's cheekbone works well as the white point. it also helps to find places that would be white if the scene wasn't tinted - the lightest part of a white shirt is often a good place to start, for example.
skip the curves layer, and instead use a levels layer to alter your white/black points, and colour balance or channel mixer to balance the colours.
ā¼ļøover/undersaturation
if your gif (especially the skintones) is looking a little washed out or lifeless, it might be undersaturated. boost that saturation - or if that's not working, try a vibrance layer.
oversaturation is often easiest to spot in the mouths and ears of any people in a gif. if the mouths are looking unnaturally, vibrantly red, then you've gone too far with the saturation.
5. fin!
and done! I hope this was coherent helpful to somebody.
if there's anything that I've missed or that doesn't make sense pls feel free to shoot me an ask or a message and I'll do my best to help! I've also collated a bunch of additional reading/resources below.
happy gifmaking š„°
āØ some links!
photoshop basics by @selenapastel
gifmaking for beginners by @hayaosmiyazaki
gifmaking guide for beginners by @saw-x
dreamy's gif tutorial by @scoupsy-remade (includes instructions on how to blur out burned-on subtitles or annoying video graphics)
beginner's guide to channel mixer by @aubrey-plaza
how to fix orange-washed characters by aubrey-plaza
colour correcting and fixing dark scenes by @kylos
does resampling matter? by usergif
how to put multiple gifs on one canvas by @fictionalheroine
hey, is there any way you would upload a psd for hotd? thank you :)
hey anon! :) sorry the delay
I wasn't able to make hotd psd before because I didn't have the file in my computer, also I don't have the habit to save my color settings so I've made a basic one, hope it helps. <3
anyways, here's the psd:
nothing needs to be changed in the code, everything can be changed in the customize panel!
terms:
reblogĀ if using
do not touch the credit
all termsĀ /Ā faq
credits listed in the code /Ā credits page
please considerĀ supporting meĀ ā”
this is my first theme in over a year (wtf) so please be patient as i'm still learning to navigate the new npf stuff!! i'm still on a sort of semi-hiatus, i'll be around for questions but please check my faq, answered asks, etc. before asking - i will not answer repeated questions!
blog name !! important
make sure you fill out theĀ blog nameĀ field, this is what will show on the top of all your original posts. to clarify: your blog name is your blogās url - for example:Ā phantomcodes
responsive sidebar
when the browser window gets too small the sidebar will disappear and become toggleable, the sidebar toggle button will appear on the right side of the header
reminders
remember tumblr's customize panel is buggy, you may have to toggle the options on/off before saving
Thank you @cobbbvanth for asking me for this; Iāve never been more flattered! āŗļø Iāve only been making gifs for a little more than 2 years, so Iām really still only figuring Photoshop out, and my colouring owes everything to other peopleās tutorials (some of which can be found here). To be honest, I was only asked some tips, but I have no clue what to include and what to leave out; so, hereās my complete (if random) colouring process.
NOTE: This is a colouring tutorial, not a gif-making one. The tutorial that taught me everything I know about that (and to which I am eternally grateful) is this one by @hayaosmiyazaki.
I. SHARPENING
My standard sharpening settings are:
One Smart Sharpen filter set to Amount: 500 | Radius: 0,4
A second Smart Sharpen filter set to Amount: 10 | Radius: 10
One Gaussian Blur filter set to Radius: 1,0 and Opacity: 30%
One Add Noise filter set to Amount 0,5 | Distribution: Gaussian
II. BASIC COLOURING
This is the part where I add most of the adjustment layers available and just play around with them. Obviously different settings work for different scenes, but I do have some standard ones.
Brightness/Contrast
I usually up the Brightness to +10-30, and the Contrast to about +10.
Curves
For the first Curves layer I go to Auto Options > Enhance Brightness and Contrast, and then adjust the opacity until Iām happy.
I might repeat the above step if the gif still looks too dark to me.
I add another Curves layer, I go to Auto Options and this time I pick either Find Dark & Light Colors or Enhance Per Channel Contrast, and check or uncheck the Snap Neutral Midtones option, until I see something I like. I will then adjust the opacity.
Levels
I add a Levels layer that usually looks something like this:
Exposure
I add an Exposure layer, where I usually set the Offset to around -0,0010.
Selective Color
To make the faces look okay, I create a Selective Color layer, select the Reds and usually add some Cyan (+10-20%) and play around a little (Ā±5%) with Magenta and Yellow too. I might also add another layer, select the Yellows and make slight tweaks there too.
III. FUN COLOURING
About colour manipulation: PiXimperfect just uploaded a tutorial that explains everything so much better than I ever could, so I highly recommend you go watch it. Itās made for static images though, and things are more complicated with moving images, so I also recommend @elizascarletsās tutorial.
The reason I usually go for a softer colouring is that a more vivid one requires a lot of patience and precision, and I honestly canāt be bothered. Instead, I try to tweak the colous only a little, so that the edges can be a little rough without it looking too wrong.
One thing to remember is that each gif is different, and there isnāt one foolproof way to do this, so you will need to use a different technique depending on the gif youāre working with.
Okay, so, after Iāve decided what colour I want my background to be:
1. I create a Hue/Saturation layer and change the greens, cyans, blues and magentas to that colour. Thatās easy enough, since it doesnāt mess with the face colour. I then set the blending mode to Color. If your background doesnāt include any yellow or red, you might be done here, like in the case bellow:
2. To change the yellows and reds, I create a new Hue/Saturation layer, select the yellows/reds, move Saturation to 100 (temporarily) and then play around with the sliders until the face colour isnāt affected. I then change it to whatever Iāve chosen and change the blending mode to Color.
3. If for whatever reason step 3 doesnāt work (the background is white or black for example, or just too red), I might create a Solid Color layer set to whatever colour I want, set the blending mode to Color and then select the layer mask and carefully paint with a soft, black brush over the peopleās faces/bodies. I will then lower the Opacity, to whatever looks smooth enough. If thereās a lot of movement in your gif, you might have to use keyframes (see elizascarletsās tutorial linked above). However, my main goal is to avoid using those; thatās why I try my hardest to tweak around as many Hue/Saturation layers as needed and not have to create a solid color layer.
4. Once my background looks the colour I want it, I might add a Selective Color layer that matches my background color and then try to make it look more vibrant. For this Aziraphale gif below for example, Iāve selected the Cyans and then set Cyan to +100%, Yellow to -100% and Black to +60, then created another one, selected the Cyans again and then set Cyan to +20 and Black to +20.
5. If the gif has a white area, I create a Solid Color layer with a colour that matches the rest of the background and then set the Opacity low. I might also create a Selective Color layer, increase the Black and then play around with the colours.
IV. FINISHING TOUCHES
I create a Vibrance layer and set the Vibrance to around +30 and the Saturation to about +5.
I create a black and white Gradient Map layer (with black on the left end of the spectrum and white on the right), set the blending to Luminosity and the Opacity to about 20-30%.
AAAND thatās about it I think! This ended up way too long and perhaps a little incoherent. I tried to make it as general as possible, so you might have to mix and match for best results. Feel free to ask me for further explanations about any one of these steps, and please tell me if you want me to go through the colouring of a specific gifset (although, as I said, I'm by no means an expert). Happy gifmaking!
Hi! I was asked to explain how I did the transition effect in this gifset, so here's a quick tutorial! Disclaimer: This tutorial assumes you have an intermediate understanding of gif-making in Photoshop using Video Timeline and requires the use of keyframes.
PHASE 1: THE GIFS
1.1 ā Determine how many frames you need.
Since you need at least 2 scenes for a transition, consider limiting the amount of frames you'll use per scene. For a transition between 2 scenes that's 540x540px, I would recommend no more than 30 frames per scene (for a final gif that's 60 frames). Even that may be pushing it depending on your coloring. Just be sure to consider the dimensions and colors of your gifs in relation to the amount of frames to keep your final gif under Tumblr's 10MB limit.
1.2 ā Import frames, crop, resize, convert to smart object for Video Timeline, color, blend, etc.
Do this as you normally would! If you need a tutorial for the basics, here's my tutorial. :) Please note, the methods in this tutorial only work with gifs that are converted into smart objects in the Video Timeline workspace.
Tip A: I recommend using scenes where there's a lot of one color (or scenes where you can manipulate it to look like that). The crystallize filter on a gif creates A LOT of movement that can feel a bit chaotic. Having your gif be primarily one color reduces the eye strain a bit imo.
Tip B: I like how this effect looks with blended scenes because it allows me to use different "crystal" sizes (more on this in Step 2.2). Check out the USERGIF Resource Directory for plenty of blending tutorials!
1.3 ā Move all your gifs into one document, group into folders, and arrange.
Once everything's in one doc, keep everything organized in a group folder! I have just two scenes, so that's Folder 1 & 2. Within those folders are the gifs I blended, which I labeled by gif color. Then, simply drag Folder 2 so it continues right after Folder 1. (Make sure none of your adjustment layers from Folder 2 accidentally affect Folder 1! You can do this by clipping your adjustment layers to match the length of the gif as I did, or using clipping masks.)
(Ignore that lone Hue/Saturation layer lol. I decided last-minute that I wanted my gif to lean more pink than red.)
PHASE 2: THE FILTERS
2.1 ā Duplicate each scene.
We're going to use opacity keyframe animations on these duplicated scenes that allow it to go from "normal" to "effect" and vice versa. The filters will only be applied to the duplicates. In the screenshot below, all of my duplicates are highlighted:
2.2 ā Apply the Crystallize Filter.
Above your sharpening settings, apply this filter by going to Filter ā Pixelate ā Crystallize. On the pink gifs, I made the crystals bigger (cell size: 45), and on the black and white gifs, I did a cell size of 25.
The different sizes help break up the uniformity of the crystals imo, creating more of a mosaic-like look, which is what I wanted to match my gifset concept.
2.3 ā Apply the Oil Paint Filter (Optional).
Filter > Stylize > Oil Paint. Here are my settings (they're the same for both crystal cell sizes):
This filter helps soften the cells a bit while adding some texture (left: no oil paint; right: with oil paint):
2.4 ā Repeat steps 2.2 & 2.3 on all duplicated scenes.
PHASE 3: THE KEYFRAMES
3.1 ā Add opacity keyframes.
The very start and end of each scene needs an opacity keyframe set to 100% opacity. Move 0.09 seconds from each of those points, and place another opacity keyframe, this time set to 0% opacity. We're basically making the crystals fade in and out. Please reference the screenshot below for keyframe placement:
If you need more info on opacity keyframes, check out Phase 2 from this fade transition tutorial I did on usergif.
3.2 ā Repeat step 3.1 on all duplicated scenes.
All the keyframes in Folder 1 should line up exactly and all the keyframes in Folder 2 should line up exactly!
PHASE 4: THE DUPLICATES
4.1 ā Convert back to Frame Animation.
If you're not sure how to do this, I've written out the steps here. I rec the action linked in my general gif tutorial which I shared earlier!
4.2 ā Delete duplicate frames.
Whenever you use keyframe animations, you'll get duplicate frames. That's just how it works, unfortunately. If you follow my steps exactly (specifically the 0.09-second spacing, which follows my tried-and-true 0.03-second rule), you'll have a total of 12 duplicate frames exactly ā 3 duplicates per keyframe section. Just manually delete them! You can spot the duplicates by eye, but with this spacing, it's usually the 2nd, 5th, and 8th frame for each transition section. The selected frames below were my duplicates:
If you want to learn more about why there are duplicates and the math behind it all, I explained it in more detail in this ask.
4.3 ā Export and you're done!
I hope this tutorial helps! Let me know if you have any questions :)
