#(and screenshots here seemed excessive)

[fromperdition4]

No Kinn, that isn't a dumb question!

I would also like to know how you waltzed into the minor family compound, to the upper floors, with bandages sticking out of your shirt!

And also how Vegas keeps showing up at the main family compound with no advanced notice, to chat up your bodyguard!

Are the families just allowed to come and go as they please? Does anyone even make a report when they show up?

Or are Kinn and Vegas just very good at sneaking past all the guards that are (presumably) watching the perimeters?

Hell, let's make it a poll:

[damienns]

My GIF Making process: Screen capturing using MPV player, Organizing files, 3 Sharpening settings, Basic Coloring PSD + Actions set

This is a very long post so heads up.

I’ll try to be as thorough and true as much as possible to the way I make my gifs (I already use Photoshop Actions which I’ve long since set up but now for this tutorial I’m reviewing them to show you the exact steps I’ve learned to create my gifs 😃) and present them to you in a semi-coherent way. Also, please bear with me since English is my second language.

First things first. Below are the things and tools we need to do this:

Downloaded 4K or 1080p quality videos (let’s all assume we know where to get these—especially for high definition movies and tv series—so this post doesn’t get removed, okay? 😛)

Adobe Photoshop CC or the CS versions can work as well, but full disclosure I haven’t created gifs using the CS versions since 2020. I’m currently using Adobe Photoshop 2024.

mpv player. Use mpv player to get those frames/screenshots or any other video player that has a screen grabber feature. I’ve used adapter for the longest time but I’ve switched to mpv because the press to screenshot feature while the video is playing has been a game changer not to mention ultimate time saver for me. For adapter you need to play it in another video player (like VLC player), to get the start and end timestamps of the scene you want to gif which takes me ages before I can even open Photoshop.

Anyway! Please stop reading this post for a moment and head over to this amazing tutorial by kylos. She perfectly tells you how to install and use mpv player, both for Mac and Windows users.

One thing I have to share though, I had a tough time when I updated my MacOS to Sonoma since MPV is suddenly either duplicating frames or when I delete the duplicates the player seems to be skipping frames :/ I searched and found a solution here, though it didn’t work for me lol. My workaround for this in the meantime is decreasing the speed down to 0.70 then start screenshotting—it’s not the same pre Sonoma update but it works so I’ll have to accept it rather than have jumpy looking gifs.

Now, after this part of kylos’ tutorial:

you can continue reading the following sections of my gif tutorial below.

I want to share this little tip (sorry, this will only cater to Mac users) that I hope will be helpful for organizing the screenshots that MPV saved to the folder you have selected. Because believe me you don’t want to go through 1k+ of screenshots to select just 42-50 frames for your gif.

The Control + Command + N shortcut

This shortcut allows you to create a new folder from files you have pre-selected. As you can see below I have already created a couple of folders, and inside each folder I have selected screenshots that I want to include in one single gif. It's up to you how you want to divide yours, assuming you intend to create and post a Tumblr gifset rather than just one gif.

Another tip is making use of tags. Most of, if not all the time, I make supercorp gifs so I tag blue for Kara and red (or green) for Lena—just being ridiculously on brand and all that.

Before we finally open Photoshop, there's one more thing I want to say—I know, please bear with me for the third? fourth? time 😅

It's helpful to organize everything into their respective folders so you know the total number of items/frames you have. This way, you can add or delete excess or unnecessary shots before uploading them in Photoshop.

For example below there are 80 screenshots of Kara inside this folder and for a 1:1 (540 x 540 px) Tumblr gif, Photoshop can just work around with 42-50 max number of frames with color adjustments applied before it exceeds the 10 MB file size limit of Tumblr.

Sometimes I skip this step because it can be exhausting (haha) and include everything so I can decide visually which frames to keep later on. You'll understand what I mean later on. But it's important to keep the Tumblr 10 MB file size limit in mind. Fewer frames, or just the right amount of frames, is better.

So, with the screenshot organization out of the way, let's finally head over to Photoshop.

Giffing in Photoshop, yay!

Let’s begin by navigating to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack…

The Load Layers window will appear. Click the Browse button next.

Find your chosen screenshots folder, press Command + A to select all files from that folder then click Open. Then click OK.

After importing and stacking your files, Photoshop should display the following view:

By the way, I'll be providing the clip I've used in this tutorial so if want to use them to follow along be my guest :)

If you haven't already opened your Timeline panel, navigate to Windows > Timeline.

Now, let's focus on the Timeline panel for the next couple of steps.

Click Create Video Timeline, then you’ll have this:

Now click the menu icon on the top right corner then go to Convert Frames > Make Frames from Clips

Still working on the Timeline panel, click the bottom left icon this time—the icon with the three tiny boxes—to Convert to Frame Animation

Select Make Frames From Layers from the top right corner menu button.

So now you have this:

Go and click the top right menu icon again to Select All Frames

Then click the small dropdown icon to set another value for Frame Delay. Select Other…

The best for me and for most is 0.05 but you can always play around and see what you think works for you.

Click the top right menu icon again to Reverse Frames.

I think Photoshop has long since fixed this issue but usually the first animation frame is empty so I just delete it but now going through all these steps there seems to be none of that but anyways, the delete icon is the last one among the line of feature buttons at the bottom part of the Timeline panel.

Yay, now we can have our first proper GIF preview of a thirsty Lena 😜

Press spacebar to watch your gif play for the very first time! After an hour and half of selecting and cutting off screenshots! 😛 Play it some more. No really, I’m serious. I do this so even as early (lol) as this part in the gif making process, I can see which frames I can/should delete to be within the 10 MB file size limit. You can also do it at the end of course 🙂

Now, let’s go to the next important steps of this tutorial post which I’ve numbered below.

Crop and resize to meet Tumblr's required dimensions. The width value should be either 540px, 268px, or 177px.

Convert the gif to a Smart Object for sharpening.

Apply lighting and basic color adjustments before the heavy coloring. I will be sharing the base adjustments layers I use for my gifs 😃.

1. Crop and Resize

Click on the Crop tool (shortcut: the C key)

I like my GIFs big so I always set this to 1:1 ratio if the scene allows it. Press the Enter key after selecting the area of the frame that you want to keep.

Side note: If you find that after cropping, you want to adjust the image to the left or another direction, simply unselect the Delete Cropped Pixels option. This way, you will still have the whole frame area available to crop again as needed and as you prefer.

Now we need to resize our gif and the shortcut for that is Command + Opt + I. Type in 540 as the width measurement, then the height will automatically change to follow the ratio you’ve set while cropping.

540 x 540 px for 1:1

540 x 405 px for 4:3

540 x 304 px for 16:9

For the Resample value I prefer Bilinear—but you can always select the other options to see what you like best.

Click OK. Then Command + 0 and Command + - to properly view the those 540 pixels.

Now we get to the exciting part :) the sharpen settings!

2. Sharpen

First we need to have all these layers “compressed” intro a single smart object from which we can apply filters to.

Select this little button on the the bottom left corner of the Timeline panel.

Select > All Layers

Then go to Filter > Convert for Smart Filters

Just click OK when a pop-up shows up.

Now you should have this view on the Layers panel:

Now I have 3 sharpen settings to share but I’ll have download links to the Action packs at the end of this long ass tutorial so if you want to skip ahead, feel free to do so.

Sharpen v1

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen…

Below are my settings. I don’t adjust anything under Shadows/Highlights.

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Click OK then do another Smart Sharpen but this time with the below adjustments.

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

As you can see Lena’s beautiful eyes are “popping out” now with these filters applied. Click OK.

Now we need to Convert to Frame Animation. Follow the steps below.

Click on the menu icon at the top right corner of the Timeline panel, then click Convert Frames > Flatten Frames into Clips

Then Convert Frames > Convert to Frame Animation

One more click to Make Frames From Layers

Delete the first frame then Select All then Set Frame Delay to 0.05

and there you have it! Play your GIF and make sure it’s just around 42-50 frames. This is the time to select and delete.

To preview and save your GIF go to File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)…

Below are my Export settings. Make sure to have the file size around 9.2 MB to 9.4 MB max and not exactly 10 MB.

This time I got away with 55 frames but this is because I haven’t applied lighting and color adjustments yet and not to mention the smart sharpen settings aren't to heavy so let’s take that into consideration.

Sharpen v1 preview:

Sharpen v2

Go back to this part of the tutorial and apply the v2 settings.

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 20

Radius: 0.5

We’re adding a new type of Filter which is Reduce Noise (Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise...) with the below settings.

Then one last Smart Sharpen:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Your Layers panel should look like this:

Then do the Convert to Frames Animation section again and see below preview.

Sharpen v2 preview:

Sharpen v3:

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

Reduce Noise:

Strength: 5

Preserve Details: 50%

Reduce Color Noise: 0%

Sharpen Details: 50%

Sharpen v3 preview:

And here they are next to each other with coloring applied:

v1

v2

v3

Congratulations, you've made it to the end of the post 😂

As promised, here is the download link to all the files I used in this tutorial which include:

supercorp 2.05 Crossfire clip

3 PSD files with sharpen settings and basic coloring PSD

Actions set

As always, if you're feeling generous here's my Ko-fi link :) Thank you guys and I hope this tutorial will help you and make you love gif making.

P.S. In the next post I'll be sharing more references I found helpful especially with coloring. I just have to search and gather them all.

-Jill

[stariikis]

𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭 | 𝐲.𝐣𝐰

synopsis ; as a trainee under Jungwon's company, rumours have already started to fly about the two of you in a committed relationship. However, the speculations they create are neither wrong nor right, and when it all seems like too much, Jungwon's your only respite.

pairing ; idol!jungwon x trainee!reader genre ; fluff, situationship, oneshot wc ; 1015

inspired by ; call it what you want - taylor swift

Yang y/n. You can hear the low whispers trailing behind your back everywhere you go. Every step you take, every move you make. Hands stuffed deep in the pockets of your baggy jeans, a stuffy mask covering half your face. Jungwon’s one and only. 

You would never have minded being caught up in this type of situation with Jungwon, if it didn’t come at the expense of your deeply treasured privacy. If it didn’t mean you would spend your day treading over fragile eggshells, just so the rumours don’t fly again. So that Jungwon wouldn’t have to defend your name to the public every time a camera turns his way. 

As a child, you loved the flash of a camera on you, you loved the attention. Adorned in Disney princess dresses and waving around a fairy wand with a flourish, you were the perfect model for your parents’ DIY agency. However, now, as one of HYBE’s most valued and talented trainees, you can’t help but start to despise your excessive exposure to public view. 

Not to mention, when you’re caught up in a dating scandal with Belift:Lab’s Yang Jungwon, which isn’t even entirely a lie. 

The sleek black cap has to be pulled further down your face in order for you to feel even a twinge of peace. Speeding up your footsteps towards the company building, you wonder how life would be if you had just accepted Jungwon straight away, like you had multiple times before in your brain’s most romantic fantasies. 

What if you had accepted him? What if you had rejected him? What if you hadn’t allowed this confusion to slip into something so complicated that even the two of you can’t tell the truth from a lie. 

Every day, without fail, you show Jungwon all the newest online articles, and in return he screenshots speculatory posts about the two of you and sends them to you. In a matter of a few years, your innocent camera roll went from cute selcas of yourself, to Twitter posts, ship edits, and paparazzi pictures you wish were edited. 

“She must be waiting here for Jungwon!” 

Hundreds of passers-by crowd around you, but their words and their faces are all a hazy blur to you. Standing still in front of the revolving pair of entrance doors, the only face you want to see is Jungwon’s. 

And as if on cue, like an angel’s blessing has been bestowed upon you, there’s a tight grip on your arm in the middle of the fog. Jungwon’s faint baby scent fills your senses, a big, warm, bear hug in of itself. He lifts the cap off your head, a look of such affection and pain swamping the depths of his hazel eyes. 

When did you start shaking? 

Head tilted to the side, he bends down to whisper in your ear, and you have to squeeze your eyes shut to block out the loud chorus of gasps. 

“You’re shaking.” 

“Great job, genius. Didn’t notice,” you snap back almost instantly, careful to keep the sharp words a hint under your breath. The public etiquette classes you’ve recently started attending are doing a world of wonders for you. 

”Ah,” Jungwon hums cheerfully, his arm coming to sling around your shoulder. “You’re grumpy. Sounds like you need a scoop of ice cream.” 

“So suddenly?” You roll your eyes disdainfully, but quicken the pace as he starts walking down the sidewalk. The sea of fans, half screaming at the chance to see Jungwon, half shoving their phones in your faces, part like they’ve been called to do so. You should probably get used to the celebrity life, but every time this happens, a red flush of embarrassment never fails to drown out the paleness of your face. 

Jungwon shoots you an encouraging, charming smile, hiding his uneasiness very well. “I was kind of kidding, but let’s get out of here, because I have something for you.” 

Curiosity strikes you. “Something for me?” Your mind runs wild with the varying possibilities of cute gifts Jungwon would come up with. Because Yang Jungwon is totally the type to buy “Just because” flowers; definitely someone who’d dedicate a crocheted stuffed animal to his beloved. 

Then again, you’re not his beloved, and you’re not his friend. You’re mostly stuck in between the two. While you have your reasons, sometimes you question your decisions that led up to this kind of rocky relationship. 

A rocky relationship that Jungwon still somehow manages to make right. 

You round a corner, and he pulls you close in the secluded alleyway. With the tantalising aroma of freshly baked buns wafting in the air, you wonder if Jungwon’s taking you out on a ‘date’ that might not really be a ‘date’ but you’d still like to consider it a ‘date’. 

But he doesn’t budge from the spot you two stand awkwardly in. You look up at him, bemused, and he just pulls something out of his pocket. Your favourite shade of turquoise, complemented with black and white and beaded up into a bracelet. In the centre, marks Jungwon’s initials. YJW, in his very own handwriting, engraved into the circular polished beads. 

“This is for you.” Jungwon murmurs, fitting it around your wrist without even bothering to wait for a response. He must know you already treasure this bracelet like it’s your lifeline. However, this is so weird. Are you supposed to walk around with the initials of a guy that doesn’t even belong to you displayed for everyone to see? 

By the look in his eyes, Jungwon seems to think that’s completely normal. And so, you calm your racing heart. If it’s normal to Jungwon, it’s normal in your books as well. 

Lightening the atmosphere, you look deep into his eyes and joke, “Shouldn’t I be wearing my own initials around?” 

“Well, at least one matches up. Y. Yang. It’s like we’re married.” 

And he leaves you blinking rapidly in utter confusion, laughing and slipping back onto the sidewalk. You can only stare at your wrist, vowing never to take it off. Ever.

thank you for reading ~

i'll take this time to promote my chaptered nishimura riki fic, you in the rain. if you're a fan of wifty or taylor, be sure to check it out! hehe

more of my works >>

[spiritstein]

spirit albarn has histrionic personality disorder, change my mind

i often see people ask what the hell is wrong with spirit, which is a great question. that guy's got issues. here's my take on explaining some of them!

notes: i have HPD myself so some of the evidence/examples i'll give will have personal anecdotes (although i've avoided projecting to the best of my ability for this post.) this is based mostly off the anime, as i have not finished the manga.

full post under the cut as it's ended up both very long and image heavy

one of the major traits of HPD is dramatic and exaggerated behavior/expression of emotion, which spirit displays nearly every time he's on screen. (typically in regards to either maka or his past and potential future romantic pursuits, we'll get to that later.)

this is typically played for comedy, but i don't think that discounts it as evidence at all-- kid's OCD is often used for jokes but that doesn't mean he doesn't have it.

these outbursts often involve very sudden shifts in his demeanor, and almost feel like an internal switch is being flipped on or off. this can make how he acts seem shallow at times, which is also characteristic of HPD. (emphasis on seem-- i do believe he's expressing his true emotions to the extent he feels them. the exaggerated self-expression of individuals with HPD is often tied to feeling those emotions far more intensely than the average person, at least for me.)

note how quickly he returns to a "resting" or "default" expression in the second gif here. he's kind of got a resting bitch face, honestly.

another defining trait of HPD is excessive flirtatious and sexual behavior, regardless of the person's attraction to whoever they're making advances on. i'll be using manga screenshots here since dialogue is important, but this is the symptom spirit shows most obviously by a long shot.

(not pictured: many, many more examples of this...)

he tends to flirt or otherwise get involved with women regardless of if the situation calls for it, and often to the detriment of his relationship with others.

the most blatant example of this detriment is his divorce with maka's mother and maka's subsequent dislike of him. no images provided since i presume you're familiar with that if you've gotten this far.

notably, he appears to feel guilty about this trait, yet does not or cannot curb it. one could easily read this as spirit needing the attention and approval from these women. excessive desire for these things (along with a more general need to feel liked or loved) is a major driving force behind other HPD-influenced behaviors and is a symptom in and of itself. while there is no concrete evidence behind this explanation for his provocative behavior, there is one person we know he desperately seeks approval from-- maka.

while nearly any parent would want for their child to love them, spirit wants for maka to merely pay any attention to him to a degree far beyond average.

in all of these examples, he's upset by her not even acknowledging him (or the thought of it) as opposed to hating him. the thought of her loving or admiring him appears to be a far-off fantasy to spirit, to the point of barely being able to handle it when she interacts with him positively:

...to the point of vomiting after this, which i won't show because that's gross.

maka is by far the person spirit's most shown to value the attention and approval of, but he still likely seeks it from others in more subtle ways. inversely, he reacts very strongly to both perceived and actual rejection, which is another HPD symptom. he assumes the worst when lord death calls for a meeting of all the death scythes, and is shocked when he finds out he assumed wrong.

people with HPD also tend to be gullible and easily influenced, which is most obvious in spirit's interactions with stein. he allegedly didn't catch on to the fact that stein was experimenting on him until his ex-wife pointed it out, as well many examples of stein just sort of fucking with him over the course of the series.

this could also just be that spirit's a dumbass, so take this part with a grain of salt.

that's everything that i can directly tie to HPD symptoms, but i'd also like to note that alcoholism is common in histrionics and they're at higher risk of divorce. as well as these manga screenshots of spirit being Just Like Me Fr as someone with HPD that i couldn't find anywhere else to put.

i hope this wasn't too clunky of a read and possibly gave the 5 spirit fans something to consider in their characterization of him! thank you for your time ^_^

[canadianlucifer]

Yeah okay I'll finally make a post on my latest Takizawa headcanon bc ever since I made the connection I couldn't stop thinking about it.

In short, I think he probably has npd, or narcissistic personality disorder.

Now I wanna make it clear I'm not a professional, I'm not giving any diagnosis or anything here, this is just what I've observed through his behaviour and how I think it fits the criteria.

I'm going to be mostly focused on his human character, might bring up a point or two from :re, but it's just gonna be the good brown haired boy for the most part.

Going through the list in the DSM-V, first is: a grandiose sense of self-importance (exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)

We first see this when he criticises Juuzou for eating in the meeting room and not listening to him because he's older. He's not proven himself to be actually superior, but he believes he is.

And again later when he's jealous Juuzou gets to go on the Aogiri raid and he's left behind to do paperwork.

Second piece is preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.

Now, we don't exactly ever see him like, just sitting there thinking about being promoted or whatever, but it is known that he desperately wants one.

Third is believing that they are "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

I don't have any solid proof or screenshots for this one, but it stands to reason that this is likely why he joined the CCG in the first place. Investigators are strong and "special", and we never see him interact with people who aren't investigators outside of Hide, who he really only seems to vent to, someone he probably doesn't see as an "equal"

Fourth, requiring excessive admiration.

Again, no solid proof, but he often seems desperate for praise for his work and to be recognized.

Fifth is a sense of entitlement (unreasonable expectations of especially favourable treatment or automatic compliance with their expectations)

See point 1, he feels entitled to Juuzou's compliance and to go on the raid.

Now, point six, being interpersonally exploitative (taking advantage of others to achieve their own ends), I don't think I've seen. At least, not as a human. In :re I can totally see him using Aogiri to eventually regain the CCG's trust as an example though.

Seven, lacking empathy (unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others), is a hard one.

The way I see it is that he sort of has empathy, but only for the attention. In one of the screenshots I added earlier he says he wants to get promoted so he can help people, but if we look at that statement through another lens, it could become "I want to help people so they thank and congratulate me"

Eight though, often being envious of others or believing that others are envious of them, hoo boy is he a jealous guy.

Like, I don't even need to say anything here, do I?

He is jealous of anyone better than him in anything and everyone around him knows it.

And finally, nine, showing arrogant, haughty behaviours or attitudes.

Again, when he wanted to go on the Aogiri raid, but this is most clearly seen as a ghoul to be honest. Especially :re volume 3, he's destroying squads with little apparent effort, fights Haise while making snarky remarks, and that monolouge he gives to those two investigators reads so much like "I'm better than you for having figured this out"

A few other things outside of the diagnostic criteria I would like to add is how he clearly has a strong hierarchy, like he views any investigators his rank or lower as below him and any investigators ranked above him as great

Something else is that narcissistic people often don't have high self esteem

And though he may talk big, it's clear he's not very confident about facing the Owl

These are just a few of my thoughts, definitely not everything, and it's not like he perfectly fits the criteria, but I just saw more traits in him than I didn't.

Just another headcanon of mine to add to the list

[changingplumbob]

6 months in...

Have a teen Cassandra, Devin and Charlie.

Today makes 6 months since I've been posting, and about a year that I've been playing with my rotational save. I'm so happy to finally have people to talk to about my sims so this post, much like my 3 months post, is here to say THANK YOU

Thank you first and foremost for caring about what I have to share into the void. I really didn't think my little stories would gain any followers beyond the people I migrated here from Spoutible with. After all they're sims living simple-ish lives, making their families with less drama than the average story on here. And no tidying up filters or edits. Somehow you welcomed them into your dash and I'm extremely grateful. Thank you for every single like you give. For those that comment, thanks for the chats. For those that want to comment, I promise not to be scary. For those that don't want to comment or don't have time, guess what? I still appreciate you being on this journey with me!

On behalf of my sims, thank you for accepting them. Thank you for understanding they fall all over the map. They have different body builds, genders, romantic attractions, sexual attractions, woohoo drives, are neurotypical and neurodiverse as well as having different moralities (I have an evil sim and a good sim now? Can't remember if they've ever talked but they certainly know of each other). I'm trying to add in more ethnic/cultural diversity where I can but with long lifespans it can take a while.

Between you and me one of my biggest tumblr fears is getting to part 3 of a household only for someone to comment "These ones are so boring, get back to blah blah blah", but... that hasn't happened? Somehow I've been extremely lucky and landed in the part of tumblr where none of you post mean or rude things on my posts. For this I am incredibly thankful.

Thank you for accepting me being me, and everything that entails. Including days where my IBS keeps me from being overly literate. All the cute cats I have no choice but to reblog. Understanding I have no idea how to play tag properly. Not cutting me off for an excessive love of puns and shoving song lyrics into tags. For including me with the boops, virtual flower bouquets, and asks where I can't seem to give a short answer.

Thanks to you for not minding me commenting on your posts. Extra thanks for reblogging the content and stories you enjoy to broaden my horizons.

So until later today (or your tomorrow) when I introduce which household we'll be heading next I decided to do something different. I have on my external harddrive screenshots from when I decided to start writing alongside my sims gameplay. There was some weird happenings way back when so have a flashback or three.

What's that? A couple of you have followed me in the past three months and haven't seen my cat? Let me remedy that! Here she is with one of her two favourite blankets.

EDIT: I'm super nauseous today and will probably be off tumblr while my IBS settles and I have to take her *points above* to the vet because her arthritis meds have her off her food and I want to make sure we're doing what we can to keep up her food intake because she's a delicate 12 year old lady.

[sanctus-ingenium]

how clean are you colors before you merge them into the lines for painting? because i cant seem to find a balance between "my god i need to do this whole thing from scratch (too sloppy)" and "well whats the point of painting here (nothing left to paint if i merged the lineart)". sorry if this doesnt make any sense idk how to word myself better sometimes

I think I get you! Honestly I have a kind of threshold I reach where I know that I’ve done all that I can on separate layers and if I were to keep them separate, I’d just be creating more hassle for myself/forced to select layers and keep everything properly organised and it becomes a drag when I’d just rather be painting. And this is usually because I want to take advantage of the mixing effect of Sai’s paintbrush tool to start blending stuff. Also all my colours are on one layer anyway from the beginning (if I need especially ‘clean’ colours I might have a layer for them but I always merge them to the main colour layer before continuing). (also sorry I am away from my pc for a bit so I can’t show you actual Sai screenshots.. you will have to imagine). I ended up writing out the whole process in a way which is probably unhelpful

So for a painting like that one in the last post, I do my lines. Then I close the lines with a separate layer in the same folder (because the lineart looks better with gaps, but i fill colour by selecting outside the lineart while the folder is active, inverting selection, and paint bucket tool. Then delete the layer that closes the lineart). Base colour is usually the most common one in the palette. When I plan to merge the lines I usually make them solid/normal layer mode and colour the lines exactly to match the colours beneath, which is tedious but helps avoid the kind of translucent look lines on multiply layer give. But for that one the lines are on multiply. I lock the colour layer and paint in the other colours - different markings, materials, etc. It can be pretty rough because I know I can just paint over a wonky looking edge, but not so rough that I will have to go over it excessively later. Then with the lines and colours still on 2 separate layers, I put them both in a folder and clip a multiply layer onto that for cast shadows. Paint in cast shadows (again, it’s pretty rough, I know I will be merging & touching up everything at the end so it doesn’t have to be perfect. I hate multiply as a way to shade but I wanted shadows fast, again like I said it was a sketch I over-rendered I didn’t plan to polish it up so much. Normally I choose shadow colours and paint them like normal in the colour layer).

Then I merged the folder and the multiply layer into one layer (i usually make a copy of the lineart to keep it intact, just in case, and keep it hidden in the psd file). I make a new layer and paint in details that need to be sharp - usually around the eyes and face, where there is a focal point. This is because the default paintbrush in Sai has a slight mixing effect, and if I went in on the same layer it would not be as sharp. I use this new layer to paint in areas that need this sharp contrast and clean, tapered lines - like the stray hair and fluffy bits. Then merge all. Now I paint over the main layer all the things that don’t need that sharp treatment, this time taking advantage of the slight mixing effect of Sai’s paintbrush - I like this effect a lot and it’s what I use to blend the lineart into the colours, you can kind of ‘pull’ the lines out a little into the surrounding colour to make them less stark. Then I clip a new multiply layer to it, all one shade, to dim the entire painting so that the stark white highlights stand out more, clip a new layer on that, do the white highlights, merge all and bam it’s done

[gleamingtempest]

Danganronpa Despair Time Foils

TL;DR - The foils of the main cast of the killing game in Danganronpa Despair Time are foreshadowed in the chapter 1 recap video. - Hey hey! As said above, premise is pretty simple. While based on the initial impressions alone not all of these seem to make sense, connections and shared themes can be found between all of the pairings presented in the chapter 1 recap video which is what makes me think they are foils. This is not concrete evidence and you are free to disagree! I'd love to hear others opinions and discourse regarding the topic in the comments. ^^ I will be making more in depth analysis posts on each of these pairings in the future. All screenshots are attributed and credited to the Danganronpa Despair Time channel. Please watch the original video & series as a whole! For some extra clarity:

From Wikipedia Here we go.

Foil #1 - Xander the Rebel & Min the Student

Shared Themes & Topics: Resenting their talents, resenting academia, importance to Teruko Tawaki, red/warm color pallets, pro & anti authority perspectives

Clarifications & Other Notes: They share a relationship of culprit & victim, giving them a unique dynamic in the story. A clear precedent for tension & conflict was set in their dynamic from their first interaction, though until the murder this was minimal.

Foil #2 - Teruko the Lucky Student & Charles the Chemist

Shared Themes & Topics: Distrust, social isolation, amnesia/obscured pasts, Pragmatism, Logic V. Fate Clarifications & Other Notes: Teruko & Charles had opposite upbringings with one being very privileged and the other being borderline or literally homeless. They have butted heads since day one and seem to be going in opposite directions as characters atm. They have had many scenes of direct conflict & tension.

Foil #3 - Eden the Clockmaker & Arei the Bowler

Shared Themes & Topics: Friendship, kindness/cruelty, Hope & Trust, Optimism, Naivety Clarifications & Other Notes: Arei has always been openly antagonistic towards Eden & Eden has expressed very clearly that she wants to get closer to Arei. Arei was devastated by Arei's death and Arei has expressed that Eden is everything she was not allowed to be but deeply desires to be.

Foil #4 - Nico the Pet Therapist & Ace the Jockey

Shared Themes & Topics: Bullying, Anxiety, Neurodivergence (Heavily Implied), Animals, Strength/Control Clarifications & Other Notes: Ace has an explicit history of cruelly bullying Nico while Nico has a confirmed past of being bullied by others for their identity as a non-binary person. Nico has attempted to murder Ace.

Foil #5 - Hu the Zither Player & Veronika the Horror Fanatic

Shared Themes & Topics: S*****e/S**f H**m, Lack of Purpose/Boredom Clarifications & Other Notes: There have been no explicit scenes of tension between the two. It is heavily implied that they have each others secrets. Hu has been portayed as 'motherly' & thoughtful while Veronika has been portrayed as 'childish' & impulsive.

Foil #6 - Rose the Art Forger & J the Effects Artist

Shared Themes & Topics: Identity Issues, Lack of Agency, Troubled Family Relations, Art/Performance Clarifications & Other Notes: There have been no explicit scenes of tension between the two. Rose has lost her passion for her talent while J has stated that she really loves her talent. Both have more powerful figures in their lives which have in some way stripped them of their agency to explore their identity on their own terms.

Foil #7 - Arturo the Plastic Surgeon & Levi the Personal Stylist

Shared Themes & Topics: 'Sinful' pasts, Troubled Family Relationships, Aesthetic/Cosmetic Talents Clarifications & Other Notes: These two have had one scene where there was some light tension & conflict established. Levi is portrayed humble & down to earth while Arturo is portrayed as haughty & excessively prideful. While Arturo's past is not explicitly or literally sinful, it is heavily implied that he subconsciously feels guilty for the death of his younger sister. Levi is heavily implied to have the heartless murderer secret based on the small number of secrets left & his secret quote where he laments over his 'heartlessness'. Both seem to have a tense relationship with their family with Levi having been literally disowned & Arturo seeming to be no contact with his family for one reason or another. Levi's talent focuses on making someone the best version of what they already are while Arturo's focuses on making you into someone else entirely. (Plastic surgery is not literally this but this is how he portrays it.)

Foil #8 - Whit the Matchmaker & David the Inspirational Speaker

Shared Themes & Topics: Optimism, Nihilism, Apathy, Depression, Kindness/Cruelty, Trauma Clarifications & Other Notes: Whit's primary visual motif is hearts while David's is stars. Hearts are essential, intimate & personal while stars are pretty but distant & uninhabitable. David's true nature is cold and uncaring while Whit is portrayed as very empathetic & mindful of others. Both characters seem to struggle in some way with feelings of apathy and nihilism, though they seem to deal with this in very different ways. Whit had David's secret & tried to keep it until he learned his true nature, at which point he remarked that 'his career was in trouble for reasons out of his (whit's) control'. David is intially inviting & kind while Whit is initially somewhat abrasive & insensitive. -

Tysm for reading if you did! I'd love to hear your thoughts down below, as well as any other shared themes/topics you can see applying to any of these characters. Hu & Veronika in particular is a pairing I don't understand super well but would love to hear more about!

Not sure when I'll post the individual analysis posts but I look forward to doing so when I do. Bye bye!

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch. 6 Tsumihoroboshi pt. 22

I am very undecided if I should call what’s about to unfold here a retcon. Apologies for another massive screenshot dump.

See, the reason I’m hesitant about calling this a retcon is because it’s portraying these events from the view of this timeline’s Keiichi being able to think about things rationally. This Keiichi is able to remember these events from Onikakushi and think about them from the rational angle of Mion and Rena were probably on the up and up, but that doesn’t really hold water with the way it was portrayed in Onikakushi. After all Keiichi did find a needle in the ohagi, Mion did have a syringe (probably H173) that she was going to inject Keiichi with. Hell even with the part where Mion is crying because of Keiichi accusing her of murder she did very swiftly start to rant about how she should have killed Ooishi long before he started Keiichi on his path of paranoia.

Clearly this span of screenshots and exposition is meant to try to mesh Onikakushi more cleanly with the larger plot that has come about as of Tsumihoroboshi. So it has to try to explain away Keiichi’s paranoia with his onset of Hinamizawa Syndrome, but really I think you could just as easily explain it as Keiichi remembering events from other timelines that did happen the way they did. I don’t doubt that Keiichi had Hinamizawa Syndrome back when everything went to hell in Onikakushi, but this sudden turn of trying to explain that Keiichi doubting his friends and becoming excessively paranoid just rubs me the wrong way.

Except he didn’t! Up until this very moment he had no recollection of any of this happening! Even at the time when he did homerun derby his way through Rena and Mion’s skulls he very definitely didn’t act like they deserved it! He never outright expressed regret at the deed of murdering them, but he never explicitly blamed them for their deaths either. Keiichi acted like they were used by the grander conspiracy to get at him.

Keiichi’s freakout worsens as he is overcome with guilt over having killed Rena and Mion five chapters ago. This makes Satoko and Mion thoroughly confused because as far as they’re aware Keiichi might as well be having this meltdown over a bad dream. Rika however approaches Keiichi to confirm that Keiichi is aware of his sin of having killed Mion and Rena five chapters and four years ago. Keiichi confirms that he is acutely aware, and that he didn’t even realize it when he clawed out his own throat at the end of Onikakushi and only just realized it now during the later half of Tsumihoroboshi. It never really goes into detail about her rebirth process, only that Rika prefers to have some time to come to grips with what happened “recently” but I can’t help but wonder if this is similar to how it works for her. But really I suppose that’s more a question for Minagoroshi than anything.

This… is a very ironic screenshot given what happens later on in Minagoroshi.

Rika then goes on to make Keiichi remember what it was like when he gave in to paranoia and eventually killing Rena and Mion. She rationalizes that because he went through this he could save Rena. Probably.

Now, I don’t know about Ryukish07’s writing process, and I don’t know if Wikipedia should be believed about the release dates between chapters. But given the short amount of time between Tsumihoroboshi and Minagoroshi I can’t help but assume that the pair of these were probably written together for the most part. Four months doesn’t seem like nearly enough time to have completely forgotten the characterization for who is probably your most important character in the franchise. But it is just wild to me how Rika seems to do a complete 180 in terms of characterization from Tsumihoroboshi to Minagoroshi. I guess maybe you could handwave it away as she doesn’t remember this particular conversation due to dying shortly after this chapter ends? Even though that doesn’t make a bit of sense considering she mentions things that happened right at the end of the chapter in the next one.

Anyway, thus now burdened with the memory of killing Mion and Rena in a past life Keiichi apologizes to Mion for it, and vows to be there to protect her in the future if she needs protection. A flustered Mion accepts this.

[loveislandthegame]

thoughts on todays volume! we're not even halfway through the season and i'm already over it . i'm lowkey struggling to write these posts 😭

first up is excess baggage, where we get another glimpse into our forced backstory: MC didn't go to her season's afterparty, and later on it's revealed that finn was the host (i'm just like, why the hell has he been a host twice? what was he even doing in love island australia? but FB is putting zero thought into writing these seasons, so i should just put zero thought into analysing them)

like i've said before, it wouldn't be a LITG challenge without some bullshit. they decided to make finn's baggage "saying that MC is the sexiest love island star," that's great for people romancing him, but i was just grossed out 🫠 unfortunately it only gets worse from here

melissa and henri got dumped . at least it wasn't natasha or kelly, though kelly suddenly no longer cares about my MC, so it seems like that chat with melissa did lock in one wlw LI

kelly and finn get everyone together to play one of those guessing games, idk what it's actually called. but more importantly, tf is wrong with these people ? you weren't thinking that MC would be tired of everyone and their mother constantly bringing up the guy she was with for two weeks? at this point i wouldn't be surprised if they revealed that MC and stefan were engaged or some shit

side note, lyle's evening outfit looks beyond ridiculous but i kinda love that (tbh it looks like some shit tyler the creator would wear)

MC gets a note inviting her to the pool, i thought it was gonna be chen or maybe natasha, turns out it's fucking finn. we should've had the option to cuss him out 👹 (and a scene like this should've only been triggered if you're on his route, but FB cannot be bothered to branch, we're forced into this for the ridiculous drama/cliffhanger later)

i cant lie, this was freakin adorable, i would be a little tempted if i wasn't focused on natasha ... and if he didn't dump my ozzy route s6 MC for ivy 😫 (side note: with the amount of times he's been calling the other guys attractive...it goes without saying that straight dudes can compliment each other, but idk, make him bi/pan you cowards)

we barely had time with natasha this volume, so i had the gem scene date with her. cuteeee

i didn't screenshot it and i'm too lazy to go back for it, but she said something about us being in the hideaway together. (if you didn't see my other post, i did want to go with her but stuck with chen because i thought it'd be too awkward) i don't know what's up with all the glitches, i hope it doesn't cause issues later on, like in a movie night or some shit 😭

we return from our dates, and shocker, finn's note has kelly fighting with kat. i just hope we can clear everything up immediately, i'll be so damn mad if they drag this out for the whole volume 🤦🏽‍♀️

[doyoubelieveinwhateverr]

Hades Oc: Chloe, Pomegranate Nymph & Head Gardener of the House of Hades

Extra doodles, screenshot edits and excessive character lore below the cut

Chloe is the Head (only) gardener of the House of Hades and one of the few underworld nymphs in existence, specifically borne of a pomegranate tree.

Taking the form of a young girl, Chloe is soft-spoken and keeps to herself, content to carry out her gardening duties. She will indulge in light conversation with whomever approaches her (usually Zagreus) but will rarely initiate interactions.

Giving her nectar will prompt her to give Zagreus the Pom Parer, which would allow him to upgrade two boons of his choice once per floor when he gets a Pom of Power.

Completing her bond will earn Zagreus the Chthonic Companion, Pom Pom. Using this summon allows Chloe to plant spiny pomegranate shrubs on the field that can ensnare enemies and inflict chip damage. Completing her bond involves having the House contractor build a rooftop garden for her next to the training area. (Garden could also be used for "date" interactions with other characters, much to her chagrin.)

It would probably never come up but she is capable of fighting, her gardening sickle as her main weapon and a switch made of a thorny branch as her back up, as well as some magic with her pomegranate seeds.

The tree Chloe was born from was one accidentally planted by Persephone when she choked and coughed up a pomegranate seed she was eating and lodged into the grounds of the garden. Thanks to Persephone's power, it had the magic needed to spawn a nymph, making Chloe Persephone's daughter and Zagreus' half sibling on a technicality. However, Chloe formed long after Persephone left and thus no one seems to have made the connection; as far as anyone is concerned, Chloe just appeared in the garden one day and became their gardener, and she would prefer it to stay that way.

Relations:

Zagreus: One of the few members of the House she regularly speaks to. She respects him as her Prince but also considers him a friend. She has her own opinions on how the people of the house speak to and of him.

Hades: Respects him as a god and master. Her personal opinions are best remained unsaid.

Persephone: Has mixed feelings towards the queen of the Underworld. On one hand, Chloe's glad she has returned but on the other, the fact she ran away in the first place makes Chloe believe she is irresponsible and unreliable.

Skelly: Very pointedly tunes him out

Dusa: The mutual respect had for a fellow tender of the House.

Achilles: Likes his voice and how he calls her 'lass'.

Megaera: Doesn't get to speak to her often but admires her whip proficiency. Often practices similar moves in secret with a thorny branch.

Hypnos: Always seems to be sleeping when she sees him.

Thanatos: They sometimes exist in the same space in companionable silence.

Nyx: Greet each other respectfully when passing in halls and Chloe ensure that the flowers in Nyx's corner are always fresh.

Charon: Business partners, they have a shared side hustle involving Pomegranate Wine being "exported" to the surface. Hades does not know of this.

Olympian Gods: Keep those things FAR away from her! (Her words)

Major Dialogue:

First interaction: Oh, you're back. Didn't go well?

Give Nectar: You're giving this to me? Thank you, your highness. It's not much but you can have this, I hope it's helpful. (Pom Parer get!)

Give Ambrosia: I don't think I can finish all this by myself but I'll try! Here's something I think you'll like, too. (Pom Pom get!)

Max Bond: I was never fond of the way that... certain members of this House spoke to you, or of you. It seemed so unfair when you had done nothing to deserve it beyond just not being what they wanted. As just a gardener, there was never anything I could do to help but for what it's worth; I was always on your side, Prince.

Chthonic Companion Summon: A bountiful harvest!

Chthonic Companion Summon (Hades): Ah! Sorry Prince, but not happening. / I better not get yelled at for this.

[zebrabaker]

So, it's 2 am and I'm thinking about Good Omens again. You all know what I mean.

Well. While doomscrolling our beloved hellsite, I saw a screenshot of a Tweet talking about the Angelic Robes in the Job mini-sode. It stuck in my brain, so here we go!

We'll start with Gabriel's.

Gabriel, as head arch angel, clearly has more elaborate lace at his cuffs and collar, along with some kind of...cape thing? I have zero idea what he was thinking there, lol

Michael has a very classic angelic robe, with smoother lace at her collar and a scalloped lace trim at her cuffs. Her makeup has very heavy gold tones as well. Also worth noting is the construction of these two garments.

Michael's and Gabriel's robes do seem to pull in at the waist, not quite at the common belt line on either. This usually gives a more flattering cut, and changes the line of the silhouette.

As for Azi...

Aziraphale's robe has a lace and bead collar, and seemingly lacks the structured shoulders that the other robes pictured above have. The sleeves on Aziraphale's also are a wide cute like above, but aren't as ...open, I guess the word should be.

Instead, the fabric gathers into that gold trim; which looks like the same material as his belt, another relevant thing. His belt sits lower and more snug, preventing the fabric from billowing excessively.

Presumably, the shape and construction of his sleeves and the choice of belt are meant for combat. As a Principality, Aziraphale is Heaven's agent on Earth and meant to do battle against Hell's forces. Hence the flaming sword.

In a fight, loose sleeves and unrestrained skirts/robes would be an unnecessary risk. One has to wonder how long it's been since Michael or Gabriel had to worry about that, with sleeves like theirs...

Muriel, my darling! Muriel's robes are a sharp contrast with the others, and I would presume that their robes are the most common type. A very basic gold cuff and collar, loose sleeves, no structure. The pleating is less deliberate looking to me. Their hair is also contained in a bun of...some kind (?) and there looks to be some hair ornament involved. Very practical, compared to Michael and Gabriel's.

All said, their robes are very utilitarian compared to the others, likely the standard for one of countless bureaucrats. Looking at the scene on Earth later, we can even see that most of the other angels are dressed like them!

There are a LOT of fun meta implications here, but I just thought this was a super cool addition and wanted to share.

[floatinginzerogravity]

I did an Analysis of the Murder Drones Pilot for my friends and am deciding to post it: Pt.1

Okie, It's Murder Drones explanation time

okay, first of all, I've waited LITERAL MONTHS to do this, and WILL be pointing out every tiny detail, and would very much love to do this with every episode. (I am happy stimming so much right now)

If you don't feel like reading all this, I can provide a condensed version. I will just send a wall of text, I will fill it with my theories and goofy bg details, I will send excessive screenshots of the characters, and I will not feel shame. Be warned

so, The year is 3000 something, and humanity has been colonizing other planets, using half-sentient worker drone robots to mine them. Humanity then blows up the planet by accident (oops)

Just for clarity, this is not earth, it's a completely separate planet around 70 light years away called Copper 9 (Side note, it's technically impossible for a moon to have rings. oops, the show is scientifically inaccurate, it's ruined now/j) Anyway, the core collapse killed all humans and turned the atmosphere into a "toxic death storm" (description lovingly borrowed from N) The Worker drones, now free from human control, discovered their sentience. They build a society based on the human one before it, with families, schools, and all the other stuff

The Robot Sentience side tangent: Liam Vickers, show creator, when asked about the Drone's sentience- "It was kind of a basic, limited version... the disaster that happened on their planet that kind of left them kind of stranded, kind of played into their adaptive AI abilities.... You need a sort of intelligence to not fall over... it expands to keeping them alive in various circumstances" Basically, they were programmed to do certain tasks, and when humanity was wiped out, their goals changed and they were given the space to find their own sentience. Sentience can also occur if they're in an environment that promotes sentience or if their damaged/corrupted in some way

JCJenson (in Spaaaaccce) (aka the company that created the drones and runs colonization. The name of the company is also, apparently, based on a cleaning company. BCBoston or something) Decides they don't like sentient AI running around and sends Disassembly Drones to Copper 9 to wipe them out

(Text: "CALCULATING, MOST PROBABLE DEITY TO PRAY TO)

The implication here is that the blue guy threw his child when the attacks started. (I think the fandom named him Bob or something similar) This is the first example of the A+ parenting of Murder Drones characters.

V's just perched on a lampost lol. Very Creature™️ of her

Bg text #3 I guess

[Text: Photo cred: some dead dude lol] [Text: "dying is stupid and also dumb" -me, idk]

[Text: How do we fix this in a complicated Sci-fi way] So, Uzi wants to fight, and everyone else wants to hide, basic plot stuff, moving on

Her railgun has stickers lol

[Text: "Violently opposed to biological life" The rest is readable]

Khan (Uzi's dad) being the worst™️, an image collection

Something that will forever irk me until the day I die is why a robot has Testosterone????? Don't they not even have biological genders, or biology, like, at all???? I don't think robots need hormones, bud

I once saw someone point out that this is probably one of the first times someone has been nice to Uzi, as she has no friends, is bullied, and her father is a bit neglectful <- Understatement (I do want to say that Khan isn't as bad as most of the fandom seems to think he is. Doesn't mean he's good either, though)

Baby's first "Bite me", I'm so proud. (Fun fact, in Spanish she says "Jodete", which translates to "Fuck you!" )

HSDHJDSFNJKDSHJDFHGJFGBKJDFDKJG WHY DO YOU HAVE HORMONES?????? YOUR FREAKING ROBOTS???!!!!!! WHYYYYYYYYY (Plot: Uzi says that she plans to sneak out to find the last part for her railgun, and in the next scene she is waking up at 3:00am to do just that) Now time for deciphering Uzi's sticky notes

[Text: To do: >Talk to source

>...

>(I can't read the rest)] [Text: RESEARCH: How to turn "REALLY sad all the time" into "Look really cool"]

[Text: LIMAL NO 4EYA!!!!!] <- I have no clue what this means [Text:Murder ??? Matter ???? really at c?????] <- Again, no clue what this means

[Text: Uzi Dos-] [Text: Yeaahhhh, I'm not reading that]

Location: Khan's closet where Uzi steals the "Door Master" key from

"Yeah, everyone has a picture of their family where one member is mysteriously ripped out in their closet."/s -Liam Vickers, paraphrased from a reddit AMA

[Text: WDF of outpost 9 [Having faithfully made a slab of metal that can be a wall but also not a wall, on the 11th day of December, three thousand and ???]

[Text: You cannot be murdered by scary robots when .... a door, (unless they open it) A scientific]

I find it interesting that the DD's are referred to as "Murder Drones," which is not their technical name. It seems to be something only the WD colonies use

Fun fact: this line is a bit of a meme in the MD community

Plot: Uzi manages to lie her way out of the WD colony, enters the Corpse Spire, and finds the required part for her railgun. As she goes to leave, she's attacked by a DD, who she defeats with her railgun, only for it's head to regenerate.

[ghostace]

GShade in SWTOR

Surprise, the screenshots I've been posting this week have been getting carried by the power of GShade, not a sudden improvement in my editing skills. All of these have either no edits or only minor adjustments from in-game.

I decided to poke at it after @spindlewit got it working initially, since I have a stubborn streak and no fear of destroying my game files. It's not as simple as just installing and launching the game, and every time I tried I seemed to have to take different steps so don't be shocked if it doesn't work for you the first time, or if it breaks in the future.

At the moment I have only tested it with the Steam install. I don't intend to test it for the regular launcher, but the same steps may work. The reason why Steam is safer is that for whatever reason GShade deletes a key launch file on install, and Steam can recover that file if you don't back it up first. And best yet, it also worked on PTS so once SWTOR goes 64 bit this should still work!

Use entirely at your own risk. This may be considered a TOS violation.

Step 1: Download and install GShade locally.

Step 2: Install GShade with default settings to swtor.exe in your game installation folder. For me, and most Steam installs, the path is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Star Wars - The Old Republic\swtor\retailclient. Do not install to launcher.exe

Note that if GShade installs as DirectX 9 you may have to uninstall and reinstall GShade to SWTOR until it lets you install as OpenGL since the DX9 install doesn't seem to work.

Step 3: Open the GShade control panel and turn on Vulkan (x86) under the Installations tab. GShade will not work in SWTOR without this.

Step 4: "Verify integrity of game files" through Steam (right click on game in Steam -> properties -> local files). This will recover the missing launch file that GShade deletes.

Alternately, you can back up client_defaults.ini from the same retailclient folder location as swtor.exe and just put it somewhere safe before installing GShade to SWTOR.

Step 5: Go to your GShade installation folder (typically C:\Program Files\GShade\DXVK\x32) and copy d3d9.dll into the same retailclient folder as above. Do not use the version in the x64 folder unless you are installing to PTS or following this tutorial after SWTOR goes 64 bit.

Step 6: Launch SWTOR. It will probably prompt you for the EULA again, just go through that and hopefully the GShade banner will pop up and you're good to go.

If the GShade banner is still not showing up, I found in my installation I also had to delete opengl32.dll from the retailclient folder. Other people testing did not have to take this step so don't delete unless GShade is not working.

Some notes and tips:

You may have to scroll through the EULA every time you log in. Sorry, not sure why that happens or doesn't happen.

You will have to turn Anti Aliasing in SWTOR to medium or off. There are graphical artifacts if you have it on High or Very High. Many pre-made shaders include anti-aliasing and I don't find it that big of a loss.

I experienced slightly more lag during gameplay with GShade running even with all shaders turned off. I also experienced noticeably more lag in cutscenes, especially right when they start. YMMV but I would recommend not running GShade for anything where more lag would cause problems. I may have died to VM Eyeless with a shader running because I lagged right as I was trying to get out of the purple circle of death.

In trying to reduce lag, I updated my DirectX 9 files from Microsoft here. It seems to be helping but I'm still testing, so if you experience excessive lag maybe try that.

I would recommend if you want to use any DOF shaders in cutscenes to turn off SWTOR's Conversation Depth of Field so they're not competing.

DOF shaders in SWTOR are a little tricky. SWTOR seems to use very large "slices" of depth, so every tick can cause a large amount of the background to come into focus. I'd recommend using mouse-driven auto-focus when practical, especially in cutscenes where the focus is change depth very frequently.

If you want to use the regular DOF autofocus, I'd recommend changing the Autofocus Center so that it's actually sitting on the character model (default is 0.500 x 0.500, I find generally 0.500 x 0.700 works well), reducing the Autofocus sample radius, and reducing the Far blur curve. SWTOR's camera is a bit hard to work with so play with those settings as needed. Below is a sample of before and after with default and my own picks for DOF autofocus sampling. It does vary depending on what DOF shader each shader preset uses.

Please rec me your favourite shaders for each planet or location if you use this, I'm still just messing around with this myself.

[istherewifiinhell]

okay apropos of nothing. these idiots

[ID: Rise turtles screenshot redraw (from ep: mystic library) with 3 mutant-sonas, all looking up in apprehension in front of a help desk. They are: a red half mask wearing caimen (a small crocodilian) in dark and light green, a green eye mask wearing snapping turtle, in tealish tones, and blue masked... thing, with reptilian features and antenna, in mint green and warm beige. END]

da dipshit brothers <-collective gendering leave me alone

weep whomp bullshit be below

goes like this

ID: discord msg from: Stop. eating. THE POISON! (green): (going through screenshots) look it us

[ID: Og rise screenshot, the turtles are leo, raph and don. END]

see no mike shot cause we dont have a mike. if ur a mike type and sad abt it idk get urself adopted?

attempt one:

ID: message from: keep it down Vomitello (blue): (RED) mutant sona. NOW image attached is the green and blue characters in sort of proto designs, more 'rise style', lined and coloured, over the screenshot. the red one sketched in with only the expression and a blob of colour. text with an arrow points to it as "YOU GO HERE" END

fugging guy doesnt even have a mutant sona. ridiculous

an aside about styles:

[ID: msg from green: Yours is too cute that’s not fair (edited) blue: JUST CAUSE" i cant draw ur guy aswell rise style harrrrrd look practice sketch came out looking like 03 jhbdjhfg. myyyy bias attached sketch of the green turtles head more in line with 03 shows turtles (smaller eyes, diff head shape) END]

ID: msg from: beautiful birthday baby (red): Oh oof you can't just put me on the spot like that green: yes we can blue: im sorry u havent THOUGHT ABOUT IT. fucked up of u END]

Red: Leatherhead but not as big or smart Blue: HMMM which kind of crocodilian u wanna be. theres some fun ones Red: I'm partial to caimans and alligators Green: well chop chop pick up the pen tool Red: So caiman seems about right for a smaller alligator Blue: theyyyy are just little guyssss Red: Idek if I have clip studio installed rn Blue: u got mspaint. itll do

EIGHT HOURS PASS

[ID: msg from blue: gotta do everything around here attached art now has the caimen character drawn in, mostly the same as above. Though still in broad cartoony style, he has strong eye ridges, flat head, prominent alligator type snout with nostrils and gullet. END]

Green: WOOOOW THATS REALLY GOOD Red: Sorry I've been busy That is good tho thank you Blue: THANKIES. i do like crocodilians. is the thing. [Green] ur odd man out now. beak urself Green: That’s on you for not changing the style Blue: WELL. i was tryna draw ur guy as youuu drew him fghjsdf. gotta put him on the pottery wheel... MOLD HIM [...] Blue: anyway u. any actual animals ur guy is supposed to evoke or should i just look up bulbasaur realistic fanart

ID: Green: Lmfao is supposed to be a normal snapping Turble Blue: arrghhhaa YEAHgg photo of a snapping turtle making a funny face

an aside about... the devils green:

[ID: Green: Now I’m trying to think of how a big croc mouth smokes weed Blue: smoking big doinks in amish silly sketch of the caiman smoking a joint, eyes half lid with a big goofy smile, smoke coming out the nostrils. END]

Green: But [Red] doesn’t use joints Blue: IM NOT DRAWING A BONG. Green: I’m thinking of his big dumb [novelty branded bong] tryina get the croc mouth on it Blue: jhgbhjsdfg Green: That’s what’s making me laugh

ID: Blue: with difficulty sketch of the caiman with head lowered to a excessively long bong, arm stretch to over the distance of both his muzzle and the bong. hand drawn holding lighter to the. smoke bit. smoke comes out of the nostrils again. Green: HELL YEAHHHHH END]

Blue: 2 hours old and hes already schmoking Green: When he exhale becomes a dragon Blue: Yer Green: [Red] look at your weed smoking fursona Red: I got distracted but I hate and love it Green: was the distraction weed Red: No it was tik tok Green: so worse the worst drug

Attempt 2:

[ID: Blue: okay get creatured idiot art now has the turtle as the above art, without only minor touches. He has a wider set eyes, a more shapely and pronounced beak, the 'teeth' coming to a point, eye ridges, and more colour variation. END]

Green: YIPPEEE i forgor is yours a robot Blue: yerrr lol least amount of guy to draw and from front view so idk how to show. the CHOMPERS

(aka, now I FELT left out)

attempt 3: et volia

[ID: All characters as above, with highlights and shadows now, only drawn over the screen shot, not edited into frame. The blue masked reptile robot thing has been moved so its more visible also gaining a flatter head, eye ridges, a pointer (tho still round) beak with more teeth indicated in the comical expression. it has a scarf the same colour as its mask. END]

anyways i was like arggghh how to edit them into the scene better that seeeeeem HARDDDDDD. think about makeing them bigger and moving them and etcetc. until i realised i bet i could just get this background from the episode.... and then i was fucking around on websites. suffering... until i remembered.... i have... ALL OF SEASON 1. on my laptop. and. the thumbnail for this eps file is LITERALLY. this

[ID: the blank background of the library, with the desk in fore, little orb lights above, and the kooky purple mystic library selves and what not in back. END]

s'its about 3 mins in.

[s0lar-ch3ri]

a tiny ramble on luz's character: the symbolism i saw when she just stood there (spoilers obviously, for both season 2 and 3)

so i've been watching fan vids of the ending for toh and in this one reaction vid i was watching the death scene in a sense and i just had to over analyze it

for context, after belos is removed from the heart, he tries to lie again to luz and it starts to rail, the boiling water melting his human disguise. shes still in this titan form, clearly being as strong as ever, probably getting close to the level of the collector imo, and yet she doesnt do anything as he talks to her. she just stands, blank faced and doesnt move a bit (image shown below, low quality since its from the yt vid)

she just glares him down, not a word. she expresses no emotion other then annoyance, or maybe hate, and thats even just from looking at small details that we get.

yet here phillp is, giving it one last try, one more chance to trick her again. he shows a fake expressing of concern, later on worry that boils to anger and rage. unlike luz, he shows a ton of expression. hes using emotion, a very human concept, as a way to make her believe that he wasn't in the wrong, that he can be trusted, that he can be forgiven in a sense. he talks a lot, repeating with "better" words parts of sentences to show how good it is that she saved him and that wild magic is bad. however, he wasn't always this expressive. infact, the amount of emotion he shows here plays into how luz has reacted before!

i found the screenshot of when hes talking to hunter (its eclipse lake btw, around 1:15) and he seems not so smug but rather relaxed and welcoming. looking from hunter's eyes, this is really his uncle, and his uncle has always looked out for him, hasnt he (no he hasnt lol; also so do note that in hollow mind hunter does hesitiate before going through the memory with the portal door, like he'd take the eyeball monster over going through that again??? (i will be analysing him next hes just so ever))?

now heres an image of when he was talking to the collector in the mind scape. his energy is less familial and cozy but like an adult entertaining a child, he seems so smug and more like someone who you talk trash on others to. the energy he has for the people he surrounds himself with changes with who said people are. however, the amount of emotion he shows isnt excessive like the scenes with luz. even in elsewhere and elsewhen, he's shown more emotion when talking to her then with other characters.

this is how he knows her, the excitment and high energy, want to save everyone luz is how he has seen her. not to mention, he notices how lilith is getting concerned and starts talking differently. i know i keep jumping around with belos, but ill get back to luz soon!

another detail of lesser emotion with belos: we've seen him mostly wearing a mask. now, obviously the mask would hide his face and any form of emotion, but the mask noticiably has no mouth. all it shows is eye holes, lines to represent eyelids id presume, and nose holes. the mask cant show any kind of emotion at all due to the lack of detail. as such, we've only been able to tell his emotions through the tone of his voice, the way he speaks, etc. he has no need for emotion here.

from what belos has seen, luz has shown much emotion and empathy, so he plays into what he thinks is her weakness, pulling her heart strings with a fable that he believes surely she'd fall for. belos is good at manipulation because his style of how he does it changes with whoever he talks to, but one unexpected detail has stopped him now: this human has managed to change in such short time.

however, luz is very expressive even after everything, even in battle, even at the last battle. she always puts her best into whatever she does because she cares (its similar to the papyrus: blink motherfucker post basically, she always puts 110% into whatever she does). shes the main character because shes a very caring person and would never do anything to harm the innocent, making her a very good mc for the show! she speaks out against belos and his evil that one time at the night market because she wants to do the right thing for these people, because she cares for them.

she could just put him out his misery now. she could just kill belos just out of her hatred. yet she doesnt. because shed be stooping down to his level, killing someone because you simply dont like them. in this scene, belos finds sp,ethomg (ok ik ruining mood with that but the mispelling is just too funny, i meant to say something) he never expected, luz just does not care about him. she doesnt care to listen to him, doesnt care for his fate, and will not care in the end. she knows he doesnt deserve the respect of a response.

she doesnt even look at him, she doesnt have the care to now. and why should she? hes hurt many people, and tried to put her on his level of awful, comparing them as if theyre remotely similar. another thing by the way, when trying to use sympathy fails, belos switches to blame, saying how horrible shed be if she didn't help him now.

in this scene, he says "we're human, we're better then this!" with the irony of him being the least human hes ever been. this is pretty noticable, but theres more irony than just this. this is also the least human that luz the HUMAN has ever been. shes constantly been given that title, one example being eda telling luz that her life is great because "shes friends with luz the human"! yet shes harnessing the titan in her, and we see her doing things like eda and king do. and a big human thing we have? emotions and empathy. we sympathize with each other because we care and are run by our emotions, and thats a pretty key part in what makes us human. however, belos uses this against those around him, with promises of things that they desire in a sense. belos has lost any sense of humanity just to fulfill this savior complex (ill be doing more analysing so ill explain this later but no its not like a hero complex) while luz has became more humane with her journey, taking in how what she's done has affected those shes with, understanding them. luz being human is what makes her better then having to stomp him out, needing the last hit. she already did enough and doesnt need to care anymore about defeating him, because even if the rain didnt kick in and he was able to keep his human disguise, he would still lose.

tdlr: luz simply ignoring belos can be very over analysed by my neurodivergent ass, and the reasoning why is simply because when shed care once now she does not.