#View keyboard shortcuts

[mixedworld]

Follow us on twitter

[captain-amadeus]

I am so impressed by anyone using mspaint in general like the frustration of a touch screen yall are so patient /lh

[fictional-worlds-are-exquisite]

cats will walk over your keyboard and do things on your computer that you didn’t even know were possible

[acridid-s]

Had a stress dream of the genre "I do everything right but everything still acts as though I did it all wrong"... topped off with having to wade through stagnant rivers of blood and rotting corpses and Plague Tale esque hordes of spiders bigger than a human head... Great

[engineering]

Tumblr Hack Week, January 2024 Edition

Once again it was Hack Week (more than just a day!) at Tumblr! This is getting repetitive in the best way. A couple of times per year we slow down our normal work and spend a week working on scratching a personal itch or features we want as user and see how far we can get with our hacks. One thing from the last Hack Week in September made it all the way to a new experiment out to some testers: Tumblr Patio!

Here are some of the projects that got built for our most recent Hack Week in January. Some of these things you may also end up seeing on the site…

Spoiler text, spoiler blocks, and centered text!

This one is so obvious and amazing, it’s wild we don’t already have it. For Hack Week, Katie added the ability to select text in a paragraph to be hidden behind a wall of black that can be revealed with a tap. This can be super useful to hide spoilers. And even better: whole spoiler blocks. And while we’re here, the ability to center text!

A plethora of new default blog avatars

We haven’t updated our default avatars in several years. (Some of you may remember this one from 10+ years ago.) They’re feeling a bit stale to us, so why not update them? And while we’re at it… make a ton more variations! Paul from the Tumblr Design team came up with a suite of new default avatars, using our latest Tumblr color palette. Here’s a look at some of them, but there are actually many dozens more using different colors:

Notifications and emails about engagement on your posts

This one is for the folks on Tumblr who love numbers and their Activity page. Daniel, @jesseatblr​, and the Feeds & Machine Learning team worked on some new notifications and emails we could send out to people about how their posts have been doing lately on the platform, such as how many views they’ve gotten, and by how many people. We already have this available (and more) when you Blaze a post, but why not open it up to more people? It’s really useful to the folks who use Tumblr to help build an audience for their work!

A new way of navigating the web: the Command Palette

Some apps we use a lot have a “command palette” accessible via a keyboard shortcut for quick keyboard-driven access to different parts of the platform. For example, Slack and Discord have Command + K to access their quick switchers to hop around conversations. What if Tumblr had one? Kelly and Paul built one! Press Command/Control + K on Tumblr and you can use your keyboard to jump to your blog, Activity, your recent conversations, search, dozens of places!

As always, stay tuned to the @changes​ blog to see if any of these hacks make it on Tumblr for real!

[3amnightride]

Some Tumblr Tricks

1. Get a random blogpost from a blog

You like the content of a blog but theres just so much content and you want to see some older stuff? Great, just append /random to the URL and a random blogpost from that blog will be shown:

BLOGNAME.tumblr.com/random

2. Use Keyboard Shortcuts

When you are on your dashboard you can use the following keybinds:

J -> Scroll forward K -> Scroll backward L -> Like the current post N -> See the number of notes Shift + E -> Add post to your queue Shift + R -> Fast reblog Z + Tab -> Quickly switch between dashboard and blog Z + C -> Quickly compose a post Space -> View photoset in a lightbox or start playing a video post

3. More URL tricks

Show all posts with a specific tag:

BLOGNAME.tumblr.com/tagged/<tag>

Sort entries with a specific tag in chronological order

BLOGNAME.tumblr.com/tagged/<tag>/chrono

Get all Posts from a date

BLOGNAME.tumblr.com/day/JJJ/MM/TT

PS: Do not forget you can go totally crazy with the custom theme editor by for example adding a music player https://www.scmplayer.net/ or whatever. Make personal websites cringe again!

[the-jade-palace]

Fin Fin on QEMU (Current Version - v2.2)

Fin Fin on QEMU is a project designed to create an easy to use way for anyone to play Fin Fin without the need for any complicated setup on modern operating systems. It is fully compatible with Windows 10 and 11, but will also work on any version after XP.

The version of the game used is a custom made translation that includes all 6 worlds in English. It has working microphone input, sound recording, and all associated features such as screenshots and the encyclopedia work as well.

Rather than using virtualization, this works through emulating an entire Windows 98 machine. To play it there's no need to install any hypervisors or set up a virtual machine, as everything is already set up, and ready to go.

The download link can be found here! (Hosted on MEGA)

Installation

The whole thing is portable, meaning nothing is actually "installed" and all the data is wherever you place the folder. This also means that if moved to another PC, all user data will still be present.

To run, all you need to do is extract the folder in the .zip to a location of your choosing, and then run one of the launchers.

Included are two launcher versions for the different QEMU display options, one that uses GTK and one that uses SDL. The only difference between the .bat script and the .exe versions is that a command window will be shown when using the .bat script.

Both have pros and cons, so I've included both to let the user decide which one they want to use.

SDL has broken window scaling and no mouse integration, but has a correctly stretched fullscreen. GTK has a stretched fullscreen mode, but has working mouse integration and window scaling. Basically if you want the game in fullscreen use SDL, otherwise use GTK. For a bit more info about these, checkout the 'Files' section under the 'Keep Reading'

Important Info

Before launching the main game, be sure to create a profile using 'New Contact', as the game will not run until doing so. When exiting the game use the shutdown option in Windows 98. Exiting through closing the window forcefully can possibly cause data loss/corruption. When using SDL, mouse and keyboard input will be captured. To release this, press 'Ctrl + Alt + G'. When using GTK, the menubar can be hidden or shown by pressing 'Ctrl + Alt + M'. To make the window fullscreen, press 'Ctrl + Alt + F'.

Sounds

Included are two "sound effect packs" for the in game sounds that play based on the number keys from 1-5.

By default, the game will use the sound effects from the 5 Worlds version, but you can swap out to the 6 worlds one by renaming the "sound (alternate)" folder in the D: drive to just "sound", and renaming the original sound folder to something else.

I hope you all have fun with your new best friend Fin Fin!

Fin Fin is a wonderful little enigma from the past, and my attempt to make it easily accessible even in the present is something I hope you will all enjoy.

If you encounter any issues in Fin Fin on QEMU, please contact me about it.

To view the changelog, credits, and some more info about this project check below the 'Keep reading'.

Changelog

Some information is cut for brevity, the full version can be found inside of Fin Fin on QEMU and the MEGA folder.

v2.2

Added several new Fin Fin screensavers the user may choose from Updated method for calculating Transfer folder size Updated emulated machine to use 128mb of RAM and a Pentium Updated main teoboot.exe executable to fix several issues Updated shortcuts

v2.1

Removed WHPX launching options Removed FinFinWHPX.bat and FinFinWHPX.exe Removed startup crash fix as it was only needed for WHPX Modified folder settings in Windows 98 to open folders in the same window Rearranged Fin Fin on QEMU folder layout for cleaner appearance Added 'OK' button back to Microphone Setup that was mistakenly removed Updated shortcuts for Microphone Setup and Sound Recorder Fixed problem with 'Encyclopedia' launching script that caused screenshots to not show up in the photobook Added 'Transfer' Folder which allows for transferring files between the host and emulated machine Added options for launching with either GTK or SDL display Altered updater to improve ease of use and used NirCmd to improve process as a whole (Updater.bat & updater.iso)

v2.0 (Major Update - 6 Worlds Edition)

Modified original Taiwanese 6 Worlds version to add English Translation Added 'Microphone Sensitivity' shortcut to the desktop and start menu Added in 5 Worlds version Encyclopedia (finfinEncyc.exe & encyc30.GIZ) Added sound effects from 5 Worlds version (D:\sound) Added Mouse Integration Added Nircmd to replace launch batch scripts (C:\WINDOWS\nircmd.exe) Added Windowed Mode shortcut to start menu Altered launching scripts (FinFin.bat, FinFin.exe, FinFinWHPX.bat, FinFinWHPX.exe, FinFin Update.bat) Removed large amount of unecessary setup files from finfin.qcw Removed 'Task Scheduler' from taskbar Added Credits and Changelog shortcut to start menu Added dll to fix issue with running on Windows 7

v1.3

Added animated Fin Fin cursor

v1.2

Added guided updater (FinFin Update.bat & updater.IMA) Adjusted wallpaper Renamed startup shortcut ("_setup.bat" to "Crash Fix" at C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\Startup) Adjusted Volume Control Settings

v1.1

Added new wallpaper (C:\background.jpg) Added new startup sound (C:\boot.wav)

v1.0 (First Public Release)

Changed from qemu-3dfx to base Removed unnecessary files in Windows Added missing shortcuts on Desktop

v0.5 (Playtester version)

Moved all Fin Fin data to finfin.qcw Created batch scripts for Disc.id Added shortcuts to launch programs Removed unnecessary programs from Windows Removed unnecessary files in Windows

Credits

Resources

The finfin Homepage (finfin.de) - By EMGE The finfin Archive (finfin-archiv.de) - By Xvemon, Nadine S., and EMGE Fin Fin 6 Worlds "Beta" (finfin-archive.de) - By Harald G.

Playtesters

mchi22 that-one-scratch-on-your-arm

Software

QEMU 7.1.0. (qemu.org) - By QEMU team: Peter Maydell, et al. NirCmd (nirsoft.net) - By Nir Sofer Resource Hacker (angusj.com) - By Angus Johnson

Updating Versions

Included is a guided updater that will help you transfer your save, screenshots, and sound recordings to the latest version.

Place the new version in a temporary location without replacing the original. Then, just run "Updater.bat" and follow the instructions.

System Time

Time in the emulated machine is synced to the host PC.

If you would like to time travel in Fin Fin, you can change the time in the emulated PC but it will go back to normal after a restart. Note that if you do this you will not be able to go back to the original time, you can only go forwards using this method If you would like to permanently change the time, you can use the built in date-changer present in the 'New Contact' program, but this will cause the loss of the current profile.

QEMU

Though it should be quite obvious by now, this project works through the use of QEMU, an open source emulator. Specifically, its emulating a full Windows 98 SE machine, and then the game is run on that.

The emulated machine has 128mb of RAM, an AC97 Soundcard, and a Pentium CPU.

Files

The only files this project really has aside from QEMU are FinFin GTK.bat/.exe and FinFin SDL.bat/.exe

The reason I list the .exe and .bat files together is that they do exactly the same thing. The executables aren't really 'true executables', but are instead just batch scripts that have been converted into .exe files. When they run, they essentially create a temporary batch script that deletes itself. The only real benefit of this is that its a bit more straightforward for launching and creating shortcuts, and that there is no distracting command window while playing.

Within the 'Data' folder is where the bulk of the project is. Inside are two virtual hard drives, w98.qcw being the main Windows 98 drive, and finfin.qcw being where all the Fin Fin game data is.

[changes]

Tuesday, November 28th, 2023

🌟 New

We’ve created a guide to writing a PHP script to access Tumblr, with an example of creating a way to list your mutuals and sort your followed blogs by last posting time. Check it out here.

The flow for Blazing a post on Android has been redesigned to be easier to use.

On web, using an old keyboard shortcut (ALT+C, ALT+R, or ALT+Q) no longer triggers a notification about what the new shortcut is. As a final reminder, the shortcut to create a new post is now just C, while the shortcuts to instantly reblog or queue the post in view are SHIFT+R and SHIFT+Q, respectively.

🛠 Fixed

Dashboard feeds and blogs weren’t showing posts for a little while earlier today, but we’ve fixed the issue. Reach out to Support if you’re still experiencing any trouble.

On web, we fixed an issue where the Explore page would not reload properly after logging in.

On web, we’ve fixed the timestamps on instant messages so that “Today” actually means “Today”, and not “under 24 hours ago”. Alternate description: The timestamps on instant messages no longer perform time travel.

🚧 Ongoing

The iOS app is crashing for some folks (specifically those using older devices). We’ve fixed the issue in an app update, which is currently under review. It’ll be released as soon as we get the green light from Apple.

🌱 Upcoming

Nothing to share here today.

Experiencing an issue? File a Support Request and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Want to share your feedback about something? Check out our Work in Progress blog and start a discussion with the community.

Wanna support Tumblr directly with some money? Check out the new Supporter badge in TumblrMart!

[smovs]

Notes to make Clip Studio Paint's 3D model posing tools a little less overwhelming

SET HOTKEYS

first thing to do is to set keyboard shortcuts. To interact with the 3D models you need the Operation > Object tool.

(I'd also recommend the Move Layer tool if you haven't already hotkeyed it)

BRING IN THE MODEL

grab a default model from the 3D Materials window, drop it onto your canvas, & set the scale to your liking.

TIP: you're gonna wanna use the MOVE LAYER tool to adjust the model's position on your canvas. If you start dragging it around with the Object selection tools, it'll move the model relative to its own ground plane & camera. Recipe for a headache.

Move Layer tool = no more tears

CUSTOM BODY SHAPE

You can adjust the model's body proportions on the fly by opening up the sub tool window as shown below.

I recommend this 60 second video by Iron Circus for more detail: youtu.be/zrtAyY3Qqmo

As they suggest, start at the feet & work your way up.

and you're ready to start posing!

...don't know dick-all about 3D software? it works like this:

translation / rotation are often shortened to trans / rot, which is coincidentally the name of my new band.

it doesn't matter which mode you use, and you'll be bouncing back n' forth most of the time. don't even worry about remembering what they're called.

just let it wash over you 🌊☮️

SWITCHING BETWEEN FK & IK

it's so easy to do this that you're probably gonna do it on accident constantly. 

Click once on the model for IK, click again for FK.

POSING BREAKDOWN

now we're ready to pose. generally, I start from the center of the body and work outward. 

1 Pelvis

2 Torso

3 Neck & Head tilt

4 Clavicles

5 Upper arm > Forearm > Wrist > Fingers // Thigh > Shin > Ankle > Foot Arch

[my posing timelapse gif is too big for tumblr- you can see it on my website if you’re so compelled. or this tweet]

TOUCHUPS

Now it's blocked in, you can go back in for tweaks. I find it's good practice to click away & deselect the previous joint before going in to select the next one. Helps avoid misclicks.

[yeah, same thing]

WINDOW > ALL SIDES VIEW

for more camera angles.

Good for when you're struggling to select a control cause it's hiding behind the other body parts.

The arm range is a bit limited, it can be tough gettin the hands/elbows to reach behind the body. don't sweat it too hard, these models are just for reference after all.

But if you've hit a wall, I got one last cheat for ya tonight:

LIQUIFY TOOL

when you've posed as best as you can and it's still not close enough, flatten the layer (right click > rasterize) and hit it with the liquify tool.

Good luck out there!

[answrs]

Readmores And You - A Really Great Tumblr Feature!

(this is technically directed at stuff I've seen in a specific tag because of the content of said tag makes it more likely to spoiler things, but it applies to anyone likely learning the ins and outs of a new site. speaking of which, hello! welcome to tumblr!) (this got. longer than anticipated. apologies, I get bogged down in trying to make things as clear as possible. ^^")

I've seen this a lot recently in the VC tags especially, where the post goes something to the effect of "tw bloody animal!" then like six periods and the images of whatever dead thing the post is about.

I recognize this is probably being carried over from some other website (...reddit probably? maybe insta?) but please. I appreciate y'all so much for trying to do what you're doing. but this method of hiding pictures isn't effective on tumblr, but there is an infinitely better option!

"but why? it works fine on other sites?" firstly, a few extra lines typically don't even take up enough space on mobile (let alone desktop) to hide your pics, so even at a glance anyone is likely still seeing at least the top half of whichever picture you posted before even noticing the trigger warning on top. second, because you have to scroll all the way past the images at the bottom of your post anyway to get to the next one on your dash/in the tag/etc. so if someone comes across your post and the trigger warning is applicable as something they want to avoid, unless they have access to a keyboard to use a keybind shortcut that ive been here 12 years and still cant remember, they can't see any other posts after it without either having to scroll through the pics or outright block you. which is... not the most ideal of options I would say.

"but what else am I supposed to do then!?" I hear you ask.

READMORES!

tumblr has a wonderful feature known as a "readmore" that's built into the site! it creates a break in your post, which hides any content - be it words, images, whatever - that you place underneath it, not showing it unless the person viewing it clicks on the words "keep reading" (formerly "read more" - hence the name :D).

Cool, how do I do that?

on mobile you can place one by tapping an empty line and clicking the grey squiggle icon from the selection that allow you to insert an image/vid/link

which will place a squiggly line into the post you're making:

(desktop uses the same icon, it's just in a more compact row of icons.)

you can drag it around after placing it too, just like photos. (note: mobile can get finicky with this and it's usually just easier to remove it -click the big red X- and add it in the new place you want it.)

EDIT: some of the versions of mobile editor are broken and don't show the icons. to add it in manually type ":readmore:" (with the colons, but not the quotation marks) on its own line. Thank you for the reminder, LovingTogetic!

this is also a nice way to keep your blog tidy and not swamped in long and/or spoilery posts (say if you're posting 5k word fics, or extensive meta, or gushing over the ending of the latest game or TV show most people probably haven't seen yet)! it's not required, obviously, but it's generally considered a common courtesy for others that will be seeing your post cross their dashboard.

finally, an example of the readmore in action:

(ta-da!)

have fun out there y'all, I hope this is helpful ^^

as an aside (I wasn't sure where to put this but under the break seemed appropriate), you may also see a lot of personal/vent posts be fully under readmores as well, even if the post is only a sentence or two long. this is mostly so followers don't necessarily see it unless they specifically click, but there's a more frustrating history to it becoming a thing: when a post is reblogged, any content above the break is permanently frozen as it existed at the time, but anything under it will reflect edits made to the post. while not common, a certain type of user sometimes browse the various "do not rb" tags and will purposefully reblog personal posts in order to upset and distress the users. putting those things under a readmore make it so even if that happens, the text can be deleted from all iterations of the post. recently the site rolled out an option to lock a post to reblogs, but you gotta mess with the settings and it's mostly a habit after a decade here dealing with the nonsense.

[halfagone]

Oooo different anon but

Please do share you spreadsheets tricks! I only use spreadsheets if I have to make a table (because somehow it's easier to copy paste it from there instead of making one in documents...) but it seems like a such an useful tool that I don't have motivation to learn how to use :/

Hello! And I'll try my best! Some of these may seem more basic, but they can do absolute wonders for organization. Now this is a long post, with screenshots!, so buckle up your seatbelts.

All screenshots will be from Google Sheets. I do have and use Excel on occasion, and some of these items can be found on that program as well, although it may be placed elsewhere. Please note, too, that all examples are done on a PC device. For mobile phones or tablets, some of these keyboard shortcuts might not work the same and may require a little more finagling to get right.

I'll start with making something called a "Header Row". Basically it's how you name your columns so you know what should be in each.

This is just an example spreadsheet, but it'll work lol. (If you don't know how to highlight those four cells, select A1, hold Shift key and use the Right Arrow key [->] until you have highlighted all the results you want for your Header Row.)

From here, you go to View on the panel and select/hover over Freeze, where you can then select "1 row". This should freeze your selected row. So no matter how far down you scroll, or how much information you have recorded, you'll always know what's supposed to be listed there.

Next we have something called "Conditional Formatting". This can be really useful if for filtering data. In this example, I changed the spreadsheet to have various cells with "Yes" or "No", to show what it can do.

---

Once you've selected the cells/rows/columns you want, choose Format, then Conditional Formatting.

From there, it should give you a panel on the right side of your screen that looks a little something like this:

You can do a lot with this! You can even adjust the range here if you realize you picked the wrong ones or changed your mind for any other reason. But to format it, you need to choose the rule. Here is some examples that they offer you:

In this case, I am going to choose the Text Contains rule. From there, I pick what the text should say. I even get to pick and choose my colors. So at the end it'll look like this:

My spreadsheet will reflect this rule as well.

You can also add as many rules as you want! Just use that "+ Add another rule" at the bottom there and repeat the process.

---

Now this next one is among my personal favorites: Dropdown menus!

This can also cover something called "Data validation", but I won't bore you with that explanation just yet.

Go back to that Insert tab and you'll see Dropdown further down the list. (Smart Chip functions in a very similar way, but it's works better for collaborative projects or scheduling needs.) We'll get to Checkbox in the next round.

When you click on Dropdown, you'll get this window:

Much like with Conditional Formatting, Dropdown allows you to customize what your options are and how they're colored. I'll use some basic examples for you to get an idea.

And of course you can add or delete as many options as you need.

So when we go back to our spreadsheet, it'll look a little something like this:

---

Checkbox is fairly simple, and doesn't allow much for customization. But if you go back to the Insert tab and click on that option, you can get a little something like this:

A nice little checklist if you need it!

---

A simple trick to filling more cells is actually fairly easy. You see that little blue dot on the bottom right corner?

If you're using a formula, you can just double click that dot and it'll usually just fill in all the cells for you! And if you're not using a formula, dragging works just fine. You can also use the Insert Row/Column/Cell option by right clicking with your mouse, or referring to the Insert tab on the top panel.

---

If you want to make your cells/rows/columns stand out a little more, might I recommend Borders?

They give you a lot of options for what it'll look like. For this example, I'll use the fourth option of the first row. That'll make it look a little something like this:

And hmm... I don't like how they're leaning to the left. Let's fix that too.

And maybe a few more cosmetic changes...

And BOOM! It already looks a lot different! At just a glance now you can tell what goes where based on colors alone! You can also customize colors if you don't like the basic ones, but I think I'll leave that mystery to you. ;)

I hope this gave you a good head's start! And don't worry if it feels overwhelming at first. I know I forgot a lot of tricks and tips (and a good number of keyboard shortcuts) when I went a long time between using spreadsheets. You're free to refer to this guide any time you want or need to, and if you have questions, I'll try my best to help!

Classes have always taught me this: never feel embarrassed to look something up. There are websites like Github or Stack Overflow for paid professionals to get help and advice. We should be allowed to do the same.

Now that I have sufficiently buried you in information, I hope you have a wonderful new year!

[otterloreart]

Blender: Which Buttons Do I press? (Part 1)

There are a lot of tutorials where you already need to know how to "do the basics" like "maneuver the camera." So this tutorial is focusing on the Buttons- not on the sculpt or the object, just on the buttons and shortcuts that I personally use in Blender.

Note: You will need a mouse with 3 buttons / scroll wheel for this.

Before we start, I'm going to explain which shortcuts I use in this, but, not to make myself redundant, there's a shortcut for seeing shortcuts: Press Spacebar + Shift to see all available shortcuts in each mode.

I'm using Blender 3.6 for this tutorial. I recommend you use the same. It's completely free and has a lot of great features! For this tutorial though, 3.4 will likely work as well.

Click "General" under New File.

Your screen should look like this. There are 3 default objects in the file: Camera, Cube, and Light source.

3. This bar indicates that you are in Object mode. This menu will allow you to go into other modes depending on the object you have selected.

4. Lets talk about shortcuts. You can zoom, rotate, and move the screen using buttons at the top right, but I haven't marked those because I will teach you a better way. Feel free to click them all and see what they do, but I assume you're here because you don't want to explore every button in this godforsaken program the hard way.

Below, the Left and Right buttons are marked as a reminder as well as the Middle button which is also the scroll wheel (press down to click it)

Left click: Select an Object Left click and drag: Selects multiple objects Scroll Wheel: Zoom in and out Middle Click and drag: Rotate your view Shift + Middle Click and drag: Move your view Right click: Brings up a menu that won't be relevant here. Shift + Right Click: Moves the 3D cursor. Not important for this tutorial, but I do it on accident a lot. Hit Shift + C to reset the cursor and also to reset the viewer position to see all objects at once.

Move the viewer around as practice! You're gonna need to do it a lot while modeling. If you have a keyboard with a Numpad (the calculator-looking thing on the right side, says Num at the top) you can use Numpad 1-9 to automatically adjust the view to front, left, right, backwards, and different angles. If not, test out the rotate tool at the top right which does something similar.

There's a helpful menu I use to switch between Modes (if you hit the dropdown menu where it says "Object Mode" you can do this without the shortcut); click Preferences to enable it.

Hop over to the Keymap section and check "Tab for Pie Menu"

And then close the window. No "Save" button is needed.

Now that you have the shortcut enabled, select your box with Left Click, hit Tab and Left click "Edit Mode"

And yes, this is just like the Animal Crossing tool ring:

Now that you're in Edit Mode (You can swap back anytime by hitting Tab -> Object Mode), click arrow at the top right to open a menu where you can check the "X-ray" box. You'll be able to see through your cube. As a reminder, Spacebar + Shift will show you the available shortcuts in this mode, but I'll go over the important once momentarily.

What is a 3D object made out of?

This box is made out of vertices, and each face of the cube has four vertices at each corner- a triangle with three vertices also works, but we'll stick with squares for this tutorial. Moving the vertices will change the shape of the box, like a piece of stretchy fabric over a wire frame.

From now on, I'll be calling the vertices dots, because I hate reading and typing the word vertices over and over again.

5. By all means you can fiddle with the buttons over here but I'm gonna show you the shortcuts I use and the buttons you'll actually need. Don't get intimidated by the amount of buttons. Also press the T key and the toolbar will go away!

(Seriously, though, feel free to play around in this section as much as you want to, but we'll go over the shortcuts a few at a time with examples. at the end of this section will be a summarized list.)

6. Left Click one of the dots and press the G key. You'll see below a whole bunch of additional shortcuts show up at the button. Here are the ones I use:

G key: Grab and move around the dots

R key: Rotate two or more dots*

S key: Size two or more dots*; if two dots are selected, the distance between the dots will change but the angle between them will stay the same.

*Left Click and drag to select multiple dots!

CTRL + Z to Undo edits.

When you move a dot with the G key, imagine that the dot is against a piece of glass at a fixed point ahead of your viewer. The dot will not move farther or nearer to you, but will instead move parallel to your view.

As an example, if you press Numpad 1 and view the object from the front (The -Y green circle will be at front and center in the rotate tool), the dot will only move left and right (X axis) and up and down (Z axis). It will not move farther or nearer on the Y axis by default.

Play around with the G, R, and S tools before moving on.

This little X button at the top right will turn on symmetry. You don't need to use this, but it can be useful.

Left Click and drag so that an entire face (flat square) is highlighted and then press the E key to extrude. Extruding will add another set of dots that are automatically connected to the first set.

Ctrl + R adds a loop cut. This will divide the existing faces into two and add more dots. You can also drag loops to slide them to different positions.

The 3 key (not on the Numpad) will switch your Select Mode to Face Select. This is useful for extruding. Essentially it is simply selecting all the dots at the corners of the squares.

The 1 key will switch back to Vertex Select (or Dot Select) mode and the 2 key will switch to Edge Select (the least useful of the three, to me)

Before we go wild, there are a couple of additional things to know. For the tutorial, focus on working with faces, not vertices. If you accidentally pull a single vertex, select it and press the X key to delete it.

If you want to add shapes, I recommend sticking to cubes for now. Ctrl + A will open the Add Mesh menu and you can add a cube. Feel free to have complete cubes overlap for this tutorial.

Double Left Click will select a series of dots connected in a loop, and can be helpful for selecting areas all at once.

Ctrl + B is the bevel tool, and when a loop is selected it can turn it into two.

Here is a summary of all of the Edit Mode shortcuts:

G key: Grab and move around the dots R key: Rotate two or more dots* S key: Size two or more dots* *Left Click and drag to select multiple dots Double Left Click will select a series of dots CTRL + Z to Undo E key to extrude faces Ctrl + R adds a loop of dots Ctrl + B splits one loop into two X key -> Vertices to delete dots (vertices) 1, 2, 3 keys to switch Select mode Numpad 1-9 to move viewer automatically Ctrl + A to add a shape

Go play with them. See you back here in a while.

7. I used a single cube to make this figure. It's still very blocky, but that's fine. Loop cuts created additional faces which were extruded to create arms, legs, and a neck. Definition to the face was added by selecting individual dots. Remember, Ctrl + Z (undo) is your friend!

Once satisfied with the shape you made - a boxy figure or object is fine- continue on.

8. Press Tab -> Object Mode. Turn your attention to the right hand bar and make sure the Wrench button is selected. Note the Add Modifier Button.

There are a heck of a lot of buttons here that you don't have to worry about- just select Remesh.

Change the number under Voxel Size to .05m by Left Clicking and typing it (there is a slider, but I find this causes lag). Then, apply the remesh by clicking the down arrow and selecting Apply.

Your figure should be shaped similar to before, but have a slight "graininess". If you have added multiple cubes, it will seamlessly merge them into one. The smaller the Voxel Size you put, the more dots will make up your object. However, I suggest starting with something in the .03-.06 range. We will refine this later.

Press Tab and select Sculpt Mode.

This is a mode where I actually use the tool bar for modifying my sculpt, as there are a lot of brushes . The icons show roughly what the brushes do using small icons (note on adjusting this below)

9. Observe the Radius and Strength bars, which will adjust the... well, the size and radius. Note that although the "brush" looks like a flat circle, the affected area is actually a sphere. Select a brush with Left Click and Left Click and drag on the sculpture.

10. This is the smooth tool. I have smoothed out the right side of this figure. Note that I turned off symmetry to do this, but i usually have X-axis symmetry selected.

Although I am used to the small buttons, there is a way to change them. Hover near the toolbar to Left Click + Drag so you can see the names. Hold Ctrl + Middle Mouse button and drag to resize. You will be able to make the size of the menu much larger. This goes for many of the menus in Blender.

The above arrows point to the symmetry button (Top right) and Grab brush (bottom left). The Grab brush uses the shortcut G Key.

The lines point to which tools were used for each part of the sculpt. The Draw Sharp tool was used to mark out eyes. Clay strips made the hair texture. Round cheeks were added using the Inflate tool and a nose (and buns) were added using the Blob tool. The aforementioned Smooth and Flatten tools were used judiciously to remove sharp edges.

I don't have a shortcut list for you here, but here are all the tools I use the most:

You can hold the Ctrl key while using the brush to reverse its effects. For example, if you hold the Ctrl key while using the Inflate brush, it will deflate the shape instead, creating a concave shape.

As you can see, my figure is getting a little grainy. So, we're going to remesh this model again and add more dots and therefore detail.

This time, we're putting the Voxel Size to .01m. Apply the remesh as before. Now we have more dots to work with and we're just repeating the process, smoothing, and sharpening the lines.

I was going to add a bit about how to take a photo of your sculpt, but I ran out of photo space. I will add a reblog with this information.

I came up with this little lamb character on the spot because the clay strips created a nice texture. She's by no means perfect, but she did turn out pretty cute so i might make a cleaner version later on.

[salemsimsrender]

Beginner Blender Tutorial Basic Render: Part Two (Posing Our Sim, & Setting up a Scene)

(Continued from Part One)

Welcome back!

In this tutorial, we'll be posing our sim & setting up our scene!

For this tutorial, you'll need Sims 4 Studio, which you can download here!

Step 1: Exporting Poses for Blender

Before we can pose our sim in blender, we need to prepare the pose. I'll be using this pose set by @roselipaofficial for this render! Download your pose and open it in Sims 4 Studio. Click "Clips" at the top

For my render, I'm going to use Pose #3 When you select your pose, the Clip Name will change (Each creator names their poses differently) Before we export, make sure you're set to the right rig! Blender does terrifying things if you export to the wrong rig. I'm posing an Adult Female sim, so we're good to go! Export the pose and save it somewhere that's easy to find! Now let's go back to Blender

Step 2: Posing Our Sim

In Blender, click on "Pose" in your Outliner Then hover over your sim/3D viewport area and hit I on your keyboard (not L) to open the Keyframe menu Select "Location & Rotation"

In your right-side workspace, change your editor type (window) to Nonlinear Animation This is where we'll pose our sim!

You'll see rig and rigAction. Click the little dropdown arrow next to rigAction, then you'll see a highlighted orange track

Now let's add in our pose Click File -> Append and navigate to where you saved your pose Double click your pose file, then elect the "Action" folder Double-click the file that comes up under "Action," that's your pose

It'll appear as though nothing happened... but it did! In your Nonlinear Animation window, click "Add" and select "Add Action Strip" Make sure your rigAction line is highlighted orange like mine is!

Select the Roselipa pose we added from the list, and TA DA! Our sim is posed!

Step 3: Setting up our Scene

I always add in my camera before doing anything else, that way I can adjust as necessary based on what I want the final render to look like. To add in a camera, you can either select "Add" in the top bar of your 3D viewport window, or hit Shift+A on your keyboard and select "camera"

You'll see that a camera has been added to our Outliner, and we can see it in our 3D Viewport (If you still have a lamp in your Outliner like I do, go ahead and delete it now, we don't need it)

I personally like to move my camera around in real time so I know where it's going. To switch to camera view, click the little camera icon in the right toolbar of your 3D Viewport You'll see that our camera is in a weird spot, but that's ok we're going to fix it

I want a portrait, so I'm going to switch the resolution settings. To do this, go to Output Properties and change the resolution values. The default is 1920x1080, but I like higher resolution renders personally, so I'm changing mine to 2080x2920. Only go up in resolution if your computer can handle it!

Now let's move our camera I like to use the Axis directions on my keyboard to get the camera where I want it Select your camera in the Outliner, then hover your mouse over the 3D Viewport Using the "G" key (the shortcut for move), combine G and "X, Y, or Z" on your keyboard to move the camera where you want it This will be fiddly at first but you'll get better with practice! I've set my camera up like this:

For basic portrait renders, I like to just use lights and a simple cube Remember the default cube we deleted in the beginning, we're going to bring it back now Add it in the same way as the camera, either by selecting "Add" in the top menu and choosing Mesh -> Cube, or by pressing Shift+A on your keyboard and selecting Mesh -> Cube I use keyboard shortcuts, so I'll add mine with Shfit+A like so:

You'll probably have something like this, your sim floating in a box

Use the same method you did to move the camera ("G" plus axis directions (X,Y,Z) to move it up and use "S" on your keyboard to scale it up To scale up, hit "S" then move your mouse outward Then center the box over your sim We want to have something like this:

Click into Camera view (click the camera on the right) and you should have something like this:

In Part 3, we'll adjust our render settings, add lights, and render!

I'd wanted to include those in part two, but Tumblr is yelling at me about my photo limit.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below and I'll help as best I can!

[telomeke]

TUMBLR TIPS – GOING BACK IN TIME (ON YOUR DASHBOARD)

Say you've been scrolling your dashboard on Tumblr, and stop at a particular point. You go to bed, and the next day you want to get back to scrolling from where you left off.

If you copied the URL, you can just paste it back in your address bar, and you will be taken to the same spot in the chronology.

But what if you forgot to copy the URL? Well there's a way to go back in time.

If you click on the Home icon, you'll be taken to the latest post on the dashboard. The URL in the address bar is always:

https: //www.tumblr.com/dashboard

Hit the right arrow on your keyboard. This is the shortcut to take you to the previous page. (For a handy list of this and other keyboard shortcuts, make sure you're in Dashboard View – the usual view when you open Tumblr – and then click on the keyboard icon at the bottom right of the webpage.) Alternatively, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the button that says 'Next' to go to the previous page.

The URL should look like some version of this:

https: //www.tumblr.com/dashboard?max_post_id=731568565951643648

On my dashboard, this URL is for a webpage with the latest post timestamped 9:15AM 19 October 2023. (If you cut and paste this URL into the address bar in another window or tab, Tumblr will bring you back to the same webpage showing that post on the dashboard.)

The long number at the end of the URL (731568565951643648) indicates that webpage's place in your dashboard chronology. (Google reads this number out to me as "731 quadrillion 468 trillion 565 billion 951 million six hundred and forty-three thousand six hundred and forty-eight.") The bigger the number, the later the date.

If you make this number smaller, Tumblr will take you back to an earlier point on the dashboard.

Changing the digits toward the end of the number doesn't do much. You need to change the first few digits to make things really move.

Using the above URL as an example, if I type directly into the address bar and change:

731568565951643648

to

731468565951643648

Tumblr brings me to an earlier point in the chronology (more than 24 hours back), to a webpage whose latest post is timestamped 6:45AM on 18 October 2023. (In case you can't see the difference in the numbers above – I changed the fourth digit to a smaller one, replacing the '5' with '4' so '7315…..etc.' becomes '7314…..etc.')

Making the number even smaller takes you further back. For example, changing '7315…..etc.' to '6315…..etc.' takes me to a webpage with the latest post timestamped 2:18PM 10 October 2020.

And so on and so forth. You can actually jump backwards decades this way (I tried).

So if you can remember the approximate time you stopped scrolling the night before, change one of the first few digits in the number of the URL and Tumblr will show you a view of the dashboard closer to the last post you read. Once you get close, use the right arrow to move backward page by page.

One drawback though, is that you can't scroll forward after you've located the post you want. If you want to scroll forward from the located post, this is what I do:

First find the webpage of your dashboard containing the post you want (i.e., the last post you viewed) by following the instructions above and jumping back in time.

Then open a duplicate of this webpage on a second tab (right-click the mouse, and select 'Duplicate').

On this duplicate webpage, make the URL number larger to jump forward in time (say to post 'X').

Still on the second tab, use the right arrow (or the 'Next' button at the bottom of the page) to scroll backward to the last post that you viewed.

You can now scroll forward (on this second tab) as far as post 'X'.

Repeat the process to scroll forward beyond post 'X'.

Hope this information is useful!

(N.B. This is only for Tumblr on desktop – no idea if any of this has relevance to the app, because I don't use it. And Tumblr is constantly updating itself, so this info is only current as at 19 October 2023, and may change moving forward beyond that.)

[payidaresque]

Photoshopping/giffing tips and tricks pt. 2

[in addition to this post i previously made]. Before we start, I want to say that i’m no expert in any way, and everyone should work in ways they're most comfortable with, i just want to share some knowledge i collected over the years with everyone who might find it useful and maybe improve their skills in making content. So, let’s get started! WARNING: IMAGE/GIF HEAVY!

Save workspaces.  You can have multiple workspaces for different needs. For example, i’m making gifs more often, but sometimes i make edits as well, so having to switch the timeline panel off when it gets in a way, then go back to the view menu, then bringing it back again... idk, call me lazy, but it seems like a few extra clicks for me 💀 What you can do instead is save your current workspace and easily switch between them any time you want. To do that, align all your tools and menus as you want, then find this icon at the top right corner

Scroll down to New Workspace, and this window will pop up

Name your workspace however you want, and chose what you want to save. You can save keyboard shortcuts, menus and tools. When you click save and change your layout, nothing will happen. That is because you need to reset your Essentials workspace first (the one that’s usually the default). Now when you switch between your workspaces (if you saved multiple) everything should work as expected

How to change the speed of gif without converting to frame animation (PS 2021 and above). THANK GOD Adobe fixed the glitch where the frame rate gets all messed up when you switch to video timeline, so i would suggest upgrading whatever version of PS you currently have if you can, working with timeline is MUCH easier in my opinion. To change the speed, after you imported the video (photoshop reads only .mp4’s btw, so be sure to check if you have the correct format), click the little play button 

and type in whatever number you want: 25% — the lowest value, but you can also speed the gif up by  entering a number higher than 100%. Remember to do that BEFORE you convert your gif to a smart object (& before resizing it, bc after applying the changes video automatically converts into a smart object), because once you convert it, the speed can’t be changed without going back a few steps). When you slow a gif down, photoshop “eats” some parts of it (usually towards the end), so you need to extend the gif by dragging it to the right until you reach the end of your scene to fix that Normal speed

Slowed down to 60%. Sometimes slowed down gifs may look choppy, i explained the trick on how to fix it in pt. 1 (click the first link in the post).

Use plugins. There are so many great ones! For example, i found this plugin called Better Grids: it creates grids and converts them into shapes or frames AUTOMATICALLY based on the numbers you set within the plugin. It’s a lifesaver for me when it comes to photosets! DL (Google drive. M1 Mac users: for the plugin to work, you need to run Photoshop under Rosetta mode first. To do that, right-click the app, go to get Info and check Open using Rosetta if you have that option available)

If your disk space allows, do not convert media. It’s time consuming, messes up the original quality, and usually extremely hard on processors, especially not very powerful ones. Instead, just change the container to open your file in photoshop, It’s faster & less power consuming. I use Subler (mac) and Avidemux (mac & windows) to change the container to mp4, bc for me it’s the simplest ones to use

Handy thansform tool trick. When you try to fit your image into a certain sized canvas, this is probably what you’ll caught yourself doing

there's actually a much faster and easier way to resize stuff. when you activate transform tool, you'll see these boxes with numbers in the top panel

watch what happens when i change one of the numbers

isn't that neat? (make sure that little chain button is checked to mantain proportions. x and y values are for stretching the image horizontally or vertically)

Save document presets. In new document window, type in your desired dimmensions, then click "Save Preset", choose which options you want to save, name it however you want, click ok and you're done — congrats, now you have a saved canvas preset for further use!

So, i hope these little tips were useful. Have fun creating guys 🌸

[rainbowsky]

Warning -More Tumblr Stupidity

Sometimes I'm shocked and amazed that I'm still able to be shocked and amazed by this team's atrocious grasp of basic usability concepts...

In perhaps one of the most boneheaded moves I've ever personally witnessed usability-wise, the staff have added a keyboard shortcut for deleting posts - one that's unmodified by ctrl or alt.

Yes, my friends, on desktop simply hitting the D key while viewing one of your posts has now become a request to DELETE that post. What could possibly go wrong? 🙄

While it's true that a confirmation window pops up, it would be easy to miss - especially since you probably weren't expecting the site to assume you wanted to delete a post.

And given that their interface puts a floating box overtop of the newsfeed when creating a new post, there are some buggy situations where you could have a mishap while composing a post. Surely I'm not alone in having noticed that occasionally actions I take while composing a post will affect the newsfeed below - scrolling it unexpectedly, etc. I will not be surprised if this delete thing could happen accidentally to the layer below while typing a new post.

Just wanted to warn you because this shortcut was just announced in the latest changes blog post from the team, and it simply boggles the mind. I've done a bit of testing and this really is an accident waiting to happen. All you have to do is hit D and then Enter and your post is gone forever. This could conceivably happen when a pet lands on your keyboard.

Please be careful out there!!