#although these gifs are pixelated as hell | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bryan360 · 2 years ago

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Here’s my note before I’ll get started….

(DON’T YOU EVER COPY FROM MINE OR MY FRIEND’S WORK, CHARACTERS, AND STUFF IF ONE OF YOU ARE IMPOSTERS WHO HAD HABITS OF PLAGIARISM! I WILL BLOCK YOU FROM MY BLOG IF I SEE YOUR POST WITH MINE OR MY FRIEND’S ORIGINAL WORK BEING EDITED ALL OVER! I’LL EVEN SHARE IT ONTO MY BLOG SO IF EVERYONE WILL SEE THAT YOU TRYING TO COPY MINE OR MY FRIEND’S THINGS FOR NO GOOD REASON WHATSOEVER! That will be all….I mean it.)

🎃Inktober of 2022 - Day 30: A̴̢̤͎̅͂̕p̶̳͚͇̐͛͋̄ǒ̷͉̮c̴̼̝̺̑ä̴̡̙̞̭́l̷̻̀̐̐ÿ̵̨̟̰́̈́p̸̹̓̇s̵̤͚͊̈́̏ḛ̸̮̙̀̀

🇵🇷Me: Alright, people! This is what came to prepare for this Inktober post something worth attention. I even asked a permission from TheEstevezCompany from DA for his wallpaper to edit. Hope he’s okay with this I’ve worked on, though I make it black and white while being pixelated. ⬇️

Link Here

🇵🇷Me: Anyways as a continuation for Brown’s story from Day 22, all hell breaks loose from out of nowhere! An apocalypse had begun when the glitch take over all cartoon worlds where no means to escape, hide, or trying to save friends from corruption (for now at least) Let’s just say that Brown had this journey not what he had wanted it. He even lost his orange vest during the apocalypse continuing on for no good reason. However that doesn’t mean he’ll would be shiver in fears anymore. It’s time he can take it up like a man and battling out (with Speedy’s arrows from Teen Titans) against the darkness; alongside with Pibby after it took Bun Bun away from her so devastated. It’ll be tough to go through, but it’s something to L̴̠̙̳̿̍E̵̞̦͆̄͑A̸͙̔ͅR̴̯̿̕͝N̷̩̿̔̉

🇵🇷Me: Anyways, hope you guys enjoy this Inktober post I’ve give it an apocalyptic makeover. Although Brown would be tiresome after if getting through this madness. Also, I use an glitch image generator for the logo to match of what its happening. Link Here

Brown (in his apocalypse looks) created by me; BryanVelasquez87 (Bryan360)

Pibby - Come and Learn with Pibby! and Learning with Pibby: Apocalypse concept trailer created by Dodge Greenley

Previous Inktober Posts of 2022:

Day 1: ⚫️⚪️Cartoons - Link Here

Day 2: 🎃Pumpkins - Link Here

Day 3: 👨‍⚕️Doctor - Link Here

Day 4: 💀Death - Link Here

Day 5: 🐱Cat - Link Here

Day 6: 🦇Bats - Link Here

Day 7: 😈Devil - Link Here

Day 8: 🌳Forest - Link Here

Day 9: 🧙‍♀️Witch - Link Here

Day 10: ��Murder - Link Here

Day 11: 🔴🐻Red - Link Here

Day 12: 🧸🪆Playtime - Link Here

Day 13: 🥚Eggs - Link Here

Day 14: 👻 Ghosts - Link Here

Day 15: 🖼 Painting - Link Here

Day 16: 🛸 Invasion - Link Here

Day 17: 🍁Leaves - Link Here

Day 18: 👨‍💼Father - Link Here

Day 19: ⬛️Dark - Link Here

Day 20: 🧙‍♂️Wizard - Link Here

Day 21: 😵‍💫Possessed - Link Here

Day 22: 🌄Dawn - Link Here

Day 23: 🔍 Mystery - Link Here

Day24: 👨‍🍳 Chef - Link Here

Day 25: 🤢 Ugly - Link Here

Day 26: 🐺 Wolves - Link Here

Day 27: 🩻 Skeletons - Link Here

Day 28: 🍬 Candy - Link Here

Day 29: 📕 Falls - Link Here

Tagged: @murumokirby360 @carmenramcat @alexander1301

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feelingofcontent · 3 years ago

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DNP Rewatch: FIRST LONDON APARTMENT TOUR!!1!

Date video was published: 04/05/2013 (X)

DNP Main Channel Rewatch: 175

Apartment tour! This was another of the videos people voted on at the end of DAN IS ON FIRE. This is going to be a long one.

0:02 - Dan does not look so thrilled about this, haha. And sarcastic Dan is out in full force.

0:25 - “I like watching other YouTubers doing it.” Still true!

0:50 - “but lonelier, because no one’s helping me.” 🙁 Dan’s filming this while Phil is still in Florida with his family.

0:58 - SO MANY stairs

1:08 - why do they have multiple rubber ducks!? lol. Including the huge one they still have in PINOF10.

1:20 - I love that he’s shooting from the same angle that Phil did in TOILET TAG (although that’s probably the only option in that tiny room)

1:27 - at least Dan offers a bit more explanation for the poster than Phil did!

1:46 - ahhhhh, so messy! I don’t deal well with mess like that.

2:04 - everyone needs a good place to just lay down on the floor. (Also, John Green book in the background!)

2:19 - Bryony painted them that fish painting when they first moved to London! (*1)

2:20 - future gaming room! The little chest of drawers was what was originally in Phil’s room before he got the new dresser, first in INNUENDO BINGO 2!

2:22 - lol at the giraffe sex image on the computer for some reason

2:24 - it’s Dan’s “paint me like a French girl” pose 😂

2:25 - that’s not sooo messy

2:31 - Little items in the lounge: Hulk & Iron Man pictures (now in a new home!); Japanese robot poster (this eventually ends up in Phil’s bedroom after they get the pixel mirror); Muse poster from the first concert they went to together in 2010. (I’m sure this is in the forever home somewhere and 😭.); True Blood drinks (Dan bought them these back in October 2011) and little robot figure; Colored string balls (*2), Pacman ghost, Mario cube; Tetris lamp; Pacman ghost lamp; Supernote trophy (for winning that contest)

2:46 - The start of the sofa crease!

2:56 - so many DVDs! I like that they’re alphabetized.

2:58 - the little Calcifer from Howl’s Moving Castle. (Also, foreshadowing of later gas leak...yikes.)

3:15 - that glass door really is a weird choice from whoever designed that apartment. What purpose could it possibly serve?

3:27 - Phil’s not the only one sneaking cereal, apparently 😊

3:38 - oh this bit; sure Dan, totally believable. (There’s that Lester family photo (*3) on the dresser though.)

3:47 - Dan piano playing is my favorite

3:51 - he’s rearranged and got a larger version of that one wirrow art since the last time he filmed his bedroom in Human Interaction.

3:52 - Some of Dan’s books - he must like The Edge Chronicles series (*4)

3:54 - Dan’s childhood bear (*5)! 🥺 And I kinda love that lightbulb lamp. But I hate the teddy bear lamp for some reason.

3:55 - that laser pod must have been the red lights I was confused about in List of reasons why I'm an awful Human Being

3:56 - the butt chair (*6)! Also, obsessed with him having the Tonberry, “hell demon,” and Pickachu plushies there together. 😭

3:57 - More bedroom items: love the amber lamp; more wirrow art (*7); seaweed tree; cologne (*8); the stylophone (from Phil); dice; Guild Wars concept art; the secret box! (*9)

4:13 - the parallel with the zoom-in on the butt chair to Why Dan had to call an Ambulance. Too much.

4:16 - that is a lot of Guild Wars stuff

4:26 - he’s also gotten new/nicer bedroom furniture that we hadn’t seen yet!

4:39 - “not much of that going on at the moment in here.” 👀👀 I am deceased. Phil is away in Florida, so...

4:53 - we really didn’t need to know, lol

5:30 - yeah, I can’t imagine trying to film in uni halls, but Phil did it a lot!

I am obsessed with how many of the things from this video we’ve already seen that they still have in the forever home. 🥺 I’ve numbered them above with (*#) and matched the numbers below.

#dan and phil #dnp #dnpRewatch #daniel howell #danisnotonfire #dan howell #daniel howell videos #FIRST LONDON APARTMENT TOUR!!1!

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endexe · 3 years ago

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ABOUT THE MUSE .

NAME : No One, Someone, Everyone. None; goes by any names, though does end up holding onto a specific name to that particular person who refers them as that name often. ( Out of character, is known as [ redacted ] or R for short. ) NICKNAMES : None when lacking a name; doesn’t mind receiving any nicknames from the name they do carry. In terms of carrying titles though, they are prominently known as the Fool, the World’s Greatest Fool, the Jack of All Trade, the Glitch, the Killer of Time and Space. AGE : Mainly appears to be in late twenties to early thirties. Mentally, in most timelines, they do experience age regression ( as explained here ; mentions of triggering content ahead ) when going through a stressful situation or their mental state worsens as a coping mechanism and self-help tool. SPECIES : Nothing, Something, Everything. Unknown. Anyone are more than welcome to interpret what and who they are— may they be a human, a monster, a being existing even before the Big Bang or after, that is all up for you to decide.

MORALITY : lawful / neutral / chaotic / good / grey / evil SINS : lust / greed / gluttony / sloth / pride / envy / wrath VIRTUES : chastity / charity / diligence / humility / kindness / patience / justice PRIMARY GOALS IN LIFE : Gaining knowledge of everything there is to exist in the universe, being free from Fate’s grasp, finding inner peace in themself.

BUILD : slender / scrawny / bony / fit / athletic / curvy / herculean / babyfat / pudgy / obese HEIGHT : 6'7" in most timelines, can change anytime if wanted to though. SCARS / BIRTHMARKS : In most timelines, they have all sorts of bruises and scars all over their body from burns, cuts, scratch marks, etcetera; both from themself and others. They usually don’t bother hiding them in a magic spell or such. ABILITIES / POWERS : Known to have literally every powers there is as having immortality. Although, they use a small portion of them anyway. ( I do portray them mainly having only a few powers or none at all in my mutuals’ muses’ verses, depending on type of the settings. The apocalypse centered verse is the only known kind of verse at the moment, unless plotted with a mutual otherwise, that I tend to place R in without any powers and can return to life, especially despite getting bitten. ) In terms of their natural abilities, they are good at using a sharp edged weapon of all sort, creating any forms of art, and just being a well hopeful individual. MOST NOTABLE FEATURES : In most timelines, they have heterochromia ( left red eye and right cyan eye ) and vitiligo in pixelated patches all over their body.

FAVORITE FOOD : Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. FAVORITE DRINK : Chocolate milk. FAVORITE COLOR(S) : White, any shades of blue. FAVORITE MUSIC GENRE : Hyperpop and music box version of the songs. FAVORITE BOOK GENRE : Tends to read children’s books, though when reading books in general, they highly enjoy the genres of action, comedy, and horror. FAVORITE MOVIE GENRE : Similar to the book genre; action, comedy, and horror. FAVORITE SEASON : Spring. FAVORITE CURSE WORD(S) : Fuck, fucker, Hell. FAVORITE SCENT : The Vicks VapoRub ointment.

BOTTOM OR TOP : Switch, leaning bottom. SINGS IN THE SHOWER : Sometimes as they do enjoy doing so, though they usually prefer to hum in the shower. LIKES BAD PUNS : Absolutely!

#self harm cw #› ˚ ༘ .˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ 5TUDY .#( I can’t focus on anything in this damn waiting room fhjfJDNDKD so lmfao )#( let’s do this 😌 )#( also obviously but just in case all of this — especially with the favourite parts — is a general thing )#( and not ALL of the R counterparts having these answers so )

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gusdapperton-inactive · 5 years ago

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Recently someone asked if I would do a gif making tutorial, so here I am! I’m going to make this as in depth as I can, but if you have remaining questions or problems, feel free to send me them and I will try to help you to the best of my abilities.

Disclaimer: There are many ways to make a gif, but this is the method I’ve been using for years. This tutorial is very long and may make the process seem tedious, but I assure you, once you get the hang of making gifs you could do it in just under a few minutes!

This tutorial includes:

links to all of the sites and programs I use

lots of rambling (w/ pictures)

a short masterlist of my favorite photoshop sources at the end

Links:

Adobe Photoshop CC 2017

PotPlayer (64 bit)

uTorrent

4K Video Download

Photoshop, PotPlayer and uTorrent are the three programs you MUST have for this tutorial. The 4K Downloader is for YouTube/Instagram, which there are other sites you can use for that, but I prefer 4K to make sure I’m getting the best quality I can get. Best part, they’re all free :)

Torrent sites:

PirateBay

yts.lT (favorite)

Nyaa (anime)

These aren’t the only sites that offer torrents (nor are they the only ones I use). When you download torrents, try to be careful; if you think it’s sketchy, go ahead and try to find another. It’s not as scary as it seems, just be aware of what you’re clicking. Some are total duds but I usually have a pretty smooth time finding what I need unless it’s something unpopular or obscure. Whatever site you’re on, try to use the latest links (past hour/day/week) if it’s for a new movie or ongoing show. Also, if there’s the option, download magnet.

PirateBay gives me an ongoing issue with their links, so I try to avoid getting torrents from there if I think I can find it elsewhere. YTS is my favorite site for movies; they’re trustworthy and I’ve never had an issue :)

HD/1080p torrents often start popping up when the BluRay comes out, so don’t depend on any site to have it the day something premieres. Usually you’ll have to wait a few weeks/months. Until then it’ll just be CAMs which no one likes!

For this tutorial I’m going to be making a gif from IT: Chapter Two (link- click 1080p.WEB). Once you’ve gotten your torrent, open up uTorrent. It’ll ask you where you want your download stored, which I always just choose my Downloads folder.

It’s normal for it to take a while. It doesn’t take all day, but 40 min-2 hrs is usually what I have to wait. My laptop is pretty slow, RIP.

After it says it’s downloaded, you’ll have the .mp4 sitting in your Downloads folder (or whatever destination you chose, but Downloads is the default).

Before you close uTorrent, press the torrent file and then delete it (trash can icon above) so you can delete it from your Downloads folder. Otherwise, your computer will tell you the torrent is still open in the program and won’t let you. You won’t need it after you’ve gotten the .mp4.

So now we have the movie! Go ahead and open it up in PotPlayer. Right click > Open file(s) and select the movie. It will start playing automatically.

Note: You need to make folders for the frames to be held in. Its been so long since I’ve set up PotPlayer, I can’t remember if the program made the capture folder that’s in Desktop or if I did... if not, go ahead and make sure you have designated folders. (If you’re making 4 gifs, you need 4 separate folders, and so on.)

Go to the scene you’d like to gif. The scene I chose in this movie is one of the end scenes of the young Losers Club on their bikes (2hr43min).

Slide the edge of the program in to minimize the screen a little for the next step.

Now, right click > Video > Video Capture > Capture Consecutive Images

This will pop up:

Here is a closer look at the settings:

The key things to look at are the Image Type, Image Size, and Numbers/Frame to capture. And of course, make sure you have the right destination chosen in the Storage box because that’s where your frames are going to be. PNG and BMP are the best quality for the type of image. Always choose the original size of the frames. And, make sure you’re saving every frame (Every # frame must be kept at 1).

Make sure to start a few seconds before where you actually want to make a gif. Sometimes (every time lol) the start will lag and you won’t get every single frame you want or thought you were getting. In my case, the screen is fading from white, so I’m going to capture a few frames where the white can still be seen before the full color appears. This way I know I’m getting the most frames I can, and I don’t have to redo it later when I think my gif is too short because I’m missing frames.

While the movie is still paused, press Start in the smaller window, then press Play on your movie. Keep your mouse over the Pause button and end it when you’ve gotten all the frames you wanted. Then, Stop back in the small window.

I’ve saved 56 frames to my folder.

The size of the gif you want to make dictates how many frames you’ll be using. Remember the file size needs to be under 3MB. Recently Tumblr increased that size to 8MB, but the quality of the gif will drop drastically, so I ignore it now. (Although, it probably won’t look too different if it’s at like 3.1MB and barely goes over that limit.

540px wide- ~30 frames and under. Because these gifs are so wide, naturally, they’re already going to be a large file.

268px wide- ~50 frames

177px- ~70 & up

These numbers aren’t concrete, though. The taller and/or more contrasting colors in a gif, the bigger the file will be. The shorter and less contrast in colors, the smaller, and more likely you will be able to fit more frames into your gif. These are just what I find to be the case most of the time.

For the gif I’m making now, I’m going to keep it at 30 frames, so I know I’ll be deleting ~26 out of the 56 I saved to that folder.

Tip: I rarely make big changes to the coloring of my gif if I really like the way it looks. If my gif exceeds 3MB, I’d rather delete frames. IMO, nice coloring comes before fitting in as many frames as I can.

Moving on, now that we have the frames we want, go ahead and open up Photoshop. Go to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack. The drop down that says ‘Files’ I change to ‘Folder’ and simply select wherever your frames are held. For me, they’re here:

Press OK, let them all load up, then you’ll press OK again in that grey window.

It takes a minute for all of the frames to load up in photoshop. The more you have, the longer it’ll take. Again, my laptop is slow as hell, so maybe it will be really fast for you.

When they’re done loading, go to Window > Animation.

Then, inside the Animation tab, make sure you have Create Frame Animation selected:

Then once you’ve pressed it Create Frame Animation, your first frame will appear. But we need them all, so look over to that four bar icon to the right of the tab and press Make Frames From Layers.

They’ll load all at once, but the gif is backwards. To fix that, simply go back to the same four bar icon and click Reverse Frames.

I’m going to go ahead and delete the frames I don’t want. For me, the beginning frames are unusable because there’s that white fade out in the start of the scene I chose. I’m going to delete those, then go ahead and delete any frame that comes after frame 30.

Here’s where I’m at now:

Now to resize it. I like the dimensions it currently has, so I’m not going to use the crop tool at the moment. But once you’ve cropped it to where you like, go to Image > Image Size and a new window will pop up. The widest a gif should be is 540px. How tall it is is up to you. Since I’m keeping the dimensions currently, my gif will resize to 540x225.

It’s VERY important to note, where it says ‘Resample:’ you need to have Bilinear selected. This effects the borders of your gif. Also, don’t make the mistake of resizing it in centimeters instead of pixels.

Now that it’s resized, you need to set the the frame delay. I choose either .05, .06, or .07. Anything outside of that looks to fast/slow to me (but I know a lot of people who like the way .03 or .04 look. It’s all preference.)

To select all of your frames at once, select the first frame, hold shift, then select your last frame. Then press where it says ‘0 sec.’ > Other > type in however fast you’d like your gif to be. I’m going to use .06. Double check every frame says .06, otherwise it’ll stay at 0 and be way too fast.

Now, again, click that four bar icon and select Convert to Timeline. The Animation tab looks like this now:

For now, look at our Layers Tab, so we can delete every frame that doesn’t show an eye icon next to it (as you can see, my first 5 frames):

With all of the excess frames gone, select all of the frames you have left (hold shift again) and then right click > Convert to Smart Object

Now, we see this left:

And, technically we’re done with the very basics of making a gif. But you definitely should sharpen and color it for it to look ‘nice’ and aesthetic. I’m going to color my gif now. Personally, I rarely use psds. It takes way too long for me to look through millions of psds, so I make coloring my own for each gif I make. I have two of my own psds, if you’d like to use either of those.

PSD01- this is a super basic psd I use to make any gif look brighter and more vibrant. There are more details in the post on how I use it.

PSD02- I included this psd within another tutorial for how I do color edits.

Both of these are my base psds, but if anyone wants me to do a separate tutorial for how I color gifs on a regular basis, I’ll gladly make one of those too!

Once you’re happy with how the colors look, it’s time to sharpen. Select your gif layer and go up to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask.

Here are my settings:

(Amount: 100%, Radius: 0.3px, Threshold: 0 levels)

Now sharpened and colored, here is my final result ready to post:

If you’re wondering, this gif is 2.42MB, so I could still make it brighter/more vibrant if I wanted to!

To save, go to File > Export > Save for Web.

A new window will pop up. There are more settings that you should check to make sure your gif looks as nice as possible, but they’re also up to preference and can range from creator. This is what I prefer:

Diffusion is good for bright and/or colorful gifs, but if the gif is dark, I’ll change it to Noise to see if I like that better. Also, always double check you have the loop set to forever, otherwise your gif will only loop once.

And you’re all done!

Here is a short masterlist of resources I recommend checking out and use often:

allscallie (DeviantArt)

Their psds are beautiful, especially if you’re into making moodboards. Everything is very aesthetic!

sttoneds (DeviantArt)

More psds, especially if you’re into gifsets/photosets that are color focused.

BEAPANDA (DeviantArt)

Literally everything they publish is gold. From brushes, textures, psds, renders; they have it all. Their packs are extremely well made, too. I highly recommend bookmarking them. (The renders and brushes look beautiful when you use them in your headers!)

allresources (Tumblr)

There are so many photoshop resource blogs here on tumblr, so to make it easy on you, theirs is the one I recommend the most! The tutorials and resources she makes herself are really great too.

Thank you for reading, and good luck +.ﾟ(*´∀｀)bﾟ+.ﾟｲｨ

#gif tutorial #photoshop tutorial #tutorial #*

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hwu-adventures-blog · 5 years ago

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Desire and Decorum book 3, Chapter 13:

HARRY IS NOW ON OUR SIDE!!!! YEEEESSSSS!!!!! TAKE THAT GIDEON!!!!! Also, Miss Sutton????? OF COURSE ITS HER WHO HARRY HAS HIS EYES ON!!! WHO ELSE WOULD IT BE???? I, for one, welcome this romance with open arms!

..... I see you pixelberry, with that sneaky Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers reference... Edmund is Sam Gamgee confirmed 😂😂

Alright, who invited miss Felicity Holloway??because I certainly didn’t!!!! I don’t regret being mean about her present she deserved it! Also, good point, Cordelia, who the heck is going to give MC away? (I chose Edmund in the end but it did take me literally ten minutes to decide between him and Harry, because I felt bad for my younger pixelated brother, but I did go for Edmund in the end because I was hoping he’d be a choice if we got to choose and if Harry wasn’t so I stuck with my original plan. Also I chose Annabelle to be MC’s attendant along with Briar because I sure as Hell wasnt choosing Holloway because why the hell is she even at our wedding in the first place?? and sorry, Theresa, but we haven’t spent enough time with you to get that close but I still love you and fully support your budding relationship with Harry!).

Is it just me or am I the only one who could feel the tension was high in the first half of this conversation and I’m not just talking about the tension of potentially losing at chess, if you get my meaning 😉😏😉... also don’t get too cocky Ernest, Beatrice is going to own you at chess!

Boom! What did I tell you? I was just following Viscount Westenly’s advice (although I almost clicked on the option that would have lost Beatrice the match though 😧)... Well played though... Also, I see you sneakily flirting Ernest, MC must be having an impact on your gentlemenly behaviour 😉

The goodbye is too cute AHHHH!!!!! I’m dead!!!!! ❤️💕❤️💕 (Also will I never not pass up an opportunity to kiss Ernest? No, no I will not) also, it was a calm and peaceful and good way to finish the chapter... which makes me suspicious because it looks like it’s the calm before the storm....

...but still! I needed that after the s**t storm that was The Royal Heir yesterday! So thank you PB for giving us some breathing space for once! And I CANT WAIT TO MARRY ERNEST IN THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS!!!!!!

#mc #pixelberry #desire and decorum #ernest sinclaire #choices: desire and decorum #ernest x mc #mc x ernest #viscount harry #briar daly #edmund marlcaster #viscount westonly #theresa sutton #annabelle parsons #felicity holloway

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musicallisto · 5 years ago

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🌘 Out of the Woods (Nik x F!MC)

not to be a choices stan on main but oh my god… the ending of nightbound… I cannot cope I can’t believe I got so attached to a bunch of pixels and some lines of dialogue. nik stans have been eating gourmet every single chapter for the last past months and I can’t believe it’s over. anyways, here’s a little piece inspired by the final scene with our favorite crew of Nighthunters (I WOULD DIE FOR THEM). seriously I love their dynamic and MC being a nighthunter with Nik for the rest of eternity? STAN, as the cool kids say

honestly I don’t even care if this gets like 4 notes I wrote this as a coping mechanism

also hhhh I haven’t written for months take it easy ok I never thought I would write again for PLAYCHOICES

word count: 2.8k words

summary: In which the endearingly ragtag duo and couple of Nighthunters Nik Ryder and Louise Jackson are on the tail of a murderous creature gone rampant in rural Louisiana, and have finally cornered the beast in the middle of the bayou.

warnings: fighting, blood

THE UNDERGROWTH SHIVERS. Buzzing with distant noises and the rustling of the wind in the leaves, the entire forest holds its breath. The very first rays of morning sunshine forcibly make their way amidst the large, lush entanglements of vines and mud-riddled trunks, and graze the ever-humid soil of the bayou.

Nik hasn’t moved in three minutes. Only his eyes dart around the dense clearing with the sharpness of a thousand blades, scrutinizing in silence the spot he and Louise have stopped at, following the evidence and eyewitnesses that have guided them in their hunt. Not a single passerby would notice the oh-so-slight curvature of the grass where he’s leaning, even if they stopped for a second and observed. He may not associate often with cops, whether they are of the supernatural kind or not, but the Paranormal and Magical NOPD asked for the very best of the best to deal with the unexplainable murder spree in the outskirts of town, and he’ll be damned if Louise and him ain’t the best at what they do.

Especially when the bounty goes ten-thousand up everytime a new mutilated corpse is found on a remote farm.

“You see it yet?”

Louise crawls to a better spot on his right. Chin deep in the dirt, she keeps her eyes fixated on the thick vines that frame the clearing. She always gets particularly fierce when they’re close to catching a monster. Is it her Fae senses that give her a premonition of what’s to come, or whatever magic fusing in her blood, he doesn’t know, but he sure as hell trusts her more than anyone. They’re close. It’s close.

“Nah. Still hiding. Not for much longer anymore, I hope… maybe we’ll have to drive it out.”

“How can a thing so huge be hiding in here? Its wings sure should have got stuck in the trees or something by now.”

“Yeah, ‘cause you’d know a lot about logic regarding magical creatures,” he huffs, allowing the ghost of a smile to graze his lips.

He can’t detach his gaze from the scenery in front of him—he knows better than to leave a potential threat unattended—but if he could look at Louise, he knows he would see the characteristic playful smile that she can’t refrain whenever she remembers the events and revelations of the year before. They definitely went through a hell of a lot together.

Both their ears perk up at the same time. Their training has allowed them to recognize the sounds in the forest, in the murmur of the wind, in the singing of the waters. Most importantly, to distinguish whether they are of supernatural source or not. They exchange the subtlest of interrogations as they look at each other from each side of dark, large bush. Louise’s eyes are steel. Decided. Certain.

“It’s here…,” she mouths at him, before pointing at a direction he cannot quite see from his crouched stance.

Craning his neck, he pushes apart some of the vines, and there he sees it. Impossible to mistake with any other creature, the blood-red monster breathes heavily, ruffling the leaves in its wake. Hundreds of pounds of powerful muscle, sharp claws, lion fur and scorpion tail, the manticore seems to await something, maybe the misfortunes of a prey venturing outside of its den, although apparently unaware of the presence of the two Nighthunters.

“Ugly bastard,” Nik breathes out, taking in the colossal dimensions of the creature. Suddenly his crossbow and banishing spells seem a little derisory in the face of such an abomination, but he remembers he’s fought worse, and he has arguably the most powerful woman in the country alongside him.

“We do what we said, right?” she whispers.

“Right.”

She grasps her dagger, murmuring an incantation against the tip of the blade. From the corner of his eye, Nik can make out the start of a glimmer emanating from the weapon itself, a gleam she stifles immediately in her pocket.

“Don’t die,” she whispers before disappearing in the somber underbrush.

He nods, almost imperceptibly, and murmurs a distracted “You too” as he follows both her and the manticore’s movements in the vegetation. They both know better than to tell the other to be careful, and God forbid they promised they wouldn’t take any stupid risk. Taking stupid risks is a Nighthunter guarantee that has never been more true than with Nik Ryder and Louise Jackson.

Louise cowers through the branches, her loyal Nighthunter gear dirtied up to the neckline in the murk of the swamp, eyes fixated on the manticore that she’s circling from its ride. It shivers in the bushes, its enormous, vaguely human-like head scouting the forest for any sign of flesh. Her enchanted dagger quivers in her right hand as she holds her breath, swearing that the monster can hear the faintest of her heartbeat… she’s so focused on her impossibly discreet breathing that she forgets, for a single second, to watch where she steps, and the snap of a twig explodes under her foot like a cannonball inside her chest.

She’s completely frozen. Pupils not moving an inch. Lips half-parted. Whole weight of her body on her single right leg, spread out in an uncomfortable manner, threatening to give out. The manticore has suddenly perked its ears up, and is looking at the direction the sound came in. She’s not sure if it can see her from where she is standing unbalanced—she can’t think of anything other than the turbulent pouding in her heart—, but it’s as if these repulsive, yellow eyes, two rotten stones of sulfur, are piercing right through her soul, and—

“Hey, you abomination!”

She doesn’t think about it for a second. As soon as the manticore’s head snaps and searches for the source of the voice, finding it in the tall silhouette rising from the ferns, she gets on her feet and takes off running to get to her planned position; but she swears she’ll kill Nik for revealing himself and offsetting their plan, before she thanks him sincerely for stepping in and saving her, before she kills him again for yet again taking stupid risks.

Nik is standing still in front of the roaring manticore, his feet planted on the loose soil, crossbow leveled at the beast. His quick breathing follows the same rhythm as the palpitations of light emanating from the bolt readied on his crossbow. Louise can only watch him for a single second before she jumps back into her rapid progression through the branches; but the swift whistling resounding in her ears tells her that Nik has shot, and the crackling groan of the beast is enough to know that he didn’t miss.

But Nik can only congratulate himself on his true aim for a second, because with a disconcerting speed, the manticore, seemingly not bothered by the Holy Light crossbow bolt stuck in its upper leg, lies flat on the ground with a roar and brandishes its tail. The Nighthunter jumps to the side, but he’s too slow; a piercing pain traverses his right arm, tearing through the fabric of his jacket. His hand instinctively comes to the wound; a single thick, dark purple thorn is planted right in his arm, dripping black venom down his skin.

“Goddammit,” he spits, noticing in a split second that the creature has one scale less on its scorpion tail.

Impossibly thick cotton is slowly filling the entirety of his right arm, numbing it so much that he’s unable to lift his crossbow anymore. Dark droplets wet the forest ground. When he lifts up his head, the manticore is almost all over him; he barely dodges its three rows of teeth and shoots one more bolt with his weakened left arm. With a sharp whizz, the arrow tears through the flesh of the manticore and lodges itself into its neck; but in a second, growling like a thunderstorm, the monster has jumped onto the hunter and pinned him to the ground, deep in the mud. Nik expertly avoids every single gnash at his head, his own throat now covered in the sticky blood pooling from the manticore’s open neck, and he’s kicking and hissing and screaming and it’s like the whole forest is closing in on him and in the fetid breath of the horrendous monster and he’s struggling and tiring out and the beast manages to scrape the side of his cheek with its rotten teeth and—

“Hey! Get away from him!”

Yes, indeed, if Louise were to step in to give him a hand, now would be a pretty nice time.

Suddenly, the manticore gargles, muggy, crimson blood brimming over its lopsided mouth. Its sulfur eyes struggle for a few moments, grasping at the last remnants of life it can find, until it convulses one last time and it’s nothing more than a blood-red corpse with a single, shining blade protruding right between its two eyes, cutting across its skull.

Nik pushes the corpse off his body, breathlessly dusting off the dark blood and mud from his clothes, when Louise’s frame appears in front of him. She extends one hand towards him, offering to help him up; the other grasps the crimson throwing knife she used to kill the beast.

“Sorry I took so long. The Life Drain spell is always tricky to apply to blades. Are you okay?” she asks, concern evident on her features.

“… Yeah,” he laboriously pants, taking Louise’s hand to hoist himself up. “You… you’re getting really good at throwing knives.”

“Thank you. I’ve been training.”

“Yeah, I could see that…”

He groans as he stands up with difficulty, dusting the lapels of his jacket off with what little vitality is left in his injured arm. Breathless eyes and disheveled brown hair regain a semblance of footing in the concerned, and slightly reprimanding, posture of Louise’s silver gaze.

“Why did you call out to it? We had a plan!” she half-heartedly admonishes, fixing her own muddy clothes.

“You’d rather it killed ya?” Nik growls feebly, his head going dizzy as his consciousness weakens with each pouding of his heart, sending venom pulsing through his veins. “Couldn’t let it happen…”

“I’d rather it didn’t kill you,” she mumbles under her breath, before her features soften at the sight of the dark substance dripping from the protuberance planted in his skin. “Nik, you’re badly hurt! Wait,” she fumbles in her satchel as the Nighthunter rambles about “havin’ survived a lot worse’, “I have something to neutralize the poison. Lady Thalissa’s been teaching me this curating spell, and…”

She trails off for a few seconds, self-doubt crawling through her limbs, thick black vines of second-guessing wrapping themselves around the core of her heart. She’s never used the spell for magical poisons, only in the case of snake bites and venenous plants; and it would kill her if ever one of her rookie mistakes put Nik in even more danger.

“Well I can’t really show up to Red Cross with a damn manticore thorn in the arm,” spits Nik, his face contorting in a mask of unveiled pain. “I trust you, Louise. All this city would be six feet underground without y…”

The sentence dies in his throat, constricted by his intense anguish. Louise nods, resolute, muttering a dozen of nervous ‘yeah, yeah, alright’s to herself as she takes out an emerald-green, rectangular piece of flexible fabric, ethereal to the touch, that she rolls up around Nik’s trembling right arm, just above the bloodied prickle, with all the care in the world. He shudders, eyes tightly shut and teeth bared in a frozen expression of agony.

“Hurts like holy hell,” she thinks she hears him mumble through gritted teeth.

Slowly, deep breath after deep breath, slowly, her eyes closed, slowly, her chest open, slowly, her hands pressed on the remedy, slowly, Louise directs all of her thoughts to the black liquid, rapidly coursing through Nik’s body, mixing in his arteries with his blood, getting closer by the second to his heart. Slowly, just like Lady Thalissa taught her, slowly, just like she’s seen the Fae healers do in Lamrian, slowly, she draws every single drop of the manticore venom from his organs, commanding them to follow the very same path backwards, forcing them to retreat to the open wound in Nik’s forearm. Indeed the poison opposes more resistance than the venoms of spiders or wasps she trained on; Nik writhes under her hands, whimping quietly when the black fire scrapes his veins, his heart pouding faster, breathing galloping more and more, but she shushes him calmly, and as his lungs slow down the dark poison is hurtled out of his body much faster.

“I know, babe, I know. Don’t move.”

Maybe it’s the incredible tenderness in her voice, maybe it’s the pet name that’s unvoluntarily escaped from her lips for the first time, maybe it’s the placebo effect induced by the still-inactive Fae cataplasm around his arm, but Nik’s jaw unclenches ever so slightly.

When she’s absolutely certain that she has cleansed every last droplet of lethal mixture, she opens her eyes. Nik is drawing profound, shaky breaths, his mouth a little parted, lips crimson from being bitten, and Louise feels his powerful chest rise a bit higher, fall a bit deeper with every passing second. On his face lingers still the somber hold of the beast, but little by little his jawline softens, his chocolate eyes light up, his forehead smoothes out.

“Are you okay?”

Louise delicately removes the Fae bandage from Nik’s arm; its underside is completely soaked in a sticky purple substance, but as soon as it meets the air, the toxic puddle resorbs on its own until there’s not a trace left on the cloth.

“Yeah, I’m… I’m good. I’m better.”

Nik tries to extend and flex his arm, but flinches when the thorn, still buried in his skin, slides just a millimeter down his arm.

“That was… amazing, Louise,” he murmurs, observing his clean arm for a few seconds, then meeting Louise’s warm gaze with his immensely admirative eyes. “Thank you. I’m… really proud of you. And that was the most gentle I’ve ever seen you. Didn’t know you could be that tender,” he finishes with his characteristic sly smile, still holding his arm.

As soon as she feels herself start to blush, she turns her gaze away from his, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her flustered.

“I’m no med, so I can’t take out the thorn by myself, and I’d also advise you didn’t. You’ll still have to see a magical doctor. But when it comes to the venom… I took it all out. You’re good to go.”

“And here I thought you’d have to suck it out. Bummer,” he mock complains with a wide smile, before returning to his serious demeanor. “But really, Louise… thank you. I don’t know what I woulda done without you. Honest.”

And maybe it’s the adrenaline wearing off, the endless nights of hunting down the monster through fields and forests and assembling clues and testimonies, or just the sudden realization that they both almost died had it not been for the other, but they’re both overcome by a sudden, unfathomable fatigue that can only found solace in each other’s arms; and so they fall into each other, Louise’s head resting on Nik’s chest and Nik’s chin buried in her hair, Louise’s hands nuzzled over Nik’s heart and Nik’s sane arm draped over Louise’s waist.

“You did good, partner,” Louise whispers.

“So did you, Rook,” Nik sighs back.

And they stay here for God knows how long, breathing slow and deep, hearts beating in unison, two wild flowers intertwined in a long, cold night where only blossom light and hope when they stand together.

When the sun dares to pierce its way between the two lovers, hunters of the night and dark, Nik takes a step back.

“Well, we ain’t out of the woods yet. Literal and figurative,” he announces, his confidence regained like everytime he abandons himself in the comfort of his partner. “We still gotta take this body to the NOPD. Scoop the pot. Then preferably burn the hell out of this thing.”

“Because you know better than to leave corpses unattended, right?” Louise laughs to herself as she bends down to pick up the creature.

“Okay, Rook, that was one time. And there were five of us and none thought that a zombie we threw off two stories would come back the day after.”

“Maybe, but Katherine and you were so-called professionals, darlin’,” Louise continues to laugh as she hoists the manticore up, helped by an eyebrow-raising Nik.

“Are pet names a thing you do now? That’s twice now,” he smiles coyly, treading his way through the woods to the pair’s beaten hunting van.

“You wish, Ryder.”

#playchoices #choices stories you play #nightbound #nik ryder #nik x mc #nik ryder x mc #playchoices fanfic #nightbound fanfic #nik ryder fanfic #fluff #mywriting

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borntosavethedoctor · 7 years ago

Photo

Lately, I have received several messages here on tumblr asking: How do you do it? How do you colour gifs? What? How? Whaaat? So… I decided to share some of my deepest secrets and commonly used technics with you. Be my guest.

I would like to stress that this is not a step-by-step tutorial. There are tons of there on tumblr already, I don’t think there’s a need for another one. What you are about to read is a list of my personal tips. Having said that, please note that there are million ways how to make gifs. Everybody has their own unique style and that is amazing; that is how it should be. Maybe you will find here something useful, maybe you will not.

To be honest, I can’t colour properly. I can’t make bright, vibrant, high contrast gifs. Whenever I aim for them (and I really do that from time to time), it’s a disaster. That is why I use all those below listed hacks; to cover the fact that I can’t colour the way everybody else colours. Welcome to my personal Photoshop hell.

Oh, and one more thing, before we really start. It is vital to acknowledge that everybody has a different monitor with different settings. You might spend hours colouring a gifset and be really proud and satisfied with it and then you look at it at your friend’s computer and just go FUCK! Suddenly, your perfectly coloured and balanced gifs are too yellow or blurry and everything is runied. Well, you must count with it, although there is nothing to be done about it, I guess.

~~~

Let’s start with the most important rule ever. The golden rule. Number one rule. It has been said many, many times, but I must repeat again. Are you ready? NEVER use one colouring on two different scenes. This barely ever works. If you make a nice PSD, of course, save it, but be careful about using it on different scenes. Every scene is very individual – the lightning is different; the basic colours are different too. I recommend everyone to colour every gif from a scratch, it does pay off. You asked for a proof? Here it is.

I coloured this lovely scene from the The Rings of Akhaten.

Then I thought that I might use the same PSD on a different scene. Let’s say I’d like to colour a scene from Dark Water; the one when Clara stole they keys. Both are orange-based, right? What could go wrong? Here is the result without prior editing.

Ewww, ugly, so ugly.

Even though I made it brighter and did not touch the actual colours, it doesn’t do the scene justice.

~~~

Technical background

To extract frames, I use KM Player. For the actual giffing, I work with Adobe Photoshop.

The better the quality of the video you extract is, the better your gifs will look. That’s quite a simple, yet important fact. I usually use 1080p, sometimes 720p, but never 480p. Working with original DVDs is, of course, the best way, if you have a disc drive.

When extracting the frames in KM Player, I extract every or every other frame. Both are fine, but don’t forget to change the speed of the gif accordingly. I use 0,9/0,1 for gifs with every extracted frame, 0,12 for the other options. Oh yes, I like my gifs to move slooowly.

Rescaling

This way of rescaling might be caused by the fact that I can’t do it properly; so I came up with my own way. When I was younger, in the old and dark days of my Photoshop adventures, I used Image Size to make my gifs smaller. But it didn’t quite work out. Years have passed and I discovered that using Canvas Size + Manual Scale is much better. How do I do it?

In Canvas Size I choose the dimensions I want and then rescale the gifs manually by Edit > Transform > Scale. Do not forget to hold Shift to contain the proportions! FIRST rescale your gif, THEN convert it into timeline and smart objects. If you do it this way, the gif will be neat looking. Why do I do it anyway?

The first gif is was rescaled my way. The other one was not. Can you spot the difference? I think that the first one is neater and cleaner.

Oh, and one more thing. When I rescale my gifs, I always make sure that it is one or two pixels bigger than the canvas itself. When you sharpen the gif later in the process, you will not have to put up with those ugly oversharpen edges.

Sharpening

Here’s how I do it. Enough said.

Colouring

Now this is the tricky part. It always depends on the scene you are colouring, but I don’t use many tools to colour a gif. Six or seven layers and I am done.

I always start with Curves/Brightness and Contrast. I think it makes sense to first adjust the brightness and play with the colours afterward.

I never use Vibrance. Why? Vibrance works with all colours at once and that is the main problem. I think that the best way is to work with the colours separately.

If you want to make a certain colour brighter and more vibrant, use Colour balance and Selective colour instead.

Work with Colour fills. They can do miracles! And I’m not even exaggerating. Work with different opacity settings and opacity fill. My most favourites are:

Lighten/Screen

Multiply/Darken

Soft light

Black and white gifs

That is impossible to colour, damn it! What do I do, I tried everything, but it still looks so crappy! The other gifs are fine, but this one looks horrible? What do I do???

Yeah, what do you do? What do I do? I make it black and white. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yes, it might be considered lazy, but it, is fact, lifesaving. And I do think that taking this risk or whatever you people call it, can make you gifset more interesting. Again, try to play with colour fill to make the gifs look softer.

Using a texture

Textures are my best friends. And I really mean it! They can help you hide those ugly visible pixels in dark gifs.

If you want to use a texture on a gif (as I often always do), applying it should be the first thing you do. The texture will always be present and you must adjust the rest of layers to it. I usually use Lighten or Screen setting. And don’t forget to play with opacity! It can make a big difference. But always make sure that the texture is the TOP layer.

Saving

When I save my gifs, I use the following settings. I think that almost everybody uses them. In case you need them anyway, here you go.

Putting a gifset together

To be honest, this, after all what has been said above, is the most important thing to me in the whole giffing experience. I can’t just sit, open my laptop and think: Hmmm, today I might gif something from… let’s say The Name of the Doctor, pick up eight random scenes, colour them separately, put them together and click publish. I just can’t do it. I must plan every gifset to every single detail. I think about the colour scheme, proportions. I combinate, experiment, put a gifset together one by one until I am fully satisfied; until it is perfectly balanced in every aspect. If you think that it takes a lot of time, you are right! But in the end, it is worth it, because the results will be… well, not bad. Example one / two / three.

~~~

And that’s it, my friends. Don’t forget – don’t be afraid to experiment! Look at me; I started with this. And look where I am now. Everybody can make an improvement. Make special gifs, look for new ideas and methods, look for interesting parallels and, most importantly, have fun! :)

(So… what do you think? Was it OK? Helpful? Interesting? Share your thoughts and comments!)

#gifs #tutorial #clara-is-brave #mine: tutorial #sorry for mistakes and typos

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moviewarfare · 3 years ago

Text

A Review of “Army of the Dead (2021)”

Zack returns to the zombie genre after his 17 years since Dawn of the Dead (2004). I enjoyed Dawn of the Dead so I hyped at the idea of him making another zombie movie. The premise is "After a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries takes the ultimate gamble by venturing into the quarantine zone for the greatest heist ever". So was this one hell of a heist or dead one?

Firstly, the action scenes are great. The opening montage scene showing vegas becoming infected was phenomenal and could've been a movie itself. There is also a cool John Wick style zombie shootout scene that was awesome. Near the end where it starts to live up to the title of "Army of the Dead" was one chaotic but fun zombie action sequence. I also like the soundtrack by Junkie XL even though there isn't a memorable soundtrack such as with the DCEU stuff. For the most part, the soundtrack elevates the scene and there is also pop music that actually works well in the movie.

I also really liked Dave Bautista as the main lead. Dave gives a pretty strong performance and shows that he can give emotive acting if need be. In terms of characters, there were three I liked which were Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick), Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer) and Marianne Peters (Tig Notaro). I liked how Vanderohe was this badass zombie slayer while Ludwig was skilled in safe cracking but knew nothing when it came to zombies. The growing relationship between them is one of the best parts of the movie. I also like Marianne's wisecracking and sarcastic personality which was charming despite her small screen time. I also got to appreciate how they green-screened Tig to replace Chris D'Elia, who was accused of sexual misconduct, into the movie as it still feels natural. Although, the green screen can feel pretty obvious at times.

Unfortunately, I could give zero care for the other characters. Everyone else is either so forgettable, dies too early or is unlikeable. Zack seems to kill off characters for shock value when the character themselves are becoming interesting which is a shame. There are also way too many characters in my opinion and I honestly feel like some of the characters just didn't need to be in the movie. I also have mixed feelings about the cinematography which is done by Zack Snyder, the director, himself. The cinematography isn't awful or anything but it certainly isn't as good as Zack's previous movies which are clear as he didn't hire a cinematographer and did it himself. It's just very dull to look at. There are also a lot of shots where it is blurry and pixelated which is just very ugly to look at.

The biggest problem with Army of the Dead is the writing which is also done by Zack Snyder. Zack had a unique idea with the zombie heist idea but he then ruins it by adding a bunch of convoluted zombie stuff and a dumb plotline with Scott (Dave Bautista) daughter Kate. Kate joins because a stupid mother went into a zombie-filled Las Vegas and she is going to find her. What annoys me is that there is no reason for Kate to be a part of the heist which is made worst as her character is annoying. Zack also seems to even forget about the mother as well which makes this plotline seem even more irrelevant. There is also a plotline with a spy that also amounts to nothing by the end of the movie. There is also some dumb plotline with the Alpha zombie and some baby thing which was also very pointless. Army of the Dead is 2 hours 28 minutes which is very noticeable as the pacing slows down a lot. They could easily cut it down by 30 minutes and the movie remains the same.

I don't mind dumb movies and a movie can be so dumb that it becomes good. However, Army of the Dead is so dumb to the point that the movie loses enjoyment. THERE ARE MILD SPOILERS HERE but who cares because the movie is stupid anyway. Why is it the government can allow a group to fly out of Vegas but not fly into Vegas? Why is there a line about zombies hibernating but wakes when it rains if that is never going to come into play? If the vault is owned by Tanaka, the big boss who wants the heist, why does he not just give them the code? If Tanaka wanted the zombie blood then why not just have the heist be about getting the zombie blood instead of the bloody vault? Why does a character who never killed zombies ever, able to John Wick all the zombies? Why does the character who gets betrayed not mention the person who betrayed them? Why does no one help save the person who is only surrounded by 5 zombies and instead just stare at them? Why do the characters talk about their suspicion of this person being a spy but never bring it up again? Why is it with a Nuke incoming that the characters stop and stare at each other a lot? Why do they not just use dead bodies to activate traps instead of an alive zombie? Why is a dead zombie hand able to attract a zombie? Why do some zombies hibernate but some don't? How is a zombie horse able to catch up to a helicopter? Why do some people turn into zombies in a matter of minutes but someone else can takes hours? WHY ARE THERE ROBOT ZOMBIES? Why does Zack not understand how nuke works?

Overall, Army of the Dead could've been a fun, exciting zombie and heist movie but fails to deliver in both. The movie had a lot of potentials but it is ruined by Zack's terrible writing skills. If you want some fun zombie action then there is that but don't expect much more.

#movies #movie review #film #Film Review #zack snyder #army of the dead #dave bautista #netflix #Warner Bros #zombies #tig notaro #justice league

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