#and if I’m in a rush I use a gradient map

[blaithnne]

If I may, how do you typically approach choosing colors in your art? It always has just a lovely feel to it, so I was a bit curious; don't feel pressured to answer ofc :]

I’ve been using a lot of gradient maps lately, they work by switching the greys in your piece with a corresponding colour according to its value. Basically, I colour in black and white, grab a gradient map, and then I adjust the colours by hand until I’m happy with it. This isn’t the only kind of colouring I do, but it works great if you’re in a rush or you’re struggling to find a good starting point for your colours. I’ve been operating under a time crunch for these Sketchbook Week drawings and the Plenism promo stuff I made, so for all except one I used gradient maps. I’m actually in a bit of a funk with my colours right now soooo I’ll come back and do a proper colouring tutorial for my style once I’m happier with how my non gradient mapped colours are looking !

[elis-corner]

Hi El!! Beef is literally my favorite hermit so I rushed to your asks lol-

Anyway! Would you consider writing something where Reader finds Beef working too hard on his maps? Maybe he’s been skipping sleep to keep building/generally just not taking care of himself, and then Reader forces him to take a break?

No worries if not, love your writing by the way! :-D

I'm glad to have gotten a request from you! This was loads of fun, and I love your writing too <3

For the next week, I am writing for who I believe are underappreciated Hermits, a task provided to me by @boop-ity! Writing for new people was loads of fun, Beef especially! Beef is a highly entertaining, charismatic hermit with his own unique charm, and is working currently on a Pokemon style card game. Check him out! On the topic of this specific fic, if someone reading this is not aware, Beef’s parents are from Portugal, and growing up he spoke Portuguese. There is more info about this roughly 39 minutes into Episode 48 of the Mindcrack Podcast. Around 40:40 he says something in Portuguese to Millbee, and the response it has gotten from people including myself resulted in me using it in this fic. To anyone who knows the language, I apologise if I got something wrong, I was going off what the comments said.

Underappreciated Hermits #1 - VintageBeef

The wind fought against you, trying to flip you backwards as you flew down the nether tunnel. For somewhere with no real sky, the breeze always surprised you, and heat from the nether was sometimes hard to glide through. Landing by the isolated portal your frequent journeying leads you to, you step into the swirling mist of purple. A burning feeling like a cold flame enveloped you. As you close your eyes and breathe deeply, the image of the portal is imprinted in the back of your head. The image warps, taking the form of a person smiling at you, mouth moving speedily and hands gesturing wildly, and yet you could hear nothing. It was but a memory, a moment from the past eternalised within your mind.

Your eyes fly open as you hear a voice slowly grow louder. You hop out of the portal and creep towards it. You spy a tall figure placing an assortment of blocks, all with similar colours and yet a variety of textures; sandstone and sand, terracotta, and more. The sky surrounding the two of you is a gradient of a warm orange to a cold midnight blue as the sun began to set. You’d been in the tunnels that long? He was much too far from spawn. Much too far from you. 

‘Talking to yourself now, are you? Have you really been here that long?’

Beef spun around, jumping slightly at your voice being so close behind. ‘Y/n! I wasn’t expecting you today! Now what brings you here?’ He wiped some sweat from his forehead with his left hand as he bent down to place the shulker he held on the ground.

You gently take his now empty hand in yours. ‘I’m here because a certain someone has been out here for weeks without even coming back to spawn, not even to check their highly successful shop’s profits. You didn’t even visit me,’ you added softly.

‘Ah, shoot,’ he exclaimed, quickly stepping forward. His arms enveloped you in their warmth. The hug was tight, as they always were; you were pressed up against his chest so closely you could barely turn your head from its awkward sideways rotation. ‘I’m so sorry, love. I was so distracted with my maps, and I just really wanted to get a few more completed first. At least before you came over, that is. Uh- fly up with me, how about, and get a better look.’

Beef stepped back from you and lit a rocket, jumping up for a mere moment before he was propelled up into the deep sky. You followed moments after, continuing to glide upwards. Your lover’s hand brushes against yours. He calls to you softly to look down and you do.

The large platform you had been standing on loomed below you, and yet not as an assortment of random materials. It took the form of an artwork, a masterpiece, each block placed meticulously to get exact shades and shapes. The person on the card was stunningly portrayed, more gorgeous than you’d assume them to be in reality. The person on the card was you.

Beef looked at you nervously, fiddling with his suspenders as he hung midair. ‘It’s not done quite yet, but–.’

You spun around to look at him, beaming. ‘It’s wonderful, really. Although I must say I reckon you’ve exaggerated a few things. I can’t be even close to that good looking.’

‘You’re more than that in my eyes. Your eyes are stunning, your skin is flawless. I could never create something that even comes close to looking that wondrous.’

You smile softly at him. ‘You’re biassed–.’

You’re cut off by an ear-splitting shriek speeding towards you. Phantoms. You draw your bow, assisting Beef in felling them from the sky, one by one. The ghostly creatures–how else could you describe them?–were menacing, and you were glad they could be prevented. And you were preventing them by sleeping. At least, you should have been. They couldn’t have been yours.

You and Beef landed softly on the platform he used to create his cards. He grabbed your hand and ran, ran, ran, leading you to the nether portal. His arms circled your waist as you both waited to escape the impending doom caused by his mistake.

‘You haven’t slept?’ you questioned him. Your voice broke the awkward silence that had slowly begun. ‘You should have been looking after yourself, Beef! Have you even been taking breaks from that thing?’

‘Yeah, of course. I’ve just been forgetting to sleep the last few day is all!’

You grabbed his wrist and tugged him gently in the direction of the main portion of the hub. ‘Come home with me and get some rest. Please, love.’ Beef’s arm relaxed and he nodded, letting you guide him through all thirty segments of the yellow tunnel and back to spawn. Back to where you had all started. Back to home.

You both ran through the night to avoid a second disaster, leading Beef to your starter home. ‘I haven’t been here in a while,’ he stated, walking around slowly with his head tilted slightly above eye level. ‘You’ve done quite a bit!’

‘And I’m about to start my megabase.’ You gesture towards the plans hanging loosely from the wall outside your bedroom. ‘You really haven’t been here for quite some time.’ You grab some clothes from your wardrobe–either they just so happened to be his size or he had forgotten them here, who knew?–, and tossing them to him you went to go change in a different room.

Upon your return, Beef was lying in your bed on his side, facing you. He extended his arm–as if you needed to be invited into your own bed–and slowly lowered it again once you were next to him, so that he’d be able to keep you close while the night flew away. The grin that had been conjured onto his face by your arrival showed a small sliver of white. As you looked up at him, his smile closed and he bit his lower lip for a moment, before whispering into your ear. His voice was deep and slow, sending chills up your spine and your cheeks to burn.

‘Y/n,’ he whispered, his large hand resting above you moving to rub slow circles onto your cheek, ‘A tua cara é tão linda, eu quero te beijar.’ His hand rotated to tip your chin upwards. He kissed you gently, head tilted slightly to the side. His rough beard scratched against your chin, but every other sensation you were experiencing made it barely there, nor any form of inconvenience. ‘Goodnight, my love.’

You closed your eyes, and let sleep take you, held tightly in the arms of the man who loved you more than life itself.

[eivor-basim]

Today I received an anonymous ask much like the one above. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of clicking “save as draft” and tumblr ate it. So I’ll answer it here instead lol

First, I’m using Photoshop 2021 and I’m going to assume you’re familiar with the basic gifmaking process up to the point of adding the extra colors. Also this technique works best on images with minimal movement. 

So here I’ve loaded in my frames, set my frame delay, cropped the image, and added my basic coloring (curves, exposure, color balance, hue/saturation, selective color, vibrance). I also added a gradient map on this one that really helped it pop, which you can see in action on this post. Result:

Now we’re going to add a new fill layer. Go to layer > new fill layer > solid color. You’ll get a pop-up that lets you choose the opacity (mine is at 70%) and color.

Now your image should look something like this:

Select the mask on the color fill layer you just added.

Then use the object selection tool to get a rough outline of Eivor (or whatever/whoever you want to appear separately from the color). It may not be a perfect capture of the outline, but we can fix it later. 

Then, use a full opacity soft brush tool in black to paint the highlighted selection. On a mask layer, this does not change the color of the image black, but instead hides the selected area. Like so:

So the color is on there and it looks pretty decent! But watch what happens when we play the gif:

We need to do some blending. Use the brush tool once again, but this time with the opacity lowered (mine is at 50%). Paint those problem areas. If you erase too much color and want to add some back in, just switch the brush to white instead. The goal is to makes the edges soft so that any movement doesn’t leave an obvious silhouette behind or discolor Eivor. Blending is a game of playing around and seeing what works. Here is my result (went fast so it’s a little rushed): 

This time when we play the gif, there’s isn’t a weird gap where Eivor moves. This could be your final product, but I decided to play around with the blending modes. On the color fill layer, right click > blending options. You’ll get a pop-up with a lot of options about the layer style, but what we want is on the first page, a drop-down list of blending modes under “general blending.” Feel free to experiment with these and adjust the opacity as needed. In this case, I went with “lighten” and left the opacity as-is. (side note: make sure to hit “match layer across frames” which is an option under the hamburger button on the top right of the timeline window). Result:

Now the color is still vibrant, but you can see a bit more of the background detail and the edges of the color fade somewhat more smoothly/naturally. This is essentially the end of the process. After this, I increased the brightness and vibrancy a bit, resized to tumblr measurements, sharpened the gif, and saved it. 

For the pink colored gif, I could’ve repeated the process using the same steps. However, since the pose was so similar between the two gifs, I simply changed the fill layer color to the pink I wanted and went in with my brush tool on the mask to fix the details. 

Here’s my final gif set.

And that’s it! I hope that helped, anon. 

[ahoncc]

10 + 1 Grand Fondo Bike Rides in Seven Months

Hello people, my name is James. I am neither a pro cyclist nor a barista, so don’t take my opinions on either subject too seriously. I just love brewing/drinking coffee and riding my bike; I think the two are a match made in heaven. Not surprisingly, a lot of people think so too. 

To start things off, allow me to chronologically share 100-km bike routes I’ve taken within the past seven months of cycling. 

1. Lower Antipolo, Caloocan, North Caloocan. 101 km. 

This was my first metric century ride, a month into cycling. I had planned a coffee delivery route and a schedule and was fully expecting to make it to each stop in good time. On paper, it didn’t seem that hard. How naïve I was. What the map doesn’t tell you is how horrible the roads are, how hot the weather is, or how crowded with trucks some streets are. Add to that the fact that Komoot is not a good on-the-fly navigation tool, and I was on the fast lane to disaster. Getting lost in a totally janky area on the bumpiest roads was not fun at all.

I was dying, but I kept at it. I was a noob who refused to admit defeat. After getting out of the sticks known as North Caloocan, I hit the mythical wall and bonked. As I thought that things couldn’t get any worse, it rained. Thankfully I was close to a Jollibee so I refueled and let the rain pass. Later that day, I did laps close to home just to complete 100 km since I was just a couple of km short.

4/10. It was totally my fault for being unprepared, but this ride sucked. I’d give it a 3/10 but there’s a bonus point since it was my first long ride.

2. Tagaytay via Daang Hari and Paliparan. 140 km. 

Tagaytay seems to be a test of courage or rite of passage that every budding cyclist has to undertake. And it is quite an undertaking. However which way you slice the cake, you’ll have to climb. If gradients aren’t your thing, you’d quickly question why you’re doing this in the first place. 

Like every long ride (I know this now), it requires adequate preparation, i.e. time, weather conditions, road and traffic conditions, hydration and snacks, and physical fitness. I was more prepared than I was the first century ride, but we started late and therefore finished late. 

I had good company during this ride and being with them made the exhaustion bearable. It was hot on the way up and the traffic was dreadful on the way back, but we survived thanks to Pocari Sweat and Choco Mucho. 

7/10. This was a good “beta test” for me. Could’ve easily been an 8/10 but the Mang Inasal at the roundabout ran out of inasal. I got the last piece, but Jilson and Dan had to settle for something else. 

3. Pililia Windmills via Binangonan. 114 km.

This was my first time riding with a large group. There were seven of us. As this was in the same week as my ride to Tagaytay, I came into this fairly confident and with high morale (aside from the fact that I was the seventh wheel). It slowly got lower as mishap after mishap occurred; a flat tire, a broken chain, another flat tire... 

On this ride, I learned that it’s essential to have an idea of each person’s capabilities so you can set the right pace and adjust where and when necessary. We all had different types of bikes, different fitness levels, and different experiences biking on the road. It couldn’t be helped that some were dropped and others had to wait. In this regard, it was a tough and long day and toward the end of it, I was itching to be home.

6/10. At the time, climbing Pililia felt like treading through mud, but making it to the top was very rewarding. Good food and good conversation made up for aching legs.

4. San Jose Del Monte (Fake Eiffel Tower) via McArthur Highway. 111 km.

This started out as an easy ride on flats. We were all prepared and even the traffic and heat didn’t hamper our confidence. Once we were out of the highway and passing through barangays, the views became nicer. There was less pollution too. We saw the fake Eiffel Tower and met a couple of lolos who were still going strong. It was a good day that was only made better by a tasty, cheap, meal. 

By this time, my fitness level and technique were steadily improving, and I was starting to enjoy climbing more. The way back was hilly, but it was no trouble for me. The cause of stress was, as usual, the traffic on the way back. If you can help it, don’t ever pass through Caloocan! It’s the worst. Commonwealth is also a horrible place to ride a bike.

7/10. Good times with good friends! The stop-and-go, clip-and-unclip traffic was a bummer. AG cramped up, but proud of him for powering through it and clocking in his first 100-km ride.

5. Tagaytay via Nuvali and Cardiac Hill. 136 km.

Second time riding to Tagaytay. This time, we rode out early. Iver and I met up in Makati and rode straight to Nuvali where we were to meet the rest of the guys. All was going well and we were maintaining a steady pace, till we made a mistake and met an accident. 

Instead of making a right to Greenfield, we went straight to CALAX. We were none the wiser, so it felt strange when workers started screaming at us. While Iver was looking at them, one of the security personnel near the toll gate stepped in front of me. I had to stop and since Iver was still looking at the guys yelling at us, his front wheel hit my rear and he went over the bars. When I felt the impact, I looked back and I kid you not, I saw him go over in slow motion! He landed on his shoulder and he burst an eyebrow; thank God for helmets! 

As he sat with his blood dripping on the pavement, I was torn between taking a photo and making sure he was okay. I went with the latter, but later on, he told me that I should’ve snapped the photo.  What a guy! 

Cardiac Hill was a bit of a challenge. In fact, it was the hardest part of the way to Leslie’s. I stopped at the base of the hill for a moment just to steel myself and went up the hill without stopping. Slowly, but surely. 

8/10. As usual, the traffic was the worst. Sorelle was in so much pain that going all the way back to Manila on two wheels was out of the question. It was getting late too, so we decided to stop in Bacoor and take a Transportify back to manila. The first and only time (so far) I did the forbidden technique, but it was the smart thing to do.

6. Pisong Kape via Sumulong and Teresa. 103 km.

One of those rides where we didn’t have a fixed destination. We just wanted to go up Antipolo and down Teresa and back, and maybe climb to the windmills if we felt like it. 

A fairly easy ride up Sumulong Highway and a fun time descending to Teresa. It wasn’t all good vibes though, since one of the guys punctured a tire on a descent, which we think caused his crash. He was okay, but his brand new cycling jersey wasn’t.

We made it all the way to Tanay and had breakfast silog there, and decided to head to Pisong Kape at the base of Pililia. When it showed signs of rain, we decided to turn back. More mishaps. Someone got a flat, and another one dropped a chain and had FD issues on the way to the climb to Antipolo from Teresa. We got split up at some point too.

5/10. This is what’s referred to as a bad juju ride. Hot, traffic, and a ton of things we’d rather not experience on the road. I stopped and waited for a good half hour at Decathlon Masinag, but left and rushed home since I needed to poop, lol.

7. Nuvali via a straight and narrow road through barangays and National Highway. 102 km.

It was the day before heading to Baguio for the holidays and I made brunch plans in Alabang with Elle. I was really excited to bike to her but more so to see her. If I left the house late, it would be hot and traffic would be terrible, so I decided to leave at dawn and make a long ride out of it and go all the way to Nuvali. 

I didn’t want to take the service road like last time, so I followed the map through I don’t even know what road this is. All I know is that it was straight and narrow and clogged with tricycles. It spanned several barangays in Pasig, Taguig, Pateros, Sucat, Alabang, etc., and eventually led me to the National Highway. 

It was all flat and this was my first ride on carbon wheels. I was riding solo, so I could go as fast or as slow as I wanted. I made it to Nuvali in 2:20. After resting for half an hour, I took the same route to Alabang and was there in 1:30. On the way back, I took the service road.

ELLEven/10. The route sucked both ways but it was a good day with Elle. What else can I say?

8. Macabebe Beach via Obando. 175 km.

The flattest route I’ve taken, both literally and figuratively. Levi and I rode out from the Mandaluyong circle at 3:30 AM and cut through Manila to get to Monumento. From there, we opted to avoid McArthur Highway and instead took the more scenic, Obando way. I say scenic, but in reality, all we saw was black. We only stopped to buy pandesal and to navigate. As the sun rose, we found ourselves getting closer to the longest 24 km of my life. 

It was a hard left turn from the highway about a km from the arc of Pampanga. The streets were narrow, and we passed through about four barangays. There were a lot of cars on the road, which was quite irritating because we had to stop when they did. The straights never seemed to end; in fact, I went “Look Ma, no hands!” for about what seemed like a couple of km. As we neared the beach though, we were rewarded by breathtaking views on both sides. The beach itself was mediocre and we stayed only for half an hour to eat our pandesal.

The way back was more difficult. You guessed it, it was due to the heat and the traffic and the horrendous roads in Bulakan. We stopped for coffee and to shield ourselves from the burning sun a few times, but overall we kept a steady, okay let’s be honest, frantic pace. We got to Makati a little over 1:00 PM. Levi and I made it in less than 10 hours. With stops. I was spent.

9/10. This was quite an experience. I always wanted to try a purely flat ride, so I did. It was boring. I’m not saying it was easy -- far from it. Being on flats takes a certain type of mindset and discipline, not to mention you have to be strong. The effort it takes to get from point A to B in a specific time is the same back and forth. Unlike climbing, there’s no descending that comes after. You can’t freewheel down the mountain and recover. I learned a lot on this ride, one of the things being that I like gradients more than watts. 

9. Tagaytay via RevPal, Sungay, and Sampaloc. 110 km. 

Tagaytay take three, route three. This time, we drove to Alabang and started there. What we should have done is start in Nuvali. But Luz insisted on starting in Alabang. This was not a good idea, lol. I want to preface this with the statement that as it was, the planned route was a killer. It didn’t help that I had little sleep and had a hard workout the day before. Another bad idea.

Let me give you a TL;DR: We climbed up RevPal from Nuvali, went down to Taal via Sungay, and climbed back up to Tagaytay proper via Sampaloc. From there, we went back down to Nuvali via Cardiac Hill. 

Easy on paper, not so much in action. RevPal is steep, but not impossibly difficult. Part of the difficulty is avoiding all the other cyclists occupying the road, weaving their way up (known as nag tatahi) while staying out of the way of cars. At some point, my right knee started acting up, adding to the difficulty level of the ascent. 

What was unexpected though was how scary the descent on Sungay was. I won’t get into detail, but suffice it to say that we should have taken it as a sign when we saw that other riders were dismounting so they could walk down... That said, what an adrenaline rush!

The climb up Sampaloc was tough with an aching knee (which by the way has no ACL), but thankfully there were a lot of trees and cover. Not my best performance, but I still made it up without stopping. The descent from Tagaytay proper was meh. From Nuvali, we rode with our friends who had the brilliant idea to park there. I slept on the way home. 

9/10. I officially dubbed our group Mountain Goats after this ride. We have a lot of rides that are less than 100 km, but we often reach over 1000 meters of elevation gain. On this outing, we hit 1,640. I wonder how I’ll fair if I do this again in good condition.

10. Sierra Madre Loop via Teresa. 118 km. 

I think this is the most fun Grand Fondo I’ve done. It’s the highest I’ve climbed in the fastest time. 1740 m in 5:43:28. Arguably the most fun I’ve had on a bike. The climbs could kill you if you don’t pace yourself, but the descents were so rewarding. 

The only sucky part about this ride was motorcyclists who go up on their underbone bikes and bank the corners like they own the place. They don’t signal when they turn. They take sudden U-turns. They overtake you, swerve, and suddenly stop in front of you. They are a danger to themselves and others. In fact, Levi mentioned that when she was there, a guy on a Mio overshot a corner and he and his bike went under the guard rail onto the cliff. Thank God he was alive.

10/10. The chicsilog was made even more delicious by the view from the top of the mountain. 

10 + 1. Laguna Loop. 192 km.

Laguna Loop is fun they said. You should try it, they said.

Well, I did. And I hated it. THEY LIED. This is by far the worst Fondo I’ve done. It was fun climbing Antipolo via Cabrera Road. It was fun going down Teresa. It was fun going up Pililia (which was so much easier than the first time). It was fun going down Mabitac. And that’s where the fun ended.

From that point, it was flat. It was hot. It was traffic. And the drivers were so bad. By bad, I mean jempoy bad. By jempoy bad, I mean trying to ride you off the road and driving at your side with their window down to argue with you. It was not fun. Have I said that it wasn’t fun?

2/10. Not gonna lie, I don’t even consider this ride as a Grand Fondo (which is why it’s a +1 and not a solid 11); the only part of the ride that counts is the first part with the ascents and descents. The rest was just really getting it over with. One point for that first part and another for the good company. WILL NEVER DO THIS AGAIN.

Okay, that’s it. It’s quite a long post but it should be okay since it’s the first one? I hope you enjoyed my unedited reviews of my 100-km rides. Again I’m not a pro so don’t take these scores seriously. Ride the routes yourself if you can and let me know what you think! 

[daily-hundred]

THE 100 GIF/COLORING TIPS

Okay, so I know nobody asked for this lmao but I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about the lighting on The 100 (which is completely understandable since it’s very bad.) And even though I’m not at all a pro, I’ve been giffing this show for awhile and I’ve found out some stuff that might be useful for other The 100 gifmakers out there.

Please reblog/like this if you save anything from this tutorial or if it helps you at all :)

WHAT YOU NEED 

Photoshop (I use CS5).

General knowledge on giffing.

Patience because The 100 is a hard show to color. 

COLORING PREVIEW

WARNING: This is very long. Everything starts under the cut!

GENERAL GIFFING TIPS

Get 1080p/720p downloads. Since The 100 is already a very dark and grainy show, anything lower will ruin the gifs’ quality.

Make sure you have cropped the gifs to the proper Tumblr size. Click here for reference. And get rid of the network logo when you’re cropping it! It always looks better without it.

Sharpen your gifs! I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t. Sharpening your gifs will make it look more HD and show off your coloring better. My sharpening is a smart sharpen with these settings. You can go here if you want to experiment with other actions/settings, though.

Do not have any skipping frames. Please. Your gif will look sloppy and won’t be as smooth, therefore ruining the quality of it.

Make sure you have the gif timing right. I usually go for 0.05 seconds because personally I think it looks best, but I’ve seen some who went with 0.04s or 0.07s and that also works well. Go for 0.05s! I realized now other time settings doesnt work as well as 0.05s especially with The 100.

Save settings. My usual go-to settings are these. Though sometimes I went for selective instead of adaptive and it looks okay, too! :)

+ extras: subtitle!

The font you use for subtitles on your gif will also affect the way your gif looks. Fonts that are too big or too small will make it look less HQ, but having the right font with the right size (and the right position!) will make it look good. Here are some text settings you can use that I’ve found: [ one / two / three ]

COLORING TIPS

Now that you’ve kind of gotten the general giffing tips, I’ve listed out some coloring tips that I found out specifically for The 100. All PSDs will be linked at the end of this post.

Adjust your brightness before anything else.

The 100 is generally very dark, but even with scenes that are already not too-dark, you’re still gonna want to adjust the brightness so you can work on the colors better. I’ll go detailed with this one. We’ll be working on 3 scenes, bright, neutral, and dark scenes.

1. BRIGHT/YELLOW

For this one, I used a scene of Clarke from Season 5. 

The scene is already very bright, so what we’re gonna do here is to adjust it so it’ll look prettier without being too bright that it hurts our eyes. First let’s do curves. I added two curves layer, the first one is to add just the tiniest bit more brightness to her face, and the second one is to darken the background. and then I’m gonna add brightness and levels for contrast:

Alright, now that I’m already happy with the brightness, I’m gonna go and adjust the color. This is too yellow for me, so I’m gonna add a color balance layer to and pull up the blues/cyans/magentas

That’s good, but it’s too desaturated. I’m gonna go and add selective layer to make the colors pop up. I adjusted the red, yellow, and neutral and I got this:

Now this looks great already! Unfortunately, I’m annoying so I have to add more adjustments lmao. This is the final result after being added with an extra brightness layer and a gradient map on luminousity.

2. NEUTRAL

For this one, I’m gonna use a scene of Lexa (reshop heda you’ll always be missed) from Season 2. It’s not very bright but it’s also not too dark.

Now the tips with scenes with enough clarity (doesn’t have to be super bright, but if you can still see things clearly) like this one, clicking the ‘auto’ button on curves saves a whole lot of time. I did so and this is what I have in result:

The auto curves will usually brighten the gif and balance the color on it. Often times you still have to adjust it again. But still this will save a lot of time. I added some more brightness and levels before adding color balance and selective colors layer, and here’s the final gif:

Keep in mind that this will only work with some scenes. This will work alright with the Clarke gif above, but it definitely won’t with this next gif we’ll be coloring.

3. DARK/BLUE

Okay now this one requires some work. I chose Octavia’s scene from the Season 6 trailer. 

The original sharpened gif (notice that I got rid of the logo! It’s really annoying for me so I always find a way to get rid of it.)

It’s reaally dark. So let’s start with brightening it up a little. I added curves, brightness, levels and more brightness because it was still dark as hell:

Now, you may think it’s already bright enough, but for me personally I can still make it brighter, so I added exposure. With dark scenes exposure works really well. But you have to take it easy with this layer since it affects the gif drastically with very minimal effort. I also added a black and white Gradient Map layer that I always set to luminousity:

Now it’s time to go and adjust the hell out of the color balance to make it less blue! I also added an extra selective colors layer to make the reds pop out and get rid of the pixelated/grainy blacks on her hair. After that I added another brightness layer. Here’s my final result:

The quality on this gif is not as good as the others since it was from the youtube trailer (1080p youtube video are still low compared to web-dl’s) but that’s basically the gist on how I work on The 100′s darker scenes! :)

Color balance and selective colors.

The 100 lighting often makes your gifs not only too dark or too bright, but also too yellow or too blue. Balancing it out using a color balance almost always helps. Selective colors layer will also help when you want to pop up certain parts of your gifs. Here’s some tips on selective colors that I got from msmarvel’s coloring tutorial.

Selective colors and color balance layer usually go in the middle or on top of brightening adjustments for me. But I found out that color balance could also be done after you’ve done your coloring, but you have to put it under the other adjustment layers to have the most effect.

I’m gonna show you how I edit this gif here of Raven and Murphy with what I’ve said above.

Without any coloring:

Yeah, I know. I can’t see anything either.

I brighten up this gif using my method above for dark blue scenes. Curves, brightness, levels, and add more depending on what you need. Here’s what I have now:

We can see both of them properly now, but it’s waay to blue. Also I’m losing some color from Raven’s skin so I’m gonna add color balance under every adjustment and pull up the reds and yellows.

Now it’s better! You can totally leave it here and post your gif like this. but I added an extra selective colors layer to bring out the red, yellows and blacks, and here’s the final result: 

I should mention that when it comes to scenes with POCs, you have to be very careful. With this scene with Raven color balance and selective colors helped bring back her color, but on other scene adjusting too much of the red/neutral/yellow might ruin her skin. You are allowed to adjust the colors on a gif extremely when necessary, but be careful about it :)

Some dark scenes are supposed to stay dark.

I realized that with the 100 (or any other shows tbh) brightening up a gif with a dark scene too much will make it lose so much quality and ruin it. So, what I’ve learned to do is to let it be dark. I’ve seen some people brighten their gifs too much and even though I understand your frustration, it’s gonna be better if you just let it be as it is. But, still, make sure it’s bright enough so you can still see the things happening on the gif. 

Here’s a gif of Bellamy from Season 5. You can see how dark it is without any coloring:

First, let’s brighten this baby up so we can see Bellamy’s face. I added curves and brightness, levels and more brightness:

Now I know it’s still very dark, but instead of brightening it up too much I’m gonna go to color balance and add the tiniest bit of red and yellow, and then I’ll add a photo filter. These two adjustments are done so we can have more color on his face instead of the ugly dark red we had. With those adjustments, what we have now is this:

Next, we’ll move on to selective color. This is what I mean when I say you have to be careful with this adjustment. I want to brighten up Bellamy’s face by putting down the blacks on the red selective color. But by doing so I might erase all the reds from his face and whitewash him. To prevent that, while I put down the blacks, I bring up the reds (lowering the cyan) and yellows. I also pull up a bit of neutral and black selective color so I can get rid of the grain (adjusting the black on both selective colors.)

With a little more last-minute brightness, here’s the final result:

That’s pretty much it! You can add more brightness than what I did here (I was in a rush when I made this but I would definitely add a little more curves or brightness) as long as it doesn’t ruin the colors and won’t make the grain too visible. 

Now as promised, here are the PSDs I made for this tutorial! Please don’t claim them as your own and feel free to tag me (#useraaya) if you make anything with them so I can check it out :)

[ clarke ] [ lexa ] [ octavia ] [ murphy & raven ] [ bellamy ]

I hope this helps! Don’t hesitate to message me on my main blog if you have any questions. <3

[godseyegalaxy]

Candle and the Wax Flower - 4

Cere upholds her part of the bargain

can also be read on tapas!

Aprox 3400 words

 Cere covered her eyes in the hope of shielding herself from the burning sun, but, as her vision went white anyway, quickly regretted it. Violent clicks burst from her chest, only to become screams as she switched to something her captor might understand. But still, Icora continued to swing her like a heavy sac as if she didn’t just slam her head into the door post. The unfiltered afternoon sun burned her eyes anyway and she writhed and clicked in weak protest.  

“Get. Me. Back. Into. The. Water.” Cere’s voice growled.

She knew Icora’s crew was watching. They never seemed to sleep on this horrid ship, always something to do, something to whisper under their breathes’ and suddenly she had enough of it all. A high-pitched warning call silenced them all.

Pathetic, she thought. That she of all beings was being treated like an object and cowering behind her arms. Her tail flailed wildly, in hope of snagging Icora or, preferably, the wooden railing that would be her last obstacle.  

Last obstacle that would start a long road to a stupid journey.

All she wanted was her sister’s neckless back.

Now she’s looking for a lost land-city.

She hated Icora.

“Alright, you can stop that now, or I’m going to be in the water with you.” Cere could hear Icora smiling. Like a child! Icora was talking to her like she was a child and Icora herself a mother! Unbelievable.

“The thought of you in the sea makes me sick, you witch.”

“Oh come on, name calling isn’t nice.”

“You’re only happy because you’re getting what you want.”

“Hmm? Then I suppose you’ll be happy in a few more seconds. Or? Can you not feel happy?”

“Eat my-“

Her tail fin slammed onto the deck as Icora threw her onto the railing.

“Well then.” She said, loud enough for the deck to hear her clearly, “I know we’ll be seeing each other soon—But do you have anything else to say?”

Cere dragged her hands down her face and opened her eyes to slits. Blurry figures she’d grown to know as Icora’s fine crew faced her, watching like they always had. Predator and prey. Trust in their captain, and also trust that Cere was a native of the sea and lashed out like it too. The closest blob stood a couple of meters behind Icora.

She rolled her head to face the captain.  

There was once a time when they would go years without catching wind of each other. Where she could go back to living a normal life in her people’s towns and pick up trade and travel again. Cere, honestly, missed that time.

She snapped her head back to the crowd and said the first thing she thought of.

“Duces Fuckheads.” She flipped them off and, with well-trained ease, turned and threw herself off the side of the ship.  

The sting of the ocean waves soothed as the air left in her lungs solidified and the cool waters rushed around her. Cere stayed suspended for a long moment, bathing in the soft blue light. This wasn’t home, but damn if it wasn’t better than that Mother forsaken shithole of a ship.

Cere turned and, with a second of calibration, bolted for the isolated Island.

----

Brinkley let the last of the upper crew slide past him before stepping into the Captain’s office. The odorous wall of stale sea water hit him first, and he had to hold back his lunch. He wouldn’t be on a ship if he didn’t like the smell of fish, but that mermaid smelled much worse than any rotting pile of guts and scales. He never got used to it.

Icora’s old familiar chuckle rose above the ascending footsteps.

“And what do the buckets say, Brinkley?” The captain had her back to him, and studied something on her wall of trophies. Icora tended to forgo her coat and accessories while she was in her office, like nothing in the outside world would dare take advantage of her while schemed.  

“They’re all clean, Icora.”

“And did you make any progress with Martie?” She pulled away to look at him over her shoulder.

“No.”

She smiled but didn’t laugh. Brinkley shut the door behind him.

“You know, that’s one of the many reasons I like you.” Icora sighed and gestured him closer, to look at the pot-marked map that laid in front of her. “You’re reliable. Consistent. Predictable.”

“You only like that because you yourself are none of those things.”

“Is that what you think?”

“Yes.”

She laughed this time. Picking up discarded pins and tools she used to mark where they were going to go, she let Brinkley look over the dots and dashes that made up all of their wayward trips. Brinkley didn’t know of many isles that didn’t have their boot prints on them, didn’t know of any nation that hadn’t seen their flag fly into port or off shore, but still, there were always things to do. People to check up on, trading routes to make sure were still free of growing monopolies and countries to make sure stayed on their own lands. And if not practical, then they were off finding treasure or whatever suited Icora’s fancy that morning.  

The sea, Icora said once, changed at will; who knows what will drop into it next.

He traced the newest line from the point the ship was to where it would soon be. He checked the coordinates once, then twice, then tapped his fingers on the desk.

“Ask away.” Icora slumped into her seat, looking up at him expectantly.  

“What are you planning?”

She offered him a drink. He declined with a wave of his hand and, Icora drank for him.

“Predictable, see? Why do you think I’m planning something?”

“You’re always planning something and... these places you’ve marked...”  

“What about them?”

“You know what. I want to know why. I know it’s not just a treasure hunt or whatever you told the mermaid and I know it’s something much bigger than what we normally do.” There was something sharp in his voice, demanding and accusing, hardly detectable. Like a jellyfish’s stinger.

But it wasn’t like Icora was never stung before. It was determined a long time ago that Brinkley couldn’t scare her.

She still waited to responded, just long enough to make Brinkley think that she’d thought about her words carefully.

“I trust you. You know that.”

“Yes, and I you.” He said almost automatically.

She closed the gap between them, grasping his heavy coat with one hand. “Then trust me when I say if you tell anyone about this, I will leave you and whoever else on whatever island we land on and never look back.” She smiled and waited for his response.  

When none came, “A long time ago, I left something in a place I knew I would forget, on a land much larger than any of these islands, yet a few days ago it suddenly came back to me. I asked myself ‘why?’. Why should I remember after all this time. And trust me, it’s been a long time. But there’s really only one answer; it’s time for me to get it back.”

--

Cere felt the water die. Not all at once, but as if the creatures teaming around in the light knew there was a boundry they shouldn’t cross, so they kept well away from it. A gradient that, after she swam far enough, left her feeling light headed. She knew where she was and knew she still had further to go.  

But, there was a stop she could make first. Then, maybe she could bypass the island all together.

She dove further down the water column and braced for the current that would take her close to the island chain but... it didn’t come. Down further as the light faded into inky black and still there was no rush of water.

This place really is dead

Cere ignored the rotting pit in her stomach as she retraced her steps to the lighter, warmer waters. Naturally Icora would have her do this. Naturally. Beings like her didn’t care about the sea. No for the things living in it, anyway. They could never understand what it meant for water to be dead. They would only care when it was too late.

--

Cere slowed down as the ground started to slope upwards. Usually her people never got this close to the rocky isle shores, there was no reason for it. Sure, there were many creatures to be hunted in the tidal zone, but the coast was not her territory. Oh, how she wished she was in her territory.

Her arms and eyes burned as she lifted herself onto a rock close to the shore. The land in front of her was brown, grassy. This was not the place to be. Back into the water.

Cere followed the island’s shore until the beach receded into the land and tree roots grew in between the boulders. Here... Here would do.  

She watched as the juvenile creatures bolted out of her path while she slowly moved inward. The water tasted different, not dead but only brackish. Still gross. She lifted her head out of the water to find the green canopy shielding her eyes from the sun. A head of her, the tree roots grew too thick to go any close to land and, even if she could, the possibility of leaving quickly would slowly disappear. This would do.

So, Cere pulled herself towards the closest tree and gathered her hair neatly in front of her and started to sing.  

Her voice was nothing compared to sirens, or even the whale songs that made up the white noise of the sea but, as Icora had described once, she had a voice ‘surprisingly gracefully for such a hideous creature.’  At the time Cere immediately tried to stab her with a sharp rock, but she had appreciated the complement, only a little bit.

She sang in her native tongue, softly at first as she started to breathe in air and then louder, to fill in the spaces underneath the canopy. The sounds of the marine forest paused to listen to the mermaid, even the sea winds ceased to move the leaves above.  Straining to hear beyond her voice, Cere sand louder until the snapping of twigs called her to stop.

Wait... She must wait. Who knows what could set it off.  

The leaves moved again and, so did the water but nothing could cover the sound of something wading through the water.

“Creature of beyond the island, you have called?” a quiet voice met Cere’s ears, sending chills down her spine. Not that she was afraid, hardly, but the spindle-like voice grated against her skull.  

“I have, and I would like to ask a question. Please, are you iwi-atua?”

“Fairie? Yes I am.”

“May I look at you?”

“Yes.”

Cere turned her head and bowed at the person in front of her, standing in the water with their root-colored hair spilling like a cloud of ink in the water. Beyond that they were naked, bare and smooth skin, almost like they were a part of the forest itself. If they weren't thousands of kilometers away from the nearest human civilization, Cere might have thought them human. But that would be a grave mistake to say out loud.  

“What is your name, sea- creature.” the Fairie took a step closer, smiling with jaded eyes.

So, they were hungry on the isle. And here Cere thought she’d have a pleasant conversation.

“I am a Daughter of the Mother, please call me as such.”

Cere gave no indication that she saw their smile twitch. “Very well then, Daughter of the Mother. What is your question?”

“There is an Island north west of here, 30 knots if by sail, past were the water turns bleached and dead, does that island virgin to human or Fae influence?”

“A strange question for a creature such as yourself. 30 knots? Do you know of sails and wooden coffins? Why do you, Daughter of the Mother of the Seas, care?”

Cere tilted her head. An interesting game they were playing- another chance at her own life.

“I am trying to get back my sister’s necklace,” Cere answered honestly, “And visiting the island will help me obtain my goal. I came here because I know for sure that your people, and others, reside here and thus may know if your sisters and brothers are there. Are there Fae or Humans on the island?”

A tingling sensation rushed down Cere’s spine, a growl vibrating the back of her skull. She didn’t give a satisfactory answer, it seemed. But damn them, if it was a fight she was going to get into, then it was a fight she was going to win.

Cere thought all of this without indicating a single thing. To her surprised however, the fae creature answered.

“There has never been Humans or any land creature on the island. Fae, however, used to live there before the Witch killed everything, my people moved soon after and none has been there since.”

Cere watched the water ripple as the woman stepped close to her, hair dragging behind her like smoke.

“That place is not for the likes of you. Fae were killed there. That land is ours.”

“Then I guess its lucky for us that I won’t be needing to go there, is it?”

There were many phrases that Cere had learned while being with Icora and her crew. Many curse words but a lot of well-to-use idioms too. ‘Kicked the bucket’ was a fun one that she enjoyed hearing, mostly because she didn’t know what a bucket was at the time and kicking was something she’d never done before, so her finding out that ‘kicking the bucket was another way of saying ‘dying’ brought out a rare laugh within her. But there were more practical ones, like the saying ‘red sky in the morning, sailors warning’ because this was true to her knowledge, her own people used it with different phrasing and ‘The last straw’ when finally, someone stopped taking shit from others. She couldn’t count how many times Icora had pulled ‘the last straw’ with her.

Cere had picked the last straw with the iwi-atua.

It leaped at her with the speed that, if she were not a mermaid, would have disoriented her and would most likely lead to her death. But she was a mermaid. A daughter of the Mother, as she warned, and the fae did not disorient her.

--

The Galleon swayed gently as she waded in the water, perfectly at peace with the ocean and wind. Most of its crew were below deck, eating a lunch of rice and fish while the ones above deck did their routine checks.  

Martie sat against one of the walls, a good number of different sized papers spread across the table and sticky rice in her hands. It was a writing assignment, or, more correctly a report that Icora had already written, but had copied the papers she’d used and gave them to her to see how well she could write the same report. How much time did Icora have to just waste on giving her assignments? Grated, it was probably Brinkley that suggested it.

Fuck that dude.

In her increasing desperation to get the paper done with, she’d even asked the other crew members siting around her for help. But most of them ignored her or played dumb. Every time. Every time she had homework it was like they’d never met her. Martie didn’t know if it was because some of them wanted nothing to do with writing a report or because Icora had given them an order not to help.  

Sen-Woo, one of the gunners, a deckhand and the first person that she had gotten to know sat down at the opposite end of the table, making her papers slide.  

“Oh, sorry Martie, didn’t think you’d still be working on that stuff.”

“You know I always wait for your ever so insightful advice. Tell me. What should I do today.”

Before joining Icora’s crew, Sen-Woo was an entertainer of sorts. He was also a student of science. And a successful merchant. And a school teacher. Because of his background, he would give impromptu lectures on how the world worked that made even Brinkley stop and listen. But what excited Martie the most was the fact that he could talk about the newest of sciences and then immediately turn around and say the most profound and dumbest stuff she had ever heard.

He gave her and insidious look and snapped back. “Respect your superiors and do your homework in your own space.” But the frown didn’t last long, his broken tooth smile crept up like it always had when he tried to be angry. “Ah, I’m just teasing.”

“I had no idea.” Her face had stayed placid the entire time.

“I was going to offer you singing lessons, actually.”

The clump of rice she was aiming to eat fell back into her bowl.

“Singing lessons?”

“Yeah, it’s about time you learned the really important stuff like singing shanties with us.” he gestured to everyone on the room. While most of them wisely made no acknowledgement of the comment, many more were smirking over their meal.

He was serious. Martie knew Sen-Woo and he was serious.  

A thousand words and incomprehensible sounds flooded her mind but her mouth just opened and closed like a fish.

THUMP

The wall behind Martie shook, but before she, or any of the others, could do anything, shouting and footsteps sounded above them. Rushing to see what had hit our ship no doubt.  

Martie bounded up and squeezed past the other members of the crew as they sped towards the stair case, however, everyone paused as they heard the captain.

Laughing. She was laughing. Loud and jovial as if drunk on stolen wine.

Half the crew sighed and went to sit down and finish their meal.  

Tia, one of the few that never moved even shouted. “Never have I ever seen so much commotion for a single fish.” She laughed and caught a bowl that was tossed at her. Martie climbed the steps anyway.  

Darkening clouds covered the sun, promising rain at a later date, but the nausea Martie usually felt was absent from her mind and she walked over to Icora’s side by the railing.

“Cap’t.” She said as a way of greeting.

“Martie. Help Auali’i pull up the net. Cere has something with her.” Icora’s tone set her on edge, there was something wrong. Maybe not too wrong, Icora had a different tone she used for big problems. Just like she had different voice marking how good a mood she was in so Martie knew when to prod her with questions or turn in her work. On a scale of one to ten, ten being worst case, this was maybe a six or seven.

She silently obeyed her orders, got behind Auali’i, and started to pull on the ropes bringing Cere up to the deck. A moment later Brinkley was behind the captain doing the same, a wordless conversation happening between them.

Martie willed herself to breathe normally as the net rose above the railing. Cere appeared a moment later, silver tail hanging over the net, shinning iridescent in the sun like it usually did, however, black and red oozed down the mermaid’s chest, most of it coming from a mass she held in her arms.  

The mermaid waited until the net lowered to the grown before turning to Icora. The side of her face and neck had deep claw marks gouged into them with some of the same ooze leaking out in small diluted streams. Cere didn’t seem to care, instead she lifted the mass she was clutching.

Martie watched as it unfurled and stared for a long minute. No... it didn’t really unfurl, it was hair, golden red hair, that fell down and mixed with Cere’s own ink black. Brinkley actually stumbled back in something akin to horror.

She was holding a covered head. But it wasn’t a creature that Martie had ever seen in her life.

“I come back bearing gifts.” Cere’s broken voice dripped with distain as she looked up at Icora.

“How thoughtful.” Was all Icora said.

[rebeccacclarke-blog]

Week 10: Individual App design research- Prototyping Questions

What elements do you like?

Rebecca’s App design:

Willow & Pauline: 

Colour- simple- one colour didn’t take too much away from info- easy to navigate- nothing missing- location things are distracting, grey colour, or less opacity

Phatt: 

A very realistic app. FAQ has too much info. I like the keypad screen instead of it linking straight to dialling the company. Make actions more cohesive i.e some pages animate across/ left and some slide up. No back button on ‘Pay with’  page. Match review colours with meaning as it’s quite confusing. What do the red/ green/ orange colours stand for in the review? Green colour means low price however there might be less parking available, doesn’t understand what the colour stands for. If arrow points left, screen should flow/ slide left too. Everything else like the colour and font work well together!

Tammy:

I like the grey arrow tab. I prefer the pages to slide left/right rather than up/ down because it’s how apps normally work so we’re used to it. It can be a bit too much. I really like the home page design because the layout looks good however colour can be improved.

Natalie: I like the colour and how it’s simple. I like the icons with the pin/ car and it’s the same throughout all the pages and makes it cohesive. Really good overall but not sure if I like the green since it usually goes with environmental and money/ cash related so not suitable for a parking app.

G:

 No back button- on timer. Add notification- for topping up time- don’t want to think about it- organization is good- buttons are too big

Likes the colour-coded aspect of the reviews

Debbie’s App design:

Natalie:

Colour, cute, font is really cute

Have an option for saved park (bookmark option maybe)

Phatt:

Contrast colours work well together. Make the background for homescreen teal to tie in with the rest of the app more.

For ‘add new card’ screen, have another option. No question mark- change to confirm

Like the rounded font, easy to read

For hamburger option, don’t make it go back to the home screen but keep it in the side menu

Cute icons, but needs more

Understandable and easy to use

Tammy:

Like the two colours in title screen.

Like the font

Cute design. Like the colour combination. Add new icon for successful screen

The colour combination, easy to understand layout

Willow & Pauline:

Similar to Michelle’s just diff colour.

Map - showed up the different prices and places and could click - simple and clean layout but preferred the other colours more as looked like taxi

G: 

Nice to have a visual to see how much time is leftover

Needs to have a date enter for the Booking Function

Text size for ‘Save Location’ is not easy to read, maybe make it bigger

Michelle’s App design:

Phatt: 

Colours, icons, everything, the gradient, it’s so cute, the flow is good, understandable, easy to use, i like how the colour is clear, font is cute and easy to read, simple and it suits the colour and i love it!

Tammy: 

I love the colours from the first look. I like the rounded font, apps normally use typical fonts like arial etc so it’s boring however with the rounded look it’s more friendly. Love the gradient circles combined with the icons. I especially like the icons because it’s colourful and detailed yet simple. 10/10!

Natalie: 

It’s so cute and pretty. I like your icons! (the car icon, it’s not too much and simple) I like the history tab. I like how the font is really easy to read. Easy to use. Add a bookmark/ saved/ favourite locations for facilities that they find for the future.

Willow & Pauline: 

colour, pleasing- book a carpark- plus of minus- auto calculate easy as. Illustrations were nice.

G: 

I like how I can go back. Like having a choice to move around. Reviews text is a bit small. per/hr. I like the circle/ timer, nice visual. Type in end time.

Delete account button/ log out?

In general of our apps:

1) Favourite colour choices and fonts?

Willow & Pauline: 

Pauline is Bias to blue but likes the blue or greeny blue as it is one colour, white and one colour worked really well and kept it clear and simple. Could maybe use the blue used as detail colour accent.

Tammy: 

Blue/ purple with the pink accent because it stands out the most. It’s very calming especially when combined with the gradient. It might appear very colourful however when using it on the phone it’s not and it’s simple and clean. For the font I prefer Rebecca’s font when she uses the bold with the normal typeface style in the title ‘ParkPal’.

Natalie: 

Favourite colour choice is Michelle’s because it’s the easiest to see (dark background with white font). Along with the font since it’s bubbly and cute. Debbie’s light font is really nice as well as Futura.

Phatt: 

I didn’t have a favourite however it would look nice with Debbie’s yellow and Michelle’s blue! Because it’s a good colour combo for both genders. Michelle’s pink might be aimed for female audience. Rebecca’s green is a bit harsh and green usually means ‘go’ like in traffic lights but your app is for parking. Blue represents calming and when you park your car it’s parked and still, not moving. Font choice favourite is Debbie’s, I prefer the rounded font more rather than Arial. Arial font is too typical and simple as you see it everywhere.

2) Overall favourite and why?

Willow & Pauline: 

Both think we need to combine the different aspects and incorporate it into one app.

Tammy: 

I like all of them! You should combine Michelle’s colours with some of Rebecca’s designs and Debbie’s icons as well as Michelle’s icons.

Natalie: 

I like all of them. Each parts of each of our designs should be combined. I like Michelle’s colours and Debbie’s font as well as how simple Rebecca’s one is.

Phatt: 

My overall favourite is Rebecca’s because it looks more realistic. More general for everyone to use because car parking, most people are adults so keeping it simple might be better. However for the icons I like Michelle’s because it’s easy to understand.

3) What stood out to you the most?

Willow & Pauline: 

How it automatically calculated prices- easy and quick- in a rush for parking seemed speed up process. Showed prices for each parking worked well

Tammy: 

The designs and functionality works well i.e the map $ where you can tap to see prices. Colours stood out to me the most especially Michelle’s. Also the icons (particularly the vector line art with the sparkles)

Natalie: 

Michelle’s stood out to me the most because of her icons. I don’t like reading and when there’s a lot of pictures it’s easy to understand. It’s really nice when you book/ pay and the icons pop up because it relates to what it says so it’s just nice.

Phatt: 

The design and functions. I didn’t like how there’s too much blank/ negative space on certain pages. I liked how in Michelle’s one her layout is clean and also stands out with the box + shadow along with the gradient circle. I prefer having the book, find, pay on the top than bottom. I prefer Debbie’s review design with a solid colour contrasting against the white. I like Rebecca’s side menu with the profile photo and her realistic keypad screenshot. Also having the main logo flow across all the pages (if you have space). 

G: 

Consider open navigation and user needs as they’ll want to be able to easily change out or decide that they want to cancel bookings. Maybe have a calendar pop-up to select booking dates.

4) What mood/ style did you like the most?

Willow & Pauline: 

Green and blue- one colour and white or black. Two colours need to go together really well otherwise distracting, that’s why I liked the green as it was striking and blue seemed to work well too.

Tammy: 

Simplistic style, clean and minimalistic. Rebecca’s one was good but she could add colour to the background instead of having a plain white background. I like the teal colour!

Natalie: 

I like Debbie’s mood the most personally but I’m not sure if others would prefer it since it might remind them of ASB. Michelle’s style was my favourite because of the icon drawings and lowkey kawaii, i love it.

Phatt: 

Debbie’s font and colour is quite friendly and playful. It’s simple and minimal which I like. Michelle’s I like her icon’s the most and the gradient circles also the blue colour is calming and good colour to view since it’s cool toned. Rebecca’s I liked her flow and information throughout her pages.

[peterandersonaj]

8 Best Logo Making Apps for Android Devices

The logo is a creative amalgamation of visual imagery or art and text that serves the purpose of branding. Having a professional logo or a well-built design that symbolizes your company or a brand is more likely to gravitate customers towards you. When customers look for brands, the first thing they notice is the logo of the brand. The most creative logos usually attract the customer’s eyes, and it tends to stay in their mind for a longer period of time.

 It doesn’t matter if you are a blogger, YouTuber, brand, or anything else, a logo will always boost your business for all the professional reasons. If you are a newbie and don’t know how to create a logo on your own, then we have got you covered. We have listed some of the best logo maker apps that you can easily access on your Android mobile device.

 Font Rush

 You can edit the text of your logo with over 200 fonts and 250+ backgrounds. It is easy to use. Apart from creating logos, you can write on the pictures and create your own quote on elegant photos. You can use this app for posting directly on social media as it is a great post maker as well. Each and every part of the logo and background can be customized easily. You can create the logo manually by drawing calligraphy on the app. Although the app is entirely free to use, some of the features may require subscriptions.

 Iris Logo Maker

 It is one of the highly-rated professional logo designing app. You can choose from the tonnes of options to customize the art, color, background, and texture. You can edit the logo using the features like 3D rotate, hue, flip, curves, etc. It features unique typographic designs. Multiple backgrounds, textures, and colors can be added, and you can play with the professional photo and text editing tools. You can use this app for free, but it also offers in-app purchases to unlock more prominent features.

 Palette

 This app has an unique feature that allows you to add photos from any link or URL. You can either choose pictures from your library/ gallery or directly import it from any URL. This app has been awarded for the best color palette generator, which means you can customize your color palette, and you can also delete or improvise any version of tools according to your preferences. It will show you the HEX code and population for every prominent color in your logo. This app doesn’t require much space, and it’s easy to use.

 Z Mobile Logo Maker

 You can choose your icons from the various categories that it provides you. Texture, color, gradient effects, filter, etc. can be customized on this app easily. It has all the tools for creating and editing logos that will give you a professional touch to it. You can choose from over a hundred backgrounds to enhance the visual appeal of your logo. Create a three-dimensional logo easily with the 3D rotation tool. It also includes tools like typography font, advanced editing, transparent background, and more.

 Canva

 It is quite a versatile app because you can not only make logos in it but posters, videos, highlight covers, etc. as well. You can begin designing your logo from the scratch or choose from more than 60,000 templates that are created by professional designers. It also has more than 500 types of font that you can use for your logo, and you can customize the line spacing, position, colors, design, etc. It also has multiple filters, including brightness and vignette settings for image editing. Directly share your creations on any social networking site from the Canva app.

 Logo Maker by Shopify

 This app is completely free and doesn’t include any in-app purchases. You can design your logo from scratch. This app is loaded with an extensive set of graphic design editing tools, templates, icons, styles fonts, and other branding elements. Due to the multiple options, you get on the app, generating any logo or customized design becomes easy within 5 minutes.

 Ibis Paint X

 This app is famous for providing more than 2500 materials, 800+ fonts, 335 brushes, 64 filters, 27 blending modes, and 46 screen tones. It also allows you to record your drawing process. The app runs smoothly due to the OpenGL technology. If you’re a beginner, you can learn the drawing techniques from other user’s drawing process videos via the SNS features on the app. You can add and blend multiple layers easily. You get most of the features for free, but if you join the Prime membership, you can get the best materials, fonts, tone curving filters, gradation map filters, and more without any advertisement interference.

 Logo Maker Plus

 This app is versatile, and along with logo designing, you can also create banner designs, posters, etc. It also has typography features that make sure texts look magical. You can also create a 3D logo and add 3D depth to it from this app. You can choose the font of the logo from more than 700 font styles that support various languages from across the world, including Latin, Arabic, Greek, and more. You can apply the gradient, add texture, borders, shadows, 3D effects, etc. to give more depth to your logo.

 The above-mentioned logo creating apps are listed from highest to lowest ranking where the highest ranking is 4.9, and the lowest is 4.5. So, you don’t have to compromise on the quality of logo creating experience.

 I’m Justin Hinkle and I have always loved Ohio. It has been a source of joy and comfort to me for many years. I am currently working for office.com/setup at Newyork but still think of Ohio.

Source : Logo Making Apps

[tomcriuse]

hi it's me the gif person and yes i really liked your champion fob gif set, you're so talented!! those are the best gifs I've ever seen on this site!! so if you made a gif tutorial on how you work your magic that would be so so cool and helpful!! thank you :)

bruh you’re so kind it brought a tear to my eye :’)

you can view the post here! tutorial under the cut, and sorry in advance if it seems a little rushed, i’m kinda bad at explaining things, but if you need any help, feel free to ask!

first you need a basic understanding on how to make gifs! there are many ways to do this, but i’m gonna show you my way! to make gifs i’ll download the episode/movie using megadownloader, or i use nvidia geforce experience (to record videos bc it takes sometimes it takes a long time to download them and im impatient tbh),, i also use photoshop cs7! a general rule of thumb when downloading videos is to make sure they’re at least 720p, preferably 1080p, because anything lower than that looks really bad!

for this gif set, i downloaded the champion music video using en.savefrom.net! once you have the video downloaded, open photoshop, click file > import > video frames to layers > pick your video > and trim it to the scene you want!

once you’ve done this, make sure you have your timeline enabled by going to window at the top, and making sure timeline is checked off! then 1. go ahead and delete any unneeded frames by selecting them in the timeline and hitting the little trash icon and 2. convert it to an animated timeline

on your left should be a layers panel, go ahead and select all of them, right click, and click ‘convert to smart object’!

after that, crop it to the size you want and sharpen (you can find a lot of good actions for that here)! for the champions gif set, my dimensions were 540x208!

now that you've made your gif, it’s time for the colouring! 

so, so far my gif looks like this: 

i always start by making the blacks darker by using selective colour because when i finish my gif, i want to make the darker colours stand out more!

after that, i adjust the brightness using levels, brightness/contrast, and curves! in levels i made the darker colours darker by putting the shadows on 18 and the midtones on 1.18 instead of 1 (set opacity to 45%). in b/c i lowered the brightness to -28 and the contrast on -38 (set opacity to 30%). then i made the entire thing a little brighter using curves (set opacity to 90%.

after that, using vibrance, lower the saturation so it’s a little duller, and raise the vibrance to highlight the colours (this is a personal preference depending on your gif!) and lower the opacity to 70%!

next, using selective colours. lower the amount of yellow!

then i added a colour fill layer! in the bottom right hand corner click on the icon that looks a like a half filled circle > solid colour > and pick a light grey (i used #c6c6c6)! then set the opacity to 10%!

next, in your adjustment panel, click the very last icon for gradient! make it black and white, and set it to exclusion and lower the opacity a little lower than halfway (i used 40%)!

progress check! now my gif looks like this!

once you’ve added the gradient, add another adjustment layer, lower the yellows and the neutrals, and raise the blacks!

add another brightness/contrast layer, lower the brightness somewhere between -5 to -10 and raise the contrast somewhere between 25 to 30!

using the exposure adjustment, raise the gamma correction lower than a point, setting the opacity to about 80%!

add another gradient map, make it b&w, set it to exclusion, and make the opacity between 5%-15%

add a brightness/contrast layer, and raise the brightness around 10!

and another vibrance layer, lowering the vibrancy to about -20 and raising the saturation about 30!

add another selective colour, raising the black (black) to 5 and the neutral (black) to -5. set the opacity ti about 40%!

add another curves layer making a stretched out ‘s’ shape along the line and set the opacity to about 40%!

add another layer and make the yellow in yellow -78 again!

and then we’re done!

we went from

to

this!! i hope all of this made sense, and if it didn’t, like i said, i’m always here to answer questions!

[calumdixon]

Heroes & Villains - Sherlock The Game is Now Website

When looking for websites related to Sherlock I found one for a escape room experience with a Sherlock Holmes Theme.

Typography

The website has decided to use all sans-serif typography, likely because the escape room experience is based on the Sherlcok BBC series and not the traditional Holmes from a much earlier time period.

Colour Palette

The sites colour palette is quite nice, it blends a combination of blacks, white, brown and gold to create something that has a fancy feel to to it. Especially when it is paired with the ornate wallpaper background.

Visual themes

The visual themes are easily what I found most interesting about this site, for starters the site has created a evidence pin board like seen in some of the previously looked at Sherlock movies. I think it fits well in this site, it’s all about solving a crime puzzle so an evidence board is something I’m not shocked to see. I also think it could be a cool idea to play around with on paper later.

Another visual theme I found a lot was torn paper, it was used to introduce visual pauses showing illustrations of the London landscape but it was also used to create containers for information styled to look like a newspaper clipping. I think the torn paper effect is awesome and I’m surprised that I haven’t seen it sooner. It gives off an impression of a rush/time limit which is perfect for an escape room considering you do actually have a time limit.

Lastly, I just wanted to talk about the cool map that the site has in its FAQ section, sadly it isn’t interactive but it would be a cool fallback from an interactive one on a mobile view. The map carries on the same brown and black colour palette but also puts gradients into use to make signs and icons look like they are made of brass

[kansascityhappenings]

Joe’s Weather Blog: Classic snowstorm threat for KC increasing (TUE-1/15)

I’m not sure when there WON’T be another weather blog…because there is SO much weather coming down the pike into the Plains over the next several weeks. These next few weeks may end up being everything that the last few winters have not really been. Prolonged cold, winter storm threats and all sorts of other winter related headaches. The folks up in Weston at Snow Creek will be loving these next few weeks…a lot of snow will get made. They’ll also get an assist from Mother Nature. Meanwhile private snow plow operators will be making more money too. So there are some folks, others too, who will benefit from this major winter turn. Meanwhile a bunch of others will be grumbling about the snow. It’s the ying and the yang of winter weather I suppose.

Forecast:

Today: Gray and cold with highs around 35° and that could be a struggle

Tonight: Gray with some fog. Lows near 30°

Wednesday: Cloudy skies with readings in the 30s. Some light freezing rain is possible later in the day

Wednesday night: A light wintry mix with some freezing rain is likely. Temperatures near 32°

Thursday: That ends in the morning then mainly cloudy with highs in the mid 30s. Watch for that morning rush hour glaze though

Discussion:

There are so many things happening in the world of weather in the region right now. Normally I’d spend a whole blog just talking about how we’re trapped in the low clouds that are out there right now. It’s actually warmer several thousand feet up today than here on the ground. It will be in the lower to middle 40s today up at around 5,000 feet or so. It’s too bad really because with full sunshine and no snow on the ground…we’d be in the 50s this afternoon and the golf courses would be busy for sure. Alas…not going to happen.

Instead we’re stuck in the muck as I like to say. It’s a classic case of what we call an “inversion”. This is VERY common during the winter mornings BUT because of the lack of stirred up air (not enough wind) and this snowcover that is chilling the lowest couple of thousand feet of the atmosphere (where we are) the moisture is trapped. These wet snows are known for slowly (sometimes quickly) melting and contributing even more moisture to the lower part of the atmosphere. It’s sort of an ongoing repetitive process that we need to break from. How do we do that? Stronger winds…or perhaps more sinking air…or a slow erosion of the edges of the clouds…but boy when I see satellite pictures like this…it makes one wonder when the sun will come back out.

So let’s move onwards…

Weather issue #1: A weak wave coming through the region later Wednesday into Thursday.

It’s really about what the temperature is at the surface later tomorrow and into Thursday AM. We’re going to be very close to 32° and that will be the issue for the freezing drizzle/freezing mist>rain>even some snow chances. We can deal with the rain but the 1st selection, the ice may be the more predominant scenario for us. It won’t be a lot…and I think the main impacts would be on the roads, mainly untreated surfaces. It won’t last long…but we know all too well how just a little glaze creates the issues on the roads and that’s what we’re concerned with for Thursday morning. Even IF the temperatures are 32-33° there may still be road issues because of the snow cover that exists keeping localized areas/roads a bit colder. So that is the 1st issue to deal with.

Issue #2 will be the increasingly likely threat of a snow storm. accompanied by stronger winds and tanking temperatures. That threat evolves later Friday into Saturday. That is associated with this mess in the Pacific Ocean.

The water vapor loop above is a mess of storms…strong flowing jet stream winds aloft and a few other things! Somehow in all that chaos our model data has been very persistent in creating a new storm that will be a big ticket Plains system heading into the weekend.

So where is our storm. Well I sort of reversed engineered this a bit for you. I want you to look at the following animation…but we’re going from the future to the present. It’s the reverse of what I usually do. Why? Because I want you to see the where the system is that we’re going to be tracking because it barely exists right now. So the 1st frame is valid for Friday evening and the storm is dropping through the Rockies…that’s the storm that will get us. Again this is the REVERSE animation. Let’s see how this works. We’re going up to about 18,000 feet and are looking for the soon to be developing storm. Look at this carefully. I held onto the last frame a bit longer so you can see that what I’m looking at is actually in the far SW Aleutian Islands. For timing…12Z is 6AM and 00Z is 6PM

Why am I doing this? I want to show you the “ballet” of the atmosphere and why things are so chaotic out in the northern Pacific Ocean. There is a LOT going on out there right now. Then you add in the jet stream out there…it’s blowing (at it’s core) at close to 170 knots or over 190 MPH.

That jet stream will be contorting itself over the next 5 days as well…helping to shape whatever comes our way to some extent, especially though Thursday.

So the storm that comes into the Rockies will come into the Plains…As it does so it will start bring up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. that moisture shows up when we look at a product called Precipitatable Water or PW. Note how the moisture streams north…the map below is for Friday night.

So moisture…check…upper level wave coming through the southern Rockies…check. Now about the arctic air.

Take a look at this…valid for 6PM Friday. These are the EURO forecast temperatures. See the 20s and teens just north of KC? See the sub-zero stuff in the upper Midwest?

So as that cold air is diving southwards…a surface storm organizes in the southern Plains. Again this map is valid for 6PM Friday.

Cold air diving into the circulation…warm air coming northwards into the SE parts of KS/OK/AR…and then spinning into the storm.

So part of this is where will that storm go. Granted it’s about 4 days away…so let’s look at the range of possibilities. This is valid for Saturday morning.

Note all the little L’s. Those are the individual ensemble members (50+). They are averaged out and the colored contours represent the average. So the green in N AR is the center position of the average of all the little Ls. That is a pretty darn good track for a big storm in KC.

Now back to the arctic air diving into the storm from the north. It’s somewhat easier to show it a few thousand feet up…again for 6AM Saturday.

Now we see things clearly. The numbers above at the temperatures at about 3000 feet…in °C. So for example the -8°C temp in KC…is really about 18°F at that level. The +11 temps towards south central MO is really 52°F at that level.

Now remember the moisture coming up from the Gulf. That moisture will be brought up into the cold air and circulated around the storm. That means heavy snow.

So the play out on Friday is perhaps some rain…then a wintry mix…then snow. The contrast between the low pressure towards N AR and the southwards building arctic high across the US/Canadian border will create a tight pressure gradient and wind…lots of wind.

We may be looking at a blizzard again.

I’m not sure when to start talking about potential accumulations…but my feeling is, as a starting point…4-8″.  I may not go there on the newscasts yet…but that’s the purpose of the blog…right? Again a starting point based on the current data…and there is upside to that since the fluff factor of the snow will be much higher this time…that adds up faster. Regardless you’ll have a near impossible time measuring this because of the crazy winds. Our EURO model is cranking out 40-50 MPH winds again on Saturday morning…the GFS is more in the 35-40 mph category…still blizzard condition potential.

Now can we miss this snow. Sure. Can we still get less snow or more snow…sure. Do we avoid the cold and the sub-zero wind chills…NOPE!

Finally…I want you to remember the Chiefs v Titans game back in December of 2016. Remember that? It was one degree at game time. Now I want you to look at this tweet I sent out yesterday.

The surface map comparisons from 2016 (L) and forecast for Sunday (R) are uncannily almost the same…almost to the same surface pressure in the KC region too! Maps via @weatherbell @GregPostel JL pic.twitter.com/t4rWHxuhLj

— Fox 4 Weather KC (@fox4wx) January 14, 2019

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Look at the bottom 2 maps…virtually the same! The biggest difference is the position of the storm off of the east coast Sunday compared to the NE part of Canada in 2016…but with the strength of the high about the same…it’s reasonable to think sub-zero in the morning and single digits in the afternoon. It’s a matter (assuming we have clear skies) how low it gets Sunday morning. Then how fast we fall Sunday night before the SW winds kick in to slow the tanking. Monday morning could be well below zero again depending on how fast the cold air starts leaving the region.

OK I have to stop now…1500+ words is enough to glaze your eyes over…maybe glaze isn’t the right word though considering the weather coming.

Our feature photo comes from Don Franklin…pretty!

Joe

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/01/15/joes-weather-blog-classic-snowstorm-threat-for-kc-increasing-tue-1-15/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/01/15/joes-weather-blog-classic-snowstorm-threat-for-kc-increasing-tue-1-15/

[cyclinglegs]

I’m back.

14 days in France, 10 days with Unique Cycling Tours, and 4 days by my lonesome in Annecy.

6 hours from Geneva to Doha. A 20 hour stopover in Doha. 13 hours to Adelaide. We are a very long way away.

Climbing some epic mountains:

Mont Ventoux

Alpe d’Huez

Glandon/Croix de Fer

Telegraphe

Galibier

Plus other rides across some superb countryside and through some amazing old villages in stunning Provence and the Rhone-Alpes.

My vocabulary cannot provide justification to my amazement of riding across this stunning country.

_______________________________

Before i get further into my experiences, I want to put something out there.

I’m thinking of doing a cycling trip next year to Italy.

Dolomites, Bormio, Lake Como??? I haven’t given it too much thought. 

BUT – Is there any interest among my readers to get a Wednesday Legs cycling tour together for winter next year?

Based on my experience with the Unique Cycling Tours team, I would have no hesitation in using them if we can get a Wednesday Legs group together.

I am not fixed on  the specifics, and more than happy to enter into dialogue if there is an interest.

Send me an email and we’ll see where it goes. No immediate rush, I’ll be asking the question for another several months. But if we can get 5 – 7 responses, we can look to lock something in with George at UCT.

_____________________________________________________________________

  So, my experiences. Please forgive the length of this posting, a lot of photos.  Tgere is probably too much to take in with the one visit, so feel free to jump in and out at your leaisure.

The 3rd part of my trip where i travelled by myself to Annecy will be included in the next Wedneday Legs posting.

This tour promised to be a spectacular introduction to cycling on the continent, and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

The Unique Cycling Tours part of my holiday had us staying in Seguret in Provence for the first 5 days, then transitioning down to Allemond at the base of the Glandon in the French Alpes for the next 5 days. Excuse my cartographic skills below, but 1represents the first half of the UCT tour, 2 is the second half, and 3 represents the few days I had by myself before i flew back to Adelaide.

The tour started with

Sporting Director and Tour Leader – George Wilson

Super Domestique and chief wise-arse – Steve Sanders

Team photographer and blogger (Beardys Caravan) Marcus “Beardy McBeardy” – Only for the Provence section

Team chef/Yorkshireman/Hardman on the road- Chris Heeson – Chef on the Provence section, then team rider for the Alpes.

Ferg “Did I mention the time that I ” Frog – using this tour as a boot camp for his attack on the Melbourne race series.

The Director “of video selfies” – Richie

Jedi Yoga master – Ed

Super Lantern Rouge – Ian “did someone mention a picnic” Pibworth.

A few comments about my trip and observations before I start with the travelogue:

My goals were to finish each ride, not in any record pace, but at a pace that would see me comfortably finish that days and all other days riding.

I was going to take as many photos as possible on the bike, and whilst I kept this up, I found that every turn had another classic photo opportunity – when do you stop?

Eat, Eat, Eat. This was a cycling holiday, and therefore fuelling was of paramount importance to ensure we got to the end.

Listen to the body. 9 days of cycling was going to place unknown demands on the body.

Chill out when you can – if that means taking a 10 minute stop to have a picnic – so be it.

As a general rule, the French do not make good coffee.

As a general rule, the Belgiums make excellant beer.

Look around you, you never know if/when you will be back.

Part 1 – Provence

Day 1 – Transfer from the airprt to Segulat

We all met early outside the NH Hotel at the Lyon Airport, packed the van and trailer, and jumped out on the autoroute, first stop Bedoin at the base of Mont Ventoux where we were to get rubber down on a warm-up ride on day 1.

Accommodation was a 30km ride away from Bedouin skirting Mont Ventoux, but the sight of the famous rock on our right shoulder provided a teaser for the next days challenge. The main ascent of the 3 up Mont Ventoux starts in the historic old town of Bedoin, so a perfect start to our tour.

It was good to see the bike arrived safely, and didn’t take too long to build, with a little help from Steve on the rear derailer.

The short ride had us passing through the town of Mallecene, the start of the Mont Ventoux ascent from the opposite side to Bedoin.

The accommodation in Provence was a superb villa built into the side of a hill at the top of a short but very steep driveway, overlooking the plains of Provence. An infinity pool provided very welcome relief at the end of each days rides as Europe was experiencing a heat wave.

Dinner in Provence was provided by Chef Chris whose effort to ride long and hard and then to put a superb dinner on the table became the stuff of legends. Chris is a “retired” chef teaching down at TAFE, and has a small catering business on the side.

A briefing each evening was facilitated by George. Day 1’s briefing had George walking us through the ascents of Mont Ventoux using his local knowledge and the mapping app ride with gaps. The challenge had been put out there to the team well before the tour started, 3 ascents of Mont Ventoux. Beardy, Ferg and Richie were to tackle the triple ascent. Ed and Chris the two, and the rest of us the one.

Strava route for day 1 – https://www.strava.com/activities/1037840518

Day 2 – Mont Ventoux

Waking up to glorious views over the valley, the triple team set off early, with plans for the remainder to meet them in Bedouin for a coffee after their first ascent. The heat was building up quick, and by the time we hit Bedouin it was already climbing up towards 30 degrees.

Bedouin was awash with Belgiums who had arrived en-mass to celebrate Eddie Merckx birthday. Apparently the Belgiums have claimed Mont Ventoux as their “own”, and each year festivities are held in the towns and villages around Mont Ventoux, with numerous sportive climbs planned for the Saturday. So Bedouin was abuzz with cyclists of all ages and sizes.

Mont Ventoux is one of the the hardest of all the Tour de France climbs. The mountain claimed the life of the great English cyclist Tom Simpson, who died here on July 13th 1967 from a combination of a stomach upset, heat exhaustion, alcohol and amphetamines.

There is a memorial to Tom 1.5 km from the summit which has become a shrine to fans of cycling.

The ascent from Bedoin is the classic way up the mountain. The length of the climb from Bedoin at 300m asl to the summit at 1912m is 21.5km . This gives an elevation of 1612m and an average gradient of 7.5%. This doesn’t sound too bad but when you break the climb down into its 3 obvious sections, with the first 5.5 km being a sedate 4.4% average gradient.

The next section through the forest up to Chalet Reynard is 9.5km long with an average gradient of over 9%, some sections hovering around 11% and 12%. I struggled up this section big time. I was never not going to get there, but coming from the cold Adelaide winter to this heat wave, together with time zone difference adjustment still a few days away had me wondering what I had got myself in for.  I had put in some big training efforts over a few months, but an expected workload increase saw little time on the bike, and I felt it on that climb.

Fortunately Steve was there to help. Riding with me up a good portion of the climb to Chalet Reynard and up to the summit, providing moral support, keeping me focused and making sure I stopped at Chalet Reynard for a break.

The last 6km from Chalet Reynard has a gradient around 7%, but is more exposed. Apart from the temperature, we were extremely fortunate because the wind was gusting at a relatively sedate 20 – 30kmh. The following day, the day the Belgiums were climbing Ventoux from all sides turned out to be a particularly nasty day, high temperature s and very high winds.

If you cast your mind back to last year, the TdF Mont Ventoux stage was meant to finish on the summit, but impossibly windy conditions had the finish brought back down to Chalet Reynard.

A quick stop at the Simpson Memorial before tacking the last 1.5km at 10% before cresting.  What a ride, what a day, what a view.

Chappeau to the guys who rode the double and triple climbs of Ventoux. An amazing feat.

Strava route for Day 2 – https://www.strava.com/activities/1039650729

Day 3 – Village loop.

It all started beautifully, a civilised 9am start, the first 10 kms a lovely gentle descent, wandering through numerous old villages on the way to St Didier, where we stopped for a coffee and a quick walk around town.

The ride back to the Villa in Seguret turned a little shite. The fabled winds of Provence picked up and we ended up slogging our way back uphill and fighting head and cross winds. The group splintered into 3, with me and my best mate Steve Saunders, who stayed behind to help me finish, bringing up the rear.

A brutal end, but an mother unforgettable ride through the villlages and vineyards of Provence.

One observation in the first few days was the absence of bananas. A staple diet for cyclists in Australia, the lack of Bananas seemed strange in a Cycle mad part of the world.

Until we caught a glimpse of bananas in a stall in one of the villages we passed through on the way out. The Saturday morning village market was small, with around 15 stalls, but the quality of produce was superb, it had our resident chef Chris salivating.

A bunch of Bananas, and a bag of ripe juicy apricots later had us back on our way.

A lovely coffee in the Main Street of St Didier sitting under the tree canopies watching the village life pass us by was very pleasant.

Memories, too many to jot down here, but being served by a young friendly waitress, only to see her a few minutes later jump onto a scooter with a full face motocross helmet and gun it across the road stood out.

Strava route for Day 3 – https://www.strava.com/activities/1040643210

Day 4 – Gorge de la Nesque

The next day had us waking to yet another glorious morning, the wind had died down presenting us with a promise of a superb days riding conditions.  Today’s ride had us heading through some more character laden villages and typical french countryside over to the spectacular Gorges de la Nesque.

The Gorges de la Nesque is a 17.6 km ride, but averaging at around 2.2%, it was a relatively “relaxing” ride to allow us to spin the legs out, although that didn’t seem to stop the other guys, who quickly disappeared on the horizon. Steve held himself back to ride with me – superb views over the right shoulder as we slowly ascended to the lookout.

After regrouping back at the village at the start of the Gorges, we headed across to Bedoin for lunch, and then back to the Villa.

Strava route for Day 4 – https://www.strava.com/activities/1042691649

Day 5 – Riders Choice.

The body was starting to feel a little sore. My arse. Ouch.  Beardy, Ferg, Richie and Ed split into two groups and did different ascents of Mont Ventoux. Chris, George, Steve decided to clean up and head down to the Roman Village for a coffee before our transition phase tomorrow.

Me, I headed out to do some sightseeing – on the bike of course. A discussion with George last night had a few alternatives that I could tackle depending on how the body held up.

The local town Seguret is built into the side of a step hill/cliff, old, cobbled roads, amazing.

A quick look around Sablet before cruising over to Vaison La Romaine. A local tribe established a small village on top of a rocky promontory, which grew into a village across the other side of the river, connected by an arched cobbled bridge. A meander around a surprisingly large town before a coffee in the square.

Next stop was Crestet, another historic town built a few hundred metres above the plains. I initially wanted to look at this town, but the road continued through and up into natural bushland, so what’s a man to do but to carry on riding up following the road to its natural paved ending.

Next stop, Malsuscene for a lunch of Quiche and Sausage roll from the patisserie before I looped back around towards the Villa, via a stunning climb up to Suzette.

  All up, what was meant to be a cruisy day ended up a 73km ride with 1400m of climbing.

A few of us popped up to the old village for a walkaround.

Strava route for Day 5 – https://www.strava.com/activities/1044057197

My heat map for the Provence stage of the trip

Part 2 – Rhone Alps

  Day 6 – Transition to the Alpes

We transitioned over to the French Alps after dropping Beardy McBeardy off in Carpentras for his next gig before his TdF duties.

The hotel we were staying at is about a few hunj metres from the dam wall, the start of the Glandon/Croix der Fer (Iron Cross) climb.

A quick settling in before we popped out for a ride up to Villard Reculas, with its 7 hairpins before passing over through the Col de la Confessions before dropping down to Huez, the old town halfway up the famous Alpe d Huez climb. The views from the Confession down onto the valley some 700m above the valley floor below were outstanding. (The next day we got to look up at Huez and the road from Reculas, the road at Col de la Confessions was carved into the side of the sheer exposed rock face of the mountain, unbelievable).

Looking down onto Huez from Col de la Confessions

A quick drink at a cafe in Huez before backtracking back to our hotel in Allemond.

The hotel is staffed by Dutch, who in a similar manner to the Belgiums with Mont Ventoux, have effectively laid claim to Alp de Huez as their own. No air conditioning to provide comfort in this heat wave had some unsettled nights, but on a positive note, the beer was good. A surprise at this hotel was the 7 Euro lunch (pasta) and laundry deal each day, Kit washed each evening, returned by 8, and pasta lunch thrown in, bargain. Pasta was quite simple, but the pasta bar was open till around 4:30 in the afternoon so we were able to get back in good time most days.

Strava route for Day 6 – https://www.strava.com/activities/1045816503

Day 7 – Glandon/Croix de Fer

As for all days, George opened up the ride options to the group for discussion. The double Glandon was targeted by Richie, Ed, Ferg and George. These guys are animals. Me, I was going to be happy with the Col de la Croix de Fer (Pass of the Iron Cross).

The Col de la Croix de Fer is a spectacular. At 27.5 km long at an average gradient of 4.7% doesn’t sound much, but there are some downhill sections, made up with some particularly steep 11% sections. The bottom takes you through forested land with waterfalls and beautiful snatches of views up through the valley as you slowly ascend up towards the dam 2/3 of the way up. Once you hit the dam, it the valley opens right up allowing you to see almost all the way up to the summit.

Just past the dam I stopped for a quiet relaxing “picnic” of a Nutella and apricot jam baguette I’d prepared in the morning. Shoes off, socks off, jersey off, bib straps down, sitting in the middle of nature looking up at the snow capped granite mountain peaks, listening to the waterfalls and smelling the grease mountain air – this is the life.

Alas, I had to get back on the bike to finish off the ride to the top, back down to the turnoff to the Glandon summit, all of a couple of hundred metres before gliding back down to the cafe at the turnoff to catch up with Steve who had for the first time  driven the van up to support the riders.  The previous night George had highly recommended the tart of the day at this cafe, and ask for Chantil cream. For some reason, we saw a lot of canned cream in cafes over in France, particularly on top of the cappuccinos, but you need to ask for Chantil cream – real dairy cream.  Blueberry tart was the tart of the day, a generous serving with blueberry flavoured cream, an excellent suggestion George.

The descent back down to Allemond was brilliant, but over way too fast. We did hit a lot of road works today as they prepared the road for Stage 17 of the TdF – La Mure to Serre-Chevalier – 183km, 5,421m total climbing as they take on the Croix de Fer, Telegraph and Galibier.  The route will take them past the front door of our hotel in Allemont – S on the below map.

Strava route for Day 7 – https://www.strava.com/activities/1047249292

Day 8 – Alpe d’Huez.

This was the stage everyone was waiting for.

21 hairpins

In case you wonder, the numbering starts at the top, so the first No you see on your ascent is 21

Strava route for Day 8 – https://www.strava.com/activities/1048771839

Day 9 – Telegraphe / Galibier.

Only to follow it up with another classic of the TdF, the Telegraphe/Galibier. We were riding on the mountains where cycling history was made. As George said, if your cycling juices don’t flow up the Galibier, then nothing will.

  The Telegraphe was a pretty bog standard warm up climb.

But the Galibier, that was just out of this world.  The highest road passage in France at 2600m, riding up though the jagged peaks, With snow dotted around here and there is an experience I will never forget.

Riding along the Valley, looking up towards the bleak dark snow capped peaks was pretty awe inspiring. Being overtaken by countless high performance sports cars was pretty special. Stopping at the bottom of the start of the steep climb with 8.5km to reach the Col was just mind blowing.

The view from the top of the Galibier looking down the other side was stunning.

The Omlette and chips lunch 8 km down the other side was well received.

And the 60km descent on the other side wasn’t bad either.

Strava route for Day 9 – https://www.strava.com/activities/1050357544

Day 10 – Balconies

Last day, and a fairly cruisy ride with a “bit of climbing”.  Part way of Huez before taking a right at the fifth turn and riding across the “Balkans”, a road “dug” into the side of the cliff. Once again, the views back down onto the valley onto Le Borg d’ Oisans were astounding.

We then popped back to Le Borg d’ Oisans for a coffee and a chat about where to next. The options were a long 12% climb up to Villard-Notre-Dame Lafond through a tunnel, or a slightly easier ride to Le Plan du Col. Being the last ride, we chose the latter.

We finished off with lunch back in Le Borg d’ Oisans, and alas, the official tour for this group was over.

After lunch, I went for a little ride around the top of Allemond.

  Unfortunately i forgot to charge my bike computer the night before, so my strava map is a tad short.

Strava Ride for Day 10 – https://www.strava.com/activities/1051875853

  Wrap up.

This was for me a challenging but very rewarding cycling trip. Seeing and riing on the roads and up the mythical climbs of Ventoux, Gaibier and Alpe d’ Huez seemed dreamlike. You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face on completing these climbs.

Riding through the old villages of France, stopping at the markets, dropping into cafes and just chilling and experiencing life abroad with a great bunch of guys was relaxing and mesmerizing.

I realize that this was only scratching the surface of cycling on the continent, but the joy and wonderment of this tour with Unique Cycling Tours, I’ve come to the realisation that this itch cannot be soothed with just this one scratch.

To that end, I’d like to thank the guys who formed the small team. Ferg, Ed, Ritchie, Chris and Marcus. It was an absolute pleasure sharing the road with you.

And finally to the Unique Cycling Tours team, George Wilson (right in the below picture) and Steve Sanders (left), thanks for your support and guidance throughout.  Two wonderful staging points in Seguret and Allemond.  A well organised and enjoyable tour. Your local experience, including an intimate uderstanding of the weather conditions lessened our concerns and let us focus on enjoying the rides.

Steve and George on top of Huez

  One bit of warning about George though – when George says there is a wee bit of climbing, be prepared for some more hard slogging.

If anyone wants to speak to me about my experiences, or are looking for some tips about travelling overseas with your bike, all it will take is a good cup of coffee and a chocolate doughnut or a zepolli.

Cheers

  till next time

tight spokes

iPib

Cycle Touring with Unique Cycle Tours I'm back. 14 days in France, 10 days with Unique Cycling Tours, and 4 days by my lonesome in Annecy.

[kansascityhappenings]

Joe’s Weather Blog: Strap on your seatbelts…this will be a bumpy 2 weeks (MON-1/14)

Well IF you don’t like winter weather…stop reading the blog right now. Go to another web page and call us this…it’s a web cam in Aruba where the sun is shining and it’s probably in the 80s today. IF you do like winter…or really if you just want to know what’s going to happen…keep reading…because for the next two weeks, maybe more, we’re going to have waves of arctic cold come through…threats of snowstorms, potentially some ice, cold brutal sub-zero wind chills, and potentially sub-zero morning lows. Heck the EURO model has us around 10 below for a HIGH on Chiefs Sunday. Yup it’s going to get bumpy and some will love it and many will get tired of it fast. Regardless there will be a lot to write about and talk about for the rest of the month it appears.

Forecast:

Today: Cloudy and dreary with little temperature change…highs around 32°

Tonight: Cloudy with lows in the upper 20s

Tuesday: It may remain cloudy again. There may be some thin spots/breaks in the PM. Highs in the 30s

Wednesday: Clouds again with some light freezing rain/drizzle possible later in the day into very early in the Thursday AM. It may create some AM THU rush hour concerns. Highs near 32°

Discussion:

I don’t even know where to start…

I think though I want to go back to the last couple of days…so much snow for so many folks…over a foot of it in parts of the Metro area. I don’t necessarily want to talk about that though…I do want to talk about how, within about 15 miles or so…this almost turned into a much lessor type snow.

The snowfall gradient highlights why it can be so difficult, if not impossible, to figure out accurate snow amounts (as a forecast) sometimes. Many of you received 6-10″ of snow…some had 10-13″ of snow (inside the KC Metro area!). Others had…wait for it…4-6″ of snow…inside the Metro area!!!

Yup…there was this weird zone from about KCI (about 4.5″) into Wyandotte County and into far western JOCO that go much less snow than about 10-15 miles away. So basically in the KC Metro area there was a 5-13″ snow gradient. You can argue that that gradient was within 10-20 miles.

We know everyone has been waiting with bated breath for the official snow total map of our recent winter storm. We ended up with 8.5" officially at the office here in Pleasant Hill, MO. pic.twitter.com/pgv04ddwwL

— NWS Kansas City (@NWSKansasCity) January 13, 2019

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The map above is decent but even it is a bit off in terms of some of the localized amounts in parts of JOCO and JACO and maybe a few other areas as well.

Here is a bit more of a detailed map…this doesn’t include all the snow totals…but you get an idea of the highlighted (to the left) lower totals.

So that gradient was real.

Here are some of the higher totals in our region. The highest in MO was 20″ in Montgomery City.

The reality of what fell though will sort of be tough to know for sure. The snow was heavy and wet and was compacting on itself. So unless you were out there every 1-2 hours or so…your final total may be lower than what technically fell. I had 10″ here a the house, admittedly though I didn’t measure that till 2PM SAT and there may have been a higher total before that measurement. I do know that we had about 3.5″ at 11PM FRI night when I measured…and 5″ when I left early SAT AM to go to work.

Anyway…snow gradients are fascinating and frustrating. The hindsight correct forecast was something like 5-17″ through the region and 5″-13″ in KC proper…

So that’s storm #1.

I don’t want to get too involved in the nitty gritty of the next 2 days really. I will just leave you with the satellite pictures…and you can see the issue. Hopefully there are some breaks at some point but as I explained yesterday I’ve been here for more than 20 years…and high moisture wet snows melting are notorious for residual low clouds when the winds are light. It’s worthy of a blog by itself really.

Onwards…

As I mentioned yesterday there is a fast zippy moving wave that could generate some light precip…of the icy kind sometime later Wednesday into Thursday AM. The potential for a light glaze of ice is there because temperatures aloft will be coming up above freezing I think. That means what falls aloft will melt as it falls…then refreeze as it hits the surface assuming we’re under 32°. It’s worth following because even though it’s not a significant system…the timing, overnight WED/early THU could create issues on THU AM. There could be a wintry mix of sleet or snow as well involved, at least at first. A switch to some very light rain is possible as well towards the end of the system.

Then there is the potential of another snow, and another snowstorm. There isn’t a lot of change in this from yesterday…as a strong wave/storm in the upper levels is coming into the region as the arctic air drops into the area. Really it’s a classic set-up as I illustrated yesterday. Maybe not over 12″ BUT this will be a wet to dry snow transition type thing and depending on the situation on Friday…there could even be some sleet for awhile as well. The drier nature of the snow means that, unlike the 8-10:1 ratios from the past weekend, the ratios this time will be higher, which means a bigger “fluff” factor and this time it will take LESS moisture to add up to bigger snows.

Obviously it’s too early to get too specific on this…but the data is sure pointing to another significant snow in the region.

The heaviest would be on later Friday>Saturday, especially during the 1st 1/2>2/3rds of the day. Again a classic set-up with an arctic boundary in the region (to the south of KC) and a strong wave and decent surface low moving along that boundary. As you know I preach using an ensemble approach to storms 5+ days out especially. Let’s see where they are thinking the surface storm will be…these are from the EURO ensembles…

Almost every one of those is a good to classic position for heavy snow and near blizzard conditions locally. NOTE the black lines…those are isobars. The more isobars you see the bigger the change in air pressure in a specified distance. Notice how they are packed along our latitude and from eastern IA to south central KS? That’s trouble with a capital T. Unlike the weekend storm where the snow melted for hours on the pavement and there was no wind…this time that’s a wind maker set-up.

Take a look at the wind gust potential off the EURO model…this is probably somewhat overdone but you get the message. This is for noon on Saturday.

This obviously is NOT set in stone…I’m telling you from days ahead of time that there may well be players on the field coming together to create another memorable snowstorm in the region. That’s the purpose of the blog. I will tell you that I’m hitting this harder on the air than I’ve done in the past from so far out though. That is significant for me.

More on that in the coming days…

Then the arctic air and that is the guarantee through all this. It’s a matter of just how cold it gets…not that it will get cold. It will!

The cold on Sunday will be nasty. Last night I had 13° for a high…and that may be 10° to high. Snow cover + an arctic air mass in place could send temperatures to near 0° in the morning…and temperatures easily may stay is the single digits all day and IF we’re not careful…take a look at this.

This is from the EURO model for afternoon highs Sunday..

I typically don’t like using the GFS temperatures that far out…but the signal is clear.

Could this be the coldest Chiefs game? Remember this?

That was 2+ years ago.

OK let’s get this published…our feature photo comes from Laurie Wittman Hoehns

  See you tonight on FOX 4!

Joe

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/01/14/joes-weather-blog-strap-on-your-seatbelts-this-will-be-a-bumpy-2-weeks-mon-1-14/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/01/14/joes-weather-blog-strap-on-your-seatbeltsthis-will-be-a-bumpy-2-weeks-mon-1-14/