#ask ava: an organizational tag and not an advice column (unless it needs to be)

[anya-chalotra]

hi hi hi <33 what fonts did u use on ur barbie gifsets i'm truly in love and i'm SO inspired

Hi, lovely! In descending order:

Multicolore (8pt, 6pt)

Sherlock (120pt, 24pt)

Tw Cen MT (10pt) set to Regular

Those out of the way, I’ll add that I am extremely finicky when it comes to typography, which mostly means that I go through a multitude of different fonts and font combos. I think I had roughly a dozen or so other fonts picked out for the title and annotations alike, so I’ll go ahead and list some of those as well. Great fonts to have even if you don’t end up using them for a Barbie-themed set.

Aaleyah — for “Barbie” title

Avenir (set to 35 Light) — for annotations

Barbie (one of the actual OG Barbie fonts)

Baroneys — for “Barbie” title

Buryland Script — for “Barbie” title

Daylight & Moonlight (set to Light) — for “Barbie” title

DK Sensory Overload — for date

Journey to Thailand — for “Barbie” title

Karla — for annotations

Lobster Two — for “Barbie” title

Montserrat — for date and annotations

Roboto — for annotations

Telegrafico — for annotations

TrashHand — for date

Wired Pop — for “Barbie” title

You can find more examples for a bunch of these fonts here and here.

[anya-chalotra]

bestie that was the explicit statement, they wanna make sure we know the ot3 is not happening and jamie's straight 😭😭😭😭😭

That man is straighter than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. His wardrobe screams both Barbie and Ken, and I guarantee he'd want to fuck both Barbie and Ken in the upcoming Barbie movie. They're going to have to write "HE'S NOT BI" in permanent marker on his forehead to counteract literally just the dangly earring he wore in 3x03, and barely just.

The fact that his team, his coaches, and the funky gay journalist writing a book about them all collectively think he's fruity? The fact that he doesn't outright deny it, but expresses flattery instead? I think the writers choosing omission over denial is significant. And even if it goes nowhere in the narrative, what it does accomplish is allowing room and flexibility for the audience's perception, and that's enough for me. I will simply be a B.B.O. (bi by omission) truther.

[anya-chalotra]

hi! first of all i wanted to say i'm obsessed with your shadow and bone gifsets (all your gifsets tbh, you're super talented!), i was wondering how you were able to get the glitches on this gifset to be green & yellow like that? i just can't figure out how to change the colors like that using my normal method of using the rgb channels and i love the way the green and yellow works: /post/712882007539171328/and-yet-they-hesitated-the-knowledge-that-they

Gosh, thank you so much. You'd think after years of doing this, I'd be a little more equipped to handle compliments, but I still get flustered like it's the one of the first times all over again.

The set in question for anyone else wondering or trying to mess around with 3D/glitch effects and changing up the colors. And here is another example.

Hopefully this makes sense (and feel free to reach back out if it doesn't!) but I don't actually touch the RGB channels at all—or, at least, not later on in the process to actually shift the colors around. First, I do the default setting for the basic 3D effect, which is just the channel for reds activated:

And then this is where the Hue/Saturation adjustment comes in handy. Because red and cyan are already such isolated color points, it means it's a piece of cake to shift both around as you see fit. I knew the final products (with the film and light leak overlays) were going to be orange-yellow and green, so I shifted my Reds to the right to be more yellow and my Cyans to the left to be more green.

As another example, here's pink and purple:

Keep in mind that working with a B&W base also makes things exponentially easier and that won't always be the case. Obviously, when your base gif isn't black and white, there are going to be reds and/or cyans (or greens and purples, if you tick off the G channel; or blues and yellows, if you tick off the B channel) so it requires a bit more effort and work in making sure that only your glitch layers are affected.

[anya-chalotra]

hi ava, most talented gifmaker on tumblr!! first of all, obsessed with the gorgeous ted lasso sets you've been making <3 if no one has already asked and if you don't mind sharing, what's the larger font you used on this beautiful royjamie set? i'm a font hoarder collector and love the shape of the F lskjdfldskj. thank you in advance!! 🥰

I cannot believe one of the most talented people on the entirety of Tumblr dot com-org-gov just called me the most talented gifmaker. I am astonished. Confounded. Honored, obviously. But I, too, am a font hoarder collector (938 fonts and counting, and that's after getting rid of some recently) so I am always happy to share from my figurative vault.

It's called GIN Grotesk and I used the Rounded style.

[anya-chalotra]

looking back at the answer where you’re like they would have to say jamie “is not bi” for anyone to believe it and when someone straight up asked brendan if jamie was bi the other day he said “maybe”. like. we won

Brendan Hunt's AMA was literally a roller coaster ride. The man really swept the legs out from anyone believing the end was a dream sequence (which certainly was a choice; even though I wasn't a dream sequence truther, I was under the same impression as most that the ambiguity was intentional) while also giving what have to be some of the wildest takes on plot happenings (like Ted and Michelle's ending being the thing that's intentionally ambiguous, or boiling down the Roy and Jamie macho fiasco in the finale to "well, men are stupid and their dynamic was going too well") and... a whole host of other shenanigans.

But all of that aside, Bi Jamie Truthers won. I said, "I think the writers choosing omission over denial is significant." And I was right!

I'll even take his point on the Roy/Keeley/Jamie dynamic because hot single people can get together and decide to have a nice, steamy, incredibly bisexual threesome post-canon once they've worked out their issues.

[anya-chalotra]

hi! i’m just wondering how you made your barbie poster gifsets? no worries if it’s too much to explain :)

@harliquinnz asked: Hi, could you explain how you made those Witcher Barbie posters please?

@mal-oretsevs asked: ava hellp, how did you do the barbie edits, the tutorial i found, i’m just slow and don’t understand 😭

I'm going to refer everyone to this tutorial I wrote for a different set. It’s the same general concept and gist, and it should cover all the essentials you need to know. The only real differences in what’s covered in the tutorial are, of course, the base gif size (540x600 instead of 540x540) and the shape used.

Other than that, the shape portion of the tutorial touches base on what I did and still do to create sets like this one, this one, this one, these poster sets, and yes, the Barbie posters.

You can find the fonts I used in this masterpost, and a simple Google search for “[insert object] png” usually does the trick when it comes to finding cutouts to use.

[anya-chalotra]

ma'am i am rolling out the red carpet for you right now for you, this is your comeback tour and it's so good to see you back ❤️

The way you've made me feel like a celebrity making some big on-screen return...

[anya-chalotra]

wow ava, your new header is so cool🩵

Ahhh, thank you so much! I spend far too much time on both my desktop and mobile headers, always, and I wanted one that captured the true essence and spirit of this blog—which is, obviously, the continued clownery for OT3s. 🤡

[anya-chalotra]

your icons are sooo gorgeous!!! thanks for making them <3

Gosh, thank you for appreciating them. Honestly, I'm just happy that people like them, because making icons is a bit of stress relief compared to the hodge-podge of gifmaking. Like yoga vs an intense cardio workout, if you will. I gather that might be a bit of a dramatic comparison, but there's definitely a level of "I can shut my brain off a bit while doing this" that I experience with making icons that I definitely do not experience while giffing.

Point being—my unneeded rambling aside—that it's a bit of a break from everything (both in Photoshop and in life) for me, and I'm glad that people enjoy them enough to use them. It makes me really happy to see. 🥺

[anya-chalotra]

hey ava! I'm sorry i don't mean to bother you, i just wanted to say your ted lasso gifs are absolutely amazing!!

Quite the opposite of a bother, rest assured. 💖🥺 It's little assurances like this that make me feel like the unjustified (read: ridiculous, outrageous, crazy) number of hours I spend with Photoshop open are a little more justified. I probably would have giffed the show sooner, but Life™ got in the way around the time of S2 airing, and then this past year was lost to an unplanned year-long hiatus from Tumblr, but I'm happy to finally be giffing it now. (And also terribly sad to see the show, or at least this chapter, come to a close right after I start giffing it lol.)

[anya-chalotra]

Welcome back! The giffing community missed you!

Oh, this is so sweet, oh my gosh. I definitely missed it while I was away, so I'm glad to be back—not just creating, but being able to see so many breathtaking and creative works again as well. And everyone's just been so warm and welcoming that I am still incredibly moved by the reception.

[anya-chalotra]

hi i’m obsessed with you bye

[anya-chalotra]

aaaaaaaa seeing your name pop up in my notes was like the sun rising after a loooooong night. it's good to see you back! 💛

My heart. Please. "The sun rising after a long night" is definitely how I feel about getting to see everyone's marvelous creations again. I've always been a sappy and sentimental person by nature, but coming back to Tumblr really did feel like coming back home after being gone a long time? It's just felt so cozy since being back, and I have people like you (who say such sweet things!) to thank for that.

[anya-chalotra]

omg hi you don’t know me but i’ve followed you for a few years and i just want to say i’m so happy to see you back on the dash 🥺💛 i hope you’re taking care of yourself & have fun here!!!

Oh my gosh, thank you so much. I am so moved and overwhelmed by the warm welcome I've received since I came back. I was admittedly really nervous about it before I actually did and even put it off for a few days, thinking it wouldn't be any sort of big deal, but everyone's been so lovely and made me feel so special. It's meant a lot. 🥹

[anya-chalotra]

AVA IS BACK!!

i missed your gorgeous masterpieces 🥺 hope you’re good! 💜

PLEASE THIS IS SENDING ME ALL THE WAY TO SPACE

[anya-chalotra]

welcome back 🥹

JAGODA PLS I'M IN TEARS