#im messing around with photoshop and figuring out some stuff i never used

[whyshedisappeared]

i remember it all too well

[love4hobi]

i’ve never made gifs before and i have absolutely no idea where to start T-T can you share your process or is that top secret lol? and dw i’m not using you instead of google lol it’s just i’m very picky about what looks good and your gifs have such a nice frame rate and sharpness and stuff so i was wondering how you go about making them (i have photoshop which i’ve heard is what most people use i think? idk) sorry if you get this question all the time feel free to ignore!

hi!! dont worry i had no idea where to start either and it took me a while and looking at several tutorials to figure out what i was doing cus its unfortunately not something u can just google and find all the steps to lol,, but anyway no my process is definitely not top secret!! i think most people use mostly the same process and then things like sharpening + coloring are all about personal preference! but heres some things that might help u out!! 🥺

heres a couple tutorials that could help u get the hang of the actual technical process and steps of converting a video file to a gif which for most people is about the same, kookyjin’s tutorial, sugajimin’s tutorial

you don’t have to use vapoursynth but it does make the process a little easier by cropping and resizing the video for u, and it also has a denoise filter which will make your gifs look smoother, it can be a little tricky to install but heres the link for that

as for my personal way of sharpening i use smart sharpen, and sometimes unsharp mask if i want it just a little bit sharper. the basic sharpening for tumblr gifs is 500% at 0.3px, but u can use more or less depending on the quality of the video. lower quality videos (like youtube videos) usually cant take more sharpening before they start to look oversharpened so u can lower it to 0.2px. but for things like my music video gifsets where the source video file im using is higher quality and hasnt been compressed the way youtube videos are (i get them from other websites where people have access to higher quality versions of the mv), for those i’ll often use 0.4 or even 0.5px, so it really depends! i also sometimes change the opacity of the sharpening filter to fine tune it a bit more. what i like to do lately is start off at an amount thats like obviously too much and oversharpened, and then gradually work my way down until i think it looks ok! i think its just something you have to build up a sense for over time :] but yea those r just some tips

as for coloring, its even more up to personal preference than sharpening is! i personally like a really natural coloring that just brings out the colors that were already in the video. so i cant give tips about other coloring styles but if u like mine id say the most important thing is creating contrast. and the best layers ive found to do so is with levels and curves. i ALWAYS start my coloring with a levels layer and darken the shadows and brighten the highlights as much as i think looks natural. this creates a good base to make the rest of the coloring on, gets rid of the “gray cast” (you’ll notice it if you click the little eye next to the levels layer and turn it on and off and see the difference with and without it), and makes the colors in the gif look more vibrant and saturated without actually using a vibrance saturation layer. i rarely ever use a vibrance saturation layer and if i do its actually to lower the saturation. after a levels layer ive been using (in order) two curves layers (its kinda hard to explain how to use those u just have to mess around with it until it does what u want), a brightness contrast layer, an exposure layer, sometimes a selective color layer (just to darken the blacks a little which is another good way to create contrast), and a gradient layer at about 10% opacity of just the white to black one to add a little bit more contrast :)

for frame rate i also prefer it to look natural and almost as fast as the original video. i will usually do 0.01 seconds above what the frame rate was when i originally imported the frames. so for 25 fps videos i would use 0.05, for 30 fps 0.04, and 60 fps 0.03

i hope all of that made sense and u find at least some of it helpful🥺 if u have any questions please feel free to send me another ask id be happy to answer!! even if u think it might be a dumb question i probably had it too at some point and might be able to help<33 good luck i promise giffing is really fun n worth sticking thru the first little bit of confusion!! ^_^

[jazajas]

okay so i finished love, victor a while ago and i saw some other reviews and thoughts about it here so now i've got a pretty good list on my thoughts and feelings.

tl;dr: it has some issues, yes, but im gonna hold out and hope it gets better later on because the same thing happened with the first few eps, i wasn't that into it but then it got good, and nothing is ever great with the first season, because at that point we're getting used to those characters.

⚠️caution: spoilers ahead (im on mobile, i cant get an under-the-cut)⚠️

1. while a leah on the offbeat movie would have been amazing movie sequel (even tho i havent read the book yet, im just here for the wlw content) i am kind of glad we got this instead. mostly because I've seen book series where one movie was good, so they decide to do the rest, turn out bad (hunger games? divergent? percy jackson? the hobbit?) because so much was cut from the book-to-first movie writing, that other scenes wouldn't make sense to future movies if they had those in while cutting others. however, i am sad that i didn't get to make the choice of deciding whether what was cut was wrong etc. about future movies, but i'll take what i can get.

2. LGBTQ+ POC as a lead! that's amazing! as a ace/bi lantina that's close to home (it also is great that victor's from texas and so is ya gorl) and even then it's a mixed latinx family! i think pilar mentioned that at least the grandmother left Colombia and i saw the Puerto Rican flag in victor's room. also the salazar's are definitely from small town texas, even without knowing the name. (church barbeques, the use of the words "such a diverse city" in regards to atlanta)

3. a lack of actual lgbtq+ main storylines (so far) is kind of sad for a show like this. i was getting serious bi/pan vibes (as a lot of other people) from victor from the beginning, and when it was implied that victor was actually gay (while great, not shaming) as it has been brought to my attention, there was a lot of looking at a lot of straight relationship problems (please let us know more about benji)- edit 6/18: upon further consideration, it very much is a show about questioning your sexuality, I'm speaking about the other straight relationship issues, not mia and Victor's, its just the first season.

4. let us talk about cheating for a sec. never okay, in any circumstance. i feel sorry for mia that she saw victor making out with benji and the fact that he was doing any of that in the first place. victor made a choice to lie about the espresso machine and then kissed benji at the hotel and then when benji was fighting with derek, basically confessed his love and mistakes, then proceeded to makeout with benji after he broke up with derek, he built that grave and now he must lie in it. i get having feelings for a guy when you are in a relationship with a girl, and not accepting yourself enough to end that relationship but you really want it to work so you can be "normal". really, he should have told mia after he got back from the trip tho. i get being in highschool and doing stupid stuff and making dumb decisions, but for a show aimed at teens i think we should also remind said teens to make good choices even if we have to lose some realism within the character choices.

4. pilar and her decisions based off her brother pissed me off. because i honestly think that if she'd kept her mouth shut about what she knew or confronted victor about it in the first place we could have avoided a LOT of mess. did she not learn from snooping around her mother's business about her relationships that going behind a person's back doesnt end well? i did, however, like the pilar/felix friendship and was really kind of hoping that they'd get together during their coffee hangout (although now im glad that didn't happen) because they had a deeper understanding of each other. same with wendy/felix, although they do seem to much alike to work out in the long run but i still feel bad for wendy.

5. i don't know how i feel about lake and andrew, as people separate from each other. both seem to be the way they are from their upbringing (not confirmed why andrew is such an ass, but if his comment about his dad is anything to go by i bet it's got something to do with attention) but andrew seems to be less, idk, superficial? like he turned down mia because he didn't want to be a rebound, he didn't out victor, he actually stood up to early teasing the other dudes in the lockerroom were doing at victor (with teasing of his own obviously but that interaction had him on my nice list until much later). lake? lake. i honestly don't have an opinion of her? not really. i mean after hanging out with pilar i was hoping felix wouldn't go back to lake. is her name laken? i feel like her full name is laken. but they also played the "im only like this because my mom is really superficial about stuff and i do like the geeky nice guy but appearances" to "actually screw the norms im gonna makeout with him infront of the whole student body". i honestly thought she was gonna be bi because she kept hitting on mia when she was helping set up for her "date" and "big night" and there was one point where i saw her face fall at something mia said in relation to her and idk i was hoping she'd be bi (i figured early on that victor/mia wasnt gonna work and was like "oh mia/lake would be cute" but now idk.

6. okay on to the "big night", i have one word. NO. i didn't like the peer pressure into having sex. i agreed with felix when he said "your body your choice" but im also disappointed that victor made out with mia and when lake was talking to felix after victor left he didn't try to stand up for victor.

7. on to age gaps because i hadn't really thought of this at first. we'll start with benji/derek: WHAT GRADE IS BENJI?! because that determines my thoughts. if he's a sophomore that meant that he and Derek started dating benji's freshman year and thats eugh, don't do that, don't care if its a gay couple that shouldn't be happening because the maturity of the two characters is DRASTICALLY different (this is also a reason i am not a fan of cmbyn) but that would explain why they were so rocky. hoping the event at the gay bar was open to anyone not just for drinking, but not liking that fact that not one of the adults with victor were like: hey, this is a 16 year old, that's kind of wack when that dude was hitting on victor. that made me question some stuff. although i figure it might be making up for the lack of a gay bar scene in love, simon. but even then, in svthsa it's a restaurant with a bar that some people go to just to drink at, it wasn't just a bar, simon could be there but should NOT have accepted drinks from college kids, not matter how attractive.

8. i loved how bram and simon and their friends helped victor out though. i like how bram was like: hey i know my friends are a lot so here's a gay basketball league becaue there's no one way to be gay. i like how Simon talked about needing help himself just to help victor and how he said his friends were cool with it because it's a community. i like of justin(?) mentioned how being what his parents wanted was putting on a mask and pretending, not him doing drag. my favorite lines from that ep are: "and before you ask my pronouns are they/them/theirs" "'they're all gay? even that guy? he's like [insert really tall number]' 'yeah. you should see him in heels'" "or in simon's case: really unathletic" "and also because bram said that if i wore [the jean jacket] one more time he'd burn it". also katya was there. and the group hug too!

9. the back hand homophobia in relation to family is sad, but realistic and i sincerely hope his parents are kind enough not to be too harsh on victor because of it. anything they say that isn't positive or supportive of victor is bad but i hope they realize that there is more to him than that and that they can come to terms with it because it's not always that hard to be a part of that community and super religious. i am biromantic and catholic. and while there are some things i wont agree on my mom with, i know that it's more of a strike against God for kicking out gay kids from families than it is to be gay, because those parents were given trust by GOD to love those kids no matter what, and be good parents. so in the end, the parents are wrong and harmful and in the case of christians against jesus's teachings to love everyone.

10. this is fan speculation but dont think simon/bram are going through a rough patch? i honestly think it'd be a little cruel to the characters to have on of their actors be producing but then not have that relationship stay. and while it's not set in stone and obviously things happen in the real world, we have no proof script wise about there being a rift. all we have are bad photoshopped ig photos and scenes where two characters are never standing next to each other probably beccaue schedules never link up correctly for minor characters. who knows, maybe nick robinson was filming for a movie where is does have an even more major role than victor's gay guru in a series about victor so his filming time was around that. im gonna keep hope that things are okay.

11. that being said: we need more mainstream wlw content, because someone said it earlier and it really does seem to be catering to straight girls. i'll admit i did freak out when benji played call me maybe which is something i associated with him and victor but then kissed a guy because who wouldn't? we get that serenade and sweetness and then it'a ripped from us. but i did mellow out. if i flipped later it was because victor was making dumb decisions and i had to give myself a moment of compsure before i continued.

in the end, i'd say that there is a lot of growth this series needs to go through, but i also know that some people just aren't going to like it and i get that. but i also know that sometimes the best of stories have rocky starts, nothing is ever perfect from the beginning. and besides, further seasons are on hold until we figure out this covid thing, which means that you bet they're gonna be looking at our feedback. they saw what we thought before, they can do it again

i really did like it but we need more ACTUAL lgbtq+ relationship stuff from this series and better decisions on what we are teaching the younger generations, as well as what we want to focus on and realism within characters. i'm giving it an 8/10, because there is always room for growth and i really hope we get better things out of this than what we have been given in season 2.

edit: someone mentioned it really seeming like it was meant for Disney+ and i felt that. also to anyone who reaches the tags agter reading ALL OF THIS: i am sorry

[bbmarks]

Hello! Hi! Your stuff is AMAZING! I have been using photoshop my entire life and have always been deathly afraid of trying GIFs. Is it hard? It seems so & when i start to try and google Im like hmm nah lol. I notice on tumblr people comment stuff like “wow your smoothness is great” or the quality & also I see some say the coloring of a certain scene made the GiF edit hard for them. Do you have any pointers for this stuff or some resource where I can pick up and learn to make nice gif sets :) TY

awww, thank you, that’s so sweet! 

no, i don’t think making gifs is hard at all :) especially once you get it down it’s just basically following steps. i could do it in my sleep lol. 

one of my internet friends actually taught me how to make them via text/videos a few years ago! so i was able to ask her about certain things i was confused about as i was learning. it probably only took an afternoon to really get it down! and once i got the basic structure down i could learn more about sharpening, coloring, text, etc. on my own. 

i can teach you some basics, but there are tons of good tutorials on here you can follow as well :) under the cut cause it’s gonna be long

To answer your questions: 1. some scenes/shows are really hard to color. sometimes that’s due to the lighting of the scene itself (i.e. dark/bright lights, etc.) or just due to the color palette the show itself uses. 2. i’m assuming you’re talking about sharpness when you say smoothness, but correct me if i’m wrong. gifs will look the best when they are taken from high quality content (netflix/hulu, HQ youtube videos) and you can sharpen them in photoshop itself (much like you would a picture). i have a sharpening action presaved in photoshop that is the first thing i do when opening up the video i want to gif in photoshop. 

Now for some giffing basics! 1. I typically screen record whatever it is i want to gif unless i can find a hq youtube video to download, but i find screen recording works best for quality. i use QuickTime Player for this. once i have what i want captured i export it in 4k and save it to a folder i have designated for videos i want to gif. 2. moving to photoshop the first step is opening the video you want to edit. to do this you go to file -> import -> video frames to layers once you do that a window will pop up asking for you to pick a range. you do not want to import the entire video bc you’d end up with way too much and if it’s too large ps won’t be able to process it. you’ll pick ‘selected range only’ and ‘limit to every 2 frames’. then i typically move the middle slider to the part of the clip i want to use and use the first and last sliders to pick the beginning and end of the clip you want (it’s okay if you get stuff in the beginning or end you don’t want as you can delete it later) 3. once i do that the first thing i do before messing with anything is use my sharpening action shortcut i have programmed in photoshop and wait for it to do it’s thing (this step you’ll have to skip until you can learn more about that and i really don’t remember how i actually set it up) 4. after that i’ll use the timeline and delete the frames i absolutely don’t want in my gif (i.e. if you got any extra stuff from the beginning/end). never never never delete from the middle as it won’t look right in the end. 5. after that i click on the three little lines on the far right of the timeline and click ‘select all frames’ then i click the three lines again and choose ‘flatten frames into layers’. then on the layers panel you’ll have frames that were just added on top of the layers. you want to then delete all the layers so you’re just left with frames 1-X.  6. after that i use the timeline to time delay the clips. It’ll usually say 0.02, but that’s much too fast so we want to slow it down. I usually change it to 0.07, but if i am working with something where i have fewer frames (like 25 or less) i will use anything from 0.07-0.11, just depends what looks right. 7. now comes cropping! you should know what you want your gif to look like before even making it (probably even before you start gathering clips). With my new Brio edit I had to figure out which lyrics i wanted to use, how many gifs i was going to use, what size i wanted them to be, and what scenes i wanted to use. the size i used for that one was 540 x 280 (you want to make sure your sizes are in pixels, not inches). For the smaller gifs that are side by side i usually use 245 x 160 and you can put up to 12 of those in your set. 8. since i suck at coloring i use pre-saved psds for my coloring. i have some basic ones saved, but also some more fun ones as well. these are pretty easy to find around tumblr and all you have to do is save them to your computer and then just open then in photoshop! you’ll want to select all the layers on the psd then drag it over on top of all the layers on your gif. note that not all psds work for everything and you may have to do some adjustments on different layers to get it to look right. 9. after editing it’s time to save! tumblr has some size restriction so if you pass them your gif won’t move or might just be a blank space. all gifs must be under 3 MB and i think your whole set has to be under 10 MB for it to work correctly. When saving I select those 3 little lines on the far right of the timeline again, make sure all layers are selected, then again flatten all frames into layers. after that you go to file -> export -> save for web. after that you’ll just hit save in the next window then you’ll be able to save it in .gif format and it’s ready for tumblr! 

there are tons of different ways to gif, this is just how i do it :) the more you practice the more you’ll learn 

[warmau]

here is a college!au jungkook x art student! reader au~  the jungkook here is based of my original college!jungkook au another altered commission post, hope you guys enjoy!! 

you meet jungkook because one way or another you both like art

you just happen to be a more hands on person, enjoying illustration and printmaking while jungkook tinkers around with digital art and creating models with practiced algorithms

actually,,,,,you’re not even in the class for gaming design - jungkook is and he just so happens to be great at all things computer

but,,,,,,,,,,creating characters,,,,,,,,,,,for games,,,,,,,like his own characters,,,,,,,well um,,,,,,creativity machine broken????

which is where you come in, you’ve never been close to jungkook in the way you’ve known yoongi and namjoon who have had classes in the art departments with you

but you know him well enough to recognize him barrelling through the uni cafeteria, laptop threatening to fall out of his unzipped backpack and three pens stuck behind his ears looking like a goddamn hot mess

and it takes you a moment, but then you lock eyes with him and it’s like a lightbulb has gone off above his head

as he moves his way past tables full of chattering students and finally throws himself into the seat across from you

“do i even have to ask how you are or -?” you start and jungkook reddens, shaking his bangs out his eyes as pulls out his laptop

he asks your name, not catching his breath at all even though he just looks like he ran a marathon

“that’s me,,,,,,,,,but - what’s up?”

you’re about to take another bite of your food, but jungkook turns his laptop around and you see what is just a ,,,,,,,, almost blank photoshop canvas

well it’s not blank, there’s a simple sketch of what looks like a warrior holding a sword - nothing new or interesting, something you see on the posters for those mobile fighting games that are super popular nowadays

you stare at them, then up at jungkook’s round dark eyes

“they,,,,,,,,they’re cute?”

you awkwardly comment, not sure what to really say or what is really going on

jungkook sighs, seemingly upset and you suddenly feel really sorry for that and try to look at the sketch again

“i,,,,,like their sword?!?” you add, but jungkook still looks like a storm cloud has gathered above his head

it’s silent for a moment,,,,,neither of you quite sure what to say - you’re not close enough to banter like friends or strangers enough just to leave

until jungkook finally clears his throat and looks over at you

“i,,,,,,,,i need help and namjoon said you like art so i was wondering if you could,,,,,help me,,,,,,”

you sit back, jungkook suddenly seems more nervous, broad shoulders tensed up as if he thinks you’re about to tell him to buzz off

but you just smile, “i can try to help - but you have to tell me,,,,what exactly you need my help with,,,,,you kind of just came running - literally - at me,,,”

he brightens up again, the happiness makes little wrinkles appear near his eyes and he nearly jumps up and down in his seat

“well,,,,i want to make a game character - this is all i have so far,,,,,it’s a boring sketch and they’re just cute but i want to make them,,,,,,better,,,,,,,,,,”

he chews his bottom lip in a manner that makes you think he’s the one that looks pretty cute right now

“i just,,,,,don’t know much about fashion ,,,,,, or,,,,,,,details and namjoon said you have an interest in that and that you draw really well and if it’s a bother i can just go-”

you eat while listening to jungkook nearly slip and fall over his words, but you nod at the end and agree

“ill try to help, im not too familiar with games but im sure we can think of something?”

jungkook gets up, a big smile on his face as he tells you he’ll meet you tomorrow in the library to go over some of his ideas

but before he turns you call out his name and he stops

“zip up your backpack, your laptop is going to fall out.” you giggle and jungkook blushes, half in embarrassment and half in shock

“ri-right, thanks!” he grins and does so before nearly running back out of the cafeteria

the first time you meet up with jungkook, you see him sitting cross legged on the chair in the library - laptop open and huge headphones on

his notepad and pencils are a scattered mess on the table beside him and his bag looks like it’s falling apart at the seams

from what you can tell - he’s a little messy, but you also know that he’s ranked in the top 5% of his major

with a brain like a calculator and a knack for anything electronic

honestly,,,,it’s a little intimidating - what could you have to offer to someone in the computer science department

you were just a humble art student trying to live your life,,,

you sit down across from him, jungkook is too absorbed in the game he’s playing to even notice you’re there

until ten minutes later, you hear him let out a small chuckle - you don’t even have to assume anything you’re pretty sure whatever game he is playing he just won

that’s when he finally looks up and you give a little wave

which sends a shock through jungkook, who nervously closes his laptop - a loud sound that makes several people turn their heads

and stutters out an apology for making you wait

“it’s fine, what game where you playing?”

jungkook fidgets a bit and barely answers you in an audible voice, “it’s just overwatch,,,,,,,”

you grin, you’ve at least heard that name before so you tell him that sounds cool - what character does he like in that game, maybe you two can find inspiration out of that.

jungkook seems surprised at your enthusiastic comment

actually,,,,he just isn’t used to cute people,,,,,,wanting to hear him ramble about gaming or well,,,,,,,,cute people in general

if jimin was here - seeing jungkook lean over to be closer to you as he shows you the characters and gushes about controls - he might have a heart attack (jimin just really wants jungkook to be happy hehe)

but you are really interested, hearing jungkook talk more about the aesthetics and his,,,,,quite jumbled,,,,ideas helps you figure out what kind of look he wants his character to go for

and you’re a systematic person - so you take notes in careful handwriting and jungkook notices

staring at it as you look up and feel your face heat up, “oh sorry - i just like to make notes so i can have like a plan,,,,,,is it weird - sorry if it’s weird,,,,”

but jungkook shakes his head, “no no it’s really cool,,,,i tend to be messy with my ideas so,,,”

his eyes drop to his stack of tattered notebooks and pens without caps, you follow his gaze and give a little shrug

“people are all different, but maybe you should,,,,organize your pens and stuff - you know just for help in the future.”

jungkook gives you an almost puppy like look of sadness in his pout, “organizing is hard,,,,,,”

you stare at him before bursting into a fit of giggles that makes jungkook confused

“it’s not hard, you just need a good system. like,,,,,instead of throwing your pens in your bag put them in a pencil case or in the smaller pockets.”

jungkook gives a small groan,,,but acknowledges that you’re right - maybe he’ll invest in a pencil case,,,,he hasn’t had one since middle school

and with a laugh, you tell him maybe you have an extra lying around you can bring it next time

and jungkook feels his cheeks turn pink as he stutters that you don’t have to,,,,but that he also has class in ten minutes so he has to go

you watch him, hurriedly dump all his things into his bag and rush off with a wave and a rushed “bye!”

you sit there for a moment, pulling your own sketch pad out and start to plan this character,,,,,,,,,somehow seeing jungkook makes you want to help him but it also makes you want to make sure he actually gets this project done

i mean,,,he might be a smart kid - but he really dives into things head first

a couple of weeks go by and you and jungkook meet up regularly

jungkook wants to go for something ice-warrior inspired so you show him catalogs from runways where models are wearing winter gowns and lots of crystal jewelry

he seems so mesmerized by all the different kinds of prints and details that you’re almost charmed by his questions and complete lack of understanding fashion

well,,,,,,you are charmed,,,,,it’s hard not to be when he’s sitting beside you

shoulder to shoulder and his eyes, wide and a transparently dark, a brown that was deep but married with flakes of lighter hues

and a smile,,,,,that seemed to light up the room around you and crinkle his nose just a bit

you were reminded of spring bunnies, of the youthful energy that so many other college students seemed to lose but that was so alive in the way jungkook talked and got excited about anything and everything

it became almost natural to see him,,,,,,with his hair messy and his backpack busting with books and his laptop all shoved in haphazardly

there were days were you two would just sit beside each other and you’d sketch while jungkook would work on his laptop

you’d listen to a calming playlist to get yourself into the mood, lots of artists that jungkook recognized

and somehow - along the way - you two would sometimes share headphones

and then sit and compare drawings and designs

namjoon had seen you once, when you were on your way from class to go meetup with jungkook and he asked you how it was going - working with him

you shrugged, you said it was fun - you were happy that you could help and namjoon seemed to want to ask something else

but refrained and waved before turning to head the opposite way

you didn’t expect that you’d get so comfortable so fast around jungkook, to the point where you’d meet up at his dorm

and instead of sharing headphones he’d just blast the music in his dorm

and you two would sometimes unapologetically try to sing to your favorite verse or challenge who knew more of the lyrics to this one song

his roommate, jimin was nothing but ecstatic to see you over - sometimes weirdly so but jungkook would nag at him to stop grinning all the time

while jimin would just dance his way out of the dorm, calling someone nmed taehyung with “updates on the jungkook situation”

you didn’t know what that meant, and jungkook told you to not worry about it

but,,,,,,,it was comfortable as friends for a while till,,,,,,,,something started to shift,,,,,

and it had happened when you’d joined jungkook in the computer lab of his majors department

he was playing overwatch again and you were watching him, doing a study of the different weapons so you and jungkook could work on his character

when he suddenly stopped and motioned for you to switch seats with him

“you want me to play?”

you asked, carefully putting the headphones on and jungkook gave you an excited nod, something mischievous glinting in his eyes

“it’ll be fun and you can get a feel for gaming.” he explained, and you agreed- although you told him you really had no idea what you were doing

“ill be here to help.” he smiled once more and you felt something tug inside your heart

and when you finally picked a character, you heard the game start and - as expected you were,,,,,,,,,pretty bad

at some point, jungkook leaned over and his large hand covered yours on the mouse

he scooted closer, completely unaware of the face that he was at the point where he was resting his chin on your shoulder

his eyes hyper focused on the screen and as he moved the mouse around, with your hand still under his

you could feel his body tense near yours, he really took this seriously when he played and it was showing

but the game was the last thing you could even think about,,,,,,,,the only thing on your mind was the proximity of jungkook to you

his hand nearly squeezing yours

and how,,,,,,,,as much as something like this would make you so totally uncomfortable,,,,,because it was jungkook

you were - fine,,,,as a matter a fact you were enjoying it a bit

because you’d never really had physical contact with him before, aside from nudging him to move so you could see the screen of his laptop better

and when jungkook finally saw the flash of the screen, a ‘victory’ moving by in an array of bright colors

he grinned, hand still on yours and turned to you with a proud smile

“see, together we did it.”

he grinned, but you looked at the mouse and jungkook nearly jumped as he pulled his hand off yours

“holy s-,,,i mean,,,im so sorry,,,,i should have asked-”

you shake your head,,,,trying to think of the right words to say

“it’s fi-fine!! i had fun,,,,,,,”

you pause,,,,and jungkook seems to relax and hide his face from you by busying himself with cleaning out the bag near his chair

you take of the headphones and ,,,,,, you finally mumble after a bit that you’re going to start sketching the weapon if that’s ok

and jungkook nods, saying he’ll see you in a couple of days for the final design to come together

to say that you’re nervous in those days leading up is an understatement

the worse thing in the world must be ,,,, making friends with someone and then realizing you never hit the breaks and now you kinda sorta really a lot like them

which is what happens to you with jungkook

as you stare down at your sketch idea for his character,,,,,you swallow the lump in your throat

and for the first time you worry about him liking it or finding some sort of mistake,,,,

jungkook feels the same way,,,sitting beside jimin in his dorm he keeps groaning to himself and jimin looks over to see jungkook lose his third game in a row

“you’re in a slump or is it,,,,,,,” jimin puts down his book and grins “love problems?”

jungkook nearly throws his mouse pad at his older roommate, but stops himself with a slump of his shoulders

“i think i ,,,,,,,,,, like them-”

“of course you like them jungkook, so what’s the problem?”

jungkook sits up straighter and clicks on the screen to start the next game,,,,without even saying anything to jimin he thinks to himself

the problem is - what if they doesn’t like me?

you arrive ten minutes earlier to the library than jungkook and you set out your sketch neatly

next to it is your organized pencil case and the spare one you brought to give jungkook

you touch your hair, fix your clothes and for some reason you’re all tense about how you look today,,,,

but all those worries freeze over when you see jungkook come through the doors, he looks less messy

with his hair actually brushed and a new laptop bag slung over his shoulders

he sits down and the plain white t-shirt and ripped jeans are gone, instead he’s actually wearing a fitted button down black shirt and you feel like you’re looking at a new person

jungkook smiles,,,,a little lopsidedly as he pulls out his laptop

“are you,,,,,,,going to a business lunch after this or something?” you try to joke lightheartedly

jungkook sort of scratches the back of his neck and shakes his head

“i just,,,i don’t know - wanted to clean myself up a little bit.”

the shocks you as you look at him and see that his laptop is actually in a laptop case- you think about why today of all days

then you shake it off, sliding over the pencil case

“i found my spare, you can have it if you’d like!!” you smile,,,,but it feels like you two are in middle school playing show and tell

not two college students with painfully obvious crushes on each other

jungkook thanks you, fishing all his stray pens out of his new bag and putting them into the case

he grins, looking at them then back at you “guess you turned me organized.”

you hold back the urge to blush with your own laugh “don’t worry, you’ll thank me.”

finally, you both show each other the designs you have - they’re close in style but yours has more detail in the characters sword and jungkook works silently as he digitally sketches them into his computer model

“you never told me what their name is,,,,,,,” you say and watch jungkook work

he pauses and meets your gaze, “you should name them. they’re mostly your design.”

you shake your head “they’re our design,,,,,but this is your project,,,,”

it’s silent and then jungkook coughs a little and you hear it - it’s a shortened version of a nickname you have

you blink “like,,,,,,,after me?”

jungkook keeps working, but nods ever so slowly

“it’s cute, but do you really want to name them after me i mean-”

he puts down the tablet and closes his laptop, jungkook and you have never really done this before - just look at each other without talking about the project at hand

but jungkook’s ears are turning a burning red and he seems to waver but then goes,

“i want to name them after you because you’re special to me. in,,,,in a way that,,,,friendship isn’t really enough,,,”

his voice seems deeper than usual, more serious and adult and you feel like you’re frozen under his gaze - stunned

“i,,,,,,do you like me?”

jungkook waits, before looking back down at the table “i do,,,,,,,,and it’s fine if you don’t-”

you lean over and put a hand of yours over his that stops him mid sentence

“i like you too. and i like the name too,,,,it has a ring to it.”

you smile and jungkook finally smiles too

the room suddenly dissolves of tension and you and jungkook aren’t tip-toeing around each other anymore

once jungkook submits the finished work of the character, you two get up hand in hand and walk out of the library

your first date is ice-cream at the grocery store near campus, but it’s perfect for you and jungkook

afterwards jimin demands to know if jungkook kissed you

and jungkook is too embarrassed to admit you actually kissed him first

jimin: “you might be a genius with computers, but you’re no genius in love huh jungkook,,,,,”

jungkook: “at least i have a cute s/o jimin.”

jimin: K.O.

[uniformbravo]

“quick” life update while i wait for my ipod to charge

(do ppl even still use ipods in this day & age. whats spotify)

i never made any posts abt it but i started the new semester & im taking 2 classes, it’s funny actually bc i waited even more til the last minute than i usually do to figure out my classes & spent the 1st week of school trying to see a counselor to find out if i still needed classes and that’s a whole other story for a whole other day but long story short the answer was no but i decided to take a couple anyway

mainly because every time im not in school The Depression takes over & i just needed something to Do so im taking intermediate painting (even tho painting 1 made me want 2 die every day) and animation (even tho i’ve already decided i don’t want to be an animator????)

so heres the thing, okay, since these are classes i don’t need in order to fill any requirements or anything i had to pick them based on nothing, really, like my main reason for taking classes this semester was to give myself something to do, right. i picked painting because my friend had told me she was taking it so i was like yo i’ll just do that too bc we had fun last time & it’s a good way to stay in contact. originally that was gonna be my only class bc i knew it’d be a lot of work and time but then i talked to my school’s art counselor about transferring to another school after im graduated from here and i’d said i was maybe interested in storyboarding so we looked at schools with animation programs and i decided super last minute to just take the animation class here and Boy what a mistake

last semester i was talking on here about a computer art class i had considered taking but dropped bc it seemed kinda... shitty?? because i hated the way the teacher taught and i felt like i wasn’t gonna gain anything from the class??? well animation is taught by the same guy and hhhhhhhhh he’s so fucking unhelpful it’s such a nothing class

see i was hoping to learn some hand-drawn animation basics like timing, squash & stretch, the fucking bouncing ball assignment, shit like that, right. the teacher was like “today we’re gonna go over the 12 principles of animation” and i was like “sweet i’ve heard of that this’ll be good” & literally he brought up a list, read off most of the names, briefly described a few, and told us to google it if we wanted more info like?? holy shit dude????? thanks for nothing oh my god

i’ve been taking a lot of time practicing animating in flipnote studio on my 3ds and watching youtube videos and i’ve been learning so much more from that than anything explained by my teacher bc godddd. basically what the class boils down to is like. flash animation. so far we’ve been working in adobe illustrator and animate & i cannot stand illustrator. i know it’s a good and useful program and if i wanted to i could learn how to use it & eventually get used to it but just the way he teaches it makes me want 2 slam dunk my computer

the computer art basics class was strongly recommended to be taken before this class but tbh i don’t even think that’s the issue here because i tried to take that class and his method was the same; he does a demo on screen that you’re supposed to follow along and do with him and he explains what hes doing as he goes but he goes so fast that if u miss a step ur fucked 

and it’s not just that he goes fast, it’s also that theres no understanding of the program itself, like ok u know how in math there’s all these formulas where if u just plug numbers into them it gives u the right answer? i always understood formulas better when i knew what each variable stood for & why the values were being added or multiplied together because then it made it easier to extract the information i needed from word problems and also helped me memorize the formulas themselves easier because i could make those associations between numbers and purpose. i had the groundwork of the formula, so i could apply it to all kinds of situations

this class is like, he only gives you the very specific formulas required to accomplish very specific tasks in the programs so i can’t make the connections to figure out how to perform other tasks and i get super lost every time & it’s super frustrating & i could ask for help because he comes around and helps people who need it but i sit in the back corner so he never really even looks my way so i feel like i can’t get his attention w/o speaking up or getting up to go get him & i get lost so often that it’s really just a pain to ask him every single time

i just hate when i have a problem in one of the programs & i just have absolutely no clue how to fix it or even work around it? im used to photoshop and illustrator is just so opposite that my brain doesn’t want to work with it so im. 100% floundering in this class

we have 2 assignments during the whole semester, the first was a group project where we hand draw a 3-second animation (~30 frames) and that was literally the very first thing we did in the class with no prior guidance and honestly i suspect that the only reason he assigns it is to fill the requirement for a group project (which i know is a thing bc a lot of my past teachers have talked about it being a thing) so it was literally just. a nothing project

the second assignment is our final which is a 90-second animation (~1080 frames) and we have basically the rest of the semester to work on it, so about a month and a half-ish? and all we’ve learned how to do so far is motion tweening in animate, basically. i mean we did a ball-and-string thing which was kind of different but it mostly involved a lot of copy+paste bullshit in illustrator & also like automatic shortcuts & stuff, there was really no drawing involved at all

also it’s one of those classes where everyone just kind of messes around and does their own thing like?? i saw one girl reading manga on her computer & these two dudes at my table were comparing yugioh cards & i hear like 50 thousand conversations about anime every day & i mean im not one to talk tbh but it’s just the atmosphere, it feels like u either know what ur doing or u just fuck around w/ ur friends and im in the “neither of those” category and the girl who was reading manga is in the “both” category bc every other time i’ve looked over there she’s got this amazing masterpiece on her screen that she made in illustrator & i die inside every time what the fuckkc 

he showed us examples of final projects from last semester and i noticed that some of them were done traditionally or in programs that were obviously not illustrator so i asked him about it & he said it doesn’t have to be done in illustrator/animate as long as it’s 90 seconds long so Guess What i think i’m just gonna make it somewhere else lmaooo i mean i feel like it’s a missed opportunity bc i have these programs at my disposal & im not even using them but god amn. god fuckign damn

im thinking of animating it in flipnote bc that’s what i’ve been using & im pretty familiar with it by now but im not sure because there are some important things im not sure i’ll be able to accomplish with it like backgrounds (which are another requirement for the assignment) and i don’t want to back myself into a corner, especially with how little time i have to do it, so idk for sure. my other idea was to use clip studio paint but i have the pro version which only lets u use 24 frames per animation which totals out to a whopping 2 seconds so idk if i want to have to deal with that bullshit either. right now im considering making the rough animation in flipnote so i can figure out the timing & shit and then slapping it into clip studio to finalize everything (or technically i could even do that in photoshop, since im more familiar w/ it & can probably work faster there- from photoshop it’d be a matter of copying the finished frames into clip studio to export into 2-second clips & then compile those in movie maker & then bam finished animation)

so!!! it’s a lot of shit im dealing with in this class & im just like. if im doing it this way then why do i even need to show up for class. what am i even in this class for im just basically making an animation on my own time with my own resources using none of the techniques taught in the class. im only doing this animation because it’s an assignment for the class im not gaining anything from. it just seems so pointless & the only thing getting me through it is the thought that i could possibly put this in a portfolio somewhere down the line, and for that i’d want it to look nice and not rushed so im thinking that for the sake of finishing the assignment i might just use my rough animation so that i can spend more time on the “nice” version afterward

aaaanyway it’s um Late for me & i went on about this for too long but i needed to get it off my chest tbh, i’ve been thinking abt making this post for like 2 weeks so there u go. i didn’t even talk about my painting troubles good lord. if you’ve been wondering why i havent been online as much lately This is why. also bc im a huge loser and 100% of my free time has been going into watching anime bye

[blackthornass]

Do you have any art tips?

Uhhhhhh Funk im not The Greatest Artist ™ but I’ll try to bestow some Wisdom on you. Keep in mind Art is Subjective and I’m no expert and all that so take everything with a grain of salt but that being said I’ll try to give u Tips and Tricks

-listen so if you have a boring class at school just draw in it. School is great because you have 1. Access to paper at all times 2. Incredibly boring lectures. If you have a study hall that’s the Drawing JACKPOT. Basically what I’m saying is practice all the time when you have energy but like that’s such boring art advice. It’s important but “practice! uwu” is like what people with Natural Art Talent say when they didn’t have to figure everything out from the ground up so it’s kind of aggravating

-There’s gonna be people better than you. Chances are you have a friend who’s better than you because this is Tumblr we all draw. Try Not To Compare Yourself ™ which idk how to do but it’s bad don’t do it

-unless you find a terrible person with worse art than you in which case FUCK DUDE COMPARE YOURSELF TO THEM! THEYRE HORRIBLE AND THEY CANT DRAW FOR SHIT LOOK WHOS LAUGHING NOW!

-“work until your idols become your rivals” is absolute bullshit because your idols are working at it at the same time you are. You fool. You imbecile. I feel like this works better for writing when your idols can become irrelevant or straight up die between you being an aspiring author 8 year old and a tired 30 year old who just wrote The Great American Novel ™ or just kind of. Leave the fandom if you’re writing fanfic. Anyway

-ok that’s all the preachy shit, time for Real Art Advice ™. Keep in mind I do digital cartoony shit with Strong Lineart and cel shading for the most part and I pretty much only draw people so my knowledge is limited to that. if you wanna be a professional artist maybe do other things and Expand your Abilities ™

-Ok first off if you’re using Gimp or Photoshop please love yourself and download Firealpaca or illegally torrent Paint Tool Sai or something. I swear by Firealpaca it cured my depression but like. Photoshop is Trash for drawing. Get Firealpaca it has Line Correction ™

-Keep Line Correction ™ at like. A 5 when you’re sketching and at a 19 (the maximum) when you’re lining, coloring, shading, highlighting, doing literally anything that isn’t sketching

-Sketching digitally can be hard if you’re used to sketching on paper and I find it easier to do a sketch on paper, take a picture of it on my phone or scan it, and line/color it digitally. You do you and figure out what works best

-speaking of which I refused to use sketchbooks until I was Worthy ™ of not drawing on notebook paper and uhhhhhh that’s dumb just get a sketchbook they cost a little more than a notebook at Target it’s not super expensive. Although if you’re not financially in the position to buy a sketchbook anyway, just hoard notebooks from school that you didn’t use much. Bam, that’s your new sketchbook

-the Head Circle Cross Thing and the Spheres For Shoulder, Elbow, and Wrist Thing are good and important and will save you

-hands are hard so use references but bullshit your way through it. eventually they’ll look good (I haven’t gotten there yet)

-HAVE FUN WITH NOSES OH MY GOD. Noses are super fun and cool because there’s, like, infinite variety with them, they can be as long or short, thin or thick, rounded or pointy as you want, you can make them be, like, triangles or circles or more squareish or diamond-shaped, the base of the nose can be about as high or as low on the face as you want, you can make the nostrils prominent or not really there at all, they can add another Layer to a character’s design, oh my goodness noses are so fun. They’re like, severely underrated and oh my god I could gush about how fucking fun noses are

-same with facial expressions. Where you put the pupils and how big they are, how much of the eye is covered by eyelids, the way the eyebrows are, the mouth, tons of other shit. There’s loads of variety and so much you can do and honestly having fun with the facial expression is The Best Part. There’s tons of Face Art Chart Memes floating around, you know the ones, save it to your phone/computer and practice those on your own time it’s fun

-if you don’t know how to do something, avoiding it won’t help you. Just kind of draw around with it in your sketchbook or in a “I’m not posting this” file until you feel confident enough to do it in your Real Projects ™.

-Ok for lining did you know..… it isn’t illegal to erase parts of the lineart to clean it up.… just be careful and draw it back in to the best of your abilities if you erase too far and use a smaller eraser brush/lining brush for this… I know it’s tedious nobody likes lining it’s okay you can do this put on some good music

-use mcfucking references

-eyedrop character’s official colors but adjust said colors based on the color of your background to make them look less funky is my general rule for clothing, I usually pick the hair/skin by myself or from something I’ve already drawn though

-for flats, make sure your lineart is all closed off and there aren’t any “holes” cuz that’ll mess up your coloring

-so how I do flats is I use the magic wand tool to select whatever I want to color, expand selection 3 pixels (in firealpaca you can set it to do this automatically), pick the color I need, turn up the brush to as big as possible, and color it in. It saves the time you’d spend with cleaning up where the color gets outside the lines

-you can do the flats on one layer, but I personally like to do every Object on a different layer so when I do shading, I know what goes on top of what

-if a color is darker than the lineart it looks ugly so pick your line color with caution (or just use black! Unlike shading black lineart tends to go with pretty much everything)

-SHADE YOUR GODDAMN ART. Like, what makes people go “wow holy shit that’s good!” is the shading + highlights, don’t be lazy ya fuck.

-I’d take a break before shading to Refresh Your Eyes ™ but also I constantly forget this is a good idea

-don’t shade with black oh my god. Unless you’re doing Strong Punchy Dramatic Stuff or monochrome black and white stuff, don’t shade with black, and if you’re doing that it’ll probably be drawn into the lineart. Don’t shade with black please we can tell you’re doing it and it looks bad

-highlighting with white isn’t too bad though, especially with the eyes, but it might look too strong in some places

-As a general rule, shading is darker and more saturated, highlighting is lighter and less saturated. Whether it gets warmer or cooler depends a lot on what color or thing you’re shading or what you want the feel of the picture to be and I’m not 100% sure how to do it myself so uh. Trust your gut and change the color if it looks wrong I guess.

-where exactly the shadows or highlights fall depends on lots of things, just kind of. Look at how things work irl maybe? This is the kind of thing that you just have to practice, and it’ll look like shit until suddenly it doesn’t sorry I’m not sure what to say

-One Medium Sized White Dot on a layer above the lineart where the pupil borders the Iris (or the whites of the eyes if you’re like me and you make the pupil and Iris one thing) works for a glint in the eye that makes a person look less dead and more cute. How big you’re gonna make it depends on how adorable you want the person to be

-SMOOTH BORDERS FOR THE SHADING ARE REALLY IMPORTANT IF YOURE DOING CEL SHADING which is why firealpaca is my best friend thanks line smoothing. If you’re doing like. Soft shading or painterly shit or other kinds of shading it’s less Super Important but like. Still be sort of neat. Unless being really messy and sketchy is what you’re going for but even then you still need to be sort of careful

-for simple backgrounds, it’s like. Easy to make it interesting. Add polka dots to the background or a big old square or a gradient or a cloud filter or something the possibilities are endless. Another option is to straight up make it transparent and write a secret message in white on the side. But uhh never do a blank white background at the very least fill it with a solid color

-ok style is kind of hard because I never had to struggle to find my style? I just “drew in my handwriting” so to speak and then if along the way I realized something looked shitty I just changed how I drew it slightly? I guess a thing you could do if you’re in tune enough is look at the styles of things you do like and things you don’t and figure out why you do and don’t like it. “I like how *2010s cartoon* does Eyes!” great take that general concept. “I hate how this shitty yaoi has enormous hands!” great then don’t do that. It’s all Personal Preference my dude style is Your Own Thing

-notes aren’t everything but fuck do they feel nice. Self reblogs are fine but don’t overdo it, I’d say reblog it Twice to account for time zones and tag it as self reblog so as to not be a dick

This got long whoops. That’s all I can think of but I hope this helps it’s All I Know