#may take me another 50 years like all of my other gifsets

[walkofpenance]

Sonic X Episodes [1/78]  ⇒ Chaos Control Freaks

“I guess Chaos Control must have sent me here. I’ve traveled through space. Did I travel through time, too? Am I the only one here? Are all the others, gone?”

[rexferguson]

How do you color your gifs? They look so natural!

thank you! honestly, i've been making gifs for years and i look at a bunch of tutorials. i don't really use set psds for gifs because all sets are different. even in the same gifset i'm altering something depending on the colouring, lighting, etc. you just have to find what works for you! 💙 my typical colouring format once i have the gif made and sharpened is:

curves layer (use the lightest dropper and select the lightest point on your gif and the darkest dropper to select darkest point on your gif or even just an auto curves layer and adjust from there if need be)

levels layer

exposure layer

if i'm going to use a channel mixer layer this is absolutely where i put it every time so i can see what it looks like before i do anything else that's really going to touch the colouring process of a gif

colour balance layer (this is another one where you really just have to play around with it and hope something works out to your liking. you don't want to mess around with this too much unless you're hoping for a more colourful gif but it does work to even out skin tones before you add selective colour layer. at least, that's what i use it for. and to balance the actual full scenes colouring since warmer scenes need some coolness to really make them work and cooler scenes need some warmth. this is a great tool to bring that back in where it's lacking)

sometimes i go in with a brightness and contrast layer here if there's anything i want to fix up before i start dealing with the actual colouring but i usually like to save that until later on which is just a preference of mine because if i can avoid using the brightness i will but at some point i always add some contrast at least. i only usually put a brightness and contrast layer in this spot if the scene is particularly dark so i can see what i'm working with.

selective colour layer (very specifically the whites and blacks which i usually turn the whites to anywhere from -75 to -92 but it depends on the scene and the blacks are usually no higher than +7)

selective colour layer (here i mess around with the yellows and reds mostly for the skin tone purposes and play around with it until it looks the way i want which is usually more on the natural side or at least as natural as i can get it)

now i may go in with another selective colour layer here for all the other shades depending on the scene and/or if i want certain colours in the background or on the clothing to pop which i usually do and it's mostly blues and greens i play around with. i never, ever touch the neutrals option except on very rare occasions if i want to change the entire colour of the gif.

hue/saturation layer (i use this about 50% of the time and mainly just turn the saturation up but usually i don't go above like... +5)

sometimes i'll add a gradient map layer here of some aqua/blue shade, set it to soft light, and turn the opacity down to about 10-20%) OR i'll add a black and white layer and do the same. mostly, it's the latter of these two.

lastly (well, kinda) this is 95% of the time where i'll put my brightness and contrast layer if the scene isn't particularly dark. if it is, i'll usually add another here as well as the one listed above. regardless - i usually end up with one in this position. never too much but again just to whatever your personal preference is.

other options: another curves layer (if i add one here it's typically an auto curves) or you can add a vibrance layer (which is my personal preference)

i actually have no idea what i'm doing so please don't take my word as holy grail! i appreciate the compliment, but i promise you - there are so many people who have made so many beautiful tutorials and i highly recommend sifting through the colouring tutorial tags for more comprehensible, in depth versions. this is just what works for me 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙