#photoshop menu bar tutorial

[1lastdate]

Photoshop Menu Bar

Photoshop Menu Bar Photoshop Menu Bar में Total 11 Menus होते हैं। Menu Bar का प्रत्येक Menu Commands के एक group को Represent करता है। जो आपको किसी image के कुछ भाग में या पूरी image में किसी भी तरह का Changes करने की अनुमति देते हैं और files को manipulate करने में भी यह आपकी Help करता हैं। यह Screen के ऊपरी भाग में Left ओर स्थित होते हैं। यदि Menu command के Right ओर कोई Right Facing Arrow होता…

[usergif]

HOW TO: Make Animated Neon Text

Hi! No one asked for this tutorial, but this is one of my favorite typography effects as of late — so I thought I'd share how I do it. You can see this effect in the first gif of this *NSYNC Celebrity set and the last gif of this Anthony Bridgerton set. Disclaimer: This tutorial assumes you have a basic understanding of gif-making in Photoshop. It's also exclusively in Timeline and uses keyframes for the fading effect seen on the blue text.

PHASE 1: PREP YOUR BASE GIF

1.1 – Choose a dark scene. This effect looks best contrasted against a dark background. You can definitely do it with a bright background, but just like a neon sign irl, you only turn it on in the dark/at night — so keep that in mind! 

1.2 – Determine the length of your clip. Depending on how much you want your text to flash or fade in, you'll want to make sure you have a scene long enough to also allow the text not to flash — reducing the strain it takes to actually read the text. For reference, my gif is 48 frames.

1.3 – Crop, color, etc. as you would. New to gif-making? Check out my basic tutorial here!

PHASE 2: FORMAT YOUR TEXT

Before we animate anything, get your text and any vectors laid out and formatted exactly as you want them!

2.1 – Finding neon sign fonts. It's easy as going to dafont.com and typing "neon" into the search bar!

2.2 – Fonts I used. Neon Glow by weknow | Neon by Fenotype | Neon Bines by Eknoji Studio

And to not leave my fellow font hoarders hanging, the font for "tutorial by usergif" is Karla (it's a Google font) 🥰

2.3 – Group your text layers. (Conditional) If you plan on having multiple text layers like I did and you want them to appear connected (like how the last letters of "NEON" and "sign" intersect with the wand icon), I suggest putting the layers into groups according to color (the shortcut to group layers is Command+G). If you don't group your text and just apply the outer glow settings to each individual layer, you'll end up with something like this:

—where you can see the glow overlap with the line, instead of the smooth connection you see in my final example gif. I'm using 2 colors for my text, so I made a group for red and a group for blue.

2.4 – Apply Outer Glow. Right-click your text layer (or your group if you have several layers) and select "Blending Options" to open the Layer Style menu. Check "Outer Glow" and feel free to play around with the settings until you like the way your text looks!

Your outer glow color should be darker and more vibrant than the color of the text itself. The text should be within the same color family but much brighter and, sometimes, almost white (see Step 2.2 again for my text colors).

Here are the settings for the Red Glow (the glow color is #FF3966) and Blue Glow (#00F0FF):

These aren't always my exact settings but they're pretty close to my standard. I always set the blend mode to Hard Light and usually have the opacity at 100%.

For every gif I use this effect on, I like to play around with Spread and Size. Spread will make the glow look denser and "expand the boundaries" (source: Adobe) and Size will diffuse the glow and blow it out so it covers a larger area (Adobe says it "Specifies the radius and size of blur").

2.5 – Duplicate your text layer/groups and remove glow. We're only going to be animating the glow on our text, and since doing this affects its opacity/visibility, we want to preserve the base text by creating a duplicate.

I just hit the Command+J shortcut to duplicate my groups and delete the Outer Glow effects, making sure that the "No Glow" version is above the "Glow" version:

I also put all these groups into one group called "Text" for organization and so I could apply a drop shadow to all the elements for better visibility.

PHASE 3: CREATE THE FLASHING EFFECT

This is for the effect you see on the RED text in my gif!

3.1 – The 0.03-Second Rule If you've read any of my animation tutorials before, you're probably already familiar with this rule. In my experience (and for reasons I can't explain), Video Timeline pauses every 0.03 seconds (try clicking the forward button a few times, you'll probably find a "duplicate" or paused frame). So, keep all your layers a duration of 0.03-second increments (e.g. 0.06 or 0.09 seconds can also work) and align them on the Timeline at 0.03-second intervals. If you don't follow this rule, you'll get duplicate frames when you export, resulting in a choppy final gif.

3.2 – Trim and arrange your text layers. Only on the layers/groups WITH the Outer Glow effect, trim them into several segments of varying lengths where the glow will be "on" (visible) and leaving spaces where the glow should be "off."

Typically, I'll have a mixture of 0.06 and 0.03-second text. That's when the glow will be visible. Between each "flash" of visibility, I've got a 0.03-second blank space, baby *pen clicks* and I'll write your name:

The layers shown above are arranged with a few flashes and two long segments of no flashing. This is the order and duration of each segment shown above (purple = visible segments):

0.06 blank, 0.06 visible, 0.03 blank, 0.03 visible, 0.03 blank, 0.03 visible, 0.03 blank, 0.24 visible (the long bit where "FLASHING" doesn't flash at all), 0.03 blank, 0.03 visible, 0.03 blank, 0.12 visible

(I only did this for the text that says "FLASHING" to give it a glitching effect. The other red text keeps the glow visible starting at the first long segment.)

PHASE 4: CREATE THE FADE-IN EFFECT

This is for the effect you see on the BLUE text in my gif!

4.1 – Animate using the Opacity Keyframe. Again, we're only touching the layers/groups WITH the glow effect. If you only have one layer of text, you'll find the Opacity Keyframe by clicking the film reel icon:

If you're working with groups like me, you'll find it in the Timeline panel under the group when it's expanded:

As you can see, I already added my keyframes (lil diamond babies). And luckily, it's super easy to do!

4.2 – Add the ending Keyframe first. We're starting at the end because our layers/groups are already at 100% opacity. Drag the playhead (the blue arrow attached to the red vertical line) to a spot where you want the glow to be 100% opaque — this is where the glow will be fully "on" or visible. [Again, follow the 0.03-Second Rule. You will get duplicate frames regardless when using keyframes (this will be explained in the note in Phase 5), but abiding to the rule will mitigate the amount of dupes you get.]

Then, click the clock icon by "Opacity" to place a keyframe:

4.3 – Add the starting Keyframe. Go backward from the ending Keyframe you just placed (I went back 0.12 seconds — but you can play around with the duration of the fade, just keep it a multiple of 0.03):

And drop another keyframe, this time by clicking the diamond icon by "Opacity":

4.4 – Reduce the opacity on the starting Keyframe. Keeping that keyframe you just placed selected, go to the layers panel and reduce your layer's/group's opacity to 0%:

Now, this Outer Glow will slowly fade from 0% to 100% opacity.

And just for a visual aid, here's where my fade-in keyframes are in relation to my flashing segments:

To refresh your mind, the 0% Opacity Keyframe starts when "FLASHING" is visible for 0.24 seconds (the first long segment of visibility).

With these keyframes, you'll get a smooth fade-in à la ✨light switch with a dimmer✨

PHASE 5: EXPORT

Yay, we're finished! Convert from Timeline back to Frames and export your gif!

NOTE: If you only did the flashing effect and followed my 0.03-Second Rule, you shouldn't have any duplicate gifs. BUT if you included the fade-in effect using keyframes, you WILL have duplicate frames. 'Tis the nature of keyframes. 🤷‍♀️ I had 4 extra frames where the fade-in starts, which I deleted. So, as always, I recommend checking your frames when you convert from Video Timeline back to Frame Animation — and manually delete any duplicate frames.

Sorry this tutorial is so long 🙈 I over-explain so you're not just mechanically copying steps, but understanding the WHY behind each step! Thanks for bearing with me

If you have specific questions about this tutorial, feel free to send a message to usergif and I'll try my best to help! :)

More USERGIF tutorials • More resources by Nik • USERGIF Resource Directory

[tennant-davids]

Using Neural Filters to colour correct

i’ve had a couple of people ask about how i’ve coloured the pocket dimension scenes so i thought i’d just do a run-through tutorial kind of thing to show it, rather than going through it with everyone separately.

so this is a tutorial for how i made this:

from this:

follow along under the cut:

so just some things to point out before we move on which are essential and could get in the way of this working for you:

you will need adobe photoshop cc - v.22 or above. any versions older than this won’t work. you can find what version you currently have by opening photoshop, clicking ‘help’ on the top toolbar, and selecting ‘about photoshop’. my current version is 23.2.2.

you should know how to make a gif from frames, use timeline and work with the gif as a smart object. if you don’t know what i mean, i’ve tried to explain it briefly below.

using neural filters is resource heavy so expect photoshop to be slow in processing/exporting/saving anything you use them on. it might be worth having other programs closed while you use it if your computer has a lower or mid-range spec.

and so... 

1. make your gif to do this, import your frames, crop, set frame speed etc however you normally would. if you usually make gifs with the animation bar set to ‘frame animation’, you will need to change this so that you can create a smart object. you will need to press the button with the video timeline symbol on your animation bar:

then you should select all your layers (not frames as you shouldn’t see them anymore) and right-click > convert to smart object:

you should leave your animation in timeline mode, but the purpose of the smart object is so you can add smart filters. this is especially good for things like sharpening, any effects you want to add, and of course... neural filters.

2. brighten the image and convert to black and white contrary to what we’re trying to achieve here, you should change the image to black and white and brighten it up so that you have as smooth and plain a base for the filters to apply to. 

i do this by adding a black and white adjustment layer, and clicking ‘auto’ on the properties tab:

you should then add a ‘levels’ adjustment layer and drag the right tab along until it meets the beginning of the histogram. you should also move the left tab along a little bit for some contrast - how far depends on how you want your gif to look:

following this, select the smart object and two adjustment layers > right-click > convert to smart object. you don’t have to do this but i find it helps and it reduces the number of layers you have to work with.

my gif now looks like this: 

3. adding the neural filter now your image is about to change in a huge way. click on filter on the top toolbar and select ‘neural filters’:

from here, you will see this screen and a bunch of current filters and beta filters on the right-hand side. you may have to download them to get them to work. for this, we’re using ‘colorize’ so at least make sure you have that one downloaded and ready to use:

when you turn the ‘colorize’ filter on, after processing (this can take a few seconds), your image now looks like this:

(note: this gif is an exception in how well it turned out first time - the filter has applied evenly minus a couple of issues i’ll go over below. how successful it will be depends on how much movement is in the clip, or how many colours it will need to find, and it sometimes gets confused with dark and light tones. you’ll find most of the time that the gifs will have patches that aren’t coloured, or will have incorrect colour correction that you’ll need to go in frame-by-frame and patch in by hand. the filter does do a lot of heavy lifting though.)

you can then play around with the saturation (i usually reduce it to -10) and the colours similarly to how you would in ‘colour balance’, however it has a more all-over even tone:

the last thing you need to do is select ‘smart filter’ on this drop-down menu:

if you don’t change it to smart filter, the filter will only apply to the frame you can currently see and won’t apply to the whole animation.

my gif now looks like this:

this might be enough for you in which case great news! you get to stop here, apply whatever sharpening and colouring you want, and save as normal!

however, i’m a perfectionist to a fault so i need to do a few more things first...

(note: it’s always worth doing the next step even if you’re happy with the finished product here, just in case you missed a spot)

4. check the filter has applied throughout the whole gif you’ll see that you now have a much more even base to work from and colour your gif as normal, however neural filters aren’t perfect and do leave funny little glitches throughout your gif sometimes. in order to check this, i usually scrub through to see if there are any issues. in this gif, i spotted two.

in these two areas - on the moving gif - i can see the colouring flickering. the filter hasn’t applied the right colour on every frame, or simply hasn’t coloured it at all:

this gif isn’t the worst offender for this, but if you look closely you’ll see it. so...

5. make a new layer and fill in the flickering areas press the ‘new layer’ button:

and now use the ink dropper tool to pick up the colour you want to use, and paint over the area where the colour is flickering - e.g. i used the dropper to pick up the colour from the desert in the background and painted over that area. i also picked up some of the colour from the sky and coloured over the flickering by the storm. i used these brush settings:

when you’ve painted on the colour you want, and as much as you want, set the layer to ‘color’. i also change the opacity to 80% to let some of what’s underneath still come through a little bit, but do what’s best for you and your gif:

my gif now looks like this, with less noticeable flickering:

7. brighten, colour and sharpen however you normally do idk if you have an existing psd or just experiment with adjustment layers, but your gif is now ready to start colouring however you normally would. the neural filter is basically acting as a reset to give you a blank canvas in which to gif as normal. for this gif i started with a ‘hue and saturation’ adjustment layer to change the green background to a more dirt/sand colour as it’s meant to be the desert, and then just played around with my usual combination of adjustments until i came up with the final product! i then sharpen using filter > sharpen > smart sharpen and it should be done.

8. export (save for web) you all know how to do this by now, but be aware that these will load slowly. gifs aren’t the fastest things to save on a good day but with the neural filter applied, they’re particularly slow. this is why i said to do work on the gifs one at a time - don’t have photoshop doing more than it needs to do or it might slow down to a halt.

so after all that, this is the final version of my gif:

tips and tricks

avoid making gifs of moments with a lot of movement - this could be the subject of the gif moving, the background, the wind blowing something around etc. while normal colouring can tolerate these changes, the filter isn’t yet clever enough to work it out and it makes the gifs unsalvageable because you can’t paint over the flickering accurately enough - e.g.:

(p.s. if anyone knows how to get the filter to work on this specific scene you have to tell me lmao it’s been driving me mad...)

try and keep the gifs short - i haven’t made one above 55 frames, i think. that is still quite a lot but it is a challenge to ensure the filter can cope with it. shorter gifs would probably mean a cleaner result.

you have to set the gif to black and white first - the colorize filter is designed to bring black and white photos/videos to life. i tried it over the blue filter directly and it was successful but i had more consistent luck when starting in black and white.

make sure you brighten the gif significantly before applying the filter - it really helps to give a cleaner canvas for the filter to apply to, but it’s not essential if you really don’t want to.

if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ASK. i’m by no means an expert and this is just what i’ve observed from using this feature and the workarounds i’ve found working for me so far, but happy to try and help where i can and happy to take suggestions too! <3

[spacechild-glitchypix]

How to position facial features for the Our Life sprites

Idk how many people need this tutorial (especially since I kinda sat on it for like a month...whoops) but I noticed people were starting to make more sprite edits and videos using the in-game sprites and I thought having this tutorial might help for those of you who don't know exactly how to place the expression layers for the sprite.

Part 1: What am I talking about?

Ok so some of you may be reading the post title and thinking "what the hell does that mean?". For those who are unaware, if you decompile OL1 and OL2, you can find the sprites used for the characters in the game. These files are generally in character folders that contain all the bits for each sprite as well as several versions of the sprite itself in different outfits. All these base sprites files look a little like this

You may have noticed the glaringly obvious detail that Qiu here is missing most of their face. That's because there are several seperate images used for their eyebrows, eyes and mouth. The reason they're all seperated like this is to give more creative freedom over expressions than what would be allowed if there were just already a set number of sprites with set expressions

However, if you want to make a spite edit video, that means you have to piece all the expression layers over the sprite and, since the expression layers don't have the same canvas size as the sprite, you have to actually place them on the face yourself. This can lead to stuff like this.

If you're looking at this and thinking it doesn't look quite right, you're correct. This is the issue you're noticing

This is generally what happens when you try placing expression layers by eye, you end up sort of assuming you've got the right spot when you're actually slightly wrong. And this is gif just shows the facial features in the wrong spot vertically

So, I've explained the problem, now how do you fix it? It's simple actually.

Part 2: The actual tutorial part

What you'll need:

The sprites and expression layers you need (this tutorial assumes you already have the game decompiled. If you don't and have no idea how to do so, here's a tutorial for just that)

An editing software that has a tranform tool such as Photopea, Photoshop, GIMP, etc.

Step 1: Open up the sprite you want to use in your image editing software of choice and import in all the expression layers you want to use

Step 2: Open up the transform tool on your editing software. Where this is may vary, on Photopea and Photoshop you can open up either through the shortcut alt+control+t or clicking on edit in the top bar and selecting Free Transform from the menu. If you don't know where the transform tool is in your software, I'd suggest looking it up

(A showcase of where the tranform tool is in Photopea and Photoshop)

(What the transform box should look like

Step 2.5 (This might be photopea specific, idk if other software does this): If your transformation tool box looks like this, cancel out of the tool (using the little x button on the top bar) and then open the transformation tool back up again. Make sure you're not selecting multiple layers and also make sure you didn't open the tool with the transformation controls tick box from the top bar. If none of that works, just delete the layer and grab it from your folder again and try again

Step 3: With the transform tool still open on your desired layer, move the layer so that it snaps against the corner of your canvas. Your image editing software should automatically have layer snapping enabled but, if not, I suggest looking up how to turn it on. If it doesn't have this, the best suggestion I have would just be to make sure the corner of the transform tool's box and the corner of the canvas allign. Zoom in if need be. You then repeat this process for the other expression layers (and any other layers that aren't automatically allighned like the blush layers or the tear layers)

(Notice the red lines that show up when it snaps against the corner)

Step 4: Export your sprite file because that's it, you did it! Now you have a sprite with the layers placed in the right spots! Isn't that great!

...(maybe I should've chosed a happier expression for this...)

Anyways, I hope this helps!

[lucascsinclairs]

I got an ask about my gif making process, and my reply started getting way too long so I figured I'd make an updated gif tutorial/a rundown of what my giffing process looks like today. I hope this is helpful!

The anon mentioned how they really want to start making gif posts but they don't know how to, and I really was in that same spot three years ago, seeing all the pretty gifs people were making and wanting to do the same thing but just not knowing how.

I taught myself to make gifs from many different tutorials I found on here, and now years later my method is a mix-match of all of them. In this post I’ll go through my personal process but first I will link some great resource blogs that have more in-depth tutorials and resources on all different aspects of gif-making.

Both @usergif and @completeresources have great organized tutorial pages that I check all the time for different techniques. They’re so helpful! For beginners I’d recommend *these * *tutorials* for example.

For a walkthrough of my giffing process, keep reading!

First steps

Alright, let's start with the basics: I make my gifs on Photoshop and I currently have the 2023 version, so keep that in mind when looking at the screenshots I included, since there can me small differences between versions.

There are really two main ways to start out the giffing process on Photoshop. You can take consequent screenshots of the scene you want to gif and then use ‘Scripts’ and ‘Load Files into Stack’ to load them into Photoshop. I used to use this method before, and my previous giffing tutorial explains all the steps for it, as do the gif tutorials I linked. 

But these days I use the other method, which involves making a shorter clip of the scene you want to gif and then using 'File' > ‘Import’ > ‘Video Frames to Layers’ to import the clip into Photoshop.

The difference between the two methods isn’t really that big, just up to personal preference and what fits your workflow best. I think the reason why I switched over was just cause I found it annoying dealing with all the screenshots.

My current process starts with opening a clip I want to gif with ‘Video Frames to Layers’. In the window that opens, I use the little arrows to select the exact shot I want to use. Here it's good to include a couple frames from before and after the exact shot you want to gif. That way you can make sure to get the whole shot included.

When the frames load up, this is what my set up view looks like. It might look different depending on the version of Photoshop, and also depending on your personal customizations, but this is what my workspace looks like. In order to get this view, make sure you have 'Timeline' selected from the 'Window' menu from the top bar.  

Real quick to help make the tutorial more clear even if you’re not that familiar with Photoshop yet, the three main views I’ll be talking about are the frames, the layers and then the adjustments. Frames are the little film-reel-looking horizontal row on the bottom, and the layers are the vertical stacked row on the right. I have the adjustments on the right above the layers.

To start off, we’ll be working with frames. Since I selected some extra buffer frames from the clip in the import phase, now I'll first delete those frames that I don’t need by selecting a frame and then clicking the little trash can icon under the row of frames. When you are left with the shots you want to use, go to the menu of the three little lines on the top right of the frames view and pick ‘Select All Frames’.

Now that they’re all selected, you can set the frame delay. This basically just means how “quick” your gif will be. There are different preferences to this, but generally you’d want to pick a delay from 0.05 to maybe 0.1 for really short gifs that you need to be slower. My go-to is a frame delay of 0.07.

Whichever number you go with, you’ll chance it by clicking the tiny downward arrow on one of the frames (with all the frames selected). From the window, pick ‘Other’ and then type in your number.

Resizing and cropping

After this it’s time to resize and crop your gif. Here there are again some different methods you can use, in my previous tutorial I used the Crop tool and then resized the image. But these days I do this in a different way. Again, what way you use is all up to preference.

So what I do is make sure that all the frames are selected, and then from the menu I pick ‘Copy Frames’. After copying the frames, I make a whole new file from ‘File’ and ‘New’. This will be the canvas where I’ll make the final product of the gif, making it the exact size I want the gif to be. I prefer this method because with it you can alter the cropped area easier to see what looks best. Also this way if you’ve initially loaded a lot of unnecessary frames that you deleted previously, this way only the layers that are left transfer over and it’s less bloated in the layers panel.

In the "New Document' window pick your gif size (keep in mind the Tumblr dimensions of 540 pixels wide for big, all-across gifs, and 268 pixels wide for side-by-side gifs). With today’s gif I went with the dimensions of 540x450.

When the new file opens up, select ‘Create Video Timeline’, then from the bottom left corner click ‘Convert to Frame Animation’ and then from the three-line menu select ‘Paste Frames’. After your frames load in, you can delete the first blank frame.

Now you will resize and crop your gif. Make sure to select all frames again and then press CTRL/Command + T to activate the Transform tool. Use the guide lines that appeared to drag and resize the gif to fit your canvas. Play the gif by clicking the play button under the frame row to test how it moves within the canvas and move it around until it looks right. You can also go and change the canvas size from ‘Image’ and ‘Canvas Size’ if you want to.

At this point my gif looks like this:

When you’re happy with the cropping, it’s time to start adjusting the gif!

Lighting

For coloring and lighting the gif, we’ll move over to the right to the Layers panel. Make sure you have the top layer selected. We will be using Adjustment Layers to change the appearance of the gif, and they will change the layers below them, so this way we make sure the changes apply to all layers. 

There really are so many ways you can edit and adjust your gifs, these are just the methods I use the most. So, open up the Adjustments view and let’s get started!

(side note: Lighting dark scenes is a whole different topic, so for this basic tutorial I picked a well-lit shot so we won’t have to worry about all of that when lighting it.)

I usually start with the Curves layer. Pick the bottom eyedropper tool on the left, with the white tip. With this, click on the brightest part of the gif to set the white point. This is especially useful with gifs that have some kind of a color tint (for example the green hue in the Hawkins Lab flashback scenes). By picking the white point, it will adjust not only the lighting but also the hues of the gif.

After picking the initial white point, you can go in and adjust. From the RGB dropdown menu, pick the individual color channel (Red, Green, Blue) and drag and adjust the curve until the colors and lighting look good to you. Here again, it’s all up to your personal preference. I personally prefer coloring that is more on the warmer side, so in this phase I usually strengthen the reds in the gif and tone down the greens. Remember, this is just the first phase of coloring, it doesn’t have to look perfect right away. 

Next, go back to Adjustments and make another Curves layer on top of the first one. This time pick the top eyedropper tool with the black tip. Then click on the darkest part of the gif to set the black point. I don’t always do this, especially with dark scenes, but in neutral lighting like this, it can help with the contrast and make the coloring more vivid. Here you can once again adjust the RGB curves individually until you’re happy with the result. Oh but don’t think we’re done with the Curves layers just yet! After the white point and black point layers, I usually open a third Curves adjustment layer for lighting the gif. Here I usually stick to the overall curve, not going into the individual color channel ones. I drag and adjust the curve to make the lighting of the gif look good. And here’s what my gif looks like with all the Curves layers:

The brightness is starting to look pretty good now, but I’ll just add a couple more adjustment layers that I usually use. Again, this is just my process, all the layers aren't always essential and their usefulness really varies depending on the specific shot you’re working with. My advice, especially when starting out with adjustment layers, is to try out different adjustments to see what they do and how they make the gif look. If it looks bad, no worries, just CTRL/Command+Z it away!

So at this point I usually apply a Levels layer to brighten a little and then to deepen the shadows a bit to up the contrast. Then a Brightness/Contrast layer and maybe an Exposure layer to help do the same thing. I find that by using the different tools and making small adjustments in each one, it makes the lighting look nice. After these layers, here’s what the gif looks like:

Coloring

Now it’s time for the actual coloring! My favorite part! There are a billion different ways to color a gif and a billion different styles to go for. Here I’ll be doing a pretty neutral, natural coloring, but I also love my exaggerated, color-themed sets. Let me know if you’d like to hear my tips for those in another post!

With my workflow, I usually begin coloring with a Selective Color adjustment layer. And on there, I tend to always go straight for the Yellow view. There my go-to is to drag down the Cyan slider, since like I mentioned, I usually go for a warm-toned look. Here again my advice is to just mess around with the different sliders, see what they do, test them out to find a coloring you like. You can do the same thing with the Hue and Saturation layer, picking different colors in the gif and adjusting them to how you want them to look. The shot we’re working with doesn’t need a ton of color manipulation, so I won’t be doing too much with these layers, but they allow you to make some really cool colorful stuff! 

The Color Balance adjustment is up next, and it’s great at unifying the colors and also making the color shades look nicer after lighting. Especially with dark gifs, brightening a scene can make the darks look a bit muddy, so editing the Shadows of Color Balance can help with that. 

And lastly when I’m done with all the coloring layers, I apply a Vibrance layer on top, usually to up the Vibrance and Saturation, since I love my bright saturated colors. This shot is pretty bright on its own so I won’t have to tweak it a lot. 

Once I’ve got all the adjustment layers in place, I’ll usually group all of them together. You can do this by selecting all the adjustment layers and then pressing CTRL/Command+G to put them into a group folder. I like to have it organized like that and it also makes it easier to look between the original gif and the adjusted one by toggling the little eye icon on the left of the folder. This way you can check if there’s something you still want to change, or if you want to tone down some adjustments. With today’s gif I went and lightened the shadows a little. But after that I was happy with the coloring, and the gif looked like this:

Sharpening

It’s almost time to export the final product! But before that I'll sharpen the gif. I know many people like to sharpen their gifs before coloring them, that’s a pretty common way to do it. This is just the order I learned to do this in. I think it’s fun to sharpen last so that it’s kind of like a final polish to the gif! 

To prep the gif for sharpening, go to the bottom left of the frames and select ‘Convert to video timeline’. Now go back to the right and select all the layers in the layers view, the adjustment layers and all. Then with all of them selected, right-click to open a menu and from it, pick ‘Convert to Smart Object’. Now your layers are all in one object.

From the top row menu, pick ‘Filter’ then ‘Sharpen’ and ‘Smart Sharpen’. In the window that opens, pick these settings:

Then repeat the same thing, with the Smart Object still selected but now apply these settings:

(I have made these steps into an action, so I can do it with a simple click)

Exporting

With the sharpening done, our gif is ready!

To export it, go to ‘File’ and ‘Export’ and ‘Save for Web (Legacy).

A window opens up showing you the export settings. The first thing I do in this window is check the size of the gif, which can be found in the bottom left under the preview image. The Tumblr gif size limit is 10MB, so you need to stay below that. If the gif is bigger, I go back and make it shorter by deleting frames from the start or end of the gif. There are other ways to reduce the file size, but this is usually what I do. With today’s gif the size is around 5MB so we’re all good!

If you want to preview the gif in a moving form, click ‘Preview’ from under the file size, and it will open in your browser.

On the right of the preview image in the Export window you can see a bunch of different settings. In the screenshot you can see the settings I use, you can test them out and then tweak them to your liking. I usually keep them the same, though sometimes if there’s some pixelation in areas of the gif I test switching out ‘Adaptive’ to ‘Selective’ or ‘Diffusion’ to ‘Pattern’. But these are the settings I use in 99% of my gifs, and what I have found give the nicest end result for me.

When you’re all set with the settings you can save your gif into its folder and then you’re all done!

So there we have it! A basic rundown of my giffing process. I tried to keep it as clear and informative as possible, but I know I can get rambly so I hope this was helpful! For more details and tips, please refer to the tutorials I linked. There really are so many useful tutorials on here to learn from.

Lastly I'll add that making gifs is a creative art form and a skill like any other. You aren't going to be perfect at it on your first try, it takes practice and trial and error. When I look back on my first gifs I can see a hundred things that I would fix now that I have more experience. And the same will for sure be the case if I look at my current posts a couple years from now.

Figuring things out, learning what you like to gif and developing your style is what I find the most fun about the whole gif making process. I've been making them for three years now and I can say that I've developed a style that feels my own. And I swear, every time I see someone leave a tag to my post saying that they like my coloring and the style of my gifs, it always makes me so happy.

If you're thinking of starting to make gifs, I say go for it, give it a go, and have fun with it! 💛

[nesurii]

i didn't have a tutorial yet... so i made one lol. its longer than i wanted it to be, but i wanted to make sure it's easy to follow for people who've never made cc or have no experience with photo editing software, and fully explain my process. it's by no means hard at all though lol, i guarantee you making skin details is the easiest thing aside from recolors and if you want to learn this is a good place to start :-)

for people who are more experienced than that, and want to know specific things-- i've sectioned everything so it should be easy to skim through until you find what you need!

requirements.

this tutorial will only require sims 4 studio (free) and photoshop (not free) or gimp (free). i pirated photoshop 2022 myself. any version will do but i think 2022 just has nice new features for making content! if you don't want to buy or pirate, gimp is a similar alternative.

1.1 how to find skins to use as a base.

in case you don't have (a) skin(s) in mind to use for your skinblend, my tip is to download as much random ones as you can find. this way you have a lot to choose from and it's easier to get an idea of what you want.

go-to creators for maxis match skins: heihu, madmono, pyxiidis, faaeish, miikocc, emmibouquet and stretchskeleton.

creators for maxis mix/alpha skins: sims3melancholic, obscurus, ddarkstonee and pralinesims.

creators for maxis mix/alpha skins that only allow editing for private use: northernsiberiawinds, remussirrion and thisisthem.

go into cas and try them all out. if you like a part of a skin, write down which skin it is and what part(s) you want to use of it from which swatch if it has multiple.

for example, i almost always use one or two skins for just the nose shape, one for the eyebags, one to three for the lips and one for the basic shading of the face. don't be afraid to use the opposite style skins of what you're going for, you can always add or erase details.

1.2 exporting the skins.

now we're gonna export the skins with sims 4 studio. click on "my projects" (1) and navigate to whereever you have the skins you want to use, and select one and click "open" (2).

the colored little boxes in the top right are the swatches. click whichever swatch you wanted to use something from (1), then click the "export" button (2). you'll get a window to save the exported skin now.

tip: i highly recommend making an organized folder for your skinblend, to have all your files together and easy to find. if you haven't made it already you can easily do so within this window. i put mine in a folder called "resources" in a folder named "unnamed skin" for example.

name the exported skin file (3) and make sure the "save as type" is set to .png (4).

after saving the file, you can just click "cancel" on the bottom right to go back to sims4studio's starting screen. if you have multiple skins you want to use, repeat the above process for all the other skins to export them too.

2.1 opening the exported files in photoshop/gimp.

open your program of choice and click on "file" from the top bar (1) and then "open..." and navigate to the skin files. you can left click and hold down your CTRL key to select multiple at once to open.

we have to layer them all in one file, but before we do that we have to check if they're all the same size.

note: some skindetails might be 2048x4096, others may be 1024x2048. unless you want your skin to be compatible with the HQ mod, you should just opt for 1024x2048, as without the mod both resolutions look identical. the bigger one will just make your fize unnecessarily large.

click "image" at the top bar (2), then "image size". it'll say the size at dimensions. if it's at the size you want it to be at, just exit the window. if you need to edit it, select "pixels" from the dropdown menu (3), and put in 1024 for width and 2048 for height OR 2048 for width and 4096 for height. if you're sizing up select "bicubic smoother (enlargement)" under resample (5).

repeat this for every skin you opened.

2.2 layering the skins together.

copy and paste all the skins individually onto one by selecting them with CTRL + A and CTRL + C on your keyboard, and pasting them into one of the other opened skins with CTRL + SHIFT + V. you can then close all the other tabs.

the file now has multiple layers. you can rename them by double clicking the layer name. this makes it easier to keep track of whats what. you can reorder them as well by dragging them with your mouse. put the skin you want to use as base (for the general facial shading, highlighting) at the bottom.

tip: i recommend making all white and all black background layers to see the skins better. you can do so by pressing D, then CTRL + SHIFT + N. for the white layer then press CTRL + BACKSPACE and for the black layer repeat the first two steps and then press ALT + BACKSPACE. now there should be two new layers in black and white. drag them to the bottom of the list. i prefer using white so i put black last.

2.3 changing the opacity in parts of the base skin layer.

to make ea's preset details (cheek/nose bridge sharpness, dimples) come through your skinblend, you need to change the opacity of the base skin sometimes. alpha skins tend to be fully opaque but maxis match skins are usually already transparant enough.

hide all the layers aside from this base layer by clicking the eye icon next to the layer names. you can see the transparancy with the visibility of the grey-white blocks or if you find it easier you can also unhide the black background to see it instead.

to change the opacity, you can either edit the entire layer's opacity (1) or use the eraser tool (E key) to add transparancy at specific parts.

if you have photoshop 2022, turn on vertical symmetry (+). if you don't have it, you can choose to edit only one side of the skin and mirror it later or do both sides and embrace some asymmetry.

i selected the eraser (2) and set the brush size to about 200px and 0% hardness. the opacity of the brush i set to about 10% (3). i used the eraser on the lower cheeks, the nose bridge and tip and the bottom of the chin. i also erase the upper eyelid 100%, cause i prefer to have eyelid freedom :p. it then looks like the above! this will very subtly let through details, if you want more you should make it more transparant.

2.4 optionally: editing out freckles, pores and/or eyelashes.

your base may have pores, freckles or moles you want to get rid of. to smoothen everything at once, click "filter" at the top bar (1), "noise" and then "reduce noise". i only edit the strength and sharpen details setting (2), this setting erased the pores and most of the freckles for me while keeping the details looking sharp, but you likely have to adjust it a little cause it depends on how large/fine the details are.

the remaining freckles, pores and eyelashes i remove by using the smudge tool, with 0% brush hardness and at 25% strength. (3) brush size depends on the size of the details. i just go over it in circular motions until the freckle or whatever it is has been blended away without pixelation.

for this part i'm going to only show how i do the nose as an example, however it works the same for editing in eyebags, lips, jaw lines or whatever you want to add in too.

unhide the layer of the skin you want to use a part of, and hide the base layer. if you are going to use multiple parts of that skin (for example, you want both the nose and the lips of that skin), duplicate the layer by right clicking the layer name and choosing "duplicate layer...". then hide the duplicated layer. it's easier to edit one part at a time.

use the selection tool (M) to select the part. press CTRL + SHIFT + I and then DELETE. press CTRL + D to unselect. should look something like the above.

use the eraser tool (E) at a moderately small size like 30px~ with about 30% hardness and 100% opacity to erase around "hard lines", like the nostrils in this case and the bottom of the nose. the nose bridge has "soft lines", so if you were to use a hard brush for that, the shading of the nose bridge would look far too harsh and unblended. for the soft lines, set the eraser tool at a bigger size like 100px~ with 0% hardness and a lowered opacity between 15-45%. erase soft lines "gradually", so the shadows blend in with the layers underneath it. should look something like the picture above.

always look at the newly added part with both a black and white background to see if there's anything you need to erase more. then look if it blends in properly with the layers underneath. if it's too dark or light, you can click on "image" on the top bar, then "adjustments" and "brightness/contrast", and lower or raise the brightness until it blends in better.

i'm using two separate skins to make the nose, so i've repeated the process above for the second nose skin, then used the method of step 2.3 to erase certain parts and make other parts more transparant / blended in. as you can see above, it's now the perfect offspring between the two noses i used.

note: for a maxis match nose, you'll want to avoid a completely opaque nose, mainly at the nose bridge it should be more transparant. i always make sure the lips and eyebags are fully opaque though, unless you're going for a vanilla type of skin it doesn't look good transparant.

at this point, i like to save the file with the white background layer on and see what it looks like in sims 4 studio. this gives you a better idea of what it looks like on sims and what you may want to change or add. press CTRL + SHIFT + S and name your file, and set the file type to .png.

open any skin or skin detail cc file just like in step 1.2, and instead of exporting anything, click "import". now navigate to the file you just saved, and open it. the sim model now displays what your skin looks like. should look something like the above! you can click cancel after you've looked enough, so you don't have to worry about ruining the original cc file.

maybe you're happy with the skins current state... but in case you want to add or change some things, here's a step by step how i do it.

5.1 drawing shadows & highlights.

as you probably have noticed, everything needs to be done in greyscale, so select black (for shadows) or white (for highlights) in the top right colored box. make a new layer (CTRL + SHIFT + N). select the brush tool (B) and set the brush at about 0px with 100% opacity. draw the shape of the shadow or highlight where you want it. make sure to make a new layer for every shadow and highlight!

now you can either use the smudge tool to blend it out, but i prefer using "filter" from the top bar, "blur" > "gaussian blur". i just play around with the radius until it's blended out but still has some shape to it. it depends on how small or wide and blended you want it to be.

then i use the eraser to shape the shadow/highlight further. for example, i want the shadow in this case more blended out towards the eye, but harder towards the forehead and nose, so i use the eraser on that side. lastly i change the layer opacity to make the shadow/highlight less dark/light. my preference lays with subtle details, but of course you can make it as contrasted as you like!

5.2 drawing small details.

to draw your own details, use the brush in 1-3px brush size, 100% opacity in black. i can't help you here cause it's just drawing where you want and then blending it out with the smudging or blurring tool where needed, and using the eraser at lower opacity to blend it in.

to give you some ideas, i usually draw some details on the nose like sharper nostrils or a nose wall, some texture on the lips and the eyebags. i like using reference pictures of real peoples skins to see where and how to draw things. before and after pictured above! (i'm so proud of these eyebags yall T-T)

5.3 adding other creators cc skin details.

if you don't like drawing things yourself or know just the right cc skin detail your skin needs, you can also use other creators' skin details on yours.

maxis match + mix details: pyxidis about face, miikocc face kits, okruee face details, sammi-xox face details, lamingtonsims face details.

maxis mix + alpha details: detail overlays by obscurus-sims, ddarkstonee & sims3melancholic

like in step 1.2, just open the file in s4s and export whatever swatches you want to use. remember to make sure the resolution of the file is the same as your skin's before copy and pasting it on your skinblend! and remember you can lower the opacity layer for these too.

5.4 mirroring your skin.

if your skin isn't mirrored/symmetrical yet, save your file as a .psd and then right click the layers, click "merge visible", press CTRL + ALT + C, and set the canvas width to half what it is now (either 1024 or 512). (1) click the arrow in the left middle if you want to mirror the left side, or the arrow on the right middle for the right side. (2) press "ok".

press CTRL + A, then CTRL + X, then CTRL + SHIFT + V. delete the layer beneath the active one (it's empty). then press CTRL + ALT + C again, and put the canvas width back to the original (2048 or 1024). select the same arrow you selected before, and click "ok".

press CTRL + A again, then CTRL + C. now click "image" from the top bar, "image rotation" and then "flip canvas horizontal". now press CTRL + SHIFT + V .... and voila, your skin should now be mirrored.

note: ik there's a ridiculous amount of steps for such a simple thing so i feel like there's probably a much faster way to do this, but i hate following tutorials and guides (the irony) so this is just the way i taught myself lmao

5.5 last test & optional last touches.

at this point, i'm done with the skin. i erase everything aside from the face if the skin still has a full body texture cause i prefer face-only skinoverlays. i always save as .psd and .png, .psd is to edit it later on if need be. once again import your skin into s4s like in step 4, and see if you're happy with the skin. if not, just keep editing whatever you need!

i also like to add alternate versions of the skin lastly here. some examples: a soft nose or hard nose bridge (justice for flat soft noses, simblr loves to erase them lol), different eyebags, lighter or darker lip option, version with eyelid overlay or without.

6.1 creating the package file.

to make the package file for your skinblend, open s4s and select "create cas standalone" and then click "cas". (2) now select "skin detail forehead" from part type (3), click the most left forehead wrinkle and click "next" (4). name the skin file whatever you want, you can always change it later!

click "import" and open your skin file. and voila! you're pretty much done!

6.2 editing the age, gender & occult flags and category.

right now your skinblend is only available for young adult to elder sims, and not for aliens and werewolves, so you probably want to change this. go to "categories" (1) and check the boxes you want under "age & gender flags" and "occult" (2). you don't need to change any of the other things.

if you wish to change the skin detail slot it's in, you can change it at "outfit type". most people use either forehead or mouth crease, but you can use any of the ones that start with 'skindetail'.

6.3 adding swatch colors, thumbnails or additional swatches.

if you want, you can add multiple swatches (1). you can also edit the color of the swatches (2) and upload a custom thumbail with 104x148px resolution (3), make sure to upload for both male and female frames.

6.4 editing the sorting layer.

it's not the end of the world if you don't do this, but you may run into some skin details or freckles/moles that won't display on top of your skinblend if you don't edit it :).

click on the "warehouse" tab (1), select the first "cas part" (2). scroll down on the right to find "sort layer" (3) and put in 2100. you're gonna want to change this for each cas part individually.

now just save your file... and try it out in game!

if you need any help or have any questions please comment below <3 feel free to tag me in the end result if you want too.

(my end result)

[tawaifeddiediaz]

hello! im a newby gimaker and i want to follow your tutorial on sharpening but i dont know how you got to the photoshop page you started from where it looks like a video timeline. can you tell me how you got there? <3

Hey!!

Welcome to the wonderful world of gifmaking <3 yes i can lead you through to that point. I have a mac so this might look different for you, but all the steps stay the same - I just shifted from windows to mac so i know this xD

I'm going to show you how to do this on this gif:

I prefer to use screenshots for my gifs (I also don't know how else to make them), so I use Mplayer for that. I used to use MPV player but that stopped working with my new computer system.

First, you want to make sure that you're using a high-quality file. If 1080p is available to you, use 1080p at the very least. This will make sure your gifs are crisp and sharp.

Open your file with Mplayer. Then find the bit that you want to gif. I sometimes search forward by frame by using the ">" key. Once you're at the start point of your desired gif, pause the video. Then, Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + S to start screenshotting. The video will start to play slowly as the screenshots are captured. (They go to the desktop automatically but you can change that in interface settings).

The rest of the tutorial is under a cut:

Once you get your screenshots, you're going to go Photoshop. File > Scripts > Load Files Into Stack.

You're going to get a dialogue box. Click Browse and load the screenshots that you want. This is what that looks like when you finish:

Next, you're going to crop your gif, using the crop tool. You can press C on your keyboard for this or use the tool with this icon in the sidebar.

For this, I'm using an aspect ratio of 540 x 400:

Click that checkmark to crop. Once you do, we're going to resize the image. Use the Cmd/Ctrl + I function to bring up this box. For tumblr gifs, you want to change the width. The height doesn't really matter but if the width doesn't match up, Tumblr is going to fix it for you and it'll look funky. Per row:

1 gif , we use 540px

2 gifs, 268px each

3 gifs, 177, 178, 177 px

We're just doing one, so I'm using 540px.

Now, you want to make sure you can add the timeline. In the top bar, go to Window > Timeline

This will bring up the timeline.

From there, click "Create Frame Animation" (you might have to press the arrow in the timeline bar first.)

It's going to look like this:

We're going to use those three lines in the corner of the picture above. The first option we'll select is "Make Frames From Layers"

That looks like this:

Now, when these load in, you may notice that they're all in reverse. To make them go back in order, we're going to go back to that menu and click "Reverse Frames."

Then, in that same menu, click "Select all Frames." We're going to change the animation speed. You want to make sure you have the first frame selected. We're going to click the arrow next to the "0 sec"

When you click that, it will give you a menu. Click, "other..." You should get a dialogue box that says "Set Frame Delay", just like the one below.

You want to use anywhere between 0.05-0.1 seconds. I find that anymore more is just too slow, so I prefer 0.06. This is fully changeable at the end of my sharpening tutorial, and you can use what you want, but that's what I prefer.

When you do that, it'll change the frame speed of all the gifs.

Now, go back into that little menu, and click, "Convert to Video Timeline."

This is what it'll look like:

Now we're going to select all the layers in the right-hand pane. Once we do that, right-click and select, "Convert to Smart Object."

And you're there! Now you can use the sharpening tutorial to your liking.

Pro tip: Make an action with all these steps so you don't have to do them by hand with every single gif you make.

Hope this helps and it wasn't super long winded. Let me know if you have any questions <3 Happy giffing!

[kitconnor]

Hi! Happy 4k celebration 🥰 Can you share how you make your gifs or make a gif tutorial?

hi !! tysm <3 i'm more than happy to give you a little tutorial on how i make my gifs ! of course, my process is not the same to other gifmakers and may not always work for everyone but i hope it helps !

for this tutorial, i'm using the most recent edition of photoshop (2023) on my mac. full explanation under the cut.

full disclaimer: most of what i've learnt about photoshop and the giffing process is through pure trial and error. this won't work for everyone and others may think it's a little weird, but this is just how i make my gifs !!

1.find your scenes.

finding your scenes is sometimes very time consuming but you want to get it right the first time !! for this tutorial, i'm using a music video in mp4 format.

2. loading your scenes.

to load your scenes, you want to go: 'file' > 'import' > 'video frames to layers'. i know that this step varies on the user because some people like to go to timeline first, but i'd advise starting in frames first !

after that, a screen like i've depicted below will pop up. i've also annotated everything for you as well.

so, select your desired range, press 'ok' and then it will all load into ps !

3. setting up your gif.

i'm grouping this all into one step, but it's broken down into a few things.

the first part of this is: cropping. the recommended dimensions i follow are on this guideline here, but for the sake of this tutorial i'm just going to crop my gif 540x540 (as a w x h setting). the crop tool is on the left hand tool bar.

now, my gif looks like this. from here, i'm going to click on the timeline (the space along the bottom that has every frame). from there, click on the three lines to get this menu (i've circled where to go + what you'll click):

from there, go 'select all frames' and then click on any of the frames NUMBERS (where it says 0.04 with an arrow besides it, or whatever yours says) then change the frame rate. with most youtube videos i will use 0.08 as my desired frame rate, but when i'm gifing a show or something, it loads in as 0.02, so i change it to 0.05. 0.05-6 on any normal screen cap should be fine, but obviously you can change it depending on if it looks right or not.

from there, you've basically done the first half of the basics. now, you'll want to click on this button:

and now you'll be taken to the video timeline ! from here, select command + option + a (this is for mac, i think it would be control if you're on another device) then, right click on your layers and go 'convert to smart object'.

from here, i'll sharpen my gif before i colour. for this step i have two alternative sharpening settings first one by anyataylorjoy (rb to download !) and the other by maygrant (please ask !). the first one is tuser maygrant's and the second one is tuser anyataylorjoy's. i typically use morgan's for all my basic gifs but anyataylorjoy's for creative sets. every user has a different preference but just find what's good for you !

4. colouring your gif.

definitely the most tedious, this can be a little bit of a hassle depending on the scene. if the colouring isn't riddled with heavy yellows or cyans, colouring is usually a breeze but if it is, it can be hard.

CURVES

the circle with the arrow dropdown and that's half grey-white is the circle you want to click on to find curves. it'll open a menu and curves will be at the top.

you'll see a little menu like above appear. now, select the dropper i've indicated as being the "light point" and then, using the zoom tool, we're going to zoom in and find the brightest point on the gif. this is typically where the light source is.

in this section here, i can see a couple of bright points. using the dropper, i'll click on the closest to white (note: i find that white rarely changes the colouring of the gif, so if there's like, a really really light yellow, for example, click on that) and then i'll do a similar process with the "dark point" dropper, finding the darkest spot, which is usually in shadows or in the corners. unlike with the light dropper, you want the closest to black, whether that's a dark dark brown or dark dark blue.

now, we can see how the colouring has changed:

optional: you can change the white line on the curves menu, which can make it lighter, or darker in different points of the gif.

LEVELS

levels is an optional step, but i recommend it on very light gifs, or if you want to add a little more depth. probably don't do it on an already very dark gif.

the levels menu looks like this:

the far left slider adds shadows and the far right slider makes it lighter. on this particular gif, i only need a little bit of depth to her face and i only need to contrast that a little bit. by just dragging the slider a little bit:

this is the result:

with levels, it can very quickly alter skin tone/make your gif look bad !! with levels, i don't think you need to go above 1-12 in adding depth.

OPTIONAL: BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST

brightness/contrast is optional !! only add it if it's necessary :)

COLOUR BALANCE

a colour balance layer is great for fixing the tones for the gif !!

this one's pretty self explanatory. if you want it to be more yellow, slide it towards yellow. if you want it to be more red, slide it more towards red, etc etc. i've attached some gifs showing how i change tone:

but just play with it until it looks right. be very careful with skin tone !! colour balance can very easily whitewash/colour wash and that is not something encouraged, in the slightest.

SELECTIVE COLOUR

a selective colour layer is basically a "final touch" to colouring. where colour balance just kind of does an overall change of the gif, selective colour allows you to alter your specific tones, ie. reds, magentas, blues, etc. for me, i'll do the bulk of getting my desired colouring with colour balance, but if it overcorrects reds, for example, i'll add some cyan to red tones in selective colour, to diffuse that.

currently, in my gif, it's very red/yellow heavy. to balance that out, i want to add cyans. so, on the drop down list of the selective colour menu, i'll select 'red' and then i'll ADD cyans (so move the slider to the right, not the left to decrease) and then repeat that on other tones that i want to correct, with different colours.

with each of the sliders, just add or decrease how much of that colour is in that tone. once again, be mindful of skin tone and whether it is appropriate or not.

with selective colour, if there are any standout colours (eg. in my gif, there's a big patch of cyan) that don't interrupt their face (eg. reds and yellows are always in faces) and change the way the subjects look, you can change those colours to make it more vibrant. so, in this gif, i'll enhance the cyans and blues and magentas to make the colours pop more.

5. saving your gif

once your happy with the colouring of your gif and done what you need to do with it, save it as a smart object with all your colouring layers, then go to 'file' > 'export' > 'save for web (legacy)...' . play back your gif, and it should be all good !! congrats on making your gifs !

i've included a playback of each layer, which is staggered to show each layer come into effect.

in order: nothing -> curves -> levels-> brightness/contrast -> colour balance -> selective colour.

hope this helped !!

[boxanimal]

Tutorial: editing manga raws

Disclaimer: This is a tutorial for beginners with no experience using Photoshop for editing manga raws. It is not comprehensive, nor does it detail the only reliable method for achieving a good result. This is just a walkthrough of the method I find to have the best ratio of effort to result quality, according to my own tastes.

Open the file in Photoshop: If you do not own PS, see notes at the end of this post.

Click "open" on the PS startup menu or under "File" on the top bar of the window.

Click "File" on the top bar of the window, click "Save As" and save in your desired location as a Photoshop Document (.psd).

Regularly save the file with File > Save or with the shortcut CTRL+S/CMD+S while editing so you don't lose your work.

Change image mode: If your file name has "(Index)" after it, you will need to change the image mode to edit it properly.

Click "Image" on the top bar, then "Mode". Select "Grayscale" if you are working in B/W, or "RGB" if you plan on working with color. You can change this later, although it can sometimes affect your image in unexpected ways.

Crop (optional): You may want to crop your file down to what you want your final edit to include. You can also do this later if you prefer.

Click the crop icon on the left toolbar and click and drag over the area you want to work with. You can adjust by hovering over the edges of the selection and dragging when the arrows appear. You can rotate the crop by doing this at the corners as well.

Click the check mark on the options bar to confirm.

Be aware of the icon on the options bar which, when selected, permanently deletes the pixels outside of your crop. It is best not to have it on so you can adjust the crop later, but if your computer struggles with running PS, it may be worth using.

Surface blur (optional): Surface blur helps limit the amount of manual cleaning you will have to do by evening out some of the texture of the paper fiber you can see in raw manga.

(Extra optional) resize the image to 2X its current size. Go to "Image" on the top bar, then click "Image Size". Change the width or height to 2X the original value, making sure the "constrain aspect ratio" icon is checked. Hit OK.

Go to "Filter" on the top bar, then "Blur", then "Surface Blur".

Adjust the values on the box that comes up to balance between limiting the amount of texture in flat black and white area with not blurring details together. It will not be the same for every image, but will likely be similar. You can check and uncheck the preview button to compare your adjustment to the original. Hit OK when done.

If you resized the image, repeat the process, this time returning it to its original size.

Leveling

Click the "Layers" panel button on the right of the screen to open it.

On the bottom of the layers panel, click the button that looks like a half-white, half-black circle. Under that menu, click "Levels".

The levels adjustment panel should open, and you should see something that looks like a graph. As you drag the right and left slider on the graph inward, you will notice the blacks and whites getting more intense, respectively. Adjust these too your taste, but be aware that dragging them too far towards the middle can mess with gradation and midtones if they are present. You can adjust the middle slider as well. Play around until you get a look you like.

Sharpening (optional): Sharpening increases the definition of the edges of an image. I personally don't do this a lot of the time because I'm not crazy about the look, but it is a common step for many people, so it is worth knowing about since you may prefer the sharpened look.

Go back to the "Layers" panel. Make sure the layer that has the image on it is selected.

Go to "Filter" on the top bar, then "Sharpen".

There are a variety of sharpening options underneath sharpen. Try them and see what appeals to you. You can use all of these on one image, and apply them multiple times. If you sharpen too much, just use the CTRL+z/CMD+z shortcut to undo your previous actions.

Spot cleaning: If there's still some visible "dirt" on the image, I quickly clean it up with the brush tool.

On the bottom of the layer panel, click the "+" icon to create a new layer. Make sure you have it selected.

Click the brush tool in the left tool panel.

Size of the brush can be adjusted on the options panel, and the color can be adjusted on the side toolbar.

Just click over spots with a black/white brush to cover them up. You can use the eraser tool in the left panel, or CTRL+z/CMD+z, if you mess up. The eraser won't effect the image itself because your touch-ups are on a separate layer.

Export: When you're all done with a basic manga edit, you can either keep editing if you want to do something more elaborate (not covered in this tutorial) or export your file to a type you can upload on the web.

Click "File" on the top bar of the window, then "Export", then "Export As".

You have the option to change the final file type in this window. I recommend a PNG for high quality or a JPG if you want to limit file size. You can also change the size of the exported image here; it is up to you and your needs if you do this.

Click the blue export button and choose where you want to export the final edit.

Additional Notes: Software

Photoshop: I recommend Photoshop for editing, and it is what this tutorial is based around. However, I don't recommend paying for it. Here is how you can get if for free.

(Highly recommended) Enable your VPN if you have one.

Go here.

Type "photoshop" into the search bar on the top right of the screen, and look for the result with the highest "S" value (green text).

Click on the magnet icon next to the file size to torrent the file.

If you don't know how to torrent, here is an external tutorial.

Install the program according to the instructions in the information file and you will be set.

Photopea:

If you aren't comfortable downloading pirated files onto your computer, Photopea has a lot of the same functionality as Photoshop, but in-browser.

I'm not sure how it handles large files, but in terms of functionality it should be able to do anything you would need for edits.

Additional Notes: Space

Raws can take up a lot of space, because ideally they are both large and lossless (meaning they don't lose quality as the files are uploaded, downloaded, etc). Additionally, having few GBs free on your computer can hinder Photoshop's performance when editing said raws. If you don't have a lot of computer space, these are my recommendations:

The cheapest solution is knowing what you want to edit and what volume it is in, so you can download only what you need. This may not work for all raws, because they might all be grouped together in one massive upload, but mine are posted by volume.

The best solution is to buy an external hard drive. I would not encourage you to get one just for this, but this is a useful tool for anyone. Besides helping you free up a ton of storage space, it blows your piracy game wide open, and you can save a crazy amount of your favorite media in a place no one can take it from you. They are not super cheap, but they are well worth the price if you use them. Be sure to get the most out of it. I have this one and it works great.

You can also make use of cloud storage, though I don't really recommend it.

[azures-bazar]

Tutorial - Your own character in Story Mode

Hello everyone ! I wanted to make this quick tutorial to show you how to actually insert and morph your Red Dead Online character in Story mode ! It's greatly inspired by Abigail Pinehaven and Chel's tutorial's, who I'm thanking today !

Sorry for my bad grammar again !

Prequisites

Rampage Trainer by RampageDev

OutfitChanger by LMS (Lenny)

ScripthookRDR2 by Alexander Blade

Installation

Place your unzipped rampage folder in the game root file, then add all other files into the game root file :

ex: C:/Azuresbazar/Programs/Rockstar Games/Red Dead Redemption 2

I recommend you to create a mod folder on your desktop, giving you a possibility to check which mods you have and how to delete them if you want, for example, to play Read Dead Online (you can be banned if you use mods on RDO).

To check if your mods are working fine, you should hear three "bips" when launching your game.

F2 - Opens Oufit Changer

F5 - Opens Rampage Trainer

Morphing your character

Now, let’s get started ! I will show you how you can morph your character using the generic presets of outfit changer. Our first example will be with a mp_female. This model is like a canvas, and the generic body model used in RDO for female players.

STEP 1 - Change your character for a female model

Open Rampage Trainer by pressing the keyboard command. Go to Player, then to Wardrobe, and click on Model Changer. You will need to type "mp_female" in the search bar, then press enter.

This is Arthur before we change his model to another one.

Your character will end up looking like a neckline and a pair of pants. Not really appalling, I’m afraid ! Changing the model will reset the player's presets and let you create a brand new entity. Your character won't have a voice.

STEP 2 - Head to Outift Changer

Now close Rampage Trainer and open Outfit Changer. Click on “Change Components MP Female”.

STEP 3 - Select a head (along with teeth and eyes)

Click on "Heads" and choose the head you want to pick. I advise you to note the feature references you would like to use ! Unfortunately, there is currently no way to add eyebrows.(EDIT - If you go through Rampage Trainer's Outfit Variation for mp_female, you will find characters with eyebrows or makeup to start with from variation 75 or later)).

Choosing mp_female and adding a mp_female face via Outfit Changer will not provide you any facial details (no scars, freckles, makeup). I’m on my way to check game files and find the correct face to edit and add eyebrows and will make a tutorial when I'll find anything about it. Otherwise, you’ll have to do this manually with Photoshop. :')

Here is our blank character ! Not appalling either.

STEP 4 - Create your outfit (hair, shirt, pants, hats... and so on !)

This process is long, seriously long, since hairstyles have no proper name, letting you navigate among them until you'll find a suitable one. I kindly recommend you to complete your character’s face with its eyes and teeth before moving forward to the outfit and hairstyle, so you won't be surprised if/when a cutscene triggers with your character looking like they came straight out of a horror movie !

And here is a finished outfit !

Most of the outfit components are named like in Red Dead Online. For instance, this is the outfit I crafted for my own character, Adelaide Andersson. You can edit the shirt attributes by pressing the right keyboard key to have the sleeves rolled up or an opened collar… or both ! Feel free to use your imagination !

STEP 5 - Save your creation

Once you're done with your character's creation, get back to Outfit Changer's main menu and save your current outfit. It will save you countless hours of searching for components again !

Play with your character

Your character will now appear in cutscenes (she does in my game !)... and will have Arthur's voice. However, NEVER SAVE your game while using your own character, as it might corrupt and break your save file. Reset your character back to Arthur before saving any story progress.

You're now able to play as your own character ! You won't be able to talk with other characters (I tried getting Arthur's voice back, it did not work), but should be able to play just fine !

Make your character follow Arthur !

If you want to play Arthur again but still want to keep your character around, here's a very easy trick !

STEP 6 - Clone your character

Open Rampage Trainer, click on Player, then go down and select "Clone Player". Your Character should duplicate. Then, click on Wardrobe/Model Changer and select Reset. Arthur should be back on your screen !

STEP 7 - Take control of your clone !

Now head back to the main menu of Rampage Trainer and select the following : Peds/Hijack Ped. Inside the input section, type "mp_female" and press enter. It will allow you to turn your cloned character into a ped.

To make sure your character has succesfully been hooked, head to Ped Database. Your mp_female should be added there !

STEP 8 : Turn your character into a companion

In order to make your character follow Arthur like a companion, select your character in the ped Database, and press enter on "Bodyguard". Your character will now follow Arthur ! Don't forget giving them weapons, in case of a sudden bandit attack !

You can also make your character mount Arthur's horse. To do such thing, double-click on Mount/Dismount my Horse. Your character should be sitting on Arthur's horse, behind him.

Final result :

If you want Arthur to interact with your character, you can go to General and select the option "Make Interactable". You can also set a voice for your character by clicking on Play Speech, then typing the name of the character you'd like to hear (if you want to hear Karen, simply type "Karen").

As of today, I've never heard my character respond with a selected voice, but Karen's slurs and frigtened shouts are triggered whenever I aim my gun at them !

NOTA BENE

Don't save your game while playing as your own character !

Your character will, just like in RDO, remain mute.

Save all your outfits with Outfit Changer, and take a note of every component you wish to use.

If you have any questions or doubts, don't hesitate !

[1lastdate]

Image Menu of Photoshop

Image Menu of Photoshop

Photoshop में Image में सुधार करने से Related कार्य करने के लिए Image Menu का Use किया जाता हैं Image Menu के द्वारा Image में कई कार्य आसानी से किये जा सकते हैं जैसे Image का Color Change करना, Image के आकार को Change करना, Brightness कम या ज्यादा करना, Color Balance Set करना आदि। On Screen Image का Size बदलना Photoshop में एक ही बार में पूरी Image के लिए Computer Monitor पर Image का आकार Change…

[titanicpng]

CROPPING TUTORIAL FOR PHOTOSHOP

Below is an easy guide to cropping your pictures on photoshop!

On the left side of your photoshop there will be a tool bar. That's where you will find your crop tool. It's the 5th icon down.

When this tool is selected an outlined box will appear around your photo you wish to crop. This is normal!

Above the photo should be another tool bar that extends the width of your photoshop. This is where you will put your dimensions you wish to crop your photo to.

On the left side of the tool bar you will see the following. I've chose to crop my photos 170x220 cause that what I personally think looks best on roleplayer.me! If you select the first box, a drop down menu will appear and you can save your crop settings so you don't have to constantly re-enter them. *It's important to include the px in your crop settings for it to crop correctly*

Lastly, when you're ready to crop, adjust the crop box however you want on your picture and double click on it to crop! Alternatively, you can also click the check mark that's on the right side of your top tool bar where the crop settings are.

Congratulations! You've successfully cropped a picture!

[fortheloveofaminorcharacter]

Updated Gif Making Tutorial!

What you will need: Google Chrome. Quicktime Player. Photoshop.

TLDR version

Turn off graphic acceleration in Chrome and relaunch.

Use Quicktime Player to record the screen.

Trim the recording and upload it to Photoshop.

Turn the layer into a Smart Object. Resize Image to 540 width. Apply Smart Sharpen Filter.

Add adjustment layers as needed to correct color. Suggested Adjustment layers: Exposure, Brightness/Contrast, and Color Balance.

Save for Web (Legacy) set to Gif 256 colors Loop Forever. Must be under 10M for Tumblr.

So I have changed my process and I figured I should document it for whenever I inevitably forget how to do it. This is definitely for more intense gifmaking so if you are just wanting to do something less intensive, you can still do step one of this tutorial but then use something like GIPHY Capture to record the gifs. You can do basic gif captures and add text with it but you won't be able to get the same quality without doing a little editing. Most of my older stuff was done with Giphy Capture and some of those gifs I would use this tutorial to edit. Even then, they weren't the quality I wanted so now I use this process.

Anyone who is just starting out doing this, super important first step - you need chrome. It sucks but you need it to do the screen recording later on. Once you have chrome downloaded, go to the three dots in the top right hand corner >Settings> System>make sure that the Use graphic acceleration when possible is NOT CHECKED. You will see in the first gif mine was already turned off (greyed out with toggle to the left side). When you initially turn it off then it should give you an option to relaunch (note that because mine was already off I did not need to relaunch).

Now for the screen recording. First go to whatever streaming site you have the media you want to gif on it. For this tutorial I used Abigal that I streamed through Movies Anywhere. You should be able to screen record from pretty much any site but be aware of the quality. VUDU/Fandago at Home will only let you stream in SD on Chrome so that is why I use Movies Anywhere. I then use Quicktime Player to record. I keep it on my dock so I just go down to it and tap it to open a menu at the top of my screen. On that menu, go to File>New Screen Recording and a menu will pop up on the screen with options of what to record. Use the Record Selected Portion then adjust the size to match the size of the video. Once you hit record you can play the media and then it will record until you hit the little stop button on the top right of your menu bar.

Once the recording is done, you can trim it and save it. I HIGHLY recommending trimming down the screen recording before moving the file into Photoshop. Otherwise it will be such a pain when it comes time to edit. Also, your screen recording original will still be saved usually on your desktop if you want to trim down multiple parts of the video into different gifs.

Next, you drag the trimmed file into Photoshop and turn it into a Smart Object by right clicking the layer and selecting Convert to Smart Object. This will allow you to add filters which you will want to do if nothing else but to sharpen the layer. Then you should resize the image to an appropriate gif size (I use 540 x 335ish for my gifs because I find it just looks nice but you can mess around to find what dimensions work best for you).

After you resize your image, go ahead and go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen and set the amount to 500%, radius .3, reduce noise to 10%, and Remove to Gaussian Blur. Hit OK and then you should notice your gif looks clearer. After that, you are free to play with the Timeline to adjust timing (you may have to double click the Smart Object layer to change the trim of the layer but once you have adjusted it just exit out of that project and it will automatically save the trim to the original PS document you are working in), add shapes/text, add adjustment layers, etc. I would recommend an added Exposure, Brightness/Contrast, and Color Balancing layer then play with those settings until the color looks right. Be sure to save the file once you get the coloring down so you can just drag and drop other screen recordings into the PS document and it will copy those settings to it. Just remember to do the Smart Object and Sharpen Filter on every new screen recording layer you drop in.

Once you are ready to save, go up to File>Export>Save for Web (Legacy). It may take Photoshop a moment to load this menu. There will be a circle of loading white dots you will just have to wait out. Once the menu does load, select Gif from the menu just under Preset. Make sure the colors are set to 256 to get the best quality gif. Also check in the bottom left hand corner under GIF that the size is under 10M or tumblr will hate it. You may have to adjust the length of you gif if it is over that size. Also, select Forever under looping options and that the dimensions are reasonable. Tumblr hates anything bigger than 540 wide which is why that is my standard width. Once your settings are right, hit Save and then now you are ready to upload to Tumblr!

[shanamahtopoeia]

Porting Models from Dragon Age: Inquisition to Dragon Age: Origins or Dragon Age 2

Part 3: Converting Textures using Paint.NET

Tools needed: Paint.NET BoltBait's Plugin Pack

In hindsight, I probably should have started with this tutorial. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ For reference, I'll be converting the HF "prisoner" model (largely unused in Inquisition; only female NPC I could find using it is the infected woman in Sahrnia Quarry) I chose this model because it doesn't have any transparency or exposed skin. If your model does have exposed skin, you'll have to paste the outfit map together with the skin texture map, and adjust the model's UV map accordingly, unless you're using one of the very rare DAI models whose skin texture is on the outfit diffuse.

Normal Map:

I usually start with the normal map, since I follow magpie's method and paste it onto the diffuse. So, let's open up that DAI normal map. It should look like this:

If you're used to Photoshop, the first thing you'll likely notice is that it hasn't been nicely divided into RBG layers. That's something we're going to have to do ourselves. A lot.

Hopefully, you'll see a Layers box, probably on the far right. If not, hit F7 to bring it up. Now click 'Duplicate Layer' at the bottom of the Layers box.

DAI puts the X in the red channel, and Y in the green, while DAO and DA2 have X in the alpha channel, and inverted Y in the green.

With the upper layer selected, use Curves or Levels (both under 'Adjustments') to reduce the red and blue output to 0. Then do the same with the lower layer, reducing green and blue output to 0.

Using Curves: Change the Transfer Map to RBG, and uncheck the box for the color you want to keep. Then reduce the other colors to zero by clicking on the tiny dot in the upper right, and dragging it to the lower right. Hit 'OK'.

Using Levels: Uncheck the box for the color you want to keep, then reduce the other colors' Output to zero by either clicking on the uppermost bar and dragging it to the bottom, or by changing the 255 to 0. Hit 'OK'.

Now, turn each layer to grayscale with the Adjustments menu, Black and White+. Change the 'Conversion Algorithm' dropdown to 'Maximum Method'. To help keep the layers straight, you may want to rename them by double-clicking on the layer in the Layers box, or clicking the little wrench.

DAO and DA2 both use an inverted Y map, so you'll need to invert the colors. With the Y layer selected in the Layers box, do Select+A to select the entire image, then Ctrl+Shift+I to invert. Your Y layer should look like it's an stamped impression of your texture--concave when it should be convex--while your X layer will pop out like the actual texture.

The next step involves transparency, so we should do a save as a PDN in case we later need to go back and make adjustments to the individual layers. (other image formats will combine the layers - "flatten" - so it's good practice to save a PDN before saving into another format, or combining layers manually)

In the Layers box, hide the Y layer with the checkbox, and make sure you have the X layer selected. Then do Ctrl+A to select the whole image, and Ctrl+C to copy.

Then unhide the Y, and hide the X.

In the Effects menu, go to Object, Paste Alpha. Make sure you have 'Replace current Alpha with' 'Shades of gray from clipboard' selected, and hit 'ok'.

Now we almost have a proper DAO normal map! :D Despite the color, it'll work fine in DA2, too. (DAO & DA2 both read Y from the green channel and X from the alpha, but DAO has duplicates of the Y in both red & blue, while DA2 has a perfectly red red channel and all-black blue channel).

If you want to mimic the DA2 orange, you can undo the transparency for now, then add another layer in the Layers box. Move this one above the Y, and fill it with red FF0000. Using the Curves or Levels adjustment, change the Y to fully green. Double-click the all-red layer, and change the Blend mode to 'Additive'. In the Layers box, use the Merge Layers Down button to merge the red onto the Y. Then copy the X, and use Paste Alpha.

Delete the X layer.

Save as a .dds. The only setting you'll need to change from the defaults is to put the compression at BC3 (Linear, DXT5).

Diffuse Map:

Open up both the diffuse map and the specular. You'll probably notice that the diffuse map looks rather flat compared to DAO & DA2 maps. We're going to fix that by overlaying a bit of the normal and specular maps (thanks again, magpie!!).

First, we need to separate the specular map into RGB layers. Use the Layers box to make two duplicates of the base layer. Like with the normal map, you can use either the Curves tool (Adjustments, Curves) or the Levels tool (Adjustments, Levels) to make the three color channels.

With either method, Paint.NET remembers your last adjustment, so you'll have to undo it when you change the next color layer. You should end up with the layers like this:

Go back to your diffuse map.

If your diffuse has transparency, make a duplicate layer, and turn the bottom one into a transparency layer with Effect, Object, Switch Alpha to Gray. Hide this layer. We won't be using it again for a while. Turn the other layer completely opaque by clicking Adjustments, Transparency, and moving the slider all the way to the right.

Make two new blank layers above your diffuse layer.

Open back up the normal map PDN you made earlier, and copy the Y layer.

Paste the normal Y layer into the lower blank layer on the diffuse map.

Go to the specular map, copy the green layer, and paste it into the upper blank layer on the diffuse map. Sometimes one of the maps isn't the same size as the other. In that case, first adjust the size with Image, Resize. The sizes are multiples of 256, usually 1024x1024, 2048x2048, or 4096x4096.

Run the Black and White tool to turn the specular layer grayscale. Do the same to the normal layer, if it's the orange DA2-style. (You can close the normal PDN if you want now; we don't be using it again. Keep the specular map open, though.)

Your diffuse map and layers should currently look like this:

Hide the spec layer, and double-click the normal layer.

Change the Blend Mode to 'Overlay', and play with the opacity slider a bit. You can see that creases/shading are added, but the colors are also whiter. I usually end up with the norm opacity in the 170-190 range. You might want to invert the normal layer (Ctrl+Shift+I), or use the X normal layer instead. See what works best. :)

Unhide the spec layer, and set its Blend Mode to 'Overlay' as well. Play around with the opacity slider. This darkens the map and adds contrast. I usually end up with the spec opacity around 130.

If your combined texture doesn't quite look right, you can also try different adjustments to the diffuse. Keeping all layers visible, have the diffuse layer selected in the Layers box, and try one of the Adjustment tools. The ones I use most commonly are Brightness & Contrast and Hue & Saturation.

If you want to do larger recoloration, the tint map can be quite useful to select all areas of a certain component: Open up the DAI tint map, and copy it. Back on the diffuse map, make a new blank layer above the diffuse layer, and paste the tint map into it. The Magic Wand tool in the tools box will select a contiguous area of the same/similar color (the Tolerance scale at the top is used to set how picky it is). Holding Shift and then clicking will grab all areas of the matching color. Once you have a selection in the tint layer, hide the tint layer in the Layers box, and select the diffuse layer. Now any edits you do will only affect that selected area of the diffuse layer. I'm going to use the Color Balance tool to change the cloth shirt to light blue, and the leather straps & pants to brown.

Once you're done with your edits, save the diffuse map as a PDN.

Delete the tint layer if you have it, merge the normal layer onto the diffuse, and then the specular onto the normal/diffuse combined layer. (merging the specular onto the normal and then onto the diffuse will result in a slight color difference)

If you have a transparency layer, we are now going to apply it.

Select the transparency layer in the Layers box, then use Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C to select and copy the entire image. Select the merged diffuse layer in the Layers box, then use Effect, Object, Paste Alpha. Delete the transparency layer.

Save as a .dds. Diffuse maps without transparency should be set to BC1 (Linear, DXT1), while maps with transparency should be BC3 (Linear, DXT5).

Specular Map:

A specular map consists of two layers: the main layer, and a transparency layer. The main layer controls what color is reflected, while the transparency layer controls the shine (more white = more shiny).

The main layer will be an edited version of your opaque diffuse map. (if you still have the diffuse transparency layer from earlier, delete it)

If you haven't done any significant changes to the diffuse, you can copy the green layer from the the DAI specular map as your transparency layer by making a blank layer under your diffuse layer, and pasting the green specular in it.

If you have made large changes to the diffuse, duplicate it, and use the lower layer as the transparency layer.

Turn the bottom/transparency layer to grayscale using the Black and White tool under 'Adjustments'.

Select the top/main layer in the Layers box, and then open the Hue & Saturation tool under 'Adjustments'.

The specular texture should be both darker and less saturated than the diffuse, so reduce them to around 60 and -50, respectively.

If your texture has large metal areas, you may want to exclude them. The DAI specular's blue layer is a metallic mask; you can copy/paste it into another layer and use it to select the metal parts like we did for recoloring above. Ctrl+I inverts your selection. Now you can use the adjustments without affecting the metal.

Save your specular texture as a PDN (separate from your diffuse PDN).

Select the transparency layer, then do Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C to copy it.

Switch back to the main layer, and then do Effects, Object, Paste Alpha.

Delete the transparency layer.

Save your new specular map as a .dds. The compression should again be BC3 (Linear, DXT5).

Tint Map:

If you don't want/need tinting, this will be really easy--don't bother with a tint map, and set the semantic in the .mao to NoTint, or AlphaNoTint if your diffuse has transparency. :p

If you don't want the armor/cloth to tint but you have exposed skin, this will still be pretty easy:

Open up your diffuse map, make a new blank layer above the diffuse, and fill it with black (000000). Hide the black layer, go to your diffuse, and select the skin, either with the magic wand or the lasso select. Invert your selection (Ctrl+I), and fill that with black. Fill your skin with white (for DAO, use FFFFFF. For DA2, start with E5E5E5. The vanilla maps aren't terribly consistent: sometimes they're as light as E4E4E4 or as dark as DBDBDB). Unhide the all-black layer. Save your tint map as a PDN. Copy the transparency layer, and then use Paste Alpha on the all-black layer. Delete the transparency layer. Save as a .dds, with compression BC3 (Linear, DXT5). The semantic in your .mao file should be 'ArmourSkinTint', or 'AlphaArmourSkinTint' if you have transparency.

If you want material tinting, be prepared to love layers. ;) Open up the DAI diffuse map (if you've made a lot of changes to the texture layout, like adding/removing sections, use your diffuse instead).

Make the diffuse grayscale using the Black and White adjustment, and then make two duplicate layers, and four blank layers.

Open up the DAI tint map. If you exported it from DAI with the alpha channel and have transparent areas, make it completely opaque with the Transparency slider in the 'Adjustments' menu.

Make two duplicate layers.

Using Curves or Levels, like we did earlier, change these three layers into red, green, and blue channel layers. The red channel is usually for cloth tinting, and the green and blue channels for leather tinting.

Go back to the DAI specular map, and hide the red and green layers so that only the blue layer is showing. The blue channel in the DAI specular is for metal tinting.

One-by-one, copy each of these tint layers, and paste them into the blank layers you made on the DAI diffuse map. To keep your layers straight, you may want to rename them.

If you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend reading sapphim's and Ottemis' tutorials about textures.

In short, what a tint map does is allow you to easily re-color items using a RGB system (+ skin on the alpha). A tint file (.tnt) holds three colors, one to apply to the tint map red channel, one for the blue, and one for the green. The tint map is overlaid on the diffuse map, and the colors from the tint file essentially painted on. This is why if you look at the base diffuse maps for DAO and DA2 (or at the untinted models in-game), they tend to be rather bland: neutral colors take tints better than bright colors.

What we're going to do is use the tint maps' color channels to select different sections of the diffuse map and make the RBG layers for the tint map.

As you might have realized, we have 4 tint layers, but only need 3.

If making a robe/clothing model for DAO, you can just delete the metal tint layer. Otherwise, the simplest thing to do is combine the two leather layers, or delete one of them entirely. You might want to open up a similar model's tint texture from DAO/DA2 (whichever you're modding for) to see what materials each color layer corresponds to. The tint map will open up mostly or completely transparent - you can turn it opaque with Adjustments, Transparency.

Depending on what kind of model you're texturing, you will probably need to re-color the layers.

I'm going to port this outfit to DA2 as a light/mage armor, which usually seems to use red for the heavier leather/cloth areas, green for lighter leather/cloth, and blue for metallic accents. First thing I do is combine the leather layers by hiding the red tint layer, and use color picker to grab the green color code from the green leather layer (it's 00FF00). Then I fill the blue with green, using the paint bucket. Then I'll double-click on the upper green layer in the Layers box, and set the Blend Mode to 'Screen'. And finally, merge the upper green layer down onto the lower green layer. Now I'll swap the colors of the red and green layers. I already have the color in the Colors box set to green, so I'll unhide the red tint layer, and use paint bucket to fill all the red. (holding Shift and then clicking will fill in all the red at once) In the Colors box, I'll swap the green to red (FF0000). I hide the green cloth tint layer, and fill in the green leather tint layer with red instead.

Now we'll start combining the tint layers with the diffuse layers.

Click and drag the layers in the Layers box (or use the Move Layer Up/Down buttons) so that the layers alternate red/diffuse/green/diffuse/blue/diffuse.

On each of the color tint layers, change the Blend mode to 'Darken'. If you have skin tinting, make another duplicate layer of the diffuse, put it at the bottom, and hide it. We'll come back to it in a bit.

At this point, it's a good idea to save as a PDN, to make it easy to adjust tinting later if necessary.

Then merge each color layer onto the diffuse layer beneath it.

Finally, change the Blend Mode on the red and green layers to 'Additive'.

Then merge the layers into one, starting at the top. Now it should look like a proper tint map! :D

One last thing - if this texture is for armor/clothing, we need deal with skin tinting.

If you don't have visible skin, simply turn the whole thing transparent using the Transparency adjustment.

If you do have visible skin on your textures, unhide that last diffuse layer you made a few steps ago.

Select all the skin with the magic wand tool or lasso select. Invert the selection (Ctrl+I), and fill it with black. Now fill the skin with white (for DAO, use FFFFFF; for DA2, start with E5E5E5). In the layers box, have the skin layer selected, and hit Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C to copy it. Paste it as an alpha on the main layer. Delete the skin layer.

Save your tint map as a .dds, BC3 (Linear, DXT5). The semantic in your .mao should be ArmourSkinTint, or AlphaArmorSkinTint if your diffuse map has transparency.

Here's what my model looks like in Blender, in-game with no tint, and in-game with the red "mercenary" robe tint:

It's kind of shiny for cloth, so I'm probably going to go back to the specular texture and darken the cloth parts, and maybe slightly darken the diffuse texture.

The difference between the untinted and the tinted is also…disappointing, so I also need to brighten the tint map. (there are two ways to do this: either go to the .dds and turn up the saturation on the selected areas that need it, or open up the PDN and turn up the brightness on the individual diffuse layers before you merge them) Alternatively, I could desaturate the diffuse a bit.

But, what I have is a pretty good start. :)

[tipsy-clouds]

Hi, Heather! I wanted to ask how did you learn to recolor with patterns? I want to learn too. I followed a few tutorials, but still don't understand how to do it. Hope that's ok to ask ☺️ Thank you! 💜

Hi Kissalopa!

So I recolor using Photoshop so I hope that is your intended program! I use this action by @silverhammersims to do my recoloring which (in my opinion) makes recoloring with colors/patterns so simple! I will do a tutorial under the cut on how to load this action into photoshop and how I add patterns to Photoshop + how I actually recolor clothing with this action. This tutorial turned out way longer than expected but I wanted to cover basically my whole process so I hope this helps!

1. Loading the Photoshop Action

I wanted to add in this step for those who don’t know how. If you do, skip ahead to the next step.

So, once you download the action, put it somewhere where you can find it again (like on the desktop screen) and then open Photoshop. When Photoshop is open, click on the Action button (looks like a play button). If you do not have this, click Windows on the top of the screen and click Actions from there.

This will open the Actions Window. Next, there will be an icon with four lines in the corner. Click that and a drop down menu will pop up and go down until you see Load Actions.

After clicking Load Actions, find where you saved your Photoshop Action and open it. The action should now show up in Photoshop to use and any other action you load in the future will show up here as well.

2. Adding Patterns to Photoshop

When recoloring with patterns, it is important you find seamless/repeating patterns because then patterns will show up nicely repeating all around with no visible seams. Example show below (image source)

I like the get my patterns from Vecteezy since the images on there are high quality and good size (need to be sized down though) but another alternative site is Freepik. You want to have patterns that are not too small otherwise it will look too blurry/pixelated on what you are trying to recolor.

Once you have a pattern you like, open it in Photoshop. Show below is a pattern I want to add to photoshop so I can use it with the action loaded earlier. Pattern is by Kachaya Thawansak on Vecteezy. Highly recommend them for some cute patterns!

On the top, click Image and in the drop down menu, click Image Size. 

From here, a window will pop up showing the dimensions of the image. Here it shows the image is 1920 x 1920 pixels which is a little too big for recoloring. I usually change it to be in between the range of 500 x 500 to 750 x 750 pixels since I think it takes the pattern down to a perfect size to look good on whatever it is you are recoloring. (You will not have to always do this depending where you get your patterns from). Once the Width and Height are changed, Click OK.

Once the image is resized, click on Edit on the top bar. A drop down menu will appear and go down towards to bottom until you find Define Pattern. The window shown below will then pop up. Rename the pattern if you would like then hit OK once you are done.

*You can do this step multiple times for the patterns you would like to use for your recolor so they are already all saved to make the next step easier.*

3. Using The Photoshop Action to Recolor (This steps assumes you have knowledge of using Sims 4 Studio)

Onto the actual recoloring portion of this tutorial! Export the DDS or PNG (I use PNG’s) from Sims 4 Studio. Try to export a white swatch to make it easier on yourself! If there are no white swatches, please refer to this tutorial by @kouzeesim on how to make the swatch white in Photoshop. I chose to recolor a basegame female top which already had a white swatch so that is what I will be working with.

Once that is done, all we need to do is run the action! Click that same Action button that looks like a play button (shown earlier) to open the Action Window and click on the folder containing the action (silverhammer actions) to open it. Click on pattern base which will highlight your selection and then click the play button on the bottom of the window to play the action.

When the action is running, it will prompt you three times to choose your desired pattern. Pick which pattern you would like to use for recoloring by clicking the down arrow towards the left then finding your desired pattern (shown below). Make sure it is the same pattern picked each time you are prompted.

You will also be given the option to scale the size of the pattern each time you are prompted. The default is 100% which you can choose to keep it at 100% or  change it either to 25% or 50% depending on how big or small you want the pattern to appear on what you are recoloring. I don’t recommend choosing any other number for scaling the pattern because then the pattern will appear blurry and we don’t want that! So stick with 25, 50, or 100 percent. Again, the three times you are prompted for the pattern, make sure as well that the scale is the same if you changed it. For this recolor, I will be changing all of them to be at 50%.

The pattern is now showing on the top but I would like to move the pattern to better display on the top. To do so, click on one of the Pattern Fill layers on the right,  hold down the Ctrl key and click on the other two Pattern Fill layers to highlight them all. With them all highlighted, you will be able to click and drag on the pattern to move it around until you are satisfied with how it looks.  

Shown below is the finished product in Photoshop. I then save it as a PNG (recommend naming swatch 1, swatch 2, etc. when saving) and import in Sims 4 Studio to see how it looks.

If the swatch looks good in Sims 4 Studio, I will go back into Photoshop to change the pattern. To do this, you can double click on the pattern showing in the Pattern Fill layer which will open the same window you were prompted with earlier, change the pattern the same way that was shown earlier and change the scale number if you choose to. Do the same with the other two Pattern Fill layers and I REPEAT, make sure you have chosen the same pattern and scale number so the pattern shows up properly. Again, move around the pattern if you would like, save, import to Sims 4 Studio, repeat until you have all the desired swatches for your recolor. 

You are done! Yay! 🎉🎉

I hope this tutorial is informative and helpful but please let me know if you have any more questions or need clarifying and I would be happy to assist!

I also wanted to add that you can use this action to make solid color recolors. Run solid base instead of pattern base and the whole action will run to put add a solid color. Default is a lime green but you can double click it and change to whatever color you want. Do the same for all Color Fill layers.

[benoitblanc]

@lightasthesun​ requested a tutorial for how to create the colored outline effect on black and white gifs, so i am here! this was heavily inspired by @usergif​​’s wonderful tutorial for the same effect on photoshop, which you can find here. i am constantly in awe of the whole team over at usergif. they’re crazy talented.

onward!

so to start off, you first want to make and upload your gif to photopea, then sharpen, crop, and resize. i cover how to do all of this in my intro to photopea tutorial, which you can find here.

now that you’ve done this, you want to make a second copy of your gif. right-click (or two-fingered click for mac users) the gif folder in the workbar, then select “duplicate into”:

now choose “new project” as the destination and name it something fun and funky.

go back to your original gif. next up is coloring! you’ll want to do some very basic coloring here (i literally only did a levels layer), then add a black & white gradient map layer.

once you’ve finished your coloring, duplicate your coloring into your second gif by selecting all your coloring frames. click the first frame, then hold shift and click the last frame. you then want to right-click one of the frames, select “duplicate into”, then select your second gif. click okay.

now we have our black and white layer ready to go. in order to make your color layer, go into your second gif. select the gradient map layer, then adjust the coloring so that the map is black and whatever your color is (instead of white). you can do this by double-clicking the white rectangle on the gradient scale (it’s the highlighted red one in the image below) and then selecting your new color. i chose red. click okay.

now both our layers are done! export both gifs at 100% speed by going to file, then choosing “export as” and following through to “gif.” repeat for both gifs.

now- and this is super important- reupload both gifs to photopea. you can even close out of the two you had open if you’d like, although i would recommend leaving them up just in case you have a download/upload issue in the future. from here on out, i’m going to refer to the completed two gifs you just reuploaded as gifs one (b&w) and two (color).

go to your second gif (the color one). we now want to duplicate the color gif on top of the black & white one. select the folder in the work bar, then right-click, select “duplicate into”, and choose your b&w gif as the destination.

if you go to your b&w gif, you should now have your color gif on top. make sure you ONLY have gif frames and not adjustment frames, and that the gifs are in two separate folders in the same workstation, or else these next steps won’t work!

we’re almost done! next, you want to change the blending mode of the color gif. select its gif folder, then go to the blending mode dropdown just above it (it’ll likely say “pass through” or “normal”). scroll until you reach “lighten”, then select it.

you’re now going to move the color gif to form the outline. it’s VERY important that you make sure you have the arrow selected in the toolbar on the left (it’s at the top). select all of the frames in the color gif by clicking the top frame, then holding shift and clicking the bottom frame. use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the color gif a few pixels to the left or the right. i don’t have a picture for this step because it’s kind of hard to actually show, lol.

finally, you want to merge your two gifs into one gif. close both gif folders by clicking the arrows next to the eyes in the workbar, then select both as you’ve been selecting multiple things all throughout this tutorial. go to layer in the master menu, then scroll to “animation” and select “merge”. DON’T select “merge layers”. that only helps you if you’re not dealing with animation.

export gif, and you’re done! as ever, let me know if you have any questions!