#the gif quality got reduced thank you tumblr

[timothyyork]

Dr. Hedo & Oreos

[yeommijeong]

How do you get your gifs to look like that? The quality is amazing. Do you have any tutorial video suggestions, maybe?

Thanks in advance

OH WOW i genuinely still struggle with making high quality gifs, so i’m so touched that you think they look good!! i learned everything from tumblr tutorials, so sadly, i don’t have any videos to share

but! i’ve always wanted to share my process, so here it is, if you’re interested (or if anyone is, really!)

i’m constantly changing up my sharpening settings and coloring process, but here are some processes/tutorials that i (mostly) stick to nowadays, with this gif as my example:

i chose a difficult gif to color because that’s how universal this process is for me (usually)!!

base gif

load video into frames, cropping, resizing

this is all standard, so i'll just share the tutorial i follow: lizzo @ tumblr (steps 1-7)

sharpen smart object

i forgot where i got this, but essentially i use the basic Sharpen command then lower the filter’s opacity (25-50%). here’s where you can adjust smart filter opacity btw:

it doesn’t look like it does much, but i usually use this to finely sharpen the gif (by changing opacity) since i try not to mess with the Smart Sharpens

smart sharpen x2

from buckysbarnes @ tumblr, here are my changes: Smart Sharpen 1: 500%, 0.3 px, reduce noise 20 Smart Sharpen 2: 20%, 10 px, reduce noise 4

these settings look good for this show, but i sometimes change the opacity of these filters for different shows if the gif is smaller (268px wide), i would reduce the opacity of these filters to 50%

noise

my favorite thing, i can’t live without it now!!! thank you to cuddlybitch @ tumblr for sharing this technique; i use option 2 with these settings: intensity 10; contrast 50; grain type soft; opacity 25-50%

base coloring

yay it’s the fun part!!

brightness/contrast

honestly, i just press Auto and let photoshop do its thing! i’ll adjust from there, and i rarely ever adjust this

photo filter

deep blue, preserve luminosity on, then i play with the density (maximum 50%) in this gif, it’s at 32% because it’s very yellow

i sometimes add other filters depending on the mood i’m going for (usually yellow or cyan)

levels

this usually makes or breaks the gif! i start by pressing auto:

then i adjust: move highlights (rightmost arrow) to start/rise of the histogram to its left move shadows (leftmost arrow) to the start/rise of the histogram to its right i adjust midtones (middle arrow) based on the general brightness i want for the gif

color balance

i generally like my highlights more blue, but this entirely depends on the gif! i just play around until it looks more neutral

in this gif, i added more cyan & blue to the highlights and more cyan & yellow to the midtones/shadows

vibrance x3

i follow this tutorial from s-k-y-w-a-l-k-e-r @ tumblr (just the part about vibrance/saturation)

in ths case, i removed the color burn/color dodge layers because it was a little too saturated i just kept the vibrance +50 layer

hue/saturation

in this layer, i eliminate colors that don’t really add to the gif to reduce colors and increase the quality! i check where the colors are in the gif by increasing saturation to +100, then reducing it to -100 if it seems negligible. here’s what each color looks like

obviously, reds/yellows/magentas are important, but greens/cyans/blues could be removed i also reduced reds and yellows -10 because it was a little too saturated there

selective color

first, i adjust the black level of each color to adjust the contrast of colors (not the cyan/magenta/yellow yet)

and when i feel like it, that’s when i add subtle changes to the colors in this case, i only touched red, magenta, and white

vibrance +25

i usually add a little vibrance +25 at the end for fun haha

additional coloring

this is where i do all the gradients & text layers, but i think the base coloring is always more important!

once again, we started from this

to this

…… and that’s it!

there are probably ways to make it more efficient and use less layers, so i’m still constantly playing with these! this process also tries to preserve the original colors as much as possible, but i’m also able to wildly change colors with photo filters/color balance/selective color, if needed

hope this is helpful to you or to anyone!

[writethelifeyouwant]

2022 Writing Wrapped

Wow. What a year.

2022 has been a fucking ride, honestly more bumpy than smooth for me, but it’s had some amazing high points and almost all of them are connected to this website and my amazing community of readers. I’m lucky to call so many of you my friends and please know that I wouldn’t be here or be the person I am today without the love and support of each and every one of you. I’ve gained a whopping 300 more followers on Tumblr this year, putting me at over 1,300, and the number of my amazing website members has held steady and picked up a few new faces as well, so thank you all for sticking through this year with me, and thank you to all the new faces!

On my website, the most popular story was:

This was a surprise! Despite this being an older story (posted in May 2021), this page was the 4th most viewed on my website in 2022! It only got beat by the Homepage, the M&C page, and the Post Library 🤯 I guess we all needed to fantasise about Sam making us blackout orgasm high this year! (Honestly, same).

Your favourite new story was:

I’m so so glad that I got to write this series this year. I’ve had the idea for ages and it was great to finally get it down on paper. The twists and turns made it so fun to drip feed to all of you week over week, and I hope you didn’t hate me by the end of it 😆 I also owe a massive thank you to my beta, Jen @jld71, who was a fantastic resource and friend throughout this whole process, and the story wouldn’t be what it became without her!

My favourite thing I wrote was:

This mini series was so much fun to write! I had a great time exploring these characters and writing for Walker / Duke was a really interesting challenge. I also loved the Reader character in this fic, she’s the kind of woman I wish I could be. Total badass, confident in herself and her goals, but still completely susceptible to the charms of one Jared Padalecki – had to keep it realistic 😂 This story was a member exclusive, so if you'd like to read it, go visit my website!

2023 - What's Next?

I’ve got some really exciting stories I’m working on for 2023 that I think you’re all going to love! My posting schedule over the past few months has been pretty erratic–I’m sure you’ve noticed–and it’s one of my aims to set more achievable targets for myself this year so I don’t stress myself out and create problems where there are none. I obviously did not hit the target I set for myself in January of writing 50,000 words a month. Unfortunately, life and my mental health got in the way, as they always have a habit of doing, but I’m still really proud of how much I did manage to write this year! I still managed to write 70,000 more words than I did last year, and 370,000 words is basically 4 whole novels!

The other reason I am reducing my posting schedule in 2023 is that I officially launched my new small business–Bite Me Nail Art–in October this year and I am working on growing this dream full-time! Now that I’m balancing two small businesses that I run entirely by myself, I need to work smarter and put a lot of effort in behind the scenes doing planning, site maintenance, and promotion on top of the actual content creation and product production, which is the part that all of you see. So, this year I’m planning to keep my posting to twice a week so I can make sure the content you’re getting is still of the quality you’re expecting and something I’m happy to be putting my name on.

Tuesdays will remain my series update days, and mini-series and one-shots will post on Saturdays. The next series coming up will be:

There are going to be a few changes to my website tiers as well but I'll make a separate post about that!

And with that… Happy New Year! I hope everyone has a great night and next year gives you a chance to write the life you want to live.

[wickedscribbles]

Hi, I know it’s been awhile since I said anything but I’ve finally managed to verify my tumblr account so I can tell you how much I love your work!

I think everyone has that one story they just keep coming back to because nothing else compares and CWM is definitely that for me. Like you SET THE BAR with the pure quality of your writing. Sometimes the words you use are way out of my vocabulary so I pause to look up what they mean and it’s my favourite thing to go “ohhhh so that’s what that word means”… maybe that’s just me being the dyslexic I am but in ways it’s educational…maybe if I had taken an interest whilst I was still in school I would of got a better grade in English….

Seriously though you are extremely talented, to write an amazing story is one thing but to make it feel personal and cause emotion throughout is incredible!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stayed up late until silly o’clock because I can’t put my phone down reading your work (even if I’m re-reading). The ending to CWM was brilliant and made me just want to read the story all over again(I did). The details and imagination you put into all your work definitely doesn’t go unnoticed, not only did you make me fall in love with the story but the characters in it, I was really invested in every chapter and what would happen next!

Although my life is very different now compared to when I started reading your work the one thing i always do is check tumbler to see if you posted when I get the chance. Now it’s coming up to Christmas I want to say you have had a really positive influence on my year as a whole and I’m grateful for what you do. Wishing you the best Christmas and a really lovely new year <3

First of all I just wanted to say that I’m sorry I’m late! Holidays have been a little stressful and very busy, but as soon as I read this I was reduced into a puddle of absolute flattered goo that you would take the time to write all of this. Thank you SO much. 

I never set out to write such a whopper of a story with CWM, and it pleases me to no end that it’s become that kind of story for you. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you again and again 💖💖💖 (To be honest I did get a little fancy throwing some vocab in there, hehe. But it’s cool that you learned! 👍)

If someone tells me that what I wrote made them stay up late because they couldn’t stop reading, I always melt, because doesn’t that feel like the perfect fanfiction experience? Ahhh I’m so glad you’ve loved my story as much as I have. 😭

I always feel a little tongue-tied when I get amazing praise like this. It really floors me that there are people out there who read what I throw out and love it. I’m so glad that I could have even the slightest positive influence on you -- and I hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well. 🥺 And a fantastic new year! Thank you so much again! I’m incredibly blushy over here 😂