How To Gif: Glass Shatter Effect
By popular demand (ie, 7 people who voted in this poll), here is a tutorial on how to do the glass shatter effect I used to create the first gif in this set.
I use Photoshop CC 2015 (yes I know it's old) for my gifmaking, but you should be able to apply everything to newer versions of Photoshop. For this tutorial I'll be assuming you know the gifmaking basics, but if not, I would recommend this tutorial, which is the process I use to make gifs. Note that this particular process involves saving all of the frames, importing those frames into Photoshop, and then using an action to convert to a smart object.
Keep reading below the cut to learn how to do this effect!
Before I could start making this gif, I needed three things; the two scenes that I wanted to use, and a video of the glass shattering effect. I already knew the scenes I wanted, so then I took to YouTube to find a video which I can't for the life of me find again, but it looked like this:
Something like this is what you want. Ideally the green part would be entirely white, but as long as there are two clearly different colours you can usually work with it.
This looks a lot slower than the gif that I made, but that's not because of the frame rate - which is exactly the same above as in the final gif - it's just because there are extra frames in this slower one that I cut out. In the video I used, the glass shattering happened very slowly. I didn't want that, so I ended up skipping several frames when I loaded the frames into Photoshop before using my gifmaking action. I just did this by manually selecting one frame, skipping the next several before selecting another frame, and repeating this until I had selected 60 frames.
After using my gif action, I had a smart object of the glass shatter effect that looked like this:
That's a much better speed! It still wasn't quite where I needed it to be though. I needed this in black and white, so I slapped a hue/saturation adjustment on the smart object and set the saturation all the way down to -100.
Okay great, I could start putting the gif together now.
First, I made a copy of the glass shatter smart object, because I'll need that later. Then, I pulled in frames from the scene that I wanted to appear in the hole after the glass shatters, and I used those to create a new smart object with my gif action (we'll call it Scene-bg). I pulled Scene-bg into the same window as the glass shatter objects. Then I created a new smart object by combining one of the glass shatter objects with Scene-bg, which I did by selecting both layers right clicking, and selecting "Convert to Smart Object".
I renamed this smart object to Shatter-fg. I opened it by clicking on the little icon next to the layer name in the layers window here:
The most important thing here is that the shatter effect object should be the top layer, and I set the mode to "lighten". This will make sure that the lightest colour of either this layer and the layer behind it is displayed; that means that anywhere that's white in our shatter animation will still show up, but anywhere that's black we'll see what's in the layer(s) behind it.
Then I threw some adjustment layers between them to get the colouring I wanted. I used a curves layer, a hue/saturation layer, and I also added text with an outer glow layer effect. Here's what the layer order looked like and the settings I used for each layer:
After this process, Shatter-fg looked like this:
Okay nice, this is starting to look like something! I saved this and went back to the main file with the other glass shatter object.
I needed to invert that other glass shatter object. There's a weird quirk with the version of Photoshop that I use where it doesn't like it when I apply specifically an invert adjustment to a smart object (it appears correctly when editing, but not on export) so I did this by creating a new smart object which included a separate invert layer, but if you have a newer version of Photoshop you can probably just apply the invert adjustment directly. Just note that you'll need to do one of these options; it won't work if you add a separate adjustment layer in the main file, it needs to be applied specifically to the smart object (which we'll now be calling Shatter-bg). It looked like this after I inverted it:
Once that's done, I made sure Shatter-fg was the layer directly above Shatter-bg, and set the mode of Shatter-fg to "darken" and Shatter-bg to "lighten". Since Shatter-fg is set to darken, it will be visible only when it is darker than the layer behind it. By setting Shatter-bg to lighten, I've guaranteed that the layer behind it will always be lighter (ie, white) in the places we want Shatter-fg to be visible, and will be black otherwise. Once I update those settings, this is what the gif looked like:
This is all there is to the glass shatter effect itself. Next I pulled in frames from the second scene to fill in the black areas. This layer needed to go below both glass shatter layers, so that it only shows through where the black. Then I added adjustment layers and some text. I used curves, hue/saturation, and vibrance adjustment layers, and I also added the "archer" text below the glass shatter layers so that it would be hidden to reveal the "prey" text. The other text I added above all of the layers, since I wanted this to be visible all the time. Here is the layer order and all of the settings I used for each of the layers:
I also grouped Shatter-bg and Shatter-fg and shifted them on the timeline so there would be some time to see the background gif before the shatter effect starts.
And that's all! Then it''s just a matter of exporting the finished product:
This is the first gifmaking tutorial I've ever made, so I hope I was able to be reasonably coherent and helpful! I'd love to hear if you make anything by following these steps, or even if you just feel like you've learned something reading through this. And if you have any outstanding questions, feel free to reply or send me an ask and I'd be happy to answer!
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Did I plan on adding to the reveal comics I made? No. Have a prequel to this one anyway. Fully from our little Hunter's perspective this time, so no heartbeats in this one (just me going wild with lines from the fic).
Protective idiot hellbent on the belief that all cryptids are evil is confronted with the fact that 1) their buddies are what they consider to be an "evil thing" and 2) have proven again and again that they care deeply about them and protect them right back. That won't cause cognitive dissonance for sure! (:
@naffeclipse Hi yes hello I am still SCREAMING about the newest chapter literally every time I think about it too much I have to get up and move (made drawing this a unique challenge LMAO) I need to physically shake someone about it. Finally time to drop the lie I am so not normal about this fic
Lines in the first panel:
"Speak no more."
"It looks just fine to me."
You've never detected an entity this strong before.
He stays back as you flick holy water throughout the rooms.
[...] a pitch black flat face, circled by deep blue and blood red jutting angles [...]
"I don't know what you got in you that keeps setting off my equipment, but it is strong."
Its remaining three eyes aren't upon you but on something above you.
"They don't think, they don't feel. They exist to terrorize and torment."
"I think you scared it."
"We are scarier than it."
Somehow, he closed the gap between the two of you in a moment.
[...] nothing short of another threat could make it give pause [...]
Second panel:
You're grateful Moon is here with you.
"Breathe," he says, warm as sunshine, calm as the new day.
Moon lifts you off the ground, clutching you close around the waist.
Moon's optics frantically flick to you, wide in alarm.
You are first aware of cool fingertips stroking the top of your hair.
"We will stay with you," he murmurs in a tender tone that makes your heart swell.
[...] your electronically recorded gasp causes Sun to bristle.
[...] expose your shoulder to Sun, who makes a rather deep, unpleasant noise when you both find angry red marks [...]
You have each other. You're not losing that.
"I assure you, little hunter, I'm not leaving your side."
[...] kept anchored by the safety of Sun's hand.
[...] you squint to make out Moon at your backside, holding you close.
"You take care of the scary things."
"You won't be near us."
By the glow of his eyes, he almost seems to admire you.
Sun presses you to his chassis.
"We, and our soot, are at your mercy, little hunter."
It certainly wouldn't have lent a hand in taking down another cryptid.
[...] he flings it away from you.
Well, the slightest bit of intrigue, or is it confusion?
"You're hurt."
Because of him, you raise your voice.
He taps once. "You have a dauntless heart."
"We must come with you."
"That's what we adore about you."
"You kept me safe," Moon says softly.
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This may be a reach but
Both MK and Mei having something inside them that could be world-destroying, god-killing, and being afraid of it (with a bonus of Wukong hiding it from them both but idk if u think swk knew of the monkey form beforehand)
Bonus with Mei and MK having someone that can/has helped with training and mastering their abilities (Redson & Wukong respectively)
Oh boy, do I think SWK knew about MK's origins!
I've been a believer in this since post-s3, with there being plenty of evidence throughout the first 3 seasons to support it. Cause like, imma be honest, the show doesn't make sense if Wukong didn't know. I think by this point we can assume that choosing and training MK to be his "successor" was a cover story—Wukong LITERALLY couldn't have picked anyone else. I never really bought the whole "Monkey King gave you his powers!" explanation, especially when one of the first things he says to MK in AHIB is "Listen kid: You fought demons, and you didn't die, and you made it here! Not just anyone can lift my staff, but you did." And even MK had a different thought, thinking his powers came from the staff until 3x03. How would Wukong have even "given" MK his powers, like logistically anyways. There was just a lot that didn't line up! And then s4 came along, and implied "Yeah MK was born from the stone, and Wukong was there" and I was like, oh yeah that makes total sense.
And I'm also a believer in the Samadhi Fire Mei, Jade Emperor Azure, and Monkey MK trifecta of having uncontrollable, world-ending power (which they must also act as a "container" for). And you know, had the person losing control of the Jade Emperor's powers in 4x14 been one of MK's close friends, he would have been able to save them, I have no doubt. He already did so with Mei in 3x10—Mei wasn't even supposed to be able to withstand the samadhi fire. But she did (Yellowtusk "But he is my brother! I owe him my life!" parallel for the win, "No! Mei is my best friend!", YOU GET ME?). And it's like, in 3x10 MK standing by his friend was a good thing but in 4x13 Yellowtusk standing by his friend was bad. In s3 the gang trying to get the Samadhi Fire was "good" (even though they didn't really use it to defeat LBD by the end lol), and Azure trying to get the Jade Emperor's power was "bad". You see how the lines are blurring here. At the start of Monkey Kid, it's all monster of the week and "we have to stop the bad guys!". Now by this point it's "[blank] isn't necessarily a bad guy..." and "Every choice has consequences for someone", even the "good" ones. Is anyone hearing me.
And then don't even get me STARTED on "I can't be! I'm just MK!" "The Monkie Kid?". Because, I'll have you know Subodhi names Wukong in Journey to the West. I just read that chapter. And then in 4x06 he labels, or names, MK as the "Monkie Kid". And this "reason" just FEELS like it's going to involve a great amount of power, something that is...uncontrollable, even. And this time, this time when MK looses control, Mei is going to be the one to get through to him, aka Samadhi Fire Part 3. Like
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the GREAT PATREON SMUSH
I was going to make an advertisement for this with bright colors and maybe animated sparkles but 1) I hate making ads and 2) we are all so exhausted by bright ads vying for our brain chemicals that I just don’t want to do that to you anymore!!!! I’m TIRED of things grabbing for my attention in an unending assault on my senses and I’m sure you are too!!!!!!!
if you’ve been doom-scrolling and need a break (a nice beverage, a stretch of the legs, etc.), take this as a sign to do so now. if you’ve got the energy for a little reading, though, and want to learn about my work - keep going!
ANYWAYS I’ll get to the point: ALL of my patreon benefits are now available to the lowest ($3) tier.
in fact, there ARE no other tiers anymore. they’re gone! scrunched! smunshed! stirred up all together into one big super tier soup of everything I offer now and will offer in the future!
everyone now gets:
over 100 4k desktop wallpapers
early access/wips
25% discounts on prints
livestream voice chat
art votes & art suggestions
commission slots
and access to the Art Grotto discord, a friendly and chill server with a small community of creative folks. we share art, writing, pets, memes, and also come up with fun art ideas together! 🌈
why am I smushing the tiers and giving up the higher pledge amounts?!
because capitalism sucks, we’re in a recession, and I’m lucky enough to have a full-time job that allows me to make art without being reliant on Patreon income. anyone who has sat in on one of my livestreams knows that I try to be a calming force in an often-chaotic world, and that I’m always looking for ways to make art more accessible to everyone. I want my Patreon to be a place where I can give back to those who are supporting me in this mission!
this tier smush is just the start of how I hope to transform this space! I have a bunch of fun ideas about stuff I want to do in the future, so keep an eye out for more announcements like this 👁
that’s all!!!! thank you if you’ve read this far, and here’s the link to the Patreon if any of this interested you!
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