#personally i'm not too sure so i might go back to the psd i was using before but if you like them let me know

[mistmarauder]

Not the same anon as before, but it's been very disturbing to see a group of white people in fandom dogpile on an artist of Korean descent who lives in Korea, especially when that artist does not speak English and is obviously struggling with expressing their views in a way that might make sense to *us*. The style the artist used, even if they didn't explain it, is a very obvious East Asian style which is very popular in Koren and Japanese cultures. I looked at the artist's blog, and even if they didn't explain it in the DMs—for whatever reason—they *have*, in a subsequent post yesterday, explained their perspective as a Korean person while making this art, and I think it's extremely unfair to exclude that part of the context while talking about this. Like...idk it just feels like you guys didn't like the answer they gave or the way they answered (again! they're not a native speaker and you need to give them more grace!) so everyone has just come to this conclusion that they're a terrible person automatically. And while you personally might not have done this, I have seen other blogs—all white people—act like a bunch of bullies about it and it's super frustrating.

This fandom does have a problem with whitewashing—gifmakers do it all the time while coloring their sets! Or they make the characters of color look super unnatural because they refuse to adjust their PSDs for their skin tones! And yet I have never seen anyone call out any of the gifmakers who've done this in the past, let alone dogpile on them to such an extreme—like y'all are doing on this Korean artist. Idk. I'm Asian too, and it's super disturbing to watch.

Hey, anon. I saw this ask last night in the jungle that is my inbox, but I wanted to wait until I was awake and aware enough to answer it (and didn’t really need to go back to sleep because of work).

The only thing I would push back on here is that it’s just a group of white people dogpiling. It was not all white people speaking. They’re just the voices that ended up on that artist’s blog and got the most attention – that includes my own. Because of that, I can see why it might be perceived that way though. And I pushed people not to interact with them or the art, because that’s how you make a difference. You don’t give something attention. The lack of engagement is a stance in and of itself. The goal was certainly never for this person to be attacked, so if that’s what you’re implying has happened, that’s a problem. And that’s on me for not being more careful.

I’ve had people who appreciated the fact that I spoke up, but there have been others, like yourself, who don’t like what’s happening, and an even wider group who thought that while there was something to be said, they’re not sure I should have said it. The response has been very multi-sided. And I do believe that you and everyone else who thinks I veered too far out of my own lane are very valid in thinking that way. I spent all of yesterday debating about whether or not I made the right decision, and I had friends both white and non-white who weren’t sure either.

It also seems there have been some gross communication failures. I’ll start off by saying that I did not see the culture post. I’m blocked by the artist (fairly), so I had a friend send me screenshots this morning. I wasn’t purposely disregarding that, and you’re right that it’s important to take into consideration.

I do think there’s never going to be agreement with this person regarding Jee’s skin tone. They have the perceptions that they have because of their experience as Korean artist living in Korea, and they see Jee as being lighter than even JLH visually and because of their cultural experiences. I do not believe that's likely to change.

I’m not saying Asian people can’t be light-skinned, but this artist is drawing a character played by two very real little girls, who are not universally perceived as light-skinned, and from our general understanding, are not Korean. Their mother is Chinese, and their father has a traditional Chinese surname which leads us to believe that he is likely Chinese as well. If this is incorrect, please correct me. And when you’re making art of real people, you can’t just use your previous perceptions of a fictional character’s identity to justify coloring them differently. And they’re using gifs to defend those perceptions. Gifs are something that you and I both know aren’t trusted references. They’re colored and altered in a variety of ways.

You’re right that gifmakers whitewash regularly. I will say that people have tried to call this out in the past, but they’ve been general posts from what I remember. Nothing about individual gifmakers. It’s been a huge problem with Eddie and with turning Athena and Karen orange. However, these general callouts don’t really get a lot of traction. And that’s extremely unfair.

I’ll be blunt and say that part of that is the fact that people tend to turn a blind eye to keep the peace, and the people in this fandom who noticed this artist’s work are the ones least likely to do so.

Another issue were the DMs, and it’s been brought to my attention by @karenandhenwillson (who I will respond to after this) and in a post by the artist, that I may have misinterpreted those completely, which is unfair of me (and anyone else who has seen the messages and come to the same conclusion). There wasn’t enough patience with someone who was a non-native English speaker, and that led to some confusion that I’m going to address when I respond to the blog I just mentioned.

The fact of the matter though is that I'm white, and I'm wading into murky waters by continuing to engage on this subject. I've turned off reblogs on my original post, and after my next response about the communication meltdown, I'm going to edit it and make another clarifying that people should read the artist's posts and my previous posts to understand their position and everything that's happened.

I don't think it's fair for me to continue to place myself in a discussion I might not have had the right to be in at all, but I'm not going to leave without publicly acknowledging the communication issue because it matters and telling people not to attack this artist. That's cowardly and not really my style.

Thank you again for this message. I really do welcome people coming to talk to me.

#911 discourse #for the filters #anonymous #mist answers

[shiningsight]

I hate to do this so soon after starting my new blog but I'm tired of being quiet just because I'm scared of seeming overly bitchy, a drama queen, or likewise. But I'm done being a doormat, and I'm done staying quiet in order to appease all the white people who want to stay willfully ignorant in the RPC. And more importantly, I want to make my stance clear before too many people follow me. If this is "too negative" for you, then feel free to unfollow me.

The RPC and writing community on Tumblr as a whole has a racism problem. And I'm tired of pretending that it doesn't or that it's "not that bad."

I'm a mixed Black/First Nations Indigenous person. And the amount of racism I have experienced on here is horrifying. I've experienced slurs, I've experienced microaggressions, I've watched COUNTLESS white people appropriating Indigenous culture for plot points and show incredible amounts of disrespect to the Indigenous people that call them out on it and accuse them of starting drama for *checks notes* being against appropriation of their own culture.

I've also seen crazy amounts of whitewashing and other types of POC erasure. Whitewashing a canon character and isolating them from their culture, whitewashing a character by using a white FC for a character of color, not going through the effort to make sure the PSDs you're using for your muse of color aren't whitewashing, tomatowashing, and so on. There's using nonblack FCs for Black muses, ethnobending Asian FCs and muses (eg. using a Japanese FC for a Korean character), and so on. It's just a lot of erasure because it's "too hard" for you to play them without being blatantly disrespectful.

And speaking of gross, the RPC is SO weird about muses of color. There's so much fetishization, especially towards Asian characters and Indigenous culture as a whole. It's like you all don't even see muns OR muses of color as people. There's a whole RPC that fetishizes Korean people, for the love of god. You all are infinitely weird about Black and Brown muses and treat both them and Black/Brown muns like exotic animals in a zoo.

White RPers steal Native & FN culture and then you ignore us, you block us, you accuse us of starting unnecessary drama or arguments when we ask you to be respectful and change it up. There's a certain creature from Indigenous folklore that white people are OBSESSED with using for plot points and inspiration, despite the countless Native & FN people that have BEGGED you all to stop.

Then you appropriate Indigenous clothing and gear in your character designs- such as using Native headdresses despite the way we've asked you all not to. It's disrespectful, it's disgusting, it's racist. We're not trying to police your muses, we just don't want you using our culture for them. There's a million other things you could use that aren't disrespectful or appropriative. And I understand that not every Indigenous person has a problem with it, but many of them do, and white people need to be respectful of that.

It's amazing how ostracizing simply being a Black mun is in the community. Some of you love tiptoeing around Black muns because you think we're gonna bite your head off. The way you treat us and the way you police us and our muses in ways that you would NEVER police a white mun's muses, the way that Black muns get constantly ditched and ignored- especially if they have a Black muse, and especially if we "act too Black" (aka. use AAVE) in y'alls eyes. I shouldn't have to code switch on Tumblr in order for people to tiptoe a bit less around me, but I do.

Black muns and our muses get constantly dismissed. White muns LOVE to call our muses overpowered and then they go and interact with literal God in whatever fandom they've in. And like, it's fine that our muse doesn't interest you or that we might not be compatible as muns, but just say that instead of trying to make every little excuse for why WE'RE somehow the problem. It's so incredibly isolating. I've left and come back to the RPC countless times because of this (and other reasons as well, but this is absolutely the number one reason for it). And honestly, this post puts it better than I ever could.

Nobody's saying you have to RP with every Black mun you say. But I am saying that there is DEFINITELY antiblack bias in the RPC. There is bias in how you all tiptoe around us, there is bias in how you demonize our writing, there is antiblack bias here. You can put BLM in your bio 30 times and scream all day about how anti-racist you are and how much you love Black muns but it doesn't mean shit if you never uplift Black muns and make every effort to demonize, fetishize, and dismiss us.

People are ten times worse about the mun = muse rhetoric when it comes to Black muns- and god forbid a Black mun writes a morally gray character or *gasp* a villain! I'm not even joking, writing a villain as a Black mun in the RPC was by far the worst experience I've ever had on here. There was SO MUCH HATE. It's insane to me. Even recently, I still get the hard r in my inbox every now and then.

"Aster, aren't you being a bit mean?" Listen, if I thought being nice would get me anywhere, then I would have worded this post a whole lot more kindly. But unfortunately, none of you seem to listen if we're friendly and polite about it. And to be blunt, I have nothing nice to say about white muns in the RPC. Some of them are nice, but a lot of you are just willfully ignorant.

"Aster, I'm [x race] and I've never had a problem with what you've mentioned!" I'm very glad to hear that, I really am! Nobody deserves to experience what I've mentioned above. Unfortunately, just because you haven't experienced it doesn't mean that other muns haven't. And this post is based on what I've witnessed, what me and other muns have experienced (I have held MANY conversations with muns of color over these types of things), and what I've seen other people mention on here.

"Aster, I'm sure the racism problem isn't that bad! Aster, the racism isn't as bad on here as it is on [x community]!" Full stop. First of all, all racism is bad. It doesn't matter how "civil" it is, it's still racism. Second of all, I'm not here to make comparisons. I'm here to describe experiences that me and other people have had in this community. Third of all, do you think that's an excuse? Jesus Christ.

"Aster, I'm sure it's not about race!" Okay, now, I've been gaslit on this point a lot, but I'm tired of it. Racist internal bias exists everywhere. You may not realize it, but a lot of times, it is about race. Tell me, why was it that a few years, when I made it significantly less obvious that I was Black by removing all indicators of my race and code switching on here, I was suddenly getting more interactions? And like, it's hard to get solid evidence of these sorts of things, but I think it's not a stretch to point out that racial bias has existed for a long time. Why is it so much of a stretch to think that maybe this applies to the RPC as well? Unless the RPC is in a parallel universe of some sort where racism never existed?

"So, what do you expect us to do about this then?" This is first and foremost an awareness post, spreading awareness about the fact that these horrible things do happen. There's unfortunately no "end racism" button that anyone can press. But you can start by making an effort to uplift muns of color and help us call out racism where we see it instead of leaving us to fend for ourselves and get completely ignored. But at the same time, don't just barge into our inbox with every little thing you think might be racist. Take the time to ask the mun if they'd be open to seeing or calling out that racism before you just send it.

I'd also like to plug @munsofcolor, which is a blog me and my friend made a while back to help promote muns and writers of color, though my friend is no longer active on Tumblr. White muns are encouraged to follow both that blog and any blogs that are promoted on it, and muns of color are encouraged to send in promos and other things for us to boost!

Overall, I just want to ask white muns to be more considerate of all the POC in the RPC, and to do a better job of uplifting us and listening to us. I know it's hard to hear about one of the many problems in the RPC, but this needs to be acknowledged more. Thanks.

#✧ ; ➵ ( psa. ) #[ happily inspired by me seeing racist cultural appropriation bullshit from another group rp blog ] #✧ ; ➵ ( ooc ) #psa #rp psa #rpc #roleplay community #rph #racism tw

[marmaladegifs]

»  léa gif icons !

if you click on the source link you will be directed to #130 #142 gif icons of léa (from the group secret number) that i have made from scratch. please don’t edit these/repost them/claim as your own and make sure to drop a like/reblog if you’ll be using them (or if you just want to support me, that’s cool too)!!

#léa gif icons #lea gif icons #ogawa mizuki gif icons #gif icons #decided to try n make my own psd to use for these gifs!! hope it looks ok on them #personally i'm not too sure so i might go back to the psd i was using before but if you like them let me know

[floralovebot]

I often don't make things for poc because I'm scared of whitewashing them. Can you link to the tutorials that show how to go about this or could you explain it yourself? I'm always too scared of making things with poc in them and I don't want to whitewash anyone so advice would be amazing!

hi! i guess i could share the things i know about it but i do want to clarify that i’m not an expert at editing! so, if you want really indepth help, it would probably be best to ask someone else!

as for tutorials, these are the ones that have personally helped me! this one by @fadenet (specifically pale/pastel gifs including characters with dark skin), this one by @blueshelp (specifically about east asian and southeast asian celebs), and this one by @kispesan (specifically about edits). this is a post with a ton of resources for gif making, including things about coloring and other anti-whitewashing tutorials (highly recommend!).

when it comes to what i do, it really depends on what i’m making! i’ve made a couple of edits specifically about unwhitewashing characters of color which you can find here for examples, but overall what i do really depends on the kind of edit i’m working with.

i’d also like to quickly say that i use photoshop! while the basic coloring will cross into other programs, some of the tools/names might be different.

lets use an edit of the character aisha from winx club as an example! in season 8 of winx club, the characters aisha and flora (both having dark skin) were whitewashed. the following pictures are a screenshot from the series, showing the whitewashing, and the same sc but edited to reflect her original skin tone and hair color.

in this edit, i actually went in and recolored her skin using the brush tool (yes, it takes a hot minute to do, but you get faster the more you do it). the reason i do this for picture edits, is purely a personal preference. i like having the control of only editing the parts i want to edit and keeping the rest of the picture the same as before. personally, i don’t love using the selection tools so when i don’t need to,, well, i don’t.

if you have the time, patience, and ability to physically recolor still pictures, i’d definitely recommend it! it allows you to use the eyedropper tool on the original skin tone which makes for a much more accurate edit. taking advantage of the selection tools and paint bucket tool can make the process a lot quicker too!

now, lets use a different method, one that i personally use for things like videos and gifs (basically, anything moving)!

these gifs come from the same season as the above example and as you can see, aisha is heavily whitewashed in the first one. now, this is where coloring becomes your best friend!

so, you have your gif ready for coloring, maybe you used a psd/filter or you did your own thing, regardless, the person in the gif is whitewashed and you want to fix it. so, what do you do? (now, obviously this is just one example. there are many others ways to do this!). what i do, is almost exclusively use the hue/saturation and the color selection layers (i will occasionally use the brightness and curves layers depending on the scene)!

^^this little “guide” or whatever shows what you need to find for this tutorial.

the first thing you should do, is figure out which colors primarily make up the person’s skin tone. a good way to figure this out is by using a hue/saturation layer. click the hue/saturation, which will show a menu similar to the one in the picture, and go through each color and turn the saturation all the way down, so it says -100. don’t mess with the hue or lightness levels yet, just the saturation. this will show which colors make up the person’s skin tone! as an extreme example, if someone’s skin was green and you turned the saturation of greens all the way down, that person’s skin wouldn’t look green anymore, it’d look like someone put on a black and white filter specifically for the color green. just keep a close eye on what changes! now, this saturation change is just temporary! after you know which colors are in that person’s skin tone, you can just delete the hue/saturation layer. (you really only need to do this if you aren't used to coloring darker skin. once you get used to it, you likely won't need to, but it can still be a good reference point if you're lost on what to do)

so, after figuring out what colors you need to focus on, go to the selective colors layers, so you can edit just those colors! for our example here, aisha’s skin tone is mostly made up of reds and yellows while her hair is mostly reds and magentas. when i’m editing her skin tone and hair color, i only focus on those colors. in the selective color layer menu, you have four other colors to control; cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. although it would help, you don’t need to know everything about colors or color theory for this! just mess around with the colors sliders until you get something close to their original skin tone. you may need multiple layers of selective colors to get this right! don’t panic if it doesn’t happen right away, just keep going.

something i think is incredibly important during this step, is having a picture of that person/character open! that way you can actually go back and forth to see if what you’re doing is close. another tip, having another file open with a completely white background with a colored circle of that person’s base skin tone on it really helps. this way you can use the eyedropper and brush tools to see how close what you have in the edit is to the original (basically, use the eyedropper tool to select the skin tone in the edit and then use the brush tool to color it next to the circle of the original skin tone. this helps you see up close how similar they are!). here's an example!

the first example is from the gif and the second is from the still picture edit! you'll notice that the gif example doesn't match up exactly because in that specific scene aisha was directly in sunlight, making her skin slightly brighter than usual, while the photo i used for reference has normal lighting. remember to pay attention to things like lighting and shadows!

now, at this point you might be thinking, “this tutorial only shows what to do for animated characters and i make edits with real people :(”. don’t worry! the second method still works! here’s an example using a real person, kim taehyung from the group bts.

obviously, this isn’t perfect because i spent like. two minutes on it. so the skin is blotchy, the lips are too red, and the background changed. but the way i edited it is mostly the same as the gif example i used! the only difference being that i also used a color balance level to darken up the whole picture. however, besides that i did the exact same things as i did with the gifs of aisha above. if you're making edits with real people, then just do whatever you usually do to make sure it looks more realistic.

i hope all of this made sense? i’ve never done a tutorial before and basically all of what i’ve said has already been said! but here are some more tips for the road:

-when editing black people/characters, don’t make their skin red

-when editing indigenous people/characters, don’t make their skin red

-when editing east asian and southeast asian people/characters, don’t make their skin yellow

-pay attention to lighting! if a scene has darker lighting, skin will look darker than it is!

-on the flip side, if a character is right in front of a very bright light, their skin will look lighter

-don’t avoid the colors red and yellow, especially for people with tan/darker skin. those colors are always essential. they won’t look bad in your pastel edit.

-don’t be afraid to ask for help! if you have mutuals who make edits you can try asking them. or even making a separate post asking for help from any followers that edit! basically, if you truly don’t know what to do, either look it up or ask for help.

-do not just post the whitewashed edit/gif/art with the excuse that it’s, “just the filter” or “just the psd”. take responsibility for what you’ve created.

-if you’re using a filter/psd and you really can’t figure out how to unwhitewash someone.. use a different filter! ik you might really like the one you picked, but that doesn’t excuse racism. there are lots of filters/psds out there that don’t whitewash. use one.

i’m gonna be honest, unwhitewashing is really easy as long as you know how to work whatever program you’re using. and even if you just started, it’s still pretty simple! if you’re scared of making edits with poc because of whitewashing, learn how to not whitewash.

anyway i hope this helps? let me know if something doesn't make sense or needs more explaining! but i'd really recommend looking at the tutorials i linked as they're more in-depth and offer a lot of insight!

#hnng let me know if something doesnt make sense im a little stupid #photoshop #photoshop tutorial #coloring tutorial #anti whitewashing #anonymous #answered #mine.edits #(kind of?)

[rpbetter]

a vent (feel free to ignore if it's too much!): so recently i've noticed psd makers getting anon asks on whether they're ok with people who write certain topics (mostly rpf, incest, rape, underage, the usual "problematic" topics) using their recourses. now, i don't roleplay any of these subjects on tumblr, so even if a content creator said not to use their stuff, it's not even something i need to worry about - but, and maybe this is me overthinking it, what if i, someday, write a noncon fanfic on ao3? i'm still not using their resources on the subject or writing it on tumblr, but i'd probably feel weird about it, like i'm crossing some boundary. what if a psd maker whose content i've already purchased suddenly goes "actually don't use my psds if you rp abusive relationships", which is probably the closest to what people consider "taboo themes" of the things that i roleplay. it just feels like a fine line between personal boundaries and a shitty situation for a customer - not wanting to cross boundaries but already having PAID for something previously, when no such rules existed. it's making me want to 1. block everyone i see saying this, because even though i don't personally roleplay the topics above, i don't feel SAFE around people who tell others what kind of fiction they are allowed to enjoy and 2. just quit using people's resources and spend years learning to make my own psds so i won't have to worry about this shit. it's just stressing me out, as someone who has been harrassed and bullied online for speaking against censorship. i've had literal sock accounts made just to spew targetted harrassment at me on twitter. i've been accused of being a pedo and supporting incest and this is??? literally for saying "i don't think real people should be harrassed for fictional shit", i've not even shipped underage or incest ships. both make me uncomfortable. but fuck, antis make me 1000000x more uncomfortable than people who ship these kinda ships. i digress, this got rambley, i just. do you have any advice on what to do with the potential psd situation, or am i really just overthinking it? (always worried i accidentally send stuff like this off anon. help)

I need you to know that I actually had to rush-scroll back up and just double check that you did submit on anon lol! I always get worried I'll miss the one person who accidentally didn't use anon, if it makes you feel any better! When someone does submit with their URL attached, I message them first to be sure they are okay with them having it posted that way/it wasn't an accident ;) That's what I would want someone to do!

Alright, so, anyhow...

I've also noticed that becoming a more common thing and it's been on my (maybe huge) list of things to look into for a bit because I really do try to make sure I'm not just noticing things in my areas of the RPC/failing to notice things that do not impact me. Since I do all my edits and graphics, it falls into the first category for me. So, thank you for moving that up the list and informing me that it really is more prevalent and not my imagination!

My take on seeing it was a combination of business logic and anxiety, not going to lie.

On the first: charging to do a psd that is just that, just a psd file being used as a template/to act as an easier version of a photoshop "action" in a way, that's 100% legal and fine. Absolutely no muddy waters there. However, charging to do things like icons, edits, etc. that include images of celebrities and stills from movies (or gifs) is quite muddy. Legally, it's not legal. It's a thing we're allowed to do and use (on most platforms) because we're not making money off of it, we're not claiming to hold rights to the images, and so on - it's ignored but illegal. Charging money for it, however, even when phrased as "for my time" (which, absolutely valid feeling), is a more serious form of illegal and potentially attention-getting. This all gets more iffy though when we add donation instead of direct commission/purchase when working with these copyrighted materials. You can ask people to donate and suggest a donation based on your time spent, and that is always what I advise people to do.

Okay, so, that preface is necessary because the thing about stipulating use-rights is that they're iffy, too, there are variables present.

Often, these same people are charging for things like icon packs as well, meaning that even if they're only charging you for a template-style psd file sans imagery they don't own, they've kind of shot themselves in the foot. Not to mention, it's exceedingly damn hypocritical to pitch a fit about someone violating your rights when you're literally using other people's copyrighted materials lmao And that does tend to occur to me, yeah, it's a consequence of attorney friends and running businesses.

The other issues with this are that usage rights have to be stated at the time of purchase and morality clause-style shit, as pertains to products, is not legally binding.

When you purchase something like a psd file, that purchase acts as a sort of contract.

Think of like...buying a photoshop brush set - the person selling it puts very simple rules as to its use, such as: non-commercial use only, brush pack cannot be resold or distributed for free, separate brushes from the pack cannot be resold or distributed for free individually. Meaning that you own the brushes you bought, but you are not legally allowed to make real-life money from anything you use them in, and you cannot send the whole pack or files individually to friends for free or charge other people for them. By buying these, you have agreed to these stipulations of use and ownership.

If the person sells psd's and you agree to what they've stated about the use (you can't use them to do commissions you make IRL money from, you can't give them away to friends, etc.), that's binding even somewhere as casual as RP Land. The exchange of real currency makes it that serious.

However, there are limits to stipulations of use! One of those things is when you agreed - this person cannot, even one literal second, later change their terms of use and retroactively hold you to them. If they were okay with you not crediting them anywhere or using them in works you will gift others or charge others something like game currency for at the time you purchased, then that's it. Tough shit for them, not you, when they decide a month later that they want credit given where the work appears, that they do not want finished products gifted, or don't want you to make even in-game currency from them.

And that absolutely would apply to the morality wank, yes.

Except that this very morality wank comes with its own issues. Reality is not tumblr. In reality, at least in most instances and countries, you can't throw in a fucking morality clause regarding the buyer, use of item, or finished product.

Think of this in this way: Chik-Fil-A starts denying chicken and waffle fries to anyone suspected of being queer. They're legally allowed to run their business (as a private business, everything does have variables) with some things that are morally objectionable that they feel morally aligns with their religious beliefs. They're not allowed to deny queer workers a job or queer customers service, however, in accordance with overarching laws.

While "being gross" online in fiction is not like, making anyone a protected status person lol this is just an extreme example to drive home the point. Legally, when it comes to items/products be they digital or physical, your rights and responsibilities as the seller don't include your moral policing.

What your right is, is to make people uncomfortable to a degree, yeah. You absolutely can do that. You can state some nasty shit about prospective buyers you don't want. For example, they should (I mean, they should just grow up and get some real concerns, but) be stating that they would not like to see their psd's used by people on this following DNI list of idiocy, and they will block those users if possible to prevent interaction and purchase. That's really it, that's what they can do and the least immature way to proceed.

On the second: none of this logic would make me feel comfortable about interacting with them and their psd's in the future once they had outed themselves as morally objectionable and dangerous to me with this nonsense. And I would still feel anxious about using things I had previously bought because once harassed...it doesn't really go away, does it? It would just give me some ease about the latter with things I'd already made. Like, I could keep using the icons I'd made with those psd's with a little bit more comfort knowing that they honestly have not a leg to stand on outside of their harassment.

I might have the tendency to respond to harassment without much upset, but that doesn't mean I want to be harassed. Especially when I am not doing anything that draws that kind of attention. Not that harassment is warranted over anything, but when I make a PSA or answer an ask that I know is likely to get their attention and piss them off? That's an acceptable risk I am knowingly taking. When I'm just going about my life as a RPer, it isn't.

So, I don't feel like you're overthinking it or being too concerned! In no way did you sign up for getting unwanted attention, and because it has happened before, of course, you're trying to insulate yourself from having it happen again. That's totally reasonable!

Now, what you could do about it...

It's another of those situations in which we're only truly capable of controlling ourselves. Everyone else is kind of a NPC.

You don't have to do anything I'm suggesting, but these are things I would do!

I would block the shit out of anyone saying these things/trying to make them stipulations, yes.

By that, I mean that I would also visit blogs they appear to interact with and they'd be blocked as well. We can all reblog something like resources or a shit post from a user we do not agree with without realizing it, but when it's frequent reblogs, direct support, and friendly vibes going on, it's safer to assume that they are aware their friend sucks. More importantly, that they do not think their friend sucks and support their views.

Even if that is not the case, do you want someone else's repeated inattention to expose you to bad actors? Nope! So, don't run the risk of paying and otherwise interacting with the one resource blog in the group that doesn't express these views/"requirements," but does involve themselves with those who do.

Try to find people selling these resources, that are not connected to the problem ones, who do not have those views. Once a trend starts, it is very hard to stop until it has run its course naturally, so, this might be difficult and take some extreme effort. You might want to consider asking like-minded friends who use psd's where they got them so you can check those users out for yourself.

If they're all the same, problem, people...

Look for users well outside of your corner of the RPC(s) who are not asking to be paid. I know it sounds wild, but there really are RPers out there who just enjoy making things for others! I can think of at least one right off on my dash. They might not be advertising for doing psd's or psd packs, but either they might be willing to do so (especially if they do not appear policing-positive) if you explain what is going on, or they could at least fill some requests for you for fully made icons and such. Hell, people who love doing this work usually know others who do as well, and anti-policing people quite reasonably stick together. They could have suggestions for someone not vile selling psd's.

Depending on what it is you want your psd's to do, I promise you that it wouldn't take you very long to learn it. I know...I know lol that's both really easy for me say when I've been doing it for over twenty years and am about to piss some people off. The latter because the most common settings on popular psd's are extremely simple shit, a lot of that is the kind of thing you're expressly told not to do in design work. Like ramping up extreme contrast, pixelating the fuck out of an image, and turning up the primary colors only. Once you get to playing with photoshop or an equivalent, you will totally see what I mean. You can accidentally make an icon look identical to something that is on trend in the RPC. If that was what you were going for? You've hit the mark, and it's just repetition and tweaking it here and there!

Once you start playing with it, too, it's actually pretty intuitive when it comes to the basic things like resizing, adjusting colors and contrast, and doing easy effects like blurs and sharpening. Frankly, playing with it is better than half the tutorials you'll find because they get unnecessarily complicated when all you want to do is crop your muse's face, overlay some color, and add a damn dotted border. Listen, like I said, I have a lot of experience...and I find many tutorials frustrating and overwhelming!

It is not just you, you're not dumb or anything. People get very comfortable with something and when they try to explain it to others, they use terms and methods that are more advanced or specific to them than they realize. That's all!

If you have friends who make their own things, ask them some very basic questions about what you want to do. They know you, so, they'll know better how to explain to you, specifically. Just keep it simple until you've had some time to experiment! Ask things like, "I want to take this image, resize it to be an icon, and add an orange tint to the image while sharpening only my muse's features...how would I do that? Easy mode?"

And! You don't even have to pay for photoshop or pirate it anymore! Photopea is as an exact copy as possible entirely located in your browser for free. It's all overwhelming at first, a real case of too many options and ways to do the same thing, but the only way it gets less overwhelming is just diving into it. Dive in, get a little frustrated, have some successes, make some awesome discoveries, it gets a bit addicting in short order. Then, the tutorials and tips are so much easier to figure out and expand on, too.

If you'd like, you can always send me a pm here and ask me. I'm happy to try to explain how to do things, zero judgment or impatience. Just an additional option if you both decide to try learning and would feel comfortable doing that. Zero judgment as well on not wanting to do either of those things!

Okay, this one is much harder than learning PS basics because it's honestly a bit terrifying...the way these people are, they're going to take issue with you no matter what you do, and in the end, if they notice you and feel like bothering you, they will. There's literally nothing you can do about it. All you can do is try to buffer yourself, stay away from them, and be aware that you are not the problem.

Like with the AO3 thing or writing what could be viewed as toxic relationships. You can never write or be interested in a single, solitary thing that they're on about (and accusing you of doing in real life when the burning Eye of Moron turns your direction), but to them, you supporting the right of other people to do so is just as bad as doing it yourself. To them, the toxic relationships not only would be problematic, they'd be problematic enough. Being uncomfortable with their policing and feeling unsafe because of it is, to them, a red flag of how problematic you are. Writing anything they've deemed objectionable (or reading or viewing it, for that matter) anywhere, doesn't have to be on this platform or RP-adjacent, doesn't have to actually utilize any of their materials, is enough.

They're absolutely including you in who shouldn't use their shit. That's part of the "logic" and methodology of policing. Everyone is problematic, so, everyone can be labeled a pedo and harassed without too many people getting up in arms about it. No one is safe, so, everyone better behave. You don't actually have to be engaging with or enjoying things like underage, non/dubcon, rape, abusive relationships, etc.

It's gross, it's bullying, it's actually a problem...and there isn't much you can do.

All that is truly up to you is making an effort to avoid them, though, this is very often unfair and likely to get more unfair as resource blogs of all sorts deal in it more. At least, in this case, you do have some small bit of actionable power - by not ever buying from them. They wouldn't be charging if they did not either need or want the money, not giving it to them is a bigger hit than things like simply unfollowing/blocking, reblogging PSA's, and so on is!

Nope, it isn't like you're denying them some extreme amount of money by yourself, but every three, five, ten dollars is felt pretty hard when you desperately need money and/or are saving for something.

I know, I mean, I personally do know, that it's impossible to "get over" bullying, Anon. I'm in no way telling you to just get over it and move on, find some great well of not caring somewhere! What I'm saying is that there is power in not giving them power. The power to make you anxious, uncomfortable, unsafe, when you have every right to be here doing your thing and are not hurting anyone. And it might seem to be a deeply contrary sort of logic, but realizing and accepting that there are people out there who irrationally dislike you for literally no reason, that you cannot infallibly escape or avoid, despite doing nothing wrong is a bit empowering. Because it puts into perspective the things you can control, and when we know what is in our control, it's easier to just enjoy our time here without constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. If it drops, we can go put it back in the closet where it belongs.

It starts to put a positive spin on the whole, damned if I do, damned if I don't feeling, if that makes sense? I'm probably way too tired to try to be explaining this lol I'm sorry!

Anyway, again, I'm not implying you can or should do any, let alone all, of those suggestions! I just really hope that something will help you feel even a little bit more at ease. It's an unfair situation, it isn't right, and you have every reason to be uncomfortable and stressed. If I could make it happen, you better believe that every policing asshole out there would be writing heartfelt apology letters and sending donations to everyone they've upset lol but...since I can't make that happen, all I can do is say what I, personally, do, would do, or have done.

#answered #anonymous #purity police #resources #rp advice

[hansjisung-nolonger]

~ Hi, i'm such a big fan of your blog, your gifs are so pretty and i'm always in awe of your colouring, I learnt how to make gifs recently but I'm lost when it comes to colouring them and sharpening, if you don't mind can you make a tutorial for that? or if you would rather not, do you have any tutorial recs? Thank you! Have a nice day 😋🤗

hello 🌼🌼 thank u for the compliments, that means a lot ahah!! and yeah sure, i’ve had this ask for about a week and i was making a taeyong gifset so i’ve started from right where the gif is unsharpened and uncoloured to it being finished!!

this is going to be a very long tutorial so like it’s under the keep reading, i hope this helps!

my sharpening and colouring process (long tutorial)

above is a screenshot of the original gif, it’s not coloured nor sharpened! now first i want to start the colouring, if u look at the colours that catch ur eye first, it’s the black of taeyong’s jacket, the yellow undertones of skin and the pale grey background

there’s no point in me trying to play with the levels for a colour like green because there isn’t any green to work with here

i always increase the neutrals first, to me, it highlights the shadows on a person’s face!

the black being increased highlights taeyong’s jacket and it gives the gif more depth

here’s something u need to be careful about, i like my gifs to be more reddish hued as it highlights the lips

but if u increase the red too much, it gives the person a very pinkish hue w their skin tone and that is a natural trait found in european / caucasian ethnicities as compared to east asian (if ur giffing kpop for example)

we’re not trying to change their skin tone, make it too red and it can be considered close to white washing, some say its a stretch but i just never go there, once again, we’re not trying to change their skin tone!

so afterwards i always balance it out a bit w yellow as u can see below

now the next thing i do is optional really depending on your scene that ur giffing! the background behind taeyong is more of a pale grey but i want it to stand out more so i increase the white

now that i’ve done that, let’s look at our gif so far!!

if u compare that to the first screenshot, there’s a noticeable difference, however i like my gifs to be slightly unique in their colouring so this is more of my colouring style and how i achieve it, if u send an ask i’d be happy to upload the psd i use!

i first change the brightness and contrast because obviously, these are important factors in colouring!

now this is where things get interesting, the next few steps might look weird but it all comes together :))

these are the settings i use and i mostly achieve these by playing around with the adjustment settings but now i end up w this:

definitely not close to our final product, but hold on!!

i mix around the levels and the saturation a bit and then i end up w this:

this is about as freaky as it’ll get, now it’s slowly gonna come back to normal

photo filters saved the day!! then i shifted the black a bit higher because i felt taeyong’s jacket didn’t rlly pop!

i changed the midtones a bit and i wanted to shift the spectrum more to magenta!

now that overwhelming cyan look is gone!! it’s more close to how i prefer my gifs to be

i want the gif to be a bit darker but i don’t want to fully plunge the gif into eternal darkness w the lightness setting

now it’s darker and i’m quite happy w it, sometimes i’d leave the colouring at that but let’s go a few steps further :))

it has a very high contrast and some ppl don’t prefer that so i applied the above setting and now:

that’s the final colouring finished and i’m quite happy w it and now it’s time to sharpen!

these are the sharpening settings i use about 90% of the time, i apply this smart sharpening and then a blur, of course this is all adjustable and up to u!

sometimes i might not like the effect of the smart sharpening and i adore this action by @bt21net which u can find here, i use the WITH LUV sharpener a lot!!

now this is a side by side comparison of gifs w no sharpening vs smart sharpening and the WITH LUV sharpener!

smth very important to keep in mind is that it depends on the quality of the video file! this was the highest quality i could find of nct 127′s 2019 comeback performance but check out this small gif i made to show the sharpening difference on a higher quality video (with the BT21 sharpener)

i had the resize the gif but u can def see the difference!!

anyway, this tutorial got really long but i hoped it helped

#allresources #bt21net #yeahps #completeresources #gif tutorial #mine #mine: other #tutorials

[renorasims]

Hi Renora! I was wondering, do you know any tutorials on blending two textures together? I've just frankenmeshed a pair of long sleeves onto that off-shoulder top that came with laundry day (the same one you used to make your 'flower power' top), but since I had to keep some of the original sleeves too, I'm unsure of how two make the textures mix nicely. Any advice would be greatly appreciated - but if you don't have any, thanks anyway for your time!

Hi dear! 

Blending textures can be a tricky thing! It all depends on how well the textures match together, for example; if one texture is more detailed and the other more ‘flat’ so to speak it can be a really tough job! 

below are some things I personally use when blending textures together. Every creator has it’s own way of doing this meaning that other might do it differently. 

1. I always try to pick textures that are approximately the same style; both flat or very detailed in the same way. otherwise you will end up with a visible difference between them. for example; I made this denim blouse by loaning textures from the GT EP denim blouse. both denim and detailed textures.

2. After that I make a grey image (as shown in my PSD recolor files) of them and match all textures in the same grey color to avoid any color differences later. you can also do this later on… sometimes i’m not sure if a certain piece of cc will make the cut so I just make a rough texture first. to see if it’s any good. as long as you do this before merging layers.  

3. And then comes the feather option (feature in photoshop, shift F6) this really is your friend! Or mine at least! ;) It is very handy to make textures run smoothly into one another! 

4. If there are (still) some though parts the spot healing brush is also a very clever feature to remove any ‘seams’ / lines that are still visible from un-succesly blending 2 textures together. It does so much more so it’s definitely worth exploring! You can also remove unwanted texture seams etc. however it sometimes can be a tricky thing! the feature needs to recognize the right parts of the texture to sample, this is just a trial and error learning curve. you can always go 1 step back and try again since the result is always different the next time.

I hope this helps you out a bit dear! 

Hopefully I’m able to record some videos in the near future for my youtube channel since I’d really love to do so! But i’m still very shy about it and of course due to my perfectionism needs to be perfect! -__-

#replies #anon

[digitalangels]

Hey! I remember you saying something a while ago (not sure how long ago and I can't find the post in question) about how you "blend" your sims' facial expressions for CC previews and whatnot, and I was just wondering how do you do that? (Hope I'm making sense... xD) Most maxis expressions are too damned cartoony for my taste anymore. TIA :)

This is bit long reply/mini tutorial so I’ll put that behind the read more. :)

Basically I set the sim in the pose I want, pause game and then use Jaydee’s animation boxes to force different animations on Sims (my personal favorites are Season box’s reactions to rain and nightlife’s(?) bar animations and OBF’s browse animations), the pose will keep them standing still but the facial overlays will still play, after I’ve queued the animations I want I position the camera on cameraman mode (hit tab for that) and then unpause and the sim will start going through the animations, you can either just continuously hit printscreen* or pause the game, hit printscreen, unpause, pause, printscreen... and just take tons of pictures like that with different expressions, my screenshot folder looks like this due that:

it doesn’t matter if there are some dumb expressions between since there might be some part in that that’s very useful after all. Then I open photoshop and just choose one of the images as base and dump the other images as layers over it. You can either drop all (if you didn’t take too many) or pick and choose the ones that contain parts that you like, for example eyes in one picture, mouth in another and so on like so:

Then at the bottom of the layers list there’s this magic button:

Give each of the additional layers a layer mask with that like so:

Layer masks are simple, parts colored with white are visible, parts colored with black aren’t so basically the same as alphas in hairs/makeup etc. I usually start by checking each layer to make sure what I want from them, you can give layer the name accordingly to keep track of them better and then I turn all masks completely black with bucket tool (make sure you have the mask chosen and not the image!) and then color the parts I want visible back with white brush (I use the default Airbrush 75 usually since it works the best for my purposes)

Then just start whitening the parts, my layers look something like this:

Once you’re happy with the outcome save yourself copy of the .psd just in case and then merge the layers together and do any other editing you might want done to your images and that’s it, you’re done. 

and here’s final comparison between the base and edited expression:

(the one looking front is the original, one looking at the side edited) this was really quick edit so it’s not that good but should give you the basic idea.

*if you want to just hit the printscreen then you should set your preferred printscreen program to automatically save the images so it won’t constantly ask you to choose name etc. for your image, I also really recommend using something to take screenshots since it’s more convenient than using printscreen button and then pasting to photoshop between every image.

#tutorial #this is how I do expressions on my Sims pretty much #blackswan sims

[sapphirescales]

hey! i was wondering if you had any advice for anyone who has just joined the community? how to get interactions and stuff like that? i've just joined and i'm not really sure what to do or how to set myself up

hey there! i’m working off the assumption that you know some basics. i’ve been in the rp for years now so a lot of this is borne from my own experience roleplaying here and what i wish people told me way back. it’s a lil harsh but i hope you’ll find this helpful

anyways, here’s a crash course:

ic =/= ooc: what this means is that, before you start roleplaying, remember that things that happen in-character are not supposed to be a reflection of out of character feelings. so, for example, if someone’s muse absolutely hates your muse, that doesn’t mean that the writer hates you. just because you, personally, hate a muse doesn’t mean that your muse should either. your personal assumptions about another character are unrelated and shouldn’t be reflected in what your muse assumes about another character. for example, you might personally think that iro.nman is overrated but your character might idolise him or aspire to be like him or be completely neutral; it’s not the same thing.

standard roleplay etiquette: read through all of someone’s available pages before you follow them; if someone’s taken the time to write up all those pages, take the time to read them. even if you think you’re a Veteran Roleplayer, who has seen every variation that you can about someone’s pages, read them. don’t reblog their out of character posts / headcanons / graphics unless it’s marked as okay to reblog. during interactions try not to godmod or metagame your partners ( if you don’t know what that is, a quick google search will help you out ). sometimes, certain blogs might cool with you following them but aren’t open to interacting with your character for various reasons ( for e.g. if your muse is someone who is dead in their canon and they want to keep that a fixed point, they might not be open to interacting with your character, especially if they have set headcanons already ) or they might not be okay with you following them at all – that’s okay, there’s plenty of other fish in the sea. people come and go in the rp community fairly often. keep your head up.

writing samples: if you’re really new to the rpc, and you’ve never written with anyone before, people might not write with you simply because they have no idea how you write. it’s nerve-wracking but start with some posts that show off your understanding and insight for your character; write some drabbles, do some character-development related things. that will help you for when you actually do start writing as well, because you’ll have developed your muse a little bit more!

get some pages set up: your navigation page isn’t all that important. if you’re playing a canon muse, neither is your bio page necessarily. what is important, and what will tell people the things they need to know about your blog and characterisation, is a rules page and also a verses page. even if your verses page is very basic, and isn’t very detailed or super pretty, that’s okay! get the information out there about what you’re willing & open to write, establish your boundaries and show people you’ve put some thought into your character.

work hard on your character: roleplay is a hobby and i’m fairly certain that this is an unpopular opinion but if your character is underdeveloped – if their personality seems to change for no discernable reason between each person you thread, and your writing style is in constant flux, it makes it really difficult to understand and for people to want to know your character. you don’t have to have someone completely fully fledged out, but work on them, on understanding and exploring them and making them have depth and people will get more interested.

try not to ask for interactions specifically based on ships: ships are wonderful and fun and really great but it can be really disheartening ( especially for female muses ) if you come to them specifically for the sake of writing to ship. it’s happened to me so many times and it’s both a sign that sb hasn’t read my rules and that they don’t really care about my muse, they just want to focus on shallow writing. not everyone is interested in writing ships, and some people might not necessarily be interested in writing ships with you. that’s okay! ships will happen naturally and hugely dependent on writing chemistry; it’ll happen in time.

don’t impose your backstory on other people: this applies to all types of characters, but the ones i see it happening with the most are original characters. if your character’s backstory assumes that somebody else’s muse has done something to / for your muse before you’ve even interacted, you’re probably better of writing fanfiction. many people – including myself – consider this a form of godmodding. 

stick to your guns: when you’re first starting out, it’s really easy to get sucked into doing threads that you personally feel like don’t go with your characterisation or isn’t headed where you want it to. feel free to drop them. stick to your character, and your interpretation. for example, when i was in the te//en wo//lf fandom, i was writing peter, and a lot of people were just looking for A Token Uncle to drag them, and not really interested in writing actual plots with me. it’s okay to want to write other threads; make your wishlist known.

roleplay is give and take: this is related to the one before but basically, don’t be selfish when you write, and don’t let others be selfish when they write with you. good threads that are enjoyable and memorable for both parties are threads where both partners ( or more, if you’re doing multi-player threads ) get to explore their characters and really build a character dynamic together. 

mix things up sometimes: it’s okay to want character consistency but try to mix things up when you’re writing threads with people; no one wants to have sixteen of the same kind of threads, especially from one person. try and mix things up and put a different spin to them! it’ll be fun for you and fun for your writing partner, too.

don’t steal things from other people: whether that means headcanons, verses or the exact way they’ve done their theme. i’ve even known people to go through duplicates’ blogs and basically reblog all their non-rp posts from the source. i’ve seen all kinds of stuff stolen and i’m here to tell you that people will notice. they always notice, whether it takes 5 mins or 50 years, people will notice. don’t do it.

focus less on your follow count: some ppl will have thousands of followers and only write with two people; others will have much less and write with most of them. the number of followers you have doesn’t matter; we’re all here writing because we have a character that we love very very much, whether that character is someone we’ve created or someone already existing in media. your follow count is not reflective of the quality of your writing; the quality of your interactions reflects that. so focus on building your character and character dynamics.

ugly truth #1 – the muse you play will reflect the interactions and attention you get: i’ve been in about five to six different fandoms since 2009, and i’ve noticed one thing – if you play a canon character, you’re more likely to get followers v quickly compared to original characters, regardless of if they’re fandom or fandomless ocs. if your muse is a cis man, you’re more likely to gain followers very quickly compared to if you’re playing trans man, women, trans women or enby folks. if you play a white person, you’re more likely to gain followers compared to if you write a person of colour, especially black muses. if you play a muse that does not ship sexually with men ( e.g. a lesbian muse or an ace muse ), you’re less likely to get followers very quickly. it’s an ugly truth, but don’t be discouraged. there WILL be people who write with you, you DON’T have to change your character in any way to make them more palatable. keep loving your muse and people will love them in return, i promise.

ugly truth #2 – aesthetics matter: they’re not reflective of quality of writing but they are used, in this rpc as a whole, as a way to measure the amount of time and dedication you put into your character. you don’t have to go and code a theme from scratch or create your own psds – although some people do, and if you can / like to, good for you! – but try and set up a nice, clean theme with clear links that isn’t one of the preset themes on this website. it’ll help so, so much with getting interactions, even if your theme is really really plain. it’s unfortunate that aesthetics do matter but no community is perfect.

ugly truth #3 – the rpc isn’t pretty: there’s always really disgusting people lurking around. there’s callout posts flying back and forth to the point you don’t know who to believe. whilst one person says one thing is okay, someone else says it’s not. there’s other petty drama, vagues everywhere. it’s pretty nervewracking and hugely intimidating. it’s likely that you’ll get involved. it’s very likely that someone could call you out for something you’ve written that they find is a problem. the rpc isn’t pretty – but neither is real life, and because we’re a community of people, Real Life Issues ( like racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, biphobia, islamophobia, anti-semitism, ethnocentricism, etc etc ) often get carried over to the online community. it’s not a pretty reality, but it is a reality that you’ll have to deal with, just like you would have to in real life. if someone points out that you really messed up, it doesn’t matter how long ago you did that thing, find out how to apologise sincerely for the hurt you’ve caused, and apologise properly. if you’ve overstepped your bounds, apologise properly. if someone is throwing baseless accusations, defend yourself clearly and calmly and the people who matter will know and understand. if you see something someone else has said or done or written, which is offensive, talk to them first ( and, yes, this means if you’re white and you see a mutual doing a racist thing, you should definitely go and talk to them ). the rpc isn’t pretty at all, but it’s our community – and now it’s yours, too. you have a social responsibility to make the community safe. 

the energy you put out is the energy you’ll receive: you’ve just joined the community but the community is huge and no one will necessarily go out to receive you. there’s no easy way to get interactions, but i firmly believe that the amount of time and effort you put out is what you’ll get in return. don’t just sit around waiting for other people to interact with you; make an effort. if they ask for compliments or constructive feedback, send something in. if they reblog memes and their blog is open to memes from non-mutuals, send something in. make starter calls, make open posts. ask for constructive feedback – maybe it’s something in your interpretation or the way you write that might put some people off ( and if it’s legitimate, think about it, and if it’s not or it’s something nitpicky, move on and find new people to follow ). i understand that it’s hugely nerve wracking – i’ve got anxiety as well, and i’m always nervous when following new people. in facti’m pretty guilty of this particular thing myself, even after all these years. but roleplaying isn’t like fic-writing; it’s necessary to interact with others. and, just like in real life, sometimes you just have to make the effort first and not keep track of how many times you’ve done it, and focus on the fact that you’ve got a ton of new friends and writing partners.

treat others how you want to be treated!!!

#queries. ▬ reconnaissance. #i'd prefer it if ppl don't rb this #i'm not Hugely Comfortable w putting myself out there abt this topic #idk why there's an influx of ppl asking me stuff suddenly but i will try 2 help ig #there's some other stuff i wanted to mention but i can't think of it rn #N E WAYS