SANCHELINZ’S GIFFING PROCESS
hi hi so i figured i would compile a post for my giffing process as i have gotten several questions about how i gif so quickly/what i use/etc so!
tools i use:
- vapoursynth
- photoshop
specs:
i have two devices that i gif on, i just switch between the two depending on where i’m at.
for my desktop computer, i have an alienware aurora r11
- processor: intel core i7-10700K
- ram (memory): 32.0GB
- os: windows 11
for my laptop, i have a dell xps 15 9500
- processor: intel core i7-10875H
- ram (memory): 16.0GB
- os: windows 10
if you want see a side by side comparison of gifs i make on each, all my paradigm sets were made on my laptop (here, here, here, and here) while my taemin gifs and these two key mv sets were made on my desktop (here, here, and here). they generally look the exact same, my desktop is just faster bc it has more memory.
things i do first:
i always clip the video i’m working with first by writing out the timestamps i want to use solely bc that is what works best and quickest for me. every gifmaker is different and will have different tactics, but that’s just what i’m used to and what helps me expedite the process the most!
clipping things this way means that i spend less time rifling through frames and shots to find what i like bc i just make note of the timestamp where a certain shot i like is and can push it through the vapoursynth real easy
vapoursynth settings:
for vapoursynth i try not to do too much since i do most my work inside photoshop itself, and i keep these settings the same 100% of the time. and rather than going through each individual gif, i overwrite the code each time i start a new set so that i can keep the sizes the same from gif to gif. this also cuts down on time and makes it easier to focus on other parts of the process
video = core.knlm.KNLMeansCL(video, 0, 6, 4, 0.5, channels="YUV")
video = fun.FineSharp(video, sstr=1.5)
i only use a preprocessor (video = haf.QTGMC(video, Preset="Slower", TFF=True) bilinear) when the file i’m working with overlaps frames or has that ‘striping’ effect on it.
i trim all my clips/gifs on vs to start! if a gif ends up being too large, or i don’t like certain frames, or i don’t like the way it loops, i’ll simply delete as needed later in photoshop!
once i get my output and it processes (the processing time of the gifs is usually what takes the longest and i have found that this speed depends mostly on your device’s memory. my desktop is much faster than my laptop bc my desktop has twice the amount of memory on it) i copy and paste the output file into a generic copy like this. if i’m making a ton of clips (20-30+) then i will name them or separate into folders as needed
photoshop:
firstly, photoshop is very dependant on memory as well. the sole reason why my desktop has so much memory is bc of photoshop. you can go into settings to change how much memory photoshop consumes (edit -> preferences -> performance) and photoshop will recommend an ideal range to use too. i have mine set to 70% and it runs like a dream. the only crashes i’ve experienced have been when i’m running other programs that use a lot of memory at the same time.
i monitor my task manager regularly simply bc i like knowing why my computer is running the way it is and i can confirm that photoshop eats memory hardcore. if you use both vapoursynth and photoshop, and have issues with slowness and/or crashes, i recommend keeping photoshop closed until you are fully done with vapoursynth.
i don’t reuse colorings from set to set so i don’t really keep/use psds personally. i know a lot of gifmakers do have set psds that they make to use for certain kinds of videos and such, and that is def something that can speed up the process too ^^
what i personally do is group my coloring layers into a folder and once i’ve finished coloring one gif i will simply copy and paste it onto the next and make minor adjustments as needed!
coloring itself, it depends from set to set but the five layers i absolutely always use are: brightness/contrast, color balance, channel mixer, selective color, and exposure (i always keep my exposure layer on the very top, it’s a minor change but just a personal preference)
i try to make everything as easy as possible when giffing personally, so if i can turn a 20 click process into one click, then i absolutely will.
90% of the speed of my giffing comes from actions!
actions are my best best best friend in the universe when it comes to giffing. i have the same action sets on both my laptop and desktop so that i don’t have to remember my settings myself since my memory is horrible.
first convert: select all frames, select all layers, convert frame animation, convert to smart object
compile: select all layers, convert to smart object
0.02/0.03/0.04/0.05/0.06: frame speed settings/ selecting all frames, change frame animation speed
blur: for captions, i duplicate the og layer and select the area around the caption then use gaussian blur at radius 1.4 pixels to blur. i typically go in after the fact with the blurring tool to smooth the edges around the blur section so it isn’t as sharp!
i have an action for my noise settings to maximize efficiency too, then i do the same for my denoise/sharpening settings. i have two separate ones, one for small gifs (like for a 9-set, 3x3) and one for all other sizes of gifs
the final convert is simply flattening the frames into clips and converting the timeline, making frames from layers, then setting it to whatever speed i like. because im ultra lazy, i have those frame speed settings as an action so i can just do one click instead of like, three.
essentially, if there is something i know i will be doing and/or repeating often, i make it an action. that’s really what makes my process as quick as it is imo!
honestly i just try to streamline the process as much as possible bc the technical parts of clicking 100 different things are not what i enjoy about giffing, i enjoy coloring and playing with layers the most so that’s what i want to spend the brunt of my time doing. but i also tend to be super busy while also wanting to gif a ton so over time and with practice a lot of the process has become pretty snappy and easy just from that!
pls feel free to ask questions if anything doesn’t make sense im not the best at communicating my thoughts into words so i might be explaining things in a way only i can understand but i hope it makes sense enough and is helpful too!!
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I have a digital art question. You said in a previous ask that you had been using a iPad for drawing for a short while, and that you normally use your laptop.
Including the option of cloud storage and usbs/ portable hard drives:
How much device storage would be ideal for a drawing device depending on whether it's a phone, tablet, or computer (laptop or desktop)?
Sorry that it took so long to answer this, but I guess at the end of the day it depends on what kind of artist you want to be.
I personally do it more as a hobby, so I dont really have any need for extra storage, my ipad is 256gb and I usually delete files after a piece has been completed so I dont take much of that storage. Back when I worked on laptop I really didn’t care much about it either for the exact same reason, as soon as a piece was completed I would delete the paintToolSAI file.
Now if you are serious about it then you will need to invest a bit on it and do your research.
If you plan to work on computer then invest in ram, specially if you plan to run something like photoshop, it will save your life, for storage itself I recommend seagate external storage, I use their 2tb backup plus for my ps4, is not complicated to set up for laptops/desktops and it hasn’t given me any problem. (But again research guys, it is important to look what would work best for you, do you want speed? Portability? Reliability? Google is your friend in this case)
If you are looking into using ipad (specifically the pro one) then I suggest getting the one with 512gb or even the 1tb option (if not the pro then go for the most storage available), cloud storage could also be useful, or using something like box to store the files when you are done with a piece.
Pictures themselves will not take much of your storage but if you plan on keeping the files for printing/sharing etc those will definitely eat up your memory FAST.
Even right now when I do not keep many files and I haven’t had the ipad for long, procreate already uses 7gb only for the documents & data, just to give you an idea.
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Hey I’m an artist but not digitally, your type of artwork is the type of work I’d love to strive to be like and I was wondering just what tablets are preferable to use (and if a computer is a compatible option) and what platforms or apps you use to draw! Thank you so much💖 but fr your work is amazing
Hey! I’m happy to hear that someone looks up to my drawing style! <3
At the moment the only most expensive thing that I own is my Desktop and the cheapest component is my tablet! So you don’t have to look for an expensive tablet nor a desktop. I just wanted a desktop. Anyways, enough of what I have! XD
All the computers are compatible as long as you’re running Windows 7, 8 or 10.
The tablet I have at the moment is One By Wacom Small (CTL-471). I’m using Manga studio for my manga and Photoshop for illustrations and some other details for the manga. I do recommend photoshop tho. It’s a friendly program if you have enough patience with it. I learned to use it in a maximum of one month. But you can also use Paint tool SAI and Manga studio which don’t eat as much RAM as Photoshop and they are running way smoother.
I hope it helped you! If there are more questions feel free to contact me on the chat cx
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Good day, sir. Do you have any advice on raising a Porygon, as well as its evolutions? It's my favorite Pokemon, and I'd like to have one as my own.
Excellent choice!
Believe it or not, porygon (and its evolutions) are actually some of the easiest pokémon to care for. A porygon (or its evolutions) doesn’t actually need much in the way of food, and water should be kept to an extreme minimal anyway (as it doesn’t interact well with its electronic-digital nature). It can eat if they choose to, so it wouldn’t hurt to offer the option. Should you choose to do this, porygon and its evolutions will literally eat anything you tell them is food, and they will do so happily. The same sort of kibble you give the rest of your team or small, extra portions of whatever your other teammates will eat should do. Alternatively, you can offer an extra portion of your meals whenever your porygon seems interested. Remember, the main point is feeding porygon only if it seems interested, not because it needs to, as it really gains no nutritional value from what it eats. On the other hand, your porygon will likely engage in mirroring, or the act of mimicking the humans or pokémon around them in order to understand and bond with them.
In truth, what a porygon needs more than anything is a computer. That’s where most of your maintenance will occur. Porygon aren’t tied to any specific computer, so you won’t have to worry about, say, needing to transfer your porygon whenever you buy a new computer. However, it’s always a good idea to start out with something sturdy, quick, and equipped with a considerable amount of RAM and powerful antivirus and anti-malware software. A connection to the internet is also highly recommended to allow your porygon to move from one device to the next without having to exit into the real world. (I would also recommend coupling other devices, such as your pokégear, pokénav, phone, or so forth, with your computer from time to time to allow your porygon to jump from something you own to another piece of personal tech.)
As a note, whether you want a laptop or a desktop is entirely up to you. Desktop computers tend to be sturdier and have more power, but laptops are portable, allowing your porygon to have a refuge no matter where you go. Thus, if you tend to stay at home, consider a desktop, but if you frequently travel, a laptop should do.
That said, once you get this computer, power it on for at least a few hours every day. Encourage your porygon to enter your computer at least once a day to recharge, which is its equivalent to eating. During this time, run your antivirus and/or anti-malware software to “groom” your porygon. If you have a poké ball transporter and a home connection to the storage system, I would also recommend uploading your porygon’s poké ball and running the system’s backup software. This will also pull a backup from your porygon, even if it’s not within the storage system itself.
Also, don’t worry about your porygon wandering around the internet. Porygon and porygon2 are extremely obedient, and it’s unlikely that they’ll wander too far without you. This is also tied into their care regarding play and training. Porygon need very minimal training, not only because they don’t often display behavior that needs to be trained but also because their bodies don’t require much exercise. The only thing you’ll need to be concerned about is really target practice; it’s essential that you hone your porygon’s aim and accuracy especially, as these need to be calibrated over time and are key to their beam attacks. As for play, porygon and porygon2 are fantastically intelligent but also extremely agreeable, and they can get the psychological relief they need from playing any sort of game with you, from fetch to chess. You can even open up a creativity program such as Photoshop and let your porygon play through artistically expressing itself. (You won’t believe how much art on the internet was actually created by porygon. It’s quite fascinating, really.)
Of course, this leads to the metaphorical donphan in the room: porygon-z. Porygon-z, being a pokémon with rather unconventional origins, has a risk of tripping your antivirus software or negatively affecting any computer it touches. For this reason, it’s important for you to be extremely careful when it comes to handling its maintenance and its training. Don’t run your antivirus software on your porygon-z, but if you absolutely must, make sure your porygon-z is whitelisted. You should still run the backup, however; rest assured the system administrators have taken porygon-z’s unusual nature when designing the backup system.
So really, your biggest concern is training, as porygon-z gains more of a personality and thus may pick up several bad habits. Luckily, it’s not as bad as many experts will lead you to believe. In truth, the only reason why porygon-z seems like an insurmountable challenge is because trainers are used to training porygon and porygon2, both of which are among the easiest pokémon to train (in terms of behavior, anyway). With that in mind, porygon-z is really just about as easy to train as any other pokémon; it’s just that you may need to deal with its newfound curiosity. Keep an eye on it and have patience with everything it does. Teach it the difference between exploring its world safely and doing so impulsively or dangerously, and don’t be afraid to use positive reinforcement to help it understand right from wrong.
Best of luck!
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as someone who works with photoshop and other adobe apps a lot do you think it's necessary to have 16gb of ram on a laptop or is 8gb enough for what you're doing?
it really depends how much work you’ll be asking photoshop to do. I have 16gb and let PS/other adobe products use about 10gb to cover my bases. I also tend to be working with a lot of stuff and larger canvasses with animated aspects, which eats up performance from my experience.
I’d say if 16gb isnt a dealbreaker for a new computer or new ram go for it. You can make 8gb work probably, I’m sure I’ve seen friends working on computers that have probably 8gb and use ps fine.
Adobe products are pretty demanding but if you know what to look for in the menus, you’re usually able to cut out some fancy performance processes and make it work cleanly. By the same token you could have a ton of ram but not streamlining your programs could still cause problems.
(I’m also not as much of a computer expert as my brother, he doesnt know much about PS but he helped out when I got my current laptop, so I may be talking out of my ass)
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hi can i ask how do you make time to create so many gifs? i barely have time to make one gifset in a week :(
Short answer, I’m really fast and I have a very fast computer!
Instead of giving a long answer though, I thought I’d give a few tips on how I do it, since this is a question I’m asked quite often, so what the hell, I’m gonna share my wisdom :)
The following tips are very useful and will 100% cut your time on photoshop of a significant amount… Though I want to stress on the fact that it’s having a lot of RAM on your computer that’s going to make the real difference on how fast you can be.
How to be faster when you gif:
I’m not sure how important it is to other people, but I’m very organized. When I’m making a gifset, I put the screencaps in different folders for how many gifs I’m making. That’s helpful for several reasons (it’ll be relevant a couple of points down too), but also cause I know how many more scenes I need to capture to complete my gifset, and I directly have a general idea of what the gifset is going to look like.
Related to that, I usually keep on my computer, on a pendrive and on a HDD the screencaps of some of the scene I use the most/I can possibly use in the future. They’re all in different folders, some named by character, some by fandom, some by episode, some by colour. This is very useful cause I don’t have to go and capture them again and again, wasting time. (Say, I gif Tony Stark quite a lot, I have most of his scenes already saved. It saves me A LOT of time!)
I use potplayer for capturing frames. Using that, or whatever app you have (I had kmplayer before) is way faster than using photoshop to do it.
I always capture the screencaps before I open photoshop. I usually keep the 2 phases separated. It’s mostly habit by now, cause my old pc was much slower than the one I have now, and this is especially helpful if you don’t have much RAM, cause as you know, ps runs on RAM, and will eat as much as you give to it. If you have other stuff open at the same time while using ps, it’s gonna make your pc and the whole process really really slow.
Following that, you can actually up the amount of RAM you can dedicate to photoshop! Go on Edit -> Preferences -> Performance! Remember not to overdo it though, especially if you plan on using other apps while you work on pc! I keep mine at 70% (so I have 10gb of ram dedicated to ps, now you see why I’m fast.)
Uploading screencaps as multiple DICOM files is much faster than loading files into stack! The main difference is that you can’t pick and choose which files to load, but you can only load folders (hence my putting everything into folders I said above!)
Now, the best advice that I can give you, the one that will change everything and really make everything so much faster: make actions, use actions!
Seriously! I’m the laziest person you’ll ever going to meet, so I made myself an action for literally EVERYTHING. Why? Cause a lot of the work we do on ps is repetitive and we end up doing the same things over and over for 8, 10, 20 gifs. Making frames from layers, setting the animation delay, resizing, sharpening…. It’s always the same things, but we waste so much time to input all those commands!
I made myself an action for making frames and setting the delay. I have several other actions for resizing in the dimensions I use the most (like I have an action for 268p x 140p, one for 268p x 170p and so on). I have another action for sharpening. That means that the only thing I need to do is hit play and that’s it. In a couple of seconds everything is done and I have the gif ready so I can start the fun part: colouring it.
I don’t know why but it always takes me way less when I use actions than when I have to input those commands by hand. A+++, best thing I ever started doing, would totally recommend you try it!
I don’t have much time myself, love, that’s why I keep everything organized and ready to go, so I can gif on my breaks, and I don’t have to be more frustrated than necessary (and god knows how frustrating colouring can be!)
I have the advantage of having a pc and not a mac, so I can use potplayer directly and not waste any time converting my videos in acceptable formats that quicktime can read (kudos to mac users who spend so much time on that omg how do you do it!)
I hope this helps honey :D
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@jeansfreckledjesus replied to your post: goluckydanny: ifishipititsprobablygay: ...
Not cool guys….people work really hard to make these programs and they need to eat too
Especially because artists talk about people stealing their art or people not paying enough for commissions
Seems a little hypocritical. Believe me, as an artist who can’t afford most art software I know how hard it is to not have really good programs
I’d recommend going halfsies with a friend or two and sharing a subscription? Or, do what I do: explain to your school (if you’re in one rn) how they could purchase a subscription or two to use in your art class.
i understand where you’re coming from and i do agree to an extent. some programmers absolutely deserve to be paid for their work, but in my personal opinion there’s reasonable charging and there’s overcharging.
(((the following argument may be wrong in places let me know if some of my points are incorrect. i have very little experience with photoshop, being a fan of SAI instead)))
once upon a time you had to buy photoshop for one big payout at something crazy like £400+ (i forget the exact amount but in american terms that’s about $565+) and for poor artists and beginner hobbyists that ridiculously crazy amount of money. honestly i can afford to get a whole damn laptop complete with a kickass amount of RAM and memory.
nowadays, yes it is much cheaper to buy, but in the long run it’s fucking expensive. you pay for it on a month to month basis and the cost for a license is £9.99 ($9.99 if you’re american which is some other kind of bullshit because with the exchange rate that’s £3 cheaper than what the uk gets). it sounds a lot more managable, because hey you only have to pay for it then right?
but there’s twelve months in the year and that £10 racks up to £120 (americans saving £35 over the brits). and this is only for a single license. so if you’re moving computers all the time then good luck with that, your payments are multiplied by the amount of computers you use.
whilst yes, if you’re still in school and very lucky you might be able to convince some staff to get you it, its highly unlikely depending on your curriculum. at least in my experience we very very rarely did digital art and if we ever were allowed to do it we had to supply the means to use it ourselves because it was our choice to use it. and if you are able to convince them, its somewhat unlikely they’ll buy it for you to use on a home computer.
and splitting it with a friend? well back to a point i made earlier, it’s a single license, so unless you share a computer with them then good luck with that.
moving onto paint tool sai and clip studio, im a little less defensive over this method of getting it. but it’s still sort of relevant.
paint tool sai is rather confusing to purchase. at least, in my opinion. the website looks outdated at best and shady at worst, trust me i would love to purchase the official program to support the creators as it is a wonderful program that has served me well over the years and it looks to be made by a relatively small company. but the website makes me hesitant.
clip studio is a little of column a and a little of column b. it’s somewhat expensive for the deluxe version, with no way to tell the difference between the two of their products. do you go full out saying might as well and buy the full feature version for £168 or make-do with the basic version? i have little experience with using it but it does seem like a relatively good program.
art is something that everyone should have the freedom to get into and do at will. it’s not something that should be restrained. so thinking on these lines, i’m kind of for people using these programs for free to an extent.
a good art program should be something that can be made natural to use over time. sometimes you can try and use a program and for whatever reasons (tools that just don’t work for your art style, computer issues, complicated UI, etc) it just doesn’t work for you. congratulations you’ve spent a possibly huge amount of money on this program to find that it just cannot work. and you can’t give away your license to this program, nor can you get your money back.
my policy is that it’s okay to use free versions of these programs to an extent. think of it like...oh! say you get into an all you can eat buffet for free. the restaurant won’t mind too much if you get a reasonable sized meal, but if you end up eating a huge number of platefuls to the point where you’re practically robbing them, then that is when it’s no longer okay. in a similar way, i think it’s okay to use these programs for a while to get used to them, and if you like them and they become your main use for drawing, then that’s when you should step up and buy the official one yourself if you can afford it.
in a similar vein, if you’re an artist who uses the program to make commissions and you are getting regular ones with decent pay, absolutely you should buy the official versions. otherwise it’s like borrowing someone elses sewing machine to make clothes to sell and not giving the owner of the sewing machine anything in return. kind of a dick move there, dude.
td;lr: some artists are broke, some programs are overpriced and some artists shouldn’t be dicks.
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