ci5_boxoftricks | Weekly Check In

So. Busy week then! Artists' claiming has been and gone, and everyone should have their author's rough drafts. I'm excited - are you excited? I'm excited! *bounces*

It's time to get those cogs turning and clicky-fingers flexing, ready to open up your image software and go to work. Plenty of time between now and the September submission deadline to work on that perfect accompaniment to your author's hard work.

I've put together a few resources that might be useful for our artists:

Photoshop tips, tricks and tutorials

GIMP (if you're like me and sadly can't justify the cost of PS) tips, tricks and tutorials

VLC Player. A free opensource media player that will play pretty much any file type and is very useful for making screengrabs from DVDs. I do have a tutorial for screencapping that I made for another fandom, so if anyone would like that, just let me know and I'll upload it here. ETA - the lovely snailbones asked, so I've reproduced the tutorial at my graphics comm here.

Fanlore page on vidding, including a link to an essay/tips on LJ

Image/screencap resources for Pros:

Daily Professionals on Tumblr
Screencaps of all episodes from Tauna's Slash Den
Caps from selected episodes at The Professionals Image Library

Please feel free to share any tips, tricks or resources in the comments - and don't be afraid to ask for help or advice. We're privileged to have some very experienced and talented artists on our list!

If any artist hasn't received their rough draft, or if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to PM any of the mods, or email us all at prosbigbang@gmail.com

Happy pixel/paint/vid-fiddling - let us know how you're getting on!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yay what can i say, my story features a stoat, life is good :D. Re photoshop if anyone has any specific questions i would be happy to help as i work with it all the time and give classes on it at times.

With a story and a stoat, the world is your oyster! *stares dreamily into middle distance*

Oooh - thanks for the offer. I'm sure people will take you up on it if they need to. I have no experience with PS, so it's very useful to have an expert on hand ♥

Ooh, Miss! Please Miss! Can we have the screencapping tut please? The way I do it is horribly clunky, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd love some clues. *g*

Well, as you've been such a good little Snail... *g*

I've put a link in the entry and duplicated the tut over at

dumplingdoodles - http://dumplingdoodles.livejournal.com/3045.html#cutid1

Hope it's useful!

Bless you, thanks!

Oh gosh, yes, that looks a heck of a lot better than the thing I use for capping... that'll keep me quiet and playing by myself in the corner for ages! *blows kisses*

This is brilliant stuff, thank you!

No problem m'dear. Glad it's useful.

I've been fighting with GIMP for five years. I can do simple things like a wallpaper and a persona, but sometimes I find it frustrating. I know it's me and I take my defeat without grace since I'm a bloody Linux user. GIMP was originally created for Linux and has expanded into Windows. I'm annoyed with myself but it won't beat me! However, I do have two other "photo shop" type offerings. (I've never used Photoshop so I have no clue how it works!)

I use this online editor all the time: http://fotoflexer.com/
It's easy to use, offers a good bit of options for us non-professional photo editors, is tree and is on line. That does have its positive points. :) It's easy to make icons and other small projects with fotoflexer and I like that it can upload from your computer or a URL.

This is one I haven't played with much but it has a TON of options and seems fairly wideranging: http://www.sumopaint.com/home/

Good screencapping (jpg making) programs that are free: Avidemux and MPEG Streamclip. I know both of these, the second more than the first, if anybody has any questions.

I also vid with Ulead VideoStudio ProX4 if anybody uses it and has questions. I know it fairly well. I have used WMM, evil thing that it is, but I do know the ins and outs of it. :)

Have fun!

Edited 2011-07-14 11:54 (UTC)

Excellent stuff - thanks Kat! Some really good resources here.

I admit that GIMP was a little baffling at first, but I'm a persistent bugger, and I didn't want it to beat me. There's still 101 things that it can do that I have no clue about, but I'm gradually teaching myself new stuff all the time. Also, there's no way I can afford PS, so it's GIMP or nowt for me!

If I were any more excited, I'd pee my pants. *g*

Ooh, photoshop tips and tricks! coool! *bookmarks* I loooove playing around with photoshop and I'm always looking to learn how to do new things with it.

LOL! *puts down plastic sheeting just in case*

I'm glad it's useful to you m'dear!

I keep meaning to tackle GIMP so thanks for such a useful post. ♥

No problem m'love. I still have great chunks of GIMP that I'll probably never understand, and it's a bit of a daunting prospect when you first get started, but if I can teach myself it, you'll have no problem! Any questions, feel free to bend my lughole. *g*

Thanks, petal. ♥

Also thanks for the vote of confidence but you're naturally artistic, right down to your lugholes. *g*

This is so exciting!
Thanks so much for your effort to help!

You're very welcome. It's great to be able to start thinking about how to illustrate our stories, isn't it? :)

This is great, I keep wantig to have a go at getting screencaps and this will definitely get me started. Thanks luv.

Mwahahaha! Another ~~victim~~ enthusiast - goooooood! :D

If anyone needs vidding help just call .

I`m so excited.... and halfway through my vid. Maybe I will make a second one for the story...xx

Thanks for the links ND! :D

Weekly Check In

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject