Month: August 2020

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Blending Modes [ part two ]
By Kitten

Hey everyone! Hopefully you’re staying cool and social distancing. Sorry not to have continued this last month, but as we all know, July wasn’t the best month, and I was pretty busy.

So last time we talked, I went over the Normal and Darken blending modes. Let’s get into everyone’s favorite… Lighten blending modes!

First things first, What is Lighten Blending? These modes will in a sense make colors brighter. Anything black that’s in the blend layer will become invisible whereas anything that is brighter than black is going to have some darkening effect on the pixels below it.

Let’s begin.

Lighten
This blending mode basically takes a look at the base color and blend color, and will keep whichever one of the two is the lightest. If the blend and base colors are the same.. then there won’t be any changes applied. Similar to Darken, this blending mode looks at the three RGB (Red, Green, Blue) channels separately when blending the pixels.
On the supplied images you’ll see that the blending layer (top) has more black in it, so once ‘Lighten’ is selected, as you see the black disappears.

Screen
This blending mode is one of the more popular in PS. You’re always going to have a brighter resulting color. Black will have no change, similar to Lighten, it will just disappear leaving the brighter pixels visible.
This blending mode has many different levels of brightening depending on the luminosity values of your blend layer. With this effect, it makes Screen a great blending mode for brightening images or creating highlights.

Color Dodge
With Color Dodge this blending mode blends differently when Fill is adjusted compared to when Opacity is adjusted


This gives you a brighter effect than Screen by decreasing the contrast between the base and blend colors. The effect results in saturated mid-tones and blown highlights. You get a similar effect when you use the Dodge Tool to bright up an image (I use the dodge tool to brighten the ‘whites’ of the eyes).

Linear Dodge (Add)
This blending mode produces similar, but stronger results than Screen or Color Dodge. It looks at the color information in each channel (RGB) and brightens the base color to reflect the blend color by increasing the brightness. Black will again have no effect and will disappear.
It will blend differently when Fill is adjusted, compared to when Opacity is adjusted.

this image shows the difference from the previous with the fill at 100% and now at 52%

Lighter Color
Similar to Lighten, this blending mode does not blend pixels. It only compares the base and blend colors, keeping the brightest of the two. The difference is that where Lighten looks at each RGB channel to come up with a final blend, Lighter Color looks at the composite of all the RGB channels.

So there you have it. The Lighten Blending Modes. Next time we’ll move into Contrast.

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to hit me up. If there’s anything you’d like to see explained further in photoshop or tutorials let me know. Stay cool, mask up, stay healthy!

admin

That’s Just British…
Wit and Wisdom from Across the Pond
By Russ

So this week we have an idea from our very own Bloginista. Next out its British insults. But please don’t hesitate to drop me a message if you have anything else you’d like to read about, about the little island across the pond for most of you.

An idiom, firstly what is it. Well apparently it means:

a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g. over the moon, see the light ).

I’m someone who loves using metaphors, analogies and the like to express myself, usually as an insult or piss take, because well that’s me. Now I have no idea if some of these are British or more widely used, but I’ve curated these as best I can, because it was a fun topic and stood out when Rivers suggested it. I’ll post my favourites at the end, the ones I often use at work, for the sake of my sanity. So I’ve expanded this a little from just idioms to British slang etc

Ok so let’s start with a very British one:

A penny for your thoughts: Basically you are asking someone for their opinion. “I will give you a penny if you tell me your thoughts.” By the way a penny is the equivalent of a cent, so you are getting ripped off here!

Beat around the bush: This means your avoiding a subject, and not speaking about the issue. “stop beating round the bush Russ and tell us why a baked potato is called a jacket potato”

Look after your pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. Another classic idiom, my nan said this a lot. Basically looking after small amounts of money leads to have large sums of money.

A few sandwiches short of a picnic. Someone who lacks common sense. I mean who doesn’t take enough sarnies to a picnic.

Bagsy: Basically shotgun “bagsy not making tea tonight”

Blinder: To pull a blinder is to do something very skilful or difficult.

Bob’s your uncle or Fanny is your aunt: our way of saying hey presto.

Bonnet/Boot: Hood/trunk of a car

Brolly: An umbrella, you’ll need one in England

Chinwag: This is to gossip or catch up

Chuffed: I use this a lot. To be chuffed is to be full of pride. E.g. I was chuffed with that av I made.

Clanger: To pull a clanger, is to make a massive mistake. See also cock-up.

Codswallop: The greatest word ever. Basically this is to lie or make stuff up. “what a load of Codswallop”

Dog’s Dinner. A mess. “you made a right dog’s dinner of your report Russ”

Faff: “stop faffing” wasting time doing very little

Fit: describes someone physically attractive. E.g. Are bloginista is a fitty.

Flog: to sell

Gutted: To be devastated or upset. “I’m gutted we lost”

Hank Marvin: cockney rhyming slang for starving      

Innit: An abbreviation of isn’t it. “It’s a bit shit innit”

Leg it: to run away

Lurgy: to be ill or have a cold

Miffed: annoyed

Minging: Unpleasant or unattractive. E.g Russ you smell minging

On the pull: To go out looking to get lucky.

Pants: Rubbish

Pissed: To be drunk

Round: This means you are buying the drinks e.g. “Russ is getting the round in”

Sod’s law: Basically means if anything can go wrong it will go wrong.

Spend a penny: to pee

Take the biscuit: If someone has done something highly surprising or irritating.

Take the mickey: to take liberties at the expense of others

Everything is tickety-boo: It’s all fine

Waffle: I do this a lot! To go on or skirt around a subject.

Zonked: tired

Ok so my favourite Idioms:

Thicker than a submarine door

And

A camel is a horse created by a committee

As to what they mean? Well you tell me and I’ll chuck in a prize for the closest guesses.

So there is a few for you. Know anymore or heard any that you don’t know what it means? Get in touch and we’ll hit those up next time!

admin

Hang Around: SoA
By Tatiana

This month my SOA interview is with Covet.  We talk about her characters, her rooms, and advice to new players.  Let’s do this!

1.) What year was it when you were introduced to SOA rp? Who introduced you and what room/site location was it at?
2015, randomly went into a room, Asphalt Dynasty, IC

2.) Who was your very first SOA character back then? Do you still rp him/her today?
Haley Jacobs. Her real name was Halcyon King but she was in hiding.


I do not really play her much anymore but I do still have her. The person who plays her husband is busy with RT.

3.) Did you ever watch the tv series ‘Sons of Anarchy’ before rping SOA? Who was your fave character if you did watch the series?
I’ve seen it a few times through.  I think my favorite character was Opie.

4.) You had several SOA rooms. Please give us a run down on each, the names of the rooms, where they were located, and what happened to them.
– SAMDEF: Defiance Point, Florida / OOC Drama
– SAMROA: Roanoke, Oregon / Still active
– Disciples of Diablo (Mayans) Had a Mexican and US city area / Never really picked up
– SAMOLY: Olympia, WA / Died out

5.) Now it is time to feature your character, Bennett. Tell us everything about him. How he manifested, history, his ranks, family, friends, and his club.

Wolf is the younger brother of SAMROA’s President. He is as loyal as they come with the club. He did previous serve in the military but was injured and had to get out. He joined the club after having been raised around it when he was younger.

6.) Okay now your fave rp moment as Bennett. A few sentences will do.
Honestly I haven’t even played him yet lol. He’s very sassy though and keeps his brother in line. At least in my head.

7.) Tell us about your other character Makayla.

Makayla had it rough. Her dad was in the club and her mom was never around. After her dad died she kind of drifted out on her own in her teens. It led to a lot of bad things. She ended up working on the streets and that’s how she ended up killing a john that was trying to kill her.

She met Aidan soon after that. He instantly wanted her but Makayla was convinced at first but they eventually started dating. They had since married and moved to SAMROA from southern California. They had one son and Makayla’s life is completely different.

8.) And Makayla’s favourite moment in the rp spotlight happened when…
There’s been quite a few. Reaper is my rp partner with Makayla and we have very compatible roleplay styles.
I guess meeting Aiden and pushing herself to trust someone after no one has really been there for her in years.

9.) If you could add any activity to the rally for everyone to participate in, something new, what would it be?
Oh man I don’t know. There’s a lot of good stuff there. Maybe more stuff for the women to participate in.

10.) Did you enjoy the rally? Obtain any high scores?
I actually wasn’t able to go this year. I just moved and started a new job and there’s never enough hours in the day. I’ve enjoyed it in years passed though.

11.) What advice would you give to someone who wants to try out SOA rp but is hesitating?
Just do it. There’s so much more to it than just the club.

12.) What tips would you give to someone who is thinking about becoming a SOA room leader?
lol Don’t. Just take an interest in a current room and I’m sure it would pick up.

13.) What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen in SOA rp?
I mean there’s some pretty strange stuff in the show. I’ve seen some interesting porn ventures in some rooms I guess.

14.) Discord channels in SOA rp, do you find them helpful?
Yes, it’s important to work together to keep ideas flowing.

15.) What is your opinion in cross rp between other SOA rp rooms at ReVo?
I enjoy it. Make it a SOA world and not just a SOA room. I always invite cross rp in my rooms.


Thanks for reading, enjoy your summer and see you next month!