So at first when I saw a new artist at the haven putting up animated caps, I didn't even bother to read them. But it seems I heard more and more about these caps, so I went back and read a few. And really, they have a story telling style that I don't associate with someone stumbling on a trick and just repeating it over and over.
Yes, the design doesn't really bowl me over, but to keep an animated cap at a decent readable size requires sacrifices to keep the file size down. So black text on a white background is a little forgivable. Bur the writing was really good. They told a story that would have been fine without the animation.
So I decided to make a cap for this new artists known as it12707. A quick asside here... I'll normally refer to someone by their chosen user name. If the name doesn't 'work' for me, I'll refer to them by their chosen femme name (like Chasobeast is becoming Kyra in my head). I do that because I tend to think of all these cap artists as women. Sure.. I know in my head that they are men like me who have fantasies of being a woman, but it still sits easier with me to think of them as women in my heart. I don't think of Damien... I think of Dementia. I don't think of Mark, I think of Simone. I don't think of Jeremy, I think of Jennifer. But in this case I can only think of it12707 as it12707 as he doesn't have a chosen femme name. And sadly that also means I think of it12707 as a man, and not a woman.
But back to the cap.
I read over it12707's preferences and a couple things called out to me. "Being an unwilling / reluctant transformee, someone who isn't eager to turn into a girl & isn't happy being one." "Scenario where a temporary change spirals out of control & turns permanent" "Resigned to my fate: I'm not happy about being stuck this way, but there's nothing I can do & I need to move on with life" "Multiple transformations are super-neat: I love the idea of not having control over my body's fundamental shape anymore"
Now I already had this image up (actually its what made me think of making a cap right now for it12707, as she prefers non nude caps), and between the way it looked like she was just waking up and these scenarios the idea came to me. I wrote it out in one quick try and only had to edit a little of it out to make it fit the space I wanted.
The only thing that bothers me about this is that it's a body swap cap. I purposefully leave it a little vague though, as it12707 says nothing about body swaps in his preferences. He doesn't say whether he likes it or not. I'm personally not a fan of body swaps, and really used it here as I though it was a good way to get multiple transformation. You see I want to be me. I don't want to be Ms Smith, or Gina at school, or Angelina Jolie (although I wouldn't balk at having her body for awhile!)... I want to be me, just feminized. I just feel that body swapping takes some of your own will away. I can screw up my own life and live with the consequences, but I don't want to ruin someone else's life.
Anyway... I hope it12707 likes this, and that you do as well.
Spending everyday in a different woman's body is quite intriguing. I wonder if it's truly a bodyswap where he women spend the day as Graham, or if its more like a possession and the women wake up the next morning with little to no memory of the day before.
ReplyDeleteYou find some of the most amazing pictures, an your layouts are fantastic. Been meaning to say that for a while now.
Interesting idea and as Kyra says above, fantastic choice of image!
ReplyDeleteVery nice cap and interesting concept
ReplyDeleteWow, I don't know that I've ever had someone talk about my work this much before. Real criticism, even negative, is so much more valuable to me than "I love it! Great job!" because it demonstrates that someone put a lot of thought into articulating how my work makes them feel.
ReplyDelete"Most of the people I've seen make them are one trick ponies though.... embed the animation... and then describe whats going on with very little attention put toward the story or character."
When a caption starts describing the woman's physical appearance I skip to the end to see if it's worth the tedium of reading the whole thing. Sometimes people forget that this is a visual medium & try to make the writing do what the picture's already done for them.
"after the newness wears off, I always feel like I'm watching a kid show the magic trick he just learned. He never gets better and while the kid thinks he is amazing, he really is just boring everyone around him."
I lurked for three years on RH & started captioning because I saw one gif of a large cat kneading a woman's stomach & thought, "Holy crap. For whatever reason this pic pushes my buttons in all the right ways & is just perfect for a TG caption. But I'm probably the only person in the universe who will both see this & want to cap it." I decided that since my first caption was to be a gif, it wouldn't hurt to make that my niche. The "(moving caption)" tag in my posts started as 1) a way to warn people that there was a directly-embedded image that would load when they clicked the post, & 2) a crass way for a newbie with a spambot's name to stand out from the pack a little.
"Yes, the design doesn't really bowl me over... black text on a white background is a little forgivable."
IRL I'm a graphic designer struggling with the awkward transition from video to print & web design, & I frequently get jealous at how well people like you & Dementia & Lyndee Mason format your captions. I would consider you three in the upper echelon of cappers at Rachel's Haven, right alongside people like Shannon 2525, JaySeaver & reprobate. The three latter commonly cap with black text on white background (vice versa in Shannon's case), yet their captions are also among the best of the website. Caitlyn, you have a fantastic eye for design ('Dream a Little Dream' looks ripped right out of a magazine, 'Interactive Art' is such a strong choice that it feels essential to the picture & 'Just a Figment of Imagination' has to be the coolest use of color in a caption), but personally what draws me into your caps isn't that they're beautifully formatted, but that they're soooo well-written & enjoyable to read all the way through.
"They told a story that would have been fine without the animation."
I'm a kinesthetic learner, so a big reason I love gif caps is that they help me imagine the way my new feminine body would actually move. I love what the TG caption status quo has produced, & to me animated caps are less of an improvement & more of a supplement or sub-genre.
"in this case I can only think of it12707 as it12707 as he doesn't have a chosen femme name. And sadly that also means I think of it12707 as a man, and not a woman."
Sorry. :-( I've thought about identifying as Iris (being that it starts with an i & it's a camera component, so small pun yay), but I dearly enjoy reading a caption to me & not knowing what name I'll be stuck with by the end. If I change it to a traditional girl's name, people may start capping me by that name & I'll lose the unexpectedness.
To be continued...
"I hope it12707 likes this"
ReplyDeleteI freaking LOVE it. I love it when a caption tries to connect on a more emotional level rather than the straight erotic, & you made the interesting choice here of implying emotion instead of evoking it. By focusing on the ambigous nature of all the places poor Graham has been, you opened the door for my imagination to continue the cap long after your final sentence. I really do love that effect, & thank you so much for the thought & effort you put into it & this post.
No it12707, thank YOU. It's nice to know that you've read the write up. I want to say first, that most of my criticisms weren't of your caps in particular... they were of the genre (animated caps) in general. I look at the caps you produce as a cap, where I view most animated caps as a gimmick. I agree that when people describe the photo instead of telling the story, I tend to skip by.
ReplyDeleteI can see the appeal of animated caps. Personally they don't often do much for me. I like to imagine how the character moves and reacts, instead of it being shown to me. When the animation matches what I picture in my head it is VERY powerful. But most the time what I'm picturing in my head is different than the animation, so it strikes a bad chord with me.
I will say that I'm very happy that your lurking days are over. I think you bring a wonderful voice to this community.
Thank you for the kind comments on my work! I come from a design background (print, web and photography), and don't think you should be jealous of any of the artists you mention. They (we) all started out with far more simple designs, and only through capping for years did they get to where they are now. I have to say that your comment on my writing really makes me happy, as I feel that I often struggle on that part of the cap. I still occasionally go back to the easy path of describing the photo (just look at "It Feels So Real").
Don't worry about how I view you. It won't take anything away from your caps. I certainly won't think any less of your caps just because I picture you as a man, as opposed to picturing you as a woman. I view smitty in the same way, and love his caps. As for your choice of names in caps.... the only issue I really have with it is that I want to strike a personal chord in you. In a way I don't want you to know that I just made the cap for you, I want you to know that YOU are in the cap. I think Iris would be a cute name, but if it takes away from your enjoyment, then I say just stick with it12707.
Again, thank you for the considerate write up and discussion!
"I like to imagine how the character moves and reacts, instead of it being shown to me... But most the time what I'm picturing in my head is different than the animation, so it strikes a bad chord with me."
ReplyDeleteSee, that's really interesting to me. The more specific a picture is, the more likely I am to enjoy it. A woman performing a deliberate action or a caption describing a complex emotion are a lot more likely to pull me in. My least favorite captions subjects are flatly lit* models staring at or near the camera, or someone just standing around trying to look sexy: there's no real action or emotion being played. I suspect that's why I enjoy gif captions so much: they provide a more immediate & necessary context than stills**.
Out of curiosity, is it the other direction for you Caitlyn? Do you prefer less specific, more generic models to project yourself onto?
"I have to say that your comment on my writing really makes me happy, as I feel that I often struggle on that part of the cap."
This is a kind of weird genre that values smuttiness more than good writing. I'm guilty of that too: oftentimes I find myself enjoying a somewhat generic caption with a gorgeous model over a truly clever caption with a model I don't like as much. My biggest problem with your writing is that your characters can be somewhat predictable & cliched. I'd still consider you one of the best writers in the RH community because you have two really distinct strengths: truly original scenarios & a strong sense of escalation. "Sissy Replication & Storage" is one of the coolest conceits for a caption I've ever seen, & I've said it already but "This Doesn't Seem Quite Right" displays the most unique & fascinating take on hypnosis I've read in TG fiction full stop. On escalation: you are exceptionally talented at gradually raising the stakes & consequences throughout the story. Each of your captions gets more and more intense all the way to the end. With those & your keen eye for models & layout, you've produced a fantastic library of captions.
I was (and still am) intimidated at the prospect of captioning you because your stories are so incredibly specific in both scenario & consequences; the notion of trying to give you a trade "equal or better" is daunting. It never feels like you're slumming it, or only putting in half the effort to making a caption. Sorry if I'm turning this into a circlejerk so I'll end with this: If you don't enjoy your writing, you should. It's really very good.
"I don't want you to know that I just made the cap for you, I want you to know that YOU are in the cap."
Ah, I think I understand. Part of the problem for me is that I really like identifying as a male in the captions. I am a man who wishes he was a woman who wishes she was a man. The best way to make me feel like I'm in the cap is to make a generically polite protagonist whose name starts with a G. Like bras, periods, purses & makeup, my new female name is just one more auxillary aspect of my new life that I have to live with.
* It's not the only reason, but a huge part of why I want to avoid receiving overtly sexual captions is that most of the X-rated pictures on the internet have utterly bland lighting. 'Dream a Dream' would have a pretty boring picture if it wasn't for that damn wonderful lighting. The one thing I really hate sacrificing in gif caps is that the lighting is usually even & uninteresting.
** Of course there are plenty of gifs that are usually just bikini models posing on the beach. I usually pass those by.
Oh I am loving this comment section, since I adore well thought out points brought up by people who genuinely care about TG captions. Who doesn't like to peel back layers of mystery and find out what is lurking underneath?
ReplyDeleteAbout 2 months before it12707 started posting the moving GIF captions, I had thought about making some (since I had created the 'animated' avatar on the Haven) but as usual, my ADD kicked in. I am glad to see someone do it, and do it well, though I wonder if some other less talented people will try to do the same and make some mutant monstrosities. I remember the mad rush to Comic Life once Bren started making some stellar looking captions, but only Bren and Jennifer really made them look like something more than just Comic Life templates.
My real complaint about black text on white background is that its 2012, and MS Paint is so 1997. I can understand back in 2006-2008 that people didn't want to pay for a program, but at this point in time, there are some incredible free programs that work just as well as photoshop, and with less of a learning curve.
Also, I'm always happy when people put me in the upper anything, so THANK YOU!
"See, that's really interesting to me. The more specific a picture is, the more likely I am to enjoy it. Out of curiosity, is it the other direction for you Caitlyn? Do you prefer less specific, more generic models to project yourself onto?"
ReplyDeleteLet me start with this.... with my photography background, the thing I love the most is a well photographed image. The lighting, pose, facial expression, focus, shooting angle, foreground and background all need to be taken into consideration. Good photographs are easy to pick out of the crowd of mediocre (and downright bad) ones, but are far more rare. More so for explicit action.
I agree that the picture should be specific to the scene written for it. A generic but well photographed image can ruin a cap just as easily as a badly photographed but specific photo. So to answer your question, no I don't prefer generic photos. But when I say I like to imagine how the character moves, I am comparing a still image to an animated one or a video. I think that preference has more to do with letting my imagination do the heavy lifting. I get the biggest emotional impact out of the written word. The most frightened I have ever been is while reading Stephen King's "Salem's Lot". When the priests power starts to fade, leaving him in a dark room with a vampire I was well and truly scared. I've watched a lot of scary movies, but none of their scenes can compare to what I made up in my own mind, directed only by SK's words.
In TG fiction, I get the most emotional impact out of well written stories. Next up is captioned images, and last is videos. If the video doesn't match up to what I get out of the story, then it breaks apart the emotional appeal. For instance, your cap "A Most Freudian Scavenger Hunt", is perfect. The glazed look on her face, and her finger almost unconsciously playing with the door stop, matches what I pictured in my head. It meshes, so it's more potent to me than a single still image. On the other hand in your cap "That's Not Really How the Poem Goes" the almost happy expression on the face in the animation doesn't mesh with the angry and emotional woman I build up in my head from your story. So while the story was good, the cap was less than that to me.
"This is a kind of weird genre that values smuttiness more than good writing. I'm guilty of that too: oftentimes I find myself enjoying a somewhat generic caption with a gorgeous model over a truly clever caption with a model I don't like as much."
ReplyDeleteI think we talked about this earlier here, or somewhere on Dee's blog. We can all agree that a cap is a combination of an image and a story. But both parts are so equally important that they can't be separated and judged apart from one another. A bad image can take down a wonderful story, and a bad story can take down a great image.
As for smut caps, I judge them apart from more emotional caps. I've made plenty of caps that are purely pornographic. I don't shy away from it, as I am drawn to that subgenre of TG caps as strongly as I am more emotional caps. I've even found that well written smut is more popular than badly written smut (at least according to the popularity of views some of my caps get).
"My biggest problem with your writing is that your characters can be somewhat predictable & cliched. I'd still consider you one of the best writers in the RH community because you have two really distinct strengths: truly original scenarios & a strong sense of escalation. With those & your keen eye for models & layout, you've produced a fantastic library of captions. If you don't enjoy your writing, you should. It's really very good."
I appreciate all the kind things you're saying about my abilities... and frankly you're making me blush. But I just disagree. I can find better written stories and caps without much effort. I like that people enjoy my writing, but I am not satisfied with it.
"I was (and still am) intimidated at the prospect of captioning you the notion of trying to give you a trade "equal or better" is daunting. "
Don't be intimidated. I've enjoyed the caps you've made for others. The way you tell a story, and turn a phrase is very appealing to me. I don't want you to do something outside of your normal caps just to impress me or try to 'equal' me. I want one of 'your' caps.
" Part of the problem for me is that I really like identifying as a male in the captions. I am a man who wishes he was a woman who wishes she was a man. my new female name is just one more auxillary aspect of my new life that I have to live with."
Now that will help me in future captions to you. I'll know to focus more on you as the man, rather than the transformed woman. It now makes more sense that you aren't concerned with the name. In the cap the name should feel just as 'wrong' as having breasts.
Dee:
ReplyDelete"My real complaint about black text on white background is that its 2012, and MS Paint is so 1997."
I'll dip my toes in the water & try out some more dynamic formatting. But the prevailing factor for me is effort vs. payoff. I am a seriously slow writer. I hit a new fastest record earlier tonight when I managed to write a caption's first draft within thirty minutes. After formatting, each caption I do usually takes anywhere from 2-4 hours. When reading, I've found that the thing I'm most drawn to in a cap is the story itself. Adding an extra 30-60 minutes to my already belabored cap process for a largely cosmetic benefit just doesn't seem worth the hassle to me.
"though I wonder if some other less talented people will try to do [gif captions] and make some mutant monstrosities."
Oh sweet Jesus. There's so much that could go wrong! http://bit.ly/ziShrE Dee can I please please please make you the most mutated & monstrous animated cap I can imagine?
Caitlyn:
"So to answer your question, no I don't prefer generic photos."
In hindsight I wish I would've phrased that question differently. You caught what I meant & answered it exactly the way I was hoping you would.
"your cap "That's Not Really How the Poem Goes" the almost happy expression on the face in the animation doesn't mesh with the angry and emotional woman I build up in my head from your story. So while the story was good, the cap was less than that to me."
That's a very illuminating criticism for me. Obviously you pointed out the flaw with the caption, & thanks for that. But that critique also reveals a major risk with gif-capping I'd never considered before. One of the biggest problems I've found with writing captions in general is that the story can change, but the picture never will. In "Poem's" case I started writing the story heading in one direction & it wound up evolving into something a little farther from the actual captioned image. I'm still (mostly) pleased with the final result of the story, but you're right in that the final version doesn't match the image as well as it should.
Still images are one moment in time & can be repurposed & recontextualized quite easily. Gif images aren't a moment, they're a scene. The context of an animation is far more rigid than that of a still. Thanks for that criticism, it's fair & accurate & led me to some notions that I had never considered before..
"I like that people enjoy my writing, but I am not satisfied with it."
Well I won't presume to guess how many fans you have, but I can confidently say that I'm quite a big fan of your work, so thank you for contributing your writing to this community.
"I don't want you to do something outside of your normal caps just to impress me or try to 'equal' me. I want one of 'your' caps. I want one of 'your' caps."
Honestly I use other people's preferences as a rulebook to try to write a caption I myself would enjoy. This conversation has helped me understand your preferences & motivations a bit better, & I certainly hope it'll help me write a caption for you that both of us can enjoy. :-)
Well, the fact that you are embedding moving GIF's into a caption, I think most people will cut you slack. For a standard caption, it can't be any harder than setting a background color, pasting the image into it, then setting an alternate text color for the font.
DeleteKnowing Jay Seaver a bit, he's probably sticking with black lettering on white for the very reason of raging against the design concepts that most others have adopted. That would most likely be the main appeal to sticking with black text on white background .. that you wouldn't be able to tell whether a caption was made in 2005 or 2012.
Make whatever your heart desires sweetie! To me, TG captioning is an art form and should be as vibrant and challenging as the person creating it. The whole reason I took to making a blog was to celebrate those creative minds and hopefully awaken the urge to experiment with the form in others.
The fact that you devote so much time into each creation makes me appreciate your passion and care for crafting your captions. Also, the more you do them, the quicker you'll get. It just becomes habit.
I see both your and Dee's position. It can be hard to add more time to the already time intensive process. But at the same time, it does get quicker. It used to take me about 3 or 4 hours to create a cap (and sometimes much longer). But every part of the process has gotten faster for me. I can whip out a cap in less than an hour sometimes now, and my designs are far more complex than when I first started out. If I had to guess, I would say the time I spend on design has moved from over an hour down to less than 20 minutes (unless I'm experimenting with something new).
Delete"That's a very illuminating criticism for me. Obviously you pointed out the flaw with the caption, & thanks for that"
First, I want to make sure I'm clear. I don't think it was a BAD cap. It was just a little jarring, and didn't let me enjoy it as much as I wanted to. But that's something that will happen often. I can't count how many times someone has read of my caps and commented on how it was nice, or sweet, or some other adjective that I would never have associated with what I wrote. Everyone reads into the cap what they want to see. So if you are looking to be sweet, nice, and happy, someone will more than likely still be able to read it as embarrassing, humiliating and sad. I'll try to leave room in my caps specifically for that, as it opens it up to a wider audience.
But you're correct. It's easier to overlay my own emotion on a photo, than it is to overlay it onto a video clip.
And I agree with Dee when she says to make whatever your heart desires. When I first started making captions I acted similarly to you in that I needed someone's preferences to make a cap. But now, half the caps I make are for me. Creativity is like any muscle... the more you use it the stronger it will be. I hope you have the same goal as I do... two people need to be happy with the caps you make. The person you are making it for, and you. It's great when other people like it too, but that shouldn't be the goal.