Nip / Pluck: An Adventure in Explaining My Process

A recent challenge was made to have several captioners take a single source image and put an individual spin on it.  The idea is that by explainining the thought process behind the scenes that new captioners might benefit.  Since the request has come up recently on the blog as well, I'll open this post up to do my best to answer any questions on my captioning process.

Here was the source image everyone was given to work with:

 

The first thing I noticed with the image is that it's a lower resolution tumblr pic.  That doesn't leave much real estate for adding text without modifying the image to add some.  I chose to remove the blur of red in the top right corner and stretch the shadow on the right to make more space.

The image itself gave me the feel of Snow White and the witch's hand for some reason, so I ended up on a bit of a fariytale slant.  Somehow, I settled on a reverse Pinnochio theme...real boy becomes puppet girl.  I added a frame to the image to give the feel of the classic storybook illustration brought into real life.

That left the writing.  It's the most important part of the whole caption to me.  The words should mesh with the image just enough to tie them together while letting the image speak for itself.  The controlling shadow hand in this image is ideal for themes of control and loss of it.

Since D/s themes can sometimes become heavy, so I chose a lively and fun font to keep things light.  It may not be the most readable font, but it expresses the undertones of softness and femininty I want the hidden dominant to have.

I like to add a teaser title to captions when I can to give a quick taste of the full caption.  I will usually put that in some 'dead space' in the image where it won't interfere with the core focus of the caption.

Last, and hopefully least, I add a transparent watermark to the caption to help deter other people on the Internet from claiming credit for my words and artistic adds as their own.  If this hadn't been a problem in the past (see here), I wouldn't bother.  Sadly, there are schmucks out there who scrape and repost captions while claiming they did the work.

And here is the final result:

Have questions on something I didn't cover in my explaination?  Ask them in the comments, and I'll try my best to answer.

The Artist: Comic-Conned?

I've had an idea for a caption series rattling around in my head for a while, and I finally had some time to create a caption worthy of introducing it.  'The Artist' will be making some repeat performances in the future.

Can You Keep a Secret?

I was bitten by the capping bug yesterday and decided to explore some new territory of formatting.  This cap is an attempt to achieve a clean look that doesn't include the standard rectangular image insert.

In case it isn't clear enough from the caption, the setting I envisioned is one where a couple of guys have just accidentally stumbled upon something that has turned one of them into a infinitely knowledgeable genie.  This is the conversation that occurs shortly after.

Treasure Chest

I was rummaging through some of my captioning folders and found a gem of a caption I had created for AnneOniMouse (http://aomouse.blogspot.com/) on Rachel's Haven that was never posted here on the blog.  Some of you may have seen this one before, but I'm posting it for those who haven't.

Prima Donna

I know it's been ages since my last caption, and I'll frankly be surprised if anyone is still following my blog by this point.  Life has been on a constant ramp up of things vying for my attention, and captioning has fallen by the wayside.

I'm still around.  I haven't fallen off the end of the world.  I just need a clone to take care of all the stuff I need to do so I get more time to do what I want to do.

Anyhoo.  If you're still reading to this point, I'm sure you want a new caption instead of my sob stories.  You're in luck.  I have one.

Post Exam Jitters

It's been a long time since I've had either the time or motivation to create a new caption.  Inspiration struck me earlier today from an image that I found a few days ago.  Simone has been wonderful at making captions for me to hit various fantasies of mine, and I wanted to give her something in return.

I may not have hit her buttons dead on, but I wasn't really trying to put extra pressure on myself to hit one out of the park.  That will come in time as I try to shake off the rust and get back into the swing of things.

Without further ado, here's something new.

Update:  I realized after I posted that the text in the caption looked a bit rough.  I went back and checked a few things, and I had forgotten to smooth it like I normally do.  I'll leave the old version up to show what a difference a bit of text tidying can make.

Fixed version:

Old version with pixelated text:

Turn the Page

This photo practically screamed at me to create a caption for it.  I decided to go with a different direction than the obvious one.  Hopefully some of you can appreciate where I took this one.

The Cold Shoulder

I had a bit of inspiration for the November caption contest on Rachel's Haven.  The rules for this month include a restriction that the captions tell the story through only dialogue.  Since the vast majority of my captions are done in that style, it seemed like I would be remiss to let it pass me by.  The result is this caption.

The Final Cut

It turns out that today is a double feature.  Not only do you get some guest captions to sample, you get a brand new two panel caption from me.

My thoughts have turned to Halloween with the month of October rolling in.  With it has come a creative slant toward a more horror genre...or at least a horror spoof.  I'm sure that anyone reading this caption will immediately know the source of inspiration that spawned it.

As soon as I saw the image of the long haired Asian girl with her back to the camera, my mind went directly to work.  You might say that it haunted me until I pulled together the pieces to loose it on all of you.

Read carefully, dear reader.  You never know if the spirit of the season might come for you.

Guest Caps by Dawn Carrington

I was recently contacted by a reader of this blog with an interesting proposition.  Since I've been busy fighting the good fight with real life recently, I decided to give it a try to see where it goes.

Dawn Carrington, a writer at TG World, came to me and offered up some of her own captions to be posted here.  After taking a look and seeing promise in them, I've agreed to post up a batch of her captions for you all to peruse.

Feel free to leave comments to let me know how you feel about me posting guest caps.  If you like what you see, leave some feedback for Dawn here.  If you really like them, go read her own caption blog: http://tgcaptions-metamorphosa.blogspot.com/

Pictures, Postcards, and Faded Memories

For the month of July, I was doing a caption shower and a fund drive for a friend and casual pet on Rachel's Haven.  While we didn't reach the goal that I was hoping for, I did make a caption to add to the many that were given.

Join me

I've wanted to make a caption for Simone (http://misstresssimone.blogspot.com) for a very long time.  Every time I tried before, I always ended up scrapping a partially finished caption.  I finally found an ideal image and a story to go along with it formed.  Everything came together to make something I wasn't embarrassed to give to her.

Without further ado, here it is...

Keeping a Close Watch

I recently made a caption for a member on Rachel's Haven who requested to be punished.  I couldn't resist the temptation to provide a bit, since we'd had some chats where the person was rather playful.  The caption describes several changes, but only the final one is shown.

Wheel of Rebirth

I was struck by a sudden bout of inspiration when I came across a perfect image for a more nefarious caption.  Is the knife thrower a heroine or a villainess?  In any case, she is a very convincing recruiter.  You never know what opening she might be looking to fill next in her all girl circus troupe.

Elly Electrified

Well, I did it.  I finally pulled together my creative forces enough to get through my Fantasy Football caption backlog.  This one is the grand finale caption for the Haven Bowl champion, Elly.  She provided the photo for me for this one, and I just let things roll from there.

Life's Little Puzzles

I'm still slowly but surely catching up with caption debt from the Fantasy Football post-season drubbing that I took.  This is the second to last one in my backlog of must-do caps.

Edit:  The phone posting didn't work out as well as I'd hoped.  Fixing it up from the PC.

Flipping Channels

Sorry to say that life has been keeping me away from capping very much.  I did manage to pay off a Fantasy Football loss cap a week ago.  This one is unique in that the request was for a caption including a sports reporter that is very hard to find good photos of online.

I ended up opting for a lower quality image, and I hope that I managed to do something creative with it.

Cutting Edge Therapy

I lost yet another fantasy football week last week.  That's good news for you, since I had good reason to churn out a new cap.

This cap was done for someone who plays hockey and likes transformations into girly girls that like gymnastics or figure skating.  I found the image for the cap when searching for figure skating pics, and I was struck by a goofy spell.  This caption is the result.

Catch 22

A while back, Alectra (Alectra's Playgrounds) made a very nice caption for me.  I made this one in return to let her get the best of me...just this once :)

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

A role play friend recently put out a challenge to make a forced/tricked/stuck caption in which the transformee becomes a pet.  There was too much to fit it all into a single panel, so it became a short series of the internal struggle.

This may not appeal to all of you, but I found it very fun to write.