Saturday, July 26, 2014

Cat Art Hop: Making a Meme

Ever wondered how the ubiquitous cat meme is made?
Or how to make your own?


Here's how we did it:
First, the obvious. Something about the photo has to strike your funny bone.
Then, you need to figure out how to make it funny in as few words as possible.

As Maya Angelou once told our mom, this isn't easy.
One of the harder things she'd ever done was to write a greeting card, she told Momma. Because you had to be succinct, and you had to make every word count.

Our funny photo. Faraday's range of expressions are endless! Poor guy, so longsuffering....

Then you need to have a photo editing program. This doesn't have to be a fancy one. In fact, if you're on a PC, you can use Paint - and it comes native with the operating system. Or you can upload your image to Picfont and make your meme in your browser.

If you wish to use an app on your computer, you need to install the font used to make memes: Impact. You can get Impact - for both Mac and PC - at this link here.

If you use Picfont, select the headline font - that's the online version of Impact.
If you want to try it in Paint, here is a step-by-step instruction page you can follow to add a text layer.

If you have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, open your photo, then create a new text layer and type your meme. You'll need to size and position accordingly once you've written it out.

To create the black outline around the letters, simply select Layer: Layer Style: Stroke.


The size of the stroke (3 pixels, 6 pixels, etc) will depend on the size of your image.

Re-save the photo with the text on it, and ... tah-dahhh!

Literally. *snerk*
With a nod to the Godfather. (Um, and Zoolander.)
Sorry dood. Michael Corleone did it better. 

This post is part of a blog hop. You can find the other participants' entries at this link here!
***

Thanks to you, A Tonk's Tail is up for the Petties' Funniest Blog Award!
Winning would mean $1,000 for the cats of Great Plains SPCA.
Their numbers are creeping up to 800 - and they are running out of supplies.

http://petties.dogtime.com/finalist-voting

You have our heartfelt thanks!

21 comments:

  1. Mommy has Photoshop Elements, she has books on how to use it but yet, as you can probably tell, she rarely ever open Elements because she claims that's it's just too complicated and time consuming.

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  2. OH what a treat this morning. And thanks too for the instruction. xo

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  3. Paws up for a great tutorial. Funny thing with these, we find ourselves turning back to them much later. The head peep just dug up one of Sparkle's old ones this week. She really needs to keep a list of them so they are easier to reference.

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  4. You forgot the most important part - you have to have a funny brain.

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  5. The hardest part is coming up with the short, perfect text. We also have trouble getting the right text color so it pops and we get bored with white all the time. Great tutorial. Fotor and PicMonkey do the text easily as well without having to create the layers and stuff.

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  6. Thanks for the tips and pointers. We agree it is not so easy to use fewer words. Have a super Saturday.
    Best wishes Molly

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  7. MOL! Loved the caption! Thanks for the tutorial too :) Mom is still pretty hopeless, but we haven't given up yet! I have this suspicious feeling that Mom would trade Me for Faraday though.......

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  8. Tanks for posting dis...mom wants to add "commentary" to my piccies (dat is IF she ever gets back to ME..she been doing too many other tings for too long-nothing is more important den my handsomeness!)..anyhew...ok.....nap time! zzzzzzzzzz..

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  9. Great memes!!! Thanks for sharing and this is why you are nominated for a Pettie!! Purrs from the Zee and Zoey Gang!

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  10. Awesome post, gang! It's true ... the hardest part is to be funny in as few words as possible. You sure did a great job of it, though. :)

    We have been voting every day!

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  11. Well done! "Thanks for the MEMEories"......and info on how to do it!

    Hugs, Sammy

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  12. Cool! Do you know that back when my human was learning Photoshop, it took her forever to remember how to do a stroke around type?

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  13. We're in the same boat as Whisppy. We have Photoshop Elements too and have books but STILL can't figure it out! ARGH

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  14. Love this meme so much! My Kindle Fire has a meme setting right in the photo editor :)

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  15. Thanks for the instructions. You cracked us up saying that Faraday is long-suffering. Mom feels that way about Misty May. They each have their foibles and individual personalities. XO, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

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  16. Mum has Elements but she's hopeless at using it!!! She remembers layers, but then forgets to save properly!! And don't even mention the eraser tool!!!!! She uses piclab on the ipad which is basic but does text ok :) A great meme! thanks xx

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  17. Or, you can use Can I Haz Cheezeburger! Instead of going to the Layers menu, you can just double click on the layer you want to put the stroke on and a new window will appear. You can add a stroke, drop shadow, change the opacity, etc. No way did your Mom talk to the Sistah Maya Angelou!

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    Replies
    1. Yup, she worked with Dr. Angelou for several years. Her photo is even in her 80th birthday book!

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  18. Love it! And thanks for the tutorial :)

    Purrs xx
    Athena and Marie

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  19. Fanks fur da instwuctions and innewducin' us tu a new foto shoppin' app. Wees luv findin' new ones dat mommy can use. Wees gunna go twy it out now. :)

    Luv ya'

    Dezi

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Coolio! A comment? For US?