Hey all, just rehosting the Ultimate Guide to Sbubbymaking that was originally posted to the subreddit. It'll still contain some Reddit terminology (Lemmy doesn't have flairs and such) and some Reddit links are still in the table of examples for each category for now, though I may try and go back and replace them with Lemmy posts when I'm able, or in the case of Freebles when we have enough examples.

I would like to continue to maintain and improve this guide, so if anyone has any additions to the guide, let me know and I'll update it! (however, I don't think we need any more recommendations for image editors at this time.)

The Ultimate Guide to Sbubbymaking

Welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Sbubbymaking! This guide is intended to be a resource for helping people make quality logo edits for r/Sbubby. It aims to provide those new to image editing with some basics to get started with making their own Sbubbies, and to help experienced Sbubby makers refine their craft with more advanced tips and tricks.

This guide is not set in stone, and is open to contributions! Everyone has their own way of doing things, and if you know of any useful techniques that aren’t detailed in this guide, write something up (or even make a video if you want - see the Walkthroughs section) and either make a comment below, or contact the moderators, and we can see about adding it in!

The Guide

Choosing an image editor

The first step in making a Sbubby is choosing an editing tool. There are several popular options for image editors that are capable of making Sbubbies. If you aren’t already familiar with an editor you prefer, you may want to try out a few different options and see what works best.

Good editors:

Any of the following editors should be powerful enough for most, if not all, Sbubbymaking needs.

• Photoshop: It’s quite expensive, but if you already have access to it, Photoshop’s reputation speaks for itself. Certainly not worth purchasing just for the sake of hobbyist image editing, though.
• GIMP: Short for GNU Image Manipulation Program, GIMP is free, open-source, available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and quite powerful once you learn its ins and outs. One of the most popular free image editors, and the preferred editor of the writer of this section.
• Krita and Paint.NET are two additional free editors commonly used for Sbubbymaking, which have similar capabilities to GIMP. Krita is available on all major desktop operating systems, though Paint.NET is Windows-only.
• Paint 3D is another alternative, made by Microsoft as a more powerful and fully-featured version of MS Paint. Free, but Windows-only.
• Photopea is a free browser-based image editor that functions similarly to Photoshop, which can be useful on Chromebooks or in other situations where downloading a full editor isn't feasible, or when a UI that closely resembles Photoshop is desired.

Editors to avoid unless you really know what you’re doing:

• MS Paint: While it’s universally available to every computer that runs Windows, Paint simply lacks the capabilities of other more powerful editors. It’s possible to create very simple Sbubbies with Paint (usually involving letter rearrangement), but its limitations mean that it’s usually best off avoided. MS Paint on Windows 11 has a few more features than Paint on previous versions of Windows, so it may be slightly more suitable, but still avoided if possible.
• Mobile editing tools: The lack of precision of a touchscreen interface compared to a mouse and the lack of keyboard shortcuts make image editing on mobile devices far more difficult. That said, there are a few regular contributors on r/Sbubby that contribute high-quality edits from mobile devices, so it is possible. If you don’t have the option to use a desktop editor, there are a few editor options. Additionally, there is a section on mobile editing in the "Walkthroughs" section of this guide.
  • If you're on iOS/Android, ibisPaint can be considered as the best Photoshop alternative for mobile, with its features that is most usable for artists and photo editing enthusiasts alike (layering options, clipping mask, photo manipulation feature set, etc.) It also enables you to do pixel-level modifications (something that is mentioned in "Basic Editing Tips" below) that will greatly improve your Sbubbies.
  • Other viable mobile editors: Autodesk Sketchbook (Android/iOS), Photo Editor (Android), Vectornator (iPad, desktop), Procreate (iPad, desktop)

Vector editors:

Vector graphics (typically saved in the .svg format) save image data as a set of points, lines, and shapes, as opposed to the pixel-by-pixel data stored by typical “raster” formats (.png, .jpg, .bmp, etc). While vector formats aren’t suited for storing highly complex images such as photographs, they are excellent at working with images with clearly-defined lines and shapes, which is well-suited for logos.

Most professional logo design is done with vector image editors. Vector editors have the potential to be extremely powerful Sbubbymaking tools, though the different skillset required and greater difficulty in tracking down source images (raster images cannot be modified by vector programs) make it quite rare.

• The two most common vector image editors available are Adobe Illustrator (like most Adobe products, not worth buying for hobbyists) and Inkscape, which is free.

Before You Begin

What to do before even opening your image editor.

• Know your tools! This comes with time and practice, but it never hurts to explore your image editor and try out some of its more specialized functions and understand how they can be used to your advantage. Try to learn the keyboard shortcuts of functions you use frequently! (See also: Advanced Techniques)
• Getting the right idea: If you want your Sbubby to get noticed, you’ll need a good idea of what you want to make! Try to come up with something unexpected. A lot of ideas have been done before, so make sure you use the search function to check if your idea already exists.
• Finding quality source images: Ensure your base image is large enough and in high-resolution - otherwise your effort is doomed from the start!
• Fonts: Many major logos (esp. those with simple lettering styles) have a specified font that can often be found online. Companies themselves often have public branding guides available, providing detailed instructions on how their logos are rendered, often including the fonts used, their exact style and sizing, and precise hex/rgb codes for the colors used. Locating the font used and downloading it can make your efforts significantly easier, though it's not required.
  • Use font identification services/browse font ID forums. If you are unsure of what font to use for or want to use the exact font used in the logo(s)/packaging you are editing, consider using font ID services (like myfont's WhatTheFont, or whatfontis.com's Font Finder). Softonium Development's Find my Font delivers the most accurate identifications most of the time.
  • If you are still unsure of what to use or your font ID service does not give you an accurate result, perhaps font ID forums are your best resource (the best ones are the dafont.com Font Identification Forums and r/identifythisfont. Browse for the post that had the same queries as yours to see if it is identified, or create a post including a clean and/or high quality sample so that they are able to identify it for you.
• Have patience! More complex edits can take quite a while, especially with less editing experience, so pick your project wisely and don't rush things!

Basic Editing Tips

Editing basics that should apply to most/all image editors.

• Learn the selection tools of your editor and make sure you select only what you need to when moving things around.
• Basic letter rearrangement: One of the simplest techniques, and can be very effective, though you need to be careful about spacing and alignment.
• Use grid lines to ensure everything stays aligned and spaced! Counting the squares in the gray and white "checkerboard" background of transparent images is also useful for measuring distances.
• Using transparency: Works well for colorful logos, but very dark or very light logos can blend into the background depending on a user's color theme (dark mode/light mode).
• Don’t be afraid to do pixel-level corrections! It takes time, but helps clean things up.
• Periodically zoom out and check how things look from a big-picture view. Sometimes you’ll see problems that weren’t noticeable at a smaller scale, and sometimes you’ll find that imperfections which are glaring on the small-scale are almost unnoticeable at a normal zoom level.
• Use the dropper tool to color-match. Small differences in color can be very noticeable on the final product, so you’ll want to make sure your colors match exactly with the original logo.

Advanced Techniques

• Splicing letters together: If you can't find a font for a logo, it's still possible to create new letters by cutting up and/or splicing together other letters. However, be very careful when doing so - watch for edges, blend as best as you can, don't overreach if the shapes aren't there.
• Working with gradients: Many logos use gradients in their background, and shifting any of their text will cause noticeable gaps. Luckily, the gradient tool in many editors can help patch those over!
• Style-matching fonts: Even if you find the right font of a logo online, you’ll want to make sure that it’s being rendered in the right style so it actually looks like the logo text! The font size, color, styling (bolding, italics, etc.), gradient, and texture all matter! As mentioned previously, many corporations have branding style guidelines that can help with this.
• AI upscaling services: If it happens that you are not able to acquire high quality images/sources, you can consider using AI upscaling services/software with your sample on hand. nero AI's Image Upscaler and Vertexshare's AI Enlarger are both viable options. This submission by u/IceyTeaMars demonstrates the use of AI upscaling for Sbubbies.

Getting the Right Idea: The Art of the Eef Freef and the Eeble Freeble (contributed by u/Ameren)

Logos are ubiquitous in the modern world. Everywhere you look, there are signs, symbols, words, and figures that we associate with products, services, businesses, and causes. Famous logos, like those of Nike or Coca-Cola, are instantly recognizable to billions of people. Moreover, logos don't just identify, they communicate. They reflect beliefs, personalities, and visions. Studies have shown that people can form genuine psychological attachments to brands and the values they claim to represent.

A sbubby, at its core, is about taking a logo and making it communicate something different. Oftentimes, this means taking all that identity and meaning and transforming it into something silly or nonsensical. The best Sbubbies are those that remain instantly recognizable while being utterly absurd, sending the viewer careening into the uncanny valley. The focus of this tutorial is on how to come up with in-spirit sbubbies with that refreshing, surreal flavor.

It's impossible to precisely explain what makes a good in-spirit sbubby; it's like jazz in that if you have to ask, you'll never know. That being said, leading Sbubbologists have succeeded in characterizing two general categories of in-spirit contributions:

• Eef Freef Sbubbies focus on taking a brand's text (wordmarks, slogans, etc.) and rephrasing them into nonsense
• Eeble Freeble Sbubbies focus on taking a brand's graphic design and representation (shapes, characters, etc.) and twisting them into ridiculousness.

Note that these are not mutually exclusive genres -- a sbubby may feature elements of both. However, in this guide we'll focus on each separately as they tend to work towards different goals.

Eef Freefs

Companies spend enormous amounts of time meticulously crafting wordmarks, taglines and slogans to resonate with their intended audience. Every phrase, word, and letter is carefully selected and focus-grouped to make the best possible impression. Meanwhile, a good Eef Freef is like a proverbial bull in a china shop. These Sbubbies come in many varieties, but all tend to inspire reactions like these:

• “Reading it makes it feel like you're having a stroke”
• “It’s like when a Pentecostal Christian speaks the gift of tongues”
• “I thought I forgot how to English and then I realized what sub this is”
• “I have no idea why this is making me laugh so hard I can't breathe, but that doesn't stop it from happening”

Eef Freefs take the language incorporated into logos and spins them into a meaningless slurry of sounds or a crazed flight of ideas. However, you can’t just smash your keyboard and call it a day. There’s a certain uncanny valley in which Eef Freef tends to work best. In general, there should be enough of a connection to the original wording such that it’s still recognizable as a corruption of the original, but twisted enough such that it’s total nonsense. Even when an Eef Freef changes logo text to something entirely different, there’s usually some structure to it.

Below we provide a non-exhaustive list of common styles of Eef Freef alongside illustrative examples:

Eeble Freeble

Eeble Freeble The majestic Eeble Freebles are the graphic design counterparts to Eef Freefs: dismantling and rearranging the visual elements of logos to make something wholly new and/or strange. Again, there’s no strict definition here, but common reactions include:

• “It’s like a biblically accurate angel”
• “Okay, who unraveled all the logos again?”
• “Legends say the logo goes on forever”
• “This has surpassed being a meme and ascended into modern art”

As a guide for inspiration, there following are examples of Eeble Freebles that have graced the subreddit:

Walkthroughs

This section is intended to showcase guides detailing the Sbubbymaking process, covering either specific techniques or the entire Sbubbymaking process from beginning to end. If anyone has a video they’d like to contribute, please link it in the comments below, and we can get it added to the guide!

Walkthrough for the creation of a Sbubby using Paint 3D

https://youtu.be/FbBnsu82pQg - Contributed by u/Ethereal_sandwich

Basic iOS Sbubby Creation Guide

While it is normally recommended to avoid mobile image editors for making Sbubbies, it is in fact possible to make high quality Sbubbies from your phone, and a handful of contributors to r/Sbubby make their submissions on mobile. u/SorridoSnake has put together a walkthrough detailing how a mobile Sbubby can be made, from the perspective of iOS. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-C1FxZsXiuOMheeOcvsonHgaspO4f-33nXXeCZPsCfE

Contributors

Special thanks to all who have contributed to making this guide possible!

@jedibob5@lemmy.world (yours truly), @endeavour@lemmy.world

And the following Reddit users, usernames transcribed for posterity:

u/Ameren u/SorridoSnake u/Ethereal_sandwich u/Mister_Aitch u/Lost-Entrepreneur439 u/nonorarian u/ZeroSocialSkillz u/SpaceBeUberCool u/BepisBoyTweeleafSoy u/justcatt u/warpspeedSCP u/BlitzTD

(if you happen to be one of the above Reddit users and are on Lemmy, let me know and I can update the credits with your current username)