Alright, so check it, today I’m gonna walk you through how I made that “wolf watching parents fight meme.” It was a whole process, not gonna lie, but pretty fun once I got into it.
First things first, I grabbed a screenshot of the wolf. You know the one. Just googled “wolf meme template” and saved the image. Easy peasy.
Next, I needed the background. I was thinking something suburban, you know? Like, screams “normal family drama.” So, I searched for “suburban street at night” on Unsplash. Found a decent pic, downloaded it.
Then the real work started. I fired up Photoshop. I’m a GIMP guy myself, but I was at my friend’s place and he only had Photoshop. First, I imported both the wolf and the background image. I cut out the wolf from its background using the magic wand tool. It’s kinda janky, I admit, but it works.
Pasted the wolf into the background. Now the wolf was way too big, so I hit Ctrl+T (or Command+T on a Mac) to transform it. Scaled it down until it looked like it was actually in the scene. Messed around with the placement for a bit, eventually settling on the classic “peeking through the window” look.
The lighting was all wrong. The wolf looked like it was from a completely different photo. So I added a shadow layer underneath the wolf layer. Used a soft brush to paint some dark shadows where the window frame would be casting a shadow. Reduced the opacity until it looked somewhat believable.
Now for the text. I chose a chunky, impact-style font. White with a black outline. I typed in the classic “parents fighting” and “me” text. Messed with the font size and placement until it looked good. I added a slight blur to the text to make it blend in a bit more. It was too sharp before.
Saved the whole thing as a PNG. Posted it online. Watched the likes roll in. Okay, maybe not roll in, but people seemed to dig it.
Honestly, the hardest part was getting the lighting right. It took me like, five different shadow layers and a bunch of opacity adjustments to make it look halfway decent. I still think it could be better, but hey, it’s a meme, not a masterpiece.
If I were to do it again, I’d probably spend more time finding a better background image. Something with more dramatic lighting, maybe. And I’d definitely try to use a more precise method for cutting out the wolf. But overall, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.
- Screenshot of wolf
- Background image
- Photoshop (or GIMP)
- Chunky font
It’s all about having fun, right?
