Milovana.com

One of the finer points of webteasing is picture progression, or how a tease's pictures change from one page to the next. In particular I think an author might want to consider looking at the amount of change each picture shows from the previous one. Broadly speaking these changes can fit into 3 categories, each of which can serve a useful purpose or if the author isn't careful, might negatively impact the tease for some readers.

Major Changes - The background is of a different place, the models outfit or hair color is different, or it is a different model entirely.

How I interpret that as a reader - Major changes usually make me think that some time has passed. Unless the accompanying text says something like "Honey I'll be right back I'm going to put on a new outfit for you.", (in which case I'll interpret it as a medium change), I normally interpret a major change in picture progression as meaning more than just a couple minutes have passed. This means I would expect a conversation from 2 pages ago to need to be restarted and not just continued. For example...

Page 12 - Model on a balcony at night in eveningwear "I never knew you had a chastity fetish",
Page 13 - Model suntanning on the beach in a bikini "I'm sure going to use that to my advantage."

...would make less sense to me than...

Page 12 - Model on a balcony at night in eveningwear "I never knew you had a chastity fetish",
Page 13 - Model suntanning on the beach in a bikini "You remember that chastity fetish you mentioned last night? I'm sure going to use that to my advantage."

One exception to the rule with major changes occurs with some teases in which the author makes major changes constantly, using different models on each page to portray the same woman and such, and once I know the author is doing that it can work for me.

Medium Changes - The setting is the same, the model is still in the same outfit, but she has drastically changed positions or expressions.

How I interpret this as a reader - To me, a medium change from the previous picture indicates either a change in the direction of the conversation, the model shifting about during a long conversation, or a lot of energy/emotion at that point. A 4 page conversation about feet followed on the next page by introducing the topic of bondage would seem a good point for a medium change in the pictures. Or if one thing is discussed for 15 or more pages I would expect a medium change somewhere in there just to break things up a bit. Most importantly though I think is timing the medium changes with emotions.

For example...

Page21 - Model is grinning maniacally "Ok now drop them!"
Page22 - Model is grinning slightly more maniacally "That's your penis?! HA! It's so small!"

wouldn't work nearly as well for me as...

Page21 - Model has a demanding look on her face "Ok now drop them!"
Page22 - Model is grinning maniacally "That's your penis?! HA! It's so small!"

In the first example, I don't know what she was grinning about to begin with, so I don't know how much of that maniacal grin is based on my penis size. In the second example, that's a lot more clear.

Minor Changes - The pictures are very similar and were probably snapped within a few seconds of each other.

How I interpret this as a reader - Good use of minor changes in picture progression can make a big impact on how much I enjoy reading a tease. Like some others have commented about teases in the past, I don't really want to have to read a lot of text on any one page. I think that might be partially because I'm evolutionarily wired to be visually stimulated and I want to keep seeing new pictures. Another reason is that I lose some sense of immersion when during the time it takes me to read 3 long paragraphs the model didn't move or even blink, like she's frozen in time. Now this doesn't make me want to shout "Is there a quantum physicist in the house? It's a medical emergency!" but seeing multiple pictures with slight differences over a lengthy couple paragraphs makes the model seem more animated and thus more real.

For example...

Page1 - Model is painting her toenails "See honey? I'm painting my toenails. You know what that means right? That's right it's time for you to get naked and stroke it while watching me. I feel so sexy seeing you work yourself up so much just from watching me make myself pretty. Now I know that normally I only let you cum once a week, and you already came this week, but I think I'll make an exception. If you can cum before I finish painting my toenails I'll let you have a full orgasm and you won't even have to ruin it! Sound fun? However there is a catch. The speed you stroke yourself at will be directly correlated with how sexy you make me feel. So keep telling me all the different ways that I'm so beautiful and I will tell you whether to speed up or slow down based on how you're doing."

Would be better for me as...
Page1 - (Pic1)Model is painting her toenails "See honey? I'm painting my toenails. You know what that means right?"
Page2 - (pic2)Same as pic1 but model has cocked her head "That's right it's time for you to get naked and stroke it while watching me."
Page3 - (pic1) "I feel so sexy seeing you work yourself up so much just from watching me make myself pretty. Now I know that normally I only let you cum once a week, and you already came this week, but I think I'll make an exception."
Page4 - (pic3)Model painting her toes, leaning close to inspect them "If you can cum before I finish painting my toenails I'll let you have a full orgasm and you won't even have to ruin it! Sound fun?"
Page5 - (pic1) "However there is a catch. The speed you stroke yourself at will be directly correlated with how sexy you make me feel."
Page6 - (pic2) "So keep telling me all the different ways that I'm so beautiful and I will tell you whether to speed up or slow down based on how you're doing."

Note how this example demonstrates that just because your text covers 6 pages doesn't mean you need 6 pictures for them. Although there is a limit to how often you can repeat pictures close together, doing it a few times to me seems pretty acceptable. Also note how going from pic1 to pic3 in this case was bordering on a medium change, and was used where the conversation bordered on a direction change, (instead of focusing on how sexy she feels it went to you having a chance to cum). Then going back from pic3 to pic1 on the following page was also bordering on a medium change, and the topic changed right back (now that you know about your chance to cum we're discussing how sexy she is again). Little tricks like this can make a big impact.

Feedback - So what does everyone else think? Do you experience picture progression in simlar ways when reading a tease? Anything different? How else might one use picture progression in their teases? I'm hoping to get a discussion here that can help us all make better teases, so even simple "me too" or "not me" posts will help show how many people view picture progression in different ways.

I agree, picture progression is very important (and I like the phrase 'picture progression' Ive been struggling for a way to describe it when giving feedback).

Hoever there are exceptions, in authors such as Diver1 and secretstroker, some of their teases possibly dont need picture progression

PIcture progression shouldn't be overlooked in webteases. For example transition from a long shot to a medium close-up is good way of emphasizing parts of the text:

Example:

long shot 1: "Welcome to the Milovanian Institute of Sexual Health, Mr. Smith"
long shot 2: "The purpose of your visit here is to increase your sexual stamina and obedience"
medium close-up: " During your time here with us, you will do as the staff of the institute tells you Mr. Smith. No matter how painful, embarrassing or frustrating that may be"
close-up: "Understood, Mr. Smith?"

An important part of picture progression are changes in the models clothing. Slowly stripping clothes while the tease gets more intense or nears it's end works well. That's why I like when Onlytease or similar "slow" sets are used as source material.

Bad pic-prog doesn't ruin a tease for me, but it certainly makes it worse. For example change in the model's haircolor in the middle of a tease looks pretty stupid (if there's no reason for it). I would advice people to be careful with the use of those "major changes".

Of course, we have to remember that most of us has a limited amount of pic material. If you have only one 16 pic set of the model on your hard drive, and you really have to make a tease of, just do it.

Very good point, thanks for a nice post!

I think most authors are aware of this aspect in various degrees, but always nice to bring forward topics like these now and then to get writers even more keen on this.

Good picture progression and consistency certainly adds to any tease!

Thanks for the replies so far. I hadn't thought about zoom distance but that definitely would be a good thing to be aware of when making a tease. I'll have to add that to my toolkit.

One idea I had with picture progression was to just go through your tease before publishing and only look at the pics like you were looking at a flipbook. Imagine what might be being said and see what feels right with each picture. Where does the intensity get turned up? Where are the most noticable changes? Then go back through again with the text and see if it lines up like you'd expect from the pictures. I almost think this might be like doing a spellcheck at the end only with pictures.

Ktulu wrote:Of course, we have to remember that most of us has a limited amount of pic material. If you have only one 16 pic set of the model on your hard drive, and you really have to make a tease of, just do it.

Yeah, pic set can be the most limiting thing about picture progression. That's why I think for teases large pic sets are extremely handy. I wouldn't want people to let a small pic set stop them from doing a tease either. But there are large picture sets available for free online and it seems to me that pictures are to the webtease artist what colors are to the painter. The more you have, the more you can and will do with them.

if i have a large picture set I sometimes like to group them and have them shown randomly (in a flashtease).

For example if there are 5 pics of her sat on the chair, fully clothed, i group them as a1, a2, a3, a4 then the next set might be of her stood up, or with 1 item of clothing removed, ill group those as b1, b2, b3

then for the first few pages I want the set of pics where she is sat on the chair fully clothed, ill go to 'choose image' enter 'a*' into the searchbar and choose the option 'use random image based on filter'. That way I can ensure that picture progression still works, but the images shown will be slightly different every time someone does the tease.