Icons!

[lavenderspark]

So I've been watching Emerald City on NBC and the colors and scenery are amazing along with the characters and story. I hate waiting for Friday to watch a new ep. :(

BUT all the prettiness has inspired me to start making icons again! I've posted some banner sets on Tumblr, but since it likes to stretch images, it really isn't a good place to post icons. They come out all pixelated and weird. I'm sure there's a setting to fix that, but I don't know where it is.

I also figured out how to add more/new fonts to my graphics program! So I actually have some variety in my font choices now! Incidentally I also figured out how to add new brushes, textures, etc. Now I just have to find some that are compatible with Corel, not sure if the ones for Adobe will work or not. Of course, I should probably figure out how to use the brushes, textures, etc. I already HAVE before I get new ones...

Anyway... Here are some icons!


I was inspired by the challenge at total_icontest of "mirror". I don't know that they're anywhere good enough to be in any kind of challenge, but it gave me some much needed direction!


I think the last one is my favorite. I know the font is a little too small for icon size, but it's so perfect for her and for this image, I can't help it.

And these are the sets I've already posted on Tumblr, so I apologize if you've seen them already.

All the feels right there.

She's got some skills for not stabbing him in the eye with that beak! Also, I'm hoping the age gap isn't too much...

And while I don't expect it, since I'm leaving this post open to the public...if you'd like to use my icons, you can, just please leave a comment and credit me. :)

Comments

[tinny]

Yes, actually I've seen those Emerald City sets on tumblr, but didn't realize they were yours, and I haven't seen the show, so I scrolled right past them.

Good job!

If you ever want icon advice, let me know! I can point you towards tutorials or give you advice on particular icons, if you like. I know how hard it is to find someone willing to give concrit or teach you. I'm always happy to help.

I do like the font! It's hard to read because the jpg quality is too low, I think. Try saving them as png instead, it gets rid of that problem the easiest.

[lavenderspark.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Did the ones on Tumblr look really dark? They look fine on my computer, but on my phone I can barely see them. :/ I have my phone screen brightness turned way down, so that might be part of it, but it doesn't affect any of the other icons on my dash.

I never thought of a jpeg being lower quality than a png! I'll try that and see if it helps, thanks!

Hmm, right now I'm always struggling with the best way to lighten a dark image. Like the two Tumblr sets, those were both dark scenes, but different kinds of dark. One was an artificial night and the other was in shadow. I can't just "brighten" the image because it just puts white over everything. So I do a mix of upping the "vibrancy" and then messing with the r/b/g levels as well as saturation.

I also have an image that I really like, but can't use because most of it is covered by sun glare. :( I have a tool that sort of removes it, but it takes FOREVER. I have to click on each color affected and tell it what it should be.

I have been finding new things in my program though! I need to start writing them down so I can remember where they are.

[tinny]

Did the ones on Tumblr look really dark?

The first set (with the ribbon) was very well lit. The others were too dark on my screen, too.

Hmm, right now I'm always struggling with the best way to lighten a dark image.

That's great! Getting things to be light and contrasted enough is a challenge with most screencaps. But you'll get there!

I don't remember if you told me which program you're using, so I'm not sure how much good advice I can give you, but I'll try. Brighten can wash out the bright parts really easily. You'll have to lower the opacity of the brightened layer. What you can do to achieve this:

1) Duplicate your image into a second layer.

2) Set the blending mode of that layer to something that makes it lighter: the layer modes that give nice brightening are Soft Light, Screen, and Add (from weak to strong).

3) Lower the opacity of the duplicated layer so the effect gets muted until you don't have any washed out spots anymore.

4) You can also play with that duplicate in other ways - like make it darker or lighter or invert it to change the effect.

Depending on your program, I don't know which of these options are available to you. But you can experiment, maybe you'll hit on something that works in your program.

p.s.: brightening also often makes the image redder. To avoid that, you can convert the duplicated layer to greyscale. Then it will only affect the brightness of the original image and not distort the colors.

I never thought of a jpeg being lower quality than a png! I'll try that and see if it helps, thanks!

JPG can be high-quality, but you have to make sure you select a high enough quality when you're saving the image. In the lower settings, you will get so-called jpg artifacts, which is what you want to avoid.

PNG is easier because you don't have any settings there, it's always good. PNGs are a lot larger because of that, but for icon-sized stuff the difference is minimal. You shouldn't use PNG for large images like wallpapers, for example, but it's totally fine for icons.

I also have an image that I really like, but can't use because most of it is covered by sun glare. :( I have a tool that sort of removes it, but it takes FOREVER. I have to click on each color affected and tell it what it should be.

Ugh, yeah, sounds like a lot of work. Some caps are just not worth it. The latest Lucifer ep also had a really nice scene, but the sun was right behind him. I didn't even capture that scene because the glare made it completely useless.

I have been finding new things in my program though! I need to start writing them down so I can remember where they are.

Yay, graphics programs are complicated, but I think it's a lot of fun to learn and discover new tricks!

[lavenderspark.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That was very helpful! I use Corel PaintShop Pro 7, but that at least gave me some direction as to what I was looking for.

Turns out I have an "Adjustment Layer" option! It can be a whole list of things that are used to adjust brightness, color, texture... all kinds of things! I still added a duplicate layer between the original and the adjustment layer, just to have a buffer.

And I figured out I can save my projects to reopen and edit later! I do wish I had an "Undo List" so I could select which thing I've done that I want to undo, but oh well.

[tinny]

Awesome! That's a really good program. Adjustment layers are great! I have come to love them. Experiment with their blending modes and opacity, too.

It's often useful to tone down effects by lowering the (adjustment) layer opacity, or to mask parts of the image so not everything gets lightened/sharpened, etc.

The iconmaker community is wonderful on LJ. They write very helpful tutorials. I'll see if I can find some good ones for PSP. Here's a simple one, for example. It's for PSP XI, I don't know how much 7 can do:

http://icon-tutorial.livejournal.com/11237359.html


There must be Undo in PSP. I don't know exactly how it works or where it is hidden, but it exists. I found this concerning Undo in PSP: http://help.corel.com/paintshop-pro/v19/main/en/documentation/Corel_PaintShop_Pro/Setting_Undo_preferences.html

It's about configuring it to use a certain amount of disk space for undo actions. This lets you decide how many actions it saves that you can undo. I hope you'll find it. Undo is the most important thing. (After layers, and masks, ... heee :))

Of course you can only undo all the actions in the order you did them, it's not possible to just undo one out of the middle.

Photoshop has a history brush to selectively go back to a state before - and that doesn't have to be the last one. I don't think PSP has anything similar, though. :/ But it took me years to find it in PS, so who knows. *g*

Good luck!

[lavenderspark.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I've been working with the opacity on the layers a bit, but the blending one still confuses me a bit, so I haven't been working with that as much.

I follow the icon-tutorial community! They aren't very active lately and seem to mostly post PhotoShop things, but I figure it's still informative. Thanks for the link, it was actually useful! I'd been wondering what exactly the mask layer was!

Yeah, I have an undo button, I just wish it would list my actions. I'm pretty sure GIMP does. I don't think you can randomly undo something in the middle, but sometimes I just want to see the last couple things I did so that I can figure out what caused the problem/effect or whatever.

[tinny]

I've been working with the opacity on the layers a bit, but the blending one still confuses me a bit, so I haven't been working with that as much.

One thing at a time - those tools are extremely powerful. Knowing how to use them all takes years. :D

Yeah, I have an undo button, I just wish it would list my actions.

Ah, I just googled a bit, and it seems Paint Shop only introduced a history palette with version 9. :(

I follow the icon-tutorial community! They aren't very active lately

Yeah, there used to be a lot more - like everything on LJ. But of course tutorials don't expire, so it's definitely worth looking through those comms' memories and reading old ones.