Discussion Time!

[seraphina_snape]

It's Friday! Let's talk about icons! :D

Do you have a favourite "subject" to icon? Like a favourite character, or a favourite show? Are there people/characters/shows/movies/other things that you always come back to and make icons of? And how do you decide on a subject?

Comments

[breyzyyin]

I tend to icon whatever fandom I'm really into at the moment, and then I'll go to my old favorite standbys. I'm trying to icon more live-action stuff (huge Arrow-verse geek! ♥) because I fall back on animation a lot since I'm more comfortable with playing around with artwork images. I also seem to icon women more, but I never really noticed until I thought about it just now, lol. Often times though, my favorite characters tend to be female so that might explain that! As far as deciding on a subject, I just use any image that gives me inspiration. If there's a good image that I just have no feelings about whatsoever, I won't icon it (even if it is a favorite fandom or character). ...Lol, I'm more picky than I realized! O_O;

[seraphina_snape]

One way I know for sure that I've 'arrived' in a fandom is when I go screencap hunting and start making icons (or when I start writing fic, but usually the icons come first). *g*

If there's a good image that I just have no feelings about whatsoever, I won't icon it

I usually pick images because they have great lighting or because they might make an interesting icon with the right cropping. :p

[magicrubbish]

This interesting conversation made me realize that I need to be more choosy and picky about Screencaps as well . When I started icon making only thing I was mindful of was that the cap should be of HQ quality , little caring about the cap itself , as in angle , expressions or lightening or original coloring. So , I noticed that that affected a lot of my icons poorly though the effort was there.
Well , you learn and grow by it.

[seraphina_snape]

HD quality is important, but there are definitely other factors. I remember way back when NCIS started I wanted to icon the show so badly, but the early seasons had this truly awful orange-y tint to it that made it nearly impossible (well, at least with my then-knowledge of icon making) to icon. (Check out this recap of a season 1 episode. Caps like that, even if they were HD, would require a lot of colour correction.)

[magicrubbish]

Yeah , just checked and eww such a horrible reddish hue !
The base coloring is so important. I'm having such difficulty iconing post apocalyptic Michael Langdon , because of the terrible yellow of the outpost episodes. Urrgghh.
No wonder LOTR , HP and GOT are some of the most widely made fandoms , they've beautiful natural coloring. A delight to work with.

[goodbyebird]

Selective color and color balance are super useful, if something is dominated by one color. I just go into their tab and drain it :p
(boy I miss variations though. No clue why PS decided to remove that tool in their newer versions)

[abyss_valkyrie]

Oh gosh yes,those have such good caps,I almost don't want to change anything except maybe brightening the icon and adding some extra lighting. Like goodbyebird says, selective colouring is sooo helpful.

[magicrubbish]

Yup that's what I'm talking about . It makes the job so easy my gosh !