Activity #26 - Ask The Maker

[tinny]

this banner is featuring an icon by tinyumbrella

It's June, and that means it's time for Ask The Maker again!

Our poll decided that a good majority of our makers here would like to see this activity again, and I'm hoping for high participation.

Ask The Maker is where you can ask your favorite makers about how they do that thing. You can ask for tutorials, guides/"How to", or ask any other questions related to their work. Check out the Maker thread (below) for makers who have signed up and are ready to answer your questions.

You can also ask questions to the community at large, and hope that someone is able to answer them. Do this in the Questions thread (below).

By now this community has been active for over two years, and we've grown quite a bit, along with DW. This should make for an interesting mix. I for one am looking forward to interesting questions and discussions!

Please promote this activity!

You can use this code here:
<center><img src='https://tinny.dreamwidth.org/file/205196.png' title='Activity #26 - Ask The Maker 2019' alt='Activity #26 - Ask The Maker 2019' /> <user name="icontalking"> <a href="https://icontalking.dreamwidth.org/34730.html">Activity Post</a> </center>

The more participants the merrier! I will promote it at an official promo comm.

Here are the rules:

1) Maker-Driven


Rules for makers who want to sign up

Sign up by commenting to the Maker thread.

Please don't sign up if you know that you can't or do not plan to fulfill the requests you get within a month.

If you are an icon maker and you're willing to write tutorials, guides or answer questions (Q&A's), please sign up here with your name and where you post your work. Please state what you're willing to do/answer and if people can hotlink your work or not. Use this posting template:

<b>Username + where you post your work:</b> <b>What can we request from you (tutorials, Q&A, guides etc.)</b> --->(If you know of anything that you're not able to answer/do, please mention it)<--- <b>Can we hotlink your icons?:</b>

There is no fixed time limit in which the signed up makers have to write these tutorials or answer questions, but it would be nice if everyone managed to post their answers within the next month. I will make the master list post around mid-July (i.e. in six weeks). Even if you take longer than that, please try and answer your questions. Please let people know if you find out you cannot fulfill the requests. Try not to leave people hanging.

All tutorials/Q&A etc. need to be posted in your community/journal and be posted publicly. In-depth explanations on tutorials is not a must, but highly encouraged.

When you finish your requests, post a link to them as a reply to the original request comment here. That way, I and the person requesting will be able to see them and I can add them to the master list.



2) Question-Driven - I have a question and anyone can answer



If you have a question about techniques, a specific look, etc, but you can't ask any maker directly (e.g. because they didn't sign up or are not on DW or because your question is more of the general kind), you may ask your question in the Questions thread.

Be aware that there is no guarantee that you'll get your question answered. You will increase your chances by asking specific questions about specific techniques and by giving icon examples, from different makers if possible. Please don't ask about single specific icons, nobody should feel pressured into participating.

Please don't hotlink icons from other makers without asking them. Reupload the icons (e.g. to imgur.com or postimages.com) instead.



What's What


Question categories and examples

Guides - a guide is a general explanation post. The maker will make a post explaining how to achieve a particular effect, use a technique, use a tool, etc.

#1 - Text and typography in gimp by cool_spectrum
#2 - A guide lighten dark bases from last year by tinny

Tutorial - a tutorial is a step-by-step description of how to make a particular icon. Only the maker of an icon can make a tutorial of how they made that icon. If you ask for a tutorial, you must provide said icon with your question. This kind of question only makes sense in the Maker thread.

A tutorial by fueschgast
Example tutorial #2 by word_never_said

Q&A - everything that doesn't quite fit the first two categories. Ask away, hope for the best. :)


Maker thread

Questions thread

Comments

Questions Thread

[tinny]

Ask questions for the community here

Re: Questions Thread

[tinyumbrella]

What are your favourite fonts? I'm always on the hunt for new and interesting fonts!

Re: Questions Thread

[tinny]

YAY FONTS!!!!

This might be a bit of a niche thing, but the only new fonts I got this year are specialty Chinese fonts:

https://www.freechinesefont.com/

They're huge, of course. Installing them has slowed down my Photoshop considerably. /o\ Apparently, the other 2000+ fonts don't even make a dent compared to the half dozen Chinese fonts. (Worth it.) (And going there again has made me install four more. I am doomed. /o\)

Otherwise, the ones I know by heart what they look like and that I always use are

Aleo Bold, Stockholm, Bombshell Pro, Poster Bodoni, Times New Roman, and Xtreem.

https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/aleo
https://www.ffonts.net/Stockholm.font
https://www.dafont.com/font.php?file=xtreem

(bombshell pro is not free and i have no idea where i got it from, i usually only have free fonts. poster bodoni and times are also not free but were preinstalled on my windows.)

Times New Roman sounds boring, but it's actually really good for very small text. There aren't that many fonts that look good small. Handel Gothic is another one, and Book Antiqua. That's pretty much it. If you have any others, I'd be happy to hear about them.

Re: Questions Thread

[seraphina_snape]

I always struggle with text in general, but I do have some favourite fonts that I use a lot.

For small text, I like A Love of Thunder - it's an all caps font that looks good even in really small size.

I like God Bless America for anything cursive, but it can be a struggle to make it legible on something icon-sized.

Fox in the Snow is something I feel looks best the bigger the font, so I use it mainly for wallpapers and sig tags. It works great in contrast with a more blocky font.

Other fonts I like:
Moon Flower
Another Typewriter
Hearts (for when you need a heart but don't want to draw it or find a heart texture *g*)
Tall Dark And Handsome
Lemon Milk
Reklame
Federation Starfleet

Re: Questions Thread

[tinny]

oi, i have over 2000 fonts, but I only know two of these. Yay more fonts! <3

Re: Questions Thread

[goodbyebird]

Do you participate in icontests? If so, what is most likely to make you want to participate? (themes, provided caps, fandoms, seeing other entries, open or anonymous makers, inspirations, etc.)

Re: Questions Thread

[tinny]

I personally am most inspired by themes and inspirational challenges.

I will almost never enter a challenge with provided caps because I like iconing my own things - which is usually why fandoms don't work for me either, because I just icon my current fandom and nothing else.

As to anonymous or open: I like both. Both have their attractions.

Re: Questions Thread

[tinyumbrella]

I prefer themes and techniques, because finding caps are hard enough i'd rather be able to make it easy on myself. I do love entering things as it gives me purpose.

But sometimes caps or fandoms are just that good

i like seeing the entries as we go, as i like to comment on them but i'm not picky!

Re: Questions Thread

[goodbyebird]

What are some of your favorite tutorials?

Re: Questions Thread

[tinyumbrella]

I don't have any favourites but here are some of the ones i bookmarked to look at:

https://ultraviolence.livejournal.com/29282.html < interesting colours and effects
https://psychedelicats.livejournal.com/37253.html < trippy effects
https://accios.livejournal.com/74150.html < muted, yet vibrant
https://bel-perdente.livejournal.com/45380.html < working with less than ideal caps
https://good-tutorial.livejournal.com/28869.html < in depth colouring
https://bel-perdente.livejournal.com/45589.html < interesting colouring
https://good-tutorial.livejournal.com/31133.html < vibrant colouring

Re: Questions Thread

[tinny]

I don't have favorites per se, but here are my memories. Most of them have no pics anymore (too old), but some still work:

https://tinnny.livejournal.com/memories?ukw=icon%20tutorials%20(by%20other%20people)

Re: Questions Thread

[lutein]

For fake background icons, what are the ways you can get the cut out to blend in more with the background or vice versa?

I'm at a loss on how to make these icons better.


I didn't do any sharpening on the first icon but the edges of the cut out bugs me. The texture on the second icon was originally blurry, I like the colours and I know the icon could use more work.

Re: Questions Thread

[abyss_valkyrie]

For icons like this usually what I do is,I add soft colours on top of the image and then erase it in a way to make the edges looks soft,like the edge of the sleeves or shoulders.

Re: Questions Thread

[lutein]

Thanks! I will try out your tip.

Re: Questions Thread

[tinny]

Okay, so I played with those a little.

My go-to softening techniques are:
- glow
- plain old blur
- paint over with the background color

I made the background white everywhere so it's easier to see - everything white is supposed to be transparent!

Icon 1:

a) reducing the contrast by painting over the edge with the background color:

set to Normal 60% (This is not a mask, just a black brush stroke!)

->


b) reducing the sharpness by blurring the whole image:

Duplicate the image, use the normal "Blur" filter on the whole image, then mask:


This is the mask -> only blurring the edges

->


c) reducing the contrast by adding glow behind them:

This is a simple red blob with the subjects masked away, set it to Normal 55%
The edges are not completely masked away, so the glow bleeds into the edges of the subjects.

->


Icon 2:

Painting over it with background colors:

Color blobs with the subject masked away. Like with the Lucifer icon, the subject isn't completely masked away so the color goes over the edges. Set to Normal 55%.

->


Now the edges look a little too soft compared to the rest, so I blurred the whole thing (in addition to painting over with the color). Not sure that's better?

Re: Questions Thread

[lutein]

Thank you so much for the examples and explanations! Now I feel more confident on selectively blurring. :)

Re: Questions Thread

[tinny]

You're welcome! Selectively blurring (or sharpening) is one of my most important steps in iconmaking.

I'm glad I could help!

Re: Questions Thread

[tinyumbrella]

I have an older tutorial here on cutouts: https://oh-crime.dreamwidth.org/32608.html

textures help, and a line around the subject and then blurred is also good, i think the ones you've given aren't so bad (we are our own worst critics) and have great colouring!

the other thing i do is to cut it out at size, or 200x200px before resizing it down - it makes it better in general

Re: Questions Thread

[lutein]

Thank you! I'll be sure to check out the tutorial you linked.

Re: Questions Thread

[goodbyebird]

The ways I blend cutouts with backgrounds is to either

A) get colors from the cutout and use them in the background, or

B) drop colors/blobs/textures/gradients on top, usually set to soft light.

You can also copy/merge the whole icon, blur it, and set it to soft light on top, then sharpen the end result.