Activity #61 - Ask The Maker
Jun. 4th, 2022 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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abyss_valkyrieMay is always a bit low on traffic, let's see if we can make June more prolific! (If you want to make icons in addition to discussions, I have extended our May activity until the end of June, so you can do that, too, if you like.)
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).
I am looking forward to interesting questions and discussions!
Please promote this activity!
You can use this code here:
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 (until the end of June).
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:
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 activity result post mid-July. 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 activity result post at the end of the month.
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 or your dw account) 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
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
cool_spectrum#2 - A guide to picking textures (from our 2019 round) by
seraphina_snapeTutorial - 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.
Trippy Tutorial by
tinebrellaTutorial (from 2020) by
abyss_valkyrieTutorial by
tinyumbrellaQ&A - everything that doesn't quite fit the first two categories. Ask away, hope for the best. :)
Maker thread
Questions thread
Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-06-05 03:27 am (UTC)What can we request from you (tutorials, Q&A, guides etc.)
--->Anything really. I usually save my PSD's, so I can usually throw a tutorial together fairly quickly. I've never done Q&A before, but I'd be happy to answer any questions. I've done a guide of sorts on using textures and color layers on screen and lighten, so I wouldn't mind doing guides as well. ^^ I use Photoshop but have used GIMP and PSP in the past although I haven't used GIMP or PSP in forever, so there's not much I can do there. (Although I could go back and download GIMP....).<---
Can we hotlink your icons?: Sure, no problem.
Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-06-16 01:58 pm (UTC)Specifically from your examples these two:
Not from your examples, but the composition/text/everything about this one is also super stunning and I'd love to know more.
But generally I'm just going to say I love your lighting and general composition!
Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-06-26 03:15 am (UTC)I'm working on the pink icon as well. I can do a tutorial for the 3rd icon, or would you prefer a guide on lighting and/or composition? ^^
Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-07-07 05:12 pm (UTC)Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-07-25 02:52 pm (UTC)^^ Click here
Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-07-01 02:27 am (UTC)Hi would love tutorials on these or how to do them. Especially love the animation effects and the colors in these icons. Thanks! If that's too much just let me know and I'll pic a few out of them.
Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-07-25 02:55 pm (UTC)^^ Click here
I will post a guide to animation soon, I hope. ^^
Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-07-26 02:12 am (UTC)Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-07-26 03:23 am (UTC)Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-07-04 10:02 am (UTC)for example:
Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-07-07 05:14 pm (UTC)Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-07-25 02:55 pm (UTC)^^ Click here
I hope you'll find it helpful! ^^
Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-10-27 01:44 pm (UTC)That said, I wanted to ask which software or web application you use to make gifs, and whether you are creating gifs from DVDs, video files, or Youtube? And whether you know a good application to create gifs from Youtube in particular and/or to compress them without a crazy amount of pixelling? I was just completely blown away by the quality of your gifs.
Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-10-28 04:19 am (UTC)I currently use Photoshop to make my icons although I'm currently in the process of switching over to Affinity Photo (which unfortunately does not have the capabilities for making animated GIFs). Most of my animated icons are actually made from stills/screencaps that I overlay with animated GIF textures. I think of the two I've made that were actually footage from the episodes, I used GOM player to capture the GIF, and then edited them in Photoshop. The key to keeping the quality is to start out with high quality videos/images. When I resize them, I am able to keep the quality high. Another key is to delete any unnecessary frames in the GIF. I might be able to give you some links for getting high quality GIFs in Photoshop, if you'd like.
I used to use GIMP for making animated icons (I have one tutorial on how to make animated rain), but I haven't used it in so long, I'm not sure how much help I could give as far as GIFs.
Most of the GIF makers tend to deteriorate the quality of the GIF (at least that I've seen), so I have no idea if any of them are better than the others.
Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-10-28 12:02 pm (UTC)I wasn't aware one could make gifs with Photoshop, but good to know, I'll look into it, thankfully I have a Photoshop suscription right now. :) I'd totally appreciate the links for high quality gifs in Photoshop.
I'm still a little confused about the method... you said you were using the GOM player to capture the gif and then editing it in Photoshop (such as cropping, resizing, and editing the frames), but also doing them frame by frame in Photoshop? I just figured it must be pretty hard to first resize and crop the frames, and THEN attach them to each other, because they might not match, animation-wise, if the crop is not precise enough. Or do you use both methods, "pre-gif" and then edit for some icons AND creation from scratch in Photoshop for others?
As for the animated gif textures, are you using some available in Photoshop?
Sorry if that's too many questions, I'm a complete noob with animation. ^^;; Hope I'm not asking too much. And thanks again for responding!
Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-10-29 02:38 am (UTC)Resizing the frames is actually pretty easy. You select all the frames and all the layers and resize them at the same time. As for cropping, what I do is make a new image in the size I want. Then I open my GIF and arrange the windows to title vertically. Then I drag the frames from the original GIF to the new image. After selecting all the layers, I resize them to fit the new image. Some times I start creating the frames after I resize, and sometimes I color before I work with the frames. Another thing I do is just open up the GIF and resize it (image size) then resize the canvas (canvas size).
But the main thing to remember when resizing is to select all the layers (and all the frames, if applicable). Then you don't have to worry about matching up anything.
I rarely ever edit GIFs themselves. Usually I edit them in an icon. The glitch effect I make myself with textures. I also do rain myself. I also sometimes make animated icons from a couple of screencaps.
I was actually working on a guide for animation, but I can definitely give your some links. Most of the best tutorials for GIFs are on tumblr. That's where I get most of my animated textures. Also,
So here are some links:
Complete Resources, the GIF tutorial tag
Chaotic Resources, the GIF tutorial tag
Peach Resources, the GIF tutorial tag
Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-10-29 10:52 am (UTC)Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-10-29 04:34 pm (UTC)Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2024-07-19 05:09 pm (UTC)Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2024-07-22 09:28 am (UTC)Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2022-11-01 07:27 pm (UTC)I'm already looking forward to learning things about gif-making! \o/ \o/
Re: Maker Thread
Date: 2024-07-19 05:08 pm (UTC)