Activity #95 - Ask The Maker

[tinny]

this banner features an icon by breyzyyin


With a little bit of delay because I didn't feel up to it three weeks ago, here's this years Ask The Maker activity!

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:
<center><a href="https://icontalking.dreamwidth.org/94046.html"><img src="https://tinny.dreamwidth.org/file/1111284.png" alt="Ask The Maker 2025"/></a> <user name="icontalking"> <a href="https://icontalking.dreamwidth.org/94046.html">Go Here</a> Ask The Maker is where you can ask for advice on iconmaking. You can ask for tutorials, guides/"How to", or ask any other technical questions. </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 until the end of July.

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 activity result post in early August. 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 cool_spectrum
#2 - Guide to composition (from our 2023 round) by aurora_amethyst
#3 - A text guide (from our 2024 round) by wickedgame

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.

Tutorial (from 2024) by aurora_amethyst
Tutorial (from 2020) by abyss_valkyrie
Tutorial by tinyumbrella

Tutorials are the most-often requested thing here, feel free to check our tag from previous rounds:
https://icontalking.dreamwidth.org/tag/ask+the+maker,activity+result?mode=and

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


Maker thread

Questions thread


This activity will run to mid-July, maybe the end of July, depending on how many requests there are.

If you want to work on a challenge while Ask the Maker is running, you can find currently open challenges in our sticky post. And our previous activity, Technique Waterfall, is also still open until the end of Ask the Maker.

Comments

Maker Thread

[tinny]

Makers, please sign up here

Re: Maker Thread

[tinny]

Username + where you post your work: tinny, the art-icons tag at my journal
What can we request from you (tutorials, Q&A, guides etc.) : anything you like
Can we hotlink your icons?: yes

Re: Maker Thread

[littlemissnovella]

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

Re: Maker Thread

[garonne]

I would love to know how you add moving backgrounds to your icons, for instance the animated circle in this icon with the "we are all stories in the end" text. Even to know what keywords to search for tutorials would be really helpful! I guess it is something like an animated gif?

Re: Maker Thread

[littlemissnovella]

I'll write a write up when I'm back from vacation, specifically about how to make animated icons Thanks for asking me!

Re: Maker Thread

[littlemissnovella]

My guide for animated icons can be found here:
Thanks again for asking and please let me know if you have any questions!

Re: Maker Thread

[tinny]

Awesome, thank you! I think now all the requested tutorials have been made, and I'll post the roundup!

Re: Maker Thread

[garonne]

Thank you again for this!

Re: Maker Thread

[tinny]

btw, aurora_amethyst also wrote a very detailed animation guide for last year's ask the maker. it's here: https://1wonderment.dreamwidth.org/69082.html#cutid1

Re: Maker Thread

[garonne]

Thank you for that link!

Re: Maker Thread

[aurora_amethyst]

Username + where you post your work: aurora_amethyst @ 1wonderment
What can we request from you (tutorials, Q&A, guides etc.): Tutorials, Q&A, guides, etc. I usually save my psds, so ask away!
--->(If you know of anything that you're not able to answer/do, please mention it)<---
Can we hotlink your icons?: Sure!

Re: Maker Thread

[skysedge]

Hi! I was wondering how you made this icon?

Re: Maker Thread

[aurora_amethyst]

Here's the tutorial. Hope you find it helpful! ^^

Re: Maker Thread

[itsnotmymind]

Username + where you post your work: itsnotmymind, my icons tag.
What can we request from you (tutorials, Q&A, guides etc.) Anything
Can we hotlink your icons?: No

Re: Maker Thread

[word_never_said]

Username + where you post your work: word_never_said @ stillpermanentt
What can we request from you (tutorials, Q&A, guides etc.) anything, I keep most my psd so ask away! :D

Can we hotlink your icons?: sure!

Re: Maker Thread

[magicrubbish]

Hi. Dropped in to say I;m a huge fan of your icons. I just love how you color , add text and the final result is stunning !

If it is possible could you share how you do this kind of coloring and lighting to your icons ? I always struggle to color skin .

Re: Maker Thread

[word_never_said]

First of all, thank you so so much. ♥ ♥

I made tutorial for that icon, but explained why I did what I did (I think) so you can apply it as you want. It's been a hot minute since I've done a tutorial so let me know if there's anything that's unclear or I forgot to include!

I actually forgot to include the link LOL

Re: Maker Thread

[silvercat17]

Username + where you post your work: silvercat17, my icons tag
What can we request from you (tutorials, Q&A, guides etc.) anything
Can we hotlink your icons?: yes

I was doing tutorials (they're in my icons tag) but I kind of fizzled out. I mostly do icons from comic books. especially old ones.

Questions Thread

[tinny]

Ask questions for the community here

Re: Questions Thread

[nondenomifan]

Is anyone else running GIMP on a Mac? If so, have you been able to successfully install G'Mic and/or Resynthesizer and/or Darktable plugins? I've tried following instructions for installing plugins on a Mac, but to no avail. I'm on a Macbook Pro using Intel.

Until I get these plugins, I'm limited to the stuff that comes with GIMP, and I used to rely heavily on G'Mic effects. Thanks!

Re: Questions Thread

[ideare]

which version are you using? davies media design has a tutorial for installing g'mic for mac users: https://daviesmediadesign.com/video-tutorials/how-to-install-gmic-plugin-for-gimp-for-mac/

also, here's a reddit post that people are saying worked for gimp 2.10: https://www.reddit.com/r/GIMP/comments/1af6ywm/how_to_install_gmic_for_gimp_21036_macos_latest/

Re: Questions Thread

[nondenomifan]

I was using the newest version that works with MacOs, but I just learned I have to use an older version if I want to use the plugins that basically make GIMP--well, GIMP. (None of the instructions posted at Davies or for Macports, etc., helped me. I was actually going through a thread for BIMP when I found this.)

See which version here:

http://disq.us/p/32r9rtu

ETA/I still had to turn myself into a pretzel and watch a few more YouTube videos to learn how to install plugins for Gimp on a Mac. BIMP makes it sound a lot more complicated than it actually is, too, but you'll want that if you're going to be repeating a lot of batch edits to your graphics./ETA

[picnicnic]

I can't see any images posted using the dreamwidth file host lmao

[tinny]

that's weird! The only thing I can think of is that it's a proxy problem or a blocked domain problem, but if you can see dreamwidth.org posts you should also be able to see image urls ( https://***.dreamwidth.org/file/*** ).

[picnicnic]

It's working now, but every so often I have this issue.

[falkner]

I've been intermittently having the same issue as well. Usually, if I reload the page or just the image, it will then load normally. The support board doesn't appear to have reports on this issue, so I'm assuming it's not widespread. Maybe one particular server is not performing as intented?

[picnicnic]

I think that could be it!

[nondenomifan]

My icon page images have started coming up really slowly, too. Wonder what's up? Site overwhelm because of all the storms and wildfires and floods? (Praying all we know are safe, sheltered, dry, well fed, in clean clothes, and have all their loved people and animals with them.)