brianslave68:
Posting purely so this asylum doesn't disappear during a purge.

butternutsquash:
Help! Help! I am trying to make a smooth, curvy line with the Pen tool. All of my lines look really jagged though, like:



All of the tutorials I've read have the curvy lines looking smooth without telling how they got it that way. See here for what I am trying to do.

Can any of you help? Thanks!

ETA- Thanks to nerilka, I can do smooth curved lines. Now, how do I make a smooth spiral, like a tornado?

brianslave68:

The dreaded blue screen caps again!

I just made this icon and since it was surprisingly simple to fix the blue coloring I decided to throw this tutorial together.

We're going to go from this ---> to this --->

( Steps in here )

pfodge:
I've never done one of these before so bear with me okay. redrose_7272 ask me how I did the icon of Gus. I'm going to try to do a step by step for you to get this icon.



( Gus Icon Tutorial )

butternutsquash:
I'm trying to get fancy with my icons, but I don't really know how to do this. I've been just jumping in, but I wonder if there are any guidelines, rules, or tutorials for this.

( Here are some of the icons I've been working on. )

butternutsquash:
Can someone tell me how reduce the white on Brian and Justin's faces in this pic? Thanks!

( Large pic )

brianslave68:

kari77 had the most awesome idea to post a sample of old (beginner) icons vs newer icons so we could see how we've progressed over time. This is a great way to show newer artists that we all had to start somewhere! I couldn't pick just one set to share because I made some really bad icons when I started! LOL

Old --> New -->

Old --> New -->

Old --> New -->

Feel free to tear the old ones down, they deserve it!

kari77:
Hope it's OK to post this here, but after anotheryear talked about getting into icon making, I remembered when I first meddled with PS, a long, loooong time ago.

So I thought it might be fun to share one of our very first icons and a fairly recent one, as encouragement for newcomers, and to show that we all had to start somewhere.

The graphic genius that is zaipixie made a similar post some time ago, and it was very interesting to see the progress of the different artists.

Without further ado I'll be the first. Almost 4 years passed between these two icons. I hope there is indeed some progress visible here. lol

Then: and now:

ETA: So, I showed you mine, now show me yours. ;-) I'll add the links as we go along.

* * * nerilka24 did it. * * *

* * * Here is maxymama's post. * * *

* * * brianslave68 shared her progress here. * * *

* * * And here is pfodge's post. * * *

* * * michira70 partakes too. * * *

* * * Here qafmaniac reveals her past and present. * * *

butternutsquash:
I know the basics and some intermediate steps for making icons. However, my icons still seem to lack a certain depth that I see in others' works and I am not quite sure how to capture that. ( Here are some examples. )

butternutsquash:
I wrote up a falling object icon tutorial, to explain how to use Photoshop to make icons such as:

by ohfreckle or by me

Check it out at my journal.

butternutsquash:
Here is a great tutorial that helps explain Histograms, Levels, and Curves. And if you don't know what those words mean, don't be scared off. Before I read this tutorial, I would play around with the sliders and noticed the changes, but I didn't know what the point was and was mostly stumbling around in the dark.

While looking up references and links for a tutorial on animated icons, I found one specifically for Gimp, which many of you use: Here. I don't use Gimp, so I can't verify the quality of this tutorial. Remember that the size limit for icons is 40 kb for Live Journal (and elsewhere) and 100 kb for Insane Journal.

_alicesprings:
I was wondering if someone could give me a few tips on putting text on icons. I've had a scroll through the asylum and didn't see a tutorial on this subject.

I'm pretty useless at making icons but I can manage in a pinch, however I have never been able to do text. Can anyone help?

Oh! And I use Photoshop but I have access to GIMP.

brianslave68:

maxymama was asking over here how to make a particular image into a nice, clear icon.

My result:



( Just 4 little layers )

kari77:
Over the last months I learned a lot about lightening and cleaning up QaF caps, from tutorials by fellow icon makers or simply by trial and error.
Tonight I worked with a cap from episode 403, Brian and Emmett at Babylon. I was pleased with the result and thought that it would make a great tutorial. It is written for Photoshop, but I think most of it is translatable to Gimp in a way.

How to go from here to here ==>

Since there are a few fans here who recently got started in the world of icon making, I added a lot of blabbering in depth explanations why I did what I did (even if I didn't really know what I was doing. lol) So, beware of a long ass post by a non-native speaker.

( Here we go )

butternutsquash:
Can anybody help me color correcting this (taken by inner_justin, I believe). I have been using Photoshop and keep messing around with the color balance and selective color options, but I am not sure I am maximizing the change potential. Any help?

butternutsquash:
Is there anything to do to this icon to lighten it, to see the skin and hair color better?

brianslave68:

Several weeks ago maxymama asked how I made the header that's on my journal. I found the image that I used with the steps for how I made the 'sketch effect'. Not sure what else to call it! Anyway, hope this is interesting to someone out there.

( The sketch effect )

brianslave68:

I made this graphic today and thought it turned out pretty cool so I figured I'd share how I made it. This was surprisingly easy to do.



( Textures are our friends )

butternutsquash:
I come with a question! I am trying to make a graphic with a Polaroid-look, ( more info )

brianslave68:

This is in response to michira_70's post over here requesting help in lightening/cleaning up dark blue caps. This is one example of some methods I use. These exact settings won't necessarily work for every dark blue cap but will hopefully provide a starting point. Always remember to play around with the opacity of your layers and try different colors as well.

( Here we go! )