smallbatchicons

From:

goodbyebird

Hi, I'm Margareth and I post at

forsquares. Ask away :)

Edited Date: 2014-06-06 06:07 pm (UTC)

From:

timetobegin

1. how do you make comic books icons look shiny
eg.

From:

goodbyebird

Gaussian blurred soft light blobs, in this case up along her left side, plus a smaller towards the top on the right. And then the cap duplicated and set to soft light. Plus screen and soft light mode, and the coloring also involved a texture, but I think that was it? Sorry, don't have the PSD here.

Could be I used the copy+paste+gaussian blur to shit+set to soft light to boost colors and glow, it's a pretty standard move.

From:

goodbyebird

maybe this will help?

base

vibrance 93%

a little fiddling with reds and greens in selective coloring

pandavirus texture set to soft light 28%

→

vibrance 35%

soft light blobs to light up Deadpool

→

I was snoozing a bit. to bring out some colors from the sea, this texture on overlay 30%, blurring parts that stood out too much.

→

lit up deadpool a bit more wit another soft light layer and vibrance +100

→

copy+merged it all, gaussian blurred and set to soft light

→

and that's kind of the glowy look you were looking for? idk. I was bored and it didn't seem right for the cap, so I turned the last c+m soft light layer to color 83%

now it's properly bleak for somebody stuck in a boat in the middle of the ocean :D but still snooze, so textures! screen 100%

→

but more bleakness! and more colors! tossed this texture on at soft light 100, slid the layer underneath the previous texture.

→

a couple more light blobs on Deadpool set to soft light and we're set.

→

Edited Date: 2014-06-07 10:51 am (UTC)

From:

timetobegin

hi I'm tash and i post at

thisisagraphicscomm

Edited Date: 2014-06-06 08:16 pm (UTC)

From:

goodbyebird

I've actually been impressed as hell by your Cordelia icon so how handy you put it here *g*

It's got perfect light, coloring, contrast - everything, really. So if you wanna reveal any secrets as to how you pulled that off, do tell.

From:

timetobegin

ahahahah i really shouldn't have put that there! i haven't saved the .psd and goodness knows what i did! I'll try to pull a tut out of it though maybe.

Mostly i just kept going and going and going which is something i don't usually have the patience for

From:

goodbyebird

hah yeah, the "keep going and going" lesson is a hard one to get down, isn't it? I'm usually just done when I feel like I'm done, depending on my mood. Sometimes I wanna be challenged, but usually I just wanna zone out and look at awesome faces while doing it ;)

From:

timetobegin

It is. to be fair its 50/50 if it will get better or worse, but still.

From:

goodbyebird

lol same

From:

goodbyebird

.

From:

goodbyebird

oviedo @

ailesfragiles

If there's one place I go to for crop-porn, then this is that place. oviedo also does extremely well in choosing caps that convey a great deal of information/emotion.

longerthanwedo @

thevividimagery

Absolutely love how the icons continue to push the envelope, and you never know what you're going to get when a new post comes up - except for amazingness that is.

theotherayn @

bittergraced

Amazing cropping and compositions, superb text, and I absolutely love the vintage feel to all her work. Also she's been making stellar stuff from the horrendous cam rip of CA2, which is nothing short of sorcery, no?

deternot @

lapislazu_icons

The one that always tells me to try harder with my comics icons. You can give it just as much depth as rl sources even if it's drawn on a page.

Edited Date: 2014-06-07 07:48 am (UTC)

From:

valley

How do you organize your icon folders? By fandom, challenge, batch? Do you also organize with file names?

For my edits I save my in-progress work as a .psd (in case PS crashes) and then make a .png, but now I have double files for almost everything. I'll delete most .psd files except for complex ones I want to reference later, but do you have tips for this kind of situation, like which/how many .psd files to keep?

I'm sure these questions are kind of boring, but clutter activates the "delete everything and start over" part of my brain, which is why I have only three surviving icons from my editing days on LJ. Any tips you have would be wonderful. Thanks!

From:

goodbyebird

I actually just dump all my icons into the same folder, the only organizing being by fandom name. Sometimes a challenge name is in the file name, sometimes not, but that's more of a pre-organizing thing from before the batch got posted, if I'm working on different challenges and such.

I never browse my icon folder (unlike my inspirations folder, which I look at quite often), it just sits there. My icon community is what functions as more of a gallery for me, and there everything is tagged and the posting date is there, so. That's all I need really :)

Totally get what you mean by clutter and Delete Everything tendencies. When a batch starts reaching thirty or more, my brain gets frazzled by the whole thing and I really need to get it posted so my current folder gets cleared out. If you're not maintaining a community, I'd recommend it.

As for PSDs, I'm now in the habit of saving them more often than not, as my memory is beyond terrible. I drop that in a separate folder, still organized by fandom and whatever else I named the icon. A couple-three times a year I root through it and delete the ones I deem less than impressive. It still amounts to quite a few PSDs tho. If it bothers you, you could try organizing them by technique? Like muted, saturated, complex, textures, etc? And maybe by year, as your methods will change as you go on.

From:

valley

(hopefully replying the correct place this time *cough*)

This sounds like very good advice, thank you! I've hesitated to make a separate community for graphics, but I'll think on it a bit more. I haven't considered putting PSDs in a separate folder, but I'll try that and see if I feel the need to organize by technique also.

From:

goodbyebird

Well it doesn't need to be a separate community, some people post it to their own journals. You just tag it and then whenever you feel like browsing past stuff, you just click the tag. It's what I did in the beginning, but then felt bad about people following me for my regular posts having to put up with my regular posts (thing this was before tracking tho).

From:

valley

Well, I've used the separate community/personal journal system when I was on LJ and it worked for me then. I've been trying to use my personal journal for icon posts on DW, but that hasn't been working out as well as I thought it would - it just makes me feel obligated to post only icons. So I set up a comm and am test driving that for a while! I might end up merging every back to my personal if I feel better about it, but it can't hurt to try.

From:

hsapiens

I number my icon posts and have a corresponding numbered folder within my larger "Icons" folder where I save my work. I save all of my PSDs to a general folder. When the clutter bothers me too much, I move the PSDs to an "Archive" folder within the PSD folder.

I also name the files in a (mostly) consistent way. Usually, it's character name first and descriptive text second. If I think it's a fandom I'll do only a few icons in (and thus probably forget the character name too easily), I'll preface the file name with a fandom abbreviation. I have to do that, too, with common names. "Sam" is pan-fandom, for example.

I second the use of a community. I was hesitant to start one myself because I rarely post anything in my personal journal, it seemed ridiculous to have TWO journals, and it seemed...like a formal setting up of a shop? As if I were an icon "merchant" plugging my wares rather than a fan having a bit of fun.

But I found that people are far more comfortable friending/joining/whatevering a community than a personal journal. It kept my fandom life more separate from my personal life (which I wanted), and it meant I had a better gauge of how many people actually wanted to see icons I made.

I use my LJ Scrapbook (ptooi!) to organize my finished icons by fandom and my LJ comm to see development over time. (Or how long I've been in a rut but this is about the positives, right?) It's not the right answer for everyone but I found it had all the positives and none of the negatives.

(As a bonus, when I was having a hard time in choosing layouts, it meant I got to have TWO layouts!)

From:

valley

Thanks! It sounds like PSDs in a separate folder is a good way to go (and easier to bulk-upload that way).

I've started setting up a community, and I'll see how I fare with it. I like the idea of using it to plug my icon merchant wares, though :)

From:

goodbyebird

What are your favorite textures to use? The ones you reach for over and over again.

From:

frayadjacent

So, I've been playing around a bit with iconning, and I just realised that everything I've made in the last week or so, when I save it as a png or jpg, is over 40 kb, which I think is the DW upload limit size? So, any suggestions for compressing icons while preserving quality? It seems like there is a floor on how small the file size can be for the normal jpg compression I'm using -- i.e. even if I choose the smallest file size setting it's still the same size as if I chose a higher setting.

(I'm working with photoshop on a mac)

From:

goodbyebird

Huh, that sounds odd. Are you making animated icons? Because very rarely has a regular one gone up past 40kb, in my experience. And I don't do anything special with the settings. (Also ps on mac)

Could you maybe upload one of your PSDs so I can have a look?

From:

frayadjacent

Yeah, it's weird! Here is a psd. When I saved this file as a png, it was 88 kb. http://fray-adjacent.net/images/Helena/delphine.psd

Thanks for checking it out!

From:

goodbyebird

When I click to save as png, a box comes up that says @PNG options'. My selection for compression is smallest/slow, interlace is none. And wow, 88kb? Dude.

All your layers are marked with "smart object thumbnail" though, which isn't something I've seen before. How do you resize or add your images in photoshop? Since smart objects retain so much of the image information, that could be what's inflating your file size.

From:

frayadjacent

Thanks! Yeah I save the same way, but you're right that the problem is the way that I'm adding images. I used to open the original cap in photoshop and crop/edit from there, but lately I've been dragging and dropping the cap into a 200x200 canvas and moving it around and resizing. I new that all the image info outside the bounds of the canvas were retained in the psd file, but I had assumed they weren't included in the saved png. (Maybe this is somehow getting at the difference between saving and exporting, but exporting doesn't seem to produce the right file type in photoshop). Anyway, cropping out the rest of the stuff at the end seems to help, as does re-saving it in preview as valley suggests below.

From:

goodbyebird

Dragging a cap into a new canvas is how I do it as well - actually, no, I copy the cap I've opened and then paste it in, it actually does something weird if I drag it in directly for some reason. Try that? - it's just that my images aren't smart objects, and as I mentioned before, smart objects retain the information of ever format it's in, which makes it much bigger in size.

Are you sure you're not choosing "import as smart object" or some such along the way? When you first open an image in photoshop, is it labeled as a smart object? You really shouldn't have to do a whole song and dance during the saving process to get it below 40kb.

Edited Date: 2014-06-09 04:39 am (UTC)

From:

frayadjacent

Thanks, I'll try the copy and paste thing!

I'm a little confused about the smart object thing -- if I right click on one of my layers, one of the option is "convert to smart object", which I wouldn't have thought would be an option if it were already a smart object. But you said that the layers say smart object thumbnail. Where are you seeing that? Does it even say it on the gradient layers and stuff? Sorry, I don't actually know what a smart object is! I'm definitely not choosing any import options or anything like that.

From:

goodbyebird

Yep, just dragged it over and it was a smart object. So basically, just paste it in instead of dragging, and see if that works out?

(for me it's CAP cmd+a , cmd+c, NEW CANVAS cmd+v)

From:

frayadjacent

Cool, thanks so much for your help!

From:

valley

I have the same problem in PS Elements on Mac. My layers don't have the smart object thumbnail in your PSD mentioned by goodbyebird above, so the problem might have a different source for me.

The only solution I've found so far is to re-open the .png file in Preview and save as/replace the original .png file - that compresses the size, but doesn't lower the visual quality (as far as I can tell, at least).

I'm still looking for an easier solution (/surely/ there is a better way) but that's working for now.

From:

frayadjacent

Thanks, yes this totally works for me too if I save it as 8-bit rather than 16 bit. Cheers!

From:

geckoholic

Everyone can do this, right? Or did I missunderstand? /o\

I'm Katrin and I post at

bl00dredskies/

bl00dredskies

Edited Date: 2014-06-07 02:50 pm (UTC)

From:

goodbyebird

Everyone can do this, you got it :)

From:

geckoholic

Okay, good. :)

From:

laisserais

I love your work! (actually, I love your writing and your art) and I totally cribbed some of your suggestions about using gradients in macros. You have a deft hand at lighting. Any other suggestions in that vein you'd like to share?

From:

hsapiens

(sorry that I'm late to the party; I thought I was tracking the comm but I was wrong)

Hi, I'm Mish and I post at

isapiens. Not certain anyone has questions for me but please ask if you do. :)

From:

anirishlullaby

Hiiiiii Mish! :D You know I'm a fan!

I think what I love most about your work is the ability you have to make an icon smooth and sharp at the same time - it's like the perfect combination! Especially on icons like the Lydia one here. HOW do you get that effect? Any specific tips? THANKS :D

From:

hsapiens

I think that 95% of what I end up is in the cap to begin with, honestly. I used to talk about my process and the like but with the advent of Blu-Ray and HD, the caps are just amazing quality these days. They have such rich detail. If the detail isn't there to start with, there is nothing in the PS toolkit that will put it there unless you're doing original art on the cap. :)

This was driven home to me when I recently picked up some caps from one of my first loves, Stargate SG-1, to see what I could do with them now that I was a "better" icon maker. There is no Blu-Ray, no HD, of the early seasons but the show was shot in what I think of as modern times (1997). The caps are smaller, fuzzier, and they tend to go sideways before I get to a third level of futzing. They're messes. It wasn't my skills that were the problem back in the day; it was the caps.

That said, I'll tell you what my 5% contribution is. I crop first, paste into a new document, fix the lighting and do very basic color correction, stamp visible, and then I smooth using the smudge tool. I set it to 11% opacity and use a smallish brush size (usually 5px if the image is 100px x 100px but it depends on the size of person within that frame, of course). I smooth in circular motions and I follow the areas' light/color: I don't cross shadow lines or try to fix moles, etc. I don't remove wrinkles from a face; I MIGHT smooth along the length of a wrinkle if it has become pixelated but I don't try to "fix" people's features. I'm just blending away the noise introduced by cropping/processing.

After I have removed the PS artifacts, I copy that layer and set it, most often, to soft light. Any further work I do on the image (most often via light textures, gradients, and b/w textures) is sandwiched between those two layers. If I like what the textures did but the effect is overwhelming the image, I'll try setting that top most layer to overlay. Sometimes that makes a mess worse. In the case of the Lydia icon, it was exactly what the icon needed.

Sharpening is a matter of taste and I've noticed that an icon that looks perfectly sharpened on my older, expensive monitor at home looks too sharp on my newer, cheaper monitor at work. I've chosen to use my home monitor as my guide since that's where I make icons but the disparity is shocking.

I've recently "discovered" Topaz Clean, which is a third party filter that you have to buy. I spent $30?/$35? for it because I Googled and found a coupon for "half off" the cost; they're almost always out there. I had a hard time deciding to buy it; I chose Photoshop because it's a huge upfront investment but no ongoing expenses -- fairly cheap for a hobby that entertains me for years and years.

Anyhow, I love this new toy (quite visible on my latest three batches of icons, I fear) but I achieved much the same result previously using unsharp mask. The results weren't as interesting, and others use the more mercurial Artistic -> Paint Daubs filter, but they're very very very similar. If you want to try it, Topaz gives away 30 day free trials of all their wares so you could try it for free and decide if it was worth it to you.

I tend to use the filter on the soft light copy of the image though sometimes I use it on the "Normal" smudged copy and mask away the parts that are excessive, which are usually the facial features. (I always convert a layer to a Smart Layer before applying any filters so that I can adjust them as the icon develops. This step gives me a handy-dandy filter mask.)

For a recent competition, we were tasked to have glowy skin but perfect detail. For that, I used my same M.O. but I added a second copy of the smoothed "base" under all of the light textures, gradients, and whatnot. I gaussian blurred it and set it to screen at about a 20% opacity. I prefer not to blur out details but to show you the diff, here's "my" style first and the contest style second:

Not a huge difference, I grant you, but that's the 5% I'm talking about being able to "bring out" in the final icon.

ETA: Did I answer your question? I think it got lost in there, in my rambling. If I didn't, please let me know and I'll take another stab at it. :)

Edited (Realized I might or might not have answered question) Date: 2014-06-09 07:15 pm (UTC)

From:

anirishlullaby

Sorry it took me FOREVER (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) to respond to this! I read it as soon as you posted it and have been thinking on it ever since I swear! I just didn't reply immediately which I really shouldn't do because it usually means I forget to in general, OOPS. Anyway!

I'M STILL SUCH A FAN OF YOURS! Don't minimize your talent! You can't convince me of it! ;-)

I think all of what you say here makes A LOT of sense. I especially love your approach to using the smoothing button or whatever you call it (I'm so technical it's awesome). I really need to try that more in my icons and graphics - it works so so so well on yours! Seriously, AMAZING. I just remember this one I have of yours that's Chris Argent and it's seriously PHENOMENAL. I'm guessing you used this tactic for making it among other genius things.

Paint daubs is another new approach that I've been trying lately. I'm sure that you guys have it down WAY better than I do. The more I try the closer I'll be to getting there though, right? I hope! :)

I also love the idea of painting onto icons. I just suck at it -sadface- oh well. Maybe I'll get better at that someday too!

THANKS SO MUCH for your response! I really loved it! I hope to see many many many more of your icons in the very near future! I'll be saving tons! :D <3

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