Challenge 2x04 Results

[kerravonsen]

The results of Challenge #2x04, Viva la Revolution! are:

Embodiment of style
First: (a tie!)
by ase
by kerravonsen

Second:
by htbthomas

Third: (three-way tie!)
by htbthomas
by merfilly
by ase

I Just Like It
First:
by ase

Second:
by htbthomas

Third: (a tie!)
by ase
by kerravonsen

Mod's choice
by htbthomas


Thank you, everyone!

I've also revealed the entries in the challenge entry post.

Now, discuss! How did you make your icons? Techniques, tips, difficulties?

Comments

[From: merfilly]

Thanks for hosting, and great job everyone!

The one of mine that did well in this is actually my less favorite, because I did not notice how blurred the type set got once I saved. My fault for saving as a jpg instead of a gif, which holds cleaner.

With this one, I took a pic, and erased all that I did not want. I set each separate word on its own layer, and then rotated the angle to where I wanted, before eventually flattening into one layer.

The other one, funnily enough, has two rotations. The picture itself was at an angle, which necessitated me straightening it in one layer, before I set the text in on another layer and rotated to the 'dog-eared' corner I had made by rotating the image in the first place.

[From: kerravonsen]

I knew I wanted to do a Luna Lovegood icon, because she is so much off in her own world, which is a bit tilted. My first idea was to try to do the scene where she says "You're not mad. I can see them too. You're just as sane as I am." But that was too many words to get the whole quote. I dithered a bit, and then it occurred to me that I could do a photo of her tilted at an angle, which turned into a portrait tilted at an angle, with her name underneath. Still showing the off-centre nature of Luna.

So, looked for Luna pics, and used the most portrait-y one.

Portrait part:
Cropped to a square. Shrunk. Pasted as new layer on my icon image. Layer to image size. Alpha to selection. Grow selection. New transparent layer. Pattern fill with a wood pattern. Move that underneath. Copy visible. Paste as new layer. Then I rotated it, and moved it up and to the right a bit.
Then I did a drop-shadow on the portrait.
There is also a very fine line (with its own shadow) which is meant to be picture wire, but it's very hard to see.
After I'd done the other parts, I realized I didn't like the way the wooden "frame" of the portrait looked, it was too flat. But I didn't want to go back and re-do the frame with a bump-map and all that in order to get the highlights and shadows for a 3D effect. So I did a quick fix which worked surprisingly well:
- colour-pick a lighter colour from the frame
- new transparent layer
- set mode to screen
- a 1-pixel line where the edges of the frame would be highlighted
- use the blur tool to blend in the highlight
Then I did the same for the shadows, picking a darker colour, and setting the layer to multiply.

The plaque with her name on it, first I did the text, then I did a new layer and did a rectangular select so that there was an equal distance around the text on all sides. I didn't like the look of that, so I made it wider, so that the plaque was 3 pixels from each edge. I tried for a long time to get the plaque to look like a brass plaque, but I couldn't get it looking right. So I settled for a brushed-metal sort of pattern. On a new layer, I did the tiny fasteners to make the ends of the plaque not look so bare. I tweaked the layer mode for that, I think it might have been grain merge. Then I did a small drop-shadow on the plaque (not as deep as the one for the portrait.

I tried several different textures for the background; originally it was just dark grey stone, but I liked the way that the blue tiles contrasted with the brown of the portrait.

[From: htbthomas]

I was so excited to see all the entries this time, and I'm very pleased to place, too!

Both of the icons were based on personal photos from my vacation this summer. The Disney one was simply cropped and colored with overlay and screen layers. Then I used two different font colors and sizes and added an outer glow script to the word "magic". Then both were merged together and rotated.

The "soar" icon was cropped and colored the same way with rotated text.

[From: yhlee]

Congrats, all! I really loved seeing all the different things that people did.