Challenge 2x14 Results

[yvi]

The 6-way-tie on question 2 has finally been broken :D I hereby present you the winners of challenge 2x14 "We Ain't Square":

Embodiment of style

First place:

by kerravonsen

Second place:

by yvi

Third place:

by kerravonsen

I Just Like It

First place:

by yvi


by yvi


by kerravonsen



Thank you, everyone for participating and voting! The vote was incredibly close this time. I have now revealed the entries in the challenge entry post.

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

Also, I would like o know what you think about banners for the challenge winners? I would be willing to try my hand at them for the next rounds.

Comments

[kerravonsen]

Thank you all!

The Jareth icon was based on a glass-ball tutorial (http://www.gimptalk.com/forum/glass-ball-creation-using-gimp-t20533.html). I chose the colour for the ball by picking a colour from the Jareth image. I removed the background from the Jareth image and shrunk it and added it in just below the "highlight" layer. Then I added a layer mask and did a radial gradient in it, from white to black, so that it would fade out. Then I tweaked that layer with Levels, to make the white part whiter so that his face was clearer.

With the "Show, Don't Tell" icon, I was trying for a stained-glass effect.
1. I made a large octagonal brush for the octogon, centred on the image, and done in black on transparent. Hide this layer.
2. Alpha to selection.
3. Selection to border, size 2 pixels.
4. New transparent layer, bucket fill. That's the outside border.
5. New layer, gradient fill with a nice purple-to-cyan gradient which I had prepared earlier.
6. I tried various filters, from posterize to pixellate to crystalize, to try to get the stained-glass look, and now I can't remember which one I settled for in the end, though I think it was crystalize (which is a plugin, not a standard filter).
7. Add layer mask, alpha-to-selection of the original octagon, invert selection, bucket fill black to the layer mask, so that only the octogon part shows.
8. Duplicate layer, edge-detect. Then play with levels and contrast and threshold to get the edges as black-on-white. Set layer to Multiply.
9. Duplicate the stained-glass layer, and play with levels and brightness-contrast to make it a little darker.
10. Alpha to selection on the original octogon layer. Shrink the selection by 10 pixels or so.
11. Select the layer-mask of the darker stained-glass layer. Bucket fill with black so the centre of the layer is transparent. Make sure the darker stained-glass layer is above the lighter one.
12. New transparent layer. Bucket fill black.
13. Shrink selection by 1 pixel. Delete. Now there should be a 1-pixel frame between the dark and the light stained glass.
14. The text was, I think, using the Plasmatic font. Text in white.
15. Alpha to selection (or text-to-path, path-to-selection). Grow selection by 1 pixel.
16. New transparent layer. Bucket fill black. Move underneath the text layer.
17. To make it more like glass, I actually made the text transparent, but you may prefer to leave it white. Text layer, alpha to selection.
18. For the other layers, add or update layer masks with bucket fill black to make the text shape transparent.

I think that's about it.