Challenge #4 Results!

[kerravonsen]

Drumroll please! The results of Challenge #4: Multiplicity are:

Embodiment of style
First:
by taibhrigh

Second:
by kerravonsen

Third: (a tie!)
by kerravonsen
by kerravonsen again!

I Just Like It
First:
by siluria

Second: (a tie)
by taibhrigh
by taibhrigh as well!

Third:
by kerravonsen

Mod's choice
by jinxed_wood because it's cool and imaginative.

Thank you, everyone!

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

Now, discuss! How, why, when, where, what...?

Comments

[kerravonsen]

Thanks, everyone, for voting for me. And as I said before, for making such great icons!

Now, a few brief words on how I made my "elements" icon.

I made the "frame" first; easy enough to make the outer border (select all, shrink selection, invert, fill) and the circle part (select circle, fill, shrink selection, delete). The four sections inside were more tricky. First, make four diagonal lines, then do a whirl-and-pinch effect where the "pinch" value is negative.

I can't remember if I did those in separate layers or in one layer, but obviously it was one layer in the end.

It wasn't until after I'd done the frame that I decided to do "Four elements" as the subject -- obvious choice, if one has four things to show; popular choice too, seeing as someone else did an "Elements" icon too.

The technique for the "element" images was (a) find a suitable image (I'm proud of the fact that all the images apart from the fire one, were from photographs I'd taken myself) (b) select a suitable area from the image (c) shrink it if necessary (d) paste it into the icon as a new layer. It probably varied when I decided to shrink the image -- whether shrinking the source image, pasting the selection as a new image and shrinking it, or pasting it into the icon and then shrinking the layer.

Nevertheless, what one has in the end is a pretty image in a layer by itself. Lower the layer until it's below the Frame layer. Move the layer around until it's positioned where you want it, under the part of the frame you want it to be in. Make the frame layer active. Use fuzzy select to select the desired "window" in the frame. Grow the selection by 1. Make the image-of-the-element layer active. Add layer mask, selecting "Selection" in the options. This should give you a layer mask where the only part of the layer that is visible is the bit you want, inside that particular section of the "frame".

Repeat for each image.

The colour blends on the corners were done by using the colour-picker to pick colours from the adjacent images, creating a new transparent layer, fuzzy select the desired corner area (grow selection by 1) and then doing a linear gradient across that section. Repeat for each corner.

I also tweaked the look of the frame a bit by overlaying some darkness and texture on the corner bits.

And then I just did the text on top.

[taibhrigh.livejournal.com]

I totally liked this! And, the fact that you got the diagonal bars to look smooth--something I always seem to have to work forever to do (and generally still don't getit right).

[kerravonsen]

Thanks!

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

They were a good group, weren't they? Congrats to all, especially lj user="taibhrigh">, that coffee one was super :)

[kerravonsen]

Yeah, that one was inspired. Simple, but effective.

[taibhrigh.livejournal.com]

thanks! It was totally inspired by the starbucks cup on my desk :)

[taibhrigh.livejournal.com]

thank you!

[jinxed-wood.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Mod's choice, ta muchly! I wasn't sure this would work, as the little squares are so small, but I like the idea of having a using a 'montage' of the different doctors.

They are lots and lots of layers in this piece, as you can imagine, and I spent ages trying to pick an element from each Doctor that would be recognisable that small (I'm not sure if that was a 100% success) I also used the 'sharpening' tool quite a lot,and fiddled with the contrast levels of each section, so that the different images 'fitted' better (not very good at explaining this, am I? I promise I won't use the word 'fiddle' again!)

I actually devised my own brush, for the 'grid' framework, and I'm proud of the way I integrated the image of Ten into the icon, but I have a funny feeling this may worked better as a banner image, rather than an icon - don't care, though, I had such fun making it:-)

[siluria]

Thanks so much for the votes!! :) I found it really very difficult to narrow down my choice for what to vote for. Embodiment of style certainly was one of the hardest because all icons were great responses to the challenge, and part of it came down to trying to balance what I liked, with what I thought was a great style... not easy so well done to everyone! I know I found it quite difficult trying to come up with a theme and I changed so many icons, I think I made more for this than any other challenge. Well done to all the entries as well as the winners!

With the wolf icon, it started as a blend of the wolf picture, a full moon and a graveyward... then I checked up on the rules and realised I'd have to start again :) I liked the idea though so found images of the phases of the moon and selected the three that I thought would work the best. I fiddled with so many different configurations before I decided simple was best, and just set the phases as stacked images to the side. The originals were a bit grey, so I picked the bright blue from the wolf background and recoloured the moons to match. With the wolf it was just a case of saturating the image, playing around with hues and contrasts until it stood out as a silouette.

[taibhrigh.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I loved the wolf icon...even tempted to steal it {g}--except that you made my current wolf icon too :)

[siluria]

You can always steal anything of mine, anytime, no need to ask :) And I thank you! And you know I loved your coffee icon, even though I have one of my own :)

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

It is absolutely beautiful...

[siluria]

:) Thank you very much hun!! And how did I guess Ezra was yours?! ;)

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

{snicker} I hide my thing about him really well, don't I? (and those cell bars turned out to be a bitch to work round, worse luck...)

[siluria]

M7 isn't the easiest of shows to get good caps from I have to admit. And cell bars are never easy but you did a great job!

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

[taibhrigh.livejournal.com]

Thank you all for the votes!!

The rain icon came about, well, it was raining and I thought "hmmm, rain...I wonder..." Deciding on how to crop the images was the big decision--vertical vs horizontal. And, I didn't even think about diagonal (go kerravonsen for that one!)

[kerravonsen]

I liked the rain one because it showed a progression from where the rain comes from to where the rain arrives to, and of course horizontal alignment is logical for that.