Why is iconning so much harder than vidding?

[frayadjacent]

Maybe I have no internal sense of composition. I know I rarely brighten my icons enough. Also, with vidding I'm much more excited to learn the technical skills needed to do a decent job. When I icon I just want to hurry up and have something good without having to look at photoshop tutorials or whatnot.

Anyway, I've forever wanted an Anya "I'm so pleased" icon because that phrase, with her voice saying it, is always in my head. So I made a couple today and they are meh. It's hard to see her face -- 100x100 is so tiny! But if I cropped more you wouldn't see the money and her funny hand gestures.

  ETA: 

I'm not fishing for complements! If anything, I'm fishing for patient explanations as to what I'm doing wrong. Maybe it's my cap choice.

(BTW, that first one uses a texture that someone else made -- goodbyebird, was that you? I'm sorry I didn't take note to properly give credit! Not that I'm doing much with these.)

ETA: I worked a bit more on the second one -- brightening it up around her face, fiddling with the background, tilting the text, and I do like this better. Huh.

Comments

[endeni]

Yay, she's so happy! *g* Love Anya! ;)
/100x100 is so tiny! But if I cropped more you wouldn't see the money and her funny hand gestures./ - Yes, that can be so frustrating!
For quick results I use http://www.picmonkey.com/
Once uploaded the icon to edit the first thing to do to make it more vivid is click in the "auto adjust" button on top of the "Basic Edits" part. Also, enhancing a bit the "Sharpness" and "Clarity" in the "Sharpen" button is super useful.
Then if you're feeling fancy you can play around a bit with the "Effects" section. ;)

[goodbyebird]

Iconning Buffy is super hard tho! Seasoned iconners have trouble there. But if you don't want to get fancy, one or two screen layers, then copy+merge or just copy the base layer, put it on top on soft light.

If there's something in particular you want to brighten/draw attention to after that, make a layer underneath the top one, use a small brush and paint with white where you want it brightened, gaussian blur it and set it to soft light, adjusting opacity(you can use pale yellow for hair, and a pale beige/peach if you're brightening the skin of a PoC).

No clue, I don't remember what those textures looked like lol. Don't worry about it!

*looks at her happy face some more*

[frayadjacent]

Thanks! I'm working with photoshop so in theory I should be able to make pretty things! But, ugh, effort and learning, what even are they.

I do probably need to sharpen more! I sometimes find the really high contrast not-as-pretty, but without it everything kinda gets washed out.

[frayadjacent]

Heh, you're very sweet with your re-assurances about Seasoned Iconners, but LOOK AT THAT ICON YOU'RE USING (and the one I'm using!). Anya's features are well-defined, but it doesn't have that roughness I always get when I sharpen or do a soft light layer. How does this even work?

But if you don't want to get fancy, one or two screen layers, then copy+merge or just copy the base layer, put it on top on soft light.

Yeah, I more or less did that (two screen layers + one soft light layer at ~20% opacity -- soft light always makes my icons so orangy tho).

If there's something in particular you want to brighten/draw attention to after that, make a layer underneath the top one, use a small brush and paint with white where you want it brightened, gaussian blur it and set it to soft light, adjusting opacity(you can use pale yellow for hair, and a pale beige/peach if you're brightening the skin of a PoC).

Damn you totally taught me this like 6 months ago and I went and forgot. I used a white/transparent gradient layer to brighten her face, but doing what you suggest would have been better because I could have placed it right over her face and not have it putting those green splotches on her collar and whatnot.

[frayadjacent]

Oh! I followed your suggestions and did a few more things and I have something I'm much happier with now!

It's a good face. :D

[endeni]

Eheh, PS is the best of course! ;)

[goodbyebird]

Yay! :D

And if you ever want a cheat sheet of pointers and now have to read through lengthy tutorials, there's always the top posts on smallbatchicons' tips & tricks tag.

SO PLEASED!!

[goodbyebird]

lol that's actually one of my earlier icons, so amused you'd use that as an example, but I do remember going omg this doesn't suck when I first made it. One of the first icons I felt that way about. Keeping it around for sentimental reasons ;) (and Anya's face, which yes, it is a good face)

I forget just about everything always, but the blob trick has stuck with me! (I didn't notice the green splotches until you pointed it out tho; they covered her entire sweater area, so it fit right in hah)

[goodbyebird]

oh oh, with sharpening older shows especially, I tend to do some skin smoothing with the blur tool set to about 7%, on the full size cap.

Three other Trouble With Sharpening Tips:
1. Icon in 200x200, and then make it 100x100, fix what looks blurry/washed out after.
2. Use selective color, go to gray and up the blacks. Mask out stuff you don't want darkened, but this is brilliant for contours and eyes, etc.
3. You don't have to apply your sharpening to the entire icon. Just erase or use the smoothing tool on what looks jagged.

Sharpening is SO HARD tho. Gives me trouble still.

[next_to_normal]

LOL that is hilarious to me, because I feel like, if I can icon, any idiot can do it, but vidding is OMG SUPER HARD, like I have ideas for vids but I wouldn't even attempt to make one because I don't even know where to START.

But yeah, I feel you. I usually end up brightening and sharpening everything to death because it bothers me that it's so TINY and hard to see details like facial expressions. Also, Buffy is a TERRIBLE show for iconning, because the picture quality is so bad and dark, especially in the early seasons.

The third icon is my favorite, too. I like the coloring in the first one best, but it's the text that makes the difference, I think? The slant matches the angled line of the table, makes it feel less static.

[frayadjacent]

Yeah, I really need to remember this next time I feel like I can't icon and go whining to DW about it. :D Thank you!

[frayadjacent]

It's great! (But you're referring to the Anya one, not the Buffy beer one, right? So many of your icons floating around right now!)

[frayadjacent]

Weird, one time I iconned in 200x200 and the results were horribly over-sharpened looking. I think that part of that was that Photoshop doesn't play nice with my retina screen on my Mac, so everything looks tiny. That's why I was using 200x200, but it still was pretty small on my screen. I've since discovered that handy old zoom feature. ;)

That's really good to know about the blur on the full size cap. I will try to remember that!

Thanks for all these tips! You are awesome.

And seriously, Buffy, that is NOT mom hair. (Though she does dress the most like a grown up in S7, and I like it!)

[frayadjacent]

heh, I was probably being a bit hyperbolic, but not much. I mean at this point I've probably made more icons than vids (though I've never posted an icon to a comm) but I'm still pretty mediocre at it! Whereas I'm pretty happy with my vidding lately. I think it's all in where you put in the energy to practice and learn.

Your icons are gorgeous, whenever I want new ones I go looking through your posts in all the comms as one of my first stops. :D

I agree about the third icon I made, and I improved on it a bit more thanks to goodbyebird's coaching, so I'm pretty happy with it now.

But yeah. Why so tiny, icons? Why so dark, show?

(Also, if you ever decide you *do* want to make a vid, I will gladly point you toward technical help and tutorials for people getting started.)

[next_to_normal]

Aww, you are too kind!

And lol, thanks for the offer, but the last thing I need is another fannish thing to take up all my time. (This is what happened with icons - I was all, "I will not get sucked in! I DO NOT HAVE TIME for this!" and then I got sucked in.)

[frayadjacent]

Hee hee, there is definitely lots of sucking.