DimensIcons

I don't own emotion, I rent.

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 16:42:07 GMT

This whole posting once a month thing sucks. I'll have to do something about that. Eventually.

First half of a big Smallville batch, all from "Hidden" (have I mentioned that I loved that ep?).

S M A L L V I L L E

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And one RENT movie wallpaper, plus icons. It's kind of funny - everybody else has been counting down to November for HP, and I've been squeeing like a fangirl every time I see a new RENT trailer. Not that I'm not looking forward to GOF, but... Adam Pascal's Roger in full theater-sized glory? Guh.

1024x768 | 504k

R E N T

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Wallpaper is for personal use only. No graphics or icons from this, please.

So many fandoms, so little time.

Something wicked this way comes.

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 11:23:38 GMT

It's official - this show is my new obsession. I started watching for a couple reasons... It's a David Nutter brainchild starring Jensen Ackles. Being the diehard Jensen fan I am (Alec, how I miss you...), watching was a no-brainer.

I just didn't know I'd love it this much. I sure as hell never expected to like Sam. But I do, on both counts. It's pretty sad, really.

Don't judge me. You've all got your Lost/VeronicaMars/HarryPotter/InsertRabidFandomHere hats firmly in place. I see them.

Yes, I'm talking to you.

I suppose this would be moderately better if it was the only show I was completely infatuated with this season. But no. I'm newly-loving Prison Break and Kitchen Confidential, picked up Everwood thanks to insane Bright/Hannah cuteness that really should sicken me, and, what do you know... Smallville has sucked me back in, thanks to Lex and all his evil deliciousness. And just when you thought it couldn't be worse... I actually like Chloe.

The world must be ending.

Anyway... More icons from Supernatural 1x03, Dead in the Water. Or as I like to call it, "The Dean Chronicles." Twenty-eight total.

S U P E R N A T U R A L

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Enjoy.

A little inspired.

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 08:44:02 GMT

Some of you will inevitably view this melting pot of fandoms and wonder what the hell I was thinking, as one has nothing to do with the next. But oh well, I'm random that way. Supernatural (1x01 - Pilot, 1x03 - Dead in the Water), Rob Thomas, Kasey Kahne, and a few stray challenge entries. Thirty-two total.

S U P E R N A T U R A L

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R O B T H O M A S

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K A S E Y K A H N E

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M I S C

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23} icon_crack "Music" entry
29} purr_pleh "Famous Last Words" entry - Angel, "A Hole in the World"
31} icon_crack "Serenity" entry - Lost, "The Greater Good"
32} icon_crack "Silence is Golden" entry - Christina Aguilera

On another note... for some reason, I thought Fall TV was going to be a real struggle. But I missed the premiere of Kitchen Confidential (dammit!), was fairly disappointed by How I Met Your Mother, and Invasion is painful. Like, god-awful. Luckily, Supernatural has lived up to the hype, Prison Break is still promising, and House is still the best thing on TV. Almost.

Yeah, I'm one of the folks who didn't think the Lost premiere blew.

And that's about it for my roster. Don't watch Alias or Veronica Mars, gave up on Smallville long ago, and I haven't been sucked into the Desperate Housewives madness.

Here's hoping Grey's Anatomy won't suck.

Pimping... darkest_horses, because it doesn't suck a bit.

Blah blah blah.

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 10:17:31 GMT

Finally found the time to customize my poor journal. Default Flexible Squares is no more!

And, as if that wasn't enough... I come bearing icons. How novel.

Lost icons from "Exodus" and the UK print promos, a small batch from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and a few random squares from icon contests past. Twenty-three total.

L O S T

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H A R R Y P O T T E R

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M I S C

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20} Second place at ros_stillness
23} icon_crack "Addiction" entry ~ Sugar's Butch (Brendan Fehr)

Texture takeover.

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 02:24:20 GMT

My second tutorial!

I'm not going to count them, I swear.

Another Roswell result, for all the alien abyss fans out there. Done in PS7, but should translate to other versions with minimal effort. Image heavy. You've been warned.

First, select your image. I used this cap of the Pod Squad from the credits. Gotta love the silhouettes. The images are in reverse layer order - we're starting from the bottom up.


		The image itself kind of bored me, so I duplicated and rotated the cap (-40 degrees, in this case). Once I found a crop I liked, I resized the square to 100x100 and sharpened (Unsharp Mask settings: Amount - 50%, Radius - 1.0px, Threshold - 0 levels). Using the blur tool (soft-edge round, size 3, at 15%) sparingly in the background gave me this base.
		(The next two steps were borrowed from a coloring method in a tutorial by throw_elijah.) Create a new layer, and flood fill it with a deep blue (#04122A in this example). Set the layer to Exclusion, and lower the opacity to 50%.
		Create another new layer, and flood fill it with a a pale peach (#FADAC6 in this example). Set that layer to Soft Light, and lower the opacity to 75%.
		Select a fairly even texture that compliments the colors in your base. I chose this one by iconisms. Paste or drag it onto a new layer, and find a layer mode that compliments your image. Overlay, Soft Light, and burn modes compliment lighter textures on darker bases, the opposite is true for dark textures on light bases. This one is set to Multiply at 100% opacity.
		Select another texture, if the image calls for it. Here, the sky was still standing out too much for my liking. I chose a base by dearest. Again, find a layer mode that compliments your image. This one is set to Multiply at 100% opacity.
		Still too much contrast on the horizon for me. I wanted a gentle meltdown, sunset as opposed to high noon. And (just between you and me) once I found the right balance, I planned to lighten it up again. Another base by dearest, set to Multiply at 100% opacity.
		Let there be light. Again, find a texture in the same color family as your base. I couldn't decide on just one, so I took some creative license with three textures from iconisms and Evenstar, editing out all sharp, distinct points of light but one (it looked like the sun, so I thought it was nifty) and setting the layer to Screen at 100%.
		Duplicate your base (there it is, way down there under all those layers of texture). Bring it to the top and set it to Soft Light at 100% opacity. In this case, the image still looked a bit too over-textured, so I duplicated the Soft Light layer again.
		I know what you're thinking. And the answer to your unspoken question is "yes, more texture." Another one from iconisms, in fact, set on Soft Light at 100% opacity. If your icon has enough texture at this point, you can lighten uniformly at this step with a light or medium warm color, like beige or peach.
		Choose a gradient that suits your image (I used this one from teh_indy and find a layer mode you like. I needed to even out the contrast a bit, so I set this layer to Multiply at 100%.
		A texture from teh_indy (which is actually the gradient from the previous step, flipped horizontally and combined with one of her brushes in white), set to Soft Light at 100% opacity. At this point, I belatedly noticed the annoying little white spot in the upper left corner, and smudged it away on a new layer using the Rubber Stamp tool. But that was just me.
		Text time. For the caption, I used SF Movie Poster at 20pt, then rotated it along the horizon. The word isn't completely visible, but that benefits the next step.
		Flat text didn't quite work with this image, even rotated. I rasterized the text, then played with the perspective (Edit> Transform> Perspective) until the angle looked suitable and the entire word fit in the frame, and repositioned the text just below the horizon.
		Still wasn't totally satisfied, so I added a layer mask and, with a soft-edged brush at 25% opacity, painted away the top of the text until there was a smooth meltdown into the solid color. I know it looks a bit light now, but...
		I duplicated the text layer, set it to Overlay at 100% opacity, and dropped the original down to 25%. It still seemed a little too light, so I duplicated the Overlay layer and set it to 75% opacity.
		Added some tiny text ("We Come In Peace" in Arial Black caps at 1.5pt) and rotated the layer to echo the angle of the text.
		Have I ever mentioned that this gradient from crumblingwalls is my favorite one to use? It can color dramatically or very subtely. Anyway, set the gradient to Color Burn at 15% opacity.
		Create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (Hue: 85, Saturation: 25, Lightness: 0) at 35% opacity to balance the color, define the shadows, and make the highlights a little more crisp.
		Stamp a copy of your icon to a new layer. Lower the saturation to 50% and set the layer to Soft Light at 100% opacity. And voila, one alien invasion during a dusty desert sunset.

Enjoy!

Alphabet Soup.

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 06:10:40 GMT

Dropping off a new batch of Roswell goodies for icon_alphabet. Two down, one to go. I'm not entirely sure I'm cut out to icon according to guidelines, though - I kept getting sidetracked (as you'll probably be able to guess from the extra alien squares littering this post).

B is for Buddha Boy
C is for Cry Your Name ("Cry Ophelia")
D is for Destiny
E is for End of the World
J is for Journal
K is for Khivar ("Killing Me Softly")
Q is for Queen
S is for Secrets
W is for White Room ("White Out")

And as for the extras... Four more from the show, and three from the UK Lost promo. I know it's been done, over and over and over again, but... it's so damn gorgeous!

Which means, of course, that I'm not finished with it by a long shot.

Comment if taking, credit dimensicons if using.

Up for grabs.

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 14:11:18 GMT

It's a day for firsts. My first tutorial, and now my first icon resource. Fifteen light textures in PNG format.

Download | ZIP

Comment if you take, credit if you use.

The mystery of creation...

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 07:24:01 GMT

Or something like that.

I opened Photoshop with the sole intention of getting back to the business of iconing to the alphabet, but then I opened this cap by mistake, and this icon sprung fully-formed from my head.

It's funky and quirky and a little extreme, much like Maria herself, so I thought I'd write a quick tutorial on how it was done.

First, select your image. I used this cap of Maria from "So I Married an Alien". Usually I would've gone with Michael or Kyle or Isabel or... anyone but Maria, but what can I say? I liked the pretty colors.


	I cropped my base slightly off center, then toyed with the contrast and clarity (my default image prep process in a nutshell - sharpen, duplicate, set to screen, duplicate screened layer, duplicate base, move to top, lower saturation to 50%, set to soft light). Once that was done, I resized larger than my icon canvas (in this case, 130x130) so that I had room to play around with image placement.
	Duplicate the base. Set your art history brush at this stage, then desaturate. With a hard-edged round brush, replace the color in the background with the art history brush, leaving the foreground greyscale. Set the layer to color, 100% opacity.
	Dupicate the layer, set to Soft Light at 100% opacity. This will add a little extra depth to the greyscale figure and give the colors a bit more kick.
	Duplicate the original base, bring it to the top, move to an appropriate place, and set your art history brush. Then desaturate, and repeat the process of replacing the original color, in the foreground this time.
	The background is a little light for my taste. To rectify this, duplicate the new layer, carefully erase Maria so that you're left with nothing but the greyscale background, and set to multiply at 25% opacity.
	Find a light texture with colors in the same family as your image. I used this one by fightstarr. As an alternative, you can find a texture you like and alter the colors manually, using Color Balance or Hue/Saturation.
	I rotated the texture, placed it so that it complimented the image, and used the eraser in places that covered Maria's face. Set the layer to Screen.
	I wanted to increase the intensity of the light, as well as the color saturation, so I duplicated the layer and left the opacity at 100%.
	To separate the two images, I chopped, scaled, and generally mutilated a paint smear brush that was originally by crystalkirk, if I remember correctly.
	Using white (#FFFFFF) at 100% opacity, paint the brush on a new layer. Place the separator over the seam where the two frames meet.
	On a new layer, make a rectangular vertical selection, fill it with white, and align at the left side. If any parts of the background look glaring or awkward where the image meets the whitespace, use a small, soft-edged brush to paint in white and hide the spots you don't want.
	Choose a gradient. I used this one from crumblingwalls.
	Set the gradient layer to Color at 15% opacity. Still, even with the low layer opacity, the tones in her dress have lost a little of their vibrance.
	Add a layer mask to the gradient layer, and with a hard-edged brush on 100% opacity, carefully paint over Maria with a medium gray (in this example, #717171).
	As a result of the color layer, the greyscale aspects of the image have taken on the tones of the gradient. Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (Hue: 225, Saturation: 25) to counter the color and add some crispness to the highlights and shadows.
	Select a prominent color from the icon, and add some tiny text. I opted for Georgia, 1.5 point, and "Let's do the time warp again" in caps. Add an accent brush (I can't seem to remember where this one is from, so if it's yours, please let me know so that I may give credit where credit is due).

And voila, Technicolor Maria. Feel free to use the finished icon, just comment and credit if you grab it.

Be gentle, it's my first time.

Now I know my ABCs...

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 22:09:02 GMT

My first batch of squares for icon_alphabet. The theme? Why, Roswell, of course. Characters, episodes, or themes represent each letter of the alphabet. It's a cool idea, check it out.

PREVIEW:

F is for Four Square
I is for Ice Princess
L is for Liz ("Little Girl Lost")
M is for Monsters ("Mind Games")
P is for Pod Squad
U is for Uniform ("Man in Uniform")
Z is for Zan ("Half-blood Prince")

So many letters, so little time. And to think, I still have a huge number of beautifully Bale icons to do for actors100. Heh.

Pimping... good_icons, good_fanicons, and good_cropping.

Who's afraid of the big black bat?

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 03:30:53 GMT

My new obsession has reared its ugly head.

Okay, so technically, Christian Bale is an old obsession. But the brilliance that is Batman Begins is new, and that's what inspired this batch. And this is not the end...

Featuring Rob Thomas, Gina Gershon, and Angelina Jolie as well. Enjoy!

I christen thee... DimensIcons.

Fri, 24 Jun 2005 21:43:28 GMT

Well, it was only a few short days ago that I proclaimed, in my personal journal, that I didn't see the need for creating a secondary space specifically for icons.

Yeah, that's since changed.

I applied to a couple great icon communities, and after lurking on post after glorious post, I realized just how many people frequent these groups, on the hunt for little cubes of graphic greatness. And how many people would be privy to my semi-private world if I continued to have a "little bit o' everything" kind of journal. Talk about too much information.

Hence, I give you DimensIcons.

The name, by the way, is only clever if one doesn't know how long I spent trying to think of one.

I suppose I'll start off by playing catch-up, and posting a selection of older work. Read: stuff I can still stand to look at.

On the roster today - the women of Roswell, citizens of the City of Angel, and one transgenic transplant turned Smallville resident...

Enjoy, kiddies.