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Digest - 21 Feb 2012 to 22 Feb 2012 (#2012-19)

Wed, 22 Feb 2012

There are 3 messages totalling 179 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. Faction icons (2)
  2. Offlist: Re: [FORKNI-L] Faction icons

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:28:25 -0500
From:    Greer Watson <gwatson2@r.......>
Subject: Faction icons

Thanks everyone!  I'm glad the icons seem to be hitting the spot.

Yes, they do take a fair time to do.  As in hours--though some take longer
than others.

Part of the time is prep.  I have quite a collection of free graphics; and
that supplies me with quite a lot (such as the hearts I used for the
Valentines and Immortal Beloveds), though I have to search through to find
things that are useful.  However, I've been swiping a lot of things hither
and yon, googling for this and that.  Then I trim out the bit I want.
Sometimes I also have to tweak the colour.  For example, I may use a filter
to get the colour tones to match:  things photographed in daylight, at
night, or in artificial light all look different; but the elements in the
icon have to look unified.

Of course, I also have to find the *perfect* screencap; and, although once
or twice I've known exactly which one I want to use, that's usually not the
case.  I'm using Nancy's screen captures, many of which I've cropped,
rotated, and sorted already.  However, there's still a lot of searching....
Each selection has to be trimmed round to remove the background as
completely as possible, and then saved as a bitmap.  Sometimes I have to
fill in missing bits:  all too often, the top of the hair is missing, or a
bit of sleeve, or the like.  As long as it's not much, I can copy over bits
until I've covered in the gap.

Sometimes, there's pre-assembly.  For example, with the Valentines icon, I
had to rotate the heart in two different directions and then overlap them;
and *then* I had to work out a way to add a stake at a suitable angle so it
would "pierce" both hearts.  When I was finished, the assembled faction
symbol was treated as single design unit in making the icon.

At some point, I have to do a logo for the name of the faction.  This means
picking a suitable font.  The letters then usually have to be drawn over and
outlined (perhaps several times), pixel by pixel.  Outlining helps to
prevent the colour of the logo bleeding into the background when the icon is
JPEGed and miniaturized.  Otherwise, this bleeding would blur the edges of
the letters.  Outlining them increases the legibility of the faction name
when the icon is reduced in size

Once a version is assembled, the design elements may still need to be
shifted around to position them better.  Alterations, such as shifts in
position or size, can be tricky, though--especially if there's a patterned
background.  You see, it's almost impossible to pick up and move something
(say, the screen capture) without also shifting a bit of the background.
That's no problem if the icon's on black or some solid colour, because all I
need to do is fill in the space.  However, if I've shifted part of a
pattern, it's very hard to put it back where it belongs!  To help with this,
I often make the background separately.  Then I work all the layout on a
white background, and save *that* separately.  Then, I can overlay the
layout on the background, and save the result under a new name.  If a change
is needed (and it always is!), I'm then able to go back a step, make the
alterations to the layout alone, and then fit it together with the
background again.   The extra steps are time consuming; but using a
patterned background can sometimes be very effective.   The icon for the
FoDs, for example, has a background of pale beige kitchen tiles.  By making
the layout and the tiled background separately, I could tweak each without
having to redo everything from scratch.

I've been working with "canvases" of 800 to 1200 pixels square.  Each time I
hope I've got something that *may* work, I reduce it to icon size.    I
generally wind up doing this several times before I arrive at the version
that *you* get to see!


Greer

gwatson2@r.......
http://www.foreverknight.org/FK4/

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:36:46 -0500
From:    Greer Watson <gwatson2@r.......>
Subject: Faction icons

Tim Phillips wrote:

> If you are taking requests, I am very curious to see the Dark Perk logo.


I'm not exactly "taking requests"--but I still might get inspired by
suggestions!   So anyone who has an icon they're dying to see, do please say
so.  (You won't be the first to ask.)

In this case, though, you're in luck.  I had two Perky ideas, so I did two
icons.  I gave the coffee-flavoured one to the original Perkulators; and
it's already been posted.  The other one I wanted to run past Cousin Mary
first.  There was one particular thing she didn't like the way I'd done; and
I wound up redoing the icon a couple of times.  It will be up soon.


Greer

gwatson2@r.......
http://www.foreverknight.org/FK4/

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:08:04 -0800
From:    Laurie of the Isles <laudon1228@y.......>
Subject: Offlist: Re: [FORKNI-L] Faction icons


That is quite an undertaking!  Thank you for doing all of this!

Laurie of the Isles
Laudon1228@y.......
http://1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com/
http://1-mad-squirrel.dreamwidth.org/ Om Tare Tutarre Ture Soha

________________________________
From: Greer Watson <gwatson2@r.......>
To: FORKNI-L@l.......
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 5:28 AM
Subject: [FORKNI-L] Faction icons

Thanks everyone!  I'm glad the icons seem to be hitting the spot.

Yes, they do take a fair time to do.  As in hours--though some take longer
than others.

Part of the time is prep.  I have quite a collection of free graphics; and
that supplies me with quite a lot (such as the hearts I used for the
Valentines and Immortal Beloveds), though I have to search through to find
things that are useful.  However, I've been swiping a lot of things hither
and yon, googling for this and that.  Then I trim out the bit I want.
Sometimes I also have to tweak the colour.  For example, I may use a filter
to get the colour tones to match:  things photographed in daylight, at
night, or in artificial light all look different; but the elements in the
icon have to look unified.

Of course, I also have to find the *perfect* screencap; and, although once
or twice I've known exactly which one I want to use, that's usually not the
case.  I'm using Nancy's screen captures, many of which I've cropped,
rotated, and sorted already.  However, there's still a lot of searching....
Each selection has to be trimmed round to remove the background as
completely as possible, and then saved as a bitmap.  Sometimes I have to
fill in missing bits:  all too often, the top of the hair is missing, or a
bit of sleeve, or the like.  As long as it's not much, I can copy over bits
until I've covered in the gap.

Sometimes, there's pre-assembly.  For example, with the Valentines icon, I
had to rotate the heart in two different directions and then overlap them;
and *then* I had to work out a way to add a stake at a suitable angle so it
would "pierce" both hearts.  When I was finished, the assembled faction
symbol was treated as single design unit in making the icon.

At some point, I have to do a logo for the name of the faction.  This means
picking a suitable font.  The letters then usually have to be drawn over and
outlined (perhaps several times), pixel by pixel.  Outlining helps to
prevent the colour of the logo bleeding into the background when the icon is
JPEGed and miniaturized.  Otherwise, this bleeding would blur the edges of
the letters.  Outlining them increases the legibility of the faction name
when the icon is reduced in size

Once a version is assembled, the design elements may still need to be
shifted around to position them better.  Alterations, such as shifts in
position or size, can be tricky, though--especially if there's a patterned
background.  You see, it's almost impossible to pick up and move something
(say, the screen capture) without also shifting a bit of the background.
That's no problem if the icon's on black or some solid colour, because all I
need to do is fill in the space.  However, if I've shifted part of a
pattern, it's very hard to put it back where it belongs!  To help with this,
I often make the background separately.  Then I work all the layout on a
white background, and save *that* separately.  Then, I can overlay the
layout on the background, and save the result under a new name.  If a change
is needed (and it always is!), I'm then able to go back a step, make the
alterations to the layout alone, and then fit it together with the
background again.   The extra steps are time consuming; but using a
patterned background can sometimes be very effective.   The icon for the
FoDs, for example, has a background of pale beige kitchen tiles.  By making
the layout and the tiled background separately, I could tweak each without
having to redo everything from scratch.

I've been working with "canvases" of 800 to 1200 pixels square.  Each time I
hope I've got something that *may* work, I reduce it to icon size.    I
generally wind up doing this several times before I arrive at the version
that *you* get to see!


Greer

gwatson2@r.......
http://www.foreverknight.org/FK4/


------------------------------

End of FORKNI-L Digest - 21 Feb 2012 to 22 Feb 2012 (#2012-19)
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Knight graphics and parchment background created by Melissa Snell and may be found at http://historymedren.about.com/