My first “Battlestar galactica” icons

[alexandral]

Kara/Lee is my obsession and the reason I have joined LJ (that and queenofthorns Leecaps), I love them together and separately, but will never forgive Ron Moore if they don’t become one.
*writes a letter to Ron Moore*

I LOVE the way they always stand SO close when they speak and look into each other’s eyes. It makes my knees week every time..

Thank you very much, ginger001 , your icons are so lovely, really inspiring. Credits for brushes : magicalicons and twinklebyte.

Icons form season 2 below, they are not particular spoilerish; if you would like to take any, please leave a comment.

I would appreciate comments very much, good and critical..
* If you think they are no good, just tell me* ;)

Examples:
1-2-3


4-5-6

7-8-9

Comments

[koalathebear.livejournal.com]

Mmm very nice, I like #6 the most.

... but you know where my sentiments lie ;)

Thanks for sharing!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!!!

[fried-flamingo.livejournal.com]

Your icons are very pretty. Thank you for posting them

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much

[ancarett]

I really like #6. I think the best icons are where the flourishes don't overwhelm or contrast too sharply with the softness of the image (i.e. 1 and 4 are more to my liking than 2 and 5).

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much, it is a great help, i think i am SO obsessed with icon-making, though never done anything like this before. I have 2 weeks holidays and all i am doing - making icons!!!

[rebellious-love.livejournal.com]

I love number 9. It's a great picture and the text is placed really well.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!!

[gobi-rex.livejournal.com]

I like no.3 and 6. I agree with ancarett that it's better when the flourishes don't contrast too much with the main image. And I really like the coloring.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Yes, definitely, i have started with the idea of pictures with flourishes, but as I was making them I also realised that I like better the ones without..

Thank you!!!!

[ginger001]

Very, very nice icons!!!! Great job!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

O, thank you so much, you know, your icons made me want to make some myself, honestly

[ginger001]

I feel so honored you think that! *blush* Thank you very much! I just have to say that you are improving quite fast!! Congratulations and keep making more!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

OOOOO, i willlllllll !!!! I am going to make some "House of the flying daggers", i have seen it before, but talking this morning with you and koalathebear made me run strait into the rental place and borrow it again...

[ginger001]

I know the feeling!! I'm working in some Elizabeth I icons and want to make some from House of Flying Daggers and Chinese Odyssey 2002... but I really don't know in which mood I will be when I want to make the next bunch so it may be Elizabeth I and something else but don't know what ;)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Yes! I feel like my head is full of ideas at the moment, but IT TAKES ME SO LONG to do anything somewhere close to likeable..;(

[ginger001]

It takes a lot of time sometimes to make the icons... and others you are so inspired that they are done really quick, you will see ;)

Anyway, as I told you, they take time, actually.

[raedances.livejournal.com]

I like your muted color schemes, but I agree with those who said that sometimes the flourishes are competing with the image. The primary thing I noticed, however, is the over sharpening in 1-3. Kara's eyes look kind of creepy due to how white the highlight is in her eye. There's a more subtle artifact on her upper lip, likely from the same processing that produced the look in her eyes. You can see a similar effect in 2-6, on the outline of Kara's face. Playing with the contrast and levels is HARD, especially when you're starting from screencaps! These are a good start, though!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

O, thank you so much, i like your comment very much - this is just what i think as well (plus flourishes thing). The 7-8-9 was my first batch and i was playing with it for a long time, sharpening, brightening/contrasting, blurring bits, checking how it is going to look on the other monitors at the Uni (i have some weird monitors at home) and so on. In the 1-2-3 i blurred the skin, but didn't do a good job with the eyes, and as well in 4-5-6 outlines ..

Thank you for your comment!!!!!!!!!!

[raedances.livejournal.com]

Are you using Photoshop for these? If so, you may want to start playing with the Levels and Curves panels. They're probably two of the scariest looking panels in the program, but that of course means they're among the most powerful tools! They're really great for screen caps where the image starts out very dark and grainy. If you're unfamiliar with those options, I'm happy to help out.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Wow!!!!!!!

I WOULD LOVE YOU to help me out! I am using Photoshop 5.5, but i think that i will be able to get a newer version when i am back to work as a part of the work license..

I have tried to use Levels and Curves, i think in particular in the 4-5-6 batch as it was VERY dark and out of focus. I did some "Levels" on 4-5-6 to get that colour.

I like very much a shot from "Colonial day", but whatever i did i just could not rid of some purple spot on Lee's cheek.

[raedances.livejournal.com]

Photoshop 5.5 should be no different in terms of Levels and Curves.

The idea behind Levels is that you're tightening the spectrum of the image. You've got three sliders, representing your "black," "white," and "grey" tones, and then you've got that handy graph, showing you where things are actually falling. In a balanced image, you'll see the graph spread from one end to the other, in a screen cap, though, you're most likely to see everything slammed towards the left (black) side of the spectrum.

What this means is that there is no actual "white" in your image. It's like white balancing a camera - you have to tell photoshop where "white" is on the spectrum, and then it will adjust everything accordingly. If you slide the white slider left (usually, but not always, to where the graph actually starts) you'll see a big improvement. Unlike "Brightness" which makes everything brighter/whiter in a uniform way, "Levels" is magic, and tightens the whole spectrum, leaving your darks dark, adjusting your mids, and brightening your whites. (Sounds like laundry, doesn't it?)

I'll tackle curves in a seperate post, since I just got a stack of proofs on my desk!

[raedances.livejournal.com]

Okay, Curves. Probably the single most useful thing in Photoshop, and the most confusing at first. Let's see if I can even articulate what it does.

Okay, you've got your line, which by default will run from the upper right to the lower left. As with Levels, you can think of right being your whites and left being your darks. Basically, you'll create points and drag those to turn your line into a series of *drumroll* curves. I would be hard pressed to explain the magic, but basically, moving your line towards the upper left will brighten and towards the lower right will darken. Curves is a GREAT way to fix some of the weird color casts in screencaps.

For example, I find that most screencaps tend to be overly yellow. I found this to be especially true while trying to make my *Shags the CAG* icon. Those caps will lighten (begrudgingly) but they come out VERY yellow. Now, if you look at them closely, you'll notice that it's not uniformly yellow. You could change the Hue/Saturation sliders and make everything more blue, but then you'll just have an opposing problem. This is where the magic of Curves wins. If you pull up Curves and select Blue instead of All, you can pull the line up and left (very slightly) from the middle, the will make your midtones more blue/less yellow, and leave your darks and lights alone.

Does that kind of make sense? The only way to even begin to understand this is to just play around with it, but it helps to have a direction to head in! Let me know if you have any other questions, if I can't answer them, I'll certainly know someone who will!!!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Does that kind of make sense?

You explain very well, i understood it all!!!!!!!!!!!
I appreciate your help very much, thank you!!!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I just was thinking if what i wrote came of the right way...

I meant - you made it very easy to understand, it was puzzling me before, i think that i was trying to use Hue/Saturation separately from Curves and could not figure out what to do...

I like you "Shag the cag" icon very much ;)))

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

O, i just have tried Layers/Curves - it is magic!! Thank you so much, can i add you to the list of my friends? (you don't have to say yes...)

[raedances.livejournal.com]

Sure! I'll add you back!

[run-atreyu.livejournal.com]

I really like them. I've swiped several, and will credit if I use them. Thank you!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!!

[trinnifer.livejournal.com]

Those are pretty! Nice job.

I was wondering, would it be too much to ask you if I could maybe have the bases you used for those? They're wonderfully cropped! I'm not so good at cropping icons.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! It is not a problem at all - i will post bases as soon as i am at home, i am at the uni now and they firewall ftp ;((

I am so glag you like the croppings - i am a bit obsessive-compulsive ;) and tend to spend a lot of time screencapping and cropping...

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Here they are:

[nancy777ca.livejournal.com]

These are beautiful!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Thank you