People Put Effort Into Making Icons? Shocking!

[cynicalshadows]

There was a discussion over at thesovereignty today about elite icon challenge communities. I don't really feel one way or another about them, so I was just skimming through the responses. And then I ran across this little remark:

and really, i mean, they're livejournal icons. that's probably the most trivial thing on the internet to get all worked up over

Which

Comments

[scifishipper]

Now I know why your icons are so interesting. I'm not yet talented enough to combine caps into amazing singular images. You work hard and fast on the icons, my dear, and you should received credit.

Personally, I don't mind if people use my icons or bases. And I don't really care about credit. I might get pissed if someone took one of mine and lied about creating it, generally, I'm just flattered that someone would think enough of an icon of mine to use it.

That said, I do respect the hard work that goes into icons and always credit with I can (and even feel a smidge guilty when I use one with no findable creator).

If I need to virtually kick someone's ass for stealing and lying about one of my icons, I'll call team badass -- one Ms. Cynicalshadows, tyvm. :)

[cynicalshadows]

Give yourself time and keep trying. You will get there. It took me a solid year to be able to figure out how to do some of the stuff I can do now. It just takes a lot of experimenting and practice, practice, practice because Photoshop definitely has a learning curve. I wish I could show you some of the first icons I made (and never posted because they were god awful) but they were on my old laptop which died this summer and I'd never bothered to back them up. :( Believe me though, they were BAD and for the longest time I couldn't even figure out how to get text on an icon because I kept trying to out it on a locked layer. *facepalm*

[scifishipper]

That is very encouraging. I do see a positive progression in my icons and need to keep that in mind when I get frustrated. I thought my last batch for karastillness was an important style progression for me (kara and the prez). I also really liked some of the icons I did for bsg_20in20.

Do you usually have a vision for your icons or do you experiment until you find something that works?

[cynicalshadows]

Honestly, most of the time I have no idea what I want my icons to look like. The one I'm using now is an exception. I remembered the paint sex dream and I was like I want an icon with Kara and Leoben getting it on with the mandala in the background! Then I looked for caps and realized that you never actually see all three of them at once so I had to blend three pics to get the image I wanted.

Usually when I am making icons, I just look at whatever the challenge is (cause I pretty much just make icons for challenges) and then look through lots and lots of caps, setting aside all of those that I find visually interesting. Then I narrow it down to the five I like best and go from there. I experiment a LOT. I throw on dozens of layers and then play with them to see what looks good and delete the ones that don't. I also mess around a lot with the layer settings and opacities.

And I agree that your icons are improving. Your set for bsg_20in20 is really nice with some excellent crops. Have you got your entries for karastillness in?

[stripes13]

dude, your icon skillz amaze me....seriously. i could never imagine having the patience or know how to do the things you do with caps, coloring, etc.

that said, i am impressed by your ranting

[cynicalshadows]

Thank you. It seriously took me a year to figure out how to make icons like the ones I make now. Photoshop have a major learning curve.

[amidala_thrace]

As someone who barely has enough Photoshop skills to crop an image to the right size and slap some ugly-looking text on it, I am continually amazed by the talent I see in the icon contests I moderate. I challenge anyone who says that they are "only icons" to try making their own! I bet they'll come back shaking their heads in defeat pretty darned quick.

And really, what's the big deal about giving credit? Some people want it, some people don't, and I respect the decision of the icon-maker either way, but I would much prefer to take a few extra seconds to type somebody's name and be honest about it than not. Sooner or later it'll always come back and bite you, as most lies do.

Same with fanfic and plagiarism. I would rather write my own story legitimately and honestly and get praise on the basis of that, as opposed to copy/pasting someone else's stuff, have the truth come out afterwards, and suffer the humiliation of folks knowing I was a fake. I really don't understand people sometimes. >.>

[cynicalshadows]

One of the main reasons I started doing icon contests is that I loved seeing how other people interpret the prompts and because they continually challenged my skills. Regardless of who wins, I find myself getting a little better with every round and I consider that incentive enough to participate.

[isisizabel]

Preach it, sister! I know a lot of people think icons are easy to make, but there is a lot of effort and layering that goes into them. I have no clue how people can crank out 20-50 icons a day. Maybe I'm deficient or something, because it would take me days to make that many that looked decent.

Cropping is a BITCH. I love the lighting/gradients/etc., but usually once I get done cropping a set of icons I need a break before I can even think of touching them again.

Stealing people's art (icons, manips, banners, etc.) is seriously not cool. I even get miffed when I see someone's icon page and NONE OF THE ICONS ARE CREDITED. Even if none of them are mine - someone worked damn hard to make them! They deserve the recognition.

And don't even get me started on hotlinking...

[cynicalshadows]

Yeah, the people who can churn out mass icons every day floor me. I have no idea how they do it. I usually only work on one icon at a time and it still takes me ages to get it to a place where I'm happy with it. I can't imagine doing it in big batches like some people are able to do.

And yes, lack of crediting always bothers me. It is so easy to do, and I know that a lot of the time when I see someone with a cool icon, I look to see who made it, and then I check out the rest of that person's work. If the person doesn't credit, I won't be able to do that.

And hotlinkers need to die.

[redbrunja]

Word.

On a less specific level, I don't understand the fandom self-repudiation of various works (fanfic, icons, etc).

It's like people are ashamed of what they love, so they refuse to admit that it's something to take seriously. (or that you can take it seriously, or that it has a validity of its own).

Does that make sense?

[cynicalshadows]

It makes total sense. A lot of people act like being a part of fandom is a shameful secret, or that spending time making graphics or writing fanfic is some that they shouldn't be proud of because it is fandom related. To which I say bullshit. So you wrote a story that you can't publish it and make money off of, but you still wrote it. It's still something that you created even if the original characters or plot weren't created by you. And you know who else lifted other people's characters and plots and made them into his own works? Shakespeare! People don't insinuate that he was wasting his time.

[redbrunja]

*nods*

I must admit I sometimes feel like fandom is a shameful secret, and I don't talk about it with many people IRL, but I certainly don't project my issues onto everyone else and derogate their work because I'm insecure about what a humungous geek I am.

It's still something that you created even if the original characters or plot weren't created by you. And you know who else lifted other people's characters and plots and made them into his own works? Shakespeare! People don't insinuate that he was wasting his time.

Exactly. In a lot of way fanfic and fandom is a return to a more communal, "oral"* way of telling stories

*oral as in we're telling them to each other and remediating the stories and putting our on spin of them, not that we're literally speaking to each other.