LIMS CHEAT SHEET, LAWL. (not rly)
Attention animanga_lims soldiers! So I'm currently very sick, bored, and am eating cough drops like they're candy -- so I did this thing to distract me. XD This is originally for a friend, but then I started to ramble like a whacko, and I then thought that since a lot of you are competing and/or are nervous about competing, this advice might help anyone out. ^_^b
Here are some tips I taught myself during my run through round 1 of the LIMS, which might or might not help you out. Remember though, everyone gets crits no matter how you try to accommodate a LIMS crowd, and you never know how people will conceive your icon, so even though I won, DON'T look at this as a "sure thing". Plus, the day people stop having their own unique perspective for things is the day you'll be able to make a perfect icon in everyone's eyes (i.e. never). XD
1. Design -- This is probably the one thing I took closest to heart while competing. Especially in those later rounds where the contestants get down to the 30s, 20s, etc., your icon must have design. A simplistic cropped icon can have the most beautiful coloring in the world, but it won't get you far in a LIMS, where all the contestants are really trying to show how they can use textures, brushes, typography, and placement. A person will sometimes vote off a plainer icon over an icon that has a weird design that just doesn't work, just because it feels like the icon with the design had more work put into it. Try to think out of the box each round, but make sure to save your big ideas for those rounds towards the end (if you make it that far ♥).
2. Standing out can be BAD - Like review once said, this isn't an icontest, so standing out can mean your death. If your icon is too weird, has too many brushes, too many textures, while you might think all of it might work to your advantage, the crowd could think the complete opposite. It's good to be daring, but remember, the victim who sticks out in a crowd over all the other victims is the one more likely to get shot by the killers. XD There's always that chance though that your icon stands out in the right way, and that's how PC is won after all, so don't be afraid to be daring either!
3. Manga vs. Anime rounds -- Let's be honest, anime images are hard to work with. I found while competing that the manga rounds are considerably tougher to get through then the anime rounds, because iconists are more accustomed to manga and really bring out their fighting determination in those rounds. Of course, especially when reaching the end, the anime rounds can get equally (and sometimes even more) tough. When manga rounds hit, put in some extra juice to keep yourself safe from the eliminations list. In contrast, also try hard in the anime rounds when some of the contestants are out of their element, you might just get PC!
4. Colors -- Watch out for colors, don't let your icon be too bright, don't let your icon be too dull, unless you honestly feel that once it's finished the coloring helped for it's overall design and has good balance. If there's too much of one color, you're in trouble. People will pinpoint an icon for elimination if it has too much pink, too much yellow, etc., it's like saying "Hey, over here! Look at my super colorful icon!!" which is correspondence with tip #2, about catching attention. A perfect example of this would be wicked_enough's elimination icon in the Challenge 1-11 (which I personally thought was very pretty ;~;).
5. Animation -- Be careful with animation. In correspondence to tip #2, it can be a call out for the kill of your icon, even if it does work for your overall look. I found that many contestants tended to avoid animation.
6. Details -- Details are very important, and the tiniest imperfection can mean your death. If you finish you icon and a part of your brush is overlapping into your characters hair, or maybe a small fraction of your lights are overriding into their eye, fix it. It's times like this the smudge tool comes in handy. XD No matter how small, all of these things add to the crowd's first impression of your icon.
7. Try different ideas -- If your first idea works, but still has has some flaws, don't enter your flawed icon -- try again! Variations can really come in handy, and you don't want to end up at the end of the week wishing you had tried that other crop with that other texture, which could've very well saved you. Also, be careful which variation you choose. Choosing the wrong one could very well mean your death. This is why it's better to get started early on your icon instead of procrastinating, so that you'll have plenty of time to give yourself a choice if your inspiration doesn't work out for the first few tries.
8. Pinpoint Reference -- This is what I think the crowd typically looks for when they're voting off icons, as I've referenced from my own crits. If you look through your icon as if you've never seen it before, and look for these kind of points, you might have less of a problem getting elim'd.
10. Follow the Yellow-brick Road! -- ...wait, nevermind.
If you have anything you'd like to add from your own LIMS experiences, feel free to let me know. You can mem this if you want, though I mostly wrote it for fun. ♥ Lastly, again, I wish you all lots of luck on the battlefield! It's quite a bloody event. xD
Here are some tips I taught myself during my run through round 1 of the LIMS, which might or might not help you out. Remember though, everyone gets crits no matter how you try to accommodate a LIMS crowd, and you never know how people will conceive your icon, so even though I won, DON'T look at this as a "sure thing". Plus, the day people stop having their own unique perspective for things is the day you'll be able to make a perfect icon in everyone's eyes (i.e. never). XD
1. Design -- This is probably the one thing I took closest to heart while competing. Especially in those later rounds where the contestants get down to the 30s, 20s, etc., your icon must have design. A simplistic cropped icon can have the most beautiful coloring in the world, but it won't get you far in a LIMS, where all the contestants are really trying to show how they can use textures, brushes, typography, and placement. A person will sometimes vote off a plainer icon over an icon that has a weird design that just doesn't work, just because it feels like the icon with the design had more work put into it. Try to think out of the box each round, but make sure to save your big ideas for those rounds towards the end (if you make it that far ♥).
2. Standing out can be BAD - Like review once said, this isn't an icontest, so standing out can mean your death. If your icon is too weird, has too many brushes, too many textures, while you might think all of it might work to your advantage, the crowd could think the complete opposite. It's good to be daring, but remember, the victim who sticks out in a crowd over all the other victims is the one more likely to get shot by the killers. XD There's always that chance though that your icon stands out in the right way, and that's how PC is won after all, so don't be afraid to be daring either!
3. Manga vs. Anime rounds -- Let's be honest, anime images are hard to work with. I found while competing that the manga rounds are considerably tougher to get through then the anime rounds, because iconists are more accustomed to manga and really bring out their fighting determination in those rounds. Of course, especially when reaching the end, the anime rounds can get equally (and sometimes even more) tough. When manga rounds hit, put in some extra juice to keep yourself safe from the eliminations list. In contrast, also try hard in the anime rounds when some of the contestants are out of their element, you might just get PC!
4. Colors -- Watch out for colors, don't let your icon be too bright, don't let your icon be too dull, unless you honestly feel that once it's finished the coloring helped for it's overall design and has good balance. If there's too much of one color, you're in trouble. People will pinpoint an icon for elimination if it has too much pink, too much yellow, etc., it's like saying "Hey, over here! Look at my super colorful icon!!" which is correspondence with tip #2, about catching attention. A perfect example of this would be wicked_enough's elimination icon in the Challenge 1-11 (which I personally thought was very pretty ;~;).
5. Animation -- Be careful with animation. In correspondence to tip #2, it can be a call out for the kill of your icon, even if it does work for your overall look. I found that many contestants tended to avoid animation.
6. Details -- Details are very important, and the tiniest imperfection can mean your death. If you finish you icon and a part of your brush is overlapping into your characters hair, or maybe a small fraction of your lights are overriding into their eye, fix it. It's times like this the smudge tool comes in handy. XD No matter how small, all of these things add to the crowd's first impression of your icon.
7. Try different ideas -- If your first idea works, but still has has some flaws, don't enter your flawed icon -- try again! Variations can really come in handy, and you don't want to end up at the end of the week wishing you had tried that other crop with that other texture, which could've very well saved you. Also, be careful which variation you choose. Choosing the wrong one could very well mean your death. This is why it's better to get started early on your icon instead of procrastinating, so that you'll have plenty of time to give yourself a choice if your inspiration doesn't work out for the first few tries.
8. Pinpoint Reference -- This is what I think the crowd typically looks for when they're voting off icons, as I've referenced from my own crits. If you look through your icon as if you've never seen it before, and look for these kind of points, you might have less of a problem getting elim'd.
- COLORS
- refer to tip #4. also -- if you have a dualtoned icon, do the colors clash? is there enough contrast in color? is there too much?
- TYPOGRAPHY
-- is the text aligned? is it easy to read? does the caption fit? is it creative; eye-catching? does the font particularly fit with your overall look? does the color? - CROPPING
-- is the crop blocking off any vital parts of your image (i.e. half the eye)?
- BLUR/SHARPNESS
-- does you icon look over sharpened even the slightest? does any part of the icon look more blurred/sharp then another part of the icon (i.e. text is blurry while image is sharper)?
- EFFECTS/BRUSHES/TEXTURES
-- do all of the effects/brushes/textures fit with your overall look? is there anything that looks like it may not need to be there? are your effects cluttering the icon at all? is there anything that might be considered distracting instead of enhancing (i.e. light textures)?
10. Follow the Yellow-brick Road! -- ...wait, nevermind.
If you have anything you'd like to add from your own LIMS experiences, feel free to let me know. You can mem this if you want, though I mostly wrote it for fun. ♥ Lastly, again, I wish you all lots of luck on the battlefield! It's quite a bloody event. xD