Icon secrets
I promised to wonderful Bobby 12feethigh that I will share my icon secrets. Here they are.
FirstWhen I don't have any inspiration, I do have a way out. I have a psd with 7 icon psds that are ok basically for any cap.
I usually change them a lot, adding some layers, put the base to screen, hard light, soft light or whatever: add light with a brush + filters... So icons from the same psds don't look the same. They can be mixed/ remade or anything.
There are no additional layers than the basic in psds. That is how I start the 'icon without inspiration'. So pick any cap and one of 7 might be nice. All of them won't work on all the caps, but some will.
There are textures by before_water, innocent_lexys and other makes, but I can't credit them here, because I simply don't really remember, but if you tell me, I'll surely add them here.
Download on DA
Second
I made an action that consist of 7 parts. These are effects I love.
Download on BOX
Screen sets to screen and soft light.
Hard light sets to screen and hard light.
Diffuse saves quality.
High pass sharpens.
Clouds adds lighting with clouds filter, BUT it needs many Ctrl+F, so that clouds were nice on your icon.
Sharp sharpens... If it oversharpens, just use edit - fade.
Mono makes a monochromatic icon from a base. You need just to change the color.
Third
I sometimes don't know, what to write on the icon. Then I go to myshows. That site helps to know, what episodes you watched and they do have the full lists with names. I'm sure, there are same resources in English.
So, for example, I'm iconing True blood. So I go to the list of episodes and just pick the names.
By the way, my fave fonts are:
Bebas, Bebas Neue, Byron, Elephant, Intro, Times New Roman, all Helvetica.
And I despise Comic Sans.
Last
I use CS6, so my psds have vibrance. No credit needed. Hope anybody finds this post useful.
With love, Sveta.