[24]; A Guide To Complex Icons
Requested by rocketgirl2 at Ask The Maker.
Thanks in part to theiconquest (where I have chosen the Wizard class), I have been making a lot of complex icons lately and having a lot of fun doing so. This is only my second tutorial ever so, again, apologies in advance if it isn't that fabulous!
Complex icons are probably my favorite kinds of icons and are something I feel I need to work on so lately I have been trying to make them on purpose as opposed to what I usually do which is just browse textures and caps and let them inspire me as I experiment.
The first 'style' of complex icons I want to talk about involves blending caps into each other like the following icons:
fprintmoon / talipuu / superjesster / ofraindrops / a_thari
1. Finding/choosing images.
I am no expert on this whatsoever, but when I try to make this kind of icon the first thing I do is look for a cap where there is at least one large dark area like the following (or at least one large, preferably plain/untextured light area). Right click > copy image url > paste in a new tab to view them full size:
courtesy of homeofthenutty
These caps are perfect for complex blending because the dark areas give you someplace to easily blend a lighter cap over the top of it (or the light areas give you someplace to easily blend a darker cap over the top of it) without too much hassle.
The second thing I do is look for a cap or two to add to it, preferably one(s) with negative space or where the person/people (if there are any) in the cap are much lighter or darker than their background. This saves a lot of trouble by either making it way easier to or by minimizing the amount of time you need to spend cutting the background out of a cap (which you can learn how to do here). I also try to pick caps that fit the caps I'm blending them too, basing this on facial expressions, ships, etc. Examples of the caps I am talking about (right click > copy image url > paste in a new tab to view full size):
So, depending on your cap and which parts are light or dark you can set the layer they're on to Lighten (which "compares the color information for each pixel of the base and the blend color and applies the lighter color as the result"), Screen or Darken (which "compares the color information for each pixel of the base and the blend color and applies the darker color as the result.").
2. On to the blending!
As you can see from the following images where I've placed caps on top of others, often the parts of the cap that you don't want to show do show and it looks funky:
The best way to remedy this (in my opinion) is to add a Layer Mask which is a setting/tool that "allows the user to obscure an entire layer or layer set, or just a selected part of it." Basically it's a setting that you add to a certain layer and use the brush tool (make sure you click on the white box that is added to the layer and check that it is highlighted) set to black to brush over the parts of the cap you want to hide. This is how you set a Layer Mask:
To add a Layer Mask to the background layer, double click on the layer in your layer palette and press OKAY (which turns the background layer into a regular layer) and proceed.
I didn't do it perfectly, of course, but that is basically how you do it.
You can learn more about Layer Masks here.
Now, I am definitely not an expert on blocking and haven't really experimented too much with it yet but I still feel like it is an important part of complex icons and thought I should add a small section on it. I don't know where to find an official definition of "blocking" but basically it means layering multiple/several images over one canvas in different blending modes in "blocks". Examples:
terempaty terempaty cookiestome calikalie prettybutt
A few icons I've created that utilize the 'blocking' technique include these:
#1-#4 and #8 were generally using the same image, duplicating it, moving it around, resizing if I felt like it and trying different blending modes.
#5 and #6 were pretty random and #7's composition was inspired by this texture by innocent_lexys and the cap at the top.
List of Blocking Tutorials:
3 Icon Composition Tutorials by Apologizeg
Blocking Tutorial by Airymaze
Composition Tutorial by Orange_Lusik
Composition Discussion @ Icon_Talk
Blocking Discussion @ 20insp_talk
Letting textures inspire the composition of your icons is another fun way to make complex icons! Below are some of my favorite icon textures that are perfect for complex icons because you can basically shape your caps to fit different sections and do some really cool things!
innocent_lexys innocent_lexys candycrack candycrack elli
elli innocent_lexys innocent_lexys soaked innocent_lexys
innocent_lexys innocent_lexys innocent_lexys innocent_lexys innocent_lexys
If you don't use Tumblr or make large graphics you might not know just how many awesome large textures can be found on Tumblr, which can then be shrunk to fit icons. The best part is there are a lot of complex, block-y type textures that are perfect for this.
Tumblr Texture Links:
accio-glow
butterphil
colorscandy
fuckbees
gemmaarterton
mellowmint
netherfields
neverlands-
northerndawn
planets-bend-between-us
slayground
yellowlemon
And last but not least, this is the part where I show some of my favorite complex icons. I hope they inspire you, too!
fprintmoon / blue_emotion / calikalie / calikalie / krazykate2
fprintmoon / motorized / johnlocks / vetica / talipuu
talipuu / sarisafari / longerthanwedo / longerthanwedo / longerthanwedo
longerthanwedo / petite_tomate / orangelusik / absolutelybatty / fprintmoon
I hope you enjoyed this and I'm sorry if it was incoherent or jumbled! Let me know if I made any mistakes or anything :)