TV/Movie 20 in 20: Middle Earth and Narnia

[aurora_amethyst]

Preview:


So, I'm back with another set of icons, this time for tvmovie20in20! I will be posting textures sometime in the next few weeks, but I'm on the tail end of my research project and that means I'm finished with school! *yay*

This set definitely is very experimental and very different from my usual style. I've been experimenting with the painted look lately, and I threw in a few animated icons in the alternates! ^^

I would have gotten these done sooner, but I wasn't satisfied with the way they were looking, hence all of the alternates. I don't think I've ever had quite this many! ^^ But I really enjoyed working with the themes and two claims! They are two of my favorite fandoms. I'm super excited that both of them will be having new series on streaming. I just hope they will be done closer to the books. A lot of the book-based films and TV series lately have been straying very far away from the author's original intentions and throwing in stuff that are not historically accurate and would not have been acceptable during that time. *sigh* Sorry about the mini rant.

So a little about the iconning process, lol! I'm not sure about overlay. I mean I did overlay a painted texture over Arwen's hair, but I'm not sure I got the concept right as I don't often use overlay as a technique.

Obstruct was difficult because I couldn't find any screencaps that had what I was looking for (obstruction by a sword), so I opted for the covering the eye concept. I wanted to add text, but, for the life of me, I couldn't get it to work. I probably should've looked at my Middle Earth Pinterest page, orz.

Levels has always been a difficult for me. I've made a few okay ones, but I've always been in awe of those complex icons by jsfunction and nightbulbs. But, anyways, levels, small and big text, and summer colors were all experiments in the painted look, along with overlay and pastel. I'm not sure if they turned out right, but I hope you all like them! ^^

As soon as I saw my provided image, I knew what look I wanted to go for, but I don't think it quite turned out like I had envioned. XD I really am in awe of the text work that some people on LJ are able to do

I'm not sure how I feel about texturize. I mean I thought it looked pretty good at 11:00 pm, but looking at it now, I'm wondering if the colors turned out to be too wild! And do stripes count as a pattern? I don't tend to use patterns, so I kept looking through my textures, but I didn't like any of them (yeah -_-'). Plus, because of a stupid Windows update, I can't search for images by color. TT-TT

Your mood was done while I was feeling sleepy. I've been getting up at around 8 am-ish lately. *shhhh* I know some of you get up earlier than that, but I also get to bed well after midnight because my dad works nights.

I know I picked points of light as a theme, but for some reason, it just wasn't working. *Oh, fickle bird of inspiration! To what far shore have you flown?* (Bonus points if you know where that quote came from!)

Whoa! What's with all the B&W alternates! And all the pastels, too! It wasn't intentional, I assure you! XD

T H E M E S

					Face Only | Edge | Overlay | Obstruct | Floating
					Pan up to the Sky | B&W + Profile | Levels | Small and Big Text | Summer Colors
					Provided Image | B&W + Negative Space | Texturize | Pattern | Your Mood
					Points of Light | Extreme Close Crop | Sunshine | Face Framed in Shadow | Pastel

A L T E R N A T E S

					B&W + Profile x 3 | Edge | Face Only
					Floating | Overlay | Pan up to the Sky | Summer Colors | Small and Big Text
					Small & Big Text x2 | Extreme Close Crop | B&W + Negative Space x2
					Pastel x4 | Pattern

-No hotlinking, please!
-Comments are love!
-Textless icons are NOT bases! Please do not alter them!
-Please credit aurora_amethyst or 1wonderment
-Do not claim them as your own!

Comments

[oneill.livejournal.com]

I would have gotten these done sooner, but I wasn't satisfied with the way they were looking I was the same way with my set on my second half, I kept going through different icons that I would make and like 1 on my first half. Snagging the Gold Glitter animated second icon, I just LOVE that quote., will credit when used. :)

Lovely icon set. I don't think their is one I don't dislike to be honest. I especially love the coloring on Levels, Small and Big Text and Summer Colors. Texturize looks great. :) I had a hard time with Points of Light on my set as well, not even sure if I still got it right lol. I tried a few icons till I settled on one with that.

I WISH I could do coloring like that, but never found a good tutorial I can follow. I usually do good on tutorials that have step by step with textures provided or samples lol. Oh not sure if you read all the rules on the themes, but animation is allowed in the main set. :)

Thank you for participating and good luck! :)

[aurora_amethyst]

I'm glad you liked them! ^^

I really enjoyed making the animated ones. I thought about using them for the main but must've misread the rules. I might have to enter some animated icons next time! ^^

I know what you mean about tutorials. I like tutorials that show what each step looks like and the textures used. It's a lot harder to find tutorials now though because of the mess with Photobucket and TinyPic. TT-TT I went back and fixed all of my tutorials because of it. XD

[oneill.livejournal.com]

Very much. I wish I could make icons like this.

You could of, so sorry I tend to use my old coding table source and I forgot to update it since we changed the rules after the community voted and I just now realized that I forgot to change that part about animation, but it is updated.

Yup, those type help me so much. Yeah I freaking hate photobucket and tinypic for ruining some of my favorite tutorials i had saved. Nice, I wish some would do that. I'll have to check your's out again once I buy a new program. Do you by any chance have any tutorials for the coloring in Levels, Small and Big Text or Summer Colors?

[aurora_amethyst]

I could probably throw together tutorials for all three. I'm working on a research project that's due by Monday, but I think I could probably get one up over the weekend possibly. Only some of the steps are Photoshop-specific but could possibly substituted for something else. I used to have a free copy of Paint Shop Pro X, but it doesn't work anymore, otherwise I'd see if I could substitute some of the steps

[oneill.livejournal.com]

Really? That would be AMAZING! They had some on the ask the maker threads a while back by some artists but photoshit (yup I'm calling it that now lol) has since ruined them the last time I had found them.. No worries, if you do one take you're time. But it would be so amazing and kind if you did. I always wondered how makers get those colors like that. I've only ever had PaintShop Pro X2, so I should be able to follow along. I plan to buy a new copy since I threw my box away with the serial number for re-install sometime this year, but I either plan to buy this month or next month if I can. It's the cheapest one I can afford, I don't like it but it's cheap lol. That's a shame. :(

[aurora_amethyst]

Oh, it's no problem! I enjoy doing them.

I'm not sure how much cheaper it is, but you might try using Affinity Photo. It's around $50, and it's much closer to Photoshop (can't do animation, though) and has most of the special layers. Not so many filters though. They have a free trial, if you're interested. I tried it, and it was pretty nice. I would've bought it, but I'm a little low on cash right now. XD But it seems that the new Paint Shop Pro has improved a lot. I might check out the trial, lol!

[oneill.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

I am downloading the free trial now, it looks similar to my photoshop program and interesting. Do you buy then it downloads and you get to keep it to your computer?

[ella-rose88.livejournal.com]

These are so beautiful & stunning! The colouring, levels and text compositions are great! My favs are: Obstruct, Levels, Small & Big Text, Pattern, Floating, and Overlay :)

[aurora_amethyst]

Thanks for your lovely comment! D'awww! I'm so glad you like them! ^^

[violateraindrop]

Nice set! I really like your use of text. The animated icons also look great :D

[aurora_amethyst]

D'awww! Thank you so much for your lovely comments! I'm so glad you liked them!

I wasn't really sure if my experiments with the painted look turned out right, and I've always thought that I wasn't very good with text. XD

Thanks again! ^^

[abyss-valkyrie.livejournal.com]

I adore the levels icon you made!Obstruct is a great icon.Love the floating and pan up to the sky(the alt of it too,especially the alt)
Small+big text came out lovely! The pattern one-cuuute and the points of light is so sweet! Close crop-whoa!Love the intensity of his expression with the colouring!
I love the text in overlay of your alt!:D Also the face only alt-prettttyy!

[aurora_amethyst]

D'awwwwww!!!!! I'm soooooo glad you liked them!

Lol about the alt overlay. I almost put that one in, but then I felt like the focus was more on the text and less on the overlay, lol! And close-crop turned out better than I expected! I wasn't quite sure about the cropping on the face only alt, so I'm glad you liked it! ^^

I definitely had fun with these even if it did take me a while! ^^

[magical-sid.livejournal.com]

This set is perfection ♥ so many beautiful Icons.

I'm not sure about overlay. I mean I did overlay a painted texture over Arwen's hair, but I'm not sure I got the concept right as I don't often use overlay as a technique.
I had totally the same thing going on :D not just with that theme btw, but I really love your overlay Icon.

Pattern is really beautiful with all the lovely pinkish colors ♥ and I definitely love Points of Light ♥ (I hated the theme btw, didn't found anything that kind of worked), but yours is really amazing.

Again I might snack some Narnia Icons because they are awesome (of course with credit)

[aurora_amethyst]

D'awwww! Thank you for your lovely comments! ^^

Lol, about points of light! I'm usually pretty good with it, but for some reason, it wasn't working. I really like making my icons have a shiny look, but this time I was really trying to do a pastel or painted look. So I guess it threw me off balance, lol!

But I'm soooooo glad you enjoyed them!

[nickygabriel]

Wow, what a beautiful set! It's truly amazing :)
My favorite one is Obstruct. Everything about it is exactly as it should be!

[aurora_amethyst]

D'awww! Thank you! I'm glad you liked them! ^^

[babyara.livejournal.com]

Wonderful set!
My favorites are face only, edge, levels, texturise and extreme close crop *_*

[aurora_amethyst]

Sorry for the late response, lol! I'm glad you enjoyed them! ^^

[nondenomifan.livejournal.com]

Overlay: Love how you blended it with her hair color!
Floating: How original! Love it!
Small+Big Text: Love the fonts and colors used.
Provided Image: Love the font and coloring.
Extreme Close Crop: Love the image you chose.
Sunshine: Makes me want to find an open field and frolic!
Face Framed in Shadow: Nice!

Alternate Face Only: Poignant.
Alternate Floating: Love the colors.
Alternate Pan to the Sky: I actually prefer this one because of the color saturation.
Alternate Small+Big Text: I love both of these! If you're using GIMP, I need to know how you're doing the animation, please!
Alternate Extreme Close Crop: Oh, man, this is so cool! I wish you'd used this in the challenge!
Alternate Pattern: I love it!

[aurora_amethyst]

D'awwww! I'm glad you enjoyed so many of them!

For the animated "gold" icons, I use Photoshop, but it's possible to do something similar in GIMP. The first one might be tricky because I took an animated GIF texture and "clipped" it on to my text, but the 2nd one I just put gold text with a shadow behind it over the animated texture and brightened the colors just a bit. I could probably try it out in GIMP (that's what I started with) and see if I can come up with a tutorial.