![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
extrapenguinA total of 23 icons, some of which are terrible. For Guardian icon battle, pt 3, ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
icontalking activity #27 – Calm and Clear,
Icons for episodes 21-30, preview image.
Now, the prattle! In episode order.
This is one of the ones where I didn't yet have caps from the episode, so I just went through and capped all six episodes in such a state, then came back to look at the caps and icon the next day. I spotted a very civilized-looking Zhao Yunlan who looks like he's about to channel Mei Changsu ("The reason I won is because you are stupid and I am smarter than you"), took out the doctor's office, and placed him on a nice black-and-white texture by lookslikerain which had a very suitable diagonal. That was a bit missing of extra oomph, so I added another texture for colors, this time by azuremonkey.
22 I had some caps of, of which the best one was this gesture of Zhao Yunlan's. I thought hey, why not make it so that it looks like he's drinking something on an alien planet, so I went through the textures directory to find this. It looks like he's drinking on a desert planet! I did some luminosity mask toning of the lights and shadows to make him look like he belonged. I did make one with a different variant of the texture and color tuning, but I didn't like that one as much:
For 23, there was a Shen Wei cap with his blade, so I took that. (I think I'd bored myself of plain "look at this character's face" icons, so I went for more full-body or gesture caps this time.) I found that I had a texture that had random Chinese text at exactly the appropriate angle, as well as a texture that had a color splash thingy at the appropriate place and angle, so I put those on, decided I should write a word on it, and spent five days figuring out what word would be best in my fraktur font. I eventually settled on "justice" but had alternative versions as well:
This is actually one of the last ones I made, which is why it's so hilarious in its positioning within the set. I had Shen Wei with his bomb, I'd just rewatched the scene (because it was too good to skip through, okay?), and I wanted to make a funny icon, since people like those.
I already had a cap of 25 with this very thirsty expression, so I funnied it up. Arrows are doodled by yours truly. Texture by azuremonkey.
Another piece of fun with selective colorization! Having the rest of everything grayscale didn't quite gel, so I used a layer in Soft Light to give it a touch of its original color. I used a variety of layers in different layer modes to give the pendant some oomph. Then I realized I needed some text toruin enhance the effect, so I took the first lyrics on my mind ("I've loved you for a thousand years / I'll love you for a thousand more" because I heard it once at some dance performance and was instantly earwormed. What's it from, anyway?), edited it to fit our more-dramatic-by-an-order-of-magnitude Envoy, and presto, Shen Wei is promising to love Zhao Yunlan for another 10k years.
Episode 27 was terrible for good caps, so I picked this one and made it look like they were walking out of a space station. After all, this is science fiction! And the super sekrit research area's glowing strips of light were very space station-y. The space was created with two textures by proverbialsunrise and a plain black layer onto which I used HSV noise to create "stars".
They were standing next to each other, so I made an icon out of that! It's pretty simple – just the two of them, masked off from their original background and then some adjustment of levels done so that there's a better range of values from light to dark. That made their hair look a bit too matte and made Zhao Yunlan's t-shirt blow up, however, so I did some nondestructive dodge/burning to darken Zhao Yunlan's tee and Shen Wei's coat, as well as bring back the highlights and thus sense of depth for the hair. The background is just a black layer with HSV noise. I did make an alt with the same "space" color effects as the preceding and succeeding icons to make another mini-narrative, but didn't like it as much as the first version:
This is actually the first icon I made out of these three (27-29)! I had a cap of Zhao Yunlan touching Shen Wei's shoulder, and wanted to sort of riff off ... something, I forget what. Anyway, some romantic mood textures from proverbialsunrise and the text "you can go but don't stay" later, I had an icon! One where Zhao Yunlan wants Shen Wei to come back.
In episode 30, I spotted Zhao Yunlan lounging on his couch in a full-body-icon amenable way, so I took a screencap! (It also looks like it could be Zhao Yunlan waiting for Shen Wei to come back from his errand.) I used a bunch of textures by azuremonkey to achieve a sort of dreamy quality.
Textures by:
![[deviantart.com profile]](https://i.deviantart.net/icons/favicon.png)
lookslikerain
azuremonkey
proverbialsunrise
white-bamboo
I also participated in a mini-rumble! There were two challenges: negative space and close crop.
Negative space came really easily – a little bit of cropping, a texture, and boom, done! I did add a sort of "platform" for Shen Wei to stand on so it wasn't just him floating in the aether.
Then I had a bunch of problems with the close crop one – I tried selective coloring of lips
and cropping to just the hands
and then some terrible texture stuff
but nothing clicked. Then I decided aw fuck it, I'll do a close crop of Zhao Yunlan's phone instead and add some textures to make it a visual representation of secrets, and hey, it was surprisingly decent, so I submitted it:
(I did of course get concrit from someone who didn't get it, and suggested changing the crop so it's a closeup of the mouth rather than the fact that he's talking on the phone.)
All textures byalwaysbeenasmiler (at hiraethe)
I intended on participating in the hair battle but forgot the deadline, so my Ye Zun with glowy hair didn't participate:
(texture byjordannamorgan (at wolfbane_icons, jordannamorgan))
But I did manage to participate inicontalking Activity #27!
(textures:lookslikerain and spaceyme; lessrest and ??)
All is free to grab! If you want more detailed knowledge on textures or icon crafting, just ask.
icontalking activity #27 – Calm and Clear, Icons for episodes 21-30, preview image.
Poll #22316 icon opinions
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13
Of the above 10 icons, which is your favorite?
View Answers
episode 21
0 (0.0%)
episode 22
1 (7.7%)
episode 23
3 (23.1%)
episode 24
3 (23.1%)
episode 25
1 (7.7%)
episode 26
0 (0.0%)
episode 27
1 (7.7%)
episode 28
3 (23.1%)
episode 29
1 (7.7%)
episode 30
0 (0.0%)
Now, the prattle! In episode order.
This is one of the ones where I didn't yet have caps from the episode, so I just went through and capped all six episodes in such a state, then came back to look at the caps and icon the next day. I spotted a very civilized-looking Zhao Yunlan who looks like he's about to channel Mei Changsu ("The reason I won is because you are stupid and I am smarter than you"), took out the doctor's office, and placed him on a nice black-and-white texture by lookslikerain which had a very suitable diagonal. That was a bit missing of extra oomph, so I added another texture for colors, this time by azuremonkey.
22 I had some caps of, of which the best one was this gesture of Zhao Yunlan's. I thought hey, why not make it so that it looks like he's drinking something on an alien planet, so I went through the textures directory to find this. It looks like he's drinking on a desert planet! I did some luminosity mask toning of the lights and shadows to make him look like he belonged. I did make one with a different variant of the texture and color tuning, but I didn't like that one as much:
For 23, there was a Shen Wei cap with his blade, so I took that. (I think I'd bored myself of plain "look at this character's face" icons, so I went for more full-body or gesture caps this time.) I found that I had a texture that had random Chinese text at exactly the appropriate angle, as well as a texture that had a color splash thingy at the appropriate place and angle, so I put those on, decided I should write a word on it, and spent five days figuring out what word would be best in my fraktur font. I eventually settled on "justice" but had alternative versions as well:
This is actually one of the last ones I made, which is why it's so hilarious in its positioning within the set. I had Shen Wei with his bomb, I'd just rewatched the scene (because it was too good to skip through, okay?), and I wanted to make a funny icon, since people like those.
I already had a cap of 25 with this very thirsty expression, so I funnied it up. Arrows are doodled by yours truly. Texture by azuremonkey.
Another piece of fun with selective colorization! Having the rest of everything grayscale didn't quite gel, so I used a layer in Soft Light to give it a touch of its original color. I used a variety of layers in different layer modes to give the pendant some oomph. Then I realized I needed some text to
Episode 27 was terrible for good caps, so I picked this one and made it look like they were walking out of a space station. After all, this is science fiction! And the super sekrit research area's glowing strips of light were very space station-y. The space was created with two textures by proverbialsunrise and a plain black layer onto which I used HSV noise to create "stars".
They were standing next to each other, so I made an icon out of that! It's pretty simple – just the two of them, masked off from their original background and then some adjustment of levels done so that there's a better range of values from light to dark. That made their hair look a bit too matte and made Zhao Yunlan's t-shirt blow up, however, so I did some nondestructive dodge/burning to darken Zhao Yunlan's tee and Shen Wei's coat, as well as bring back the highlights and thus sense of depth for the hair. The background is just a black layer with HSV noise. I did make an alt with the same "space" color effects as the preceding and succeeding icons to make another mini-narrative, but didn't like it as much as the first version:
This is actually the first icon I made out of these three (27-29)! I had a cap of Zhao Yunlan touching Shen Wei's shoulder, and wanted to sort of riff off ... something, I forget what. Anyway, some romantic mood textures from proverbialsunrise and the text "you can go but don't stay" later, I had an icon! One where Zhao Yunlan wants Shen Wei to come back.
In episode 30, I spotted Zhao Yunlan lounging on his couch in a full-body-icon amenable way, so I took a screencap! (It also looks like it could be Zhao Yunlan waiting for Shen Wei to come back from his errand.) I used a bunch of textures by azuremonkey to achieve a sort of dreamy quality.
Textures by:
lookslikerainazuremonkeyproverbialsunrisewhite-bambooI also participated in a mini-rumble! There were two challenges: negative space and close crop.
Negative space came really easily – a little bit of cropping, a texture, and boom, done! I did add a sort of "platform" for Shen Wei to stand on so it wasn't just him floating in the aether.
Then I had a bunch of problems with the close crop one – I tried selective coloring of lips
and cropping to just the hands
and then some terrible texture stuff
but nothing clicked. Then I decided aw fuck it, I'll do a close crop of Zhao Yunlan's phone instead and add some textures to make it a visual representation of secrets, and hey, it was surprisingly decent, so I submitted it:
(I did of course get concrit from someone who didn't get it, and suggested changing the crop so it's a closeup of the mouth rather than the fact that he's talking on the phone.)
All textures by
alwaysbeenasmiler (at hiraethe)Poll #22317 pick your fave
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8
Which is your fave?
View Answers
Negative space Shen Wei
5 (62.5%)
Close crop Ye Zun's mouth (and you should've submitted that instead)
1 (12.5%)
Close crop Zhao Yunlan's mouth (and you should've submitted that instead)
0 (0.0%)
Close crop of mugs clinking (and you should've submitted that instead)
1 (12.5%)
Close crop of Zhao Yunlan with the rectangles texture (and you should've submitted that instead)
0 (0.0%)
Close crop of Zhao Yunlan on the phone with secrets
1 (12.5%)
I intended on participating in the hair battle but forgot the deadline, so my Ye Zun with glowy hair didn't participate:
(texture by
jordannamorgan (at wolfbane_icons, jordannamorgan))But I did manage to participate in
icontalking Activity #27! (textures:
lookslikerain and spaceyme; lessrest and ??)Poll #22318 pick your fave
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8
Which is your favorite?
View Answers
Ye Zun and his hair
3 (37.5%)
Zhao Yunlan and sunglasses
2 (25.0%)
Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan "beneath the infinite of the sky"
3 (37.5%)
All is free to grab! If you want more detailed knowledge on textures or icon crafting, just ask.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-07 12:54 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-07 13:04 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-07 16:46 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-07 17:00 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-07 18:59 (UTC)Haha, you were trying to make it look like he's drinking something in space! :D I would have voted for that one as the best one if I could have figured out what that glowy thing next to his face is. Now I know, it's a glass! :D
no subject
Date: 2019-07-07 19:03 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-07 20:06 (UTC)I picked the episode 25 icon as my favorite because it is Peak Zhao Yunlan, but #26 also grabbed me by the heartstrings and tugged hard. It's just that thirsty!Zhao Yunlan veeeeery slightly edges out sincere!Shen Wei for me. (And of course the humor doesn't hurt.)
The negative space one is nice, but distant, and I tend towards emotional distance anyway so my preference was the in-your-face shot of the phone, which is much more visceral. And I like the secrets theme to it.
For the last batch, all three are great but I went with Zhao Yunlan again because the abstract sunburst (or whatever you call it) highlights such a great shot from his talk with his dad (I think?). That icon says to me, "I'm here, I'm blind, get over it."
(I promise I like Shen Wei too! And most of the minor characters! Just ... having a Zhao Yunlan day, I guess.)
no subject
Date: 2019-07-07 20:45 (UTC)We all have our days and our periods; no shame in having a Zhao Yunlan day! After all, he is a very good protagonist. And thirsty and humorous. I'm glad the humor worked! Also that the in-your-faceness of the phone shot; a bunch of people critiqued that one/found that it didn't work, I think because it was on a different place on the "icons-as-screencaps vs icons-as-art" scale than expected? Anyway, yes, very glad that it went down well.
I think it's from his talk with his dad, yes. He's there, he's blind, and he's not going anywhere. He's also wearing sunglasses, which fit the challenge theme, I thought!
no subject
Date: 2019-07-08 05:41 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-08 08:46 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-08 20:36 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-09 05:35 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-09 10:46 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-09 10:48 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-09 16:10 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-09 17:58 (UTC)Oops! Well, there's time enough for other icons from the pendant. I'll be sure to include it in one of the 31-40 icons...
Re: unreadable text, I couldn't get it to look pretty or fit the theme while being readable, so unreadable text for effect it was. Ye Zun's hair is very shiny indeed.
Did you portal over from an alternative universe where all the science fiction TV is true-to-the-book adaptations of Tau Zero? :P In the realm of television and movie sci-fi, Guardian is no less believable science-wise than stuff like Star Wars, Star Trek, Farscape, or anything else I've seen. Even stuff like Interstellar or Arrival has a few ehhh bits in there. If Guardian counts as the drama crew barely even trying, then I'd be really interested in watching the science fiction where they really did try to make it science fictional!
♥
no subject
Date: 2019-07-09 19:33 (UTC)I look forward to it!
I couldn't get it to look pretty or fit the theme while being readable, so unreadable text for effect it was.
That's fair. It is a very pretty icon, unreadable text and all.
Did you portal over from an alternative universe where all the science fiction TV is true-to-the-book adaptations of Tau Zero?
I think you misunderstood me. Though I'd quibble with a few of your examples, I'd agree that Guardian at least matches the science fantasy of Star Wars and things like the Marvel movies and various superhero television shows, which is how I usually think of it. I do think, though, they had an extra challenge in the necessity of adapting a fantasy source to will-pass-the-censors science fiction, and certain elements translated better than others. That's just the nature of the beast, and I think they recognized that and, like the central romance, I think it's an area of the drama where there are points at which they deliberately edge right up to that line. Not because they can't insert skiencebabble just as well as anyone else in the business, but because they geared the drama to both an audience unfamiliar with the novel and an audience familiar with it, and they dropped Easter eggs in for those familiar with it.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-09 20:04 (UTC)I guess my physicist POV is that everything is science fantasy. :P Though Guardian does feel to me more of a science fiction thing than superhero stuff does – I think because it's engaging with a very science fictional issue of using aliens (Dixingians) as a stand-in for a group of oppressed humans (migrant workers with the wrong hukou). Most of the superhero stuff I've seen (admittedly none of the MCU) has drawn on a different base of conventions.
Mm, point. Though even the most BS-iest BS was still of an equivalent level to BS that has been aired as part of science fiction TV that's not an adaptation of fantasy, so I'd say they did a good job.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-09 21:07 (UTC)Ah, see, my science background, such as it is, is primarily cultural anthropology, sociology, and linguistics, and Hollywood generally does better in those areas. The X-Men and other X-titles in Marvel actually deal with the same theme as Guardian, though using mutated humans, and they have most often stood in for LGBT+, so that and the secret identity to fight crime elements are why I liken Guardian to superhero science fantasy. Trust me, it's no insult. I love my superhero science fantasy and it's grappling with relevant ethical issues.
I think they did. I just also think they chose to keep certain elements as close to fantasy as they could get away with, as a kind of wink and nod to their audience. But I always like to think TPTB behind my fannish sources are assuming an intelligent audience if at all possible.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-17 03:11 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-17 06:29 (UTC)