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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 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!