All Shooped Up

Chicago Con: Saturday Report

2009-11-15T04:10:47Z

First off, I'd like to say that Supernatural cons > than anime cons by about 1000%. I think it's because the age range is slightly higher--there is less annoying squealing and mangled Japanese and more drinking and discussing characters and such. I am fully on board with SPN cons.

Also, Jared at least is confirmed for next year, so I picked up my Gold pass. FYI, you really shouldn't bother with Preferred seats. By that point you're 3/4 of the way back and you might as well just save $25 and go with the General pass. I spent a looot of time craning my neck to see over the people in front of my though (because when I watched the screens, I found myself forgetting I wasn't just watching a youtube video, which...kind of negates the entire experience). I'm definitely glad I'm going with Gold next year, and I wouldn't recommend anything less than Silver, if you have the change to spare.

Anyway, I'm going to try to go in chronological order and get everything down for my own benefit.

It all starts at 6am, when my alarm goes off and Frank comes dashing into my bedroom yowling. He was very happy to see me awake. So we dragged ourselves out of the house by 7am (despite a minor hot curlers crisis on the roomie's part) and went over to Bob Evan's for breakfast. NOM

Two and a half hours of radio stations later, we pull up at the hotel (right next to O'Hare! We were expecting it to be in a suburb, because even though we live in IL, we don't know Chicago at all, apparently).

The registration line was long, but overall I was really impressed with the organization. Things moved quickly and the layout was easy (reg-->dealers tables-->theatre), and later when we had super long lines for Misha's photos, I thought it was actually handled very efficiently and safely, and (again) the wait wasn't that long. Some people were bitching, but I think maybe they'd had less sleep than the rest of us (i.e. none). idk, if you'd been in some of the fucked up lines I've been in at cons, you would have been worshiping those staff members today.

Anyway, we got settled in to our seats (3/4 of the way back, like I said) and got a surprise! Jake Abel had to cancel for a project he was working on, so they called in Richard Speight! I was THRILLED. Honestly, the Trickster is my fav character below J2, Misha, and Bobby, so this was totally awesome for me, and his session was fantastic. He's a really funny guy. The best part was when somebody asked him about pranks, and he told this great story. I'm sure it's up on youtube, but I'll tell it as closely as I remember it.

During filming for Changing Channels, Richard gets stabbed during the cop show spoof--and the guy who flashed from being a random guy to being the Trickster told him that he'd left him a thank you present, because it was his last day. So Richard goes back to his trailer later and finds...a pair of pumpkin-colored men's bikini briefs. o.O And he's like, wtf?? So he takes them to go ask the PA's (or something), at which point they hand him a bag and say, "So and so left this for you." The bag had two beers and a thank you card. So...that made much more sense. But what's with the briefs???

Naturally, he figures that Jared and Jensen had pranked him, so he asks them about it the next day, and they were like, "Uhhhh." Nooo idea what he was talking about. lawls So then he takes the briefs and pins them up on a bulletin board asking who the hell they belonged to, and a PA pulled him aside and told him they were MISHA'S.

So he goes to Misha like, wtf, dude, pumpkin mankini?? And Misha informs him THEY WERE A GIFT FROM A FAN. He'd spilled soup on himself and had to go change in Richard's trailer, and he somehow left the underwear behind. So Misha had been wearing these bright orange underpants that a fan sent to him--for a while, apparently.

LOL FOREVER

The next panel was Aldis Hodge, who seemed like a pretty cool guy. The high point was when a fan asked if his life were a movie, what would it be and who would be his leading lady, and he said his lady would be his girlfriend, obvs. Apparently the gf was news to most of the fandom, so we egged him into calling her and putting her on speakerphone so he could get brownie points for giving such a sweet answer. XD Good times.

We decided to break for an early lunch after those two panels, and we left Steve in the lurch--the crowd pretty much emptied out so they could get their pictures with Richard and Aldis. We were pretty glad we decided to eat early, though--the restaurant filled up quickly. I had a nomlicious salad with dried cranberries and pear chips and walnuts and steak in a raspberry vinaigrette.

It was awesome, which makes it oddly appropriate that this is the only still photo that we managed to take today:

JK, we also took this lovely piece of self-indulgence:

Another lulzy part of our lunch--we asked the waiter for a drink menu, and he was like, "Uhhh...the bar's not open yet." >.> It's 12:30! What self-respecting bar is not serving at lunch time?? Anyway, we weren't going to make a fuss about it (because we only pretend to be lushes) but the guy did bring out the Supernatural drink menu for us. So...we might have ordered Sam-tini's. Because I think it's funny to a.) get drunk on Sam, and b.) drink Sam when he's teeny. LOL I am so easily amused.

After lunch we still had some time to kill before Jim's panel, so we meandered over to the bar and ordered some real drinks. XD The Sam-tini supposedly had a lot of alcohol in it, but I couldn't feel a thing. Give me my Amaretto any day. After getting pleasantly tipsy and spending $40 in drinks (including a HUGE tip for the waiter--that happens when you're a server yourself, you tip like a mo-fo), we STILL had time to kill, so I dragged us on a Grande Epic Hotel Stairway to Heaven Adventure. By which I mean we went up until we couldn't go up anymore, and we were very confused when that left us on the fifth floor, because we'd seen signs with room numbers up to 1231. We resolved to explore other wings later, but we never had a chance. I'm sure somebody else explored them to pick up our slack, though, so I'm not too worried about it.

Then it was Jim's panel. He is DARLING. He greeted us with the traditional, "Hello, idjits," which we all loved. I'm sad to say I don't remember much about his panel specifically, because a few minutes into it my roomie decided she HAD to go to the bathroom (all those double vodka-sprites, you know how it is), and afterward she sneaked quietly back in, smashed her face up against mine (o.o) and frantically whispered that she just passed MISHA FUCKING COLLINS IN THE LOBBY.

AUGH WHAT WHAT!

So we had a very urgent whispered exchange, where I was informed that as she was walking to the bathroom, she was heading toward this guy, wasn't really paying attention, like "Oh, a hot guy, not making eye contact, not being creepy," but when she glanced up again she realized HOLY SHIT IT'S MISHA COLLINS and she did a massive double take and he gave her a wtf? look. And then they continued on their separate ways. XD

A few minutes later Misha popped out with a mic and crashed Jim's session for a minute. XD He must have been bored in his hotel room or something.

Right after Jim's session we ran out with everybody else to line up for our photo session. The roomie and I were sharing a photo, and Jim was a total sweetheart. He took the time to smile at each of us, and listened when we each gave him our message ("Happy belated Veteran's Day" from her, and "I hope you feel better soon," from me). He also made a joke about wanting a copy of our picture. XD I love Jim and his adorable lecherousness.

Misha's panel was hysterical, as expected. He razzed an Australian girl, but she took it really well, I think. (I hope.) By this point I hope all the fans know not to take anything Misha says literally, because...he usually says what he means, but he coats it in about twelve layers of bullshit. Listen for what he means and you'll be fine. ^_^; Also, his brain is like a crack-train. God only knows what track it's going to leap to next.

The low point (imho) was when he recognized one fan but couldn't come up with her name. He got really close to it and then she fed it to him, which was cool (I would have been SO thrilled if he'd even just vaguely recalled my name), but then he said he remembered her username, too, but he couldn't think of it. And when he asked her, she got nervous and didn't want to tell him (something about her name being embarrassing). But, I mean, I understand about embarrassing name (my name has fucking "shinigami" in it, for the love of god)....but.....Misha Collins is asking you for your handle. TELL HIM. I think it all just got away from her and she got overwhelmed (this is me totally projecting and guessing and I don't know her personally). But then he felt really bad and it got awkward and I just felt really bad for him. He clearly couldn't stop thinking about it--he kept breaking off of later answers to talk to her and said he wanted to work things out with her, and he apologized for asking for personal information (in front of a huge crowd, presumably).

After the Q&A it was straight off to the photo op, and we were in the second line, because it was divided A-L, M-Z. Again, I think the line was handled very professionally, though. The wait was barely anything. We almost didn't have time to think up what we were going to say to him (obvs you have to plan these things when you have to share 20 seconds). I kind of blew the photo, though. I ran in to the far side as the roomie announced we were two of his minions here to double team him (to which he replied something along the lines of being up for it), and then I had a hand up on his back and hers was around his waist and SNAP, and then I was stumbling away and giving him a brief smile and NOT SAYING ANYTHING EXCEPT THANK YOU AUGH. And he gave the roomie a second look (I'm sure she looked familiar--it's hard to forget HUGE RED HAIR after you've seen it gawping at you in a deserted hallway), but by that point I was stumbling away and she was going with me and he was saying "Take care" and...shaking hands? Maybe? I don't even remember. @_@

It always happens like that the first time, though. Next year will be better, I think.

I really wish I hadn't rushed the photo so much--I'm sure he would have given us a second to actually say something to him if we'd tried. I think I was really intimidated because he's so witty--I kept expecting to be pwned, and in fact he was very sweet during the photo.

After that we booked out of there, because it was our last even and we were exhausted and had a long drive home, so I'm just going to collect my photos online and my gold pass seat will be assigned to me by a staff member.

P.S. TOTALLY FORGOT TO MENTION that Misha looked amazing--black suit with a vest, red striped tie, and a jacket. Guh, gorgeous. He's even better looking in person, if that is imaginable. @_@ Jim was wearing a(n awesome when taken in context of the show) shirt that said, "Kill them all--let God sort it out." XD Hilarious.

I'm interested to see what my photos are going to look like. I'm honestly not sure I even managed to look at the camera for either of them. Smiles were definitely glazed. And I'm pretty sure I never made eye contact with Misha. Eye-nose contact, maybe. I might have just glanced at his chin.

IDEK I WAS A FUCKING MESS OMG

X_X

Misha I love yooouuuuuuuu...

P.P.S TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THIS. A few days ago somebody posted a list of questions not to ask Jared and Jensen at the con over on dean_sam. It was kind of right and kind of obnoxious at the same time. Mostly what bothered me is that the girl who came up with it stated straight up that she didn't want to hear any negative comments from people about it because it was just for fun, but then she was trying to get everybody to post them up on their hotel doors while still refusing to change anything to make it less offensive because it was just for fun. Riiiight. You can't have it both ways--either it's just for fun and it's just for you, or it's widely distributed to the public and you put some real fucking effort into it. I don't really like that attitude.

So ANYWAY, I was super fucking thrilled when my roomie came back from the bathroom and delivered this work of brilliance to me:

The poster had pinned it up in the bathroom, and somebody else has MST'd it. XD Now it is adorning my wall because I AM A THIEF.

lawls, I love the comments so much. XD

TOP 16 QUESTIONS NOT TO ASK AND STATEMENTS NOT TO MAKE AT A CONVENTION

Awkward and inappropriate questions

1. DO NOT INSULT THE BOYS, please. *i.e. the PETA question from Vancon*

But eating puppies is how Jared stays so pretty

2. Have you read fanfics?

Of course, Misha ships Dean/Cas hard.

3. Is it true you are engaged? When's the date?

Jared is marrying Jensen December 12th 2012, everyone knows this

4. In general, no questions or statements about an actor's personal life.

Nothing is sacred!

5. Good luck with your pursuit of Jensen/Jared.

Best of luck, we hope you have tons of butt-babies

6. Don't ask actors to make a shout out to another audience member.

need to make a shout out to snuffle-[something (wpagus? hipagus? idk)]

7. Can I give you this or have a hug? No, but you can go back to their hotel room

8. No questions or comments about Wincest or slash. Keep it at home.

It's not us, Misha is the one who brings it up

Repetitive Questions or unnecessary statements:

9. Refrain from telling long stories to the guests, we only have 30 minutes.

Misha needs to hear about my pumpkin bikini panties!

10. Do you still live with each other?

Of course, they are engaged!

11. Has anything supernatural ever happened on set?

Farticus is possessing Jared!

12. What Urban legend would you like to see on the show?

The snuggle bear!

13. Any questions pertaining to how the season and/or series will end.

We all know 2012 is the end of the world...so 2 more seasons to go!

14. I'm an aspiring actor/actress, any suggestions? OR How did you get into acting?

You have to be really, really ridiculously good-looking!

15. Can you reenact the leg-guitar/blue steel/cat scream?

Ask to reenact his fanboy moment.

16. Are you planning on pursuing a music career, Jensen?

Yes, he's already going multi-platinum.

LOL I love some fans just as much as I hate others. <3

Graphics: Supernatural

2009-07-31T01:42:24Z

SPN Icons x16
TIH Icons x8
SPN Wallpapers x2

Teasers:

ICONS: SUPERNATURAL

1	2	3	4

5	6	7	8

9	10	11	12

13	14	15	16

ICONS: TEN INCH HERO

1	2	3	4

5	6	7	8

WALLPAPERS: SUPERNATURAL

[ 1280x800 ]

[ 1280x800 ]

Comments are appreciated
Credit to silvershinigami

Graphics: Supernatural

2009-07-05T01:57:43Z

This is an extremely random graphics dump because I kept trying to do enough of one thing to warrant its own post, and then my folders just got completely cluttered and I gave up. So have some graphics!

Teasers:

ICONS: SUPERNATURAL, TEN INCH HERO

1	2	3	4

5	6	7	8

9	10	11	12

13	14	15	16

17	18	19	20

ICONS: RANDOM

1	2	3	4

WALLPAPER: SUPERNATURAL

[ 1280x800 ]

[ 1280x800 ]

Comment if taking
Credit to silvershinigami

Graphics: Tutorial - Depth

2009-06-30T03:32:00Z

This tutorial combines a few of my favorite techniques: blending an image onto a background convincingly, and creating depth in your graphic.

To demonstrate, we'll be going from this (hi-res) to this:

I am a big fan of cutting people out and sticking them on some random background, so the first thing you want to do is cut Jensen out. I decided the statue was interesting and could stay.

STEP 1: Open your image and make sure you're at 100% viewing. I usually expand my image so it fills up my entire workspace when I'm cutting people out. Select your Magnetic Lasso tool. (The magnetic lasso searches out contrast in the image and wraps around edges automatically. If it gets a little trigger happy, don't worry about it--just hit delete until you've erased as many points as you need. You can always click to manually add points and redirect the lasso.)

Once you've gone all the way around your image, you might need to adjust your edge. Go to the top of your workspace and click Refine Edge, and from there you can play with your settings. If you're shrinking him all the way down to fit on an icon, it doesn't matter that much, so I left mine at:

Radius: 1px
Contrast: 28%
Smooth: 3
Feather 1.8px
Contract/Expand: 0%

Once you've fixed your edge how you want it, go to Select-->Save Selection. Name it something cute like "The Bunny Hop." (<--I'm kidding, this is totally optional, though advisable)

Resize or crop your image down, then paste your selection into a 100x100px window. (If you've deselected at some point, go to Select-->Load Selection and choose The Bunny Hop from the drop down box. See? I told you it was advisable. You gonna listen from now on or what??)

STEP 2: Add your background behind Jensen. I chose a grunge background from the Green With Envy set by lizabeth0606.

The problem is, that looks like crap. He's basically just sitting on top of a random background and everybody knows it. So here is the first of my favorite techniques:

Blend your image into the background convincingly. The edges here are too blatant, the colors don't match, and the contrast is totally flat. Just because everybody knows he's not on his original background doesn't mean I have to rub their faces in it.

#1 Set Jensen to Multiply 100%.

#2 Copy this layer. Set it to Soft Light 100%.

#3 Go back between the Multiply and Soft Light layers and duplicate Jensen again. Set the middle layer to Screen to brighten him up. Reduce the opacity as needed. I set mine to 53%.

Your palette should look like this:

This melds your image into the background--just enough shows through to make it look like it actually belong there, and it softens the edges. Unless I'm doing a retro cut-out look, I always do this when I put a person on a random background texture.

STEP 3: Bring it all together. You want to add contrast and dark shapes to your graphic to make it all look like it belongs in the same picture.

I started by putting this lens flare texture (by cenedrawood) on Soft Light 100%. I had to rotate it around until it created shadows in the direction I wanted.

-->

Now for my favorite technique. Create a new layer and make a black-to-white gradient, then set it to Exclusion 100%.

-->

Hit Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E to copy and merge all layers into a new layer. Then go back to your gradient layer and set it to invisible (do this by clicking the eye icon next to the layer). Set your merged layer to Vivid Light 100%.

Your palette should look like this.

The reason we do this step is to add contrast, but in a particular direction. This creates distance between your foreground and background, giving the entire piece a more realistic look. Usually when people add contrast, they use soft light or an adjustment layer, but those darken up the image in a different way.

To give you an idea, look at these two images. This is an image duplicated and set to soft light. This is the same image using the Vivid Light technique I just explained. It keeps his face clear and visible, but creates depth throughout the image.

Okay, now the image has more going on with it, but he still looks a little awkward. Probably because it looks like he's sitting on air. Pick a texture that you can use to darken up the bottom left corner. I chose this light texture and inverted the colors (Ctrl-I). Then I went to my layer palette, and pasted it between the background and the Jensen base. Set this layer to Color Burn 100%. If you need to, feel free to add a layer mask and remove bits that cover too much of your base.

--> -->

STEP 4: Finishing touches. I wanted Jensen to be a little less pink, so I added a selective color adjustment layer on top of everything and upped my yellow by 100% on both Reds and Yellows. It only makes a small difference in this image, so you'll need to adjust this based on your image.

The last thing I did was add a tiny text layer. I used Times New Roman to type "deanwinchester," set the font size to 4px, and changed the tracking to 200 to separate the letters a bit.

And that's it! Finished icon, full of awesome. Your final layer palette should look like this.

Book Rec

2009-06-26T15:34:45Z

For those of you who don't follow Sarah Rees Brennan (Maya, to the HP fandom), I highly recommend that you start! She's just released her first novel, The Demon's Lexicon, and she's posting short stories at sarahtales each week to celebrate achieved sales goals. Go take a look, she's always a good read.

Trust me, I am a good reader--I know these things.

Tutorial: Fun With Fonts 2

2009-06-17T16:21:42Z

More font work, how exciting! Today's is going to be a little more advanced than the first font tutorial. We're going to cover Type Masking. I am by no means a master, but this will explain it's basic function and usage.

TYPE MASKING

This is something not many people use. I feel like it's similar to Warp Text in that it can look completely tacky, but if you use it right you can add a really neat effect to your graphic. Don't be afraid to use this and then set it to a blending mode, or erase part of it, or whatever your graphic needs. Artists will tell you don't be afraid to be bold, but my advice is don't be afraid to be subtle. Add something and then take away 90% of it if you need to. That's the key to using tools like this.

Type masking puts an image inside your text. Or over it. I'm not sure the best way to explain it. Looks like this.

Step 1: Pick an image you want to show up on your text. I picked clouds. Open this in a new document.

Step 2: Decide what message you're trying to send. My picture is clouds, so I'm going to say "CLOUDS". Brilliant, I know. Generally you wouldn't want to say something random, like "polka" or "steak," but it depends on what you're doing. Maybe you're Super Ironic, like a Photoshop hipster. But this tool is mostly used to impart a theme or a tone, so usually you'll want your text to reflect the image itself.

Step 3: Create a new layer on your image (Ctrl-Shft-N). The Type Mask tool does not create a new layer automatically, unlike the regular Type tool.

Step 4: While in your new layer, select the Horizontal Type Masking tool in your side toolbar:

Step 5: Type your word. Make sure to choose a thick, heavy font--you want plenty of your image to be captured.

I altered my font in my tool box to make it wider and taller and more compressed. If you don't want to do that, you can hit Ctrl-T after typing your word to transform it instead. Once you've hit Ctrl-T, just drag the font by the corner boxes to fit the shape you want it to. Hit return to complete your transformation.

Step 6: Now it's time to change the background. Because this is a basic tutorial, we're just going to create a solid fill layer for the cloud-text to sit on.

Hit Ctrl-Shft-I to inverse your selection. Then select a color (I chose one from the image itself for simplicity), and fill the background with it. To do this, select your background layer and select the paint bucket from your side toolbar and fill. Or you can just hit Alt-Delete to fill with your foreground color, or hit Ctrl-Delete to fill with your background color.

And that's it for basic Type Masking. Too bad it's super lame. Luckily, you aren't limited to just filling your background with a solid color. I decided to keep my cloud background and just contrast the coloring with a gradient map. In that case, this is your new

Step 6: With your background layer selected, go to Layer--New Adjustment Layer--Gradient Map. (Make sure your background is still selected in your window, not your text.) When the box pops up, make sure you've selected "Create Clipping Mask". From there, choose a gradient to overlay on the background. I picked a blue/pink, because it happened to be close to the top.

Voila! Play around with your effects and adjustment layers to get an image you like. Before we leave, though, I have one

SUPER IMPORTANT TIP, I AM SERIOUS, MAKE SURE YOU READ THIS PART: You CANNOT CHANGE your text once you've altered it and clicked out of it. Make sure you're happy with your font before you move on to the background. Also, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you save your selection before you move on.

While you still have your dotted lines running around your text and image, go to Select--Save Selection. Name it something like Cloud Outline so you can find it easily. That way, once you've moved on to adding brushes or textures or whatever that you want to effect the background or the text but not both, you can go to Select--Load Selection and choose Cloud Outline. Use Ctrl-Shft-I to move back and forth between selecting your text and your background. That will allow you to use brushes like this:

And that's it for Type Masking from me. Just play around and see what you can come up with!

I would continue, but I feel like my brain is oozing out of my ears. I'll wrap up the font tutorials with a third segment, featuring Effects and general tips.

Graphics: Supernatural

2009-06-17T00:45:47Z

Icons: [x20]
Wallpapers: [x2]

Teasers:

ICONS: SUPERNATURAL

1	2	3	4

5	6	7	8

9	10	11	12

13	14	15	16

17	18	19	20

WALLPAPERS: SUPERNATURAL

[1280x800]

[1280x800]

* Feel free to take any graphics you like.
* Credit to silvershinigami is appreciated.
* Comments are appreciated, as well!

Tutorial: Fun with Fonts 1

2009-06-15T03:45:15Z

I've always had a hell of a time making text icons, although you'd think they'd be the easiest. And everybody else seemed to have no problems fitting entire paragraphs onto a 100x100px image and making it a.) clear, b.) readable, and c.) interesting.

Anyway, I'm going to post up this tutorial on how to do all the basics to adjust your fonts in Photoshop and hopefully make your graphics more interesting.

Okay, my first problem I had as a noob was that I didn't realize people were using fonts other than the standard pack you get with Photoshop. To remedy this, head on over to dafont.com and browse your little heart out.

Download the font and save it to a folder you can find easily. Once you've expanded the zip file, open the font folder and right click the file, the select Install. If PS is open, it should import directly into your font list.

GENERAL

Okay, the first thing to do is Know Thy Toolbar.

Your life is going to be a lot easier if you know which buttons do what instead of having to redo layers or look through menus.

TEXT ORIENTATION

I used to erase text layers and change my font orientation on the side toolbar and then retype the layer. Instead of being an idiot like me, just select your text and click the Orientation button. You don't even need to highlight the text.

ANTI-ALIAS

This is something you'll need a lot when you're working with small font-size (as you always have to with icons). Sometimes when you shrink the font, it gets blurry and hard to read. The solution might be as simple as switching the anti-aliasing from smooth to crisp or strong. Just highlight your text and select from the drop down box.

WARP TEXT

This is an interesting tool that I don't use much, possibly because of being forced to make warped bubble text for every single PowerPoint presentation from middle school onwards. It runs the risk of looking kitschy and I am hyper aware of it. However! Like most tools, if you use it correctly you can ~~make it your bitch~~ add an effective, dynamic layer to your graphic.

First, select your text and click the Warp button. If you have any added effects like bold or italics, it will ask you to remove them and continue.

I selected the classic arc, and modified my angles from there.

This is something I could see myself setting to a blending mode like Color Burn or Soft Light and using it to create motion within the tiny, tiny square box that is an icon.

TOOLBAR HINTS

* I'm assuming everybody knows how to change their font color so I'm skipping the images--highlight your text and click the colored box on the toolbar. Voila!

* When changing font size, you aren't limited to the numbers they give you. Type in any value you want, from 1-1000. I know I've changed my font size to something like 600 before when making a wallpaper.

* If you are having trouble with your font size not being what you're expecting (e.g. if you select font size six and it's still taking up most of your graphic), check your image resolution. (Image-->Image Size, or Ctrl+Alt+I) Images made for the web should have a resolution of 72, images to be printed out should be closer to 300. The higher your resolution, the bigger your font size appears.

TOOL BOX

I don't know that this thing actually has a real name, but I think of it as my tool box. It's like the top toolbar's hot older sister. I do most of my text editing in this box, because with it you can change pretty much everything about your font.

Most of these tools affect the spacing of the letters, which is pretty much the most important part of making text fit into a small space.

Leading

This changes the space between the bottom of one line of text and the top of the next. It's really useful to be able to adjust, because sometimes the default settings are just not what you need to work with.

Here's a classic example--huge gap between the lines of text, but I want that last line on the icon, too. How else will we know that the block of text is made with letters??

Oh how convenient! I just go to the Leading drop down box (with my text highlighted) and select 24 instead of Auto! (Or whatever. This number varies with every font.)

Tracking

But wait, one of my words is cut off. The best way to fix this is to adjust the tracking--the space between the letters. Highlight text and change from 0 up or down as you need.

Again feel free to type any value you want into the drop down box.

Scaling

Scaling adjusts the height and width of letters themselves. This goes a long way toward making your font say as much as the text itself does--my basic serif font went from being pretty square to being short and stout. Play with this to give a tone to your font that fits the message.

Baseline Shift

Use this to shift words or lines up text up or down. You'd think you could just use the Superscript or Subscript buttons (beneath all these drop down boxes), but that makes the letters smaller. Highlight your text and type in a positive or negative value to shift your text up or down from the baseline.

Okay, I said "super long" in the cut text, but that really got super long (what with wanting to cover ALL the bases) so I'm going to wrap it up for this session and continue tomorrow with Type Masking, Effects, and Tips.

Part 2: Type Masking

Graphics: Icon Textures Sets 4-5

2009-06-10T01:39:31Z

SET 4: DEATH SEAL

Download full set here.

SET 4: SCRATCH GRUNGE

Download full set here.

Rules:
1. Do not repost or claim as your own.
2. Credit to silvershinigami.
3. Comments are appreciated if you download.

Graphics: Tutorial

2009-03-13T17:51:13Z

Today we're going to be making a very interesting light texture...thing. Something that looks like this:

It's a really simple set of layers you can put together, and slip white brushes in between to get the stand-out effect.

Step 1: Fill your canvas with black (#000000).

Step 2: Make a difference gradient in a new layer. I called this D.Grad 1. You want this one to have be long strips of black and white.

To do this, make sure your palette is black and white, and go up here to select your mode as Difference.

Make one gradient, then make another short gradient line more or less parallel to the first one, like so. That will give you something like this. Keep doing that until you have a gradient that looks how you want--just remember to keep the lines mostly long and going the same direction.

Set this layer to Hard Mix. (It will look like your layer has disappeared. Don't worry about it.)

Step 3: Copy D.Grad 1 (CTRL-J) and name it D.Grad 2. Rotate this layer 90 degree counter clockwise and set blend mode to Exclusion.

Your image should look as if D.Grad 2 is just set to Normal:

Step 4: Create another layer, and name it D.Grad 3. You want this gradient to be full of sharp angles, as such:

You can do this by altering the angle of your difference gradients. Instead of parallel, go for a more random, perpendicular line. You should be able to go from something like this to this. Repeat as needed until you get something angular you like.

Set this layer to Color Burn. Your image should look like this:

Step 5: Set your three gradient layers to invisible. Go back between your black base layer and D.Grad 1, and insert a layer (I called this White Brush because I am extremely creative). You can insert any white brush here--it works better if it is solid white and has solid borders, without any fading. (Although that is an interesting look you can play with, as well. The Hard Mix setting dissolves and pixelates any shading, so be prepared.)

I took a warning strip brush I made and liquefied it using a mix of the Twirl Clockwise Tool and the Forward Warp Tool to get something I liked:

You can stop here if you want, but I created another layer (White Brush 2) and used a softer brush to liquefy another swirl.

Leave these brush layers set to normal.

Step 6: Go back and turn your gradient layers solid and you should have something that looks like this:

Other fun versions so you can see the difference between faded and solid brushes:

I think this is a really interesting technique that could be used in some really awesome retro graphics. I would make some as an example, but I do not have the time. I mostly made this so I wouldn't forget how I did it.

Graphics: Icon Textures Sets 1-3

2009-03-12T23:14:45Z

All icon texture sets come with a large base texture.

SET 1: NEON BIRDS

Download full set here.

SET 2: HALLOWEEN FISH

Download the full set here.

SET 3: HALFTONE CHIP

Download the full set here.

Rules:
1. Do not repost or claim as your own.
2. Credit to silvershinigami.
3. Comments are appreciated if you download.

Graphics: Icons - Greg the Vampire

2009-03-06T06:15:00Z

SPOILERS--If you have not read Chapter 20, DO NOT PROCEED.

So, in honor of Mason's return (SQUEE!!!) I decided GtV needed a celebration. And I also decided (a bit late) that the poor gargoyle should be immortalized in case aggybird ever decides to yank him away from us again.

...

In any case, I put together two sets of lovely Mason dialogue. The text is the same in both sets, but there is a Monster!background, and a Slightly-More-Cheerful!background. Enjoy!

1	2	3	4

5	6	7	8

9	10	11	12

13	14	15	16

17	18	19	20

21	22	23	24

25	26	27	28

29	30	31	32

33	34	35	36

37	38	39	40

Thanks go out to aggybird for writing such a spectacular story for us. And, as always, feel free to take as many or few icons as you want. Credit to silvershinigami is always appreciated! ^_^

Graphics: Wallpaper

2008-11-13T16:51:22Z

Well, you know. While you're in the mood and all that.

| 1280x800 | 1024x768 |

Graphics: Wallpaper

2008-11-11T05:18:58Z

I finally got around to making that wallpaper I've been thinking about for the past two months. I really like this style at discolore, but my grunge always comes out too heavy. I'm working on lightening it, but it is clearly a work in progress. I also didn't want this wallpaper to be too clean, so that kind of took precedence over the lightness.

| 1280x800 | 1024x768 |

I'm thinking of working it into a 1024x768 as well, but I'm not sure how well the movement would translate to a different proportion. We'll see.

ETA 1024x768 version

Graphics: Wallpaper

2008-04-19T05:06:31Z

Well, I was going to put this up until I had something else to go with it, but I don't have time for photoshop now and I won't for a while (drat!), so I'm just going to put up this wallpaper I spit out for my roommate.

I don't have a thumbnail, but this is a 1024x768 wallpaper of Channing Tatum, if anybody is interested.

And now it's back to the homework. *sigh*

Graphics: Tutorial - Washout Coloring

2007-12-31T18:44:24Z

The other day I was playing around, trying to get a certain coloring, and I was pleasantly surprised when I actually got it. So I thought I'd write up this tutorial for y'all, because I think it's cool.

We're going to be going from this and this to this:

First, the coloring. This is our main image. I resized mine to 900px wide.

First add a new Curves adjustment layer to brighten him up. Output: 193, Input: 149. Result.

Second, add a new fill layer with #345A43, a dusky, bluish-green. Set it to Exclusion. Result.

Duplicate your base and drag it to the top. Set it to Overlay. This is where we are so far:

Next is our biggest change: Selective Coloring. Add a new Selective Color adjustment layer.

Reds: 100, -44, 26, -54
Cyans: 100, -59, 100, 0
Blacks: 0, 0, 0, 23

Result. We basically took out a lot of the red and darkened him up. My goal here is to wash him out.

That's a good color, but I wanted him to be...milkier, for lack of a better term. Add a new fill layer with #FBFBF4, which is a really light greyish-cream. Set it to Soft Light. Result.

Great! He's got that milky skin tone I wanted, but the contrast is shot. Drag your base to the top and set it to Overlay. Now we've got all the contrast we want, but other colors are too bright. Add a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (make sure you select the Clipping Mask for this one) and reduce the saturation to -86. This is our final result:

Merge your image into a new layer (Shft+Ctrl+Alt+E).

Now for the header.

Open a new image, 600x250px. Paste your base into it and position it to one side. (Resize if you need to.) The thing to note about the positioning here is that the vertical break in the wall and the imaginary line bisecting Justin's face divide the header into thirds.

Take your second base picture and duplicate the coloring steps. Resize it to where you want (mine was 300x407px) and position it on the right side. Result. Set it to Darken. (You can set it to Multiply if you want, but here Darken makes Justin's hand look more 3-dimensional, rather than flat, and that tickled my fancy.)

Add a layer mask and erase where you need to. I took out all the wall and window panes to the left because I wanted the header to be pretty empty. ~~Empty like his tortured army soul.~~

The coloring in my base images was a little different, so here I added a Color Balance adjustment layer. Be sure to select the Clipping Mask. Your settings should be:

Midtones: 0, 0, -5
Highlights: 3, 0, -6

That's going to make him a little more yellow and a bit brighter.

Next I wanted something to fill the background just a bit and pull the two images together, and I figured the window theme was good enough to go with. This part is going to be pretty specific to your images, but you can do anything light on the background you want, be it brushes or textures. Since Justin's pulling his military look here, I wanted something very straight and uncluttered.

I went back to my second base pic and cut out as much of the window panes as I could without getting Justin in there. Open a new 600x250px image and paste it in. Duplicate the base and shift it over. Delete where necessary and slide the two together to form a seamless window image. If there's still space on the side, duplicate it once more and adjust until you have one large window:

Merge that and paste that on top of your header and set it to Multiply. (Another thing I like here is that the side of the window makes a nice border for the right side of the image. If you don't have this with your image, you can add another image in place to get the same balancing effect.) Make a layer mask and erase over Big!Justin's face. Then find a scratch brush with straight lines. I used this from Rain Harbour. Your settings should be:

Tip Shape: Spacing 25%
Shape Dynamics: Size Jitter 100%, Angle Jitter 26%
Scattering: Scatter 393%, Count 1

While still in your layer mask, go over the entire image until you window panes are grunged up and lighter, as such:

Now for brushes. Create a new layer and take this scratchlines brush from Rain Harbour. Choose one of the darker colors in your image (mine was #1d1b0f) and apply it to the top left corner. Create another new layer and rotate your brush 180 degrees. Choose one of the lighter colors in your image and apply it to the bottom right corner. My bottom brush seemed too bright, so I reduced my opacity to 68%.

(A fun thing you can do to make sure your corner borders are really symmetrical: Instead of applying the brush freehand a second time, just duplicate the first brush, and go to Edit: Transform: Rotate 180', then position it in the opposite corner. If you're using blackish and whitish colors, you can then just invert it by hitting Ctrl+I. If your colors are not quite that opposite, you can hit Ctrl+U and adjust the hue or lightness to get the right shade.)

We're going to add a few more brushes to the corners for a bit more definition. I tend to like gothic images as a contrast for straight lines, which is why I chose this brush, but you can use anything that fits the tone of your image. I took this gothic cross from someplace I've forgotten. Create a new layer and apply this in the same dark color to the top left corner. Again, rotate brush 180 degrees, new layer, light color, apply to bottom right. (Or do the Transform 180' trick.) I lowered the right cross's opacity to 79%.

Now for text. I chose to use Orator Std, 30pt to type "see through you" in black. I set my Tracking to 0, Vertical Scale to 70%, and my Horizontal Scale to 100%. Position it at the top left, just above the scratchline brush. I set mine pretty high, so the top of it goes off the image. Now comes the fun part! Add a layer mask, and go to Filter: Render: Clouds. This will give you a smooth fade in and out of your text. Go to Render: Difference Clouds as many times as it takes to find a suitable masking of your text.

Duplicate your text layer and move it to the bottom right. Change the font color to white (or your light color), and reduce the opacity to around 75%. You can Render: Difference Clouds again until your masking fits.

I duplicated my dark text one more time and moved it down toward the middle of the image. Change the Tracking to 100 and the Vertical Scale to 50%. Lower the opacity way down--mine was 16%. Add a layer mask and use the straight line scattered brush technique again (just like we did on the windows). Position the text somewhere off-center.

And we're done!

And that's it! If anything is unclear or you have any questions, please just ask. I'm more than happy to clarify things.

Graphics: Wallpaper

2007-12-23T06:25:49Z

Spent the past day and a half making a wallpaper of...wait for it...Justin Timberlake! I wanted to make something like this, and thanks to FutureSex/LoveSounds, Mr. Timberlake has been taking very clean-cut, classy photographs. So...thanks, man. ^_^

I spent yesterday just making the background--I'm sure a few of you heard me bitching about it. ^_^; It all finally came together late last night (read: at 4:00am, 16 hours after I started the damn thing), so this morning I was able to start putting Justin into it.

That only took three hours. -_-; Freaking vintage style backgrounds are a pain in my ass, because I suck at them. Also, I have no brushes. *sigh*

But I'm happy with the end result. I think it came out well, for a first effort.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[ETA] Every once in a while I get the urge to make a tutorial, but it's gotten to the point where I don't even know what I'd say. Most of my graphics go something like this:

Start with a fill layer. Pick a random texture and slap it on. Erase most of it. Grunge up what's left. Move it around. Pick another random texture and slap it on. Erase most of it. Grunge up what's left. Change the blend mode to something. Decide that sucks and delete it. Pick more another random texture. Decide everything sucks and make your own damn texture. Slap it on. Erase most of it. Change the blend mode to something. Repeat ad nauseam.

Here is my one piece of advice to everybody, though, for almost every graphic you will ever make. This has been on my mind since I saw a bunch of painfully mediocre wallpapers on a JC fansite.

This is very important, so listen up.

When you have a background texture and you paste a person on top of it:

DO NOT LEAVE THEM ON NORMAL MODE.

It will look jarring and it'll be really obvious and it'll seem unnatural. No matter how carefully you cut them out of their real picture, the edges are going to look strange. Everybody knows you pasted them, but you don't want to remind your viewer that the person isn't actually supposed to be on top of that background.

Duplicate your layer. Set the first to Multiply. Set the second to Soft Light. If the person is still too dark, duplicate the Soft Light and change the first one to Screen. Multiply-->Screen-->Soft Light. Adjust the opacities as necessary.

This makes your subject look almost completely solid, but it creates depth and there's just enough of the background showing through that they look like they belong on it. Also, it makes the edges look less harsh.

This is especially important if the background is grungy or soft--pretty much everything except retro or vintage. With those you can get away with outlines and exaggerate the choppiness to make it look intentional.

That's the key to success right there, though, people. Multiply, Screen, Soft Light.

Graphics: Wallpaper

2007-12-21T11:40:12Z

Made another JC wallpaper last night/this morning. It's vaguely the same style as the Yamapi one--i.e. the put-the-base-on-soft-light-and-add-a-bajillion-textures style.

Additionally, I'm working on one right now that's really trippy. I have no idea what's going on with it.

See? What the hell. I hate the left side. I haven't found a way to draw the image together yet. But I love JC:

Color Burn is doing beautiful things to his jeans. And his hair! With hair that awesome, you have to do something crazy with the color. Also, the light textures on his side are fantastic.

Now I just have to make the rest of the picture not suck. I'm not sure if that's possible. -_-;

Graphics: Coloring

2007-12-15T16:12:35Z

New layout!

I got this while I was playing around with my blend modes. I'm always surprised that more people don't use Difference. It's just as fun as Exclusion, and I love the green you can get with it. More green, people, it's a great color! Blue is overdone!

This is blue. Blue is...blue. Blue has been old hat for years.

But look! Green! And you can go anywhere with it! Add some pink to that, it'll be fantastic.

Blend modes are like crack. I love it.

But anyway, I was playing around trying to get a new look, and I ended up with a few totally cool...things. Looks like...vaguely grungy vector art, but isn't?

Check this out.

This one started normally. I did the dark blue Exclusion layer and a tan/peach Burn layer. Then I duplicated the Burn layer twice. The bottom of the two I set to Pin Light, and all of a sudden I had this amazing silhouette. You have to be careful with this that there's contrast between your silhouette and the background, though. Doesn't work so well when your person is standing in front of something dark. ^_^;

And then! I thought I'd try to color it a bit, since it's all very pastel. So on top of everything, I added a fill layer of dark red and set it to Vivid Light.

Is that not completely awesome?

I'm not quite sure what to do with it now, but it's a good look to be able to get, I think. ^_^;

Translation: Lyrics

2007-12-13T14:34:35Z

Today I got super pissed at my homework and freaked about it for about an hour because I didn't understand the instructions, and then I realized the stupid thing isn't even due until Monday. -_-;

So I thought I wanted to go read and do something un-Japanese, but actually it turns out I wanted to translate Foxxi MisQ's "A-L-I-V-E" which is a super catchy hip hop song that eggvip inadvertently turned me on to.

^_^

So here is my pretty crappy translation. I mostly did each phrase literally, because it was just for me, rather than an interested community.

Japanese

We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the style
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

叫び続けても Nobody answer me
まるで透明なwho I am
例えるなら Star ship 取り残されI'm sick
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

No-No 自分らしくありたい
What's wrong? 意地になって玉砕
Hell no! これがいわゆる社会?
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

Breath 自分の価値信じるAddict
それがナニ? Ain't nobody迷わずに
思い通り進むのみ
We gotta go Break through the door into the glow

めくるめくSurvival
乗り越えたらどうなる?
傷だらけのFinal?
Do or Die…
A-L-I-V-E"Alive" No matter what the people say

[rap]

A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

叩き続けてるDoor never opened
誰も気付かないmy screamin'
無人島にleave alone 一人みたいでHow long?
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

No-No 早く駆け上がりたい
You know でも出口が見えない
Hell no! 空回りする期待
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

Freeze続くDrama また真夜中
わがままなDilemma増えるまま
迎える朝待てなくて
We gotta go Break through the door into the glow

終わらないSurvival
だけど夢見たがる
いつもこんなSpiral
Do or Die…
A-L-I-V-E"Alive" No matter what the people say

[ラップ歌詞無い]

A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

Breath 自分の価値信じるAddict
それがナニ? Ain't nobody迷わずに
思い通り進むのみ
We gotta go Break through the door into the glow

Just wanna be Alive

めくるめくSurvival
乗り越えたらどうなる?
傷だらけのFinal?
Do or Die…
A-L-I-V-E"Alive" No matter what the people say

終わらないSurvival
だけど夢見たがる
いつもこんなSpiral
Do or Die…
A-L-I-V-E"Alive" No matter what the people say

We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the style
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the style
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

Hiragana

We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the style
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

さきびつづけても Nobody answer me
まるでとうめいなwho I am
たとえるなら Star ship とりのこされI'm sick
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

No-No じぶんらしくありたい
What's wrong? いじになってぎょくさい
Hell no! これがいわゆるしゃかい?
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

Breath じぶんのかちしんじるAddict
それがナニ? Ain't nobodyまよわずに
おもいどうりすすむのみ
We gotta go Break through the door into the glow

めくるめくSurvival
のりこえたらどうなる?
きずだらけのFinal?
Do or Die…
A-L-I-V-E"Alive" No matter what the people say

[rap]

A-L-I-V-E　"Alive"　Give it, Give it, Give it a try

たたきつづけてるDoor never opened
だれもきづかないmy screamin'
むじんとうにleave alone ひとりみたいでHow long?
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

No-No はやくかけあがりたい
You know でもでぐちがみえない
Hell no! からまわりするきたい
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

FreezeつづくDrama またまよなか
わがままなDilemmaふるえるまま
むかえるあさまってなくて
We gotta go Break through the door into the glow

おわらないSurvival
だけどゆめみたがる
いつもこんなSpiral
Do or Die…
A-L-I-V-E"Alive" No matter what the people say

[ラップ歌詞無い]

A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

Breath じぶんのかちしんじるAddict
それがナニ? Ain't nobodyまよわずに
おもいどうりすすむのみ
We gotta go Break through the door into the glow

Just wanna be Alive

めくるめくSurvival
のりこえたらどうなる?
きずだらけのFinal?
Do or Die…
A-L-I-V-E"Alive" No matter what the people say

おわらないSurvival
だけどゆめみたがる
いつもこんなSpiral
Do or Die…
A-L-I-V-E"Alive" No matter what the people say

We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the style
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the style
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

English

We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the style
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

Endless scream Nobody answer me
Entirely transparent Who I am
For example Star ship Left behind I’m sick
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

No-No I want to live on my own
What’s wrong? Defeat becomes strength
Hell no! Is this the so-called society?
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

Breath Believe in your own worth Addict
What is that? Ain’t nobody lost
Just progress in your own time
We gotta go Break through the door into the glow

Dazzling Survival
If you overcome, what will you become?
The injury-riddled Final?
Do or Die…
A-L-I-V-E"Alive" No matter what the people say

[rap]

A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

The never-ending extortion Door never opened
Nobody notices my screamin’
On a deserted island leave alone like you’re all alone How long?
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

No-No I want to run up quickly
You know But I can’t see a way out
Hell no! You’ll just be spinning your wheels
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

Freeze endlessly Drama it’s midnight again
Selfish Dilemma is increasing
I can’t wait to greet the morning
We gotta go Break through the door into the glow

It’s not over Survival
But I wanted to see the dream
It’s always like this Spiral
Do or Die…
A-L-I-V-E"Alive" No matter what the people say

[rap]

A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

Breath Believe in your own worth Addict
What is that? Ain’t nobody lost
Just progress in your own time
We gotta go Break through the door into the glow

Just wanna be Alive

Dazzling Survival
If you overcome, what will you become?
The injury-riddled Final?
Do or Die…
A-L-I-V-E"Alive" No matter what the people say

It’s not over Survival
But I wanted to see the dream
It’s always like this Spiral
Do or Die…
A-L-I-V-E"Alive" No matter what the people say

We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the style
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the style
We gotta be alive That's how we keep the pride
A-L-I-V-E"Alive"Give it, Give it, Give it a try

There we go, kids. That's how I wasted an hour of my night. Fascinating, wasn't it?

Graphics: Stock Photos

2007-11-18T04:02:57Z

This is my favorite stock photo ever:

It's great as a scratch texture, because it's a little more elegant-looking than the standard ones. Less grungy. It also adds a lot of light/dark to the image, which can be fun. You have to be prepared for real changes in your image because there's so much grey--and you can't just stick it on top and expect the only difference to be a few scratch markings. I find it works best on soft light (unless your image is really dark), or (my favorite) putting it on multiply, then copying the base to screen and another to soft light, and finally putting another copy of the scratch texture on soft light above all that. Depth! Contrast! Intrigue!

This pic has it all, baby. ^_~

Graphics: Wallpaper

2007-11-10T19:00:35Z

So this is the wallpaper I've been working on since Thursday. I really tried to make it more like a...piece? Than just a graphic. Tried to stick with a theme, give it meaning, etc.

cirquenaya will get the badger thing.

I'm really pleased with this piece. It all came together--slowly--but I feel like there isn't anything there that doesn't need to be there. There were definitely long periods of staring blankly at the screen, but nothing here was forced.

I like the stucco texturing around the outline of the wing. I love that the wing is actually a semi-circle of spoons. I like that when I put the paper ticket on color burn it turned orange, because I'd unwittingly placed it over a red light texture.

I was a little surprised when my picture turned out to be gay, but what can you do. I wasn't TRYING to slash it up, but when I added the text...well. ^_^; It's too perfect to change, though, so I'm not stressing.

I was probably more surprised than I should have been. ^_^;

It's not exactly what I had in mind, but I like it.

2007-11-09T10:52:00Z

So guess what I did today.

I've been working on this wallpaper as an exercise to kind of change the way I'm bringing the layers together. Instead of just putting them on top of each other and blending around the edges, I'm trying to make them more interrelated and having them work through each other. I wanted my subjects to sort of...pop out of the layers on top of them.

Unfortunately, getting the idea from my brain into some kind of workable strategy is more complicated than I thought it'd be.

So instead of taking notes today during history, I worked out how to blend everything together and drew out my layers. On notebook paper.

Am I the biggest dork ever, or what?

But just so you can see, this is what it's turning into:

Sweet, right?

Graphics: Icons

2007-11-07T05:57:01Z

Three sets of retro icons for JC, who takes lovely photographs.

Preview:

Set #1: Stripes

Set #2: Noise

Set #3: Circles

And that's a wrap! Enjoy.

Graphics: Wallpaper

2007-11-05T05:50:31Z

Oh man, this thing nearly killed me. I haven't wanted to punch my computer in a while, but this definitely did it.

I love this wallpaper and I think it's gorgeous, but seriously...I'm afraid to count how many layers I have. At least 50, I'm sure. My palette looks about like this:

circle
right circle
middle circle
big circle
more circles
another circle
circle: the sequel
son of circle
circle jerk
cirque du soleil
irclesay
circles hate you
rotund objects
i dream of circles
a;spocirclesitwtlk
not another circle movie
bwahahacircles
circlets
please no more
oh god make it stop
i
can't
take
any
more
circles

1	2	3	4

5	6	7	8

9	10	11	12

13	14	15	16

17	18	19	20

21	22	23	24

25	26	27	28

29	30	31	32

33	34	35	36

37	38	39	40

1	2	3	4

5	6	7	8

9	10	11	12

13	14	15	16

17	18	19	20

21	22	23	24

25	26	27	28

29	30	31	32

33	34	35	36

37	38	39	40

1	2	3	4

5	6	7	8

9	10	11	12

13	14	15	16

17	18	19	20

21	22	23	24

25	26	27	28

29	30	31	32

33	34	35	36

37	38	39	40