The Limits Of Possible

[Aquacorde]

The Limits Of Possible

I've been starting to make icons more lately, with the assistance and encouragement of the lovely Sydian. And, well, they're just kind of sitting around doing nothing. So I figured hey, why not get other people's input on these things?
And thus, a gallery.
With better formatting to come later.

Pokemon Character Icons

Spoiler:

Icon Sets

Spoiler:

Tags

Spoiler:

If you want to use any, just ask. I'll probably say yes as long as you give credit. ^_^

 

[Sydian]

Just popping in to say I love all your icons, especially Cilan with that golden mask thing and the Green icons<3 Fennel icon is pretty cute too. I can't really say much else than what I've said on MSN though! Keep up the good work! You've quickly become one of my favorite icon makers. :]

 

[Aquacorde]

Just popping in to say I love all your icons, especially Cilan with that golden mask thing and the Green icons<3 Fennel icon is pretty cute too. I can't really say much else than what I've said on MSN though! Keep up the good work! You've quickly become one of my favorite icon makers. :]

Uwah Syddy you need to stop flattering me I don't know what to do. ^^; But thank you for everything~ All the critique and encouragement~

Oh and here are a few more icons~

So I said I wasn't gonna do tags 'cause I didn't get it at all.
I still don't get it at all but here is a tag.

And another I tossed together in an attempt to use photoshop. It makes no sense to me. @_@ Couldn't even figure out how to resize things. Which is why it is quite large. But! I think I get C4D's or whatever a little more now.

 

[mikey]

I love your icons! :D

I love that Ash one, epic. Keep it up!

 

[Alternative]

One thing that really stands out for me are your icon sets. What I really like to see in icon sets are something with a theme, but don't make to completely obvious that they're from the same stock (like clipping some other icon into another). I know it doesn't make sense, so I'll try to explain it using some old icons of my own.

In this example, which are my own icons, you can see Roxas in one and Xion in the other icon, in which you can still see some of Roxas in the Xion icon, which I just don't like. Say with your first set of the Striaton Triplets icons (the tux's), you can tell they're from the same stock, but there's no overlapping, which I just really love about them. I might have to steal them one day. :P

As for your tags, especially your barbarian one (I have no idea who it is), it does look somewhat flat if you ask me. You can bring out the depth by sharpening the focal, and blurring the background, which helps it not become flat. Colour choice is also something you should work on. The barbarian uses some yellows and silvers, so that's what you want to be focusing on whenever you use any effects or gradient maps. So as a background, you might want to use more neutrals and yellow colours, which would help more to bring out the focal.

You have very nice positioning, which I give you props for. :)

 

[Aquacorde]

I love your icons! :D

I love that Ash one, epic. Keep it up!

Thank you! I'll do my best! :3

One thing that really stands out for me are your icon sets. What I really like to see in icon sets are something with a theme, but don't make to completely obvious that they're from the same stock (like clipping some other icon into another). I know it doesn't make sense, so I'll try to explain it using some old icons of my own.

In this example, which are my own icons, you can see Roxas in one and Xion in the other icon, in which you can still see some of Roxas in the Xion icon, which I just don't like. Say with your first set of the Striaton Triplets icons (the tux's), you can tell they're from the same stock, but there's no overlapping, which I just really love about them. I might have to steal them one day. :P

Ooh, I get it. I tend to like those types of icons too (thus why I make them xD). It's definitely easier when the characters are rather farther apart. ^^
Steal to you heart's content~ (...I guess. That sounds odd.)

As for your tags, especially your barbarian one (I have no idea who it is), it does look somewhat flat if you ask me. You can bring out the depth by sharpening the focal, and blurring the background, which helps it not become flat. Colour choice is also something you should work on. The barbarian uses some yellows and silvers, so that's what you want to be focusing on whenever you use any effects or gradient maps. So as a background, you might want to use more neutrals and yellow colours, which would help more to bring out the focal.

Oh-kay! I think I get it. Kinda use the colors prominent in the render for the background, but toned down a bit, right? I will try this.

That's Delphine Angua von Uberwald from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, by the way. Read it nao if you have not for it is amazing.

You have very nice positioning, which I give you props for. :)

When I see people critiquing icons or tags, I tend to see "they're too centered" a lot. Avoiding this seems to make things better. :P Except when the stock demands it.
Er, maybe I just kinda know where things go best. idk.

Thank you very much for all the helpful tips. :3 ily 4eva~


Oh and more stuff. Which were made like... kind of a while ago. As in mostly yesterday and the day before. /feels longer

I was using these for my sig before. :3

This made it to the Graphics Rating Thread but not here. Don't know how I managed that.

I think I overdid the C4Ds and was totally not effective at all. @_@

And I made an icon out of it, which I think looks much better. :P

 

[Aquacorde]

Gonna update with a few icon sets~

The big one that could very well be split into three small ones:

Regular-sized sets:

 

[Alternative]

https://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i395/misssmartsies/tags/shigetag001.png
This is getting better, in terms of colour if you ask me. You're going with the flow, and using colours appropriate to the focal point being used, which is always a nice thing to do when making a tag. One thing I see that you're doing is adding in a lot of C4Ds in the background. These are used to create depth and help with flow, so you know what they're used for now. One thing I wouldn't recommend at all is that you're making it the entire background, which I don't really like. If you're going to be using C4Ds, you should be focusing them around the focal point, in order to create flow and depth. If you're trying to fill the background, one thing which would be better to do is take some other stocks of things, such as a farm or brick wall or something like that, and fill it up like that. :) You can also use anything from that, to fractals and even some vector brushes, which are probably easier to use than anything.

Don't forget you have blurring and sharpening under your graphics belt, so use them which will create more depth. try and blur out things in the background to create some sense of depth. :)

 

[Aquacorde]

https://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i395/misssmartsies/tags/shigetag001.png
This is getting better, in terms of colour if you ask me. You're going with the flow, and using colours appropriate to the focal point being used, which is always a nice thing to do when making a tag. One thing I see that you're doing is adding in a lot of C4Ds in the background. These are used to create depth and help with flow, so you know what they're used for now. One thing I wouldn't recommend at all is that you're making it the entire background, which I don't really like. If you're going to be using C4Ds, you should be focusing them around the focal point, in order to create flow and depth. If you're trying to fill the background, one thing which would be better to do is take some other stocks of things, such as a farm or brick wall or something like that, and fill it up like that. :) You can also use anything from that, to fractals and even some vector brushes, which are probably easier to use than anything.

Don't forget you have blurring and sharpening under your graphics belt, so use them which will create more depth. try and blur out things in the background to create some sense of depth. :)

I think the reason I keep using lots of C4Ds in the background is that I feel like my backgrounds are always quite empty, even with using those techniques. Thank you for pointing that out, I shall try to keep it in mind.

You take so much time for me and I appreciate it. >w<

Other stuff has been made, too. :3

I don't even know.

This one... is a bit odd. I let my sister dictate what to do with it, and she's... not the best at putting things together. But I did what I could under vague guidelines from her. ^^;

Oh and the first vertical tag I have done.

 

[Aquacorde]

Updating because... well, Jack Harkness, for the most part. hnng I don't do him justice at all.

You know, I rather think I could be getting better at tags. Perhaps I am.

 

[Alternative]

https://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i395/misssmartsies/tags/jackT01.png
I have to agree with you there Anna, you're getting much better at tags from what I can see. This Jack Harkness, despite me not knowing who he is, tag looks very well executed. You've used C4Ds which match the colours and the flow of the focal, which is always amazing. I've always said it's hard to critique great work, so I'm having trouble writing more down. XD; But yeah, next time maybe try some new techniques, such as lighting and stuff. That'll really help make the focal point stand out. Also you'd want to sharpen your focal point, so it stands out more. :)

 

[Aquacorde]

Thank youuu~~ <3 I tried some lighting stuff and it kinda worked... some sharpening happened, but I'm always afraid with that. ^^;

SO HERE IS AN UPDATE

The first one I made like... a month ago, and the second I made today and entered in TotF. :3

 

[Maraala]

ugh i suck at criticizing

Your tags are absolutely fabulous, but the one thing that irks me about your icon (or at least the sets) is the overlapping images. They don't look too good, but other than that, they look great.

Keep up the good work~

 

[[T]ouko]

Wow I really like your icons! They're really good, keep it up!!

 

[Aquacorde]

ugh i suck at criticizing

Your tags are absolutely fabulous, but the one thing that irks me about your icon (or at least the sets) is the overlapping images. They don't look too good, but other than that, they look great.

Keep up the good work~

I've gotten so much worse at icons it's not even funny. ._.

Wow I really like your icons! They're really good, keep it up!!

Thank you both. <3

And here we have an update.

One not-so-brilliant 150x150.

One not-so-brilliant icon.

One fairly decent icon.

One tag on which I never ended up fixing the text on. o3o;

One tag on which I actually did something noticeable with lighting.

And one tag which I was quite lazy about making.

 

[Ho-Oh]

Going to comment on these three, don't mean to sound harsh, just some things I think you could improve on to make your tags stand out better and look neater/more professional.

1. This one seems like it's using uhhh, not really effects that compliment your tag in the background (not to sound harsh, but from the blurring and such, it looks like something you'd find on random image sites), really. How does the background relate to the person? You've got to choose a background that relates, and really, it just seems like you were using random effects without a purpose there. Choose a colour that compliments the focal, because if it wasn't for the blending of the background into the front of the image, then yeah I'd say it was just a random background. :x That might've been better for an anime render rather than a human one, especially with the effects you chose, (and some colour differences too, since completely purple isn't appealing to the eyes).

2. Something about the render seems off. It's too light up the top and his arms on the left side... there's something up with them, while on the right side (text overlay = bad by the way), the lighting seems to look better, and really, his right arm is the best part of the entire image. Notice how you lose lighting on the left side and it just becomes hard to see. Imo for the overall render, you could've gone for more contrasting because it looks over brightened which doesn't really suit the tag itself. As for the background effects, they'd probably have looked better if the random text splashed around was removed. Actually, on the note of text, it's almost impossible to read it on the left. Choose colours that suit the overall tag colouring rather than ones that don't really contribute. For example, if that was white or blue, and the lighting layer in the corner (the orange) was a darker blue, you'd start to get better colour variations that don't take anything away from the original render. Either way, watch for the quality of the render in non-anime tags and don't play around with them too much because they could easily be rui--actually, looking closer, is that the effects overlaying the render? Because if so, you'd be best removing them, because while it's good to blend some effects into the render, it isn't good to lose parts of the render in doing so.

3. Your signature banner is pretty much why I came here. The overall colour of the tag doesn't match correctly with the render imo. You probably could've pulled off a darker green or a darker blue, but brown doesn't really help the render at all - yus, colour choices do matter, so think about that definitely for future tags since this seems to be an issue throughout a few of your tags. Also, the render itself looks too blurry (not sure if it's the original render, but you shouldn't work with something that doesn't have good quality at the start). However, I can tell that parts were cut out on the side and you used effects to somewhat cover that up (watch for effects covering that, it makes them blend in too much and with the quality of the image it isn't really helping :x) - are you using magic wand or directly cutting out? Hopefully you're using magic wand, and I can just assume that the original stock was heavy with white's around Dento's ear. Either way, there's really nothing going on in the background to make it stand out and on the right it's somewhat too dark because I noticed for one, my eye keeps on staring at it wondering why it's so dark. If you're going to have something there, maybe make it not so dark? :( And finally, the text. Whyyyy no anti-alias? owell, at least you realise the issue, but can I comment that white doesn't really suit the tag, because it's s dark, and therefore the eyes are drawn to the brightest thing there (aka the white text) rather than your render. Maybe you'd have been better off if it was a lighter brown, like the top text in that tag and it wouldn't stand out as much. Also the effect underneath that text, again, takes away from the actual render (you know that slight brown, yeah, it looks messy if placed incorrectly, but might've looked better if the tag was wider and you had more space to put that). Notice how you have a line developing across the bottom of the right side of the render? Yeaah, that's the effect it leaves. Probably could've been more effective too if it was directly at the bottom so the line doesn't show.

Either way, that's all I'm going to comment on for now / suggestions to improve if you still have PSDs or something. Play around with colouring and contrast, make the render stand out more, and watch for effects that might ruin the quality. It's a good start for a beginner, and before you know it you'll have these things down. :)