Why no, I'm not obsessive. Why do you ask?

[snapdragon76]

Well, we've decided on a day and time for our viewing of Episode III. Now, I just need to gather the cash and get the tickets.

There was a snafu in the ATACT boards after the upgrade. It seems some of the boxes on who could view the different folders got checked. I don't know how since I wasn't the one who did it. After noodling around some, I fixed it and so now everyone is happy. Phew!!

I did a bunch of scanning Friday. Of HG, of course. I uploaded them onto my Photobucket account and came to a realization. Most of my pics are of Ryoki. I guess some would say I have a fixation on him of some sort. Judge for yourself. At any rate, I have to do more scanning since some of the ones I scanned earlier, weren't saved. *mutters*

Plus, I have an idea for perhaps a Ryoki/Hatsumi wallpaper. Sorta like the Rain/Machika one I did earlier. Maybe I should consider opening a DeviantArt account, if not for my wallpapers alone since I've already made 4 of them.

Agenda for the day:

1) Go to the bank to see how much money I don't have.

2) Maybe go to the bookstore and haunt the manga section for any new releases.

3) Rip that song for flamika and attempt to send it to her via e-mail. Oh, BTW, I also have a question to ask you...

4) Scan those missing images.

5) Maybe start on the wallpaper.

6) Clean the kitchen floor from all the scum that has accumulated on it.

7) Clean the toilets. (joy)

8) Maybe get some milk for grandma.

I think I can do it. After all, I have unlimited time during the day!! /sarcasm

Quote of the day: "Enjoying each other's good is heaven begun." -- Lucy C. Smith

Comments

[flamika.livejournal.com]

I need to get around to scanning some manga as well. Legal Drug 2 has some loverly images. Unfortunately, our scanner is disconnected right now and I have no idea which plug goes to which.

Eee! The song! Oh, and what would you like to ask? ^_^

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

It actually didn't take me very long since I didn't have that much left to scan. I pretty much knew what scenes I wanted. Then I had to resize them on PS so I could cram them onto one disk as much as possible due to the fact my scanner like to make the images huge.

Once I ever get around to swcanning the images I want for the MARS moodtheme, then I'll be in deep, 'cause however many scenes and images neede from 15 volumes plus the Gaiden. *sigh*

Anyway, the question is: You know how you're able to get your icons to be different colors? Like the one here. How do you do that? I want to maybe make some banners and some such, but I don't want to leave them gray.

[flamika.livejournal.com]

Mini tutorial ahead:

It's all about the layering, pretty much. I'll use a picture of ebil!Akki as an example.

1. Have your image or base ready to go. The Layer region on the bottom right of Photoshop should look something like this. It's okay if your image is the background, though.

2. Do Ctrl + Shift + New to get a new layer on top of your base. Alternatively, you can do Layer >> New >> Layer with the mouse at the top of the screen.

3. Select the Paint Bucket tool and add the color you want on the new layer. Your icon or banner will look like it has just color on it, but don't panic. As you can see in the Layers area, your image is still underneath the color.

4. Now comes the fun part. Using the drop-down box in the Layers region you can use all kinds of layering effects on your image. As you can see, you only get the solid color because the color layer is on Normal. If you set it on Overlay or Exclusion, you get very different results.

For the Kyo and Tohru icon, I did things a little differently, but the basic skills are the same. I didn't use just a solid color. I used a gradient, which gives you the orange and pink coloring.

1. The Paint Bucket tool alternates between Paint Bucket and Gradient. Just right-click on it and switch it over to Gradient.

2. Now to pick your colors. This is done in this area. You click on the Background and Foreground boxes and then select the colors you want.

3. Now pick your Gradient pattern. This is done up here on the top left of the screen.

4. Now just follow steps 2-4 in the Paint Bucket tutorial and you will have your gradient-ized icon. As a sidenote, you can also download gradients as opposed to making your own, but I've never used those. I think to used download gradients, you just paste them on top of your base in a new image, and then do the Layering effects.

For the Kyou and Tohru icon, I think I used a pink and orange gradient set on Color, and then I added a white border using a brush.

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

Ohh! Thank you! *saves to memories*

At the moment, I'm a makin' me a wallpaper (bigger area to work with)to put on my spankin' new DA account. I just might use these tips to not only make icons in the future but for wallpapers.

Argh. Hopefully I shant get hung up on the gradient thing. I've always had trouble with that one...

[flamika.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I went through a phase where I was like, "Gradients suck!" but now I rather like them.

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I like 'em too. I just have to figure out how to use 'em. I got my copy of PS from my dad and no instructions came with, so I'm pretty much flying blind, you could say...

[flamika.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my PS is a black market version that I downloaded off of KazaaLite so I had to pretty much teach myself over a number of years.

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

I'm getting a bit better, though. I bought a book that shows you how to do certain effcts and stuff, so I've been using that quite a bit. But, it doesn't show how to do everything, though...

[vanatom.livejournal.com]

Wow, your scans are so much prettier than mine. And you've chosen all the best parts!!! ^^

Well, I'm gonna make my HG wallpaper based on the cover of number 5 since it appears to be the easiest to separate based on the colors and such. I'm gonna need some help with ideas and implementation so I was wondering if, since we are both... *ahem* obsessed, and have an inordinate amount of free time, if you'd like to work on it together. I'm just finishing off vectorizing and cleaning up the cover scan right now and maybe we can add some of your scans around it for a nice kinda collage. If you're interested, I'll email you what I've got so far. ^^

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

But of course!! They're either of Ryoki or of him and Hatsumi. Oh, and I've uploaded some more, so if you wanna look again...


That sounds great! I'll be posting the one I just finished so you can look and see what I've done and stuff. I realize it isn't perfect, but I've been thinking of various ways to refine the next one I do.