Civilization V-style Icons with Gimp

...How about this? I don't think it's the effect you meant but it certainly adds to the spookiness - after making the starburst and coloring the background, I airbrushed a greenish mist behind the skeleton...
skeleton_icon.png

Indeed, it's different, but it doesn't always have to be shiny, of course. Maybe you could dodge/midtones the mist a bit too in random places, it would look more 'misty' :P I imagine it would also enhance the spookiness.
One last thing is that it might be better to have the starburst coming from the other side, if you look at the skeleton's shading (or flip the skeleton).
 
...I thought the "shading" was more on the order of "silhouetting"... though looking at it now I think you're right. But I generally prefer to have the origin of the starburst hidden, for whatever reason.
 
This is a great tutorial, it's helped me a lot. Here's one of my icons using it:
Spoiler :
kHBZKWP.png

Thanks, good to see I didn't waste my time writing this tutorial :)
 
This is a great tutorial, it's helped me a lot. Here's one of my icons using it:
Spoiler :
kHBZKWP.png

:lol: I love that you put the civ5 V on the flag... just like the Firaxis icons.:D
 
If anyone finds it helpful, this is the template I made and use on all icons for leaders, units, buildings, and technologies.:D
Download from Mediafire

The starburst is left to be drawn in however you like - I also recommend making a small Supernova at the origin of the rays and masking it to fit inside the circle. That's how I do my "glowing" rays.
 
When I started making icons, I just kinda skimmed over this tutorial and thought "Woah, that's a lot of big words. I don't think I can handle that." So, I just would wing it in a vaguely similar, much less in-depth manner, and I felt the resulting icons would always be slightly mediocre in comparison. As such, I finally sat down and followed the tutorial to the book, and I'm very pleased with it!
fRRWJi3.png
 
When I started making icons, I just kinda skimmed over this tutorial and thought "Woah, that's a lot of big words. I don't think I can handle that." So, I just would wing it in a vaguely similar, much less in-depth manner, and I felt the resulting icons would always be slightly mediocre in comparison. As such, I finally sat down and followed the tutorial to the book, and I'm very pleased with it!
fRRWJi3.png

Really? I think your icons are great! I'm glad this helped you anyway :)
 
Uhm, sorry for the shameless plug, but I went a little deeper on the icon making and I'm quite satisfied with it, it's definetively better than my older ones.

Spoiler It's a big guy... for my PC. :

FdWleRk.png



Still crap, though.
 
Practice makes perfect! Also remember that your actual icons are a lot smaller than that. I always encourage more shine :) When it doesn't seem to get any shinier, you might want to use airbrush (white colour, lowered opacity) first, then dodge (highlight and/or midtones).
 
Practice makes perfect! Also remember that your actual icons are a lot smaller than that. I always encourage more shine :) When it doesn't seem to get any shinier, you might want to use airbrush (white colour, lowered opacity) first, then dodge (highlight and/or midtones).

The good pictures I found were quite big. Thankfully, I'm used to GIMP already, which means that I can easily edit them.

And I did exactly that, it just didn't appear. Heh, I better finish the mod for it!
 
While my own method of making icons has been gleaned from a variety of the tutorials available, I do feel I should thank DJSHenninger because his tips for using blur tools to help get the painted look have been incredibly helpful for me lately!

CybersubUnitIcon1c_zpsaydehrw0.png


Probably the icon I'm most proud of so far!
 
Yeah, you're getting better =) It's just there may be something weird going on with your ellipse selection tool. Maybe try to add some feather to it, with a low value like 1.
 
Yeah, you're getting better =) It's just there may be something weird going on with your ellipse selection tool. Maybe try to add some feather to it, with a low value like 1.

I'm using an icon template image to get the circles the right size, probably what's making them so rough around the edges. That part gets hidden by the metal looking ring that's in game.

8lZthOU.png
 
Oh, that's good :D

It's supposed to be ''yield'' instead of yeild, right? :p
 
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