Civilization V-style Icons with Gimp

[DJSHenninger]

...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...

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' 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).

 

[Civitar]

...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.

 

[DoctorMcGann]

This is a great tutorial, it's helped me a lot. Here's one of my icons using it:

Spoiler :

 

[DJSHenninger]

This is a great tutorial, it's helped me a lot. Here's one of my icons using it:

Spoiler :

Thanks, good to see I didn't waste my time writing this tutorial

 

[Civitar]

This is a great tutorial, it's helped me a lot. Here's one of my icons using it:

Spoiler :

I love that you put the civ5 V on the flag... just like the Firaxis icons.

 

[DoctorMcGann]

Glad you noticed that! I based it specifically off the icon for Refrigeration.

 

[Civitar]

If anyone finds it helpful, this is the template I made and use on all icons for leaders, units, buildings, and technologies.
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.

 

[RawSasquatch]

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!

 

[DJSHenninger]

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!

Really? I think your icons are great! I'm glad this helped you anyway

 

[GPuzzle]

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. :

Still crap, though.

 

[DJSHenninger]

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).

 

[GPuzzle]

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!

 

[DoktorApplejuce]

I think it turned out pretty well. Thanks for the help!

 

[bouncymischa]

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!

Probably the icon I'm most proud of so far!

 

[DJSHenninger]

Thanks, really good to see this tutorial is helping people

 

[DoktorApplejuce]

I think I've (hopefully) improved since my last post, and just wanted to share.

Thank you again for this tutorial

 

[Civitar]

Those are really good! Just a bit low resolution.

 

[DJSHenninger]

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.

 

[DoktorApplejuce]

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.

 

[DJSHenninger]

Oh, that's good

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