FreeOrion

This is planned to be a thread for my sketches/icon ideas for techs. I'll update this thread constantly before I put anything into the actual Tech icons thread to keep it from getting cluttered.





==edit==

Okay, I'll post this here because i think it should go here but I'm also going to post it in the tech icons thread because the icon is finished. Used, maybe not, finished, probably.

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[[[===LEAN, MEAN, PURPLE AND GREEN MACHINE===]]]

Generally, I like it. Problems that I see are the glowy/wide moon edge as well as the EKG line which will as it is now not be recognizable at smaller sizes. The ground looks out of place. Rec.:

1) decrease width of moon edge, or get rid of the glow alltogether
2) EKG line white only
3) Try to get rid of the ground and increase the size of the trees so that their roots vanish on the bottom of the planet

Anyway, nice job, keep going!

I appreciate the critique! Now, some things are being confused with others:

1) Yeah, I see how you're looking at it. This is actually supposed to look like a planets with a shadow behind it, not the silhouette of a forest before a rising moon. If you took out the trees, you'd be left with a planet-ish icon. That's why the "moon" looks "glowy": it's actually fading shadow towards the back of a ball. It wasn't meant to be a circular icon with a rising moon, it's meant to look like a planetary body. You know, cuz of "living planet." I'm glad you said this though, I hadn't seen it from that perspective. Hmmm. Now to think of ways around that...I don't know if I can.

2) I can do a white line only. I guess I'd have to put a thin black border around it though. Or maybe not, I dunno; depends how much white area it goes into.

3) I can do this too.

Just for the sake of argument and hypothetical situation I'll do everything described above and see how it goes.

==edit==

Here it is:



Just an example. If you want me to complete this I'll have to do a few pixel touch-ups, but this is all you requested.

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[[[===LEAN, MEAN, PURPLE AND GREEN MACHINE===]]]

Okay, so these were made already, but I think they were overlooked. The first one was a product of GIMP, which is why it sucks. The second is better, but meant as an example, not as the actual icon. This kind of theme is what I'm thinking of for the Thought Network. I think that I can probably make something commitable based off of these, but I know niether are at that stage yet. Critiques welcome. Also, if you have any other totally different ideas I can get on those too, although I understand that the idea creation is pretty much the hardest part and I should work on that myself.



Inferior icon, but stylistically it can be of use for reference



Still inferior but better. Obviously brains need to be tweaked.

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[[[===LEAN, MEAN, PURPLE AND GREEN MACHINE===]]]

Disagree, I liked this icon right away (and better than the new one). Suggestions: (1) outline of the "thought-star" in the middle in black instead of gray. (2) Slightly wider outline for the brains.

In my experience, and from everything I've read and heard on the subject, that is almost always not the case. Ideas are cheap, and actual hard work is aptly named.

In a sweeping generalization, i completely agree with you. In terms of icons, however, my experience is different. The "hard work" in icon creation is just making the icon on the computer. For me, that is far easier than trying to come up with a presentable idea for a design that is meant to communicate a (or several) concept(s). What I mean is that (and once again, this is only in regards to icons) trying to come up with an iconic representation for "controlled gravity architechture" is harder for me than it is to actually make the icon. If we're talking about everything else, then yes, ideas come a dime a dozen. Probably cheaper.



Well, if you say so. I still think it's sucky, but I'll do what i can. I will have to try and replicate this in paint.net, since it was made and flattened in GIMP, with your suggestions in mind.

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[[[===LEAN, MEAN, PURPLE AND GREEN MACHINE===]]]

Well, it's just my personal opinion and no guaranty that the revised icon will make it in-game. If you want to save time wait if Josh and pd will give their 2 cents.

Lol, too late.

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The first one is an attempted replication + suggestions. The second one is a varied form using a ripple effect with concentric rings. The third is a drop ripple effect.

I'm not too satisfied with the first two, honestly. The ripples in the original icon were freehanded in GIMP, which is rather labor intensive to try and get just right. The first two icons above were made using plugin effects for the rings, so they don't look quite like the original. I suppose I could freehand it but, like you suggested, I'll wait for more input before I go ahead and do that stuff. I like the third one the best, because it kind of reminds me of brainwaves.

==edit==

Also have this for Stabilized Hypergrowth, or whatever its name turns out to be:

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[[[===LEAN, MEAN, PURPLE AND GREEN MACHINE===]]]

I used to think that using the brain was a bad idea, but in retrospect, looking at the tech icons, I see that the brain really isn't used very much, so go for it. If you do use the brain however, consider that your going to have a tough time discerning between this icon and a distributed thought icon. The way I see it your icon is ambiguous enough that it can really go either way, which in this case is good and bad.

I think stabilized hyper growth is good. I think if you could put more emphasis on the hyper part of the graph, that would be nice too. You'll have to ask our local image filter, pd.

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Photo-dump.

Musings

I don't think so. Distributed thought computing has to do with using people's minds as processors, which is much more technological and computer-ish than the thought network, which has a much more psychic element. The icons above convey the psychic, sort of abstract look I'm going for. Distributed thought computing, in my opinion, should have some reference to computers or something. The first icon I did, I had a background of binary numbers. It didn't look very good (pd commented on lack of negative space) but I still think a background like that it the right way to go if you want to have a background that conveys computing.

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[[[===LEAN, MEAN, PURPLE AND GREEN MACHINE===]]]

I like the third one of these best. It's the most harmonious, which adds to the meaning I think.
I've commited Josh's Collective Thought Network Icon today, but I think for this tech, shrinkshooters icon might work too, because it actually shows a collection(three) of different thinking things.

Josh's approach is different, it shows the mass, working as a single mind:


But I think it works for Distributed Thought Computing just as well. A person's mind is being accessed by others, while it is idle(eyes closed).
As suggested by Josh via PM, it might also be used for Deep Green, but I think it would work better for DTC.

Only thing about Josh's icon that's getting to me is that little rectangular thing below his nose. It just makes it look like some sort of wierd mouth or something and it's freaking me out. I know why it's there, but I think I can just a small adjustment and see how it goes.

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[[[===LEAN, MEAN, PURPLE AND GREEN MACHINE===]]]

O waittaminute there is one small nitpick I have about the current living planet icon: that line in front is sort of blocking out one of the trees. I kind of wanted to see the tree, so I'm going to shrink it a bit and see what happens.

Didn't really notice the nose thing though. O wait, there it is. It can be fixed easily.

I was also wondering how well planned economics might look with just a fist. I'll save it for the tweaking stage of the tech tree..

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Photo-dump.

Musings

Feel free, this IS open source! And no, that did not go over my head.

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[[[===LEAN, MEAN, PURPLE AND GREEN MACHINE===]]]