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somein30
When I first started
somein30 in 2020, I did not think it would go much further than five rounds, yet here we are on round 20. I'd call this a huge success and it's all thanks to you, the participants!However, all good things must come to end. We have decided that round 20 will be our last. When we started this comm, there was a huge need for a comm for larger sets, since none were active on LJ anymore. DW thankfully does not have that problem, so we are not strictly needed anymore, plus modding simply takes too much time from us mods. I apologize and hope you understand! 20 rounds is a good run and we hope you've had fun participating here! :)
To end things with a bang, we want to give you a really special and awesome last round, so first of all: this round will last until the end of the year. That's right, two months instead of just one to make as many sets as you want!
Also, this game we have for you? It's BIG. It's challenging. And there are countless ways to play it with different paths and modes, so... go wild! But please be kind and remember to also take the time to leave feedback to the other participants. Oh, and before you set off to create icons in a hurry, PLEASE carefully read all the rules and the themes that you choose to go for, I'd hate to disqualify any icons for this round! And don't be afraid to ask questions! <3
The game involves four types of color coded prompts:
WORD PROMPTS: These are fully interpretative prompts. Use them any way that they inspire you to. Feel free to include explanations, especially if you're going with a less well known definition of the word!
PALETTES: The coloring of your icon should be based on the given palette. Feel free to either follow or ignore the relative amounts of the colors in the palette. In fact you don't even have to use all the colors from the palette, picking one is enough as long as it's used prominently!
TEXTURES: If you get a texture prompt, you'll need to use the given texture on your icon. The textures can be modified (blurred, inverted, colors changed etc) and masked, but the texture needs to have some visible effect on the icon.
TECHNICAL THEMES: Various technical requirements that the icons need to fulfill. Most of these are quite difficult on purpose, even the easier ones often combine multiple requirements, so be especially careful with these prompts and double check that your icon fits!
The color of the triangle specifies the prompt type and the number on the triangle specifies the exact prompt from that type. The list of prompts for each type can be found at the end of this post. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN CHECKING WHICH PROMPT YOU END UP ON! Note that all the prompts in the listings are numbered (hover on the palettes and textures to see the numbers), so you don't need to count them yourself.
The game starts from the center, at the box that says START. You can make your first move to any of the four triangles the start node is connected to, and use the matching prompt on an icon. From here, you'll move one step at a time to any available direction, and use the prompt matching the triangle that you ended up on.
Each theme/triangle can only be entered once, so once you move away, that triangle is now forbidden territory - keep track of where you've been (I recommend marking your path on the board as you play), and be careful not to get stuck somewhere you can't get out of!
You can only move through the sides of the triangles; moving through the corners is not allowed. This way you'll need to use at least three types of prompts in your icons, maximizing variety! After the START box has been exited, it can be just ignored (so, you can't enter it again and it's not blocking your path to any of the triangles it's touching).
Examples of allowed (OK) and disallowed (--X-->) moving directions from a given triangle. The second image includes an already traversed path.
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| Move through sides, not through corners | No going back to already used triangles |
One icon may include any number of consecutive prompts from your path. So at each step you take, you'll need to decide whether you'll want to create a whole new icon for this next prompt, or if you want to combine it with the previous prompt(s).
There's no specific goal to where you should get on the board - the only goal is to collect prompts you like, and to not get stuck. Note that the four corners are ending spots, as they can't be exited once entered. For this challenge you may only enter another set after the previous set has EITHER reached the full amount of 20 icons OR ended up in one of the ending spots at the corners. When starting a new set, you can start from a completely clean table, with all the prompts available again.
NORMAL MODE: Make your way through the board using at least one consecutive theme per icon.
HARD MODE: Each icon should have at least two consecutive themes!
EXTRA HARD MODE: Each icon should have at least three consecutive themes. How many can you cram into one icon? How many do you think you can get off the board in total??
Note that the use of consecutive themes in Hard and Extra hard modes doesn't mean that the same theme should be used twice in different combinations! Each prompt is only fulfilled once, so you'll move faster on the board when combining more themes into one icon.
To add some clarity into modding a complex game, please post your icons in the same order as you enter the prompts on the board, and clearly state which icons are for which prompts.
And most importantly, have fun! :)
| 1. Stir | 2. Even | 3. Reckless | 4. Inappropriate | 5. Menu | 6. Tropical | 7. Produce | 8. Elite | 9. Ask | 10. Threaten |
| 11. Imagine | 12. Choose | 13. Wine | 14. Boy | 15. Convince | 16. Retire | 17. Revolutionary | 18. Grateful | 19. Relevance | 20. Suite |
| 21. Norm | 22. Investment | 23. Facade | 24. Rank | 25. Escape | 26. Inject | 27. Unpleasant | 28. Atmosphere | 29. Night | 30. Break |
| 31. Ignore | 32. Introduce | 33. Recording | 34. Hay | 35. Transfer | 36. Law | 37. Presentation | 38. Perform | 39. Toll | 40. Reconcile |
| 41. Favor | 42. Competition | 43. Silk | 44. Engagement | 45. Fox | 46. Decorative | 47. Assembly | 48. Convention | 49. Spring | 50. Bottom |
Hover for number, click to view in larger size!
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Hover for number and credit, some can be clicked to view in larger size!
Hover for credit. Please read the explanations, the short titles are not enough to give the full idea of the requirements!
(*)NOTES ABOUT BLOCKING AND BLENDING: This has caused some confusion in the past, and applies to many of these themes, so it's useful to read no matter which themes you end up with.
Blocking = combining 2+ images in a way where each image has its own separate background area. This background can be the original background or a replaced one, and the shape of these areas can be anything (rectangles, circles, even messy shapes as in theme 4); if you can point out to which image's "background" each pixel belongs to, it's blocking.
Blending = combining 2+ images so that they blend together, that is, share areas in the icon. You can't tell where one image ends and the other one starts. This effect is often achieved with blend modes other than Normal. A corner case is the popular style where one subject is cut out of its background and placed on the other image on Normal. I personally call this collage rather than a blend, but since it's one of the well-established styles that get called blending by the community at large, this style is indeed ok for the blending prompts in this round!
Of course, an icon can utilize both blocking and blending at the same time, which would make it ok for both blending and blocking prompts.
Blocking = combining 2+ images in a way where each image has its own separate background area. This background can be the original background or a replaced one, and the shape of these areas can be anything (rectangles, circles, even messy shapes as in theme 4); if you can point out to which image's "background" each pixel belongs to, it's blocking.
Blending = combining 2+ images so that they blend together, that is, share areas in the icon. You can't tell where one image ends and the other one starts. This effect is often achieved with blend modes other than Normal. A corner case is the popular style where one subject is cut out of its background and placed on the other image on Normal. I personally call this collage rather than a blend, but since it's one of the well-established styles that get called blending by the community at large, this style is indeed ok for the blending prompts in this round!
Of course, an icon can utilize both blocking and blending at the same time, which would make it ok for both blending and blocking prompts.
1. RECOLORING   Get rid of all the natural colors in your image, e.g. by turning it black and white, and paint new colors all over your icon. The result doesn't have to look natural - the point of this technique is often to get a posteresque, vintage look! |
2. SPECIAL BLEND   Blend your subject with any image that isn't a character. Keep in mind the blending notes(*)! |
3. CENTERED IN THE AIR   Place your subject in the middle of the icon so that no part of them is touching any of the sides. The subject should be cut out of the original background and NOT be contained within a floating block (see theme 32), but "floating" in the air, as in the examples. |
4. UNEVEN BLOCK LINES   Use blocking, but not with the usual clean, sharp lines - the block lines here need to be a bit messy and irregular. |
5. FULL FRAME   Use a crop that is so close that every pixel is covered by the subject(s). |
6. CLEAN COMPLEXITY   Combine 2 or more images, yet preserve so much empty, clean negative space that the result looks clean and clear. Original backgrounds are ok here only if they look clean (=mostly empty). |
7. ROTATIONS   This icon needs to have images in at least two different angles. |
8. TEXT BOX   Use text that is at least partly inside a block/box/bar/another shape. |
9. DECORATIVE ACCENT   A shape or texture added on top of the image as decoration. |
10. MONOCHROME MIX   Combine at least two differently monochromatic images so that the resulting icon is not monochromatic as a whole. |
11. EMPHASIS WORD   Use text with most of the words in one main font, but put emphasis on just ONE word by using a different font on it. |
12. THICK BARS   Frame your icon with at least one thick bar/border. |
13. BLOCKS EVERYWHERE   Go extreme with the amount of blocks in this icon - there must be at least five blocks, but can you cram even more in there? |
14. GRID   Use a grid-like pattern or texture in this icon. |
15. CLOSE AND MONOCHROME   Exactly what is says on the tin - this icon needs to have a close crop and have only one main color. |
16. FULL BODY SILHOUETTE   Cut out the full body silhouette of your subject. The silhouette can be plain, or you can blend textures or other images with it, as long as the silhouette shape is clearly visible. |
17. CLOSE CROP + NEGATIVE SPACE   This icon needs to have a close crop, but find a way to also include significant negative space! |
18. OUTLINE   The subject needs to be at least partly surrounded by a thin outline/shadow, as in the examples. |
19. TEXT AS DECORATION   For this icon you must use text (text textures are ok too), but the text should be used for composition or decoration only, and not be readable. Messy scribbles, too small to read, too big, just a few letters or numbers, cuts off... anything goes! |
20. LIGHT SHADOWS   This icon should not have any dark shadows, especially any true blacks; you can achieve interesting contrast and colorings with shadows that are a bit lighter. |
21. STOCK   Include a stock image/texture in your icon, in addition to your subject. |
22. TEXTURED SURFACE   This icon should have a "textured look". This can mean grunge, paintiness, sparkles, bokeh, smoke... any way to make the surface look textured. Light textures, stock textures or clean geometric textures don't usually achieve this effect, but anything that adds subtle detail to the icon will usually do! |
23. REPETITION   This icon needs to have the same image at least twice. Different crops, sizes, colorings, rotations etc are ok. |
24. TEXT WARP   Include text where at least some part is warped or twisted into interesting shapes. Useful tools: text warp settings, or adding text on a path. |
25. LOW AND CLOSE   This close crop style has been popular for a long time now: the subject is lower on the frame than a usual headshot would be. This means there should be a lot of forehead and no chin in the frame. |
26. COLOR BLOCKING   Use blocking so that blocks next to each other are clearly separated by having differently colored backgrounds. Original backgrounds are allowed IF you think you can separate their colors clearly enough! |
27. FRAMED BY AN IMAGE   Use frames or borders that have some recognizable image on them as well. The image can be a copy of your main image, another screencap, stock texture, anything! |
28. CIRCLES   Use at least one circle in your icon. |
29. PAINT SPLATTERS   There should be some visible paint-splattery brush/texture work on your icon. |
30. SIDE CROP   While the classic center crop always works, try a side crop for this one! |
31. NO EYES   Use a crop OR an image choice that hides the eyes of your subject. (If multiple characters are present, all eyes must be hidden) |
32. FLOATING BOX   This icon must have at least one block of any shape that is not touching any sides. (A character cutout alone is not a block, there needs to be some background as well, whether it's new or original; compare with theme 3 to see the difference!) |
33. VERTICAL TEXT   Use text that is at least partially read in the vertical direction. |
34. LIGHT BLOBS   A classic way to add some depth, softness and light; use roundish, soft light blobs. |
35. STAND OUT COLORING   This icon must keep the original background, but make your subject stand out from it by coloring the subject and the background noticeably differently; whether it's a b&w subject on a colored background, vice versa, or something else entirely, is up to you! |
36. BACKGROUND TEXTURE   A classic composition style: use a texture as the new background for your cut out subject. |
37. SHINY SIDES   Who said you need to stick to one source of light in your icons? Make this icon shine from both sides with added light. The shinier the better! |
38. CENTER TEXT ON TOP   Use text in center of the icon, but background text won't cut it for this theme - find a way to make the text work as the top layer! |
39. TINY BORDERS   Frame your icon with at least one border that is only a few pixels thick. |
40. OVERWHELMING LIGHT   This icon needs to be absolutely swimming in light, whether it's added by you or a well picked image choice! |
41. BACKGROUND FULL OF TEXT   Use so much text on the background that the background seems to be covered by it. |
42. EXTRA MATTE   Try your hand at the flat/matte coloring style; absolutely no added lighting, and colors so matte that the result looks like a cartoon or an illustration more than a photo. |
43. GRADIENT BACKGROUND   Cut out your subject(s) and place them on a new background, which has a soft gradient on it to indicate a light source. The background should be kept clean enough for the gradient to be visible, but subtle texture use is ok. |
44. ORIGINAL SCENERY   Keep the original background and use this crop (center crop with some negative space) to leave some space for the original scenery to show! (The image does not have to be taken outside) |
45. TEXTURE OVERLAP   Do some interesting subject-texture interaction by making the texture(s) overlap your subject in some areas. This blends the subject nicely with the background. |
46. BLENDING   Good old classic theme: blending of two or more images. Keep in mind the blending vs. blocking notes (*). |
47. TEXT SHADOW   A good way to make sure your text is readable against any background is to use a small text outline/shadow. Do this in at least some of the text in your icon! |
48. PAINTED DETAILS   Try your hand at hand-painting some details. This can create VERY cool results, but don't be intimidated by the examples here, a few painted hair strands will do just fine! |
49. OBJECT SHAPE   The subject in this icon should be inside a block that is not a regularly shaped geometric block, but the recognizable shape of some thing/object. |
50. LITERARY TEXT   Bring back this text trend from 2012: small yet readable font, serif type face, multiple lines with relatively large line spacing. |
Rules
+ Create 5-20 icons for the challenge.
+ Icons must fit DW standards (100x100px, gif/jpg/png format, 60kb or less)
+ All icons must be new and made specifically for the challenge
+ Post either a link to your icon journal post, or post the icons directly to this community (in a new post)
+ Each entry should have three example icons before the link or the cut
+ If linking to your icon journal, the post must be public at least until the end of the challenge.
+ Use title Round 20: yourname
+ Use tags maker: yourname, round: 20
+ Please make an effort to look at and to leave comments to other participants' posts
+ Deadline: December 31st 22:00 UTC+2 (COUNTDOWN)
Tags:
QUESTIONS?
Date: 2022-11-01 16:17 (UTC)ENTRIES OUTSIDE DW
Date: 2022-11-01 16:18 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-01 20:05 (UTC)p.s.: Thank you for picking a few of my icons for the technical prompt examples. <3
no subject
Date: 2022-11-01 20:44 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-01 20:45 (UTC)I feel attacked by this part..........
no subject
Date: 2022-11-02 16:59 (UTC)So sad it is your last round.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-02 19:02 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-03 00:57 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-10 17:13 (UTC)Otoh, I have already realized that this is a pretty nonsensical way to approach the challenge, because I keep ending up with contradictory themes. But for now I am determined to persevere. :D
no subject
Date: 2022-11-12 13:43 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-15 19:35 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-17 17:46 (UTC)My fifth icon only has five themes... this feels too easy. ;DD (it's slow going, but it *is* going. I've used 38 triangles so far.)
Re: QUESTIONS?
Date: 2022-11-24 07:21 (UTC)Don't tell me you have a script to generate a color palette (the idea had occurred to me, but i gave it up because the constraints to create useful palettes looked a bit tricky)? But if you do, share? :)
Re: QUESTIONS?
Date: 2022-12-04 00:15 (UTC)Btw, thank you so much for using some of my icons in this beautiful inspo post! ♥
Re: QUESTIONS?
Date: 2022-12-06 14:09 (UTC)That way a chain develops, but you have no theme used twice.
Does that make sense?
Re: QUESTIONS?
Date: 2022-12-07 01:34 (UTC)Re: QUESTIONS?
Date: 2022-12-07 06:47 (UTC)I don't get why you are doing two steps at the same time.
More than one triangle per icon is for hard mode. I'm quoting from the rules here:
"One icon may include any number of consecutive prompts from your path."
"HARD MODE: Each icon should have at least two consecutive themes!"
That's why I'm doing that.
Re: QUESTIONS?
Date: 2022-12-09 02:50 (UTC)Maybe I just didn't get the game at all at this point! I mean, I interpreted "consecutive prompts" as chaining the various themes, not landing and cramming more triangles in one single icon! Ah, the joy of not being an English native speaker, lol!