![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neonspider posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
somein30
For this round it's better to be a jack of all trades than a master of one, because the task this month is to fill a grid with icons representing different technical styles. The goal of this round is to practise range. You've seen challenges where you need to make a gradient from one extreme to another; this time we're doing that, except you can do it in multiple dimensions! Pick any technical dimensions that you want to focus on for this round, then fill in a grid where these dimensions are the axes of a grid. See the example grids below for clarification. Here are some ideas for the axes, but you can of course make up your own!
Ideas for dimensions:
- contrast: from low to high contrast
- lighting: from matte to shiny or dramatic lighting (this can mean either base image selection or how much lighting you add to it)
- brightness: from dark to bright
- composition: from minimalism to busy composition / amount of combined images / amount of blocks
- text use: from textless to full of text / amount of different fonts / word count
- crop: from far to close / from one side to another / from bottom focus to top
- coloring: from 0 colors to N main colors / from muted to vibrant / from natural to unnatural / hue gradient aka rainbow / from cold to warm
- texture use: from no textures to heavy texture use / number of combined textures / from smooth surface to heavy grunge
- other: number of used layers / amount of subjects
The dimensions can be anything that changes gradually from one extreme to the other in some logical order. For example, a saturation gradient has a logical order (e.g. 1. black and white 2. muted 3. pastel 4. vibrant 5. neon). However, categorical dimensions, where one axis is just different categories, shouldn't be used; an example of a categorical axis is "Texture use: 1. stock 2. grunge 3. light textures 4. painty". That's not a gradient from one style to another, it's just four separate categories.
Please pick dimensions for which you have a good understanding of their established meaning in the iconmaking community. There's a level of subjectivity to all of these techniques, so I won't disqualify anyone for getting it wrong if I see that you at least put effort into it, but I may ask for clarification for your thought process if an icon seems very out of place. If you're unsure about an interpretation, we can discuss it :)
NORMAL MODE: For the normal mode you can just make a 1D gradient. Note that getting more than 5-7 distinct variations for one dimension is very difficult, so this mostly suits those who want to enter a small set.
HARD MODE: 2D style coordinate grid, as described above. This is the mode this challenge is mostly targeting, and that all the provided inspiration grids represent.
EXTRA HARD MODE: For the insane galaxy brains out there, 2D might seem too easy(?!), so instead make a 3D grid by using two smaller tables with the same axes. The third dimension will be the variance between these two tables. For example, if your x = vibrance and y = brightness, you could make a grid with those dimensions where all the icons are simple, and another where all the icons are complex. This way your z dimension is complexity. Of course, the way you arrange the dimensions doesn't matter, so if you for some reason want to juggle 4 or 5 tiny grids, and think you can keep the post understandable, go for it!
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FAQ + TIPS
Can there be empty cells in my grid?
Yes, as long as your icon count is still within the allowed limits, but no completely empty rows or columns; that would be a sign of a badly designed coordinate system, and is usually easily fixable by just removing that row/column.
Is the min amount of icons still 5 even though that's not a good number for 2D grids?
For this round only I'm extending the min and max amount of icons from 4 to 21. This is because 2x2=4 and 3x7=21 are both good, usable grids, whereas 5 is a prime number and therefore not usable without empty cells or Normal mode, both of which I'm guessing most will want to avoid.
How should I do this if I want the voting post to showcase my grid as neatly as possible?
If the length of your X axis is 5 and there are no empty cells, your table will look the same in the voting post as it does in your entry.
Do I need to plan my set beforehand?
Unless you're using Normal mode, yes, probably. Sometimes makers get away with gradient challenges by making N icons and then just ordering them correctly to form a gradient. That is very unlikely to work in multiple dimensions at the same time, so I recommend planning out your set as much as you can. Draw a grid with pen and paper to make it easier to see what kind of icon should go where, try to think about what each column and row will represent (the extremes are easy but the middle ones are tricky!).
How do I format my post?
You don't need any special HTML skills for this round! It's enough to post your icons in rows and columns, just like a normal icon post. You don't need to label the axes if you clearly explain what the axes are in the text of your post.
However, if you want to use a table with axis labels, like in the examples in this inspiration post, feel free to use one of these provided tables, modify them, or make your own. Due to some HTML/CSS issues and LJ allowing only some markup, it is difficult to have a properly rotated Y axis title; therefore, unless you're an HTML genius, I'd recommend just using images as the axes with titles written on them. Here's a gallery of empty axis labels, feel free to use these as bases. Or you can copy the links of the already labeled axes in the inspiration post if they fit your grid.
Premade tables for the most likely grid sizes (including links to empty axis images):
| 5x4 |
6x3 |
4x4 |
5x3 |
| 4x3 |
3x3 |
3x2 |
5x1 |
Rules
+ Create
+ Icons must fit LJ standards (100x100px, gif/jpg/png format, 100kb 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 LJ cut
+ If linking to your icon journal, the post must be public at least until the end of the challenge.
+ Use title Round 09: yourname
+ Use tags maker: yourname, round: 09
+ Please make an effort to look at and to leave comments to other participants' posts
+ Deadline: May 31st 22:00 GMT+2 (COUNTDOWN)
Tags: