Musings on, Art, Skinning, Computers, and the True meaning of Life. (AKA The Lego Theory)
Two for the Price of One. But not form the Pack.
Published on January 19, 2005 By mormegil In Icons
Icon 12 & 13 (Word Icons)

    Well, I wanted to do something quick tonight, and the first thing to come to mind was to make the Word Folder, and then I thought, I pretty much already have a Word Application Icon as well. I decided to do a 2 Pack. The good news is today you're getting 2 icons for the price of one. The bad news is they are both bonus icons, and will not end up in the icon pack.
 
Step 1:

Fist thing we do is copy the Closed Folder icon.

Step 2:

Now we go get some of the elements we made when making the Word document.
Really quick I rotate the File, and delete its Shadow, Reflection and Glare.

Step 3:

I simply move the Word icon to up and place it in front of the folder. Then I crop the existing shadow to match the shape of the folder.
 
Step 4:

Quickly I move the front of the folder out of the way, then I take the Mesh fill off the top of the file. Then using Perspective tool I distort the File to fit inside the Folder.

Step 5

Now I put my mesh back and mold it to fit its new perspective.


Step 6:

I move the front of the folder back in place, and Draw in a quick shape that will become our glare on the plastic file.

Step 7:

Now I simply move all my elements back together and we're done.

Finished Icon Image.
(End Part 1)
 

 


Step 8:

I simply take my word icon, and copy it off on its own. I Skew it and tweak it to look more like its standing, rather then leaning.

Step 9:

I copy the Image, Skew it and Convert it to a bitmap. Then I Crop it and fade it out with the Interactive Transparency Tool.

Step 10:

Now I copy the back of the existing file, and Squish and Skew it down to make a drop shadow mask for the icon.

Step 6:

Now I pull the shadow, and fade it out with the Interactive Transparency tool.

Step 7:

Because this icon is so big now, I wanted to add the Trans Brush Texture I have been using on the Metal objects. I copy the back shapes of the icon and set them as grey and apply a Brush Transparency to them.

Finished Icon Image.
(End Part 2)

 



 




Download Finished Icon Here

Well that's that; 2 new icons. Simple and hopefully useable.

Read the other Icon-A-Day Articles: Icon # 1, Icon # 2, Icon #3, Icon # 4, Icon #5, Icon # 6, Icon # 7, Icon # 8, Icon # 9, Icon #10, Icon # 11.

CorelDRAW for Skinners videos: Mesh Fill 101, Gloss 101.

And don't forget to check for all the Icon-A-Day icons as they get made, in the Miscellaneous Icons Gallery at Wincustomize.com


Comments (Page 2)
2 Pages1 2 
on Jan 20, 2005
I just recently stumbled upon this series of articles. This is some excellent and exciting stuff here. At the risk of being redundant, this series of articles and your videos are definitely an invaluable resource and I greatly appreciate the time and energy you are putting into this.

These articles have inspired me to exhume my Corel disks out of the moth balls and install it on my system again to follow along. I may even upgrade it .

After you are done with your icon series, what's the likelyhood of doing a similar series of articles on creating a Windowblinds skin?

Thanks for your effort

jvanva
on Jan 21, 2005
It would be really nice if all these icons could be packaged into a Icon Packager file. I could use it then.


I took an existing quite fitting package (Utopia (Brushed)), saved it under another name and change the icons as they come now.
on Jan 21, 2005
"Citizen" ? Huh ?
2 Pages1 2