the empyre;

( zombieflu ) 002. → promo.

zombieflu — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 04:43:51 GMT

amcreate ↘ amcreate ↘ amcreate
amcreate ↘ amcreate ↘ amcreate

↗info ↗apply ↗watch ↗affiliate

[zombieflu] .006 → meme post

zombieflu — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:34:31 GMT

+/- icon meme

→ affiliates; v2

zombieflu — Sat, 08 May 2010 07:21:24 GMT

affiliates
If you would like to become affiliates with empyre, comment with your community name/icon journal along with who you icon with (if applicable) and four sample icons. If you want sample icons for your affiliate post just check the user info or grab any from previous entries. If there's an error or would like to update us about your community, please don't hesitate to comment c: just a quick note; communities that have not been updated in more than six months have been deleted, also dead/closed communites were deleted.

( lovelyable@blissete )

( thrux@chippugp )

( demi@circusacts )

( crepes )

( strzyga@cursebox )

( melybum@deariies )

( redex@entropy icons )

( aoza chapstik conflate kangee
onew perv thrux@fandomlust )

( senbonzakura77@kageyoshi icons )

( arwenchan kirakaze signifies
siiy@komorebii )

( catalysis personas wuthered@ladyfish )

( arinca dono gravira ichaelis@ninesouls )

( radarsparks@pantaloons )

( casiotone@polyesters )

( rainymondaay@rainyweek )

( stopthedisco@sucroses )

( furniture pinkified roax@summoners )

( justify@suncaught )

( teken the 2nd@teken designs )

( voicelesswolf@warnoir )

[zombieflu] .005 → meme post

zombieflu — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 04:20:12 GMT

MY THREAD IS HERE

MY THREAD IS HERE

[zombieflu] .004 → meme post

zombieflu — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 11:02:23 GMT

the 'this is your masterpiece' icon meme
your thread

[ oxygene ] .020→ 14

thrift — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:51:44 GMT

something small. just for now :)

♠ icons :: 12
misc kpop, misc jpop, misc videogames
♠ wallpapers :: 2
f(x), gdragon

one	two	three	four

five	six	seven	eight

nine	ten	eleven	twelve

larger

larger

♥ enjoy :3
♥ comments are so much love
♥ textless icons are not bases
♥ no hotlinking
♥ credit; thrift@empyre
tags|watch?

.public for one week.

Those silly icon memes.

zombieflu — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 05:21:47 GMT

♔ your icons through the years ♔
The icon meme where you can show how much you improved as a maker.

also;

goodkpop20 ♥ goodkpop20 ♥ goodkpop20
goodkpop20 ♥ goodkpop20 ♥ goodkpop20
goodkpop20 ♥ goodkpop20 ♥ goodkpop20

join ? | watch ? | apply ?

D:

zombieflu — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:06:17 GMT

I ♥ ICONS, AN ICON LOVING MEME
MY THREAD HERE!

Requests are almost done~ I'll hopefully post them this Thursday or in the weekend.

[zombieflu] promoting. → shinigami lims

zombieflu — Wed, 13 May 2009 06:28:45 GMT

→rules →affiliates →join

animangalims
WATCH? | ROUND 01 SIGN-UPS | AFFILIATE?

[zombieflu] → meme post

zombieflu — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:20:51 GMT

[zombieflu] → meme post

zombieflu — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:10:39 GMT

best and worst icons meme

→ affiliates

thrift — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:50:15 GMT

If you would like to become affiliates with empyre, comment with your community name/icon journal along with who you icon with (if applicable).

abouquetofroses [onew]

bassviol [vowel]

blackshow [androgynesis, probot & terrorking]

chippugp [gyaku]

cursebox [strzyga]

fandomlust [gyaku juukai, loveangiie, conflate & perv]

fuckamermaid [discs]

haenbokcookie [miruminii, shellforbrains & xumiie]

hermajestyicons [jiyu_chan &tea_and_opium]

isago [kinoko]

itsbad [drawings, etude, moaner& sumairu]

kageyoshi_icons [senbonzakura77]

kyokusenbi [xiahtic]

orbicularis [mixremix]

pantaloons [radarsparks]

pays_pluvieux [auvent]

pinkufever [bulgocrazyi]

polyesters [casiotone]

postapocalyptic [thane, maylene & reactors]

robotsex [casanovas, allsundays, lovestomp, milkfed & mobsters]

riotanthem [2baki, lizziesauce & paperlock]

rumorstyle [essyllus & univers]

telework [iku]

tenken_designs [tenken_the_2nd]

trancephobia [rabanastre]

visionsoftokyo [dreamsoftokyo]

!announcement: moving

strzyga — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:36:18 GMT

i'm sorry to announce that i'm leaving empyre. it's not been an easy move -- i've been here for almost two years! -- but i'm feeling like i need to start somewhere new. 8( i leave the comm in the capable hands of zombieflu and thrift, and i can't wait to see what they do with the place. 8)

if you'd like to you can follow me over to cursebox; i've already even made an icon post, haha.

thanks for giving me so much support and being such wonderful watchers. ♥♥ i really will miss this comm.

→announcement!

strzyga — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 19:31:27 GMT

i've been nominated for best Dark Knight icons. 8)

[Zombieflu] → meme post.

zombieflu — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:31:52 GMT

《ICONCRITMEME》

[oxygene] → meme post

thrift — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:35:55 GMT

《ICONCRITMEME》

→announcement!

strzyga — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:16:28 GMT

a little late in posting this, but.

i. crushcrushcrush has left us and moved to an icon comm entirely of her own. if you're interested in following her new work hop on over to postapocalyptic!

ii. theloyalist → strzyga

just to clear up any confusion.

i've been neglecting the comm recently, but i should have a batch of interest icons posted sometime in the near future.

[ theloyalist ] tutorial! 001. →heroes

theloyalist — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:59:51 GMT

upon request by briar, two tutorials! the first tutorial works only in photoshop (i'm not sure about the second).

this tutorial is very image heavy.

in four easy steps.
as in my last tutorial i'm going to assume you know how to open your image, resize and crop as desired, so we're going to start with the base.

i. with the image cropped the way we want it, it's time to get started! my base is pretty dark, though, so we're going to brighten it up by using a brightness/contrast layer. (image)

we're going to move the brightness slider over until it reaches +75 (image)

your result should look like this:

much better, yes? :D in fact if my intentions weren't slightly different i might even leave it like this, because i think the natural warmth is beautiful.

ii. moving on, though. from here we're going to create a new layer (image or CTRL+Shift+N) and fill it with #170700 (image).

and now we set the layer to exclusion (image), and should get this result:

the exclusion layer lends it even more warmth and adds some cyan in the highlights.

iii. the coloring isn't quite what i'd like it to be, though, so we're going to create a color balance layer (image). i love these things, they're very useful (the second half of this tutorial will go more in depth into how to use this type of adjustment layer).

it should look like this:

in the shadows, we're going to move the first slider (cyan ... red) to the right until it reads +10. we'll do the same for the second slider (magenta ... green) until it reaches +15.

make sure to keep Preserve Luminosity checked!

the end result should look like this:

this is starting to look a lot more like what i wanted; there's more red in the shadows, and more green.

iv. the only problem now is that the icon is a little flat, so we're going to create a selective coloring layer (image).

it should look like this:

unfortunately selective coloring is only available in photoshop, but i use it in every icon i make, so. it's a great method of increasing the darks without blowing out the highlights.

in the reds we're going to increase the blacks by +10 (image). in the blacks we'll do the same thing except increase the blacks by +15 (image).

and now we have the final result! :D

if you don't have photoshop: you can receive a similar effect, for this case, by increasing the contrast of the icon (image and then image; assuming, of course, it looks the same in other programs), but you lose some of the fade and the blue I like. 8(

final notes: the exact steps in this tutorial were used for this particular icon. settings vary from one icon to another based upon the image's original coloring, so don't expect this to look exactly the same with another image! it likely won't haha. still, you should always feel free to experiment with the settings; play with the sliders, change the color of the exclusion layer, etc. it can be a lot of fun!

other examples of this coloring:

and the second half!

using color balance layers to your advantage.

i. we'll start again with the base image.

in this case it's pretty easy to tell from the beginning that the coloring in the original is not going to be easy to work with. overall the image is incredibly blue, with a lot of magenta in the shadows. which is why we have color balance layers! :D

ii. i tend first to always create my brightness/contrast layer before i edit the coloring, because i want to see what the image looks like brightened before i do anything else.

we already know what the layer adjustment panel should look like, so i'll just give you the settings:
Brightness: +100
Contrast: +50

which gives us this:

not quite as bad, haha. still, the whole thing is far too blue, and now the darks have washed out a bit, but we'll fix that at the end with the selective coloring layer. the highlights across his nose and the far side of his face look gorgeous.

iii. now it's time for the color balance layers. we're going to open the first one between the base and the brightness/contrast layer because it edits the color more quickly. however it also means we have to be very careful with the slider, because the brightness/contrast layer (which will from hereforth be called the BCL 'cause i'm too lazy to keep typing all that out haha) is very drastic and the color balance layer (ffff god, we'll be calling that the CBL) will otherwise be too heavy.

so the first step is going to be eliminating the blue. you'll notice one of the greatest things about CBL's is that everything is in terms of complimentary colors (although not the traditional ones you learn in art class, haha). what this means is that if you want to decrease the blue in an image you simple have to increase the yellow.

in the midtones, we're going to slide the yellow ... blue to the left until it reaches -20.

it's a little better, not quite so blindingly blue, but it can still use a lot of work. my immediate response would be to increase the reds, as that usually helps, but not so in this case haha (image, if you're curious; it's honestly not all that bad, but it adds to much magenta for my tastes so we won't be using it).

so what we're going to do instead is move to the shadows and play around in there. again we're going to add more yellow, so we'll move the yellow ... blue slider to -10. it helps a little, but can still be better.

it looks to me like there's a touch too much magenta, so we're going to move the magenta ... green slider to +5.

hmmmm. it's getting there, but it's a) a little flat and b) too green (zombie apocalypse anyone?). increasing the reds in the shadows will not only add contrast (increasing reds and blues in shadows both do this, actually), but it will add just enough red/magenta to even out the green without being overpowering. move the cyan ... red slider to +10.

definitely a lot better, but it can still use some work. it took me a while to figure out what was bothering me, during which i played with a whole ton of the sliders to no success (i make it sound easy, which is entirely because i'm typing this in retrospect haha, but sometimes pinpointing exactly which color is too heavy is hard to do), but eventually i realised that what was still bothering me was the amount of blue in the highlights. in the highlights i moved the yellow ... blue slider to -20 to increase the yellow, which brightens up the image and removes a lot of the zombie-apocalypse blue in the skin tones.

much better!

to make things easier:
shadows: +10 + 5 -10
midtones: 0 0 -20
highlights: 0 0 -20

iv. still, it's not quite there yet. however i don't want to fiddle around beneath the BCL any longer because it's too drastic, so we're going to open another CBL above the BCL. (...this would probably be easier if the acronyms weren't quite so similar. bah.)

looking at what we've got so far, the image is looking a lot better but it's still a little too heavy on the cool colors for my taste. in the midtones we'll move the yellow ... blue slider to -10.

now if you look closely you'll notice that while increasing the yellows warmed it up a bit, it also lowered the contrast. so what i'll do is up the reds. (still in the midtones, btw) i'll move the cyan ... red slider to +15.

there's a tiny bit too much magenta now, though, so i'm going to move the magenta ... green slider to +5.

the change is subtle, but it's there and it makes me happy, haha, so.

still, the image is a bit flat, so we're going to move to the shadows. i don't want to play with the reds, 'cause those are about where i'd like them to be. what we're going to do is increase the blues by moving the yellow ... blue slider to +10.

this has the additional surprising but pleasant effect of widening the breadth of color in the image. warm tones can be very nice, but complimentary cool tones can really make an image, especially in the shadows to give the image a more well-rounded appearance. still, the highlights are a tad too cool for my taste.

so, moving to the highlights we're going to move the yellow ... blue slider to -10.

much better! gets rid of that residual zombie glow and brightens up the image in a subtle but powerful manner. yay!

again, to make things easier:
shadows: 0 0 +10
midtones: +15 +5 -10
hightlights: 0 0 -10

from here you can follow steps ii - iv of the first half of the tutorial as desired (although they are altered slightly to fit this particular image, as i said above haha). :] the transition (from the original image) should look something like this:

→ → → →
→ →

again the steps used in this tutorial are not to be copied verbatim because they will vary from image to image. i just hope this was helpful. :] if it was confusing, please let me know!

[zombieflu] tutorial! 002 → yo! tutorial

zombieflu — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:31:45 GMT

Not much to say about this tutorial, hope it’ll enlighten some of you ♥ Please don’t copy exactly and submit to icontests and such :<

I have no idea why I named the .psd yo… it just happened D:

Step: 01

First things first, let’s create the pattern I used as the background of my icon. Or you can easily copy and paste this into an empty 16x16 canvas; go under Edit>Define Pattern, name it and press enter. If you’re interested in learning how to make this patter keep reading, If not go to the next step ♥~ What I did to get this pattern was open a new document, around 350x350 px. Size doesn’t matter as long as it’s big enough to see the squares the size you like. Take a screen shot to do this you need to find a button in your keyboard that says prt sc. It should be near the “F” buttons. Close the previous document, open a new one and paste the screen shot. Zoom on the pattern and with the marquee tool cut four squares like the image provided. Again, close that document and make a new one, paste, Edit>Define Pattern, name it and press enter. You can change the colors and make new patterns now that you have the base.

Step: 02

Find yourself an image, a manga scan is preferable. I haven’t tried using any other type of image so I wouldn’t know if it works. I‘ll be using Okino Mayoko from the series Zone-00, and this here is the original image. Clean your scan with level, brightness+contrast and crop it, then extract the lineart. This is done with the channels, go Window>Channels if the window is not anywhere in your workspace. Click on the dotted circle at the bottom, this selects the whites of your image. We want the blacks so reverse the selection by pressing SHIFT+CRTL+I. Create a new layer and fill that with pink and deselect.
→ →

Step: 03

Create a new layer below the extracted image and fill it with your patter. Press SHIFT+F5, change the option to pattern and look for your patter in the custom pattern tab. It looks odd doesn’t it? Fill in the lineart with white, create a new layer below it and use the polygon lasso tool to go around the edges.

→ →

Step: 04

Get your circular marquee tool out (shift+m), on a new layer below the lineart make a wide circle and fill it with the same color of the lineart art. Create another layer, this time below the white layer and make a small circle in the center of the canvas; fill it with a complimentary color.
→ →

Step: 05

Next should be the easy part, the textures~
→
Place this texture below the white layer, and set it to Lighter Color
Texture by xsleeping_swanx; here
→
Place this texture above all the layers, set it to screen
Texture by cielo_gris; here
→
Extract the white of the texture first, pixel lock it and the color it.
Don’t understand? Head over to preparations: step 03
Texture by haudvafra; here
→
Set it on top of everything, again, to screen
Texture by expose42; here
→
Duplicate it so you have two, desaturate the first one and
set it to color then merge and set it to lighten.
Texture by vol4tica; here
→
Set it to screen
Texture by vol4tica; here
and we are done with the textures~

Step: 06

Almost done, what is left is to add the color adjustments.

→
Brightness+Contrast layer
B: -15; C: +11
→
Selective Coloring layer
R: c:+45, y: +25
Y: c: -41, y: +53, b: -12
C: c:+28, y: -25
N: c:+13, y: -18
→
Hue+Saturation layer
+32~

Step: 07
Final step, copy merge. Select your canvas (ctrl+a), ctrl+shift+c to copy merge and paste. Get the blur tool and start smudging places where it’ll look nice

Extra:

To get this, go Edit>Transfor>90*CC
And you’re done~

JOIN★RULES★TAGS★RESOURCE
any questions? just ask them here.
Next tutorial should be up by next Monday or before.
Coding by leucchu

[zombieflu] tutorial! 001 → general manga coloring

zombieflu — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:51:44 GMT

I'm a bit nervous about posting this :< Before I get started on the Tutorial - I have two ways to color manga. One for icons and the other for panels+pages. It's basically the same thing, 'cept for the pages the shades are exaggerated and CG like. Also, manga coloring is very time consuming, and, you’ve got to put effort in it. So why not sit back and put your iPod/iTunes/WMA/or whatever on shuffle~

You’ll learn how to use the channels, clipping mask tool, how to group layers and several hot keys for PS CS3. Not sure if this tutorial is translatable to other programs, but pretty much works with Photoshop 7+

PREPARATIONS: STEP 01
For this tutorial I’ll be using Takeru from Akuma de Sourou, the first thing that needs to be done is to prepare the image. What I did to mine was mess with the levels until I got pure blacks, pure whites and nice grays. The difference is small but I like it.
| |

PREPARATIONS: STEP 02
At this point you can delete or merge your layers if you want. Instead of deleting I'm going to copy merge what I have so far; press CTRL+A to select your canvas then press CTRL+SHIFT+C to copy merge and then paste~.

PREPERATIONS: STEP 03
Make sure to label the layers, so there won’t be any confusion. Find the channels window, if it’s nowhere in your working area go under windows>channels and it should appear. The channels should look something like this, If you click on the circled option in the image, it should select the whites. However, I don't want the whites I want the blacks so I invert the selection. Invert the selection by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+I, make a new layer and name it LINEART; fill that layer with black (alt+backspace or ctrl+backspace) and lock it. Since I’m satisfied with the image below, and it served it's purpose, I’ll fill that layer with white or some dark color and rename it BG.
|

Locked layers
The lock transparent pixel icon, also known as the preserve transparency prevents the transparency of an image to change. So let's say you want to change the color of the shirt, all that needs to be done is lock the layer and go over it with a brush or just fill it.
Original image → brushed image → colored image.
This is how the layers will look at the end.

COLORING: STEP 01
Fill in the basic colors, a new layer for a new color and lock them too. I find this easier than having a multiplied, screened, color dodge or whatever layer on top of the lineart. Why? Well this way I won’t have gaps between the hair, the skin and others.
| |
This is my first pallet, but somehow i never like the first colors I pick. After this step you'll be seeing this pallet.

PREPERATIONS: STEP 04
To keep things a less messy and confusing we are going to start groupings stuff. It’s simple, but I can’t remember if I changed the hot key command for this or not. Anyway, click on your skin color; I always do skin first, but if you have a different layer as your first, well then click on that one first. Hold shift and click on the layer before the LINEART layer, this should’ve selected all your basic coloring layers. Press CTRL+G to group the layers, if that didn’t work go Layers>Group Layers - name that group BASIC COLORS or something.
|

COLORING: STEP 02
Let’s tackle that LINEART layer shall we? Make a new layer above it and name it L/SKIN, or something you can recognize as the lineart skin layer. Pick a dark brown and go all over the skin, don’t worry if you go over the hair, clothes, jewelry, etc. It can be as messy as the example picture, this is where the magic happens so pay attention. Press CTRL+SHIFT+G or go Layer>create clipping mask (again I forgot if I changed this hot key or not) and guess what you just did~ A clipping mask! Now do this with the rest of the colors, a new layer for every color and stuff~ So what exactly is a clipping mask? It’s use to hide background or unwanted stuff following the previous layer, it works the same way as a locked layer does. Before going to the next step group the lineart and the clipping mask layers and name the group the LINEART COLORS.
|
|
Pallet for the lineart, and this is how my layers look.

PREPERATION: STEP 06
Get your crop tool out and well crop your image. I’m a sucker for negative space so I get something with lots of it. Refill your BG layer and fix the LINEART layer.

COLORING: STEP 03
Time to add the shading/highlight. Over the months I’ve started to color manga icons, I became lazy about the whole thing. I used to get different tones for the shade, instead of doing that I use the same tone but set to multiply and lower the opacity. The results are much better and I like that little burnt-orangy color I get. Clipping masks will be used in this process too. Use this as a guide to help you figure the light source; with a soft round brush, it‘s an unbeatable combination. Almost on every icon I make I use the Left upper light source, so I go to delete the screen tones that get in the way. You’ll get the hang of this soon D:
|
|

Images look blurry because they were zoomed at 400%+ to see the detail.

COLORING: STEP 04
The blush: Always a red and then I lower the opacity. I set it on top of the shades the comes then the little highlight. For this I use a 1px brush with white, and proceed to lower the opacity. Do the same for the highlights, ‘cept with a bigger brush.

COLORING: STEP 05
To finish things off I add a hue+saturation layer, about 15+ and mess a bit with selective coloring. REDS, CYANS, and NEUTRALS only.

JOIN★RULES★TAGS★RESOURCE
.entry will be public for a week.
any questions? just ask them here.
Next tutorial should be up by next Monday or before.
Coding by leucchu

!announcement: new profile

crushcrushcrush — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:38:53 GMT

in celebration of our new layout, our delicious 6 months of paid time and our newest iconist wholemillk, as well as the fact that it is high-time we have a new profile! so i just finished it, it's pretty simplistic and i hope you all like it.

so check out the new profile!

→announcement! new maker :D

theloyalist — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:38:53 GMT

empyre has a new iconmaker!

say hello to wholemillk, whose previous icons you can find over at leveleighty. ♥♥ :D

edit: also a new, improved profile, courtesy of (as usual) crushcrushcrush. check out here!

( crushcrushcrush ) → mod post!

crushcrushcrush — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:20:50 GMT

new layout!

empyre empyre empyre

[ oxygene ] → name change

thrift — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:32:38 GMT

To avoid confusion...
hwighting → thrift

→new comm pimping!

theloyalist — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:34:44 GMT

just pimping a new community which is partially my fault, lol. check it out!

in the words of wishforhome:

"i want more fic where pete isn't a crazy psycho cult-leader rapist serial killer creepy older man who takes advantage of teenagers. please provide, world." and then, "I almost want to like, make a challenge. The PETE WENTZ IS OUR HERO challenge. In which the only requirement is that Pete Wentz not be evil."

so I was like, "...DUDE. YOU SHOULD TOTALLY DO IT."

iheartwentz iheartwentz iheartwentz iheartwentz iheartwentz
a bandom challenge community.