Post Your New Custom Folder Icons Here! Part 2! (the New Icon), TV shows, seasons, genres, etc. Options

[Far Beyond Driven]

This might be the last crack I have at these.. spending too much time on this silly stuff
Some of these shows (mainly webseries) I've wanted to give a coloured folder - black, blue, red ect to match the theme of the originating site. It seems to work better than white?
http://www.box.net/public/5n6689n7nc

But. Doesn't this all seem like a waste of time? The wide icons blow these little folders clear out of the water.

And something I just realised was we could have taken all the PSD images from JoyMonkey's PMIII folders - if he wouldn't mind. And that would've saved a load of time. They're all well done..

[djdafreund]

Yeah, that might be a little easier, let alone faster to do, as they are already 'acceptable' within terms. I'll go ahead and redo those, giving him credit of course for the artwork. I already have started, and am making the same styled MAIN psd, so i can easily modify anything (like the original psd inside the rar file with all the artwork layers.)
I will post when finished. I am using the guides based on whats been discussed here so far.

[djdafreund]

I hope these are much better. The artwork is credited (most of them, some i did from scratch) to Joymonkey's PM 3 Artwork.





And some more. .. . .








Some of these may have been done, if so, sorry. I have very limited time, and can't afford to download every posted zip file and search just to see if it's been done or not. So until we can come up with a better solution (I only think it's fair, since only so many of us are making them to contribute.) like posting each one here like a few of us, or a website hosted all to see at glance, just ignore them instead of complaining it's been done. The only one that is out is the person creating it a second time, who didn't mind. So please, no complaints if this happens until we find a better solution. Thanks.

[Blackbolt]

I hope you are all keeping the PSDs for these.

As its highly likely I am going to adjust the folder icon a bit, transparency wise and some other adjustments to the shadow. So keep your renders back for now till I say.

For those of you doing this properly, you will just be able to plonk the new folder in at the bottom of your layer window and it will work fine.

[Fred_PJ]

I don't care about TV show icons because I usually delete the episodes them after I see them. However, I'm pretty experienced with image editing and felt the need to say something about this. I don't mean to be harsh but I think that there's a time when one needs to know when to be humble and leave it to others who do it better. I think that it's important to always keep up the quality.

The default icon is only 128x128, how much quality can i cram in that? I am using artwork, mostly at a resolution of either 1024x768 or 800x600 (most of the logo's) and almost 'camera ready' 300dpi resolution. But when i shrink it to fit the default icon, it makes it look much worse.

You know what? When you resize down a higher resolution picture to a low res like 128x128, it will actually look better and unpixelized because everything gets smoothed, including the edges. In some cases, resizing it down will even hide tiny imperfections, so I don't understand what you're talking about. If it looks pixelized than you're doing something wrong or didn't cut out the edges of the image properly.

I hope these are much better.

Not really, here are some examples:
Pixelized:

Badly cut:

Pixelized / badly cut:

Besides, they all look awkward because the title artwork edges are too close to the folder icon edges.

The artwork is credited (most of them, some i did from scratch) to Joymonkey's PM 3 Artwork.

Recycling low resolution artwork isn't a good idea and those images are a good example of that.

i am definitely skilled at photoshop

I'm sorry to say this, but you definately are not. And even if you know a thing or two when working with big images, you obviously lack the eye to see when something looks really good and high quality or not. You're wasting your time making those icons, sorry.

This post has been edited by Fred_PJ: Jan 28 2007, 01:25 AM

[djdafreund]

I don't care about TV show icons because I usually delete the episodes them after I see them. However, I'm pretty experienced with image editing and felt the need to say something about this. I don't mean to be harsh but I think that there's a time when one needs to know when to be humble and leave it to others who do it better. I think that it's important to always keep up the quality.
You know what? When you resize down a higher resolution picture to a low res like 128x128, it will actually look better and unpixelized because everything gets smoothed, including the edges. In some cases, resizing it down will even hide tiny imperfections, so I don't understand what you're talking about. If it looks pixelized than you're doing something wrong or didn't cut out the edges of the image properly.

Not really, here are some examples:
Pixelized:

Badly cut:

Pixelized / badly cut:

Besides, they all look awkward because the title artwork edges are too close to the folder icon edges.
Recycling low resolution artwork isn't a good idea and those images are a good example of that.
I'm sorry to say this, but you definately are not. And even if you know a thing or two when working with big images, you obviously lack the eye to see when something looks really good and high quality or not. You're wasting your time making those icons, sorry.

Everyone has an opinion. Obviously. 1st and formost. I have been a copy center manager for about 7 years now, doing things from manipulating pictures, photo editing, cleaning up imagery, designing brochure's and letterhead, etc., and YES i am very experienced. I've built quite a huge amount of clientel because of my reputation of my quality level. So i majorly beg to differ with your opinion on that note. Not comparing myself to you at all since i don't know where you come from either.
You can't cram a nickel into a penny. By that i mean, some of the artwork i am using is VERY CLEAN AND SHARP and at 150dpi, but once scaled down in to a small icon, i beg to differ with you that it can look better. Sure, maybe i AM doing something wrong in the process of scaling the image down. But you shouldn't be judging a book by its cover (saying i'm not experienced with photoshop, i would be willing to place a bet there.) because of my inability to work with a 128x128 image, which i NEVER do.
Second of all, your examples of 'BADLY CUT'. I didn't cut ANY OF THEM, so your insulting someone else's work, which APPARENTLY everyone else has been using for a while, and hasn't had a single issue with it. Yet, now it is. You example of them not looking good (' Too close to the edges' ) is what we decided on doing as a STANDARD with the people who are making them here. I am not changing anything, as this isn't a part of the MC360 skin, it's a mere extra FOR the skin, or as you will an enhancement not originally offered by the skin itself. And since so far everything put out there in this, MINE is the only one seemed to be picked on, so i guess oh well. I will keep making them, and if you don't want to use them, you don't have to. Or make them yourself. That's pretty disrespectful if you ask me, i'm one of few people that have been contributing, and others i've seen aren't any different in quality to mine.

Sorry, i have had a really crappy day and all night at work, and coming home to read these insults, without even knowing me, YET judging me because of a fricken 128x128 crappy icon, and even when using SOMEONE ELSE'S (widely used) icons AS-IS, still saying I'M doing something wrong, frankly bugs the hell out of me. So whatever. I've done over $80k in jobs for my skills for someone with 'lack of eye to see quality, and not being experience'. Thats all i have to say.

[vent mode off]

[Fred_PJ]

Whoa, I'm sorry if you got offended like that, I didn't mean to pick on you personally or start a fight, so I won't say anything else about it and just say sorry to keep this topic clean. You're probably a fine guy with whom I would enjoy drinking a beer or something elsewhere, I didn't meant to be conflictuous or offend your personal and professional life. As I said before, I don't care about TV show icons so there's not much interest in making them myself (unless someone requested for help, which in that case I would be glad to help).

Sometimes I point when something doesn't look good enough not with the intention to piss off anyone, but to alert that it can be done better (when that person isn't using its full potential or when I could do much better).
I believe that it is time to raise the quality bar in this community and think more about the users. I mean, we're not in 2003 anymore when a quick 5 minute slacker job would be fine. We're in 2007, when the professionally HQ looking Mc360 v1.0 and when a new generation of promising quality skins are being released by people who put their best effort on their work, when XBMC is ported to the pc and probably will be ported to other new platforms in a not too distant future. Maybe sometimes I am too direct and harsh with my comments, but I don't mean to offend anyone, I'm just trying to show that the quality bar can be raised a bit higher at a realistic height, that's all.

I'm sorry if you took it badly, let's carry on with the thread on topic.

This post has been edited by Fred_PJ: Jan 28 2007, 09:46 AM

[TomLoth]

I hope you are all keeping the PSDs for these.

As its highly likely I am going to adjust the folder icon a bit, transparency wise and some other adjustments to the shadow. So keep your renders back for now till I say.

For those of you doing this properly, you will just be able to plonk the new folder in at the bottom of your layer window and it will work fine.

Ah, Hell no! You must be joking!
Seriously, I respected the first change and heads up... But changing it again will cost a lot of people a lot of time. I know you are spending ages at MC360, and that these folder icons are peanuts to what you do, but I wouldn't like to have to import the folder to all of my PSDs. And I am sure a lot of people feel the same. Sorry if I pissed you off, but this is just how I feel.

[djdafreund]

Whoa, I'm sorry if you got offended like that, I didn't mean to pick on you personally or start a fight, so I won't say anything else about it and just say sorry to keep this topic clean. You're probably a fine guy with whom I would enjoy drinking a beer or something elsewhere, I didn't meant to be conflictuous or offend your personal and professional life. As I said before, I don't care about TV show icons so there's not much interest in making them myself (unless someone requested for help, which in that case I would be glad to help).

Thanks for that. That goes a long way!!! Cheers to a beer to you

I agree with TomLoth. Some of us don't have but only so much time ourselves to dedicate, but DO want to help. And although the quality SHOULD be set high, it shouldn't be set TOO high. Remember, these icons are looked at briefly to pick a show or movie, used to navigate easier, not being displayed in a museum. So although the quality should be set high, it should be within reason. Xbox is dated now, and a true port is out of the question. (IE- Media portal is closest thing, i ported the PM3 skin, but isn't the same IMO as xbmc even til now, overall. GBPVR is the closest, I also ported the PM3 skin over to that. And the xbmc_pc skin will ONLY be for skinners mostly, and will never be a complete port. As mentioned on the xbmc main site.)
I just don't think we need to go crazy with stipulations and levels. It is what it is, a 128x128 icon. It should look nice, and is merely used to help navigate. Hopefully we can all agree with that? The Heroes logo i made almost from scratch, as there weren't anything usable i could find, and everything looked bad. And i made it with 150DPI, 708x256. But once scaled down in PS, only looks so good. STILL much better looking then the old one i made out there.

[Blackbolt]

Ah, Hell no! You must be joking!
Seriously, I respected the first change and heads up... But changing it again will cost a lot of people a lot of time. I know you are spending ages at MC360, and that these folder icons are peanuts to what you do, but I wouldn't like to have to import the folder to all of my PSDs. And I am sure a lot of people feel the same. Sorry if I pissed you off, but this is just how I feel.

TomLoth, sorry but thats the way shit happens. You should keep one PSD, with all the layers inside it. It don't make sense to have PSDs for every single folder. Just split the overlays into Named Groups within the layer panel.

I don't mean to sign like an ass, but you are right, doing folder icons is peanuts to what we have done. So something as simple as sliding a folder icon under the layers in a photoshop file, shouldnt be too much of a problem. Name your layer groups accordingly and run a photoshop batch script to save each layer + the folder icon at the bottom as a png with the group name. And it will take you preciesly 0.2 of a second to resave them all with one click of the macro'd F key.

This post has been edited by Blackbolt: Jan 28 2007, 03:14 PM

[djdafreund]

TomLoth, sorry but thats the way shit happens. You should keep one PSD, with all the layers inside it. It don't make sense to have PSDs for every single folder. Just split the overlays into Named Groups within the layer panel.

I don't mean to sign like an ass, but you are right, doing folder icons is peanuts to what we have done. So something as simple as sliding a folder icon under the layers in a photoshop file, shouldnt be too much of a problem. Name your layer groups accordingly and run a photoshop batch script to save each layer + the folder icon at the bottom as a png with the group name. And it will take you preciesly 0.2 of a second to resave them all with one click of the macro'd F key.

Smart Alec!! I already, myself, have 1 PSD, that has all the arkwork done as layers, so i just have to click on one layer to show, then save that as the said icon. Do you have a script made already you could share that does that auto-saves each icon? I would like that.

This post has been edited by djdafreund: Jan 28 2007, 03:40 PM

[Blackbolt]

Smart Alec!! I already, myself, have 1 PSD, that has all the arkwork done as layers, so i just have to click on one layer to show, then save that as the said icon. Do you have a script made already you could share that does that auto-saves each icon? I would like that.

Nope sorry. I was simply putting forward the idea for someone to take it and run with themselves.

[djdafreund]

Ah, thats cool. I'll mess around and try to make one. Thanks for the idea.

[Far Beyond Driven]

This time round I did put keep all the images in one PSD (learned from the JoyMonkey pack) - will post that later if anyone wants a peek inside.

[djdafreund]

Ok, i got around to getting my friend to setup a forum on his site for posting any/all folder icons. Any idea's or changes are welcome. This is just to get started. Eventually a webpage will be added there, once all folders are collected, that will show all icons, and will be downloadable as one file below all.

MC360 Folder Icon Forum.