But anyway, I've found a new hobby (sure to last only a few days). That hobby is creating icons.
It started when I began trying to make my own PS3 theme. I scoured the net for icons to use on the XMB, and came across some really great icons. IconArchive.com, iconBase.com, and IconsPedia.com have some great selections (though you'll find plenty of overlap).
So I d/led some icons to replace various ones on my computer, and started noticing all the ugly icons I had left that I hadn't been able to find replacements for. Well, there was only about 4 or 5 that I thought needed changing, and now there are only 2.
The first icon I made was for Google Talk. The original icon:
isn't necessarily ugly, I just wanted something a little more polished. Having searched for that icon up there, it came to my attention that there are quite a few custom icons for Google Talk, but never mind. Anyway, so this is what I came up with:
Note: The pink/green background isn't there on the actual icon.
My second icon was made for K-Meleon. A little known browser running off the same gecko engine as Mozilla, Firefox, etc. I've become a bit of a browser collector lately, using Firefox, Opera, K-Meleon and (only when necessary) IE. But anyway, this was the original icon for K-Meleon:
Kind of cutesy, but very pixelated, and not transparent. I went searching for custom icons on Google, but there was nothing. Anyway, it was a VERY long process, but in the end I came up with this:
Much better if I do say so myself. And again, the pink/green background isn't a part of the actual icon.
The next couple I want to replace are the icons for Audacity and CDex. There are a few custom Audacity icons around, but only one of them is any good (to me, at least), and that is this one here. If you want to use the icon, just ask him (I did) and he'll send you the png which is awesome. So here's a plug to JohnLepinski.com. He is one heck of a graphic designer.
The current CDex icon is just plain horrible:
I mean it's pixelated, it's not keeping in with the current trends. It's a very Win95 icon :D There's a couple out there for it, but they're not that great either, so I'll have to see what I can come up with.Btw, if you want that Google Talk icon, it's available here (
).
