Icon-A-Day, Icon #35, The WAV File

Old techniques pay off again.

from WinCustomize Forums
Icon 35 (WAV File)

I don't want to get to the end of this series of tutorials and only have File icons to do; I think we would end up pretty board. Yesterday we did the JPG file, today I want to do another, this time the Wave file. This should be pretty easy since we have a few conventions already set up when it comes to music and media files. Mostly from the MIDI file, way back at Icon #6. Like I said, this one will be easy. So I am going to spend a little more time explaining some of the simpler techniques.
 
Step 1:

First thing we do is make a copy of our MIDI file.

 Step 2:

Now I move the note, and its shadows and reflections and move it aside for the moment. I change the tile to WAV. and then I place a Black Transparent Box over the bottom of our file. Making sure our glare gets placed back on top.

 Step 3:

Now we will use one of the oldest techniques in the Graphics world to make a "Neon" like wave form. I start by drawing the form with the line tool and give it a thin green Outline.

 
Step 4:

Now I copy my existing Wave form, and give it a thicker outline in a darker green and place it behind our original.

 Step 5:

Now we select both of our lines and blend them together with the Blend Effect.

 Step 6:

Just to fancy up our wave a bit, I give it a green halo, by pulling a drop shadow off it, and setting it to green.
Step 7:

Now I go ahead and convert our completed wave form to a bitmap and Crop it down to fit in the black portion of our file.
At this point I make a quick reflection of our file using the Reflection Techniques.

 		 Step 8:

The last step is to move our Note and its shadows and reflections back into place in front of the file.

 
Finished Icon image

 

Click here to download the finished icon.

You will note, I have begun to make the reflections go straight down from the file. I realized that the having it slant off like the shadow looked pretty bad, and was somewhat unrealistic, so I decided to make the change. I will have to fix all File icons we have done already, but it should be pretty simple. You can keep the existing ones as "Originals" if you want.

Tomorrow I am thinking we should do another File icon.

Read the other Icon-A-Day Articles: (Icon-A-Day Index)

Check out the CorelDRAW for Skinner Index, for links to all the related Video Tutorials.

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
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Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks, Teach.
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