Before you even get into this - if you are going to make an attempt, please make sure you read the whole post, all of the info is important.

Long story short:

I published an Android app, and now I need help with making an epic icon! (by help, I mean it would be better if someone else did it - my many attempts have all been terrible at best)

I require 2 icons that are basically the same exact design, with different colors (see the 2nd screenshot for an illustration of this concept :))


Technical requirements:
- 512 x 512 resolution.
- 32 bit png (with alpha)

Aesthetic requirements
- Should capture the complexity of the mechanism displayed in the app (bottom-most screenshot - link to app at the very bottom)
- Should scale nicely. More importantly, it should look nice at 12.5% zoom. (see first screenshot)
- Quality wise, it should be way better than my attempts (screenshot 2!), and should even come close (well as close as possible with my budget :)) to successful mobile app icons (go ahead and browse the play store or itunes store, and compare your work with the icons there; ask yourself if your icon is in the same league as theirs quality wise.)
- The 2 icons should be identical in every way except the colors, which should CLEARLY tell them apart (see 2nd screenshot for examples of icon pairs)


NOTE: Although the icon will indeed be 512px x 512px, it will almost never appear at its full resolution, and will often be scaled down to somewhere around 48 x 48. For this reason, I will require screenshots of the image at 100% zoom and one at 12.5% zoom (which should be around 64 x 64 actual size). Following is an example of what I mean (first screenshot).
ALSO NOTE: the bottom image (of the first screenshot) does not scale well, avoid designs that do not scale well!





Previous attempts:



Colorless/black background HD screenshot of wallpaper (my app):


And finally, a link to the app, if you really want to get into it and REALLY capture the magic
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=l.werner.livewallpaper.hypnosistimefree



Trade summary:
2500fg -vs- 1 x set of 2 matching icons, as described in this post.
Only the "winning" icons will entitle their author to the payment of the 2500fg - no payment will awarded for attempts.
I agree to NOT use any icon posted in this thread (or PM'd to me) until I announce a winner (and conclude the exchange of fg for the png files AND the source file).
As far as the actual transaction goes, I really don't remember the gfx forum procedures... That being said, I'm not worried, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

I will be bumping this post every day until I find my new icons.
As soon as my icon needs are filled, I will post in this thread to announce the end - please check MY last post to make sure I am still ISO!

STILL ISO!

Hey, is there a problem with my iso?

Or is this lack of posts business as usual here in GRF?


anyways... STILL ISO - STILL 2500FG FT!!!!!

My apologies for the potentially early bump, but I seem to have failed at clearly explaining my iso, got a lot of questions via pm that I want to clarify right now!

MORE DETAILS / IMPROVED DESCRIPTION OF ISO

I published an Android app, and now I need help with making an epic icon! (by help, I mean it would be better if someone else did it - my many attempts have all been terrible at best)

The app has a FREE and a PAID version, each of which needs an icon.

The icons for the FREE and PAID versions should be IDENTICAL in every way, except for the color scheme.
(EXAMPLE: FREE icon = a blue circle / PAID icon = an identical circle, except red instead of blue)
(the second screenshot of the first post of this thread is a good example of identical icons with different colors).

The colors should NOT be "girly" (most of my user base is male) - please stay away from pink/purple/etc.

Now that we've established it is essentially one icon, rendered in two different color schemes, following are additional (equally important/essential):

FORMAT:
- 24bit png /w alpha (which is apparently what u call the 32bit png I thought i was iso)
- 512px x 512px IMAGE SIZE


IMPORTANT NOTE:
You are making an icon. It will almost never appear at its full 512 x 512 resolution.
More often than not, it will be automatically scaled down by the Android system.
For this reason, the icon must look the same, and be perfectly clear and legible at all zoom levels between 10% and 100%.

The 1st picture in the 1st post of this thread illustrates a good and bad example of an icon scaling. (notice how 2nd image (in the first screenshot) looks great at 512 x 512 but terrible at icon size on a cell phone screen)

Also check out this image hosted by google on icons and screen resolution:



Same exact graphic, perfectly clear, and identifiable at all sizes.



Now for some aesthetic requirements:


The app you are making the icon for is: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=l.werner.livewallpaper.hypnosistimefree

It is a LIVE WALLPAPER for ANDROID. It is basically the fully animated mechanism of a complicated mechanical watch.

- Should capture the complexity of the mechanism displayed in the app
- Quality wise, it should be way better than my attempts, and should even come close (well as close as possible with my budget :)) to successful mobile app icons (go ahead and browse the play store or itunes store, and compare your work with the icons there; ask yourself if your icon is in the same league as theirs quality wise.)
(You can find my attempts in the first post of this thread, it is the second screenshot)


And here is a copy of PM conversation I had with a member that made an attempt, I think everyone should see this:

QUOTE:



Let me know m8, any changes needed etc

Things I like:
- round corners
- clean and crisp
- that glossy / light refraction effect (that being said, I feel it could use some improvement - can't put my finger on it, but something seems off about it --- but I'd love for a similar effect to be part of the finished product)

Things I'd like to see changed
- If possible, it would be great if there would be an element of the icon that would make it obvious the app is a clock (perhaps needles, or a piece of a watch dial - even if there isn't one in the app - just suggestions, anything that would do the trick is OK).
- Maybe make it a little bit more complex (if possible, without losing that clean and crisp look!)

Other thoughts
- I wouldn't mind seeing a pop out effect.


And the modified version the same user sent back:

(CURRENT BEST ATTEMPT)



user is Golden_star by the way

Thank you, this post brought a lot of clarity to what is expect.

i will give this a shot, bookmarked.

Pm sent.

GENERAL INFO: STILL ISO

ill be looking into this later today