Aleph One icon

[Pfhorrest]

Something about the Aleph One icon has always bothered me but I've not been quite able to put my finger on it. Looking at it a moment ago I realized it was the bevelling that seemed very... simple.

[attachment=4492:AlephOne.png]

It looks like the whole thing is just two shapes, with a gradient and bevel on the outer ring, said bevel compromised in size to give a big enough shadow to the whole shape but not too big for the smaller details like the break at the bottom (which is where it bothers me most); and a larger bevel on the inner circle. That compromised bevel is what was getting to me, so I rebuilt the whole thing with more layers.

[attachment=4498:AlephOneX.png]

This version consists of four shapes. A large circle the size of the whole icon has a gradient and an overall bevel of half its diameter across it. Then an outer ring shape, without the break at the bottom, bevels up from that at half its thickest width; and the inner circle likewise bevels up at half its diameter, and partially cancels the bevel and gradient of the larger circle below it, so that it "pops" a bit more instead of getting lost in the darkness. Both of those have dark inner glows on them to frame/accentuate them a bit. Then that whole thing is masked to the proper shape of the Marathon logo, which has a drop shadow and a sharp bevel of half the thinnest width of the outer ring.

[Wrkncacnter]

Too bad this one's already better.

[gmanyo]

Here's an icon sized version (first) compared to the current icon (second):
[attachment=4500:273832UTEhnFqy.png]
[attachment=4501:274025SgAAO3hU.png]
Yeah, I like the new one more.

Too bad this one's already better.

I totally would have used that as my avatar if I still used Pfhorums art as my avatars. Also, you need to add a transparent background to make it look more professional.

[thermoplyae]

yes if only it looked more professional

[Pfhorrest]

Here you go Gmanyo.

[attachment=4502:alpha1.png]

I also took the liberty of improving this one too. Everything's better with lens flares.

[attachment=4503:alpha1X.png]

[Dugit]

Everything's better with lens flares.

[Crater Creator]

http://source.bungie.org/content/content_c...ork/_index.html

We've come a long way, it seems. Still, something seems off about the shading of Pfhorrest's icon.

[treellama]

I like the style of the Marathon Revisited icons by Max Rudberg best. A set of green icons in this style would be pretty cool. The current one is kind of ugly, but it's complete and professional.

Why is Aleph One green?

[Pfhorrest]

Bill: Mine is futzed with a lot to try to approximate the existing icon as much as possible while addressing the one specific thing that bothered me about it. So it's not really directly shaded, which is probably what you're catching.

A more straightforward approach, without the futzing (no gradient darkening the top, no dark inner glows, no fiddling with opacity and fill; just a big circle, outer ring, and little inner circle all beveled up as described before, clipped to the Marathon shape with the edge bevels and drop shadow, all colorized to a dark green) would be this:

[attachment=4505:AlephOneY.png]

If we wanted to approximate the bottom-lit approach that the original seems like it was maybe halfway going for (it was darker at the top but the bevel shadows were in the lower right), we could just change the lighting angle and get this:

[attachment=4506:AlephOneZ.png]

I kinda like the glassy style of "Leendert"'s icon, but I'm not quite sure how to replicate that off the top of my head.

Greg: Got a link to the Marathon Revisited icons? I don't have that handy here.

And I think AO is green because that's one color that hasn't been used in any other Marathon game icons and it's the iconic color of Marathon logos in-game (e.g. in terminals on the Marathon itself). Blue, yellow, and grey have all been used; red has been used in-game, as has green; that leaves us with only cyan or magenta as alternative options amongst the primary and secondary colors. Do you have a preference for a different color? They're really easily recolored. (I remember when Marathon Open Source was new, and I was still harping on "Uberthon" as the name for the project, I threw together some icon that was some ugly rainbow mashup, to represent all the different Marathons under the one new app).

[treellama]

http://maxthemes.com

[Pfhorrest]

By popular request from #alephone, a recreation of the aforementioned hideous rainbow icon:

[attachment=4508:AlephWTF.png]

And a brighter, more hippy-tie-die version thereof (the original was dark like the above):

[attachment=4507:AlephWTF.png]

[Wrkncacnter]

<a friggin' rainbow icon>

I will be very disappointed if Aleph One doesn't start using this icon.

[Crater Creator]

I don't like so much beveling that the top of the icon becomes a razor-sharp edge. That turns the icon into two horns surrounding a circle, which is too far from the original in my opinion. I like the proportions used on the icon on the top of this webpage (at the time of this writing).

I figured the artist that made the current Aleph One icon wanted to represent a new generation of game(s), and that's why he took the original silhouette and gave it more 'depth' by turning the central circle into a ball. Granted, the outer ring doesn't lend itself to a simple geometric shape the same way. In most of the Halo art where the Marathon symbol appears, it's just embossed on a flat surface.

Thematically, the green Marathon symbol is most strongly associated with the Marathon ship, Durandal, and/or Leela. It's the only color symbol that's used in terminals in all three games. So if the goal was to choose a neutral, baseline color that doesn't favor one scenario over another, green may be the best choice.

P.S. My name's not Bill.

[Pfhorrest]

My first inclination was actually to halve the edge bevel, but I cranked it up higher so as to approximate the original again. The original's is actually larger, but smoother; I didn't want to push it past half the narrower width. Here's a version with the smaller edge bevel back:

[attachment=4510:AlephOneY.png]

As for doing it in 3D, the outer ring does lend itself to that perfectly fine. It's just a torus which is much narrower on one end, with a break at its widest point. If I had any 3D software I knew how to use I'd throw together some shiny glassy render of that with a sphere in the center of it. Maybe CryoS or someone can lend a hand? Should be a quick job.

And oh snap, all this time I've been thinking you were Bill Catambay for some reason. Where the hell did I get that impression?

[CryoS]

i could give it a try, if you do the following:
1: make the logo in illustrator
2: open with PS
3: make selection of the logo.
4: turn the selection into a work path witha tolerence of 2,0
5: export paths to illustrator.
6: send me the exported file.

you cant send me the ai file directly just becasue cinema wont read it unless you do as above. cheers.

[Crater Creator]

As for doing it in 3D, the outer ring does lend itself to that perfectly fine. It's just a torus which is much narrower on one end, with a break at its widest point. If I had any 3D software I knew how to use I'd throw together some shiny glassy render of that with a sphere in the center of it. Maybe CryoS or someone can lend a hand? Should be a quick job.

Hmm. For whatever reason, I never pictured the outer ring that way. But it sounded fun (and quick, as you said) to try, so I did.
[attachment=4512:test1_crop.jpg]
The top of the ring didn't turn out right, it tessellated poorly, and the material looks more like gel or ectoplasm than glass. So it's more draft than serious contender, but I thought it looked kinda neat so I thought I'd share the experiment.

[Ares Ex Machina]

She's lubed up and ready to party!

Why is Aleph One green?

Marathon = blue
Marathon 2 = yellow
Marathon Infinity = silver

blue+yellow+silver = shiny green

Kinda sorta not really but hey close enough.

[xilef]

Something about the Aleph One icon has always bothered me but I've not been quite able to put my finger on it. Looking at it a moment ago I realized it was the bevelling that seemed very... simple.

[attachment=4492:AlephOne.png]

The icon does look bad.
But I don't see yours as much of an improvement D:
Therefore I say it stays.

[TectonInd]

My favorite one so far would have to be this one:
[attachment=4513:m1logo.png]

Followed by the original.

[xilef]

My favorite one so far would have to be this one:
[attachment=4513:m1logo.png]

Followed by the original.

that one is very nice indeed

[Crater Creator]

Okay, here's my second attempt. There are things I don't like about it, but there are so many rendering components going into this it's hard to just change the one thing you want.
[attachment=4563:3D_symbol_small.png]

[CryoS]

think you can send me the mesh?

[treellama]

Marathon meets R'lyeh

Make the slime drip a little more?

[Wrkncacnter]

Okay, here's my second attempt.

That looks awful.

[brilliant]

Very nice icon, Crater Creator! It looks like the Marathon symbol is inside the center too!