neonspider: (javert heart of stone)
neonspider ([personal profile] neonspider) wrote in [community profile] neonspiderwebs2022-01-30 07:49 pm

18 multifandom icons + BrantSteele simulation



Fandoms:
Too Hot to Handle [3]
Orphan Black [2]
Prison Break [2]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Captain Marvel (2019), Carmilla, Dorian Gray (2009), Farscape, Free!, The IT Crowd, LOST, Sherlock, Survivor AU, Teen Wolf [1 each]

Ok, so!!! Here's my entry for round 14: Character strengths at [livejournal.com profile] somein30, and I had the most ridiculous idea for this round. See, the theme was based around different character strengths, which is a lot of like the themes on some Survivor seasons, and the popular Brain vs Brawn vs Beauty theme in particular. So I figured I'll just do Hard mode and create my cast for a season like that: 6 members on each tribe, equal number of men and women on each tribe, and then... I went ahead and actually simulated the season on BrantSteele to see how it goes xD

What is a BrantSteele? It's this super fun website where you can fill the cast of a reality show or a game with any characters and simulate a season. I mostly use the Survivor simulator, but they've got Big Brother and even some really ricidulous stuff like Hunger Games. Anyway, I used Survivor season 28 as the template (the first Brain vs Brawn vs Beauty season), I didn't set any attributes (I thought it would be more fun if it's completely random, but it's possible to give the characters a few physical and personality traits that have an effect on the challenges and strategy), and the simulator generated the game itself (which tribe loses each challenge, who is voted out and how, etc) but also random relationship/camplife events.

I wrote down my commentary as it went along, so if anyone wants to see the closest thing to a fanfic I'll probably ever write, or see in detail how the simulator works, HERE YOU GO.

You can download it or just read it there directly, no need to have a DropBox account. It isn't written in story format, it's just my very casual reactions/commentary/analysis written "live" when I first read through the simulation. I got really into this thing! :D It looks long (25 pages) but there are big images to start each episode just to remind who's in the game, so the actual text isn't that long at all. Try not to scroll down too much cause the images will spoil you! I didn't come up with any extra events, nothing about this plot was decided by me, it was all generated by the simulator; I only wrote about what the simulator gave me, but I expanded on them with my own speculation as to why it happened. You don't need to know much about Survivor to read it cause I explained all the twists and advantages. (I don't actually expect anyone to read it, but if someone does I'll be extra happy :D)

Writing this little story was so much fun, but probably took too much time away from actual iconing cause I know this isn't my strongest set or anything, it's all over the place stylewise (at first I tried to go for a theme of "soft colours and contrast", as opposed to my usual neon colorings, but that doesn't even happen in every icon so I just kinda gave up and did whatever). I think most of these are solid/fine, but none really stand out as "wow" pieces, but maybe that's just me - let me know what you think! Maybe there's at least something to like for everyone, since so many styles are present.

CHARACTER CHOICES
In choosing my cast I considered three things: 1. who would fit the strength, 2. who do I like enough to want to icon them, and 3. who would be fun to talk about in the simulation or watch in an actual game. What I didn't care about was the fairness of the game: some players know some of the other players, there's randomly just one Survivor returnee, there's an anime character playing against 3d people, there are real people and fictional characters, some have supernatural powers while some are just human, etc.. just a completely random cast in that way :D

The Brain tribe has characters who are seen as particularly smart: Cosima is an Evolutionary Developmental Biology PhD student and Sherlock is famously the master of deduction. Sikozu is an expert in Leviathans and several fields of science, while Michael has this amazing mind that just sees all the details and can plan the wildest things. Moss is a programmer/IT guy, and Laura is a university student who is very good at investigation and clever plans.

The Brawn tribe consists of physical players: Carol Danvers kicks ass with or without her superpowers (despite Yon trying to teach her to rely more on her mind). Faith is a badass vampire slayer whose first response to almost everything is physical aggression, and Helena might be small but she's also a ferocious fighter and might actually kill someone in this game :p Linc is super buff and clearly the brawn of the operation in Prison Break (compared to his genius brother), and Rin is a super competitive swimmer. Sayid is smart enough to be on the brain tribe, but in his life he definitely leans more towards his fighter/assassin side, and he can snap someone's neck with his thighs, so yeah, I'd put him on brawn.

The Beauty tribe was the most difficult one to fill, because it's usually the least interesting. I put David in there first, he's an international supermodel and has used flirting to advance his strategy already in previous seasons. Dorian Gray is notoriously obsessed with his looks, he basically sold his soul to stay young and beautiful. Lydia is super smart, but at least in the beginning of the show she tried to hide that and lean more on her looks to maintain her queen bee status, so I put her here too. Aaannd then I had to fill the rest of the tribe with people from my favorite guilty pleasure show, Too Hot to Handle xD Literally anyone from it would be great for this tribe, but I chose one person per season: Francesca (entertainingly messy, I just loved her ok), Melinda (the clear star of s2, would be such a fun presence on Survivor) and finally the amazing Patrick (so gorgeous but also so awesomely ridiculous: might fall in love with someone after one day, there may be singing, he won't stand any lying cause that's what criminals do, and he might quit if he doesn't like how the game is going, but I guess we'll see xD).





SOMEIN30 ROUND 14
BRAIN
[01-06]
BRAWN
[07-12]
BEAUTY
[13-18]


Take any you like, please let me know what you think! <3
sietepecados: (Movie: Black Widow)

[personal profile] sietepecados 2022-01-30 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
These are wonderful! I love the colors — yellows and purples look simply amazing! 3 and 4 are so cool! I also love the coloring and crop on 11, and composition on 5 and 12. Also I really like your take on this challenge. It's such a fun idea :)

[identity profile] winterfel.livejournal.com 2022-01-30 06:16 pm (UTC)(link)
awesome set!! i love the coloring you use.. may I ask what font u used on 10 & 12??

[identity profile] winterfel.livejournal.com 2022-02-04 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
thanks for letting me know !!
apologizeg: (Deadpool // Batman)

[personal profile] apologizeg 2022-01-30 06:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Haha, this is amazing! What a wonderful way to do the challenge!

Icons are gorgeous of course, but the Shelock one is def my fave, and also the Sayid one is so good!

[identity profile] aeriiths.livejournal.com 2022-01-30 06:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Using the simulator is such a fun idea!

I think this is such a cool set, and I'm loving the colouring especially — my faves have got to be 1, 4, 8, 12 and 15.

[identity profile] hamarakissa.livejournal.com 2022-01-31 04:12 am (UTC)(link)
Wow! Love the compositions and coloring. Especially love 8 (coloring and contrast), 9 (coloring), 12 (composition and font), and 13 (use of light)

[identity profile] shameless666.livejournal.com 2022-01-31 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
As always these are soooo pretty! My favourites are Sayid, Sherlock & Link (totally biased towards text icons, oops).

It's a shame they didn't do well in the simulation, but that's probably because there were no attributes set :D Sherlock clearly would have won at least 2 of the challenges (even though I'm not familiar with how smart Laura actually is :D), Rin could have done really well at the beginning too, but oh well, he made a bad call later, so it wouldn't have mattered. I'm probably most surprised by Moss making it into the finale, he's not very sociable but managed to play well in the alliances (not surprised he messed it up at the finale though). It was a fun read, I'll definitely try it sometimes :)

[identity profile] shameless666.livejournal.com 2022-02-04 06:16 pm (UTC)(link)
I always like to read such stuff, it's always interesting to me. And yeah, I pretty much knew most of the characters (11 known/7 unknown, mostly the reality stars) :D

I've kinda became addicted to text lol, everytime I make textless icon it feels unfinished :D And I'm excited for the music round too, your inspiration posts always inspire me to enter and I already made 5 icons, although I'll probably remake a couple :/

[identity profile] rosy-nic.livejournal.com 2022-02-01 10:37 am (UTC)(link)
What an amazing set, with your choice of characters and colours on them, which is always bright and inviting :) Like your different way of assessing the characters for each trait, it would be too much for my brain to do without coffee!! My favourites are 4,5, & 7 :)

[identity profile] n-iinza.livejournal.com 2022-02-01 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Ahh these are lovely! I love that you made Too Hot To Handle icons lol, it's my guilty pleasure too and I def binged the new season.
I love the blocking and coloring of 2, and the coloring and kind of smoothness work really well! The composition of 5, 12 and 17 are perfect!! I LOVE the text placement of 10, it works really well with the semi-grittiness too. I also like the "weird" coloring of 16, it makes the icon really interesting to look at, kind of like it's painted. I also love 9!
magicrubbish: Karen and Draedevil (Jin Ling)

[personal profile] magicrubbish 2022-02-01 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Wonderful set. I really love how you use the two colors yellow and violet/purple in various shades in many of your icons. Loved the bright yellow coloring and lighting of the 1st icons. The blocking in 2 looks cool. The crop , sharpening and the soft yet rich purple looks amazing in the 3rd one. The crop and more neutral coloring of 6 looks great too.
But my favs from the set are 4 and 5. Gorgeous diamond composition of 5 and the color palettte division us breath taking in 4.
13 looks very soft and the lighting is mellow and pretty. I also like the lighting of 7. The text style of 10 and 17 are great. 17 also has very pretty crop and rich coloring , loved the tinge of pink between brown.
And the contrast of blue and pink in 16 looks great.
Waiting for another month , another update and inspiration post. <3
geckoholic: (Marvel Clint/Kate shoulder shooting)

[personal profile] geckoholic 2022-02-05 08:41 pm (UTC)(link)
The shiny colors and the lighting are sp perfect, and I love the composition in #10 and #12 especially. #15 is also stunning, and so is #1. :D

[identity profile] thyla87.livejournal.com 2022-02-07 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow, I adore these coloring!
2 — The yellow coloring is amazing and I love the glow esp.her hair of 2.
3 — Wonderful use of purple!! Vibrant color is spectacular and the solid background is perfect<3
4 — Love this color composition! The balance is perfect and yellow and purple color are wonderful! Your characters are always cut-out so perfect!
5 — Love, love, love!! Omg, the composition is epic and I love texture use! :) The monocrhome is perfect and triangle texture is perfect balance here
9 — Wow, her hair pop-up so fantastic ways and the yellow color is fantastic. The glow and the lighting are magnificent and the sharpening is perfect!
10 — Perfect sharpening!! Love it<3 Text and red color are fantastic
12 — I love how text pop-up this one; perfect purple color against green.
15&16 — Loooove these coloring<3 So vibrant and I love what you did Lydia's hair!

It was wonderful to see how far you went in this theme!! Your Survivor idea was fantastic and now I am kind of sad that I didin't do that too :D I would definitely watch a season like this :D I love the fact that you also write story about this! Omg! I loved your idea that simulation give scene and you write own thought :D They were fun to read! i wouldn't want to give spoilers so I send message to you about the stories :D But I was really surprised about Moss (relying on what you have told the character and his sociality skills.) I would also really like to see how Sherlock plays the game and how quickly people get tired of him, LOL xD I have seen 1 episode about Too hot to handle and I am 100% agree that they perfect for Beauty tribe :D

Thank you so much for participation and wonderful set and the story as well!!<3
tinny: Something Else holding up its colorful drawing - "be different" (__dare to be different)

[personal profile] tinny 2022-02-13 08:41 am (UTC)(link)
Eeek, late comment is late.

I love all the thought you put into this! It never would have occurred to me that game simulators like that exist! O_O

I love the brainy section most of all, of course. :D (character-wise, not icon-wise ;)) — those are all my favorite people in there. :D I really like the composition of the Sherlock icon and the crop in 3 and 6. Duplicating Moss is also brilliant. :D

Of the brawn row, my fave is Helena with her gorgeous hair, and the two text-y ones.

Of the beauty ones, I really like the soft look in 13, the coloring and slightly pointilistic look of 15, and the text/decoration use in 17.

Awesome job all around! <3
agirlahaunt: (Default)

[personal profile] agirlahaunt 2023-10-26 10:03 am (UTC)(link)
I love these! 3 and 6 have such gorgeous coloring, how did you do that?