Custom SVG Icons in Illustrator [Tutorial]

The default Adobe Illustrator Artwork file icon.

Usually when I want to get something done, I get it done right. In this case, it bothered me why Adobe Illustrator allows you to save files into SVG and SVGZ format, yet used the default Adobe Illustrator file icon. This makes them impossible to distinguish in Windows 7 since their properties and appearance is shared with standard Adobe Illustrator files. This is especially annoying if I want to download SVGs off Wikipedia or other sites (like here since I distributed some works as SVG) and the files are mislabeled. All the icon changing guides didn't help in this matter and after 2 days of dabbling with the registry, nothing was working.
However, I now have a solution.

Zap Ace + TREZ Home

Oh, and here is the Zap Ace drawing from the stream finished. Yeah, it isn't all that accurate or at least not as accurate as I had hoped. I think the shading came out well though.

Oh, and about the new TREZ homepage. The coding is almost finished and is starting to look very close to what I intended. I have to be very picky on this. Only concerns now would be a decent PHP content management system so I can make posts and manage the content on the site. Fusion/Cute News are the same thing and rather unimpressive. Now Blogger's current post features is miles ahead of anything I've used so far. If I could use an editor like the one I'm using to write and manage the content on the site, it would be much more ideal.

My TREZ Livestream Today

I got on the TREZ Livestream toady in part of the TREZ Winter Festival 2011. I drew in vector for my bit for about an hour. I had never streamed before and I heard form GM that all the pro Starcraft players use XSplit Broadcaster for their streams. I was very impressed by how flawlessly it worked. I streamed near-perfect quality at 1920x1080 for my stream. I would like to do more of this in the future.

I drew a Zap Ace enemy from the Megaman Star Force series. Drawing well is still tough for me, but here's what I ended up doing on the stream.

I started with this.

And got this far on the stream.

I have my own stream where I may do these sort of things live. Check it out at LiveStream.

Winter Break: What to look forward to

My winter break started and here's what may happen in that time.

First, the new website is being made. I'm liking what's been made so far so as long as I supervise the work, the layout should be done soon. Putting it up on a paid host would also be interesting.

There are also more items in the Zazzle shop GM and I have. Have a look and buy what you like.


Browse other gifts from Zazzle.

TREZ Home Page revamp imminent

I may have mentioned it before. but for a class project I will be designing a new TREZ layout. This new home page will make the site easier and quicker to use. So basically instead of never using it, it can be used quickly. It's all part of trying to keep the TREZ name alive through consistency and overall decent design. When I actually have a full mock-up, a few people will be selected to critique its usefulness. I'm hoping I could get someone to actually code it since I have no experience in HTML or any of that. I wouldn't want a project like this to be my first attempt at coding either.

Relating to the redesign, I recently purchased and activated my copy of Adobe CS5.5 Design Premium. It came with an extra CD with resources. Turns out there are DOZENS of pixel fonts in there, one being the Hooge font family. Originally, I had been using that font on some of the TREZ forum images. It turns out it's a commercial font and I was using a cheap copy. The one on the CD has lower-case letters and is a highly legible font. I've removed the copies and installed the real thing on my computer. I hope the Hooge fonts will serve TREZ well since I'll be using them more from now on.