Second Icon Tutorial
What's with me and icon tutorials now? They're addicting, I tell you!
And it's Zelda again. Woo-hoo!
Turning
into
, using CS2.
Note: Please be aware that the colors may not work for your icon. Change it up, and try new things. As always, results are welcome. :)
1. After cropping the image that I wanted down to size, I screened it. This is just because I didn't know what I wanted to do with this yet, and screening is a safe bet if you want to use overlay or soft lighting later on. The screen was set to 100%.
to
2. Well, that looks kind of cruddy, doesn't it? In an attempt to give the washed-out pic some more color and get rid of the noise in the background, I gave it a color burn layer. Or...would have, but I wanted to have something the color could burn, if you catch my drift. As a safeguard, I added a soft light layer, set to 100%.
to
3. Now it really does look creepy. Before my OCD brain cells are fried, I add a color burn layer set to 40% opacity.
to
4. Well, it's a little better, but definitely not bright nor dark enough. By now I have a plan in mind. I end up trying to bring out the vivid oranges and yelows from the pink in the picture by adding a multiply layer, set to 50%.
to
5. *whew* At least there's no more pink. But it didn't pop like I wanted it to. I planned in the future to add a soft light/overlay to fix that, but because I'm a geek about this next step I had to...add an exclusion layer. Set it to 100%.
to
6. Don't worry, don't worry, I knew this would happen. And that's why we're adding a soft light layer on top of this monstrosity - no pun intended. Duplicate the base, drag it to the top, and set it to soft light at 100%.
to
7. It fixed it a little bit, but not only do I want a darker background by this point, but I want it to pop even more. So I chance an overlay layer by duplicating the base a second time, bringing it on up and setting it to overlay at 40%.
to
8. Better, better. I'll re-address it later; right now I want to spot-check it.
I'm looking at the spark of light towards the bottom, and I want it to stand out. So I add two new layers, and brush over the spot of light (or whatever you want highlighted) with a really bright hue; in this case, orange-yellow and white. Set both to overlay, opacities by preference.
to
9. Remember my noise complaint? You know, the fuzzy background? Well anal-retentive me wants it back again; but of a different kind. I go ahead and borrow this texture by
cala_jane and set it to soft light, 40%.
to
10. Now I'm glancing over it one more time and - wait. But oh noes! Where's Link?
I'll leave it up to you "Where's Waldo?" fans at this point to find him at the bottom of the icon, but the messing around I did colored him orange. We need to fix that, don't we? To do this, I create a new layer, and take a forest green and a navy blue to color in his tunic, hat, and shield. I set this layer to color, 35%. And while I'm at it, I color in the monster's eyes a teal color, like they started.
to
11. There he is!
Now to finish off, and make the fire really stand out, I want the background to be near-black. How? Curves! Yes, curves are my friends. And best of all...I'm not giving Input/Output numbers! Joy! What I want you to do is manipulate the mean old curve into doing whatever you want it to do. And have fun. Vengence is sweet. *twitches*
to
12. Ooh, yeah, he looks evil now, doesn't he? All squinty-eyed like that.
Now, for the last step, I thought back to that delicious looking Exclusion layer. Nice choice of adjective, yes? Anyway, I loved the effect so much that I duplicated the layer and dragged it to the top again. Set it to 100%
to
And you're done. I left it alone, though I did experiment with putting "well, crap" in the corner. That would have been funny.
Now remember: opacities never matter. And colors differ based on the pics; alot of my choices were red-yellow based.
Have fun expermenting. You've survived
blizpeak's commentary! Until next time...
And it's Zelda again. Woo-hoo!
Turning
into
, using CS2.
Note: Please be aware that the colors may not work for your icon. Change it up, and try new things. As always, results are welcome. :)
1. After cropping the image that I wanted down to size, I screened it. This is just because I didn't know what I wanted to do with this yet, and screening is a safe bet if you want to use overlay or soft lighting later on. The screen was set to 100%.
to
2. Well, that looks kind of cruddy, doesn't it? In an attempt to give the washed-out pic some more color and get rid of the noise in the background, I gave it a color burn layer. Or...would have, but I wanted to have something the color could burn, if you catch my drift. As a safeguard, I added a soft light layer, set to 100%.
to
3. Now it really does look creepy. Before my OCD brain cells are fried, I add a color burn layer set to 40% opacity.
to
4. Well, it's a little better, but definitely not bright nor dark enough. By now I have a plan in mind. I end up trying to bring out the vivid oranges and yelows from the pink in the picture by adding a multiply layer, set to 50%.
to
5. *whew* At least there's no more pink. But it didn't pop like I wanted it to. I planned in the future to add a soft light/overlay to fix that, but because I'm a geek about this next step I had to...add an exclusion layer. Set it to 100%.
to
6. Don't worry, don't worry, I knew this would happen. And that's why we're adding a soft light layer on top of this monstrosity - no pun intended. Duplicate the base, drag it to the top, and set it to soft light at 100%.
to
7. It fixed it a little bit, but not only do I want a darker background by this point, but I want it to pop even more. So I chance an overlay layer by duplicating the base a second time, bringing it on up and setting it to overlay at 40%.
to
8. Better, better. I'll re-address it later; right now I want to spot-check it.
I'm looking at the spark of light towards the bottom, and I want it to stand out. So I add two new layers, and brush over the spot of light (or whatever you want highlighted) with a really bright hue; in this case, orange-yellow and white. Set both to overlay, opacities by preference.
to
9. Remember my noise complaint? You know, the fuzzy background? Well anal-retentive me wants it back again; but of a different kind. I go ahead and borrow this texture by
cala_jane and set it to soft light, 40%.
to
10. Now I'm glancing over it one more time and - wait. But oh noes! Where's Link?
I'll leave it up to you "Where's Waldo?" fans at this point to find him at the bottom of the icon, but the messing around I did colored him orange. We need to fix that, don't we? To do this, I create a new layer, and take a forest green and a navy blue to color in his tunic, hat, and shield. I set this layer to color, 35%. And while I'm at it, I color in the monster's eyes a teal color, like they started.
to
11. There he is!
Now to finish off, and make the fire really stand out, I want the background to be near-black. How? Curves! Yes, curves are my friends. And best of all...I'm not giving Input/Output numbers! Joy! What I want you to do is manipulate the mean old curve into doing whatever you want it to do. And have fun. Vengence is sweet. *twitches*
to
12. Ooh, yeah, he looks evil now, doesn't he? All squinty-eyed like that.
Now, for the last step, I thought back to that delicious looking Exclusion layer. Nice choice of adjective, yes? Anyway, I loved the effect so much that I duplicated the layer and dragged it to the top again. Set it to 100%
to
And you're done. I left it alone, though I did experiment with putting "well, crap" in the corner. That would have been funny.
Now remember: opacities never matter. And colors differ based on the pics; alot of my choices were red-yellow based.
Have fun expermenting. You've survived
blizpeak's commentary! Until next time...