Icon Tutorial
Ok, we’re going to use one of the icons I made of Sophia Bush as an example. This one:
To start out, you’re going to need to download some materials to use in Photoshop, like tiny text, textures, brushes, etc. Here are some good resources to start with:
http://crumblingwalls.livejournal.com/51324.html#cutid1
http://users.livejournal.com/_joni/
http://colorfilter.net/iconresources
http://community.livejournal.com/_blisse/10184.html (tiny text)
And here’s what we’ll be using specifically:
texture:
text:
You’ll need to download the textures, texts and things that you’ll want to use. They need to be saved to your hard drive in order for you to use them.
Now, we can start. Open Photoshop and in the top right corner, you’ll see a tab marked “file browser”. Click on it, and your files should appear. It looks like this:
Find the image you want to use, and drag it into the work area, which is just all of the gray space in the middle of the screen. I started out with this picture:
Now, you're going to crop it. The size of icons is usually 100x100 pixels. So, on the toolbar at the left, click on the crop tool, which is the third one down on the left. (Since I don't know what your computer skills are, I'm going to assume that you don't know what a crop tool is and stuff like that.) Now, a tool bar will appear at the top of your screen and you want to fill in the width and height with 100x100, but make sure the measurement is in pixels. The toolbar at the top should look like this:
And then you just crop the image where you want to. Once you have the section of the picture marked off where you want it, click the check mark in the upper right hand corner of the crop tool bar. Once it's cropped, to see it in its actual pixel size, click on the "View" tab along the upper most toolbar, and you should see an "Actual Pixels" option. Click on that and you'll see the actual size that your icon will be. Your icon might already be its actual size, but if not, you can do this.
Now, we're going to make the coloring of the image a bit nicer. In the bottom right hand corner, you shou see a a box labeled "Layers".
You're going to right click on the "background" image and select "Duplicate Layer". Once you have two layers, select the pulldown menu that says "normal" and select the "screen" effect.
Now, right click on the duplicate layer (the topmost image, which you just added the 'screen' effect to), and duplicate that image. Now, you have three layers. On the new layer, click on the pulldown menu and select the "Lighten" effect. And here's the coloring process that your picture just went through:
It's subtle, but affective. Now, if you like the original coloring, or even the second coloring, go ahead and use those. This is just what I always tend to do with an image before really messing with it.
Next, we're going to add the texture layer. Find the texture image in your file browser and drag it into the work area. Now, we want to use this texture to lighten up the left side of the icon, so we need the white part of the texture on the left, rather than on the top. So, we're going to rotate the image. (You can really use any texture that has a white area on one side, but this is the one I tend to use.) This is the original:
Select "Image" on the upper toolbar and scroll down and select "Rotate Canvas". We're going to rotate it 90 degrees CCW.
Now, your texture looks like this:
Select the Marquee tool, which is the first option on the toolbar. Drag it across the whole image, so that it looks like this:
You can't right-click to copy and paste, so we're going to use the "Edit" button in the top toolbar. Select "copy", then click on your icon and select "paste". The texture should be completely covering your picture and your layer menu should now look like this:
On the layer menu, we're going to set this layer to "screen". The texture will still be obscuring your image. So, we're going to use the gradient tool to make it so that the texture is only seen on the left side of the image. We're going to add a Layer Mask by clicking on the little square with the hole in it at the bottom of the layer box (the second one from the left). The layer box should now look like this:
On the left toolbar, select the gradient tool, which is the square that fades from white to black:
The gradient toolbar is now at the top of the screen. The pulldown menu should be set to a fade from black to white. If not, pull down the other options and select the third one.
Now, with the graident cursor, click on the furthest right side of your icon and hold down the mouse button. Drag the cursor across the icon, going a little past the left edge of the icon. When you let go of the mouse button, the gradient should have cleared the right side of the texture and only left the left side white part. Here's what your layer box and your icon should now look like:
Okay, now it's time to add the text. Find the text image on your file browser and drag it into the work area. Copy and paste it onto your icon using the marquee tool and the "Edit" button like we did before. It's going to be completely covering your image and we're going to need to move it to the right place. On the layer box, you can either set this text layer to the "Darken" effect or to the "Multiply" effect. Both will result in making only the actual text appear over your image. I tend to use "Multiply" because it's sharper than "Darken".
Now, we just need to move the text to where we want it. Select the "Move Tool" which is the little arrow button on the left toolbar.
Position the arrow cursor over the text and drag it to where you want it on the icon. You can use your arrow keys on the keyboard for more exact movements. And now your icon is finished. To save the image, go to "File" and select "Save for Web ..." It will show you what your final image looks like and just click "Save".
And here's your finished image:
Once you learn how to use the basics pretty well, these tutorials teach you how to do some more difficult icons:
http://users.livejournal.com/_joni/11751.html
http://users.livejournal.com/_joni/11957.html
If you have any more questions, feel free to message me. I hope you have fun making some icons, though I warn you, it's quite addictive.
To start out, you’re going to need to download some materials to use in Photoshop, like tiny text, textures, brushes, etc. Here are some good resources to start with:
http://crumblingwalls.livejournal.com/51324.html#cutid1
http://users.livejournal.com/_joni/
http://colorfilter.net/iconresources
http://community.livejournal.com/_blisse/10184.html (tiny text)
And here’s what we’ll be using specifically:
texture:
text:
You’ll need to download the textures, texts and things that you’ll want to use. They need to be saved to your hard drive in order for you to use them.
Now, we can start. Open Photoshop and in the top right corner, you’ll see a tab marked “file browser”. Click on it, and your files should appear. It looks like this:
Find the image you want to use, and drag it into the work area, which is just all of the gray space in the middle of the screen. I started out with this picture:
Now, you're going to crop it. The size of icons is usually 100x100 pixels. So, on the toolbar at the left, click on the crop tool, which is the third one down on the left. (Since I don't know what your computer skills are, I'm going to assume that you don't know what a crop tool is and stuff like that.) Now, a tool bar will appear at the top of your screen and you want to fill in the width and height with 100x100, but make sure the measurement is in pixels. The toolbar at the top should look like this:
And then you just crop the image where you want to. Once you have the section of the picture marked off where you want it, click the check mark in the upper right hand corner of the crop tool bar. Once it's cropped, to see it in its actual pixel size, click on the "View" tab along the upper most toolbar, and you should see an "Actual Pixels" option. Click on that and you'll see the actual size that your icon will be. Your icon might already be its actual size, but if not, you can do this.
Now, we're going to make the coloring of the image a bit nicer. In the bottom right hand corner, you shou see a a box labeled "Layers".
You're going to right click on the "background" image and select "Duplicate Layer". Once you have two layers, select the pulldown menu that says "normal" and select the "screen" effect.
Now, right click on the duplicate layer (the topmost image, which you just added the 'screen' effect to), and duplicate that image. Now, you have three layers. On the new layer, click on the pulldown menu and select the "Lighten" effect. And here's the coloring process that your picture just went through:
It's subtle, but affective. Now, if you like the original coloring, or even the second coloring, go ahead and use those. This is just what I always tend to do with an image before really messing with it.
Next, we're going to add the texture layer. Find the texture image in your file browser and drag it into the work area. Now, we want to use this texture to lighten up the left side of the icon, so we need the white part of the texture on the left, rather than on the top. So, we're going to rotate the image. (You can really use any texture that has a white area on one side, but this is the one I tend to use.) This is the original:
Select "Image" on the upper toolbar and scroll down and select "Rotate Canvas". We're going to rotate it 90 degrees CCW.
Now, your texture looks like this:
Select the Marquee tool, which is the first option on the toolbar. Drag it across the whole image, so that it looks like this:
You can't right-click to copy and paste, so we're going to use the "Edit" button in the top toolbar. Select "copy", then click on your icon and select "paste". The texture should be completely covering your picture and your layer menu should now look like this:
On the layer menu, we're going to set this layer to "screen". The texture will still be obscuring your image. So, we're going to use the gradient tool to make it so that the texture is only seen on the left side of the image. We're going to add a Layer Mask by clicking on the little square with the hole in it at the bottom of the layer box (the second one from the left). The layer box should now look like this:
On the left toolbar, select the gradient tool, which is the square that fades from white to black:
The gradient toolbar is now at the top of the screen. The pulldown menu should be set to a fade from black to white. If not, pull down the other options and select the third one.
Now, with the graident cursor, click on the furthest right side of your icon and hold down the mouse button. Drag the cursor across the icon, going a little past the left edge of the icon. When you let go of the mouse button, the gradient should have cleared the right side of the texture and only left the left side white part. Here's what your layer box and your icon should now look like:
Okay, now it's time to add the text. Find the text image on your file browser and drag it into the work area. Copy and paste it onto your icon using the marquee tool and the "Edit" button like we did before. It's going to be completely covering your image and we're going to need to move it to the right place. On the layer box, you can either set this text layer to the "Darken" effect or to the "Multiply" effect. Both will result in making only the actual text appear over your image. I tend to use "Multiply" because it's sharper than "Darken".
Now, we just need to move the text to where we want it. Select the "Move Tool" which is the little arrow button on the left toolbar.
Position the arrow cursor over the text and drag it to where you want it on the icon. You can use your arrow keys on the keyboard for more exact movements. And now your icon is finished. To save the image, go to "File" and select "Save for Web ..." It will show you what your final image looks like and just click "Save".
And here's your finished image:
Once you learn how to use the basics pretty well, these tutorials teach you how to do some more difficult icons:
http://users.livejournal.com/_joni/11751.html
http://users.livejournal.com/_joni/11957.html
If you have any more questions, feel free to message me. I hope you have fun making some icons, though I warn you, it's quite addictive.