Icon Tutorial #1 : Trudy icon
I thought I would attempt to make an icon tutorial to share with you. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I’ve had people ask me to make a tutorial on how I make icons in the past and I just never got around to it before now. This tutorial is based on Corel Paintshop Photo Pro X3 (it’s basically the same as older Paintshop Pro programs). I don’t use Photoshop or GIMP so I’m not sure if the terms are always the same. I usually manage to follow Photoshop tutorials fairly easy though, so I hope it won’t be confusing. This tutorial assumes you have at least basic knowledge of your graphics program, and things such as blend modes and how to adjust opacity and stuff like that.
So, going from this:
to this:
1. Find the picture, resize and crop.
I’m using this screencap of Trudy from Tribe Leader
And this is the base I start out with:
First thing I do to the base is sharpen the image. This I only do for close-ups, as if the subject is very small then sharpening will make it too pixelated for my taste. Personally I don’t usually do more to the base image at this point, I use the softening tool later when I see how different layers effect the colours and base image. Sometimes different lighting makes pixelated areas stand out more or hide them.
2. Then I duplicate the base twice. First one set to Screen, top layer to Soft Light. That leaves me with this:
3. I leave it like that, and add a colour layer, light blue, and set it to burn.
HTML: #9fdddc
That gives me this:
4. I think that’s too dark, so I start adjusting the layers. I hardly ever end up using the same opacity on them from icon to icon. It varies greatly, depending on the colours in the original image and how dark or light the image is. So I suggest that you just try it out yourself and see what you like. Sometimes an image is so light there’s no need for the screen layer, sometimes I need two screen layers (or you can simply lighten the image beforehand, but I tend to forget doing that), sometimes so dark that both the burn colour layer and the soft light layer are too much. But try adjusting them before removing them, sometimes having those layers even on very low opacity makes a great difference to the colouring. In this case I end up putting the the soft light layer on 50, and both burn and screen layers on 70. I tend to adjust this back and forth all the way through though, when adding new colours.
Now I have this:
5. It’s at this point I tend to start working on the main image again, working on the pixelated areas. It’s not always necessary, but it often helps making the image look better. I simply use the softening brush on the base layer, magnify the image and carefully soften the pixelated areas. You see those areas better when the image is enlarged. It’s usually the nose, eyes and around the mouth that get pixelated. I don’t like making them look like dolls, so I am careful about it, I try not to edit out natural lines in the face, just the areas that become pixelated due to resizing, sharpening and working on the colours and lighting. On icons that aren’t close-ups of faces it can still be a helpful method on background or clothes, as lines and areas where there’s light easily can look pixelated.
This is now what the image looks like:
6. Now I start working on the colours. The burn layer is good for enhancing contrasts and enhancing colours in general. In icons of people, it tends to make their skin very lifeless though. So I add a soft colour, usually pink or lilac layer on soft light, opacity usually lowered to around 50, adjusting it either way to find the right colour. In this case I go for pink:
HTML: #d884ae
Opacity on 50. That gives me this:
7. Trudy has gorgeous beautiful purple hair. Which now looks very blue. So I make a new layer, and use a paint brush and paint her hair with a purple colour. Or you can simply fill the whole layer with a colour and remove the colour from other areas. The point is to add a purple colour on top of her hair. And then I set the layer to colour. With lighter hair colours you can also use soft light or hard light as blend mode, but in Trudy’s case that doesn’t really work as her hair is too dark. In this case I set opacity at 65. I didn’t include the exact colour, because I forgot to save it. :P But yeah, just experiment with different purple (or lilac) tones. You can use the flood fill tool to set a new colour to the area. Now, when I’ve decided on the colour I use an eraser brush to remove any colour that spills over on the background or her face. I now have this:
Not a very big difference in this image, I know. I don’t necessarily always use it in Trudy’s case, but I find this method very useful with red on Salene or Jack icons, and on the red parts on May’s hair in s5 for example. Sometimes I use this method to enhance make-up and colours on clothes as well.
8. I’m going to add another colour layer:
HTML: #459f45
Blend mode: soft light. Opacity 20.
And now have this:
I will call this the finished icon, though these are just my basic tricks. I tend to use a lot more colour layers, adjust opacity on them as I go along to see what works, and use different blend modes. I like to experiment with it. I think I’ve probably had icons where I’ve used 20-30 different colours on different opacities and blend modes, before ending up just using these same old ones.
I’ll show you a few more things that I will sometimes do from here on, although I didn’t think they worked too well on this image so I just show them as alternatives:
Alternative 1: Dark red on Difference, opacity 15.
HTML: #b60a0a
Gives this colouring:
I often use this on darker icons. Sometimes opacity as low as 5-10. I made the opacity stronger now just to show what it does to the colouring.
Sometimes I also put this colour on lighten instead (20 opacity in this case):
Alternative 2: Instead of that I can also use a gray layer on colour, opacity 20 in this case (usually anywhere from 10-30).
HTML: #808080
That gives this:
I usually use that to give softer colours. I especially use it on images from inside the mall, mostly in s1, because they often have a very yellow background and weird lighting, so using that gray layer helps soften those colours if you’d rather have a softer look.
For example, I used this method on these icons:
I hope this was helpful in one way or another. I might try to make another tutorial at a later point, but this is pretty much the basics of how I make my icons. If anyone wants to know about a specific icon of mine, or something else I've done to my icons, then let me know and I can try to re-create it. I never save .pspimage files on my icons, only on wallpapers, so I can't really figure out exactly how I did them, but I can try to do something similar. I won't do a wallpaper tutorial, cause my method of making wallpapers is pretty much trying and failing and trying again. I can't see a way of making a useful tutorial out of it. I use the same colouring methods on wallpapers as I described here though.
So, going from this:
to this:
1. Find the picture, resize and crop.
I’m using this screencap of Trudy from Tribe Leader
And this is the base I start out with:
First thing I do to the base is sharpen the image. This I only do for close-ups, as if the subject is very small then sharpening will make it too pixelated for my taste. Personally I don’t usually do more to the base image at this point, I use the softening tool later when I see how different layers effect the colours and base image. Sometimes different lighting makes pixelated areas stand out more or hide them.
2. Then I duplicate the base twice. First one set to Screen, top layer to Soft Light. That leaves me with this:
3. I leave it like that, and add a colour layer, light blue, and set it to burn.
HTML: #9fdddc
That gives me this:
4. I think that’s too dark, so I start adjusting the layers. I hardly ever end up using the same opacity on them from icon to icon. It varies greatly, depending on the colours in the original image and how dark or light the image is. So I suggest that you just try it out yourself and see what you like. Sometimes an image is so light there’s no need for the screen layer, sometimes I need two screen layers (or you can simply lighten the image beforehand, but I tend to forget doing that), sometimes so dark that both the burn colour layer and the soft light layer are too much. But try adjusting them before removing them, sometimes having those layers even on very low opacity makes a great difference to the colouring. In this case I end up putting the the soft light layer on 50, and both burn and screen layers on 70. I tend to adjust this back and forth all the way through though, when adding new colours.
Now I have this:
5. It’s at this point I tend to start working on the main image again, working on the pixelated areas. It’s not always necessary, but it often helps making the image look better. I simply use the softening brush on the base layer, magnify the image and carefully soften the pixelated areas. You see those areas better when the image is enlarged. It’s usually the nose, eyes and around the mouth that get pixelated. I don’t like making them look like dolls, so I am careful about it, I try not to edit out natural lines in the face, just the areas that become pixelated due to resizing, sharpening and working on the colours and lighting. On icons that aren’t close-ups of faces it can still be a helpful method on background or clothes, as lines and areas where there’s light easily can look pixelated.
This is now what the image looks like:
6. Now I start working on the colours. The burn layer is good for enhancing contrasts and enhancing colours in general. In icons of people, it tends to make their skin very lifeless though. So I add a soft colour, usually pink or lilac layer on soft light, opacity usually lowered to around 50, adjusting it either way to find the right colour. In this case I go for pink:
HTML: #d884ae
Opacity on 50. That gives me this:
7. Trudy has gorgeous beautiful purple hair. Which now looks very blue. So I make a new layer, and use a paint brush and paint her hair with a purple colour. Or you can simply fill the whole layer with a colour and remove the colour from other areas. The point is to add a purple colour on top of her hair. And then I set the layer to colour. With lighter hair colours you can also use soft light or hard light as blend mode, but in Trudy’s case that doesn’t really work as her hair is too dark. In this case I set opacity at 65. I didn’t include the exact colour, because I forgot to save it. :P But yeah, just experiment with different purple (or lilac) tones. You can use the flood fill tool to set a new colour to the area. Now, when I’ve decided on the colour I use an eraser brush to remove any colour that spills over on the background or her face. I now have this:
Not a very big difference in this image, I know. I don’t necessarily always use it in Trudy’s case, but I find this method very useful with red on Salene or Jack icons, and on the red parts on May’s hair in s5 for example. Sometimes I use this method to enhance make-up and colours on clothes as well.
8. I’m going to add another colour layer:
HTML: #459f45
Blend mode: soft light. Opacity 20.
And now have this:
I will call this the finished icon, though these are just my basic tricks. I tend to use a lot more colour layers, adjust opacity on them as I go along to see what works, and use different blend modes. I like to experiment with it. I think I’ve probably had icons where I’ve used 20-30 different colours on different opacities and blend modes, before ending up just using these same old ones.
I’ll show you a few more things that I will sometimes do from here on, although I didn’t think they worked too well on this image so I just show them as alternatives:
Alternative 1: Dark red on Difference, opacity 15.
HTML: #b60a0a
Gives this colouring:
I often use this on darker icons. Sometimes opacity as low as 5-10. I made the opacity stronger now just to show what it does to the colouring.
Sometimes I also put this colour on lighten instead (20 opacity in this case):
Alternative 2: Instead of that I can also use a gray layer on colour, opacity 20 in this case (usually anywhere from 10-30).
HTML: #808080
That gives this:
I usually use that to give softer colours. I especially use it on images from inside the mall, mostly in s1, because they often have a very yellow background and weird lighting, so using that gray layer helps soften those colours if you’d rather have a softer look.
For example, I used this method on these icons:
I hope this was helpful in one way or another. I might try to make another tutorial at a later point, but this is pretty much the basics of how I make my icons. If anyone wants to know about a specific icon of mine, or something else I've done to my icons, then let me know and I can try to re-create it. I never save .pspimage files on my icons, only on wallpapers, so I can't really figure out exactly how I did them, but I can try to do something similar. I won't do a wallpaper tutorial, cause my method of making wallpapers is pretty much trying and failing and trying again. I can't see a way of making a useful tutorial out of it. I use the same colouring methods on wallpapers as I described here though.