icon tutorial 02-- "darkened"
as requested, here's a tutorial for this icon:
warning: using PS7. very much image heavy. and i really talk too much. haha ^^;;;
here you have the layer palettes, in case you want to check back to them if you get lost or anything.
now, i started off with this pic of our deliciously shadowed harry:
now, since i'm doing one of these framed icons, however i crop the pic, it has to be a perfect square. so i used the rectangular marquee tool on fixed size (150x150), then copied the selection and pasted it as a new image.
notice i don't have harry in the middle of the selection? that's VERY important, because later i'm going to rotate the thing and one of the corners is almost always lost. if i had him in the middle, maybe his eye would've been left out of the pic and i didn't want that. so always try to crop with the main part of the icon off-center.
now, since the icon only has one single pic on it and it's rotated it, standard procedure is to resize the image to 80x80. you'll see why in a sec.
i'll call this layer "harry." next up, we have the frame. i went to image>canvas size and expanded the canvas 10px in both height and width, so i end up having a 90x90 image.
note that for this icon i wasn't really going for a polaroid look, just and "old photograph" kinda look, so the frame was symmetric on all sides. if i wanted to do a polaroid, like in this icon...
...(the little frame at the bottom), then you'd have to expand width by 10px, then expand height by 5px towards the top, and then expand height by 10px towards the bottom. pidgehuss made a really good tutorial for this here.
also, have in mind that this all depends on the size of the pics you're using. since this one is 80x80, it looks ok if i expand it 5px on each side. if i were using, say, a 45x45 pic (which i use in icons that have two pics on them), then i'd just expand by 5px as a whole, so i'd end up with a 50x50 and it doesn't look like the frame swallowed the pic.
anyway. next, flood fill the frame with white.
now it's time to better the quality of the pic. the next few steps i do to EVERY icon i make, they're really very important. i even have them preset in my PS7.
duplicated "harry" twice. the one directly above "harry" will be called "brightness" and the one on top will be "saturation." selected "brightness" and went to image>adjustments>brightness/contrast. upped brightness by 40, and then i set "brightness" to screen. this will make the image a little brighter. note that i have it preset to 40, but you can use what you think is best. play around with it.
likewise, select "saturation" and go to image>adjustments>hue/saturation. now pull the saturation down by around 50 and set the layer to soft light. this will give the image a little more contrast. again, i have the 50 preset so you can do it with whatever percentage you think is good. now i get something like this:
which is waaaay too bright. don't freak out. play around with the opacity of "brightness" and it will come down. i set it to 50 in this case, and got this:
gorgeous, isn't it? ^.^ now, the next one is a step i'm sure you'll find in EVERY SINGLE icon tutorial there is out there-- i advise you to always remember this. it's REALLY important if you want to make your icon look good. make a new layer between "brightness" and "saturation" (i'll call it "blue" of course) and flood-fill it with a dark blue color (i use #050C3F), then set it to exclusion. this is what you get:
which makes it look even more old-photo-like. also, depending on how dark your picture is, you may have to add a border between the frame and the picture to set kind of the limits. just a simple 1px black border in a new layer at 30% opacity. i don't have a cap of this (stupid me #_#) but you'll see it as we move on.
now for the shadow: at the moment i made the icon i had no idea how to do a dropshadow effect on the frame (lol, actually i just discovered it ^^;;; guess i can learn even though i'm the one teaching right now), so i'll show you how i did it then and you'll have two options to choose between. first off, expand the canvas to 200x200 so you can see what you're doing.
select the image only and go to select>feather and feather it by 2px. now make a new layer above all the others (above "saturation"-- we'll call it "dropsadow") and while on it, go to edit>stroke and stroke it by 1px on the inside. here it is:
now move "dropshadow" to the very bottom of all frames, right below "harry".
i decided that, because of the shadows in the original pic, i was going to tilt harry to the left and the dropshadow has to go accordingly, so i moved "dropshadow" 1px to the left and 1px down like so:
you can move it however you want, depending if you want the shadow stronger or lighter and towards which side your frame is going to tilt. i just learned, though, that you can add a dropshadow by simply clicking on a button in the bottom part of the layer palette. i made a 1x1 shadow at 45 degrees and got something along the same lines, so that's much easier. you can do it however you want.
now, to rotate it, and this is one of the reasons it's good that we expanded the canvas to 200x200, it gives the pic ample space to rotate without losing any corners. merge all layers and go to edit>transform>rotate and rotate it however you feel like.
that's already half the icon. the next few steps are much faster. copy the thing and paste it on a new 100x100 canvas with transparent background, in whatever position you'd like the layer will be called "base". i chose the top right corner like this:
next is the best method for colorization with gradients i've learned so far, i got it from a tutorial by booster_rocket (it's the first one). here's what i do: create a new layer over "base" and flood-fill it with #DCC7A6; we'll call this layer "fleshy 1". set its mode to color and the opacity to 50%. again, this isn't a fixed thing, you can play around with the opacity. you get this:
now create another layer above it ("fleshy 2" this time) and flood-fill it with the same color. now, though, set this one to color dodge with an opacity of 20-30%. i used 28 in this case. this gives it a little brightness. a lot of people i know are scared stiff by the color dodge mode, because it always tends to make images way too bright and blinding, but if you know how to use it, it's your best ally. i love it, personally. anyway, this is what you get:
and then create another layer above "fleshy 2" (called "fleshy 3" here) and flood-fill it with the same color yet again. set this one to color burn with an opacity of 40-60%. i used 56%. this makes the colors more vibrant and gives it a little more contrast, like so:
now, to make the blacks really dark, create another layer above "fleshy 3" and flood-fill it with black. set it to color at a low opacity, i used 38%, since this is only to darken the image but i didn't want to make it flat again.
now, to get rid of the transparent background, with the same fleshy color, flood-fill a new layer ("fleshy 4") and drag it to the bottom of the palette, below "base." leave it at normal.
now for a little brushy touch, i add one of callmefreak's brushes. make a new layer ("brush") between "fleshy 4" and "base" and i applied the brush in the same fleshy color, then set the layer to multiply. here you have it:
now for coloring! create a new layer on top of everything else (i'll call it "gradient 1"), directly on top of "black", and add your favorite gradient. since i was going for a dark look, i used one of crumblingwalls's dark gradients.
set this gradient layer to overlay. the opacity depends on you-- if you want strong colors, leave it at a high opacity. if you want just a hint of the colors, go with a mid-level opacity. in this case i wanted them strong, so i used 88%. but, in other icons, i've gone so far down as 50% or as high as 100%. it depends on which gradient you're using and how it looks on the icon.
next, in a new layer on top of "gradient 1" (this will be "gradient 2"), use the very same gradient. this is where the icons vary: if i want them to be light-colored, i set this layer to screen and fiddle with the opacity. in this case i wanted the icon to be dark, so i set "gradient 2" to linear burn and set the opacity to 45%. i usually go for linear burn anyway, but with a much lower opacity. again, this icon was dark, so i used a higher one than i would normally use.
and lastly, select all and in a new layer ("border") add a 1px black border, and set the layer to 30% opacity. it makes it look nicer. and there you have it, the finished product! ^_^
...it's actually much easier when you do it than when you explain it, really. i hope you found this tutorial helpful and be sure to check out my icons at ickyblue ^^
warning: using PS7. very much image heavy. and i really talk too much. haha ^^;;;
here you have the layer palettes, in case you want to check back to them if you get lost or anything.
now, i started off with this pic of our deliciously shadowed harry:
now, since i'm doing one of these framed icons, however i crop the pic, it has to be a perfect square. so i used the rectangular marquee tool on fixed size (150x150), then copied the selection and pasted it as a new image.
notice i don't have harry in the middle of the selection? that's VERY important, because later i'm going to rotate the thing and one of the corners is almost always lost. if i had him in the middle, maybe his eye would've been left out of the pic and i didn't want that. so always try to crop with the main part of the icon off-center.
now, since the icon only has one single pic on it and it's rotated it, standard procedure is to resize the image to 80x80. you'll see why in a sec.
i'll call this layer "harry." next up, we have the frame. i went to image>canvas size and expanded the canvas 10px in both height and width, so i end up having a 90x90 image.
note that for this icon i wasn't really going for a polaroid look, just and "old photograph" kinda look, so the frame was symmetric on all sides. if i wanted to do a polaroid, like in this icon...
...(the little frame at the bottom), then you'd have to expand width by 10px, then expand height by 5px towards the top, and then expand height by 10px towards the bottom. pidgehuss made a really good tutorial for this here.
also, have in mind that this all depends on the size of the pics you're using. since this one is 80x80, it looks ok if i expand it 5px on each side. if i were using, say, a 45x45 pic (which i use in icons that have two pics on them), then i'd just expand by 5px as a whole, so i'd end up with a 50x50 and it doesn't look like the frame swallowed the pic.
anyway. next, flood fill the frame with white.
now it's time to better the quality of the pic. the next few steps i do to EVERY icon i make, they're really very important. i even have them preset in my PS7.
duplicated "harry" twice. the one directly above "harry" will be called "brightness" and the one on top will be "saturation." selected "brightness" and went to image>adjustments>brightness/contrast. upped brightness by 40, and then i set "brightness" to screen. this will make the image a little brighter. note that i have it preset to 40, but you can use what you think is best. play around with it.
likewise, select "saturation" and go to image>adjustments>hue/saturation. now pull the saturation down by around 50 and set the layer to soft light. this will give the image a little more contrast. again, i have the 50 preset so you can do it with whatever percentage you think is good. now i get something like this:
which is waaaay too bright. don't freak out. play around with the opacity of "brightness" and it will come down. i set it to 50 in this case, and got this:
gorgeous, isn't it? ^.^ now, the next one is a step i'm sure you'll find in EVERY SINGLE icon tutorial there is out there-- i advise you to always remember this. it's REALLY important if you want to make your icon look good. make a new layer between "brightness" and "saturation" (i'll call it "blue" of course) and flood-fill it with a dark blue color (i use #050C3F), then set it to exclusion. this is what you get:
which makes it look even more old-photo-like. also, depending on how dark your picture is, you may have to add a border between the frame and the picture to set kind of the limits. just a simple 1px black border in a new layer at 30% opacity. i don't have a cap of this (stupid me #_#) but you'll see it as we move on.
now for the shadow: at the moment i made the icon i had no idea how to do a dropshadow effect on the frame (lol, actually i just discovered it ^^;;; guess i can learn even though i'm the one teaching right now), so i'll show you how i did it then and you'll have two options to choose between. first off, expand the canvas to 200x200 so you can see what you're doing.
select the image only and go to select>feather and feather it by 2px. now make a new layer above all the others (above "saturation"-- we'll call it "dropsadow") and while on it, go to edit>stroke and stroke it by 1px on the inside. here it is:
now move "dropshadow" to the very bottom of all frames, right below "harry".
i decided that, because of the shadows in the original pic, i was going to tilt harry to the left and the dropshadow has to go accordingly, so i moved "dropshadow" 1px to the left and 1px down like so:
you can move it however you want, depending if you want the shadow stronger or lighter and towards which side your frame is going to tilt. i just learned, though, that you can add a dropshadow by simply clicking on a button in the bottom part of the layer palette. i made a 1x1 shadow at 45 degrees and got something along the same lines, so that's much easier. you can do it however you want.
now, to rotate it, and this is one of the reasons it's good that we expanded the canvas to 200x200, it gives the pic ample space to rotate without losing any corners. merge all layers and go to edit>transform>rotate and rotate it however you feel like.
that's already half the icon. the next few steps are much faster. copy the thing and paste it on a new 100x100 canvas with transparent background, in whatever position you'd like the layer will be called "base". i chose the top right corner like this:
next is the best method for colorization with gradients i've learned so far, i got it from a tutorial by booster_rocket (it's the first one). here's what i do: create a new layer over "base" and flood-fill it with #DCC7A6; we'll call this layer "fleshy 1". set its mode to color and the opacity to 50%. again, this isn't a fixed thing, you can play around with the opacity. you get this:
now create another layer above it ("fleshy 2" this time) and flood-fill it with the same color. now, though, set this one to color dodge with an opacity of 20-30%. i used 28 in this case. this gives it a little brightness. a lot of people i know are scared stiff by the color dodge mode, because it always tends to make images way too bright and blinding, but if you know how to use it, it's your best ally. i love it, personally. anyway, this is what you get:
and then create another layer above "fleshy 2" (called "fleshy 3" here) and flood-fill it with the same color yet again. set this one to color burn with an opacity of 40-60%. i used 56%. this makes the colors more vibrant and gives it a little more contrast, like so:
now, to make the blacks really dark, create another layer above "fleshy 3" and flood-fill it with black. set it to color at a low opacity, i used 38%, since this is only to darken the image but i didn't want to make it flat again.
now, to get rid of the transparent background, with the same fleshy color, flood-fill a new layer ("fleshy 4") and drag it to the bottom of the palette, below "base." leave it at normal.
now for a little brushy touch, i add one of callmefreak's brushes. make a new layer ("brush") between "fleshy 4" and "base" and i applied the brush in the same fleshy color, then set the layer to multiply. here you have it:
now for coloring! create a new layer on top of everything else (i'll call it "gradient 1"), directly on top of "black", and add your favorite gradient. since i was going for a dark look, i used one of crumblingwalls's dark gradients.
set this gradient layer to overlay. the opacity depends on you-- if you want strong colors, leave it at a high opacity. if you want just a hint of the colors, go with a mid-level opacity. in this case i wanted them strong, so i used 88%. but, in other icons, i've gone so far down as 50% or as high as 100%. it depends on which gradient you're using and how it looks on the icon.
next, in a new layer on top of "gradient 1" (this will be "gradient 2"), use the very same gradient. this is where the icons vary: if i want them to be light-colored, i set this layer to screen and fiddle with the opacity. in this case i wanted the icon to be dark, so i set "gradient 2" to linear burn and set the opacity to 45%. i usually go for linear burn anyway, but with a much lower opacity. again, this icon was dark, so i used a higher one than i would normally use.
and lastly, select all and in a new layer ("border") add a 1px black border, and set the layer to 30% opacity. it makes it look nicer. and there you have it, the finished product! ^_^
...it's actually much easier when you do it than when you explain it, really. i hope you found this tutorial helpful and be sure to check out my icons at ickyblue ^^