Tutorial #4: The King's Speech
This is the second tutorial for miatoscane, who asked for tutorials on two icons from The King's Speech at the fabulous Ask the Maker meme.
I'm using Photoshop CS4 to create this:
-->
For this tutorial, I'm assuming you know your way around Photoshop a bit, but if you don't or if anything's unclear, let me know and I'll explain it better. :)
What you should now about this icon is that I originally planned to give this icon a green colouring, so most of the steps in this tutorial are about creating that look. The cyan wasn't added until I decided to experiment at the end.
(In that experimental phase, one of the versions looked like this by the way.)
Also: although I still have the PSD, things like Gaussian blur and Variations can't be read from a PSD because they are (set on) layers that have no settings. So if you are following this tutorial, your end result might look just a tiny bit different from mine. :)
Anyway, here we go!
I started with this screencap from Rawr Caps.
I cropped the image and resized it until the width is 100 pixels. Unfortunately, the height didn't reach 100 pixels:
I went to Image > Canvas Size to fill up the canvas, to make the height 100 pixels as well. I made sure the extension was at the top and then picked a colour from the background near the edge. See the settings here.
My image now looked like this:
I copied my base and went for Auto Contrast (Image > Auto Contrast), which is a brilliant function:
I then selected the smudge tool and, with a round brush set to a 40% opacity, I smudged the edges of the ceiling above Elizabeth upwards so that it would look a bit softer.
I duplicated this layer and went to Image > Adjustments > Variations. I used a combination of more red, more yellow and choosing a 'lighter' option, but I can't exactly remember (and in which order). I set this layer to soft light at about 75%.
I merged this layer with my base, duplicated it and set it to soft light. I lowered the opacity a bit to tone down the contrast a little. Then I created a new layer between the new base and the soft light duplicated base.
I painted on this layer with a soft round brush (about 17 pixels) at a low opacity of about 25% in an off-white colour. I painted alongside the people and then used a Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) to gave it a glow. I then duplicated this layer and set it to soft light.
Because it is difficult to see, I've added a black layer underneath the layer I painted on, so you can see how it looked:
At this point in the process, I wanted the icon to go for a more greenish look, so I created a Curves layer with the following settings:
Red:
Lower point: Output: 127 Input: 134
Upper point: Output: 196 Input: 195
Green: Output: 127 Input: 119
Blue: Output: 127 Input: 130
Result:
I created a new Vibrance layer and upped the vibrance to 86:
And another Curves layer:
Green: Output: 183 Input: 183
Blue:
Lower point 1: Output: 71 Input: 81
Upper point: Output: 181 Input: 180
I put this underneath the first Curves layer:
Then I upped the vibrance in a new Vibrance layer on top of this Curves layer with the vibrance at 73 and the saturation at 11.
My icon now looked like this:
My layer palette looked like this at that point.
On top of all those layers, I created a new Color Fill layer with a yellow colour (#fff21f) and I set it to Color at 18%.
I took this texture by lessrest and set it to soft light at 100% between the base-put-to-soft-light and Curves layer 2. (See layer palette here.)
I created a Layer Mask to erase the parts where the texture covered Bertie and Elizabeth:
Then I created a new Curves layer on top of all the layers to make the whole icon lighter, with the following settings:
RGB: Output: 149 Input: 96
The icon now looked like this:
As you can see, there is some oversharpening going on on the icon, so I went back to the base layers and blurred the oversharpened edges with the blur tool and used a Gaussian blur on the base-put-to-soft-light layer. I also re-set the opacity of that layer back to 100%.
This is something I do a lot when I like my colouring: I fiddle with settings and change the order of layers to see what effect it has and if it makes the icon better. I know that's confusing to hear in an icon, but it is how I created this specific icon. If you have any questions though, please ask them and I'll try to figure it out with you. :)
So the end result was this, with my layer palette looking like this:
Thoughts? Questions? Things that are unclear? Please leave a comment. :)
I'm using Photoshop CS4 to create this:
-->
For this tutorial, I'm assuming you know your way around Photoshop a bit, but if you don't or if anything's unclear, let me know and I'll explain it better. :)
What you should now about this icon is that I originally planned to give this icon a green colouring, so most of the steps in this tutorial are about creating that look. The cyan wasn't added until I decided to experiment at the end.
(In that experimental phase, one of the versions looked like this by the way.)
Also: although I still have the PSD, things like Gaussian blur and Variations can't be read from a PSD because they are (set on) layers that have no settings. So if you are following this tutorial, your end result might look just a tiny bit different from mine. :)
Anyway, here we go!
I started with this screencap from Rawr Caps.
I cropped the image and resized it until the width is 100 pixels. Unfortunately, the height didn't reach 100 pixels:
I went to Image > Canvas Size to fill up the canvas, to make the height 100 pixels as well. I made sure the extension was at the top and then picked a colour from the background near the edge. See the settings here.
My image now looked like this:
I copied my base and went for Auto Contrast (Image > Auto Contrast), which is a brilliant function:
I then selected the smudge tool and, with a round brush set to a 40% opacity, I smudged the edges of the ceiling above Elizabeth upwards so that it would look a bit softer.
I duplicated this layer and went to Image > Adjustments > Variations. I used a combination of more red, more yellow and choosing a 'lighter' option, but I can't exactly remember (and in which order). I set this layer to soft light at about 75%.
I merged this layer with my base, duplicated it and set it to soft light. I lowered the opacity a bit to tone down the contrast a little. Then I created a new layer between the new base and the soft light duplicated base.
I painted on this layer with a soft round brush (about 17 pixels) at a low opacity of about 25% in an off-white colour. I painted alongside the people and then used a Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) to gave it a glow. I then duplicated this layer and set it to soft light.
Because it is difficult to see, I've added a black layer underneath the layer I painted on, so you can see how it looked:
At this point in the process, I wanted the icon to go for a more greenish look, so I created a Curves layer with the following settings:
Red:
Lower point: Output: 127 Input: 134
Upper point: Output: 196 Input: 195
Green: Output: 127 Input: 119
Blue: Output: 127 Input: 130
Result:
I created a new Vibrance layer and upped the vibrance to 86:
And another Curves layer:
Green: Output: 183 Input: 183
Blue:
Lower point 1: Output: 71 Input: 81
Upper point: Output: 181 Input: 180
I put this underneath the first Curves layer:
Then I upped the vibrance in a new Vibrance layer on top of this Curves layer with the vibrance at 73 and the saturation at 11.
My icon now looked like this:
My layer palette looked like this at that point.
On top of all those layers, I created a new Color Fill layer with a yellow colour (#fff21f) and I set it to Color at 18%.
I took this texture by lessrest and set it to soft light at 100% between the base-put-to-soft-light and Curves layer 2. (See layer palette here.)
I created a Layer Mask to erase the parts where the texture covered Bertie and Elizabeth:
Then I created a new Curves layer on top of all the layers to make the whole icon lighter, with the following settings:
RGB: Output: 149 Input: 96
The icon now looked like this:
As you can see, there is some oversharpening going on on the icon, so I went back to the base layers and blurred the oversharpened edges with the blur tool and used a Gaussian blur on the base-put-to-soft-light layer. I also re-set the opacity of that layer back to 100%.
This is something I do a lot when I like my colouring: I fiddle with settings and change the order of layers to see what effect it has and if it makes the icon better. I know that's confusing to hear in an icon, but it is how I created this specific icon. If you have any questions though, please ask them and I'll try to figure it out with you. :)
So the end result was this, with my layer palette looking like this:
Thoughts? Questions? Things that are unclear? Please leave a comment. :)