Icon Tutorial // Chris Urbanowicz
Going from this to 
Using PSP7 & Animation shop 3
For advanced users // imageheavy
I started with this image of Chris Urbanowicz
Once I opened my picture up in psp I took a selection and pasted as a new image, before resizing the image I duplicated it once setting it to screen - 100% then merged the image, duplicated the merged image and set it to multiply @ 100% then went to effects > blur > gaussian blur > radius 0.60.
it doesn't really do much for the finished product it just smooths out the odd imperfection, but I used the soften tool @ 100 opacity / size 25 to smooth out his face a little before resizing to 193x193 and sharpening once [unsharp mask - radius 1.00 - strenght -47 - clipping - 0]
The base used ->
is by knifestreet [she has a lovely set perfect for these kinds of icons over at invein ]
I colourised it so it was completely gray [so hue - 0 / saturation - 0] and copied my resized image from before on top.
Using the eraser tool with these settings :
I removed part of the photos background to let the base show through, you don't have to be immaculatly tidy infact it looks better if its not perfect, its better to remove too much then it is to be left with solid chunks of background colouring.
Duplicate your top layer once on your duplicate the blend mode should be "Normal" with the opacity around 65 or so depending on your picture , then desaturate the layer directly below [so you have : base, desaturated photo, colour photo] it makes the picture stand out less but you can still retain some of the original colouring.
at this point you can merge all layers if you so wish providing you're happy with what you've made so far,
If you like your colouring then by all means leave it exactly how it is, but I went layer > new raster layer> #C3F68C [yes hideously bright lime green..urgh]
then set the layer properties to > colour > opacity - 33.
see how its not fabulously in your face?, its just subtle enough to blend the photos and background together, can't be doing with having my retinas burned out by an icon.
so now you have pretty much the bulk of the icon done, but you know you want a nice little pretty 1px border don't you? oh go on...
layers > new raster layer> normal > #5C6D4A
with the selection tool draw around the icon till you got yourself a nice little row of marching ants going on, once the whole icon is selected go to selections > modify > contract > number of pixels > 1
hit enter on the keyboard and you're left with a nice little border round your icon like so.
right onto text,now this might get a bit complicated, using the "draw" tool and these settings :
I drew a curved line going across my icon, its a bit fiddly at first but you want to end up with a nice sweeping curve exactly where you want your final text to go.
on yout toolbar select "text" when you hover above the line you've drawn a small image should appear of an "A" and a small curve will be underneath, click on the line and your normal text input window will come up, I used these settings:
once you've created your ideal text ontop of your icon, it should have the marching ants [selection turned on..however you prefer to put it] for the moment leave it exactly how it is and make a new 100x100 image.
using the "floodfill tool" fill your 100x100 image, I used #6B7D5A - then you need to copy and paste your selected text onto this 100x100 image,
go to effects > 3d effects > inner bevel.
and use the following settings:
then go to effects > 3d effects > drop shadow > vertical 1 / horizontal 1 > opacity 100 > blur 2.5
then go to selections > modify > expand - 1
now copy and paste your selected text back onto your icon :
see look how pretty it is! - and you had no faith in me!
once you have your text into desired position DON'T MERGE.
I decided it looked a bit bare and added a bit more text, I made a new image 100x100 and flood filled it with #6B7D5A
essentially this is the same method as I used for the larger text, I wrote "theres everything to" ontop of this new image using the 04b24 font, size 6 with 0 kerning, colour - #C4D5B2 and whilst the text is selected go to selections > modify > expand - 1, now your text has a slightly darker border which will make it easier to read once its on your icon.
edit copy and paste onto your icon [bring the new text layers opacity down slightly to around 85 or so once you have it in place ] DON'T MERGEand you should have something like this:
Pretty yes?
Essentially this is the job done, you have a very pretty icon of Mr. Urbanowicz, buttttt..you don't wanna leave it there do you? you want to juicy bits which makes these Icons so good. you want ze' animation.
I'm a pain in the arse, so I copied my large text for a second and pasted it as a new image - leaving this :
Which I merged, Its sounds fantastically long and drawn out which essentially it is, but really it makes you're life a lot easier in the end because then you wont lose yourself in layers, now you have your icon and a text layer above, and every layer after that from now on will be a text layer.
On your "Fear" text layer bring the opacity down to 75, and wherever it is on your keyboard press PRINTSCREEN, make a new 100x100 image and paste your print screen onto it, so now you have two icons but one on the text is slightly lighter then on your original icon.
repeat this step another two times but bringing down the opacity by more each time, wheras it was 75 on the first frame, bring it down to 64 on the next frame , then on the next frame 41, til lyou have 3 duplicates and your original icon on which you should bring the opacity right back up to 100.
you should have something resembling this:
make sure on all of the 4 icons your layers are merged. once this is done open up Animation shop..the time has come!
Export all four frames one by one into Animation shop, [edit > paste as new animation for your first frame, then add each additional frame in order]
Edit > select all > edit > paste as a new animation.
so now you have a duplicate of your original animation.
Animation > reverse frames > edit > copy
now you have to paste the reversed frames onto the end of your first animation, this is so it runs in a sequence gradually rather then abruptly fading in and out and looking goddamn awful, instead it floats in and out softly.
When you paste the reversed frames on, note that the last frame of your first animation and the first frame will be exactly the same. so you don't really need to keep it, so get rid of that bad boy.
your finished Animation should have 7 frames in total.
edit > select all > frame properties > you want your display time to be around the 30 mark or so, you don't want it flashing manically, you want it to flow.
file > save as > whatever name you please >
your settings should be :
number of colours : 255 / optimised octree checked / error diffusion checked.
Any luck you should end up with something like this :
*note* my finished Icon came in at 46kb which as you all know is over the Livejournal user pictures limit, so I used Spinwave's gif cruncher to bring it down to perfectly reasonable 32kb, I know that was a hideously long tutorial but hopefully if you master it then you'll be able to do it a lot quicker then me and better too, if theres anything that confuses you tell me and I'll try to help out in anyway I possibly can.
Using PSP7 & Animation shop 3
For advanced users // imageheavy
I started with this image of Chris Urbanowicz
Once I opened my picture up in psp I took a selection and pasted as a new image, before resizing the image I duplicated it once setting it to screen - 100% then merged the image, duplicated the merged image and set it to multiply @ 100% then went to effects > blur > gaussian blur > radius 0.60.
it doesn't really do much for the finished product it just smooths out the odd imperfection, but I used the soften tool @ 100 opacity / size 25 to smooth out his face a little before resizing to 193x193 and sharpening once [unsharp mask - radius 1.00 - strenght -47 - clipping - 0]
The base used ->
is by knifestreet [she has a lovely set perfect for these kinds of icons over at invein ]
I colourised it so it was completely gray [so hue - 0 / saturation - 0] and copied my resized image from before on top.
Using the eraser tool with these settings :
I removed part of the photos background to let the base show through, you don't have to be immaculatly tidy infact it looks better if its not perfect, its better to remove too much then it is to be left with solid chunks of background colouring.
Duplicate your top layer once on your duplicate the blend mode should be "Normal" with the opacity around 65 or so depending on your picture , then desaturate the layer directly below [so you have : base, desaturated photo, colour photo] it makes the picture stand out less but you can still retain some of the original colouring.
at this point you can merge all layers if you so wish providing you're happy with what you've made so far,
If you like your colouring then by all means leave it exactly how it is, but I went layer > new raster layer> #C3F68C [yes hideously bright lime green..urgh]
then set the layer properties to > colour > opacity - 33.
see how its not fabulously in your face?, its just subtle enough to blend the photos and background together, can't be doing with having my retinas burned out by an icon.
so now you have pretty much the bulk of the icon done, but you know you want a nice little pretty 1px border don't you? oh go on...
layers > new raster layer> normal > #5C6D4A
with the selection tool draw around the icon till you got yourself a nice little row of marching ants going on, once the whole icon is selected go to selections > modify > contract > number of pixels > 1
hit enter on the keyboard and you're left with a nice little border round your icon like so.
right onto text,now this might get a bit complicated, using the "draw" tool and these settings :
I drew a curved line going across my icon, its a bit fiddly at first but you want to end up with a nice sweeping curve exactly where you want your final text to go.
on yout toolbar select "text" when you hover above the line you've drawn a small image should appear of an "A" and a small curve will be underneath, click on the line and your normal text input window will come up, I used these settings:
![settings: once you've created your ideal text ontop of your icon, it should have the marching ants [selection turned on..however you prefer to put it] for the moment leave it exactly how it is and make a new 100x100 image. using the "floodfill tool" fill your 100x100 image, I used #6B7D5A - then you need to copy and paste your selected text onto this 100x100 image,](http://i2.tinypic.com/outv20.png){kind=link}
once you've created your ideal text ontop of your icon, it should have the marching ants [selection turned on..however you prefer to put it] for the moment leave it exactly how it is and make a new 100x100 image.
using the "floodfill tool" fill your 100x100 image, I used #6B7D5A - then you need to copy and paste your selected text onto this 100x100 image,
go to effects > 3d effects > inner bevel.
and use the following settings:
then go to effects > 3d effects > drop shadow > vertical 1 / horizontal 1 > opacity 100 > blur 2.5
then go to selections > modify > expand - 1
now copy and paste your selected text back onto your icon :
see look how pretty it is! - and you had no faith in me!
once you have your text into desired position DON'T MERGE.
I decided it looked a bit bare and added a bit more text, I made a new image 100x100 and flood filled it with #6B7D5A
essentially this is the same method as I used for the larger text, I wrote "theres everything to" ontop of this new image using the 04b24 font, size 6 with 0 kerning, colour - #C4D5B2 and whilst the text is selected go to selections > modify > expand - 1, now your text has a slightly darker border which will make it easier to read once its on your icon.
edit copy and paste onto your icon [bring the new text layers opacity down slightly to around 85 or so once you have it in place ] DON'T MERGEand you should have something like this:
Pretty yes?
Essentially this is the job done, you have a very pretty icon of Mr. Urbanowicz, buttttt..you don't wanna leave it there do you? you want to juicy bits which makes these Icons so good. you want ze' animation.
I'm a pain in the arse, so I copied my large text for a second and pasted it as a new image - leaving this :
Which I merged, Its sounds fantastically long and drawn out which essentially it is, but really it makes you're life a lot easier in the end because then you wont lose yourself in layers, now you have your icon and a text layer above, and every layer after that from now on will be a text layer.
On your "Fear" text layer bring the opacity down to 75, and wherever it is on your keyboard press PRINTSCREEN, make a new 100x100 image and paste your print screen onto it, so now you have two icons but one on the text is slightly lighter then on your original icon.
repeat this step another two times but bringing down the opacity by more each time, wheras it was 75 on the first frame, bring it down to 64 on the next frame , then on the next frame 41, til lyou have 3 duplicates and your original icon on which you should bring the opacity right back up to 100.
you should have something resembling this:
make sure on all of the 4 icons your layers are merged. once this is done open up Animation shop..the time has come!
Export all four frames one by one into Animation shop, [edit > paste as new animation for your first frame, then add each additional frame in order]
Edit > select all > edit > paste as a new animation.
so now you have a duplicate of your original animation.
Animation > reverse frames > edit > copy
now you have to paste the reversed frames onto the end of your first animation, this is so it runs in a sequence gradually rather then abruptly fading in and out and looking goddamn awful, instead it floats in and out softly.
When you paste the reversed frames on, note that the last frame of your first animation and the first frame will be exactly the same. so you don't really need to keep it, so get rid of that bad boy.
your finished Animation should have 7 frames in total.
edit > select all > frame properties > you want your display time to be around the 30 mark or so, you don't want it flashing manically, you want it to flow.
file > save as > whatever name you please >
your settings should be :
number of colours : 255 / optimised octree checked / error diffusion checked.
Any luck you should end up with something like this :
*note* my finished Icon came in at 46kb which as you all know is over the Livejournal user pictures limit, so I used Spinwave's gif cruncher to bring it down to perfectly reasonable 32kb, I know that was a hideously long tutorial but hopefully if you master it then you'll be able to do it a lot quicker then me and better too, if theres anything that confuses you tell me and I'll try to help out in anyway I possibly can.