Tutorial: Umbreon: Bring Out Colors
Bringin' out the Colors:
Program: Photoshop 7
Easily Translatable: Should be.
Level: Easy/Beginners
Start
Finish
Notes before beginning: This tutorial is not really meant to make your icon super-fancy, unlike my previous tutorials. What I really
wanted to achieve here was just a simple guide for people to see how easy it could be to sharpen an image/enhance its colors. So in a way, this tutorial/guide will be a nice way for you to 'prep' your icon before you do anything else.
Let's begin! :D
oo1;
Duplicate your layer.
Go to Filter-->Blur--Gaussian Blur.
Set the radius to some number around 8-13.
Set to soft light.
Before
After
I'm pretty sure that a lot of people already know this neat trick by now, but in case you haven't, I think it's a pretty quick way to make the colors stand out a bit more. Although it doesn't seem like it with my icon at the moment, it's only because the icon is basically a pretty 'dark' icon. (No pun intended.) On a closer inspection though, you can see that the colors in the backround look much richer and seem to have a bit more depth than before. In addition, the color of the Umbreon is also darker, looking like it 'blends' with some of the backround. In the original, Umbreon seemed to be standing out really obviously, and you could even see the highlights on its body. The bad side to that though, is that you can hardly make out the outline of the Umbreon-- the icon still looks pretty dark. I know that the reddish-pink hues in the back can be brought out even more, so we'll continue onto the next step.
oo2;
Layer--> New Adjustment Layer-->Brightness and Contrast.
Set Brightness to 30.
Set Contrast to 15.
Before
After
Mm, gotta love Brightness/Contrast. As you can see, the icon brightened up much more, while still managing to keep sharp colors in the icon. The backround is definitely brighter, and it also seems easier to distinguish the outlines on Umbreon. Also, the rings on Umbreon also seem to look brighter, thanks to the brightness/contrast. I think this tool is really handy when it comes to making colors look sharper, but since this icon was darker than the ones I normally worked with, I set the settings differently. Usually, for a normal icon, I'd make the brightness around 20, and the contrast around 10.
oo3;
Copy T H I S texture by tei_x and then paste it on top
of all the other layers.
Set this layer to Overlay at 60%.
Before
At 100%
At 60%
See how the texture helped bring out the colors even more? I chose this particular texture by tei_x because of the softness of the colors, and the section of the texture that had pink on the right hand corner. I figured that the pink on that texture would help make the colors in the backround brighter if I used Overlay on the icon, and the white near the upper left part of the texture seemed to look like it would help out the icon as well. Often times, you have to play around with certain textures to see what kind of effects you get, but that was what ran through my head when I was testing out what I wanted to do with the icon.
So why lower the opacity to 60%, right? Well at 100%, I thought that the colors seemed too extreme in the upper right hand corner. The color of the Umbreon itself also doesn't look sharp and black anymore, so I tried lowering the opacity to get an even balance on the two things. I settled on 60% by playing around with the opacity meter. Usually, I go from 100%, to 90%, and go down by tens until I'm satisfied.
oo4;
Duplicate your original layer.
Bring it to the top of all the other layers.
Set it to soft light at 75%.
Before
At 100%
At 75%
This step was pretty much optional--the only reason why I wanted to do this step was because the icon's lightness was bugging me. Umbreon's outline was pretty much a grey-ish/pink color, and he didn't look very dark anymore. So I used soft light, since that usually tends to bring out the colors easily. At 100%, the image looked a bit too dark for my liking (I'm really picky about the colors whenever I'm iconing.) so I again, lowered the opacity until I was satisfied. For smaller things like adjusting the colors of the icon, I usually lower the opacity by fives. Although if you compare the 100% soft light icon to the 75%, and don't think that there was that much of a difference, I think that it just looks slightly easier on the eyes--but like I said before, this was an optional step anyway.
oo5;
Add some finishing touches onto your icon!
Suggestions:
-Text
-Tiny text
-Border
-Brush(es)
Before
Final Result
All I did was add a simple border on mine. But other things can look pretty decent too! Text is always a hard one to add onto icons, mostly because I never know what to type, but in my opinion, I think that tiny text is a great addition to a lot of icons, because it just gives off a really nice finishing touch. But that's just me. Borders are always a nice touch to an icon, but that's probably because I get a little irked when I see an icon, but it just randomly 'cuts off' and doesn't have an end. That, or whenever I see an icon without a base, and it's textless, it looks a LOT like a base to me. And sometimes brushes are a neat little addition--like those random hearts that people put on their icons. Either way, it's just a finishing touch--nothing really necessary, but it's something to be considered when you think that your icon is missing a little something.
And that's all! I know I did a lot of talking, and you had to do a lot of reading, but I think it's important to include some of my stuff in here. Following a tutorial step-by-step is always a quick and easy way to get a pretty result, but if you don't have a decent explaination on just WHY you have to do something, then it'll be harder to learn in the end anyway! Aside from that, the basics are important, and I feel that by being descriptive, it's easier to understand. So I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and I hope that it helped! ♥
Feedback, comments, and results are greatly appreciated. :D
PS: All tables used in this tutorial were generated by T H I S generator.
Originally posted at twilight_flower @ 13 June 2007|7:53.
Program: Photoshop 7
Easily Translatable: Should be.
Level: Easy/Beginners
Start
Finish
Notes before beginning: This tutorial is not really meant to make your icon super-fancy, unlike my previous tutorials. What I really
wanted to achieve here was just a simple guide for people to see how easy it could be to sharpen an image/enhance its colors. So in a way, this tutorial/guide will be a nice way for you to 'prep' your icon before you do anything else.
Let's begin! :D
oo1;
Duplicate your layer.
Go to Filter-->Blur--Gaussian Blur.
Set the radius to some number around 8-13.
Set to soft light.
Before
After
I'm pretty sure that a lot of people already know this neat trick by now, but in case you haven't, I think it's a pretty quick way to make the colors stand out a bit more. Although it doesn't seem like it with my icon at the moment, it's only because the icon is basically a pretty 'dark' icon. (No pun intended.) On a closer inspection though, you can see that the colors in the backround look much richer and seem to have a bit more depth than before. In addition, the color of the Umbreon is also darker, looking like it 'blends' with some of the backround. In the original, Umbreon seemed to be standing out really obviously, and you could even see the highlights on its body. The bad side to that though, is that you can hardly make out the outline of the Umbreon-- the icon still looks pretty dark. I know that the reddish-pink hues in the back can be brought out even more, so we'll continue onto the next step.
oo2;
Layer--> New Adjustment Layer-->Brightness and Contrast.
Set Brightness to 30.
Set Contrast to 15.
Before
After
Mm, gotta love Brightness/Contrast. As you can see, the icon brightened up much more, while still managing to keep sharp colors in the icon. The backround is definitely brighter, and it also seems easier to distinguish the outlines on Umbreon. Also, the rings on Umbreon also seem to look brighter, thanks to the brightness/contrast. I think this tool is really handy when it comes to making colors look sharper, but since this icon was darker than the ones I normally worked with, I set the settings differently. Usually, for a normal icon, I'd make the brightness around 20, and the contrast around 10.
oo3;
Copy T H I S texture by tei_x and then paste it on top
of all the other layers.
Set this layer to Overlay at 60%.
Before
At 100%
At 60%
See how the texture helped bring out the colors even more? I chose this particular texture by tei_x because of the softness of the colors, and the section of the texture that had pink on the right hand corner. I figured that the pink on that texture would help make the colors in the backround brighter if I used Overlay on the icon, and the white near the upper left part of the texture seemed to look like it would help out the icon as well. Often times, you have to play around with certain textures to see what kind of effects you get, but that was what ran through my head when I was testing out what I wanted to do with the icon.
So why lower the opacity to 60%, right? Well at 100%, I thought that the colors seemed too extreme in the upper right hand corner. The color of the Umbreon itself also doesn't look sharp and black anymore, so I tried lowering the opacity to get an even balance on the two things. I settled on 60% by playing around with the opacity meter. Usually, I go from 100%, to 90%, and go down by tens until I'm satisfied.
oo4;
Duplicate your original layer.
Bring it to the top of all the other layers.
Set it to soft light at 75%.
Before
At 100%
At 75%
This step was pretty much optional--the only reason why I wanted to do this step was because the icon's lightness was bugging me. Umbreon's outline was pretty much a grey-ish/pink color, and he didn't look very dark anymore. So I used soft light, since that usually tends to bring out the colors easily. At 100%, the image looked a bit too dark for my liking (I'm really picky about the colors whenever I'm iconing.) so I again, lowered the opacity until I was satisfied. For smaller things like adjusting the colors of the icon, I usually lower the opacity by fives. Although if you compare the 100% soft light icon to the 75%, and don't think that there was that much of a difference, I think that it just looks slightly easier on the eyes--but like I said before, this was an optional step anyway.
oo5;
Add some finishing touches onto your icon!
Suggestions:
-Text
-Tiny text
-Border
-Brush(es)
Before
Final Result
All I did was add a simple border on mine. But other things can look pretty decent too! Text is always a hard one to add onto icons, mostly because I never know what to type, but in my opinion, I think that tiny text is a great addition to a lot of icons, because it just gives off a really nice finishing touch. But that's just me. Borders are always a nice touch to an icon, but that's probably because I get a little irked when I see an icon, but it just randomly 'cuts off' and doesn't have an end. That, or whenever I see an icon without a base, and it's textless, it looks a LOT like a base to me. And sometimes brushes are a neat little addition--like those random hearts that people put on their icons. Either way, it's just a finishing touch--nothing really necessary, but it's something to be considered when you think that your icon is missing a little something.
And that's all! I know I did a lot of talking, and you had to do a lot of reading, but I think it's important to include some of my stuff in here. Following a tutorial step-by-step is always a quick and easy way to get a pretty result, but if you don't have a decent explaination on just WHY you have to do something, then it'll be harder to learn in the end anyway! Aside from that, the basics are important, and I feel that by being descriptive, it's easier to understand. So I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and I hope that it helped! ♥
Feedback, comments, and results are greatly appreciated. :D
PS: All tables used in this tutorial were generated by T H I S generator.
Originally posted at twilight_flower @ 13 June 2007|7:53.