Mini Tutorials from the First Quarter of 2014
A few months ago, I posted about taking mini-tutorial requests. I'm really the worst at getting things done if they have no deadline especially when other projects have deadlines. I was going to get started on this again but then Ask the Maker 6.0 was posted (my thread is here) and I decided to scrap my plans for the icons I hadn't written mini-tutorials for and the just post what I finished. There were 18 of these planned so this is drastically shorter than I originally intended. If I didn't get around to your request, I'm really sorry. You can always request it again at Ask the Maker!
So I'm not repeating myself throughout the post, these are a few things that I use frequently. If you know your way around PS, you probably know all this already.
[Stamp Layers, Gaussian Blur, Paint Bucket Tool, Gradient Tool, High Pass Sharpen, Curves to Brighten, Gradient Maps]
• A stamp layer (ctrl+shift+alt+E in PS) is a new layer that is a merged copy of the visible layers.
• The paint bucket tool and gradient tool can be found in the same place. The paint bucket tool is exactly what it sounds like. Others might use color fill layers (Layer > New Fill Layer) for the same purpose. The gradient tool is really useful for lighting. You can use any gradient you have set up but I almost always use the default black-to-white gradient. I just click and drag my mouse in a random or strategic direction which results in something like this and that usually gets set to soft light.
• Gaussian blur (filter > blur > gaussian blur...) set to various radius values is something I use fairly often.
• There are lots of ways to sharpen but I usually use high pass sharpen (filter > other > high pass...) on a stamped layer. The value is usually somewhere between 1.5 and 2 pixels then I set that to soft light. More or less pixels depending on how sharp I want the part of the image to look.
• Curves adjustment layers (layer > new adjustment layer > curves... or use the adjustments window) are used for lots of things but a basic way I use it almost every icon is to brighten the image. Picking a random spot in the middle of the line and dragging it up and to the left will brighten the image, down and to the right will darken it.
• Gradient maps are another adjustment layer. I always use the black/white gradient to make my work black and white and it can also be used to change the color of an image or like you'd use a color fill layer to color an image. If you click the dropdown menu in the adjustments window, a pop-up menu will appear where you can choose between the default and custom gradients you have saved.
01. Game of Thrones
to
I'm am 95% sure the first thing I did after cropping this was use the smudge tool to get rid of some rocks that were in the background between the shore and the larger rock in the background. This helped balance the composition and emphasis the natural blocking of the cap.
I duplicated the base twice, set both to Screen: the first set to 100% opacity and the second to 49%. Next is a stamped layer set to Soft Light at 41%. Then an curves adjustment layer where all I did was move the dot to the left up to Output: 22, Input: 0. Next I used this gradient texture by vetica set to Soft Light 100% and then duplicated that same layer, same blend and opacity settings. I sharpened using High Pass Sharpen. Finally, I used another curves adjustment layer and moved that same lefthand point to Output: 35, Input: 0. This lowers the contrast and brightens it a bit. 02. The Lion King
to
This is one of those that I cropped and then rearranged. The bottom of the original crop looks kind of messy but I love the green above the log so I duplicated the base twice. This is one of those icons that really shows the rule of thirds in action. The first duplicated base I moved up the canvas so the characters were in the upper third of the icon. The second was arranged above the base of the log in a way that I liked then I had to smudge out the top of Pumbaa's head.
I then made a stamp layer of what is now my new base. Curves to brighten then a stamped layer blurred a lot using gaussian blur set to soft light 100%. Then this is set to screen, 66%. I don't remember what this was originally but it looks like a texture heavily blurred. Then this texture set on screen at 75%. I liked the brightness of the background but the characters are too bright so I made a stamp layer, set it to multiply, 100%, and erased everything but the log and the characters. Finally a black and white texture is arranged at the base of the icon and set to screen.
The whole process in gif format for fun. 03. Teen Wolf
to
This was my icon for the "bizarre" prompt at a challenge at the7days. To begin, I picked two caps from Riddled that had Stiles in the same position so I could crop them identically. Basic coloring + a grunge texture. I don't have the psd for the work done before I put the parts into the psd that would become a gif.
The icon consists of a few frames: Stiles with eyes open, same cap with texture, same cap with same texture rotated 90°, Stiles with eyes closed, and a plain white color fill layer. The texture is this by pandavirus, desaturated and inverted colors set to screen over the main cap.
The psd probably explains it better than I could. Make sure your Animation window is open (Windows > Animation). The big struggle here was getting it below 40k. I don't work with gifs often so this was an agonizing process. 04. Veronica Mars
to
I really love the bright yellow lockers on this show. I'm attempting a Veronica Mars rewatch so I decided I needed to make some icons with this yellow lockers.
Like the Game of Thrones icon in the top row, the first then I did was smudge out some awkward parts of the locker and the numbers written on them in the top right corner. It's not necessarily something that needs to be done but I thought they were distracting and drew the eye away from the subject.
I brightened the icon using curves and then made a gradient using the gradient tool. This gradient looks like this. This is set to Soft Light, 100%, and then duplicated with the same settings. Then I picked a bright yellow color (#e8e613) and drew around Veronica to emphasize the yellow of the background. This is set to Soft Light, 100%, then duplicated and set to Soft Light, 35%. It's a little dark for my tastes so I made a stamp layer, set it to screen and the lowered the opacity to something not too bright, 24%. I sharpened then using High Pass sharpen. Then I added whatever this was originally, erased over Veronica, and set it to Soft Light, 100%. Finally, I used a color balance adjustment layer with the midtones set to 0, -17, -41. 05. Game of Thrones
to
The downside to working with caps from Daenerys's scenes is that they can get overly orange. I hesitated to work with this cap because of that so I was thinking the whole time about how to avoid the orange.
I brightened the cap using a curves adjustment layer then set a stamped layer to soft light, 100%. It was already more orange than I'd like so I used a vibrance adjustment layer and set the vibrance to -38, saturation to 0. I made another stamp layer and used gaussian blur on it, then set it to soft light, 100%. Next, I used a gradient map (#c9b9a9 to #fcf2e4), set the layer to soft light, and decreased the opacity to 41%. Another gradient map layers using the default copper gradient was next (set to soft light, opacity 41%). Next I sharpened using high pass sharpen then I have this set to soft light, 100%. I didn't label this and I can't figure out it's origin. It might be something I made from the gradient tool or it might be a texture heavily blurred. The icon is finished with three adjustment layers: a vibrance layer with vibrance: 0, saturation: -66 set to soft light, 100%; another vibrance layer with vibrance: -23, saturation: 0 set to normal, 100%, and finally a brightness/contrast layer with brightness: 0, contrast: -21. 06. Teen Wolf
to
I brightened the cap with a new curve adjustment layer then made a stamp layer and sharpened it. On a layer filled with black, I picked two random bright colors and applied them to different sides of the canvas, and gaussian blurred the layer. (Looks like this.) I set that to screen. (Looks like this.) I made another stamped layer and set that to soft light for contrast. Using the standard Black White gradient map adjustment layer, I made the icon greyscale. (Looks like this.) It needs more contrast so I use curves again, this time moving the dot in the bottom left corner to the right (Output: 0 Input: 26), more or less depending on the image and what you're going for. Gradient by vetica, rotated 180° set to soft light then duplicated and set to soft light, 20%. psd's
Let me know if you dl one of these please. :)
So I'm not repeating myself throughout the post, these are a few things that I use frequently. If you know your way around PS, you probably know all this already.
[Stamp Layers, Gaussian Blur, Paint Bucket Tool, Gradient Tool, High Pass Sharpen, Curves to Brighten, Gradient Maps]
• A stamp layer (ctrl+shift+alt+E in PS) is a new layer that is a merged copy of the visible layers.
• The paint bucket tool and gradient tool can be found in the same place. The paint bucket tool is exactly what it sounds like. Others might use color fill layers (Layer > New Fill Layer) for the same purpose. The gradient tool is really useful for lighting. You can use any gradient you have set up but I almost always use the default black-to-white gradient. I just click and drag my mouse in a random or strategic direction which results in something like this and that usually gets set to soft light.
• Gaussian blur (filter > blur > gaussian blur...) set to various radius values is something I use fairly often.
• There are lots of ways to sharpen but I usually use high pass sharpen (filter > other > high pass...) on a stamped layer. The value is usually somewhere between 1.5 and 2 pixels then I set that to soft light. More or less pixels depending on how sharp I want the part of the image to look.
• Curves adjustment layers (layer > new adjustment layer > curves... or use the adjustments window) are used for lots of things but a basic way I use it almost every icon is to brighten the image. Picking a random spot in the middle of the line and dragging it up and to the left will brighten the image, down and to the right will darken it.
• Gradient maps are another adjustment layer. I always use the black/white gradient to make my work black and white and it can also be used to change the color of an image or like you'd use a color fill layer to color an image. If you click the dropdown menu in the adjustments window, a pop-up menu will appear where you can choose between the default and custom gradients you have saved.
01. Game of Thrones
to
I'm am 95% sure the first thing I did after cropping this was use the smudge tool to get rid of some rocks that were in the background between the shore and the larger rock in the background. This helped balance the composition and emphasis the natural blocking of the cap.
I duplicated the base twice, set both to Screen: the first set to 100% opacity and the second to 49%. Next is a stamped layer set to Soft Light at 41%. Then an curves adjustment layer where all I did was move the dot to the left up to Output: 22, Input: 0. Next I used this gradient texture by vetica set to Soft Light 100% and then duplicated that same layer, same blend and opacity settings. I sharpened using High Pass Sharpen. Finally, I used another curves adjustment layer and moved that same lefthand point to Output: 35, Input: 0. This lowers the contrast and brightens it a bit. 02. The Lion King
to
This is one of those that I cropped and then rearranged. The bottom of the original crop looks kind of messy but I love the green above the log so I duplicated the base twice. This is one of those icons that really shows the rule of thirds in action. The first duplicated base I moved up the canvas so the characters were in the upper third of the icon. The second was arranged above the base of the log in a way that I liked then I had to smudge out the top of Pumbaa's head.
I then made a stamp layer of what is now my new base. Curves to brighten then a stamped layer blurred a lot using gaussian blur set to soft light 100%. Then this is set to screen, 66%. I don't remember what this was originally but it looks like a texture heavily blurred. Then this texture set on screen at 75%. I liked the brightness of the background but the characters are too bright so I made a stamp layer, set it to multiply, 100%, and erased everything but the log and the characters. Finally a black and white texture is arranged at the base of the icon and set to screen.
The whole process in gif format for fun. 03. Teen Wolf
to
This was my icon for the "bizarre" prompt at a challenge at the7days. To begin, I picked two caps from Riddled that had Stiles in the same position so I could crop them identically. Basic coloring + a grunge texture. I don't have the psd for the work done before I put the parts into the psd that would become a gif.
The icon consists of a few frames: Stiles with eyes open, same cap with texture, same cap with same texture rotated 90°, Stiles with eyes closed, and a plain white color fill layer. The texture is this by pandavirus, desaturated and inverted colors set to screen over the main cap.
The psd probably explains it better than I could. Make sure your Animation window is open (Windows > Animation). The big struggle here was getting it below 40k. I don't work with gifs often so this was an agonizing process. 04. Veronica Mars
to
I really love the bright yellow lockers on this show. I'm attempting a Veronica Mars rewatch so I decided I needed to make some icons with this yellow lockers.
Like the Game of Thrones icon in the top row, the first then I did was smudge out some awkward parts of the locker and the numbers written on them in the top right corner. It's not necessarily something that needs to be done but I thought they were distracting and drew the eye away from the subject.
I brightened the icon using curves and then made a gradient using the gradient tool. This gradient looks like this. This is set to Soft Light, 100%, and then duplicated with the same settings. Then I picked a bright yellow color (#e8e613) and drew around Veronica to emphasize the yellow of the background. This is set to Soft Light, 100%, then duplicated and set to Soft Light, 35%. It's a little dark for my tastes so I made a stamp layer, set it to screen and the lowered the opacity to something not too bright, 24%. I sharpened then using High Pass sharpen. Then I added whatever this was originally, erased over Veronica, and set it to Soft Light, 100%. Finally, I used a color balance adjustment layer with the midtones set to 0, -17, -41. 05. Game of Thrones
to
The downside to working with caps from Daenerys's scenes is that they can get overly orange. I hesitated to work with this cap because of that so I was thinking the whole time about how to avoid the orange.
I brightened the cap using a curves adjustment layer then set a stamped layer to soft light, 100%. It was already more orange than I'd like so I used a vibrance adjustment layer and set the vibrance to -38, saturation to 0. I made another stamp layer and used gaussian blur on it, then set it to soft light, 100%. Next, I used a gradient map (#c9b9a9 to #fcf2e4), set the layer to soft light, and decreased the opacity to 41%. Another gradient map layers using the default copper gradient was next (set to soft light, opacity 41%). Next I sharpened using high pass sharpen then I have this set to soft light, 100%. I didn't label this and I can't figure out it's origin. It might be something I made from the gradient tool or it might be a texture heavily blurred. The icon is finished with three adjustment layers: a vibrance layer with vibrance: 0, saturation: -66 set to soft light, 100%; another vibrance layer with vibrance: -23, saturation: 0 set to normal, 100%, and finally a brightness/contrast layer with brightness: 0, contrast: -21. 06. Teen Wolf
to
I brightened the cap with a new curve adjustment layer then made a stamp layer and sharpened it. On a layer filled with black, I picked two random bright colors and applied them to different sides of the canvas, and gaussian blurred the layer. (Looks like this.) I set that to screen. (Looks like this.) I made another stamped layer and set that to soft light for contrast. Using the standard Black White gradient map adjustment layer, I made the icon greyscale. (Looks like this.) It needs more contrast so I use curves again, this time moving the dot in the bottom left corner to the right (Output: 0 Input: 26), more or less depending on the image and what you're going for. Gradient by vetica, rotated 180° set to soft light then duplicated and set to soft light, 20%. psd's
Let me know if you dl one of these please. :)