Ask the Maker: individual icon tutorials (3).
WHEN THE DEVIL TAKES HOLD
Using: Photoshop 7.0
Translatable: to other versions of Photoshop
[Tutorial #1: Ruby for deadwillwalk]
Some steps are a little vague because I do a lot of my first steps on full sized screencaps now which means in the cropping process, I tend to lose whatever I've already done. I also abuse the crap out of variations, and since I don't write down what I click, I kind of have to guess base off of the changes what I've done.
Lo and behold! Our approximate base! The crop isn't 100% exactly what the original one was, but close enough to suit me. Anyway...
Steps, let's say, 1-5 are all guess work. I would assume that I used a blurred light texture on screen, some sort of color fill layer (a light brown or purple) on screen, and then followed up with some variations or curves and probably a black and white gradient map on soft light to get the contrast back to what it needed to be. At any rate, this is the base I started the real coloring work with.
+
=
The next step is, using the cap itself, I've whipped up a quick light texture which I usually blur quite a bit. However, in this case, I liked the shapes it created when left intact on screen so I didn't blur it. Instead I just masked it away from Ruby herself so that it creates a border and fills in the background.
And for my next trick, I've used variations which is such a fun coloring tool. I've added some warm tones and also darkened the entire image to give it some depth. The winning combination is: Darker (2), Red (1), Yellow (1) [with midtones selected and the slider in the middle which should be the default setting].
&
Next up: Diffuse Glow! You'll find this life saver under Filters > Distort > Diffuse Glow. This is responsible for the extra white light around the lighter areas of the icon. After that a little Hue/Saturation layer with the Saturation slider set to 15.
The text work came next. The font is georgia for the whole thing. The individual layers consisted of: 'when', each letter of 'good' on its own layer, 'is gone', '& the', each letter of 'DEVIL' on its own layer, 'takes', and 'hold'. The words 'takes' and 'hold' were free transformed so that they were angled. The individual layers were positioned at uneven intervals for effect. All layers were rasterized and guassian blurred at a 0.3 radius.
+
=
The first texture which has been edited to change the color to something more suitable is by endearest, and it was set to screen with the light ray on the right masked away; the second texture which has been re-sized to fit my larger canvas is by fuuurs, I think, and it was set to screen as well.
+
=
The first texture is by mm3butterfly and was set to screen. The second texture is also by mm3butterfly but has been edited so that the colors suit. It was also placed on screen at 45% opacity, and I masked off the bottom right hand corner.
The next step is a selective coloring layer which just added a little bit of depth and some yellow and cyan for some reason. Who knows? Anyway, the settings are all on the neutral drop down: +7 +2 +11 0.
Some more diffuse glow!
This is the result of another Hue/Saturation layer. The Hue slider is upped to -28 and the opacity of the layer is only 45%; it is masked off the sides to various degrees.
=
This is another variations layer with the yellow turned up and the opacity set to only 22%. And then I sharpened it.
=
The next step is hardly noticeable, but it exists for some reason. I had this bug (I still do) where I wanted to try my go at painting except I don't really like painting? And I only have a track pad? And also why? But I was trying it anyway, and I went for subtle. So there are lines painted around her eyes, mouth, and the edges of her face and hair done with a tiny 1px brush and a yellow color. The layer was duplicated and both were set to soft light. And we're done!
HE'S NOT HERE.
Using: Photoshop 7.0
Translatable: to other versions of Photoshop
[Tutorial #2: He isn't here for calrissian18]
This is my base. The original Castiel cap was resized down to a width of 200 pixels, and then I used a brush with #101010 to color in the background above him. The grungy looking texture the links to solid background with Castiel is actually part of the screencap, nothing to do with me. Supernatural delivers, man. Anyway, Castiel's screencap had a darker color on the right where Dean is so, I think, I was probably going to go for a straight blend to begin with, but I changed my mind? Anyway, never one to pass up an opportunity to think of any other solution than cutting things out precisely, I decided to use the shape tool to cover Dean with a rectangle. I then free transformed said rectangle so I was grabbing Dean's image at an angle. I right clicked + made selection, and then applied that selection as a layer mask on the screencap of Dean. I probably blurred that layer mask a bit as well. Then it was pasted onto the Castiel cap and resized (using free transform again) to sit the way it does.
If you're sitting there going 'you did what now with the free transform tool?!', you might want to check out this quick tutorial on the basics of how to use the ftt. Trust me, it is the best tool. You will love it.
The next step is something that I was inspired to do after reading tinebrella's tutorials. She is really big on using Auto Levels especially on Supernatural screencaps, and while I've definitely used and abused Auto Levels in the past, I've been sort of wary using it on such dark screencaps. Well, SURPRISE, Auto Levels is actually the best thing to happen to Supernatural since Castiel made his bamf entrance (ymmv). Anyway, so I stamped my layers, used Auto Levels, and set the layer to soft light.
=
Then I added this texture. I'd love to tell you who is was by (and I'm just assuming I didn't make it myself; I might've), but I often (read: all the damn time) blur the textures I add to things beyond recognition so I have no idea what this texture original looked like, if it was color or black and white originally, or who it was by. If you happen to, somehow, recognize it, please let me know the maker in the comments, yeah? Anyway, I set the texture to screen to add some much need light variation to the icon.
I get comments a lot talking about how warm my icons are, and I can tell you, it is probably because I make things red/yellow a lot? At least at the start. Which is why the next step had me stamping all my layers and going into variations. I added Red (1) and Yellow (1).
Now sometimes when I add the red and yellow, it is because I want the icon to be red or yellow, but a lot of the time, I like using red and yellow as a basis for other coloring. Which is the case this time because the red and yellow looked kind of blah. So I popped open a Selective Coloring adjustment layer! I pretty much live in the 'Neutral' section of SC, and in this case, I added +39 to the Cyans and +39 to the yellows which gave me a nice green coloring.
But I wanted to really punch up the coloring, so I added a Hue/Saturation layer, and I pumped up the master saturation to +25. However, I was interested in having the blood on Castiel's jacket and the blood on the table behind Dean standing out, but with all the green, it wasn't. So I popped another Hue/Saturation layer on, and I edited the Red saturation to +41 which only makes a little bit of difference, but whatever.
=
This next texture, which has been cropped down and resized from its original form, is also maker-less because I am a terrible person who sometimes grabs textures from random posts/websites and forgets to add the maker name? I swear I am getting better at this. Please don't hurt me texture makers for I love and cherish you! So...I set this particular texture on soft light at 60% and then on screen at 35% which gives the icon some depth and also a little bit of texture as well.
=
This texture is by fuuurs! Hah! See, I credit things! Anyway, I've resized it for my purposes and I've also added a black and white gradient to it because the original is bright yellow/orange-ish which doesn't really mesh so well. Anyway, I set it to screen, and then I layer masked away the middle of the texture so only the borders on the sides were left.
&
Everything was still a little too warm for my tastes, so I stamped all my layers, and looked to variations once again. Pretty sure I added Green (1), and then I lowered the opacity of the layer to 35%. Then I stamped all my layers again and added a little Diffuse Glow (Filters > Distort > Diffuse Glow).
=
Then I decided I wanted to add a little accent color. So I brushed in some blue highlights, and then set the layer to screen at 35%. (White background added for tutorial purposes only.)
&
Next, I stamped all my layers again and set that to soft light because the icon needed some kick pretty badly. See, it went from kind of blah to BAM really fast. Good times. Then I stamped all my layers again, and, using Paint Daubs, I sharpened the whole thing.
But, you see, there's all this negative space up top, and I can do stuff there! Exciting! I'm kind of a text fiend, and I really like adding text to my Supernatural icons because Supernatural has all kinds of text opportunities from really quotable lines to great music lyrics.
So I took a quote from the scene, and I popped it onto the icon. 'Cas...' is done in Lobster 1.4 at size 48, and 'He's not here anymore.' was done in Arvil Sans in size 24. Things that may or may not be true: On the character menu, there are a lot of extra settings, and sometimes I just keep 'bold' and 'uppercase' checked, and I don't even remember that I've done it? So both sections of text might have 'bold' checked, and the bottom section might be in 'uppercase'. Hard to say.
The text was free transformed to sit at an angle. Yup, good old ftt again! useful for all kinds of things. I also find that it is far better to use ftt than the text tool for shifting text to an angle. Again ymmv.
And...I have a confession. I go around telling everyone I Gaussian Blur my text at a 0.3 radius. Watch me do the dance of a hypocrite. Usually, yes, I blur my text. In the case of this icon? I didn't blur at all. No blurring. Zero.
>>
Then, apparently, I thought 'this could use some more BAM' because I duplicated the soft light layer right under the text, and dragged it to the top. Lots more contrast! And about this time, I thought I was done. So I resized down to 100x100, but upon resizing, I realized that I wasn't 100% on board with the icon as it was. It was kind of dark, and the left side didn't really pop as much as it could.
=
So I added one of my own textures to the mix, I set it to screen, and then I layer masked it away from the bottom right corner because things were already pretty bright down there.
&
&
It was a bit bright after that though so to fix that, I stamped my layers and then used variations (Darker (2)) to darken everything up. The I layer masked, just barely, around Dean and Castiel, and then kind of blurred the layer mask a whole bunch which achieves the same sort of effect that lowering the opacity of the layer does. Kind of. You can also achieve this by setting your brush to a lower opacity or using a grey color instead of black.
Then I added another Hue/Saturation layer and upped the master saturation to +15. Finally, I stamped all my layers one more time, and used Auto Levels again, as far as I can tell. Then I merged all my layers, and I had an icon.
APPLE RED AS BLOOD
Using: Photoshop 7.0
Translatable: to other versions of photoshop
[Tutorial #3: Evil queen for firstillusion]
+
+
This icon is composed of, originally, three separate images from the same scene. I cut out different sections from each screencap and pasted them together for a layered level effect with the Queen's gaze leading the eye toward the apple in the middle as the apple and the heart are seen as her tools of destruction and thus the symbols of her villainy. Since this icon was made for my top 7 villains set, that was kind of an important vibe for me.
=
Then I added this texture made by yours truly to screen.
Next up, I stamped all my layers, and then went to town with variations: Green (1), Red (1), Yellow (1), Darker (3). At least, I think it was one green click. It might have been one blue click. *sigh* Pro tip: variations is freaking awesome, but it is hell on your psd files because there's no record of exactly what you did. So you have to go back and try your best to make a match between the two from memory.
The previous step didn't really add any contrast to the icon, and it was sorely lacking so I threw a curves layer together. I don't have exact point numbers, but you can see the path of my curve here.
&
&
Some Diffuse Glow! And then a Hue/Saturation layer with the master saturation pumped up +15. Then I stamped all my layers and used Auto Levels. I'm pretty sure I was stagnating a little here, and I had no idea what to do, really, so I just fiddled around a bit until inspiration struck again.
=
And then I thought the apple needed to stand out some more considering how keen I was on it. So I grabbed a bright red color, painting the apple, and then set the layer with the painting on color burn.
=
Another texture of mine which I set to soft light. I'm clearly still floundering...probably because the coloring is hideous, and there's no real light/shadow balance. Basically, this is a mess.
&
So I decided to go in a different direction with the coloring, stamped all my layers, and had another go at variations. Green (1), Yellow (1), Darker (3). Then, still not happy, I stamped all my layers once more and used High Pass (Filter > Other > High Pass) then set the layer to soft light.
THIS IS THE FUN PART! I'd had enough with the bottom cap. Everything was too cluttered, and the bottom half was too dark to save at this point, so I just decided to scrap it! I used to eye dropper tool to grab the same white color as the top border, and then used the rectangle shape tool to obliterate the bottom cap from the picture. And I gave it a little paint daub sharpen for flavor. Doesn't it look heaps better? Like...it changed everything. The shadows don't look so messy and overwhelming anymore. It isn't as dark. The composition is less heavy. So. much. better.
I still wasn't 100% sold on the coloring though, and I thought something cooler would contrast with the apple better. So I stamped my layers and prayed to the variations goddess that I could work something out. Blue (2), Cyan (1). Then I masked that away from the apple because it needed to stay red, and that was that! I also went on to experiment with adding text to this one, but of the two different text variations I tried, I didn't like either one. So this was the final product!
Using: Photoshop 7.0
Translatable: to other versions of Photoshop
[Tutorial #1: Ruby for deadwillwalk]
Some steps are a little vague because I do a lot of my first steps on full sized screencaps now which means in the cropping process, I tend to lose whatever I've already done. I also abuse the crap out of variations, and since I don't write down what I click, I kind of have to guess base off of the changes what I've done.
Lo and behold! Our approximate base! The crop isn't 100% exactly what the original one was, but close enough to suit me. Anyway...
Steps, let's say, 1-5 are all guess work. I would assume that I used a blurred light texture on screen, some sort of color fill layer (a light brown or purple) on screen, and then followed up with some variations or curves and probably a black and white gradient map on soft light to get the contrast back to what it needed to be. At any rate, this is the base I started the real coloring work with.
+
=
The next step is, using the cap itself, I've whipped up a quick light texture which I usually blur quite a bit. However, in this case, I liked the shapes it created when left intact on screen so I didn't blur it. Instead I just masked it away from Ruby herself so that it creates a border and fills in the background.
And for my next trick, I've used variations which is such a fun coloring tool. I've added some warm tones and also darkened the entire image to give it some depth. The winning combination is: Darker (2), Red (1), Yellow (1) [with midtones selected and the slider in the middle which should be the default setting].
&
Next up: Diffuse Glow! You'll find this life saver under Filters > Distort > Diffuse Glow. This is responsible for the extra white light around the lighter areas of the icon. After that a little Hue/Saturation layer with the Saturation slider set to 15.
The text work came next. The font is georgia for the whole thing. The individual layers consisted of: 'when', each letter of 'good' on its own layer, 'is gone', '& the', each letter of 'DEVIL' on its own layer, 'takes', and 'hold'. The words 'takes' and 'hold' were free transformed so that they were angled. The individual layers were positioned at uneven intervals for effect. All layers were rasterized and guassian blurred at a 0.3 radius.
+
=
The first texture which has been edited to change the color to something more suitable is by endearest, and it was set to screen with the light ray on the right masked away; the second texture which has been re-sized to fit my larger canvas is by fuuurs, I think, and it was set to screen as well.
+
=
The first texture is by mm3butterfly and was set to screen. The second texture is also by mm3butterfly but has been edited so that the colors suit. It was also placed on screen at 45% opacity, and I masked off the bottom right hand corner.
The next step is a selective coloring layer which just added a little bit of depth and some yellow and cyan for some reason. Who knows? Anyway, the settings are all on the neutral drop down: +7 +2 +11 0.
Some more diffuse glow!
This is the result of another Hue/Saturation layer. The Hue slider is upped to -28 and the opacity of the layer is only 45%; it is masked off the sides to various degrees.
=
This is another variations layer with the yellow turned up and the opacity set to only 22%. And then I sharpened it.
=
The next step is hardly noticeable, but it exists for some reason. I had this bug (I still do) where I wanted to try my go at painting except I don't really like painting? And I only have a track pad? And also why? But I was trying it anyway, and I went for subtle. So there are lines painted around her eyes, mouth, and the edges of her face and hair done with a tiny 1px brush and a yellow color. The layer was duplicated and both were set to soft light. And we're done!
HE'S NOT HERE.
Using: Photoshop 7.0
Translatable: to other versions of Photoshop
[Tutorial #2: He isn't here for calrissian18]
This is my base. The original Castiel cap was resized down to a width of 200 pixels, and then I used a brush with #101010 to color in the background above him. The grungy looking texture the links to solid background with Castiel is actually part of the screencap, nothing to do with me. Supernatural delivers, man. Anyway, Castiel's screencap had a darker color on the right where Dean is so, I think, I was probably going to go for a straight blend to begin with, but I changed my mind? Anyway, never one to pass up an opportunity to think of any other solution than cutting things out precisely, I decided to use the shape tool to cover Dean with a rectangle. I then free transformed said rectangle so I was grabbing Dean's image at an angle. I right clicked + made selection, and then applied that selection as a layer mask on the screencap of Dean. I probably blurred that layer mask a bit as well. Then it was pasted onto the Castiel cap and resized (using free transform again) to sit the way it does.
If you're sitting there going 'you did what now with the free transform tool?!', you might want to check out this quick tutorial on the basics of how to use the ftt. Trust me, it is the best tool. You will love it.
The next step is something that I was inspired to do after reading tinebrella's tutorials. She is really big on using Auto Levels especially on Supernatural screencaps, and while I've definitely used and abused Auto Levels in the past, I've been sort of wary using it on such dark screencaps. Well, SURPRISE, Auto Levels is actually the best thing to happen to Supernatural since Castiel made his bamf entrance (ymmv). Anyway, so I stamped my layers, used Auto Levels, and set the layer to soft light.
=
Then I added this texture. I'd love to tell you who is was by (and I'm just assuming I didn't make it myself; I might've), but I often (read: all the damn time) blur the textures I add to things beyond recognition so I have no idea what this texture original looked like, if it was color or black and white originally, or who it was by. If you happen to, somehow, recognize it, please let me know the maker in the comments, yeah? Anyway, I set the texture to screen to add some much need light variation to the icon.
I get comments a lot talking about how warm my icons are, and I can tell you, it is probably because I make things red/yellow a lot? At least at the start. Which is why the next step had me stamping all my layers and going into variations. I added Red (1) and Yellow (1).
Now sometimes when I add the red and yellow, it is because I want the icon to be red or yellow, but a lot of the time, I like using red and yellow as a basis for other coloring. Which is the case this time because the red and yellow looked kind of blah. So I popped open a Selective Coloring adjustment layer! I pretty much live in the 'Neutral' section of SC, and in this case, I added +39 to the Cyans and +39 to the yellows which gave me a nice green coloring.
But I wanted to really punch up the coloring, so I added a Hue/Saturation layer, and I pumped up the master saturation to +25. However, I was interested in having the blood on Castiel's jacket and the blood on the table behind Dean standing out, but with all the green, it wasn't. So I popped another Hue/Saturation layer on, and I edited the Red saturation to +41 which only makes a little bit of difference, but whatever.
=
This next texture, which has been cropped down and resized from its original form, is also maker-less because I am a terrible person who sometimes grabs textures from random posts/websites and forgets to add the maker name? I swear I am getting better at this. Please don't hurt me texture makers for I love and cherish you! So...I set this particular texture on soft light at 60% and then on screen at 35% which gives the icon some depth and also a little bit of texture as well.
=
This texture is by fuuurs! Hah! See, I credit things! Anyway, I've resized it for my purposes and I've also added a black and white gradient to it because the original is bright yellow/orange-ish which doesn't really mesh so well. Anyway, I set it to screen, and then I layer masked away the middle of the texture so only the borders on the sides were left.
&
Everything was still a little too warm for my tastes, so I stamped all my layers, and looked to variations once again. Pretty sure I added Green (1), and then I lowered the opacity of the layer to 35%. Then I stamped all my layers again and added a little Diffuse Glow (Filters > Distort > Diffuse Glow).
=
Then I decided I wanted to add a little accent color. So I brushed in some blue highlights, and then set the layer to screen at 35%. (White background added for tutorial purposes only.)
&
Next, I stamped all my layers again and set that to soft light because the icon needed some kick pretty badly. See, it went from kind of blah to BAM really fast. Good times. Then I stamped all my layers again, and, using Paint Daubs, I sharpened the whole thing.
But, you see, there's all this negative space up top, and I can do stuff there! Exciting! I'm kind of a text fiend, and I really like adding text to my Supernatural icons because Supernatural has all kinds of text opportunities from really quotable lines to great music lyrics.
So I took a quote from the scene, and I popped it onto the icon. 'Cas...' is done in Lobster 1.4 at size 48, and 'He's not here anymore.' was done in Arvil Sans in size 24. Things that may or may not be true: On the character menu, there are a lot of extra settings, and sometimes I just keep 'bold' and 'uppercase' checked, and I don't even remember that I've done it? So both sections of text might have 'bold' checked, and the bottom section might be in 'uppercase'. Hard to say.
The text was free transformed to sit at an angle. Yup, good old ftt again! useful for all kinds of things. I also find that it is far better to use ftt than the text tool for shifting text to an angle. Again ymmv.
And...I have a confession. I go around telling everyone I Gaussian Blur my text at a 0.3 radius. Watch me do the dance of a hypocrite. Usually, yes, I blur my text. In the case of this icon? I didn't blur at all. No blurring. Zero.
>>
Then, apparently, I thought 'this could use some more BAM' because I duplicated the soft light layer right under the text, and dragged it to the top. Lots more contrast! And about this time, I thought I was done. So I resized down to 100x100, but upon resizing, I realized that I wasn't 100% on board with the icon as it was. It was kind of dark, and the left side didn't really pop as much as it could.
=
So I added one of my own textures to the mix, I set it to screen, and then I layer masked it away from the bottom right corner because things were already pretty bright down there.
&
&
It was a bit bright after that though so to fix that, I stamped my layers and then used variations (Darker (2)) to darken everything up. The I layer masked, just barely, around Dean and Castiel, and then kind of blurred the layer mask a whole bunch which achieves the same sort of effect that lowering the opacity of the layer does. Kind of. You can also achieve this by setting your brush to a lower opacity or using a grey color instead of black.
Then I added another Hue/Saturation layer and upped the master saturation to +15. Finally, I stamped all my layers one more time, and used Auto Levels again, as far as I can tell. Then I merged all my layers, and I had an icon.
APPLE RED AS BLOOD
Using: Photoshop 7.0
Translatable: to other versions of photoshop
[Tutorial #3: Evil queen for firstillusion]
+
+
This icon is composed of, originally, three separate images from the same scene. I cut out different sections from each screencap and pasted them together for a layered level effect with the Queen's gaze leading the eye toward the apple in the middle as the apple and the heart are seen as her tools of destruction and thus the symbols of her villainy. Since this icon was made for my top 7 villains set, that was kind of an important vibe for me.
=
Then I added this texture made by yours truly to screen.
Next up, I stamped all my layers, and then went to town with variations: Green (1), Red (1), Yellow (1), Darker (3). At least, I think it was one green click. It might have been one blue click. *sigh* Pro tip: variations is freaking awesome, but it is hell on your psd files because there's no record of exactly what you did. So you have to go back and try your best to make a match between the two from memory.
The previous step didn't really add any contrast to the icon, and it was sorely lacking so I threw a curves layer together. I don't have exact point numbers, but you can see the path of my curve here.
&
&
Some Diffuse Glow! And then a Hue/Saturation layer with the master saturation pumped up +15. Then I stamped all my layers and used Auto Levels. I'm pretty sure I was stagnating a little here, and I had no idea what to do, really, so I just fiddled around a bit until inspiration struck again.
=
And then I thought the apple needed to stand out some more considering how keen I was on it. So I grabbed a bright red color, painting the apple, and then set the layer with the painting on color burn.
=
Another texture of mine which I set to soft light. I'm clearly still floundering...probably because the coloring is hideous, and there's no real light/shadow balance. Basically, this is a mess.
&
So I decided to go in a different direction with the coloring, stamped all my layers, and had another go at variations. Green (1), Yellow (1), Darker (3). Then, still not happy, I stamped all my layers once more and used High Pass (Filter > Other > High Pass) then set the layer to soft light.
THIS IS THE FUN PART! I'd had enough with the bottom cap. Everything was too cluttered, and the bottom half was too dark to save at this point, so I just decided to scrap it! I used to eye dropper tool to grab the same white color as the top border, and then used the rectangle shape tool to obliterate the bottom cap from the picture. And I gave it a little paint daub sharpen for flavor. Doesn't it look heaps better? Like...it changed everything. The shadows don't look so messy and overwhelming anymore. It isn't as dark. The composition is less heavy. So. much. better.
I still wasn't 100% sold on the coloring though, and I thought something cooler would contrast with the apple better. So I stamped my layers and prayed to the variations goddess that I could work something out. Blue (2), Cyan (1). Then I masked that away from the apple because it needed to stay red, and that was that! I also went on to experiment with adding text to this one, but of the two different text variations I tried, I didn't like either one. So this was the final product!