Tutorial | Icon #031

[mercscilla]

How to go from
to

For Photoshop CS2. The .psd file can be found here.

I'm using two Curves Layers, three Color Balance Layers and one Selective Color Layer.



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Crop your image down to 100x100.

Sharpen it once and smooth the skin.


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Go to Layer >> New Adjustment Layer >> Curves

Use the settings you see in the screencap.

This makes the light color in the icon more shiny :).


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Go to Layer >> New Adjustment Layer >> Color Balance.

For Midtones use -36 | -15 | +17.

Leave Shadows and Highlights untouched.


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Go to Layer >> New Adjustment Layer >> Selective Color.

Select from the menu Neutrals.

Cyan: +26% | Magenta: -21% | Yellow: -54% | Black: -18%

This gives the icon the blue-ish tone :)


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Merge (Ctrl+Shift+E) all layers.

Duplicate your new base and set the copy to Multiply.


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Go to Layer >> New Adjustment Layer >> Curves

Use the settings you see in the screencap.

This intensifies the colors a little bit.


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Go to Layer >> New Adjustment Layer >> Color Balance.

For Midtones use +10 | -5 | 0.

For Shadows use +10 | +5 | +5.

For Highlights use -5 | -10 | -5.


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Go to Layer >> New Adjustment Layer >> Color Balance.

For Midtones use +29 | -8 | +10.

For Shadows use +11 | +5 | +9.

For Highlights use 0 | +5 | -5


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