five.
A tutorial requested by mystic_rose7 over Ask the Maker 2.0 activity. Sorry it took me this long, the second tutorial is on its way :)
So i'll try to recreate this icon:
I'm also providing a psd because making this icon contains lots of steps, and i'm not a native English speaker, therefore there may be grammar&vocab mistakes :)
1. Create a new 300x300 file, open the Bruce screencap and drag it to the 300x300 file. Resize using Free Transform tool. picture
2. Using Smudge tool, start smudging the wall up. You will get something like this
3. Using Polygonal Lasso tool, select several bricks as shown in the picture and cope them (Ctrl+C)
4. Paste the pieces all the way up (Ctrl+V) picture
5. Create a new layer and, using standard PS smooth brush (47px, density 0%), paint over the pasted pieces of the wall. Set the layer to Soft Light, opacity 37%
6. Open the Rachel screencap in PS and resize it a bit just to control it better. Set it to Screen so that you could already see how the two caps merge and where Rachel ends up. Resize Rachel again 'till she fits Bruce. picture
7. Mask out all the excess peices of screencaps. I also created a new layer, moved it just above the main Bruce and painted black over Bruce's lower part of face at some point picture
8. Resize to 100x100 and prep the base in accordance with this tutorial by raiindust (layers 1-10). I adopted this method this summer, and it does wonders!
9. New Curves layer, RGB mode:
dot 1: output 60, input 53
dot 2: output 177, input 146
10. New Curves layer, Red mode:
dot 1: output 166, input 154
11. New Curves layer, Green mode:
dot 1: output 103, input 91
12. New Curves layer, Blue mode:
dot 1: output 71, input 51
dot 2: output 165, input 138
13. New Selective Color layer:
Reds: -36; -24; +24; +7
Yellows: -47; -58; +40; 0
Greens: +85; +56; -71; +32
Cyans: +80; +33; -54; 0
Blues: +69; +28; -38; 0
Magentas: -32; -35; +57; 0
Whites: -55; -46; +100; -51
Neutrals: -11; -2; +7; 0
Blacks: +5; +5; +5; +5
14. New Colour Balance layer:
Shadows: -7; -7; +5
Midtones: -13; -10; -16
Highlights: +1; -2; -39
15. New Selective Color layer:
Whites: 0; +7; +65; 0
16. At this point i decided the extended wall should be more blurry, so i went Ctrl+A -> Ctrl+Shift+C -> Ctrl+V, selected the extended wall with Polygonal Lasso tool, went to Filters->Blur->Gaussian Blur, radius 5,6 (i think >_>), then i masked away the egdes of the blurry area a bit
17. I compared the recreation and the original icon and realised that on the original one the bricks fade into the wall, so i chose a blue from the icon and painted a spot on a new layer, then masked away the edges a bit to make things more subtle
18. Open this texture by innocent_lexys, drag it to the icon, set the texture to Soft Light, opacity 100%
19. New Selective Color layer:
Blues: 0; -16; -82; 0
20. Open this texture by mm3butterfly, drag it to the icon, set to Soft Light, opacity 28%
21. I thought the blue parts of Batman (i mean his armor and helmet) were standing out too much, so i created a new layer and painted black over them, then set the layer to Soft Light, opacity 100%
22. Now as much as i liked the shadow on the right side of Rachel's face (this has nothing to do with me preferring Katie Holmes to Maggie Gyllenhaal in this role :))), it's paler in the original icon, so create a new layer and paint white over Rachel's right side of face. Set the layer to Soft Light, opacity 100%
23. Open this texture by tinebrella, lighten in up (i used Curves, just moved the lower left corner dot up 'till i thought the texture was light enough. The output around 90, input 0), drag it to the icon, set to Soft Light, opacity 100%. Then, using Free Transform, turn it in the left direction a bit till the upper large paint stroke's angle is near 35 or so, and mask away everything that's below it.
24. Darken the upper left corner a bit by creating a new layer, painting the corner black and setting the layer tp Soft Light, opacity 71%
25. Now draw a white blop over the horizontal lamps on a new layer, and set it to Soft Light, opacity 83%
26. Open this texture by longerthanwedo, drag it to the icon, set to Screen, opacity 20%, then, using Free Transform, turn it by 45 degrees or so
27. Lighten up the shadow on Rachel a bit more by painting a white blop over it on a new layer set to Screen, opacity 12%
28. And another white blop on the round lamps behind Bruce on a new layer set to Soft Light, opacity 84%
29. Ctrl+A -> Ctrl+Shift+C -> Ctrl+V->Filter->Blur->Gaussian Blur at 5,0 radius. Set the layer to Soft Light, opacity 65%. Go to Image Adjustments-> Curves and drag the first existing dot up: output 70, input 0, and the second existing one down: output 182, input 255
30. New Curves layer:
dot 1: output 65, input 49
dot 2: output 184, input 151
31. Ctrl+A -> Ctrl+Shift+C -> Ctrl+V -> Filter -> Sharpen -> Sharpen. Layer mode Normal, opacity 75%
32. Ctrl+A -> Ctrl+Shift+C -> Ctrl+V and smudge out the pixellization usinf Smudge tool at 6-9px radius, 70% density, 9% intensity>
Et voila!
I know it's a bit different, and i'm sorry about that ;_; i couldn't find the exact Rachel cap (the site on which i had found the original ones is down, so i took advantage of Home Of The Nutty ^_^), plus the icon is really old, so i didn't remember anything from the process of making it, and my iconing process has changed a lot since then :) However, it was fun, and tbh i like the new version more than the original one xD
the .psd
So i'll try to recreate this icon:
I'm also providing a psd because making this icon contains lots of steps, and i'm not a native English speaker, therefore there may be grammar&vocab mistakes :)
1. Create a new 300x300 file, open the Bruce screencap and drag it to the 300x300 file. Resize using Free Transform tool. picture
2. Using Smudge tool, start smudging the wall up. You will get something like this
3. Using Polygonal Lasso tool, select several bricks as shown in the picture and cope them (Ctrl+C)
4. Paste the pieces all the way up (Ctrl+V) picture
5. Create a new layer and, using standard PS smooth brush (47px, density 0%), paint over the pasted pieces of the wall. Set the layer to Soft Light, opacity 37%
6. Open the Rachel screencap in PS and resize it a bit just to control it better. Set it to Screen so that you could already see how the two caps merge and where Rachel ends up. Resize Rachel again 'till she fits Bruce. picture
7. Mask out all the excess peices of screencaps. I also created a new layer, moved it just above the main Bruce and painted black over Bruce's lower part of face at some point picture
8. Resize to 100x100 and prep the base in accordance with this tutorial by raiindust (layers 1-10). I adopted this method this summer, and it does wonders!
9. New Curves layer, RGB mode:
dot 1: output 60, input 53
dot 2: output 177, input 146
10. New Curves layer, Red mode:
dot 1: output 166, input 154
11. New Curves layer, Green mode:
dot 1: output 103, input 91
12. New Curves layer, Blue mode:
dot 1: output 71, input 51
dot 2: output 165, input 138
13. New Selective Color layer:
Reds: -36; -24; +24; +7
Yellows: -47; -58; +40; 0
Greens: +85; +56; -71; +32
Cyans: +80; +33; -54; 0
Blues: +69; +28; -38; 0
Magentas: -32; -35; +57; 0
Whites: -55; -46; +100; -51
Neutrals: -11; -2; +7; 0
Blacks: +5; +5; +5; +5
14. New Colour Balance layer:
Shadows: -7; -7; +5
Midtones: -13; -10; -16
Highlights: +1; -2; -39
15. New Selective Color layer:
Whites: 0; +7; +65; 0
16. At this point i decided the extended wall should be more blurry, so i went Ctrl+A -> Ctrl+Shift+C -> Ctrl+V, selected the extended wall with Polygonal Lasso tool, went to Filters->Blur->Gaussian Blur, radius 5,6 (i think >_>), then i masked away the egdes of the blurry area a bit
17. I compared the recreation and the original icon and realised that on the original one the bricks fade into the wall, so i chose a blue from the icon and painted a spot on a new layer, then masked away the edges a bit to make things more subtle
18. Open this texture by innocent_lexys, drag it to the icon, set the texture to Soft Light, opacity 100%
19. New Selective Color layer:
Blues: 0; -16; -82; 0
20. Open this texture by mm3butterfly, drag it to the icon, set to Soft Light, opacity 28%
21. I thought the blue parts of Batman (i mean his armor and helmet) were standing out too much, so i created a new layer and painted black over them, then set the layer to Soft Light, opacity 100%
22. Now as much as i liked the shadow on the right side of Rachel's face (this has nothing to do with me preferring Katie Holmes to Maggie Gyllenhaal in this role :))), it's paler in the original icon, so create a new layer and paint white over Rachel's right side of face. Set the layer to Soft Light, opacity 100%
23. Open this texture by tinebrella, lighten in up (i used Curves, just moved the lower left corner dot up 'till i thought the texture was light enough. The output around 90, input 0), drag it to the icon, set to Soft Light, opacity 100%. Then, using Free Transform, turn it in the left direction a bit till the upper large paint stroke's angle is near 35 or so, and mask away everything that's below it.
24. Darken the upper left corner a bit by creating a new layer, painting the corner black and setting the layer tp Soft Light, opacity 71%
25. Now draw a white blop over the horizontal lamps on a new layer, and set it to Soft Light, opacity 83%
26. Open this texture by longerthanwedo, drag it to the icon, set to Screen, opacity 20%, then, using Free Transform, turn it by 45 degrees or so
27. Lighten up the shadow on Rachel a bit more by painting a white blop over it on a new layer set to Screen, opacity 12%
28. And another white blop on the round lamps behind Bruce on a new layer set to Soft Light, opacity 84%
29. Ctrl+A -> Ctrl+Shift+C -> Ctrl+V->Filter->Blur->Gaussian Blur at 5,0 radius. Set the layer to Soft Light, opacity 65%. Go to Image Adjustments-> Curves and drag the first existing dot up: output 70, input 0, and the second existing one down: output 182, input 255
30. New Curves layer:
dot 1: output 65, input 49
dot 2: output 184, input 151
31. Ctrl+A -> Ctrl+Shift+C -> Ctrl+V -> Filter -> Sharpen -> Sharpen. Layer mode Normal, opacity 75%
32. Ctrl+A -> Ctrl+Shift+C -> Ctrl+V and smudge out the pixellization usinf Smudge tool at 6-9px radius, 70% density, 9% intensity>
Et voila!
I know it's a bit different, and i'm sorry about that ;_; i couldn't find the exact Rachel cap (the site on which i had found the original ones is down, so i took advantage of Home Of The Nutty ^_^), plus the icon is really old, so i didn't remember anything from the process of making it, and my iconing process has changed a lot since then :) However, it was fun, and tbh i like the new version more than the original one xD
the .psd