picnik icon tutorial #1
Today, I shall teach you how to get from the "Before" image to the "After" icon, using Picnik. This tutorial also includes a bonus brief intro to using textures with Picnik.
So, I've been tossing around the idea of making a graphics tutorial for some time now. Until recently, however, I haven't felt quite confident enough to do so. But, since I've now been making icons for nearly a year, I feel qualified enough to post this tutorial.
I use Picnik. It's a free browser-based photo editing program, and it has served me quite well. I recommend signing up so you can have some sort of history saved, and, also, unless I'm mistaken, if/when you purchase Picnik Premium, "all" your edits (really, it's only for up to 1000 photos, which isn't much if you make icon variations, which I do.
No, I'm not being paid by Picnik to encourage you to buy Picnik Premium. It's just super awesome, and you can only get some of my favorite effects by paying for them. However, for this tutorial, I'm going to stick to plain old (yet nifty) free Picnik.
Let me start by showing you some of my earliest icons. This serves two purposes: to show you a few examples of what NOT to do, and to show you that I don't pretend my early work was amazing. 'Cause it was pretty bad, actually.
Quite possibly my very first icon. Issues with this?
1. Why in the name of God is she so ORANGE? Yeah, I don't know, either. Why I thought the coloring was decent, I'll never know.
2. What's with her hand? I'm thinking this was over-contrasted or something. She's awfully...shiny.
Sigh.
1. Again, she's orange. WTF, Leesie?
2. It's really...blurry and too soft. I think this is largely due to my fascination with Orton-ish. If you take nothing else from this, please use Orton-ish sparingly. Bad things can happen if you don't.
This is wayyy too oversaturated. I think was made right after I purchased Picnik Premium, so I went a little nuts with the effects. DON'T DO THAT.
I know, I know. You might be thinking, "Okay, that's great, now show me what to DO." Okay, I will do that.
I'm going to show you how to get from the "Before" to the "After."
First, save the "Before" image to your computer. The full-size photo is here.
1. Open Picnik. It will ask you to upload a photo. Just upload the icon (or photo), and you're all set to begin!
2. Under the "Edit" tab, click "Exposure." This is ALWAYS (well, with a very few exceptions) the first thing I do.
---Move the Exposure slider to 5 (unless the photo is severely under/overexposed, I NEVER move the slider past -10 or 10. You can always go back and increase the exposure later if necessary.)
---Move the Contrast slider to 3.
3. Click on the "Create" tab. This is where you'll find all your effects, text, and stickers.
4. Click on the "Effects" button.
5. Click "Orton-ish". Remember that earlier I warned not to overdo this effect. Note that when you first click it, the difference is striking.
---Move the "fade" slider to 90%.
6. Click "HDR-ish." Again, this is an effect you will want to use sparingly.
---Move the "fade" slider to 95%.
7. Click "boost." (Normally, I prefer Vibrance, but this is a Picnik Premium effect. Just for fun, you might want to click "Vibrance" and note the difference in the effects.)
---Move the "strength" slider to 5%.
8. Click on the "Edit" tab again. From there, click on "Colors."
---Move the "Temperature" slider to -7.
---Move the "Saturation" slider to 1.
9. To see the before and after, click the "Create" tab again. From there, click "Frames."
---Click "Before And After" to see the difference between the original and final.
10. Next, go back to the "Edit" tab and click on "Crop."
---In the drop-down menu, select "square"
11. Crop the image as desired, or as closely as possible to the way I have.
12. Click the "Resize" button. Make sure "keep proportions" is checked.
--In the first box beside "new dimensions", enter "100."
13. Now, this is where, were you working with your own icon, you'd save your work to your computer, or to Photobucket, or wherever you want, really.
Optional Section: A Brief Intro to Using Textures with Picnik.
13. Save this texture (by fearher ) to your computer.
14. Now, click the green "Photo Basket" tab at the very bottom of the Picnik window. It will give you various options as to where to upload photos from. Select "computer", and upload the above texture.
15. Drag and drop the texture onto the icon. Stretch it to cover the icon, but don't overstretch it.
16. In the floating "Photo Properties" menu, select "screen" in the drop-down menu.
When done, it should look like this:
You can use these same (or similar) steps to apply almost any texture in Picnik. I'm particularly fond of light textures, myself.
You can also use this tutorial to make other icons as well. Here are a few more examples:
Please comment with any feedback/suggestions, but credit, although nice, isn't exactly necessary.
So, I've been tossing around the idea of making a graphics tutorial for some time now. Until recently, however, I haven't felt quite confident enough to do so. But, since I've now been making icons for nearly a year, I feel qualified enough to post this tutorial.
I use Picnik. It's a free browser-based photo editing program, and it has served me quite well. I recommend signing up so you can have some sort of history saved, and, also, unless I'm mistaken, if/when you purchase Picnik Premium, "all" your edits (really, it's only for up to 1000 photos, which isn't much if you make icon variations, which I do.
No, I'm not being paid by Picnik to encourage you to buy Picnik Premium. It's just super awesome, and you can only get some of my favorite effects by paying for them. However, for this tutorial, I'm going to stick to plain old (yet nifty) free Picnik.
Let me start by showing you some of my earliest icons. This serves two purposes: to show you a few examples of what NOT to do, and to show you that I don't pretend my early work was amazing. 'Cause it was pretty bad, actually.
Quite possibly my very first icon. Issues with this?
1. Why in the name of God is she so ORANGE? Yeah, I don't know, either. Why I thought the coloring was decent, I'll never know.
2. What's with her hand? I'm thinking this was over-contrasted or something. She's awfully...shiny.
Sigh.
1. Again, she's orange. WTF, Leesie?
2. It's really...blurry and too soft. I think this is largely due to my fascination with Orton-ish. If you take nothing else from this, please use Orton-ish sparingly. Bad things can happen if you don't.
This is wayyy too oversaturated. I think was made right after I purchased Picnik Premium, so I went a little nuts with the effects. DON'T DO THAT.
I know, I know. You might be thinking, "Okay, that's great, now show me what to DO." Okay, I will do that.
I'm going to show you how to get from the "Before" to the "After."
First, save the "Before" image to your computer. The full-size photo is here.
1. Open Picnik. It will ask you to upload a photo. Just upload the icon (or photo), and you're all set to begin!
2. Under the "Edit" tab, click "Exposure." This is ALWAYS (well, with a very few exceptions) the first thing I do.
---Move the Exposure slider to 5 (unless the photo is severely under/overexposed, I NEVER move the slider past -10 or 10. You can always go back and increase the exposure later if necessary.)
---Move the Contrast slider to 3.
3. Click on the "Create" tab. This is where you'll find all your effects, text, and stickers.
4. Click on the "Effects" button.
5. Click "Orton-ish". Remember that earlier I warned not to overdo this effect. Note that when you first click it, the difference is striking.
---Move the "fade" slider to 90%.
6. Click "HDR-ish." Again, this is an effect you will want to use sparingly.
---Move the "fade" slider to 95%.
7. Click "boost." (Normally, I prefer Vibrance, but this is a Picnik Premium effect. Just for fun, you might want to click "Vibrance" and note the difference in the effects.)
---Move the "strength" slider to 5%.
8. Click on the "Edit" tab again. From there, click on "Colors."
---Move the "Temperature" slider to -7.
---Move the "Saturation" slider to 1.
9. To see the before and after, click the "Create" tab again. From there, click "Frames."
---Click "Before And After" to see the difference between the original and final.
10. Next, go back to the "Edit" tab and click on "Crop."
---In the drop-down menu, select "square"
11. Crop the image as desired, or as closely as possible to the way I have.
12. Click the "Resize" button. Make sure "keep proportions" is checked.
--In the first box beside "new dimensions", enter "100."
13. Now, this is where, were you working with your own icon, you'd save your work to your computer, or to Photobucket, or wherever you want, really.
Optional Section: A Brief Intro to Using Textures with Picnik.
13. Save this texture (by fearher ) to your computer.
14. Now, click the green "Photo Basket" tab at the very bottom of the Picnik window. It will give you various options as to where to upload photos from. Select "computer", and upload the above texture.
15. Drag and drop the texture onto the icon. Stretch it to cover the icon, but don't overstretch it.
16. In the floating "Photo Properties" menu, select "screen" in the drop-down menu.
When done, it should look like this:
You can use these same (or similar) steps to apply almost any texture in Picnik. I'm particularly fond of light textures, myself.
You can also use this tutorial to make other icons as well. Here are a few more examples:
Please comment with any feedback/suggestions, but credit, although nice, isn't exactly necessary.