[27]; Tutorial 002: Gandalf/LOTR Icon
Requested by vapor at Ask the Maker!
This icon uses the following two screencaps (courtesy of lordoftherings.so-obsessed.com):
1. The first thing I did was crop them. I cropped the first one as shown and the second one was pasted on top of that and then Free Transformed to fit where I wanted it to:
2. After I pasted it, I added a layer mask (like this) to the second screencap and used a default brush (in black) to brush over the parts around Gandalf that I didn't want to show. This is what the base and the layer mask looked like:
3. I then pressed Ctrl+Shift+E to Stamp Visible, set that layer's blending mode on Screen and duplicated it twice.
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4. I then added a Gradient Map adjustment layer and chose the default Copper gradient and put that layer on Soft Light at 41%. I duplicated that layer and checked the box next to Reverse.
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5. This icon is extremely blue and I wanted to make it a more natural coloring so I added a Selective Coloring layer with the following settings:
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6. To brighten it up a bit and add some vibrance I added Vibrance layer and a Curves layer with the following settings:
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7. I pressed Ctrl+Shift+E to Stamp Visible, added a Guassian Blur at 4.9 and set that layer on Soft Light. I added a layer mask and masked out all of the eyes to maintain some sharpness in those areas.
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8. Again, I pressed Ctrl+Shift+E to Stamp Visible and (making sure that white (#ffffff) is what my background color is set to on my Tools palette) I went to Filter > Distort > Diffuse Glow and set Graininess to 0, Glow Amount to 5 and Clear Amount to 13 (but this will differ depending on the images you're working with).
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9. I then added this texture by lumsx, inverted it, added a Guassian Blur at 4.9 and set it to Soft Light. This is one of my favorite textures for adding lighting! I also added yet another Vibrance layer set to 100 (Saturation at 0).
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10. I pasted this texture by lookslikerain, Guassian Blur'd it at 4.9, set it to Soft Light, added a layer mask and brushed over part of Gandalf's hair so it wasn't too bright.
+ Guassian Blur +
=
11. I then added this texture by innocent_lexys and set it to Soft Light at 27%. I also added this texture by tinebrella, Guassian Blur'd it again at 4.9 and set it to Soft Light at 45%. I added a Layer Mask to that layer and brushed over the top right corner of the icon (like this).
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12. Lastly, I pressed Ctrl+Shift+E to Stamp Visible, added a Guassian Blur at 4.9 and set that layer to 30%. I added a layer mask to that layer and brushed over Gandalf's eyes. I Stamped Visible one last time, sharpened it by going to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask (Amount at 50, Radius at 1.0 and Threshold at 0) and then lowered the opacity of that layer to 30%. Voila!
>
I still have a couple more tutorials to do and will get those out asap :)
This icon uses the following two screencaps (courtesy of lordoftherings.so-obsessed.com):
1. The first thing I did was crop them. I cropped the first one as shown and the second one was pasted on top of that and then Free Transformed to fit where I wanted it to:
2. After I pasted it, I added a layer mask (like this) to the second screencap and used a default brush (in black) to brush over the parts around Gandalf that I didn't want to show. This is what the base and the layer mask looked like:
3. I then pressed Ctrl+Shift+E to Stamp Visible, set that layer's blending mode on Screen and duplicated it twice.
>
4. I then added a Gradient Map adjustment layer and chose the default Copper gradient and put that layer on Soft Light at 41%. I duplicated that layer and checked the box next to Reverse.
>
5. This icon is extremely blue and I wanted to make it a more natural coloring so I added a Selective Coloring layer with the following settings:
>
6. To brighten it up a bit and add some vibrance I added Vibrance layer and a Curves layer with the following settings:
>
7. I pressed Ctrl+Shift+E to Stamp Visible, added a Guassian Blur at 4.9 and set that layer on Soft Light. I added a layer mask and masked out all of the eyes to maintain some sharpness in those areas.
>
8. Again, I pressed Ctrl+Shift+E to Stamp Visible and (making sure that white (#ffffff) is what my background color is set to on my Tools palette) I went to Filter > Distort > Diffuse Glow and set Graininess to 0, Glow Amount to 5 and Clear Amount to 13 (but this will differ depending on the images you're working with).
>
9. I then added this texture by lumsx, inverted it, added a Guassian Blur at 4.9 and set it to Soft Light. This is one of my favorite textures for adding lighting! I also added yet another Vibrance layer set to 100 (Saturation at 0).
>
10. I pasted this texture by lookslikerain, Guassian Blur'd it at 4.9, set it to Soft Light, added a layer mask and brushed over part of Gandalf's hair so it wasn't too bright.
+ Guassian Blur +
=
11. I then added this texture by innocent_lexys and set it to Soft Light at 27%. I also added this texture by tinebrella, Guassian Blur'd it again at 4.9 and set it to Soft Light at 45%. I added a Layer Mask to that layer and brushed over the top right corner of the icon (like this).
>
12. Lastly, I pressed Ctrl+Shift+E to Stamp Visible, added a Guassian Blur at 4.9 and set that layer to 30%. I added a layer mask to that layer and brushed over Gandalf's eyes. I Stamped Visible one last time, sharpened it by going to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask (Amount at 50, Radius at 1.0 and Threshold at 0) and then lowered the opacity of that layer to 30%. Voila!
>
I still have a couple more tutorials to do and will get those out asap :)