1.1 Ask the Maker tutorials #1
I started with a 1280x720 caps and adjusted the colours, I used a curve layer, but prepare your caps the way you want, once I'm happy with my preps, I resize the canvas to a 100*100 and start working.
First I used a colour fill layer to erase the background, I didn't really pay much attention to the hairs, especially those floating strands because I knew I'd repaint those, so think about getting a clean background, as for the colour, I just picked it from the caps background, because I wanted it to have a solid palette without varing too much!
Next step was to add a black/white gradient putting the lighter part on her forhead/facial feature, but you can play around with it, also, my gradient was set on soft light, but overlay really gives a lot more depth if that's what you like!
After this I sligtly changed my colours trhough the hue/sat adjustment level,I went for a pinkish/reddish tint, but it's personal. My values in this case were: -10 / +36 / +2
Now, I don't remember if this was a texture or just my base very very blurred, but I've used this thing on soft light erasing part of the texture over her face (a diagonal over her ear-nose basically)
After this I've used a pamkips texture, tho I don't remember if I edited id or not, so I'm gonna link it anyway :P and I put it on softlight to get that gritty effect
After this there's the painting part; I didn't really do anything fancy here, just repainted some hair and added a light border around Fang to make her pop. Middle image shows you what I painted (the red is just for showing purposes, it wasn't in the icon).
After the repaint of some hairs, I just copied everything (ctrl+a to select / ctrl+shift+c to copy ALL the layers) and pasted it into a new layer, turned this one in black and white, blurred it and set it on soft light
Final part: text! I've used Sanchez for the tiny text and Antrokas for the bigger word. The composition is trying to balance out the "light" corner on the top left, following the rule of thirds. I picked the text colour right from the icon then duplicated those layers, rastrerized them, converted into smart object and applied blur.
I prepared the base with a curve layer, but it's not really important, prepare it your way, I went for a center crop because I had this idea of a negative icon, and I wanted the silhouette to be neat (silhouettes are foundamentals when creating a character for a videogame, that's why when I go into negative stuff I ensure myself that's clear who/what the subject is /rant).
The important thing is to REALLY make your character cut out of the background, you can do that in 2 ways: creating a fake background OR using layers to make your character darken, this is what I did, I used some brightness/contrast to make my character very very dark.
On a new layer with some brushes I created a black border on the bottom line of the icon and erased the grass and defined the shape of my character where his shirt was to muddy and of the same colour of the background. on the right side of his arm (the dull red is just for showing purpose, it wasn't part of the icon).
Now you turn your icon into a negative. To do so I used a black and white gradient map. If you use the base one, you should just check "reverse" on the gradient map menu and it will turn the colours around, or if you're doing it manually just have the white on the left and the black on the right.
At this point I've added a texture (I don't know/remember the maker, if you recognize it please let me know!) and set it on SUBTRACT, that gives you the opposite colours of the spectrum.
At this point I've added a new black/white gradient map layer (black on left- white on right) and set it on overlay to give the shadows on the figure more depth.
Last thing to add was the "dripping" texture, which is a lookslikerain texture, I edited the colour to make it orange-ish, but I'm linking the original one just in case (to change the texture colour I've used a gradient map with black on left- orange on right). The texture was moved up a bit and set on screen
That's it!
Prepare your cap the way you prefer, as usual it's not really relevant in the making.
My first step in this icon was to create a bulb of light on the right corner, I used a soft round brush and a colour I picked from the most lighted part of my base, so not a clear off white. I left the layer on normal.
To give the reddis tint I used a colour fill layer #76371e on PIN LIGHT, erasing abit the mask of the layer, I'll show you how it is with a full mask and then with the erased mask, to erase I've used a sofr round brush and, if I'm not mistaken I've also gaussian-blurred the mask layer.
Added a +100 vibrance layer to make the colour pop a bit
A black and white gradient with the with in the top right corner of the image to deepen the shadows on the jacket/hoodie.
I copied all the layers (ctrl+a to select / ctrl-shift-c to copy all) and pasted it into a new layer setting the layer on softlight
At this point I sharpened my icon, I don't remember HOW I did it, I can only assume I use the smart sharpen as usual and masked away the part I didn't want. Sorry I can't really help there, but it's not exactly a necessary point this one! Last thing I did before adding the text, was to cover the left top corner with a black brush. I was bothered by that orangey-thing over there.
The font used is courier new with nothing special added to it!
As usual, prepare your base the way you like, it's irrelevant! For this icon I went and created a solid background picking a red colour from the original background. This is what it looks like
After this I've used a texture and clipped it (right click on the layer -> clip layer) to the background color setting the texture (if you recognize it let me know!) on softlight to make it a bit less flat
Okay, this is tricky, with a very very bright colour I created the shape of Crowley's head, because I needed a defined place for the flames to take place, basically, this helps you to have an idea on WHERE the flames are gonna be, considering that the fire stock is going to be used on screen because of the black background. The images underneath will show you the original stock, than the one masked using the shape!Clearly, once you masked your stock, you can just delete/hide the shape, it's not needed!
The stock used comes from this pack on deviantart.
After fixing the flames I've added a texture (as usual, if you recognize this let me know, I have the tendency to edit textures and save them with "fkdjslfdj" names). Texture's on screen!
Added a black/white gradient with the light on the left side of the icon because... I don't know, face?
Lest step before text was a gradient map with: #30211f on right and #b45e47 on the left set on overlay to give really vibrant deep reddish tones!
Now contrast the way you prefer, it's not really important and, as the final step I've added some half-arsed text, font used are: sanchez and antrokas! Text was set on screen this time around!
That's it!
Ask The Maker 2015 || My Thread