022 | Grunge Guide
deternot and sgmajorshipper requested a grunge guide from me, so here goes! Though I tend to make a lot of grungy icons, I'm not going to claim that I know all the grunge techniques...but the ones I use are covered here.
skip to base prep ~ texture examples ~ texture use ~ sharpening ~ tl;dr version
Sometimes when I start an icon I'll know I want it to be grungy because of Reasons. And I will do things from the beginning to…grunge-prep it? I guess?
Take this icon of Tony Stark. I knew at this point that I want a sort of grungy look for it, because I wanted to focus more on him than the Iron Man control lights on the side (which would have made me want to go more blurry). So when I copy-merge my existing image, I go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Artistic > Paint Daubs, brush size 1 and sharpness 1 to give the layer a bit of a rougher look before setting it to soft light.
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Just for reference, here's what the icon would have looked like without the paint daubs:
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so not a huge difference there, but the paint daubs does sometimes roughen the icon up a bit for you. I did the same thing on this Ringer icon.
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…and the icon sans paint daubs.
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Veeery rarely, I will use other filters too help with a grunge-y look. On this icon, I went to Filter > Noise > Add Noise to add some graininess. I usually use this filter between 2 - 8%, and often on monochrome as well. As everything else in icons, play around with it until it looks good on your icon. After I added the noise (4%) to the layer, I set it to screen.
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Here's the icon without any noise added:
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None of these methods add really noticeably grunge, but I find it extremely helpful to already have a base that's been sharpened up a bit when I get to the adding-grunge-textures point. Grunge textures simply do not work as well on a blurry base, and trying to use them on one will give you more work because not only do you have to figure out the right textures and their settings, but you'll also have to try to make them look like they belong on your blurry base.
Sometimes, I don't decide to go the grunge route until I get to texture-adding, and notice that hey, grunge textures are really working with my icon!
I have a ton of grunge textures, so really quick, here are the ones I've used on all the icons I'm using for this tutorial. I'll have a new (and probably expanded) selection for you in my texture guide, when I get that put together.
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As you may notice, some of these are more soft grunge than others (and some are even paint textures, technically). The amount of grunge I can get away with in different situations depends on a) what other textures it's paired with; b) how grungy I want my end product to be, and c) the settings I use for the texture in PS.
If I have a lot of grunge textures already on an icon, I don't really need (and sometimes even avoid) really heavy grunge textures because overdoing grunge just leads to a super LQ product. The line between grunge and gross-what-is-that-pixellated-mess-on-my-screen is often a tough one to walk (and one that I've gotten on the wrong side of, I'm sure), so that's just something you want to be careful about.
Sometimes simply adding more light to an already fairly light icon can make the end product more grungy-I'm not exactly sure why it works, but I think it has to do with making parts of the icon look a bit more washed out and maybe actually ruining the image quality a bit by making it lighter than it can really handle. That is a really huge I think though, so please don't quote me on it. At all. Observe, though, the difference in the icon when I add this texture by hybridmagic to it on soft light, 56%.
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Playing with is a good way to get a softer grunge look. Paint textures often give sharper lighting differentials than your typical lighting texture, which can fit the grunge look very well.
I usually use grunge textures on either screen on soft light, depending on what I want them to bring out in an icon. Sometimes, the blend mode doesn't make much of a difference. This texture by innocent_lexys (one of my favorites) adds about the same amount of grunge when it's set on soft light and screen (both 35%, because that's what I used on the icon).
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Ditto this texture by 3psy, set on screen and soft light, both at 15% opacity.
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You'll notice that the textures set to screen only lighten an icon, whereas the ones set to soft light can lighten or darken a section of the icon. This is why sometimes textures can have a greater effect when set to screen than grunge. I'll show you what I mean using this texture by innocent_lexys, set first to screen and then soft light, 40% opacity.
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Since the icon is mostly dark, the small bits of white from the texture don't come through when set on soft light - it just darkens the icon. On the other hand, if you're on an icon with more light, you may want the soft light setting to add a bit of darkness.
Once I've added my textures, I want to make sure the grunge really comes through, so I often copy-merge again, use the paint daubs filter on the layer, and set it to soft light (in the example below, the opacity of the layer is 50%). As you'll notice in the paint-daubed layer, this step adds a lot more, well, pixellation after all my texture work.
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Whereas with out the paint daubs, we end up with this:
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Sometimes I'm lucky enough that the sharpening I already have to do adds enough grunge for me to be happy with.
This icon was simply copy-merged and sharpened using paint daubs; I then masked out the parts that were too sharp.
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Sometimes I'll have to go through and add layer masks, or copy-merge again and use a blur brush on parts that have gotten a bit too sharp. I may also use a smudge brush to touch up rough skin for a softer grunge look.
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After that, I'll do my regular sharpening, usually using Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask [amount 20, radius 1], Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen [amount 100, radius .2-.3 px], or Filter > Other > High Pass [amount .2-.4, set on soft light]. In this case, I used Unsharp Mask and masked out the rough parts
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If at this point in the icon I decide that the grunge still isn't grungy enough, I'll add a texture of this type to pump it up a bit more. Other times, I'll just do a bit more sharpening of the icon to give it that extra punch.
Here I've used the paint daubs filter and faded it to 40% (press cmd+shift+f right after doing the filter), then set the resulting layer to soft light.
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Without that, my icon would look like this:
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That's all the tricks I use to grungify things. Below I've put together a short list of dos and don'ts when it comes to grunge.
THE TL;DR guide to grunge-ing
§ Blurring your icon will counteract your grunge work, so be careful if you have to blur.
§ Trying to grunge up an icon that has a lot of blur (like so) will not work as well. Going back to remove some of your more blurred layers may save time in the long run.
§ Grunge textures, and lots of them! Experiment with different settings, opacities, and texture combinations.
§ Start on the grungy look as soon as possible in your process. Sharpening before the last step may help you.
§ Sharpening your icon more than you think you ought (and then masking out offending parts) may help achieve a grungy look.
§ The paint daubs filter is your friend as it basically grungifies your icon. Set layers with this filter on normal or soft light for best effect.
§ Play around with other filters (add noise, film grain, etc.) to see what they can do to your base.
Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions, hit me up! Next up: more guides/tuts for Ask the Maker. Go here to request things (or second requests, so I know where to start)!