Ask The Maker III (part two)
Written in Photoshop CS5.5
Only tutorials in this one :) For the Q&A part, go here.
Tutorials for:
All of these icons were ultimately recreated, but I tried to get as close as I could.
I can ask a tutorial for these icons? -zhaoxun
I. light Cara cap
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We started off with this amazing cap:
It's Legend of the Seeker though so what did you expect? Prettiness! For this particular icon I tried to focus solely on Cara. I wanted to experiment a bit with very light/white colors and using her hair for that just looked like it could work. So I ended up with this crop.
The first step I do after I crop a cap is just immediately lighten it up. I do this by using four Screen layers (I wanted it really light okay) all set to 100% except for the fourth one at 50%. After that I just duplicated it another time and set that layer on Soft Light 100%, right on top, so we immediately have some contrast back.
Now I focus on the coloring. I mentioned before I wanted this to be sort of white-ish, so between the last Screen layer and the Soft Light layer, I added a light gray color layer set to Soft Light 100%. The gray I chose was #dedede.
Using very light shades of gray as soft light layers causes your icon to lose their vibrant colors but in this particular instance I didn't even mind. You lose a lot of contrast too, so I'm gonna try and bring it back without losing the light feeling of the icon.
I used this texture for this:
(originally from this texture (of which I still don't know who made it), just desaturated and Gaussian Blurred) set to Overlay 100%.
The white of the texture is set just over her hair, and the dark part over her face, so her hair ends up very light, which felt like a good idea, considering what I was going for.
Better, right? Then I just wanted to maybe try to take it a little further and see how far I could get without trying to go over the top. So I duplicated the texture and this time put it to Soft Light 100%.
And yes, better! I feel like we have a grasp on the contrast again.
Then I added a Levels layer (after the Soft Light layer this time, not before) and upped the contrast just a little more. Honestly it's just a bit of a habit for me at this point. I almost always do this. The only settings I change are these, and just change them accordingly.
In the end, I just sharpened the Soft Light layer. Maybe once, maybe twice, I don't remember.
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II. colorful Cara cap
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We start off with this pretty cap:
As opposed to the previous icon, I wanted this icon to be a little more colorful. I think the colors are already good enough to work with so I didn't force them on the cap too much.
So again, we brighten things up and afterwards bring some contrast back. For this cap I used four Screen layers again (all set to 100% except for the last one at 60%) and a last Soft Light layer at 100%.
See? I told you the colors were already there! All we basically need to do is emphasize them a little more. I again used this texture set to Soft Light 100% to make the icon feel a little less flat (between the last Screen layer and the Soft Light layer).
And ultimately, to make the colors pop a little more, I used a little Vibrance. (I think the same can be achieved with a mix of Saturation and Color Balance). The settings I used in this instance is upping the Vibrance with +87 and the Saturation with +11.
So again after the last Soft Light layer, I added a Levels layer and upped them with 22 in the RGB section. And afterwards I sharpened the Soft Light layer twice. (the second time fading it with 55%).
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I'd like some tuts for these icons -beatsagain
III. Lydia
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We started off with this cap:
Teen Wolf, another one of them pretty shows!
As you can see, the colors are pretty cold (and fitting for the scene to be honest), but for some reason I went all orange with it!
So again, first thing we do is brighten things up. This time with three Screen layers set to 100% and one last Soft Light layer set to 100% on top.
Next step, because I went for orange for no apparent reason, I chose an orange-y shade (#ba611f in this instance, which is sort of a brown-y orange) and set that to Soft Light 100%.
The icon felt a little flat at this point, and I wanted some more focus to go on the left side. So again, I used this texture (which I use a lot apparently for not knowing who even made it). All I did was flip it horizontally and set it to Soft Light 100%. I felt like that wasn't enough, so I duplicated that texture layer then one more time.
Works even better, I think! That's as far as I think I could have gone though.
So next step, emphasize those oranges! For this I used a Vibrance layer with the Vibrance upped to +100.
In my opinion it could use a little more, so I added another Vibrance layer and this time I upped the Vibrance to +100 again and the Saturation with +6. For this Vibrance layer I ended up changing the opacity to 50% though 'cause I felt 100% was a little too much.
Now I feel like I'm repeating steps again, so basically I went on top of the last Soft Light layer again, and added a Levels layer where I upped them to 10 in the RGB section.
After the Levels layer, I added this light texture by lookslikerain (desaturated) set to Screen 40% to soften the blacks (because I felt they were a little harsh). Afterwards I sharpened the Soft Light layer twice (second time fading it to 55%).
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IV. dark Cara cap
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We start off with this cap:
The icon we're recreating was made for the color palette sidequest at theiconquest and it was for the darkest color in the Rogue palette. I figured that the easiest way to do this was to use a cap that was originally already pretty dark. This is why this icon is incredibly simple though.
So after cropping, we brighten it up again, with two Screen layers set to 100% and a Soft Light layer on top set to 100%.
After the last Screen layer (but before the Soft Light layer) I added a color fill layer and filled it with the color of the palette I was trying to get close to (in this case #20211d) and set it to Soft Light 100%.
And we're close already! Then eventually, all I did was add a Levels layer after the Soft Light layer (I upped them with 7 in the RGB section) and then sharpened the Soft Light layer but faded it to 55%.
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And that's it :) If anyone has anymore questions or needs me to elaborate on something, feel free to tell me so!