ICON TUTORIAL
Jul. 7th, 2010 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
x_erikah_xI was feeling inspired and decided to compile what I know about making icons to use it as a guide and to try and inspire others too. The more icon makers out there the better, right?
Beware that this tutorial will be image heavy. The pics aren’t big since this is an icon tutorial, but they are many.
You’ll learn how to go from this:
To some of these:
Starting from the very beginning. This tutorial will be really detailed and was done for very beginners, so if you aren’t one, you could get a bit frustrated with the excessive amount of explantions. I’m using Photoshop CS2.
BASE
1 - The most important part of iconning is the cropping. It is the heart and soul of making icons. Even the best effects, textures and coloring can’t save an icon if it is badly cropped. Rule number one is: Do NOT center images because centered images are too boring. There will be a lot more visual impact if the image is near one border, partly cut or incomplete.
Look at the examples and see how the cropping can change the feeling of the icon.
Notice how this means that you’ll rarely include the whole top of Sheppard’s gorgeous hair unless you cut his bottom and leave a lot of space on top. Maybe you’ll have to cut off one of his elvish ears or leave only part of his body visible. Of course, you can leave each bit of his body visible if you want. Why spoil the fun, heh?
Zooming in or out also changes everything.
You can also choose which border you will favor.Pay attention that you don’t only have left or right. You can also play with the top and bottom.
How about turning him upside down?
Or tilting him to the side?
2 - Pay attention at a very important part about resizing. I’ve seen many icon makers doing it wrong, leaving wrong proportions and/or blurry. It’s easier to be done by using the ‘MOVE TOOL’ (shortcut is ‘V’) then clicking at the top pannel where it says ‘SHOW TRANSFORM CONTROLS’. You can unclick after you are finished because the controls can interfere with you visualization. Now this is the important part: Don’t forget to keep the ‘SHIFT’ key pressed while you resize the picture. After you resize it, go to the menu, click on FILTER > SHARPEN > SHARPEN. Be sure to only do it once because repeating this effect can leave the pic artificial, which can also happen if your original picture is of bad quality. I only use high quality pics, preferable high definition.
3 - You can also combine different pics, or versions of the same one in the icon.
COLORING
4 - Now that you have a good base you can work on the effects. My favorite coloring effects are those which enhance colors and leave them more vivid. You can also play with lights, contrast, hue... Photoshop gives you a wide range of options to play and pretty much only your imagination is the limit. The secret in this part is to work in layers of effects. Never do the effects directly in the picture because they can’t be duplicated again in other ones. This way, you can switch effects on and off by your heart’s content and according to different lighting on images. After you achieve the desired coloring effect, you simply have to put images under those layers and the effects will appear automatically. It becomes an icon production line.
5 - To achieve the coloring in the examples from the beginning, you start by clicking in LAYER > NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER > BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST. Set the Brightness to +30 and Contrast to +10. Notice that this creates a new layer that is called ‘Brightness/Contrast’. If you want, just click on the eye next to this layer and it will switch off. Click again to turn it back on.
6 - Again, create a new adjustment layer by going to LAYER > NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER > CURVES, or you can click on the small half white/half black circular icon at the bottom of the layer tab.
On the new window that pops up, click on ‘CHANNEL’ and select ‘RED’. There will be a diagonal line across the graph. Click on it and drag the mouse until the values reach 190 for INPUT and 200 for OUTPUT. Now click on the little square at the left bottom of the graph and make a new point by dragging it until you have 46 of INPUT and 0 of OUTPUT.
Go to CHANNEL again and select ‘GREEN’. The first point is at INTPUT 185 and OUTPUT of 200. The bottom point is at INPUT 30 and OUTPUT 0.
Now, CHANNEL > BLUE. First point is at INTPUT 185 and OUTPUT of 200 and the second at INPUT 12 and OUTPUT 0. Click on OK and you are done wih this layer.
7 - NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER > SELECTIVE COLORING. On the top there will be a tab with an arrow which you can click to select different colors and below that there will be a series of lines with values that run across it and the color which will be favored. We will change the values for COLOR > RED and COLOR > YELLOW.
For COLOR > RED, select -100% for CYAN, +17% for MAGENTA, +7% for YELLOW and -8% for BLACK.
In COLOR > YELLOW put +100% CYAN, 0% MAGENTA, -100% YELLOW and -45% BLACK. Click in OK.
8 - NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER > COLOR FILL. There will be a window with a color selecting tool and lots of small boxes with numbers. On the very bottom there will be a box with a ‘#’ written on it. Write ‘d8f1f3’ on it. This is the name of a color that will appear in the sample box as light blue. Click on OK. You will see that you image turned totally blue. What we have to do is tell Photoshop how to blend this color with the image. We do that by going to the layer window and clicking on the tab near the top that says NORMAL. This tab is called BLENDING (it’s not written on it). So, go to BLENDING > COLOR BURN.
10 - We are almost finished. In the layer window, right-click on your base image and click on DUPLICATE LAYER. Click on OK and now you have two identical layers. Click on one and drag it to the very top of the list. Your image has lost its color as a result, right? The magic trick here is to go to BLENDING > LUMINOSITY and voila! Your icon is ready!
Save it as a .PNG for better quality.
I hope that was clear enough. If you have any questions, just leave a comment and I'll try to respond.
Beware that this tutorial will be image heavy. The pics aren’t big since this is an icon tutorial, but they are many.
You’ll learn how to go from this:
To some of these:
Starting from the very beginning. This tutorial will be really detailed and was done for very beginners, so if you aren’t one, you could get a bit frustrated with the excessive amount of explantions. I’m using Photoshop CS2.
BASE
1 - The most important part of iconning is the cropping. It is the heart and soul of making icons. Even the best effects, textures and coloring can’t save an icon if it is badly cropped. Rule number one is: Do NOT center images because centered images are too boring. There will be a lot more visual impact if the image is near one border, partly cut or incomplete.
Look at the examples and see how the cropping can change the feeling of the icon.
Notice how this means that you’ll rarely include the whole top of Sheppard’s gorgeous hair unless you cut his bottom and leave a lot of space on top. Maybe you’ll have to cut off one of his elvish ears or leave only part of his body visible. Of course, you can leave each bit of his body visible if you want. Why spoil the fun, heh?
Zooming in or out also changes everything.
You can also choose which border you will favor.Pay attention that you don’t only have left or right. You can also play with the top and bottom.
How about turning him upside down?
Or tilting him to the side?
2 - Pay attention at a very important part about resizing. I’ve seen many icon makers doing it wrong, leaving wrong proportions and/or blurry. It’s easier to be done by using the ‘MOVE TOOL’ (shortcut is ‘V’) then clicking at the top pannel where it says ‘SHOW TRANSFORM CONTROLS’. You can unclick after you are finished because the controls can interfere with you visualization. Now this is the important part: Don’t forget to keep the ‘SHIFT’ key pressed while you resize the picture. After you resize it, go to the menu, click on FILTER > SHARPEN > SHARPEN. Be sure to only do it once because repeating this effect can leave the pic artificial, which can also happen if your original picture is of bad quality. I only use high quality pics, preferable high definition.
3 - You can also combine different pics, or versions of the same one in the icon.
COLORING
4 - Now that you have a good base you can work on the effects. My favorite coloring effects are those which enhance colors and leave them more vivid. You can also play with lights, contrast, hue... Photoshop gives you a wide range of options to play and pretty much only your imagination is the limit. The secret in this part is to work in layers of effects. Never do the effects directly in the picture because they can’t be duplicated again in other ones. This way, you can switch effects on and off by your heart’s content and according to different lighting on images. After you achieve the desired coloring effect, you simply have to put images under those layers and the effects will appear automatically. It becomes an icon production line.
5 - To achieve the coloring in the examples from the beginning, you start by clicking in LAYER > NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER > BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST. Set the Brightness to +30 and Contrast to +10. Notice that this creates a new layer that is called ‘Brightness/Contrast’. If you want, just click on the eye next to this layer and it will switch off. Click again to turn it back on.
6 - Again, create a new adjustment layer by going to LAYER > NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER > CURVES, or you can click on the small half white/half black circular icon at the bottom of the layer tab.
On the new window that pops up, click on ‘CHANNEL’ and select ‘RED’. There will be a diagonal line across the graph. Click on it and drag the mouse until the values reach 190 for INPUT and 200 for OUTPUT. Now click on the little square at the left bottom of the graph and make a new point by dragging it until you have 46 of INPUT and 0 of OUTPUT.
Go to CHANNEL again and select ‘GREEN’. The first point is at INTPUT 185 and OUTPUT of 200. The bottom point is at INPUT 30 and OUTPUT 0.
Now, CHANNEL > BLUE. First point is at INTPUT 185 and OUTPUT of 200 and the second at INPUT 12 and OUTPUT 0. Click on OK and you are done wih this layer.
7 - NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER > SELECTIVE COLORING. On the top there will be a tab with an arrow which you can click to select different colors and below that there will be a series of lines with values that run across it and the color which will be favored. We will change the values for COLOR > RED and COLOR > YELLOW.
For COLOR > RED, select -100% for CYAN, +17% for MAGENTA, +7% for YELLOW and -8% for BLACK.
In COLOR > YELLOW put +100% CYAN, 0% MAGENTA, -100% YELLOW and -45% BLACK. Click in OK.
8 - NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER > COLOR FILL. There will be a window with a color selecting tool and lots of small boxes with numbers. On the very bottom there will be a box with a ‘#’ written on it. Write ‘d8f1f3’ on it. This is the name of a color that will appear in the sample box as light blue. Click on OK. You will see that you image turned totally blue. What we have to do is tell Photoshop how to blend this color with the image. We do that by going to the layer window and clicking on the tab near the top that says NORMAL. This tab is called BLENDING (it’s not written on it). So, go to BLENDING > COLOR BURN.
10 - We are almost finished. In the layer window, right-click on your base image and click on DUPLICATE LAYER. Click on OK and now you have two identical layers. Click on one and drag it to the very top of the list. Your image has lost its color as a result, right? The magic trick here is to go to BLENDING > LUMINOSITY and voila! Your icon is ready!
Save it as a .PNG for better quality.
I hope that was clear enough. If you have any questions, just leave a comment and I'll try to respond.
