!Tutorial
Going from this: 
to this:
Using Adobe Photoshop CS.
Third place at bssmawards
First off, we'll prepare the base.
Once again, we're starting from:
Our image is pretty dull, so what I usually do before I crop my image is duplicate the image (it's always good to have an unaltered version of the image somewhere on your document), then image>adjustments>auto levels, auto contrast, auto color. Then filter>sharpen>sharpen, filter>noise>despeckle, and then filter>sharpen>sharpen again.
At this point, the image may look a bit oversharpened, but that's ok, since the next step is to crop it down to 100x100.
After you've cropped it down, duplicate your layer again. Set it to color burn at 75%. Duplicate it again, then desaturate that layer, then set it to soft light. Flatten the image. Your base should now look like:
Now, open a new 100x100 image. We are going to add some textures first before we put our base in.
Drag the following textures (all by me) with the following layer settings:
normal 100%
color dodge 95%
lighten 68%
Then add a dark blue exclusion layer. I used #0D0C11.
You should now have:
Now, paste your base onto that background texture. Set it to overlay 100%. I have:
Now, that's not much of an icon. So duplicate your base and resize it to about 55x55 pixels. Set it to normal 100%.
New layer. Make a diagonal gradient from #887AB7 to #F7B7D3:
Resize that layer to 55x55 and set it to hard light at 70%.
Add the following texture:
Resize it to 55x55, then set it to soft light at 100%.
I now have:
Add the following brush around your 55x55 image:
Mine is set to white. (To find out how to make these sorts of brushes, I used this tutorial)
Now, flatten all of the 55x55 layers together and leave it at normal. I then added a drop shadow at 120 degrees with a distance of 7px, spread of 0%, and a size of 7px.
I now have:
All that's missing is the text. =D
At the bottom, I have "it's like trying to fight" set at Georgia 6pt, with the color #081359. Tracking is set at 200.
At the top I have "gravity" set at Scriptina 16pt, with the same color of #081359. Tracking is set at 75 and it is vertically scaled at 80%.
I also created a new layer and added a white, 1px stroke.
Voila!
You are free to take the icon, as long as you credit. I will have a new iconset soon (just waiting for an icontest to finish up).
You can also take any of the textures, gradients, and/or brushes that I used as long as you give credit back to either chibibananachan or _fandom_ (since I made them all :).
Feel free to ask any questions if you need any clarification. ^_^v
<3,
Banana
to this:
Using Adobe Photoshop CS.
Third place at bssmawards
First off, we'll prepare the base.
Once again, we're starting from:
Our image is pretty dull, so what I usually do before I crop my image is duplicate the image (it's always good to have an unaltered version of the image somewhere on your document), then image>adjustments>auto levels, auto contrast, auto color. Then filter>sharpen>sharpen, filter>noise>despeckle, and then filter>sharpen>sharpen again.
At this point, the image may look a bit oversharpened, but that's ok, since the next step is to crop it down to 100x100.
After you've cropped it down, duplicate your layer again. Set it to color burn at 75%. Duplicate it again, then desaturate that layer, then set it to soft light. Flatten the image. Your base should now look like:
Now, open a new 100x100 image. We are going to add some textures first before we put our base in.
Drag the following textures (all by me) with the following layer settings:
normal 100%
color dodge 95%
lighten 68%
Then add a dark blue exclusion layer. I used #0D0C11.
You should now have:
Now, paste your base onto that background texture. Set it to overlay 100%. I have:
Now, that's not much of an icon. So duplicate your base and resize it to about 55x55 pixels. Set it to normal 100%.
New layer. Make a diagonal gradient from #887AB7 to #F7B7D3:
Resize that layer to 55x55 and set it to hard light at 70%.
Add the following texture:
Resize it to 55x55, then set it to soft light at 100%.
I now have:
Add the following brush around your 55x55 image:
Mine is set to white. (To find out how to make these sorts of brushes, I used this tutorial)
Now, flatten all of the 55x55 layers together and leave it at normal. I then added a drop shadow at 120 degrees with a distance of 7px, spread of 0%, and a size of 7px.
I now have:
All that's missing is the text. =D
At the bottom, I have "it's like trying to fight" set at Georgia 6pt, with the color #081359. Tracking is set at 200.
At the top I have "gravity" set at Scriptina 16pt, with the same color of #081359. Tracking is set at 75 and it is vertically scaled at 80%.
I also created a new layer and added a white, 1px stroke.
Voila!
You are free to take the icon, as long as you credit. I will have a new iconset soon (just waiting for an icontest to finish up).
You can also take any of the textures, gradients, and/or brushes that I used as long as you give credit back to either chibibananachan or _fandom_ (since I made them all :).
Feel free to ask any questions if you need any clarification. ^_^v
<3,
Banana