06. - Ask the Maker 6.0 - Ao Haru Ride
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requested by the lovely applepips16 @ ASK THE MAKER 6.0
01.
Open your base (100x100) and fill the background with the color #f9dce5. Next, press ctr+i to switch your pink background to a dark blue green (this helps when removing the background on your image; you can see where you missed with more ease. Just be sure to change it back afterwards). Create either a clipping mask or make a faux clipping mask (create an levels adjustment layer, place it below your image, hold alt and press between). After doing so, remove the background on the original image, and now you’re almost done completing your base! Create a hue/saturation adjustment layer, place it above your original image, and press alt between the layers. On the master level of the h/s layer, find saturation and move it left until it reads -10.
You are now finished with creating your base, and your layers should look (kinda; I use the faux layer clipping mask method) like this, while your icon should look like this:
02.
Next, we go through textures.
Use this texture by fuuurs, press ctr+u, find the saturation scale, and move it left until you have -60. Then, find your brightness/contrast adjustment and reduce the contrast to -35 (mine can be found under enhance > adjust brightness > brightness/contrast). If your have separate adjustment layers, merge them down onto the texture layer. Rename the layer “fuuurs.lj > sat -60 > contrast -35,” that way you know who made the texture and what you did to said texture. Change the opacity to 60% and set to soft light.
03.
Use this gradient texture next (by unknown; I’d make it into an actual gradient layer, but I’m just too lazy), and set it to soft light with 50% opacity. Rename this layer ‘gradient.’
04.
Create a gradient map with the leftmost color being #784f33 and the rightmost color being #000000. Change the opacity to 25% and set to color. Duplicate the gradient map and change the layer setting from color to soft light. Duplicate the previous gradient texture (the one renamed 'gradient'), place it above the gradient maps, and desaturate the layer (ctr+shift+u).
05.
Create a new stamp layer (ctr+shift+alt+e), Gaussian blur with the settings 3.5, and rename the layer “stamp1 > g.blur 3.5.” Create a hue/saturation layer, reduce the saturation to -55, and clip the adjustment layer to the stamped layer (press alt between the two layers). Finally, take this texture by unknown, change the setting to screen and the opacity to 50%, and place it between the first gradient map and the first gradient texture. Rename 'unknown.'
Your icon should look like this:
06.
Next is the lighting secret. Create a new color fill layer with the color #ebabbd, and press ctr+i so the masking color is black. Change the layer setting to hard light, and paint over the left side (be sure to make sure your brush color is white). Repeat the process, but use the color #dbcdb1 and paint over the right. The pink layer mask should look similar to this, and the light brown one should be like this.
07.
Create another stamp (ctr+shift+alt+e) and duplicate it. Rename the first “stamp2,” and change the opacity to 25% and the layer mode to multiply. On the duplicate, rename it “stamp2 > g.blur 3.5,” Gaussian blur with the settings 3.5 (or simply ctr+f) and change the settings to soft light and the opacity to 50%.
This is what we have so far:
08.
We’re almost finished! Create a levels adjustment layer and do the following: On the RGB tab, find the middle option and move it to the right until it reads 0.75, like so. Next, create a new gradient map layer with the following colors: #371010 on the far left and #f0e6ce on the far right. Change the opacity to 15% and the layer setting to color.
09.
Create a new stamp layer (ctr+shift+alt+e) and rename it “stamp3 > high pass 0.5.” To find high pass, go to filter > other > high pass. Change the settings to 0.5, and set this layer to soft light. This adds a decent amount of sharpness to an icon.
10.
Finally, duplicate the two hard light layers (hold control and select both of them, right click > duplicate layers, move to the top of everything, including the high pass layer). Change the original pink color to a darker pink (#a38189) and the light brown to a more beige color (#f7e7cb).
And voilà! Some tips for the road:
✖ Hard light layers can be tricky to work with, so play around a bit until you've gotten the swing of it.
✖ This is a general process that will work with most images. Just make sure whatever image you’re using as your base isn't too saturated, or else the colors will come out a little odd.
If anything didn't make sense, or a link was missing, or anything of the sort, let me know and I'll try to explain or go and fix it! ^^
Remember:
✖ Comments are much appreciated!
✖ Watch the comm for updates, icons, and maybe even more tutorials! ^u^