# 5 9
FOR Q&A, TUTORIALS, WALKTHROUGHS, TEXTURE RECS, ETC
REQUEST AWAY AT MY ASK THE MAKER 2.0 THREAD
COLORING
There were three general methods of coloring I got asked about in my thread, so here they are:
SELECTIVE COLOR + SOFT LIGHT
These three were all made with the same psd (with some minor adjustments) that I neglected to save because I am a huge failure. HOWEVER. I do remember that the most important part of the coloring for these was a combination of selective color adjustment layers, and soft-light color fill layers.
Essentially, I used multiple selective color adjustment layers to force the reds and magentas to a peachy-purple-y color, the blues, cyans and greens towards a turquoise-y color, and the yellows to be a brassy yellow (with an orange-ish tone). Then depending on the overall colors I wanted, I'd add complimenting color fill layers set to soft-light. To get the low contrast dark tone, I used color fill layers that were pretty dark and towards the gray side.
To top these icons off, I'm pretty sure I had one final color fill layer (set to screen) that had a dark purple, red or brown depending on what I wanted.
SELECTIVE COLOR, SELECTIVE COLOR, SELECTIVE COLOR
With these icons, the magic lies in all the selective color layers I abused them with. I didn't save the psd for any of these either (do you see a pattern?) but the technique is pretty basic. You essentially just pile selective color layer on top of selective color layer.
With all of these, I followed a pattern:
yellows → pretty golden (turn yellow up to +100, cyan to -100, magenta can be whatever you feel is necessary)
cyans & blues → go towards a purple-y blue (cyans +100, magenta +50, yellows -25 or so)
reds → bring in more yellow, get rid of blues (cyan -50, magenta +75, yellow +25)
magentas → up the cyan and magenta both to +100
Then I duplicated that selective layer LOADS of times, made little tweaks to each layers adjustments and maybe fidgeted with the opacity a little until I got the saturation I wanted.
To finish it off, I did one last selective color layer where I played with the neutrals (I upped the magenta and yellow a little) and blacks (take the yellow down a notch). If you want purple-y shadows like the first icon, play with the blacks (take cyan down a little, pump up magenta a lot, and take yellow down a little.)
All of this might look a little extreme if you don't adjust the opacities of each layer... it's kind of crucial to do so.
SELECTIVE COLOR + GRADIENT MAP + HUE/SATURATION
These are kind of similar to the previous method. Kind of.
I started off using a gradient map (copper) set to soft light. Duplicate this, and reverse it. Then adjust the opacity of the first gradient map until it looks weird BUT NOT TOO WEIRD. Then, to increase the contrast I usually either do a brightness/contrast layer or a curves layer set to soft light (with no points). If certain parts of your icon look gross, just use a layer mask.
Then, I adjust the colors I'm getting with the gradient maps by clipping a hue/saturation layer to each gradient map layer. Just use the slider until you get a color scheme you like.
Next, create a selective color layer between the gradients and your base. With these types of icons, I try to force the image to have two main colors (for instance, the first icon would be yellow-green and brownish-purpleish-pink, second icon is dark-grayish-turquoise and pale yellow, third icon is blue and cyan, fourth icon is blue and red). In general, make all the cool colors (cyan, blue, green) into one color, and the warm colors (red, yellow, magenta) into another.
This coloring might require you to fix up the lighting and contrast throughout the process, so be on the lookout for problem areas!
CROPPING/COMPOSITION
Do you have any "rules" for how you go about composing an icon, or is each icon made completely by accident?
I'd say pretty much completely by accident. I don't have any real rules (I know some people worship the rule of thirds, which is great and very useful, but I'm just not disciplined). Basically, if the crop looks good, it's a go.
I guess my only "rules" are to not make things awkward, to always emphasize the interesting parts of the image, and to make sure the icon feels balanced (which I'll get into later).
Do the coloring you choose decide how you crop/compose (if you color before cropping)?
I always color after cropping. The way I look at it, there's no point in trying to get the coloring of EVERY part of the image right, if all you're going to be using is a tiny bit of the image first. I ALWAYS CROP FIRST, then take a breather and look at the colors I have in my 100x100 image. IDK, I find this helps me focus and decide what colors I want...
So I guess my answer is that they are totally unrelated.
DO
1. If their hands are doing something near their face (or they're doing something interesting) crop around it so they're included.
2. If someone has a pot belly (I'm looking at you, Britney Spears) crop it THE HELL OUT. Nobody wants to spend 15 minutes trying to smooth over that shit and make someone look like an Adonis. Just CROP.
3. Try and have a point in mind where you want someone to look first. I either keep the point in one of the corners or smack-dab in the middle of the icon.
4. Try multiple crops for one image, before you choose one. I try not to use the first crop I come up with.
5. Keep it balanced (see further below for explanation).
DONT
1. Don't crop in the middle of someone's forehead.
2. Don't crop so that words or logos are visible (they're boring to remove, save yourself the trouble.)
3. NEVER FORGET THE POWER OF CLEAVAGE.
4. Don't try to get a close crop out of a cap where it's just not going to happen. If the cap is already closely cropped, it's a go. Otherwise, you're going to have a pixelated mess that looks awful and makes other people uncomfortable (jk, but you knowww~).
5. If a cap has been used 110967049835740198091 times, FOR PETES SAKE, DON'T CROP IT THE SAME WAY EVERYONE ELSE HAS. If you can't come up with something new, don't use the cap! It's on its deathbed anyways.
KEEP IT BALANCED
I know we all like center crops. They're pretty, they're simple, they always look good no matter how bad we try to screw it up.
BUT THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN CENTER CROPS. Orient things to the sides, to the bottom or to the top. Doing so might make things feel lopsided, so that's why we have text and textures!
For example, this would have all felt gross and lopsided were it not for text and textures:
COMMON CROPS
NEGATIVE SPACE
HEAD AND SHOULDERS (& MAYBE CLEAVAGE)
DISTANT
CLOSE
MAN MEAT OR LADY BUNS (your call, man, I ain't judgin')
FOR Q&A, TUTORIALS, WALKTHROUGHS, TEXTURE RECS, ETC
REQUEST AWAY AT MY ASK THE MAKER 2.0 THREAD
note
join | watch | resources | tags
psd/tutorial available upon request.
credit fuuurs or aquatilitis if you want me to love you.
i ♥ comments. the good, the bad and the ugly.
don't do anything stupid. ♥ ♥ ♥