|tutorial: color & crop
As requested by: dufaux, julie_izumi, geckoholic, reebeecaa & thememoryslides.
Made in Photoshop CS3
Translatable
I decided to combine all of the icons into one tutorial as most of these use the same coloring in them, rather than post a bunch of separate tutorials with pretty much the same thing over and over again. Thanks to all those mentioned above for requesting. Hope this works ok for ya! :)
Credit where Credit is Due
First and foremost, I need to give props to some amazing makers whose work inspires me on a daily basis. If it weren't for these talented individuals I would not be making the kind of icons I make today. They've shared tutorials and advice and have inspired me more than they probably know. I can't take complete credit for my work without giving them credit as well.
• neversleeps @ tragic_radiance (for coloring, text & amazing uses for light blobs)
• imaginary_lives @ wicked_signs (for coloring)
• letsey_x (for text & coloring)
• crystalchain @ levitia (for coloring & composition)
• cakeholes @ boxedcut (for coloring)
Step One: Your Original Image
No two ways about it, your image is going to make or break your icon. Period. I prefer my original images to be large and high quality. There's no exceptions to this. I also prefer that when I use screencaps they be a little washed out and lacking contrast. Believe it or not, this can actually be useful and more fun for playing. Trust me. If I have to use an image with good contrast though, I can work around that, no problem. Also, pick your image with a coloring in mind. Obviously, dark and grainy images are not going to produce good results. TLDR; Use large high quality images that will work with a coloring you have in mind.
Step Two: Original Image to 100x100
Below, I've prepped and cropped six images from the icons that tuts were requested for. For the most part, these images do not require much tweaking, so I did nothing more than paste them into a 200x200 square, crop with Free-Transform (my preferred crop tool of choice) and re-size to 100x100. Unlike a lot of icon makers, I don't prep my bases. I crop and then I color. If the image needs work I'll save those adjustments for when the base is at icon size. I prefer to do all the work the icon needs when it's at 100x100, rather than when it's at its full size. That's just how I roll. *G* Plus, if you're working with really good high quality images, you won't need to do any corrections. Win/win.
Step Three: Preparing the Icon
For all of my icons, I start the same, duplicate my base three times and set them like so: Soft Light -> Screen -> Soft Light.
Now look at all the icons. See how different they all are? Different images are affected in different ways when you are making icons. No one coloring will work the same on all images. The icon of Buffy is perfect. I don't want to change that one at all. The Moonlight icon is also good, but a little on the under-contrasted side. The Bela icon is perfect. I won't do any additional brightening with this one. The Ruby icon however? Way too dark. Even for my standards. I'll want to do some additional tweaking with it. The Uhura icon is also too dark. I like how the Veronica Mars icon looks, but I might play around with more Screen layers and see how I like it. That's what you have to do when you make icons, study your images. Evaluate what you can do to improve them. Add more Screen layers. Eliminate a Soft Light layer. Change it up. Nothing works the same for all images and you constantly have to keep that in mind.
Step Four: Coloring
When I color icons, I stick to the basics and keep it simple. I mainly use Color Balance, Levels & Hue/Saturation. I add solid color fill layers in red or yellow to improve color. I only use Curves and Selective Coloring for additional brightening and/or contrast. I've come to appreciate how a nice black and white light texture can add light and contrast to an icon rather than the standard light blobs added with a paint brush. Our icons with the coloring added:
Each icon was colored the same, but with different tweaks made to each.
aa.
For Buffy, I didn't add any additional Screen layers because it worked well a little darker. To achieve the yellowish tone, I used Color Balance, Levels and a yellow solid color fill layer. A yellower tone seems to fit right for Buffy icons and considering how dark the show is it's perfect. You could also change it up and substitute the Soft Light layer I added in the beginning for an Overlay layer. Of course, Overlay adds a buttload of contrast, so you'd have to add more Screen layers and eliminate or decrease the values in Levels. Overlay also tends to add more red, so if that's not what you want stick with Soft Light. You can also throw in a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to really amp the color up as well. I preferred not to with this icon.
bb.
For this Beth and Mick icon, I went the same route as with the Buffy icon, except I added two more Screen layers to brighten it up more. I also used Selective Color on the Black and Neutral channels to adjust and add more contrast.
cc.
On this Bela icon I didn't add a yellow solid color fill layer because the original image was so colorful that I didn't feel it needed it. I also felt the yellow color would make it too bright and completely wash out the other colors in the image. I also added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer with Saturation upped to @ +22 to really bring out the gorgeous greens and yellows in the image. Sometimes subtle is better. If you prefer to add more red (for instance to enhance Bela's lovely hair), I suggest adding another Color Balance layer and fiddling with the cyan-red channel in Midtones. +12-22 seems to work best for adding more red. Or again, substitute the Soft Light layer for an Overlay layer.
dd.
This Ruby icon was just way too dark, so I added two more Screen layers. I also substituted the Soft Light layer for Overlay because the contrast was just too awesome to pass up. Since Overlay increases contrast to the extreme, I decided to get rid of the Levels layer. It's still a little on the dark side, but I think it turns out a lovely icon nonetheless. I like bright icons, but I've learned to embrace icons that are a little more heavily contrasted. Expand your horizons and think outside the box with your icons. Step outside of your comfort zone a little.
ee.
This Uhura icon was too brown and seemed to lack color. I added two more Screen layers, and went a little more extreme with my reds and yellows in Color Balance. I also amped it up with a Hue/Saturation layer. It's more vibrant with reds and yellows as opposed to diluted, flat, brown and yucky.
ff.
*rubs hands together* Veronica Mars icons are my favorites to color. So many pretty colors already exist in the images and you can really let your creativity go wild with these. I really wanted to play up the yellows and reds, so again my Color Balance layer was pretty extreme. I didn't add Hue/Saturation to this one because the colors pop so well on their own. Sometimes you only have to nudge the coloring in an icon just a little to achieve a pretty result. Less can be more.
Step Five: A little about Cropping
My icons are mostly crops and colors, so I tend to pay more attention to these elements rather than textures and even text. A good crop can really make or break an icon. I will more often than not choose the screencaps I'm going to work with based on how I want to crop it and on that element alone. Let's look at each icon based on its crop, shall we?
aa.
This icon of Buffy is from 4.16 "Who are You", where Faith takes over Buffy's body. She meets with the Scooby Gang at a point in the episode but they don't know that it's really Faith in that body. Her expression is very sly and cunning. The look on her face is really key to the scene and what drew me to the image in the first place. I used Free-Transform to shrink the image in a way that just the corner of her eye was cut off. Immediately you are drawn to her face and that was my goal.
bb.
The focal point of this icon of Beth and Mick is the hug, of course. It's tender, intimate and beautiful. Which is why I cropped Mick's face a little more closer to the edge of the square. I also loved the ring he was wearing. The eye is immediately drawn to the intimacy of the characters and the ring.
cc.
Lauren Cohan is just pretty, dammit. ;) I didn't crop so much out because the whole package is just splendid. I wanted to really show off the awesome colors of the whole image, as well. Cropping just her face would have detracted from the overall prettiness of everything. Pretty much the only reason I love SPN season 3. THE COLORS OMG.
dd.
I went pretty obvious with Ruby here. Katie Cassidy has the prettiest eyes. Her lashes are long and kind of prominent. Eyelashes are my most favorite thing to crop. If you look at the majority of my Dean Winchester icons you'll notice the eyelash porn is pretty prominent in all of them. Damn these pretty people and their pretty eyelashes. I LOVE EYELASHES. Also? Hair. Hair is so fun to crop.
ee.
Eyelashes again. But also, I just loved the expression on Uhura's face in this one. I'm a huge sucker for pretty people looking down, what can I say. It took a little finagling to get the crop right on this one, but that's why God invented the Undo button. ;)
ff.
This is what I mean about hair being fun to crop. Veronica's hair looks really cool in this image, the way it's falling all around her face to the point where her eyes are obscured. It's an interesting focal point and overall very very pretty.
The End
And that covers it, I guess. I hope I've touched on points for each of these icons that people were most interested in when they requested tuts. If not, feel free to hit me up in comments. I'll be glad to answer any questions.
Made in Photoshop CS3
Translatable
I decided to combine all of the icons into one tutorial as most of these use the same coloring in them, rather than post a bunch of separate tutorials with pretty much the same thing over and over again. Thanks to all those mentioned above for requesting. Hope this works ok for ya! :)
Credit where Credit is Due
First and foremost, I need to give props to some amazing makers whose work inspires me on a daily basis. If it weren't for these talented individuals I would not be making the kind of icons I make today. They've shared tutorials and advice and have inspired me more than they probably know. I can't take complete credit for my work without giving them credit as well.
• neversleeps @ tragic_radiance (for coloring, text & amazing uses for light blobs)
• imaginary_lives @ wicked_signs (for coloring)
• letsey_x (for text & coloring)
• crystalchain @ levitia (for coloring & composition)
• cakeholes @ boxedcut (for coloring)
Step One: Your Original Image
No two ways about it, your image is going to make or break your icon. Period. I prefer my original images to be large and high quality. There's no exceptions to this. I also prefer that when I use screencaps they be a little washed out and lacking contrast. Believe it or not, this can actually be useful and more fun for playing. Trust me. If I have to use an image with good contrast though, I can work around that, no problem. Also, pick your image with a coloring in mind. Obviously, dark and grainy images are not going to produce good results. TLDR; Use large high quality images that will work with a coloring you have in mind.
Step Two: Original Image to 100x100
Below, I've prepped and cropped six images from the icons that tuts were requested for. For the most part, these images do not require much tweaking, so I did nothing more than paste them into a 200x200 square, crop with Free-Transform (my preferred crop tool of choice) and re-size to 100x100. Unlike a lot of icon makers, I don't prep my bases. I crop and then I color. If the image needs work I'll save those adjustments for when the base is at icon size. I prefer to do all the work the icon needs when it's at 100x100, rather than when it's at its full size. That's just how I roll. *G* Plus, if you're working with really good high quality images, you won't need to do any corrections. Win/win.
Step Three: Preparing the Icon
For all of my icons, I start the same, duplicate my base three times and set them like so: Soft Light -> Screen -> Soft Light.
Now look at all the icons. See how different they all are? Different images are affected in different ways when you are making icons. No one coloring will work the same on all images. The icon of Buffy is perfect. I don't want to change that one at all. The Moonlight icon is also good, but a little on the under-contrasted side. The Bela icon is perfect. I won't do any additional brightening with this one. The Ruby icon however? Way too dark. Even for my standards. I'll want to do some additional tweaking with it. The Uhura icon is also too dark. I like how the Veronica Mars icon looks, but I might play around with more Screen layers and see how I like it. That's what you have to do when you make icons, study your images. Evaluate what you can do to improve them. Add more Screen layers. Eliminate a Soft Light layer. Change it up. Nothing works the same for all images and you constantly have to keep that in mind.
Step Four: Coloring
When I color icons, I stick to the basics and keep it simple. I mainly use Color Balance, Levels & Hue/Saturation. I add solid color fill layers in red or yellow to improve color. I only use Curves and Selective Coloring for additional brightening and/or contrast. I've come to appreciate how a nice black and white light texture can add light and contrast to an icon rather than the standard light blobs added with a paint brush. Our icons with the coloring added:
Each icon was colored the same, but with different tweaks made to each.
aa.
For Buffy, I didn't add any additional Screen layers because it worked well a little darker. To achieve the yellowish tone, I used Color Balance, Levels and a yellow solid color fill layer. A yellower tone seems to fit right for Buffy icons and considering how dark the show is it's perfect. You could also change it up and substitute the Soft Light layer I added in the beginning for an Overlay layer. Of course, Overlay adds a buttload of contrast, so you'd have to add more Screen layers and eliminate or decrease the values in Levels. Overlay also tends to add more red, so if that's not what you want stick with Soft Light. You can also throw in a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to really amp the color up as well. I preferred not to with this icon.
bb.
For this Beth and Mick icon, I went the same route as with the Buffy icon, except I added two more Screen layers to brighten it up more. I also used Selective Color on the Black and Neutral channels to adjust and add more contrast.
cc.
On this Bela icon I didn't add a yellow solid color fill layer because the original image was so colorful that I didn't feel it needed it. I also felt the yellow color would make it too bright and completely wash out the other colors in the image. I also added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer with Saturation upped to @ +22 to really bring out the gorgeous greens and yellows in the image. Sometimes subtle is better. If you prefer to add more red (for instance to enhance Bela's lovely hair), I suggest adding another Color Balance layer and fiddling with the cyan-red channel in Midtones. +12-22 seems to work best for adding more red. Or again, substitute the Soft Light layer for an Overlay layer.
dd.
This Ruby icon was just way too dark, so I added two more Screen layers. I also substituted the Soft Light layer for Overlay because the contrast was just too awesome to pass up. Since Overlay increases contrast to the extreme, I decided to get rid of the Levels layer. It's still a little on the dark side, but I think it turns out a lovely icon nonetheless. I like bright icons, but I've learned to embrace icons that are a little more heavily contrasted. Expand your horizons and think outside the box with your icons. Step outside of your comfort zone a little.
ee.
This Uhura icon was too brown and seemed to lack color. I added two more Screen layers, and went a little more extreme with my reds and yellows in Color Balance. I also amped it up with a Hue/Saturation layer. It's more vibrant with reds and yellows as opposed to diluted, flat, brown and yucky.
ff.
*rubs hands together* Veronica Mars icons are my favorites to color. So many pretty colors already exist in the images and you can really let your creativity go wild with these. I really wanted to play up the yellows and reds, so again my Color Balance layer was pretty extreme. I didn't add Hue/Saturation to this one because the colors pop so well on their own. Sometimes you only have to nudge the coloring in an icon just a little to achieve a pretty result. Less can be more.
Step Five: A little about Cropping
My icons are mostly crops and colors, so I tend to pay more attention to these elements rather than textures and even text. A good crop can really make or break an icon. I will more often than not choose the screencaps I'm going to work with based on how I want to crop it and on that element alone. Let's look at each icon based on its crop, shall we?
aa.
This icon of Buffy is from 4.16 "Who are You", where Faith takes over Buffy's body. She meets with the Scooby Gang at a point in the episode but they don't know that it's really Faith in that body. Her expression is very sly and cunning. The look on her face is really key to the scene and what drew me to the image in the first place. I used Free-Transform to shrink the image in a way that just the corner of her eye was cut off. Immediately you are drawn to her face and that was my goal.
bb.
The focal point of this icon of Beth and Mick is the hug, of course. It's tender, intimate and beautiful. Which is why I cropped Mick's face a little more closer to the edge of the square. I also loved the ring he was wearing. The eye is immediately drawn to the intimacy of the characters and the ring.
cc.
Lauren Cohan is just pretty, dammit. ;) I didn't crop so much out because the whole package is just splendid. I wanted to really show off the awesome colors of the whole image, as well. Cropping just her face would have detracted from the overall prettiness of everything. Pretty much the only reason I love SPN season 3. THE COLORS OMG.
dd.
I went pretty obvious with Ruby here. Katie Cassidy has the prettiest eyes. Her lashes are long and kind of prominent. Eyelashes are my most favorite thing to crop. If you look at the majority of my Dean Winchester icons you'll notice the eyelash porn is pretty prominent in all of them. Damn these pretty people and their pretty eyelashes. I LOVE EYELASHES. Also? Hair. Hair is so fun to crop.
ee.
Eyelashes again. But also, I just loved the expression on Uhura's face in this one. I'm a huge sucker for pretty people looking down, what can I say. It took a little finagling to get the crop right on this one, but that's why God invented the Undo button. ;)
ff.
This is what I mean about hair being fun to crop. Veronica's hair looks really cool in this image, the way it's falling all around her face to the point where her eyes are obscured. It's an interesting focal point and overall very very pretty.
The End
And that covers it, I guess. I hope I've touched on points for each of these icons that people were most interested in when they requested tuts. If not, feel free to hit me up in comments. I'll be glad to answer any questions.