#97
I'm back with icons for two different icons that were requested. There will be more to come in the future!
Morgan tutorial as request by wunderkind_lucy :
Going from
to
As requested by lover_of_narnia.
>>
Ask The Maker || My Thread
Also there is one more day to sign up for Joseph Gordon-Levitt 20in20! Check it out!
Joseph Gordon-Levitt 20in20: sign-up || join the comm
Coloring
Before we get started there is something you all need to know. When I made this icon, I had no clue what I was going to do with it. It was a request of visionsbeyond during the most recent ic0nfest and since I loved the subject & image I decided to play with it. As of late, I've had the best luck/creativity when I go in blind with an image. This is not for everyone, but that's why I really like ic0nfest, it gives me a chance to not over think things.
1. But first it needed to be smoothed out a bit, I smudged and smoothed the background to make it more cohesive, but this will depend on your image. I like varying how I lighten an image, sometimes Screen Layers, Levels or Curves. In this case I used a Curves layer. Since this was simply to add light I didn't mess with the Red, Green or Blues. I liked how the shadows contrasted with her appearance but I wanted to really see her, not to mention the background uses such lovely colors!
Output: 150
Input: 97
2. She looks a little brighter doesn't she? I wanted to crisp up the image a bit so I copied the images and Sharpened it once, lowering the opacity to 45%. This will vary from image, I also vary on how I do this depending the degree/what I want to be sharpened up. I've also used Unsharp Mask and High Pass so I recommend experimentation!
3. Okay, so this is the first of a few vibrance layers. If you don't have the vibrance function, not to worry! I'm also including the alternate option with the Hue/Saturation. (Believe me, I've been there. :D)
Vibrance: +49
Hue/Saturation: +5
4. Now, I decided I wanted to make the highlights stand out more against the darker parts so I added a Levels Layer.
RGB: 9/1.18/255
5. I really wanted Morgan to be the focal point, be the radiant figure as it were so I added a Color Balance Layer. I wanted to make the coloring warm, but regal--more in the blueish purple area.
Midtones: -16, 0, 9
Shadows: -18, 0, -4
It's a bit too strong and I think that Morgan's face is too cool. So I lowered the Opacity of the layer to 50% and brushed out her face on the mask layer.
6. As I said I wanted it to be more in the purpleish hue so I added a Selective Color layer.
Reds: -29, 4, 10, 13
Yellows: -13, -11, -42, 5
Cyans: 60, 60, -51, 100
Blues: -30, 36, 86, 30
Whites: -78, -12, 16, -35
Neutrals: -26, -6, -10, 8
7. Looking good, but I want it to have more of a blueish look so I copy merged and pasted onto a new layer. Then I went into Edit>>Variations. I did more cyan and more blue then hit okay and got this:
I thought it looked a little too blue so after playing with the Fill & Opacity I set both to 50% and got this:
Much better!
8. Now at this point I realized the reddish pink stripes where too much in my opinion so I copy merged what I had and moved the image to the left.
And now we're done with the major part of the coloring! Yaayy!
Composition
Okay so now onto the layout. Keep in mind I had no ideawhat I was going to be going here.
9. Okay, nows select all and copy paste it and in all honesty I just flipped and moved it around, I ended up cropping the background above Morgan. I moved the layer to crop off at her chin. Then I duplicated the layer and flipped the layer 90 degrees Clock wise. I moved it so the excess in front of Morgan cut off at the edge of the first image. For clarification: here's an image.
Now I went back to the original flipped layer and duplicated it again. This time I flipped it 90 degrees counter clockwise. You'll have something like this
10. At this point it was looking a little dull so I added a Vibrance Layer, if you don't have Vibrance Layers you can use a Hue/Saturation Layers.
Vibrance Layer settings: +58
OR
Hue/Saturation: +19
11. Okay so I wanted to lighten it up a little, I wanted to show off her hair a bit. So I added a Curves Layer.
RGB: 206, 186.
This is what you'll currently have:
12. Alrighty, so I'm not liking how the edges are showing, it is way to distracting to me and I want it to be softer. To fix this, I copy merge and paste the image onto a new layer. To soften it up I went to Filters and Gaussian Blur and after playing around set it to 5.5.
Alright, so I decided I wanted to make Morgan shine, so I ended up setting the layer on Overlay and added a mask layer so erase the darkness to make her brighten.
13. Now I found that it looks a little too edgy, so I duplicated the layer and went back to filters and went to Motion Blur. Filter>>Blur>> Blur Motion>>
Angle: 0
Distance: 16
I ended up erasing most of it except for the center which was over the lights.
Without motion blur:
With motion blur:
See the difference? It'll depend on your image what you erase, if you erase but I wanted to make sure it was understood why.
14. LAST STEP!! This is optional mind you, but I added one final Vibrance Layer set to +38, or Hue/Saturation set to 14 will get you damn close to the same. I wanted the purple in her hair to be shown off a bit more.
Aaannndd you're done! Yayy! Any questions, clarifications, anything at all, please comment! Hope this was helpful and I'd love to see people's results!
------------------------
>>
Cropping
Alrighty, so I wanted the sky to be dominant in the icon. What I love about Legend of the Seeker is the use of light and flowing colors. I wanted it to be bright, the silhouettes of our heros to really be shown off.
1. After cropping the image I duplicated it and set it to Screen, it wasn't quite what I wanted so I duplicated it again.
2. Now, I'm thinking that the silhouettes are a little too light. I duplicated the Screen layer and set it to Soft Light. This was better but the foreground was too dark so I added a Mask layer and painted it out.
3. Looking good but it had not real point of focus. That's when I decided to copy merge and paste it onto a new layer. After playing with the setting I set it to Multiply and added a mask layer. I took a large brush with the opacity and flow set low/medium and took out a wide circle around the pair, not completely though. The center, Kahlan & Richard I masked out completely. Now you'll get something like this.
4. I decided that I wanted the coloring of this to be light, soft, more natural. That's why I decided to play around with a Curves layer. After fiddling about with the settings I settled on something that looked more natural to me.
RGB: O: 198, I: 176.
After looking at it for a moment I noted what was bothering me, it was too red. I ended up adding on to the Blue layer. In something like this you don't want it to be too over powering, subtly is best so after playing I settled on the following settings.
Blue: O: 199; I: 181
5. This is a subtle step and it may not be necessary depending on the image, but I opened up a Vibrance Layer and lowered the Vibrance to -15, masked out the area over Kahlan & Richard like so.
The difference is subtle, but I noticed it--again, up to you.
6. Again, this is a subtle (although more noticeable than the last step) change. I wanted more contrast in the image so I added a black & white gradient layer set to Overlay. It was too much on 100%, so I lower the FIll to 10%.
7. I wanted the image to be a bit more blue and I wanted the clouds to stand out from the sky so I played around with the different blues and the settings, finally I landed on 8a9dcc set on Color Burn.
I really liked how the sky looked but Kahlan, Richard and the foreground were far too dark so I took a small brush for our dynamic duo and a larger one for the ground and masked them out.
8. Okay, so we're almost done! I really liked what was going on in the image but I wanted our heros to really be in focus. So I opened a new layer and filled it with a charcoal gray (323232), then took a large soft brush in white, set to a low fill & opacity and brushed it on the center, right over them.
After trying it on different settings I settled on Overlay.
9. Final step! I opened up a Vibrance layer. A Hue/Saturation Layer will work as well and I'll provide both settings.
Vibrance: +75
Saturation +6
Hue Saturation: +23
And you're done! Rather simple in comparison! Again, any questions or anything please ask. I'd love feedback--I do hope these were helpful and there will be more to come!
Morgan tutorial as request by wunderkind_lucy :
Going from
to
As requested by lover_of_narnia.
>>
Ask The Maker || My Thread
Also there is one more day to sign up for Joseph Gordon-Levitt 20in20! Check it out!
Joseph Gordon-Levitt 20in20: sign-up || join the comm
Coloring
Before we get started there is something you all need to know. When I made this icon, I had no clue what I was going to do with it. It was a request of visionsbeyond during the most recent ic0nfest and since I loved the subject & image I decided to play with it. As of late, I've had the best luck/creativity when I go in blind with an image. This is not for everyone, but that's why I really like ic0nfest, it gives me a chance to not over think things.
1. But first it needed to be smoothed out a bit, I smudged and smoothed the background to make it more cohesive, but this will depend on your image. I like varying how I lighten an image, sometimes Screen Layers, Levels or Curves. In this case I used a Curves layer. Since this was simply to add light I didn't mess with the Red, Green or Blues. I liked how the shadows contrasted with her appearance but I wanted to really see her, not to mention the background uses such lovely colors!
Output: 150
Input: 97
2. She looks a little brighter doesn't she? I wanted to crisp up the image a bit so I copied the images and Sharpened it once, lowering the opacity to 45%. This will vary from image, I also vary on how I do this depending the degree/what I want to be sharpened up. I've also used Unsharp Mask and High Pass so I recommend experimentation!
3. Okay, so this is the first of a few vibrance layers. If you don't have the vibrance function, not to worry! I'm also including the alternate option with the Hue/Saturation. (Believe me, I've been there. :D)
Vibrance: +49
Hue/Saturation: +5
4. Now, I decided I wanted to make the highlights stand out more against the darker parts so I added a Levels Layer.
RGB: 9/1.18/255
5. I really wanted Morgan to be the focal point, be the radiant figure as it were so I added a Color Balance Layer. I wanted to make the coloring warm, but regal--more in the blueish purple area.
Midtones: -16, 0, 9
Shadows: -18, 0, -4
It's a bit too strong and I think that Morgan's face is too cool. So I lowered the Opacity of the layer to 50% and brushed out her face on the mask layer.
6. As I said I wanted it to be more in the purpleish hue so I added a Selective Color layer.
Reds: -29, 4, 10, 13
Yellows: -13, -11, -42, 5
Cyans: 60, 60, -51, 100
Blues: -30, 36, 86, 30
Whites: -78, -12, 16, -35
Neutrals: -26, -6, -10, 8
7. Looking good, but I want it to have more of a blueish look so I copy merged and pasted onto a new layer. Then I went into Edit>>Variations. I did more cyan and more blue then hit okay and got this:
I thought it looked a little too blue so after playing with the Fill & Opacity I set both to 50% and got this:
Much better!
8. Now at this point I realized the reddish pink stripes where too much in my opinion so I copy merged what I had and moved the image to the left.
And now we're done with the major part of the coloring! Yaayy!
Composition
Okay so now onto the layout. Keep in mind I had no ideawhat I was going to be going here.
9. Okay, nows select all and copy paste it and in all honesty I just flipped and moved it around, I ended up cropping the background above Morgan. I moved the layer to crop off at her chin. Then I duplicated the layer and flipped the layer 90 degrees Clock wise. I moved it so the excess in front of Morgan cut off at the edge of the first image. For clarification: here's an image.
Now I went back to the original flipped layer and duplicated it again. This time I flipped it 90 degrees counter clockwise. You'll have something like this
10. At this point it was looking a little dull so I added a Vibrance Layer, if you don't have Vibrance Layers you can use a Hue/Saturation Layers.
Vibrance Layer settings: +58
OR
Hue/Saturation: +19
11. Okay so I wanted to lighten it up a little, I wanted to show off her hair a bit. So I added a Curves Layer.
RGB: 206, 186.
This is what you'll currently have:
12. Alrighty, so I'm not liking how the edges are showing, it is way to distracting to me and I want it to be softer. To fix this, I copy merge and paste the image onto a new layer. To soften it up I went to Filters and Gaussian Blur and after playing around set it to 5.5.
Alright, so I decided I wanted to make Morgan shine, so I ended up setting the layer on Overlay and added a mask layer so erase the darkness to make her brighten.
13. Now I found that it looks a little too edgy, so I duplicated the layer and went back to filters and went to Motion Blur. Filter>>Blur>> Blur Motion>>
Angle: 0
Distance: 16
I ended up erasing most of it except for the center which was over the lights.
Without motion blur:
With motion blur:
See the difference? It'll depend on your image what you erase, if you erase but I wanted to make sure it was understood why.
14. LAST STEP!! This is optional mind you, but I added one final Vibrance Layer set to +38, or Hue/Saturation set to 14 will get you damn close to the same. I wanted the purple in her hair to be shown off a bit more.
Aaannndd you're done! Yayy! Any questions, clarifications, anything at all, please comment! Hope this was helpful and I'd love to see people's results!
------------------------
>>
Cropping
Alrighty, so I wanted the sky to be dominant in the icon. What I love about Legend of the Seeker is the use of light and flowing colors. I wanted it to be bright, the silhouettes of our heros to really be shown off.
1. After cropping the image I duplicated it and set it to Screen, it wasn't quite what I wanted so I duplicated it again.
2. Now, I'm thinking that the silhouettes are a little too light. I duplicated the Screen layer and set it to Soft Light. This was better but the foreground was too dark so I added a Mask layer and painted it out.
3. Looking good but it had not real point of focus. That's when I decided to copy merge and paste it onto a new layer. After playing with the setting I set it to Multiply and added a mask layer. I took a large brush with the opacity and flow set low/medium and took out a wide circle around the pair, not completely though. The center, Kahlan & Richard I masked out completely. Now you'll get something like this.
4. I decided that I wanted the coloring of this to be light, soft, more natural. That's why I decided to play around with a Curves layer. After fiddling about with the settings I settled on something that looked more natural to me.
RGB: O: 198, I: 176.
After looking at it for a moment I noted what was bothering me, it was too red. I ended up adding on to the Blue layer. In something like this you don't want it to be too over powering, subtly is best so after playing I settled on the following settings.
Blue: O: 199; I: 181
5. This is a subtle step and it may not be necessary depending on the image, but I opened up a Vibrance Layer and lowered the Vibrance to -15, masked out the area over Kahlan & Richard like so.
The difference is subtle, but I noticed it--again, up to you.
6. Again, this is a subtle (although more noticeable than the last step) change. I wanted more contrast in the image so I added a black & white gradient layer set to Overlay. It was too much on 100%, so I lower the FIll to 10%.
7. I wanted the image to be a bit more blue and I wanted the clouds to stand out from the sky so I played around with the different blues and the settings, finally I landed on 8a9dcc set on Color Burn.
I really liked how the sky looked but Kahlan, Richard and the foreground were far too dark so I took a small brush for our dynamic duo and a larger one for the ground and masked them out.
8. Okay, so we're almost done! I really liked what was going on in the image but I wanted our heros to really be in focus. So I opened a new layer and filled it with a charcoal gray (323232), then took a large soft brush in white, set to a low fill & opacity and brushed it on the center, right over them.
After trying it on different settings I settled on Overlay.
9. Final step! I opened up a Vibrance layer. A Hue/Saturation Layer will work as well and I'll provide both settings.
Vibrance: +75
Saturation +6
Hue Saturation: +23
And you're done! Rather simple in comparison! Again, any questions or anything please ask. I'd love feedback--I do hope these were helpful and there will be more to come!