Supernatural Coloring Tutorial
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- made in PS CS2
- uses selective coloring
- includes a psd file
This was requested in my last icon post. I'll be honest with you, this tutorial is very, very LONG. That is why I decided to upload the psd file as well. You can download it right here (right click, save as...). But I suggest you take a look at the tutorial anyway, because the psd is in German and probably a bit confusing. I hope you'll find this useful :)
Prepping the base
.01 As usual, prepare your base. I used this cap, courtesy of homeofthenutty.com and got rid of the CW logo. I cropped and sharpened it, using the unsharpen mask. I can't remember my exact settings, so I'll give you a range of numbers I usually use on my icons:
Amount: 25% - 50%
Radius: 0,4 pixels - 0,8 pixels
Threshold: 0
This is my base:
.02 Caps are usually too dark to start with the coloring right away, so I like to use screen layers to brighten them up a little. For this icon I used two screen layers. I duplicated my base twice and set the first copy to screen at 100% opacity and the second one to 20%. But these setting really depend on how dark the original cap is.
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.03 The icon lost some contrast, so I like to use a soft light layer to get some of it back. Another copy of the base above the two screen layers, set to soft light at 38%. This also depends on your image and on how many screen layers you had to add.
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Coloring, Pt. 1
I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with the coloring of the icon so you can probably get the final result with less layers than I used. But I tend to experiment a lot, so this first - more natural - coloring is the basis for the final result.
.04 I started with a selective color adjustment layer, just to boost the reds and yellows in the image. My settings:
Red Channel
Cyan: -28%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: +27%
Black: -07%
Yellow Channel
Cyan: -36%
Magenta: +06%
Yellow: +17%
Black: -10%
Green Channel
Cyan: -42%
Magenta: -25%
Yellow: -19%
Black: +26%
White Channel
Cyan: 00%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: 00%
Black: -17%
Neutral Channel
Cyan: -01%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: -04%
Black: +04%
Black Channel
Cyan: 00%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: 00%
Black: +04%
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.05 Then I added a color balance adjustment layer, for the same reason. (This is just a really subtle change. As I said, I was experimenting.)
Midtones
Cyan: 00
Magenta: -02
Yellow: -05
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.06 The cap still looked a bit too dark to me, so I added a curves adjustment layer in order to brighten up the bright parts of the image a little more, if that makes any sense.
RBG Channel
(create a new dot on the line)
Input 144
Output 163
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.07 Then I added a brightness/contrast adjustment layer to add, once again, a little more contrast.
Brightness -05
Contrast +05
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.08 Another color balance adjustment layer for another very subtle coloring adjustment:
Midtones
Cyan: 00
Magenta: 00
Yellow: +05
Lights
Cyan: 00
Magenta: 00
Yellow: +02
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.09 Another selective color adjustment layer.
Red Channel
Cyan: -29%
Magenta: -11%
Yellow: -08%
Black: -09%
Yellow Channel
Cyan: 00%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: -10%
Black: +09%
Neutral Channel
Cyan: -01%
Magenta: -04%
Yellow: 00%
Black: +05%
Black Channel
Cyan: 00%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: 00%
Black: -02%
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.10 Again, a little more contrast. This time I used a levels adjustment layer.
I'm sorry, I don't know the correct translation for "Tonwertspreizung", so just go to the RBG Channel and change the settings as follows:
8 | 1,00 | 255
0 | 255
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.11 Yet another brightness/contrast adjustment layer.
Brightness -07
Contrast +01
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.12 Another selective color adjustment layer.
Red Channel
Cyan: -02%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: 00%
Black: +07%
Neutral Channel
Cyan: -03%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: 00%
Black: +03%
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.13 Then I duplicated my base one more time and dragged that layer to the top. I set it to screen at 37% opacity.
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.14 Another selective color adjustment layer.
Red Channel
Cyan: -15%
Magenta: +05%
Yellow: -05%
Black: +15%
Yellow Channel
Cyan: 00%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: +20%
Black: -10%
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.15 And to finish the first coloring off, another color balance adjustment layer.
Midtones
Cyan: +18
Magenta: +07
Yellow: -06
Shadows
Cyan: +10
Magenta: +03
Yellow: -04
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Okay, that were a lot of steps for a not so spectacular result. But I don't think about nice and easy when I'm making icons. I just experiment and add layer after layer, so I usually end up using 10 layers when you could have gotten the same result with two or three. Sorry.
Coloring, Pt. 2
I wanted the icon to be a bit darker and the colors a bit stronger, so I continued experimenting. And things will probably not make any sense from here on. Not that they did before.
.16 This is something I ended up doing in the end, but it's easier to just do this step now.
Copy merge all layers and paste it in as a new layer at the top (I'm having a little trouble explaining this, so you might just as well do this (in PS CS2): Ctrl.+A - Ctrl.+Shift+C - Ctrl.+V).
Set this new layer to 30% opacity.
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.17 Another curves adjustment layer to brighten the icon a bit more, because the texture I will use in the next step will make the icon rather dark.
RGB Channel
(create a new dot on the line)
Input 128
Output 147
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.18 Then I added this texture, made by ewanism and set it to multiply at 70% opacity to get a bit of a grungy look.
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.19 The icon is too dark now so I added yet another curves adjustment layer.
RGB Channel
(create a new dot on the line)
Input 46
Output 56
(create another new dot)
Input 135
Output 163
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.20 I added a new layer, filled it with a dark brown (#241202) and set it to difference at 25%.
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.21 Another new layer, I filled this one with a red-ish brown (#4b0d0d) and set it to difference at 58%.
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In the folowing steps I used selective color and color balance layers in order to bring out the yellows and reds in the image.
.22 Selective color adjustment layer.
Red Channel
Cyan: -28%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: +41%
Black: +16%
Yellow Channel
Cyan: -28%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: +18%
Black: +15%
Green Channel
Cyan: 00%
Magenta: +100%
Yellow: +100%
Black: +100%
Blue Channel
Cyan: +62%
Magenta: +32%
Yellow: -38%
Black: +30%
Magenta Channel
Cyan: -24%
Magenta: +39%
Yellow: +25%
Black: +24%
White Channel
Cyan: -33%
Magenta: +19%
Yellow: +22%
Black: -33%
Neutral Channel
Cyan: -08%
Magenta: +02%
Yellow: +07%
Black: +04%
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.23 I added a hue/satturation adjustment layer
Satturation
Master: +20
Red: -05
Yellow: -05
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.24 Then a color balance adjustment layer.
Midtones
Cyan: +03
Magenta: +07
Yellow: -05
Shadows
Cyan: +03
Magenta: -05
Yellow: +06
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.25 I added another new layer and filled it with a dark grey (#888888) and set it to pin light at 100% to mute the blacks a little.
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.26 Another brightness/contrast adjustment layer.
Brightness +03
Contrast -04
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.27 Yet another selective color adjustment layer.
Red Channel
Cyan: -19%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: +13%
Black: +17%
Yellow Channel
Cyan: +09%
Magenta: +08
Yellow: +06%
Black: +10%
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.28 And another hue/satturation adjustment layer.
Satturation
Master: +13
Yellow: -25
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.29 I added another new layer and filled it with a bright orange (#ff4200) and set the layer to soft light at 15%.
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.30 And another selective color adjustment layer.
Yellow Channel
Cyan: +12%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: +18%
Black: +08%
Neutral Channel
Cyan: -03%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: +05%
Black: +03%
Black Channel
Cyan: +06%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: +11%
Black: +03%
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.31 Now ABOVE THE LAYER FROM STEP #16 one last selective color adjustment layer.
Yellow Channel
Cyan: -15%
Magenta: 00%
Yellow: +25%
Black: 00%
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.32 And finally I added this texture, made by me and set it to screen at 49%.
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And that's it. I know, it's way too long and confusing to be actually useful. Sorry.
Other examples
PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF I MESSED SOMETHING UP!
Comments are appreciated! Please leave a comment if you download the psd file!