Flashing Images tutorial (Buffy/Angel --> Hunger)
madelineanne asked me to make a tutorial for this icon, which won First Place (woo!) for the 'Hunger' challenge at whedonosity:
First, I will show you how I made this frame:
And then I will show you how I made this frame:
And then I will show you how I put them together. The fun!
Base Style 01:
I start with this blank base:
Duplicate the background layer twice (so you have 3 layers in total).
Set the top layer to Soft Light.
Set the middle layer to Screen.
Add a Gaussian Blur to the Soft Light layer.
Add a Gaussian Blur to the background layer.
Sharpen the Screen layer.
The icon currently looks like this:
It's way too dark for my tastes. Duplicate the middle layer (the Screen layer) a bunch of times until you think it looks light enough. I've gone for seven Screen layers in total, as it's a dark blank:
Add a white border. You should probably do this before cropping your blank, so you can make sure it fits inside it ok. As I'm remaking this icon for this tutorial, though, I didn't. Um. That's why.
Making a thick border is very simple. Open a new window in Photoshop, 85x85 pixels. Fill the background with black. Then open another new window, 100x100px, start a new layer and fill it with white. Then paste the black square on top of it. If you literally copy the black square and then paste it, rather than dragging it or anything, it will be dead centre.
Select the black square with the Magic Wand tool, then go to the white layer (make sure you don't deselect the black square area), and just hit clear. If you copy and paste that white layer into the icon window, it will now be a white border. That sounds complicated, but it really isn't. I just suck at explaining.
Anyway, now my icon looks like this:
Beneath the white border layer, I add an icon texture. This one is by dorky_duck:
Go to Edit--> Transform --> Rotate 180 degrees. Set the texture layer to Screen. The icon currently looks like this:
The image is a bit washed out, so I duplicate the Soft Light layer to add a bit more definition to it.
Now it looks a bit orangey, so I add a Black Fill Layer under the icon texture (third layer down), and set it to Color, Opacity 29%. And we're done!
I use this exact same technique to make the other frames in the animation:
Base Style 02:
Take your base, ready made:
Go to Image --> Adjustments --> Invert Colours:
Add a white border over the top. Alternatively, do this before flattening image.
How easy was that?
I use this exact same technique to make the other frames in the animation:
The third style of frame is just a white 100x100px square, with 'HUNGRY FOR YOU' written in Times New Roman, 6pt, Bold, Black:
Easy peasy.
Putting them altogether.
Please see last post for comments on animation. I'm not going to tell you how to do it. Just how I did it. To put it simply, here are the order of the frames, and what they do:
1 -->
(Delay --> 50)
2 -->
(Delay --> 6)
3 -->
(Delay --> 10)
4 -->
(Delay --> 6)
5 -->
(Delay --> 50)
6 -->
(Delay --> 6)
7 -->
(Delay --> 10)
8 -->
(Delay --> 6)
9 -->
(Delay --> 50)
10 -->
(Delay --> 6)
11 -->
(Delay --> 10)
12 -->
(Delay --> 6)
13 -->
(Delay --> 50)
14 -->
(Delay --> 6)
15 -->
(Delay --> 10)
16 -->
(Delay --> 35)
17 -->
(Delay --> 10)
18 -->
(Delay --> 10)
Voila:
Then you just need to optimise it so it's under 40k. I only needed to reduce it to about 100 colours or so.
Also, I am sorry if I am not as witty and vivacious as usual. I am ill, and probably transmitting milions of germs through the computer screen to you, my loyal public. Have fun.
Other tutorials:
LARGE INTRUSIVE IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
I'm sure most of you know what the purpose of tutorials is. It's 'Hey, I like this effect. You will too. I will teach it to you, so you can learn something new, and interpret it in YOUR OWN WAY.'
It is not 'Hey! Copy this icon to the letter and pass it off as your own.'
You can probably guess what's spurred this on. A friend of mine pointed me towards an icon made in the very image of this one. The only difference is the screencap used. Even the TEXT is the same. I encourage pepole to follow this tutorial, to learn from it, but not to copy it. Use your own text. Experiment with the different effects I've shown you. But for god's sake, make something NEW. Don't copy the words, the pose, the concept, the freaking lighting effects!!
I'm not going to namecheck the guilty party, because that's stooping to a bitchy level that I don't like. No, wait, scrap that. The sheer audacity of this person has pissed me off beyond all recognition. I am furious. Go see why.
I'm proud of this icon. I won first place at whedonosity for it. I wanted to share it with others. But now I'm regretting spending my Saturday hours writing this bloody thing, all for someone to copy my work and pass it off as their own. Maybe I'm being unreasonable, but I don't care, because I think it's pretty damn justified.
FROM NOW ON, I WILL BE INSISTING ON CREDIT FOR ALL MY ICONS AND TUTORIALS.
Suddenly it seems necessary.
First, I will show you how I made this frame:
And then I will show you how I made this frame:
And then I will show you how I put them together. The fun!
Base Style 01:
I start with this blank base:
Duplicate the background layer twice (so you have 3 layers in total).
Set the top layer to Soft Light.
Set the middle layer to Screen.
Add a Gaussian Blur to the Soft Light layer.
Add a Gaussian Blur to the background layer.
Sharpen the Screen layer.
The icon currently looks like this:
It's way too dark for my tastes. Duplicate the middle layer (the Screen layer) a bunch of times until you think it looks light enough. I've gone for seven Screen layers in total, as it's a dark blank:
Add a white border. You should probably do this before cropping your blank, so you can make sure it fits inside it ok. As I'm remaking this icon for this tutorial, though, I didn't. Um. That's why.
Making a thick border is very simple. Open a new window in Photoshop, 85x85 pixels. Fill the background with black. Then open another new window, 100x100px, start a new layer and fill it with white. Then paste the black square on top of it. If you literally copy the black square and then paste it, rather than dragging it or anything, it will be dead centre.
Select the black square with the Magic Wand tool, then go to the white layer (make sure you don't deselect the black square area), and just hit clear. If you copy and paste that white layer into the icon window, it will now be a white border. That sounds complicated, but it really isn't. I just suck at explaining.
Anyway, now my icon looks like this:
Beneath the white border layer, I add an icon texture. This one is by dorky_duck:
Go to Edit--> Transform --> Rotate 180 degrees. Set the texture layer to Screen. The icon currently looks like this:
The image is a bit washed out, so I duplicate the Soft Light layer to add a bit more definition to it.
Now it looks a bit orangey, so I add a Black Fill Layer under the icon texture (third layer down), and set it to Color, Opacity 29%. And we're done!
I use this exact same technique to make the other frames in the animation:
Base Style 02:
Take your base, ready made:
Go to Image --> Adjustments --> Invert Colours:
Add a white border over the top. Alternatively, do this before flattening image.
How easy was that?
I use this exact same technique to make the other frames in the animation:
The third style of frame is just a white 100x100px square, with 'HUNGRY FOR YOU' written in Times New Roman, 6pt, Bold, Black:
Easy peasy.
Putting them altogether.
Please see last post for comments on animation. I'm not going to tell you how to do it. Just how I did it. To put it simply, here are the order of the frames, and what they do:
1 -->
(Delay --> 50)
2 -->
(Delay --> 6)
3 -->
(Delay --> 10)
4 -->
(Delay --> 6)
5 -->
(Delay --> 50)
6 -->
(Delay --> 6)
7 -->
(Delay --> 10)
8 -->
(Delay --> 6)
9 -->
(Delay --> 50)
10 -->
(Delay --> 6)
11 -->
(Delay --> 10)
12 -->
(Delay --> 6)
13 -->
(Delay --> 50)
14 -->
(Delay --> 6)
15 -->
(Delay --> 10)
16 -->
(Delay --> 35)
17 -->
(Delay --> 10)
18 -->
(Delay --> 10)
Voila:
Then you just need to optimise it so it's under 40k. I only needed to reduce it to about 100 colours or so.
Also, I am sorry if I am not as witty and vivacious as usual. I am ill, and probably transmitting milions of germs through the computer screen to you, my loyal public. Have fun.
Other tutorials:
LARGE INTRUSIVE IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
I'm sure most of you know what the purpose of tutorials is. It's 'Hey, I like this effect. You will too. I will teach it to you, so you can learn something new, and interpret it in YOUR OWN WAY.'
It is not 'Hey! Copy this icon to the letter and pass it off as your own.'
You can probably guess what's spurred this on. A friend of mine pointed me towards an icon made in the very image of this one. The only difference is the screencap used. Even the TEXT is the same. I encourage pepole to follow this tutorial, to learn from it, but not to copy it. Use your own text. Experiment with the different effects I've shown you. But for god's sake, make something NEW. Don't copy the words, the pose, the concept, the freaking lighting effects!!
I'm not going to namecheck the guilty party, because that's stooping to a bitchy level that I don't like. No, wait, scrap that. The sheer audacity of this person has pissed me off beyond all recognition. I am furious. Go see why.
I'm proud of this icon. I won first place at whedonosity for it. I wanted to share it with others. But now I'm regretting spending my Saturday hours writing this bloody thing, all for someone to copy my work and pass it off as their own. Maybe I'm being unreasonable, but I don't care, because I think it's pretty damn justified.
FROM NOW ON, I WILL BE INSISTING ON CREDIT FOR ALL MY ICONS AND TUTORIALS.
Suddenly it seems necessary.