Tutorial 02: That cuh-razy Dr. Crane (Cleaning caps, using two pictures)
I have one tutorial already up in franken_stein, and it is labeled "Tutorial 01" and what is the point of that (numbering it) if I don't have any others?
I'm bored and thought this icon turned out pretty nice given the fact that they came from relatively poor quality screencaps - not that I don't REALLY REALLY appreciate yorda_ for capping them! - so here is a resulting tutorial. I just thought it would be a fun thing to do, and hopefully it'll be helpful for some people.
From THIS and THIS I made the following icon:
I'm recreating this icon to make the tutorial, so it won't be exact, but hopefully close enough. Also, I ramble quite a bit and give you a lot of my thoughts and such, so it's a little long... sorry! But maybe some of those things will be useful.
Okiedokie, before we begin, here are the ingredients:
1 Kiefer Sutherland
1 Bunny of your choice
1 Blender
oh... wait... oops, those are the ingredients for the How to Make a Jarrod Washburn recipe. bahahahhahaha.
Stuff I Used:
+ Photoshop 7, but this tutorial should be simple enough for you to translate to whatever other program you use
+ Screencaps from yorda_, to reiterate
+ Texture from withaghost
+ Brushes from crystalkirk and franken_stein
+ Gradients from crumblingwalls
Now, here we go. The beginning of this tutorial will be kind of similar to my first one, because the way I prepare bases is all pretty much the same. It's useful to me, though. Alright. Take this screencap, and resize it. I never use the crop tool to crop - I have a different way than most people seem to (from what I know by reading a lot of tutorials, that is). I usually resize it by going to Image - Image Size and then choosing "percent" in the options. Make sure "Constrain Proportions" is checked. Then I just kinda eyeball it. Art, not science, I say. For the purposes of this tutorial, hmm, well the resizing should be abooouuut 35%. It usually takes me a bunch of tries to get it the right size. When I was experimenting to try to get the exact size of the original icon, I got 219x120 pixels for the screencap.
Anyway, I mentioned this in my first tutorial too, but this is the way I like to crop because I just move the image on to the 100x100 icon, and then move the image around til I get a cropping that I like.
This is what it looks like on the 100x100 canvas.
Next, take this screencap. I resized it so that it's 146x80 pixels.
Then move it over to the canvas. In this case the pictures aligned pretty well, but sometimes when I put more than one picture onto an icon I have to use the rectangular marquee tool to cut out stuff.
To brighten images, I use Image - Adjustments - Levels. It works really well for me. It makes the image a lot less flat. If you have never used it before, here's a quick summary: The left arrow slider makes dark areas darker, the right makes light areas lighter, and the middle adjusts the proportions of light and dark. I always adjust the dark first, then the light, and then I almost always move the middle slider to the left a little bit, but if you have a REALLY bright image, you might want to lower it in brightness a little bit by moving it to the right. Slide the arrows yourself to get the hang of it, but if you want to get an idea of how much I did mine, the numbers I got are 23, 1.37, 232 for input levels for the top picture, and 16, 1.47, 182 for the bottom.
Next, smooth out the skin. To do so, I zoom in on the image and use a small rounded brush on the Smudge tool, set at 8% strength.
Sharpen both images. Lately I've been using Filter - Sharpen - Unsharp Mask because it allows you to control how much sharpening you get. I don't change the Radius or Threshold. For the top picture, I put the Amount to 67% and for the bottom, 65%.
Then I wanted to work with that whole thing as one picture, so I merged everything and pasted as a new layer. In Photoshop, all you have to do is Ctrl+A to select all, Ctrl+Shift+C to copy merged, then, with the topmost layer selected in your layer palette, just do Ctrl+V to paste it into a new layer.
Duplicate that TWICE. Keep the one on the bottom as a base to use later. Set the very top layer to Soft Light.
Leave the very bottom Normal layer alone, so that you can duplicate it later when you need to. Take the Normal layer that's above that one, and adjust the Saturation. on it. (Image - Adjustments - Hue/Saturation.) For this one, I did -40.
So right now, the layer palette should look like: Soft Light, Normal, Normal. Duplicate the very first Normal layer again, move it right below the Soft Light layer, and set it to Screen. Adjust the Brightness/Contrast (under Image - Adjustments) a little bit. My settings are Brightness: -10, Contrast: + 16. Then lower the opacity of that layer 40-45%. Sometimes when I use this method and the image could use it, I desaturate the Screen layer a bit too. But in this case it looks okay without that step.
Above the Screen layer and below the Soft Light layer, make a new layer and fill it with #03082B. Set the blend mode to Exclusion and lower the opacity to 49%.
Make a new layer right above the Exclusion layer, and fill it with #D6BFA9. Set it to Darken, and you can lower the opacity to around 80% or so, or leave it at 100%. I put it on 95%. Which kinda doesn't make any difference. What the heck.
Make a new layer above the Darken layer, and use this gradient by crumblingwalls. Set it to Pin Light at 36% opacity.
Another new layer above that. Use another gradient by crumblingwalls. Set it to Exclusion at 27% opacity.
Next, make a layer ABOVE THE SOFT LIGHT layer. Use this brush by me, franken_stein. (You should download the brushes here because they will instantaneously improve your performance in bed. Heat things up and impress your lover!) The image shown is the actual brush, but on the icon, I erased some of it at the top. Also, I erased where his hair is on the bottom picture so that the black is retained. The color used is #D6B19F. I left the blend mode on Normal, and lowered the opacity to 20%.
Go back to the original base, and duplicate it again. Bring it all the way up to the top and set it to Hard Light and lower the opacity to 30%.
This is a texture by withaghost. I mostly just used the bright portion near the bottom. Here's how I placed the texture (on two different layers) on the icon. The layers are set on Screen. (On the last one, the texture is moved up so that on the top of the icon, it's the bottom left corner of the texture.)
Well, you can guess what comes next. Erase away the edges of the texture. For the texture that's on the bottom left corner of the icon, I lowered the opacity to 71%. For the one on the top right corner, I left it at 100%.
Use this brush by crystalkirk. It's pretty big, so you have to resize it first. Since the brush had to be resized, I sharpened it using Filter - Sharpen - Sharpen. It's pretty faint, so I duplicated it once. Both layers were left on Normal at 100%.
Same thing with this brush, with the resizing and sharpening. I set this to Multiply though, and didn't need to duplicate it. I mostly put this one here so that the text would show up better.
To create the divider between the two pictures, I went back to that screencap and used the rectangular marquee tool to select part of his straight jacket. Then I moved it onto the icon, and deleted a little part of it to make it skinnier. I increased both the brightness and contrast on that.
Then it's time for text. "Crazy Dr. Crane," I wrote. The font is Trajan, size 5, in white. I set it to Screen and then right clicked the text layer in the layer palette. In Blending Options, click on Drop Shadow, and then set Distance and Size each to 1. Duplicate the text layer, move it up, and resize it to create the tiny text above it. I resize it by doing so: Edit - Transform - Scale. Then I hold down the Shift key while resizing to maintain proportions. I find this is the easiest way to do tiny text. Then after I resize it, if I want the text to be a different shape or length or whatever I can type more into that text layer.
To make the text that's on his cheek, in the bottom picture, type in whatever you want and resize it the same was as before. The settings are same (Trajan, white). Don't put a drop shadow on this one though. Set it to Soft Light, and then duplicate it. Move the duplicate layer down and to the left a bit, and lower the opacity of that one to 81%.
The last thing I do it make one more merged copy of everything. Same thing as after the initial sharpening. Paste the whole thing into a new layer, and then do Filter - Sharpen - Sharpen. Then lower the opacity to a point where it's nice and clear, but not oversharpened. For this, I did 50%, but most of the time it has to be less than that.
We're done! And that's the icon! Holy cow, that icon turned out surprisingly similar, considering it's a recreated one. I hope you guys don't try to recreate one of my icons though. Use the tips in this tutorial to come up with something of your own, and I would love to see what results. Let me know! It's great to have feedback, and it would be nice to hear if you found this useful. Comments, questions, suggestions, thoughts, complimentary Cillian Murphys are all welcome. Straight jacket not necessary; I'll tie him down myself.
I'm bored and thought this icon turned out pretty nice given the fact that they came from relatively poor quality screencaps - not that I don't REALLY REALLY appreciate yorda_ for capping them! - so here is a resulting tutorial. I just thought it would be a fun thing to do, and hopefully it'll be helpful for some people.
From THIS and THIS I made the following icon:
I'm recreating this icon to make the tutorial, so it won't be exact, but hopefully close enough. Also, I ramble quite a bit and give you a lot of my thoughts and such, so it's a little long... sorry! But maybe some of those things will be useful.
Okiedokie, before we begin, here are the ingredients:
1 Kiefer Sutherland
1 Bunny of your choice
1 Blender
oh... wait... oops, those are the ingredients for the How to Make a Jarrod Washburn recipe. bahahahhahaha.
Stuff I Used:
+ Photoshop 7, but this tutorial should be simple enough for you to translate to whatever other program you use
+ Screencaps from yorda_, to reiterate
+ Texture from withaghost
+ Brushes from crystalkirk and franken_stein
+ Gradients from crumblingwalls
Now, here we go. The beginning of this tutorial will be kind of similar to my first one, because the way I prepare bases is all pretty much the same. It's useful to me, though. Alright. Take this screencap, and resize it. I never use the crop tool to crop - I have a different way than most people seem to (from what I know by reading a lot of tutorials, that is). I usually resize it by going to Image - Image Size and then choosing "percent" in the options. Make sure "Constrain Proportions" is checked. Then I just kinda eyeball it. Art, not science, I say. For the purposes of this tutorial, hmm, well the resizing should be abooouuut 35%. It usually takes me a bunch of tries to get it the right size. When I was experimenting to try to get the exact size of the original icon, I got 219x120 pixels for the screencap.
Anyway, I mentioned this in my first tutorial too, but this is the way I like to crop because I just move the image on to the 100x100 icon, and then move the image around til I get a cropping that I like.
This is what it looks like on the 100x100 canvas.
Next, take this screencap. I resized it so that it's 146x80 pixels.
Then move it over to the canvas. In this case the pictures aligned pretty well, but sometimes when I put more than one picture onto an icon I have to use the rectangular marquee tool to cut out stuff.
To brighten images, I use Image - Adjustments - Levels. It works really well for me. It makes the image a lot less flat. If you have never used it before, here's a quick summary: The left arrow slider makes dark areas darker, the right makes light areas lighter, and the middle adjusts the proportions of light and dark. I always adjust the dark first, then the light, and then I almost always move the middle slider to the left a little bit, but if you have a REALLY bright image, you might want to lower it in brightness a little bit by moving it to the right. Slide the arrows yourself to get the hang of it, but if you want to get an idea of how much I did mine, the numbers I got are 23, 1.37, 232 for input levels for the top picture, and 16, 1.47, 182 for the bottom.
Next, smooth out the skin. To do so, I zoom in on the image and use a small rounded brush on the Smudge tool, set at 8% strength.
Sharpen both images. Lately I've been using Filter - Sharpen - Unsharp Mask because it allows you to control how much sharpening you get. I don't change the Radius or Threshold. For the top picture, I put the Amount to 67% and for the bottom, 65%.
Then I wanted to work with that whole thing as one picture, so I merged everything and pasted as a new layer. In Photoshop, all you have to do is Ctrl+A to select all, Ctrl+Shift+C to copy merged, then, with the topmost layer selected in your layer palette, just do Ctrl+V to paste it into a new layer.
Duplicate that TWICE. Keep the one on the bottom as a base to use later. Set the very top layer to Soft Light.
Leave the very bottom Normal layer alone, so that you can duplicate it later when you need to. Take the Normal layer that's above that one, and adjust the Saturation. on it. (Image - Adjustments - Hue/Saturation.) For this one, I did -40.
So right now, the layer palette should look like: Soft Light, Normal, Normal. Duplicate the very first Normal layer again, move it right below the Soft Light layer, and set it to Screen. Adjust the Brightness/Contrast (under Image - Adjustments) a little bit. My settings are Brightness: -10, Contrast: + 16. Then lower the opacity of that layer 40-45%. Sometimes when I use this method and the image could use it, I desaturate the Screen layer a bit too. But in this case it looks okay without that step.
Above the Screen layer and below the Soft Light layer, make a new layer and fill it with #03082B. Set the blend mode to Exclusion and lower the opacity to 49%.
Make a new layer right above the Exclusion layer, and fill it with #D6BFA9. Set it to Darken, and you can lower the opacity to around 80% or so, or leave it at 100%. I put it on 95%. Which kinda doesn't make any difference. What the heck.
Make a new layer above the Darken layer, and use this gradient by crumblingwalls. Set it to Pin Light at 36% opacity.
Another new layer above that. Use another gradient by crumblingwalls. Set it to Exclusion at 27% opacity.
Next, make a layer ABOVE THE SOFT LIGHT layer. Use this brush by me, franken_stein. (You should download the brushes here because they will instantaneously improve your performance in bed. Heat things up and impress your lover!) The image shown is the actual brush, but on the icon, I erased some of it at the top. Also, I erased where his hair is on the bottom picture so that the black is retained. The color used is #D6B19F. I left the blend mode on Normal, and lowered the opacity to 20%.
Go back to the original base, and duplicate it again. Bring it all the way up to the top and set it to Hard Light and lower the opacity to 30%.
This is a texture by withaghost. I mostly just used the bright portion near the bottom. Here's how I placed the texture (on two different layers) on the icon. The layers are set on Screen. (On the last one, the texture is moved up so that on the top of the icon, it's the bottom left corner of the texture.)
Well, you can guess what comes next. Erase away the edges of the texture. For the texture that's on the bottom left corner of the icon, I lowered the opacity to 71%. For the one on the top right corner, I left it at 100%.
Use this brush by crystalkirk. It's pretty big, so you have to resize it first. Since the brush had to be resized, I sharpened it using Filter - Sharpen - Sharpen. It's pretty faint, so I duplicated it once. Both layers were left on Normal at 100%.
Same thing with this brush, with the resizing and sharpening. I set this to Multiply though, and didn't need to duplicate it. I mostly put this one here so that the text would show up better.
To create the divider between the two pictures, I went back to that screencap and used the rectangular marquee tool to select part of his straight jacket. Then I moved it onto the icon, and deleted a little part of it to make it skinnier. I increased both the brightness and contrast on that.
Then it's time for text. "Crazy Dr. Crane," I wrote. The font is Trajan, size 5, in white. I set it to Screen and then right clicked the text layer in the layer palette. In Blending Options, click on Drop Shadow, and then set Distance and Size each to 1. Duplicate the text layer, move it up, and resize it to create the tiny text above it. I resize it by doing so: Edit - Transform - Scale. Then I hold down the Shift key while resizing to maintain proportions. I find this is the easiest way to do tiny text. Then after I resize it, if I want the text to be a different shape or length or whatever I can type more into that text layer.
To make the text that's on his cheek, in the bottom picture, type in whatever you want and resize it the same was as before. The settings are same (Trajan, white). Don't put a drop shadow on this one though. Set it to Soft Light, and then duplicate it. Move the duplicate layer down and to the left a bit, and lower the opacity of that one to 81%.
The last thing I do it make one more merged copy of everything. Same thing as after the initial sharpening. Paste the whole thing into a new layer, and then do Filter - Sharpen - Sharpen. Then lower the opacity to a point where it's nice and clear, but not oversharpened. For this, I did 50%, but most of the time it has to be less than that.
We're done! And that's the icon! Holy cow, that icon turned out surprisingly similar, considering it's a recreated one. I hope you guys don't try to recreate one of my icons though. Use the tips in this tutorial to come up with something of your own, and I would love to see what results. Let me know! It's great to have feedback, and it would be nice to hear if you found this useful. Comments, questions, suggestions, thoughts, complimentary Cillian Murphys are all welcome. Straight jacket not necessary; I'll tie him down myself.