Tutorial #10: The red bandit at his end
This is the last tutorial I owe from icon_talk's Ask the Maker meme other than the more general text guide. It was requested by the fabulously talented fuuurs.
With Photoshop CS4, we'll be going from:
to
This image was my base, although the original image size was 800x430. For the purposes of this tutorial, I've re-sized it.
Step 1 - I copied the base and set it to Auto Contrast.
Step 2 - I copied the Auto Contrast layer twice. I set the lower layer to screen at 48% and the upper layer to soft light to 66%:
Step 3 - I added a Vibrance layer (New Layer > New Adjustment layer > Vibrance) and upped the Vibrance to 70%.
Step 4 - I created a new Levels layer (New Layer > New Adjustment layer > Levels) and set the Green to 0.94 to take some of the greenish yellow out of the picture.
Step 5 - I added a new Selective Color Layer (New Layer > New Adjustment layer > Selective Color) and set the Greens to +43, again to lower the greenish tint of the yellow. Don't get me wrong: I loved the yellow in the image, but I wanted it to be golden.
Step 6 - I now went about cropping. My method of doing close crops takes the long way around: I create a new 100x100 canvas. I then resize a larger image to 600-400 pixels and move it into the new canvas, moving it around (or resizing it again and doing the same thing).
I ended up with this crop:
Step 7 - I added a Vibrance layer, with the vibrance upped to 62.
Step 8 - Because the right side of the icon is very dark, I looked for a way to lighten it up. I ended up with a gradient set to soft light:
-->
I picked the light blue colour because I was already afraid the icon would be too saturated. The cool blue worked as a neutraliser. (Of course, I ended up with a saturated yellow anyway.)
Step 9 - Because I wanted to keep the magenta's in this lighter version of the icon, I added a new Levels layer where I set the Green to 0.87:
Step 10 - I wanted to play with the light in this icon, so I created a simple black-and-white gradient and set it to soft light. The angle was 81.25. I duplicated this layer and set it to 13% to create more depth.
Step 11 - I created a new Selective Color layer with the following settings:
Whites:
Yellow - +15
Neutrals:
Cyan - -5
Magenta - -4
Yellow - +27
Step 12 - I added a Vibrance layer with the vibrance at 78. Then I duplicated it and set it to an opacity of 37%:
Step 13 - To make the icon a little more balanced, I added a Curves layer between the two Vibrance layers with the following settings in RGB:
Output: 158
Input: 141
I set the opacity to 35% and masked the upper right corner (the part over his face):
And that's the end result. I personally think it is a bit too much in terms of contrast and saturation, but luckily tastes differ. ;)
Questions? Concerns? Thoughts? I'd love to hear them!
With Photoshop CS4, we'll be going from:
to
This image was my base, although the original image size was 800x430. For the purposes of this tutorial, I've re-sized it.
Step 1 - I copied the base and set it to Auto Contrast.
Step 2 - I copied the Auto Contrast layer twice. I set the lower layer to screen at 48% and the upper layer to soft light to 66%:
Step 3 - I added a Vibrance layer (New Layer > New Adjustment layer > Vibrance) and upped the Vibrance to 70%.
Step 4 - I created a new Levels layer (New Layer > New Adjustment layer > Levels) and set the Green to 0.94 to take some of the greenish yellow out of the picture.
Step 5 - I added a new Selective Color Layer (New Layer > New Adjustment layer > Selective Color) and set the Greens to +43, again to lower the greenish tint of the yellow. Don't get me wrong: I loved the yellow in the image, but I wanted it to be golden.
Step 6 - I now went about cropping. My method of doing close crops takes the long way around: I create a new 100x100 canvas. I then resize a larger image to 600-400 pixels and move it into the new canvas, moving it around (or resizing it again and doing the same thing).
I ended up with this crop:
Step 7 - I added a Vibrance layer, with the vibrance upped to 62.
Step 8 - Because the right side of the icon is very dark, I looked for a way to lighten it up. I ended up with a gradient set to soft light:
-->
I picked the light blue colour because I was already afraid the icon would be too saturated. The cool blue worked as a neutraliser. (Of course, I ended up with a saturated yellow anyway.)
Step 9 - Because I wanted to keep the magenta's in this lighter version of the icon, I added a new Levels layer where I set the Green to 0.87:
Step 10 - I wanted to play with the light in this icon, so I created a simple black-and-white gradient and set it to soft light. The angle was 81.25. I duplicated this layer and set it to 13% to create more depth.
Step 11 - I created a new Selective Color layer with the following settings:
Whites:
Yellow - +15
Neutrals:
Cyan - -5
Magenta - -4
Yellow - +27
Step 12 - I added a Vibrance layer with the vibrance at 78. Then I duplicated it and set it to an opacity of 37%:
Step 13 - To make the icon a little more balanced, I added a Curves layer between the two Vibrance layers with the following settings in RGB:
Output: 158
Input: 141
I set the opacity to 35% and masked the upper right corner (the part over his face):
And that's the end result. I personally think it is a bit too much in terms of contrast and saturation, but luckily tastes differ. ;)
Questions? Concerns? Thoughts? I'd love to hear them!