tutorial 002 & 003
This is what we start with. A dreary grey picture of Jon Snow with a serious case of emo face! But there is lots of potential here. The lighting is good, the shot is excellent, and there are lots of bright colors lurking in the shadows. I chose to do this icon because I said I was going to do it a long time ago and also because it uses the coloring that I use on pretty much everything. I got the gist of this coloring a very long time ago from a psd by ullaaa. I no longer have the psd (it was on my old computer that got stolen) and I've changed the coloring so much that I'm not even sure it's recognizable but it was that psd that got me started on color fill layers, so credit goes to ullaaa.
1. duplicate base layer, set soft light 60% opacity. Then duplicate the base layer again drag it above the soft light layer and set to screen with an opacity of 30% and a fill of 50%.
2. Make a color fill layer c63f3f, 19% opacity, set to luminosity
3. Make another color fill layer, fabe1a, 18% opacity, set to luminosity
4. Make a channel mixer layer
red +102
green -21
blue +23
constant +1
The point of the last three layers was to well, layer. I'm setting up a whole series of colors in the base image that we will slowly accentuate with the next steps. The image has a lot more warmth now, the yellows and reds are starting to glow.
5. Make a color fill layer, a5cfe7, 15% opacity, set to difference
6. Curves!
1st point: output 161 | input 142
2nd point: output 95 | input 97
Look at all those lovely blues. Now I'm starting to imagine lots of cyan.
7. The image obviously needs to be lighter and it still needs some warmth so, color fill ebc9c9, 17% opacity, set to screen
8. Color fill layer, e0fef7, 25% opacity, set to soft light
9. brightness/contrast layer: -30 brightness , 53 contrast
10. Still needs to be brighter and I don't want to cause too much pixelation (by making it to contrasty), so usually i will duplicate my uncolored base layer and drag it above my coloring screen, 60% opacity. This keeps the original light from the image but you can also see all those colors we just put in it shining through.
11. Okay now it is time for some serious changes. Make a selective color layer.
reds:
cyan -24
magenta +10
yellow -36
black +23
blacks:
black +14
12. CURVES IS FOR CONTRAST!
first point: output 71, input 92
second point: output 173, input 155
13. Selective color layer:
reds
cyan -100
yellows +100
black +20
yellows
cyan -100
yellow +100
blues
green +35
yellow +100
black +4
cyans
cyan +75
magenta -9
yellow +32
black +12
magenta
magenta +7
yellow +66
black +12
whites
black -14
blacks
cyan +9
yellow +3
black +10
boom cyaned.
14. Color balance layer!
midtones:
red +9
magenta -2
blue +3
15. Vibrance layer!
vibrance +42
saturation +14
16. Levels Layer!
settings: 14, 1.00, 244
17. I really like removing images from their backgrounds... I do it all the time.. I sort of feel weird when I don't do it honestly... so make a new color fill layer for your background! I used a pretty aqua color, 0dc4c8
18. Duplicate your colored image, drag it above your aqua and mask out sad Jon Snow! I used a soft brush for this mainly, because of his soft curly hair and his furry coat. I also did a little bit of smoothing on his face with the smudge tool just to get rid of any stray pixels.
19. Shrink it down and move it over!
20. It needs to be brighter and glowy so, texture soft light, opacity 100% (not sure who the texture is by? drankmywar perhaps?)
be sure to mask out the bits over his face -->
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21. Brightness/Contrast
brightness: +23 contrast: +33
22. Selective Color!
reds
cyans -17
magenta +33
yellow +27
black +17
yellows
cyans -37
yellow +72
black +13
cyans
cyan +26
blues
black +28
neutrals
yellow +9
black +5
blacks
magenta +13
yellow +1
black +1
23. texture! Set to hard light, 66% opacity. Just gives it a little more glow.
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24. ctrl+alt+e your image into a new layer and run auto levels! Auto levels is a pretty handy tool, sometimes it turns out horribly though which is why I always copy into a new layer first, so I can fiddle with the opacity and fill or just delete it all together. This layer is set to 100% opacity.
25. ctrl+alt+e again and set to soft light, opacity 20%, fill 90%. Run the gaussian blur filter at 3.0.
26. crtl+alt+e for the last time and run the smart sharpen filter, opacity 30%, fill 90%
FINIS!
Other icons made using this coloring but maybe not so many textures etc... I usually use it if I'm looking for bright pinks or bright cyans. IT DOES NOT WORK ON EVERYTHING.
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1. This is the original. Color and crop your image, mainly I just made it brighter and then enhanced the contrast and the reds in his shirt. I used the smudge tool to extend the background.
2. ctrl+alt+e and make the base image bigger with transform --> scale, and move it a little bit off center, run gaussian blur, 3.0, and then layer mask out the parts you don't want. Set the layer to screen, 60% opacity, 90% fill.
This is what the layer looks like without the base layer turned on:
3. duplicate that layer and run diagonal motion blur, set to screen, opacity 60%
4. ctrl+alt+e your base and make it bigger again! and offset it a little. Set to screen at 30% opacity, run gaussian blur , 3.0
This is what the 'texture' layers look like without the base image. So it kind of looks like harry is ghosting outwards, like a dementor has him. Or that was the idea anyway.
5. It need a little bit more contrast so ctrl+alt+e, set to soft light, opacity 30%
6. Add a little vibrance and run a sharpening filter and kazaam!
Other icons where I used sort of the same technique but not quite so obviously maybe... I guess I like using it on Harry Potter icons, lol.
Wow! That was long! Did you make it? If you have any extra questions I'd be happy to answer them!