19. tutorial - skinner in requiem
I was asked by adventuregirl6 to create a tutorial for an icon in my latest batch. The way I write tutorials, I do a LOT of explanation and very few pictures. Hopefully this isn't too rambly. If anyone requires a screenshot I have not provided, feel free to ask :D
Today we will be making:
The coloring is not exact, as it isn't really the important thing in this tutorial :D This can be done in PSP or PS, and probably even GIMP, though I've never used it to know ;) I used PSP, hence the screenshots being PSP-fied ;)
01. First, the obvious - find a picture and crop it. For icons like this, you’re looking for a screencap with quite a lot of space around the subject (person), or a screencap which will allow you to create more space (which I will explain later). I chose a cap of Walter Skinner from The X Files. Now, I guarantee whatever screencap you have probably won’t be as difficult to use lighting wise as this one was, so you may not need to follow all the same steps as me. Half the fun has been done for me - the background is reasonably plain, although it is not all one color.
02. As you have probably noticed, I did not just stick with the amount of space I already had from the screencap. I cropped the cap so that it was wider than it was tall. In this case, it’s easy because the top of the subject’s head is not cut off, but in some cases you may have to fill in the bit of head which is missing*. I then went to canvas size, and made the height of my icon the same as the width, putting the empty space towards the top and left of the icon, so I could fill it in. I used the selecting pipette tool to choose a color from the background (it doesn’t matter if the joint between the background and your color is not seemless - we’ll sort it out) and filled the area above my original screencap.
ETA: Ok, so because I rarely do these things on photoshop, I have realized this step is slightly different on there. You need to create a fill layer of the color you wish to use for your background, then using the select tool, select the bit where your image is, and delete that part of the fill layer. You can continue the rest of the steps as you would in PSP, as far as I know :)
03. Using the smudge tool, I smudged the area I had just filled and the original background until it appeared seamless. I also got the paint tool, took a color from the background, and covered over some bits with that to make it look cleaner. You can do this most effectively on a duplicate layer of your base, in case you make a mistake, because you can use the eraser tool to rub it out if you do, and your image is still underneath. DON'T WORRY IF THIS IS NOT PERFECT. You can neaten it up at any time using the paint tool, and when the textures go on top, it won't matter too much if the background is not all one color.
04. It was only when I am satisfied with the background that I merged layers and resized the icon down to 100x100 (often I resize to 200x200 instead, and then resize it one last time when I’ve finished, but not this time because I’m using 100x100 textures which would get distorted). I had to play about with curves A LOT to get the subject to show properly in this icon, but as I said before, if your character doesn’t have a massive bright light shining on them, you probably won’t have this problem. I don’t recall my exact curves settings, and they’re never the same for any two screencaps, so it’s best to just play about.
05. After I was happy with the general brightness and contrast of the icon, I got some light textures made by navras_rheya (these are my favorite textures ever) and pasted one on top of my icon. Paul’s textures are fabulous for adding contrast, as well as color, and I probably over use them. If the colors are not what I want for my icon, I often play around with the color balance, or simply turn it black and white to use it just for contrast. Set the texture to soft light, and it created a glow on Skinner which is slightly suggesting of what is really happening in the screencap (but may have worked better if the light was coming from the direction he is looking in), but also breaks up the solid background, giving you a much nicer looking effect than just solid blue. It has also transformed the colors.
06. I then pasted a second texture on and set to soft light as well, which moves the light again. Obviously, do not just settle for the textures I chose, as Paul has loads in his two sets, and you can also find some good ones at esquire, or even just create them yourself because they’re quite easy to make out of colored screencaps using the blend tool!
to
And you're done :D As you can see, it is not EXACTLY the same as the original icon, but it is pretty much the same concept, just I got the curves and cropping slightly wrong this time:
* WHAT?! MY PERSON HAS NO TOP TO THEIR HEAD?! I hear your cry, and I have a solution. I had this problem when making:
Although by using a skin-color background it is not that obvious. Scully was fine, but Skinner... the top of his big bald shiny head was cut off :( I started out with this cap. I start out the same way with prepping the image, but as well as creating a background, I also have to create the top of his head. Thankfully, this is done quite easily. Using the smudge tool, on a very small setting, drag the top of the head over to create a circular top rather than a flat line. This is usually best to do after you've resized, as it's a smaller surface to work with. Don't rush it, because then it might look a bit weird, and again do it on a duplicate of the base, incase you make a big mistake. You may need to use the clone tool, on a very small brush, as well, but don't go crazy with it because it's difficult to create round edges using it.
And no, this does not only work on baldies. I also used this effect to create:
If you are looking to make a background which is not all one color, but has an actual image as the background (say, a jungle, for example?) that was in the original cap, THIS tutorial by heartoutofstone is INCREDIBLY helpful, and also offers an alternative way of doing things which is useful to know XD
Thanks for reading, and I hope this has been helpful XD Feedback is awesome!
Oh and before I forget, credit for X Files screencaps goes to the X Files Archive!
Today we will be making:
The coloring is not exact, as it isn't really the important thing in this tutorial :D This can be done in PSP or PS, and probably even GIMP, though I've never used it to know ;) I used PSP, hence the screenshots being PSP-fied ;)
01. First, the obvious - find a picture and crop it. For icons like this, you’re looking for a screencap with quite a lot of space around the subject (person), or a screencap which will allow you to create more space (which I will explain later). I chose a cap of Walter Skinner from The X Files. Now, I guarantee whatever screencap you have probably won’t be as difficult to use lighting wise as this one was, so you may not need to follow all the same steps as me. Half the fun has been done for me - the background is reasonably plain, although it is not all one color.
02. As you have probably noticed, I did not just stick with the amount of space I already had from the screencap. I cropped the cap so that it was wider than it was tall. In this case, it’s easy because the top of the subject’s head is not cut off, but in some cases you may have to fill in the bit of head which is missing*. I then went to canvas size, and made the height of my icon the same as the width, putting the empty space towards the top and left of the icon, so I could fill it in. I used the selecting pipette tool to choose a color from the background (it doesn’t matter if the joint between the background and your color is not seemless - we’ll sort it out) and filled the area above my original screencap.
ETA: Ok, so because I rarely do these things on photoshop, I have realized this step is slightly different on there. You need to create a fill layer of the color you wish to use for your background, then using the select tool, select the bit where your image is, and delete that part of the fill layer. You can continue the rest of the steps as you would in PSP, as far as I know :)
03. Using the smudge tool, I smudged the area I had just filled and the original background until it appeared seamless. I also got the paint tool, took a color from the background, and covered over some bits with that to make it look cleaner. You can do this most effectively on a duplicate layer of your base, in case you make a mistake, because you can use the eraser tool to rub it out if you do, and your image is still underneath. DON'T WORRY IF THIS IS NOT PERFECT. You can neaten it up at any time using the paint tool, and when the textures go on top, it won't matter too much if the background is not all one color.
04. It was only when I am satisfied with the background that I merged layers and resized the icon down to 100x100 (often I resize to 200x200 instead, and then resize it one last time when I’ve finished, but not this time because I’m using 100x100 textures which would get distorted). I had to play about with curves A LOT to get the subject to show properly in this icon, but as I said before, if your character doesn’t have a massive bright light shining on them, you probably won’t have this problem. I don’t recall my exact curves settings, and they’re never the same for any two screencaps, so it’s best to just play about.
05. After I was happy with the general brightness and contrast of the icon, I got some light textures made by navras_rheya (these are my favorite textures ever) and pasted one on top of my icon. Paul’s textures are fabulous for adding contrast, as well as color, and I probably over use them. If the colors are not what I want for my icon, I often play around with the color balance, or simply turn it black and white to use it just for contrast. Set the texture to soft light, and it created a glow on Skinner which is slightly suggesting of what is really happening in the screencap (but may have worked better if the light was coming from the direction he is looking in), but also breaks up the solid background, giving you a much nicer looking effect than just solid blue. It has also transformed the colors.
06. I then pasted a second texture on and set to soft light as well, which moves the light again. Obviously, do not just settle for the textures I chose, as Paul has loads in his two sets, and you can also find some good ones at esquire, or even just create them yourself because they’re quite easy to make out of colored screencaps using the blend tool!
to
And you're done :D As you can see, it is not EXACTLY the same as the original icon, but it is pretty much the same concept, just I got the curves and cropping slightly wrong this time:
* WHAT?! MY PERSON HAS NO TOP TO THEIR HEAD?! I hear your cry, and I have a solution. I had this problem when making:
Although by using a skin-color background it is not that obvious. Scully was fine, but Skinner... the top of his big bald shiny head was cut off :( I started out with this cap. I start out the same way with prepping the image, but as well as creating a background, I also have to create the top of his head. Thankfully, this is done quite easily. Using the smudge tool, on a very small setting, drag the top of the head over to create a circular top rather than a flat line. This is usually best to do after you've resized, as it's a smaller surface to work with. Don't rush it, because then it might look a bit weird, and again do it on a duplicate of the base, incase you make a big mistake. You may need to use the clone tool, on a very small brush, as well, but don't go crazy with it because it's difficult to create round edges using it.
And no, this does not only work on baldies. I also used this effect to create:
If you are looking to make a background which is not all one color, but has an actual image as the background (say, a jungle, for example?) that was in the original cap, THIS tutorial by heartoutofstone is INCREDIBLY helpful, and also offers an alternative way of doing things which is useful to know XD
Thanks for reading, and I hope this has been helpful XD Feedback is awesome!
Oh and before I forget, credit for X Files screencaps goes to the X Files Archive!