deus ex machina tutorial (lost);
as requested by
lovable_sin
to
program: photoshop cs2
difficulty: medium
not translatable (selective colouring used)
there is no .psd
01. take your base. i used a screencap of boone and locke from lost (found here @ lost-media.com).
02. as you can see, there isn't much background near the top of the screencap. in the icon, however, the backdrop seems to extend up pretty far. to create this effect you'll need to open the screencap three separate times in photoshop.
03. i cropped the first screencap so that there was a blank space above boone's head:
make sure the screencap itself is its own layer and that it doesn't become merged with the background (in my example the background is white). you're going to be putting another layer behind the cropped screencap so just remember not to merge it.
04. take your second screencap that you opened in photoshop and crop part of the jungle in the background. for this part, i cropped the bottom lefthand part of the image, leaving out the lost-media tag:
i didn't mind that locke was in the other corner because the third screencap copy will take care of that. set this crop aside.
05. take your third screencap and crop like this:
i tried to include a little bit of that branch that juts out from the bottom righthand corner. i didn't want to include it all because i thought it would take away from the icon.
06. take your 3rd crop and place it over your 2nd (these are the two background crops, not the first main crop). the background crop of boone should be on top of the locke crop. take a medium-size fuzzy eraser brush and erase everything (mainly boone) except for the righthand side which is going to cover locke. ie:
this should give you a nice background something like this when you merge all layers:
07. take the merged background image you just made and place it behind the first crop of boone and locke:
using a smaller fuzzy eraser brush, erase around boone and locke (top layer). this will make the background you made previously shine through and give it all a seamless look.
08. select --> all, edit --> copy merged, edit --> paste. it's nice to have a merged layer on top of the other ones just in case you mess something up. i usually put off flattening all layers until i'm sure i've made my icon how i want it.
09. duplicate your merged layer and set it to screen @ 100% opacity. duplicate this screen layer again but set it to 50% opacity instead of 100%. duplicate this screen layer but instead set it to soft light @ 47% opacity.
10. layer --> new adjustment layer --> hue/saturation. up the saturation to +15.
11. layer --> new adjustment layer --> selective colour.
reds: 0 0 0 +10 0
greens: 0 0 +20 +10
blacks: 0 0 0 +15
12. i changed the colouring on this texture
made by jam_min until i came up with something like this:
i found the original texture too blue for the jungle background so i went to image --> adjustments --> variations and toyed around with the settings.
13. take the edited texture and set it to screen @ 95% opacity on top of all the other layers.
14. take a medium-size fuzzy eraser brush @ 49% opacity and erase some of the blue in the top lefthand portion of the texture.
15. duplicate the texture (yes, after it's been erased a bit) and set it to multiply @ 24% opacity. take a fuzzy eraser brush and erase the part of this texture that covers locke's face to make it a little brighter.
16. find your base (the layer that you copy+merged awhile back) and filter --> sharpen.
17. layer --> new adjustment layer --> selective colour.
greens: -60 0 +37 0
18. duplicate the soft light layer you made awhile back and drag it to the top. set it @ 70% opacity.
19. layer --> new adjustment layer --> selective colour.
neutrals: 0 0 0 +10
blacks: 0 0 0 +5
*this icon was included in my last batch. it's not exactly the same but i just couldn't seem to remember how i did it. maybe throw in a brightness/contrast layer and play with the contrast?
tutorial:
>>>>><<<<< original:
lovable_sin
to
program: photoshop cs2
difficulty: medium
not translatable (selective colouring used)
there is no .psd
01. take your base. i used a screencap of boone and locke from lost (found here @ lost-media.com).
02. as you can see, there isn't much background near the top of the screencap. in the icon, however, the backdrop seems to extend up pretty far. to create this effect you'll need to open the screencap three separate times in photoshop.
03. i cropped the first screencap so that there was a blank space above boone's head:
make sure the screencap itself is its own layer and that it doesn't become merged with the background (in my example the background is white). you're going to be putting another layer behind the cropped screencap so just remember not to merge it.
04. take your second screencap that you opened in photoshop and crop part of the jungle in the background. for this part, i cropped the bottom lefthand part of the image, leaving out the lost-media tag:
i didn't mind that locke was in the other corner because the third screencap copy will take care of that. set this crop aside.
05. take your third screencap and crop like this:
i tried to include a little bit of that branch that juts out from the bottom righthand corner. i didn't want to include it all because i thought it would take away from the icon.
06. take your 3rd crop and place it over your 2nd (these are the two background crops, not the first main crop). the background crop of boone should be on top of the locke crop. take a medium-size fuzzy eraser brush and erase everything (mainly boone) except for the righthand side which is going to cover locke. ie:
this should give you a nice background something like this when you merge all layers:
07. take the merged background image you just made and place it behind the first crop of boone and locke:
using a smaller fuzzy eraser brush, erase around boone and locke (top layer). this will make the background you made previously shine through and give it all a seamless look.
08. select --> all, edit --> copy merged, edit --> paste. it's nice to have a merged layer on top of the other ones just in case you mess something up. i usually put off flattening all layers until i'm sure i've made my icon how i want it.
09. duplicate your merged layer and set it to screen @ 100% opacity. duplicate this screen layer again but set it to 50% opacity instead of 100%. duplicate this screen layer but instead set it to soft light @ 47% opacity.
10. layer --> new adjustment layer --> hue/saturation. up the saturation to +15.
11. layer --> new adjustment layer --> selective colour.
reds: 0 0 0 +10 0
greens: 0 0 +20 +10
blacks: 0 0 0 +15
12. i changed the colouring on this texture
made by jam_min until i came up with something like this:
i found the original texture too blue for the jungle background so i went to image --> adjustments --> variations and toyed around with the settings.
13. take the edited texture and set it to screen @ 95% opacity on top of all the other layers.
14. take a medium-size fuzzy eraser brush @ 49% opacity and erase some of the blue in the top lefthand portion of the texture.
15. duplicate the texture (yes, after it's been erased a bit) and set it to multiply @ 24% opacity. take a fuzzy eraser brush and erase the part of this texture that covers locke's face to make it a little brighter.
16. find your base (the layer that you copy+merged awhile back) and filter --> sharpen.
17. layer --> new adjustment layer --> selective colour.
greens: -60 0 +37 0
18. duplicate the soft light layer you made awhile back and drag it to the top. set it @ 70% opacity.
19. layer --> new adjustment layer --> selective colour.
neutrals: 0 0 0 +10
blacks: 0 0 0 +5
*this icon was included in my last batch. it's not exactly the same but i just couldn't seem to remember how i did it. maybe throw in a brightness/contrast layer and play with the contrast?
tutorial:
>>>>><<<<< original: