(no subject)
Welcome to the guide that is written in bad English and not funny puns. Today we will talk about light and shadows, text and lots of things that everyone want to know and not afraid to ask.
► General Icon Guide aka How Do You Even Icon aka Light and Shadows Please.
Before we even start. First thing you need for your deep shadow icon is a good cap. The greatest one has got all the shadows you need already, others need more work. And don't forget - merge {SHIFT+ALT+CTRL+E} and brush/erase A LOT! So be prepared.
We're going from
to
(well it was supposed to be this but things change, people change, photoshop preferences change even more so just deal with it.)
1. Find the light. And i'm not talking about any spiritual cabala light, i'm talking about the source of it in your icon. It can already has one or you can choose to make one yourself. This time i decided that the light is falling on his face from the right side. So lets make it more bold. Take your big ass soft brush (150~170px; 30-40% opacity) and just add some light on the right side.
+
* =
*there's no black on the layer i used, this one has it just to show you the way brush was applied.
2. Merge the layers {SHIFT+ALT+CTRL+E}. Set the layer to Soft Light
=>
3. As you can see we've added the light but right now the light on the right side is a bit overpowering. So we get rid of that layer under the Merged one. And add another one with white brush. This time your strokes should be more structured. At this point you somewhat make the base of the overall lighting.
So i got rid of this layer -
And added another one instead.
+
=
sometimes you don't need to do this part, or can just play with eraser and brushes at the same layer but i like to keep my layers separate.
4. Vibrance layer. Vibrance - 100%, set to Color.
=>
Well the face's gone all kinds of yellow and we don't need that here, so I just erased some Vibrance from his face via mask.
=>
5. COLOUR DAT ICON!!
All your layers for the colouring should be placed between the Vibrance layer and that merged layer set to Soft light.
So if you want to bring some colour into your icon you can do this:
- See those greenish background parts, let's make them more green. Add a layer set to normal with the colour you want to enhance. This time this colour already exists in an icon, but next time you can add whatever other colour you want, it's Photoshop for gods' sake you can paint in that.
+
* =
*this time i recommend a hard brush set to 50-60% opacity, and at this point you don't wanna paint over anything but background
- Right now its not that helpful but let us try this thin called LAYERS SET TO OVERLAY! Add a new layer set to Overlay and paint that background with it. This combination of Vibrance Layer, Normal Colour Layer and Overlay layer will make your colours bright and shiny in no time.
+
* =
*make sure to use SOFT brush and touch the borders of background a bit, this way you will create an illusion that the light is not artificial to this icon and it really has this green-ish feel. IDk how to explain it better tbh.
- See that face covered with light? Well why not make it more SHINY!
White brush 30~40%opacity and some erasing:
+
=
perfect!
6. Shadows, we need to go deeper! Merge everything. Set the layer to Multiply. Opacity ~40%
=>
We got what we wanted but haven't we also wanted dat light? Yes we did. Add another layer of white brushes!
+
* =
*i also added some yellow for the eyes.
7. Gurl, you better sharpen dat! Merge all the layers. Filter - Sharpen - Sharpen. Then apply mask to the layer and erase everything that is too sharpen. ~50% opacity.
+
=
8. by this step you're basically done. with the icon all you have to do is save it or play more. I always PLAY MORE.
Vibrance layer set to color! Overlay layer with background colour underneath it (just like int the 5th step)! And some Selective Colours!!
=>
► General Text Guide aka TEXT IS NOT YOU, YOU ARE TEXT~..
1. Anti-Aliasing. Every time you work with a font you should pay attention to this little menu.
IT SHOULD NEVER BE SET TO NONE!! If it is then your text will suck balls and you've been warned! I prefer using it on SHARP, but sometimes for some fornts Crisp or Smooth work better.
2. Size.
This part is lazy. You can adjust the size of your text.
*
*font=GOVERNOR size - 8 and 11
3. Leading.
The space between the lines of your text layer. It will come handy if we want to adjust it.
or
*
you can adjust a whole layer or just a selected line.
4. Trackling.
You adjust the space between the letters in this menu.
*
*Tackling is 9 for the small text.
Also this thing is amazing for making a tiny text line.
Just make a size ff your font ~2-4 and trackling ~300-40.
5. All Caps.
This button is always on in my settings. Most of the icon text i make is in all caps so it can be easily read.
But sometimes the lower case letters are also pretty, so try everything.
6. Colour.
Well that's simple. You choose the one you want.
- Most of the times i'm choosing colours from the ones i already have. Eyedropper is your friend.
- You can always use white.
- Sometimes you can go for the complimentary colours. just pick the one from your icon with Eyedropper and then go mad at - http://www.colorschemedesigner.com/
7. FONTS.
- if you want people to read what you are writing try choosing simple bold fonts: Governor, TW CEN MT Condensed Bold, Archive or Arial Black will always work.
- Sometimes it is fun to play with a single letter in your icon.
*
*b - Last king Quest
I'm not really ready to make a full fornt guide at this moment but later on may be i will.
8. Creating a shadow. Duplicate your text layer, change the colour to any and lower opacity to ~70-80% = profit.
9. Applying gradient. What i like to do with my text for it to "merge" into the icon is applying gradient. This is the last step i make for a text layer before rasterizing it.
Double click on your text layer for Layer Style menu to appear. Check the Gradient Overlay and make it active to see the settings.
these are my default settings for Gradient Overlay, i always adjust Angle according to the light flow in my icon and Opacity so the gradient wouldn't wash out all the colour.
=>
10. Rasterize. After you've done all the stuff with choosing a font, size and colour you rasterize the text layer. Merge all the text layers and then - Right click on the layer - Rasterize type. This way the further steps - moving, stretching etc. will not produce unnecessary artifacts.
11. Blur. Filter - Blur - Blur. And then - Edit - Fade. Just make your text look right.
12. Composition. Ctrl+T and just go nuts. But remember to hold Shift key when you resize it for all the things to be even.
I don't really know what else to say here tbh so i made this little text inspiring thing.
[text inspiration]
Don't be afraid to use text. It is just another layer that you can erase, colour, change opacities and layer modes. Just try all the things, something will eventually feels like it.
If you have any question about anything i was talking about feel free to ask.
And there were some other questions at my Ask The Maker thread, so i will make another lil' Q&A a bit later :]