tutorial: cleaning caps; making bases; PSP8
Nothing new here, but I keep seeing the same questions being asked, so I figured one more tutorial in the pile could only help. :) Complete with nifty progressive images. Some basic pre-knowledge of the program is probably necessary. (Like using the Layer Palette, etc.)
I pick the crop I want for my icon (tip: off-centered is usually best), and get to work! We're starting out with this. (This is best done at the original size of the cap-- in other words, don't resize to 100x100 till the very end. These small images are just for convenience.)
First step is to clear things up. Duplicate the base twice, and set first to Hard Light, and the second to Screen. Fiddle with the opacities of both. For this, screen was 100%, hard light was 50%. Merge all.
Adjust-->Hue and Saturation-->Hue/Saturation/Lightness; Saturation -30, Hue & Lightness: 0
Adjust-->Brightness-->Highlight/Midtone/Shadow; again, these are levels that will always be specific to each cap. For this, they are set at Shadow: 5; Midtone: 50 (this usually should stay at 50, actually); and Highlight: 90 These last two steps got rid of most of the yellow, you'll appreciate.
Sharpen it once. If there is any grainyness or jagged lines, try to carefully smooth it out with a small blurring brush.
Ye olde peachy soft light and dark blue exclusion layer tricks. Of course. I know you've seen them 109898 jillion times, but, basically: Create a New Raster Layer, and Flood Fill it with a light pink/orangey color*, and set it to Soft Light. Merge all. It will look thusly.
Next step-- create a NRL again, and FF it with a dark blue color**; set it to Exclusion. Duplicate the base layer, move it to the top, and set it to Screen. Fiddle with the opacity-- this was 70%. Merge all.
To get it a bit darker, Duplicate your base, Gaussian blur it a bit (like radius 0.7), and set it to Burn. Move the opacity waaaaay back to 30-40%. Then, if you still are finicky like me, you can Merge that, Duplicate it AGAIN, blur it, and set it to Multiply at a low opacity, also. Voila! All shiny and pretty and ready for iconification.
*
**
Now, just for comparison, what we started with, and what we ended up with! Pretty dramatic, I think:
--->
I pick the crop I want for my icon (tip: off-centered is usually best), and get to work! We're starting out with this. (This is best done at the original size of the cap-- in other words, don't resize to 100x100 till the very end. These small images are just for convenience.)First step is to clear things up. Duplicate the base twice, and set first to Hard Light, and the second to Screen. Fiddle with the opacities of both. For this, screen was 100%, hard light was 50%. Merge all.Adjust-->Hue and Saturation-->Hue/Saturation/Lightness; Saturation -30, Hue & Lightness: 0 Adjust-->Brightness-->Highlight/Midtone/Shadow; again, these are levels that will always be specific to each cap. For this, they are set at Shadow: 5; Midtone: 50 (this usually should stay at 50, actually); and Highlight: 90 These last two steps got rid of most of the yellow, you'll appreciate.Sharpen it once. If there is any grainyness or jagged lines, try to carefully smooth it out with a small blurring brush. Ye olde peachy soft light and dark blue exclusion layer tricks. Of course. I know you've seen them 109898 jillion times, but, basically: Create a New Raster Layer, and Flood Fill it with a light pink/orangey color*, and set it to Soft Light. Merge all. It will look thusly.Next step-- create a NRL again, and FF it with a dark blue color**; set it to Exclusion. Duplicate the base layer, move it to the top, and set it to Screen. Fiddle with the opacity-- this was 70%. Merge all. To get it a bit darker, Duplicate your base, Gaussian blur it a bit (like radius 0.7), and set it to Burn. Move the opacity waaaaay back to 30-40%. Then, if you still are finicky like me, you can Merge that, Duplicate it AGAIN, blur it, and set it to Multiply at a low opacity, also. Voila! All shiny and pretty and ready for iconification. ***Now, just for comparison, what we started with, and what we ended up with! Pretty dramatic, I think:
--->