General Icon Tutorial (requested elsewhere)
I just spend a couple hours working out this tutorial (my first) and figured what the heck, share it elsewhere.
This was requested on a message board that limits the number of images in a post/private message. This is a tutorial for PaintShopPro 6, but it's not like PSP varies greatly from version to version - blur is blur, layer is layer, it may not be exactly where I say it is, but I'm sure you'll find it. This is also assuming you know that when you make a layer, that little thing that says "Normal" is the Blend Modes and you are interested in learning how to use them ;)
If there are any questions, just ask.
Zee icon vee vill be making today is...
At the end I'll explain the order the layers are in. This is just how it's assembled from start to finish.
Also if you see any BROKEN images, just hit reload. My server is wonky.
You start with a picture... Which I had to crop out the bottom because it had a watermark. It's lovely, really, doesn't he look sweet?
Then I duplicate the background, as I am wont to do, and put a Gaussian Blur on it of between 5 and 8. Then I set the layer to Overlay with a 46% opacity. That allows a bit of softening from the Blur, but it doesn't muff up the image underneath, and lets the background pop a little more:
+ 
= 
The next thing I do is add a little interest by creating a new layer (I obsessively make new layers for e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g) and checking out a gradient. I keep my gradients in a folder on my desktop, and set the folder to "Thumbnail View" so that I can have PSP open with my image sitting there while the folder sits on top and I can compare stuff as I scroll through.... I have a lot.
By the way, as an aside, I work in a .psp file constantly. In fact, until the second I upload, I don't compress it to .jpg. And I always save my .psp files, in their own folders, in case I need a copy of a layer later, or want to dupe an effect. And obviously it'd help doing these tutorials, wouldn't it? I never merge, I never compress, I leave each layer as is. I suggest icon makers do the same. Compress at your own risk.
So
julia_thorne13 makes these delightful BIG gradients that you can find the first set of right here. They are 200x200 and I'll tell you why I like them. You can move them around. With 100x100 stuff you're stuck with placement, all you can do is flip, mirror and colorize. With 200x200 you can move the light and dark bits around however you want. This is important.
Also important is this: from your open explorer window, when you find the gradient you like, DRAG it onto your PSP desktop; do a CTRL C to copy the whole thing and then hop over to your icon and do CTRL L. That pastes as a new layer. So no more "Make a new layer, go copy, go paste." Just one step. Also, I prefer not to do a CTRL A before copying because when you go to close all your open stuff it wants to know if you want to save everything and the answer is always no. With CTRL C you get the same copy ability with no stupid ass questions.
So. We've got ....
+
set on Hard Light blend mode = 
What we have here is some lightening up of the image, adding color and adding a bit of focus to the left. We've also got a nice light background to stick text on. Contrast is good, right? Right.
But we're not done yet. That's boring. We need something. Something to fill the gap over there yonder. So we open up the vast Brushes (image packs, naturally) folder and browse. And browse, and browse. Oh look, Light Effects! Yes please!
By the way, I do the same with Brushes as Gradients. Inside the Brushes folder I have subfolders for Skies, Lights, Textures, Borders and Words. There's miscellaneous stuff in there too, as well as stuff I've thought I would use but haven't so I shift them off into "Not Using" Folder. Could I be more of a virgo? Why yes! I actually edit the file names of 99% of my brushes/gradients to add the artist's name at the end. And in Gradients I even mass renamed the whole bit to be Gradient 001 - 315. Then added artists names afterwards. I win at teh Virgo!
I feel horrible but I don't have a link to the Tiramisu that made the gorgeous flame brushes that I used next, and I spent 20 minutes scanning 100x100 and other links to find her. There are a lot of people with that name on LJ. I even searched ... well let's say I searched a lot, so if you stop by and see this tutorial, comment dammit. Or if someone knows her, please link me!
So we're at...
+ 
set on Screen = 
It looks kinda lens-y, kinda outdoor light-y, pretty neat, n'est pas? He's already being lit from the left side, this just adds emphasis and almost makes it seem like that flame is the light. By the way, the brush came actually upside down and flipped to the side, I moved it around until I got the right placement. As icon makers do.
Now we need text. We don't always need text, but in this case, I want some text. And placement of text is always an issue, I've been trying for interesting placement lately, but for this we're going flat out to the side where all the space is, and where there now resides a loverly glow.
Text takes me a long time. I have hundreds of fonts, as most people do, and I'm never really sure what I'm looking for until I find it. Sometimes I'll drop an icon and leave it alone for a month until I find the right font or see something I want to try or just have the energy to futz around with it. And I promise there will not be this much text in my other tutorials.
Ironically enough, I was just using this font on another icon so I knew immediately what it is. It's Hootie! on size 9, lower case (it's grungier than uppercase which is bolder). Set to normal blend mode!
+ 
= 
But it's so very smalllll, we need an anchor, something to pull the whole icon together. Perhaps his last name? Oh yes. Same font, Hootie! set on probably about a size 12 with a bit of kerning, I'm thinking between 10 and 25 to space it out a bit. Then I erased all the bits that were on the actual person, changed the Blend mode to Multiply, and changed the opacity to 14, so it looks faded and behind all the "currentness" of the icon. If that makes sense.
+ 
= 
Oh my god, can you feel the excitement, we're almost done! But... but... It's nice. It fills in space, it has some color, some focus, you can still see the character, but... it feels unfinished. And believe me, I do not use borders on over half of my icons, but this one needed another anchor, another bit of black to set it up and polish it off. So off I went to my Borders folder to see what I could find.
Don't ask me how I can tell, but looking through my set this particular brush I used is by Spiralling, who likes us to link to her brush journal of
stargarden_, and it's her brush set Frames Grungy 02. First one up on the top left of the image pack. But, it was too much, so I actually resized the border either to 110% or 125%, then pasted that on top of the icon. It gives less coverage, a little bit of blur from the resizing, but it still adds that final anchor.
+ 
set on Muliply blend mode = 
Now obviously, the order in which an icon is assembled is important, because those Blend modes look different in different places.
So the order is, from the TOP down:
Danny text layer - normal mode
Border layer - multiply mode
Flame/Light layer - screen mode
Masterson text layer - multiply mode (14% opacity)
Gradient layer - hard light mode
Copy of background layer - overlay mode (46% opacity)
Background layer - no changes (maybe sharpen)
That was kinda difficult to put together, I admire those who do tutorials on a regular basis.
Comments and questions, please feel free. And if you learned anything, lemme know, if you use any of this rambling nonsense, show me, I love looking at pretty things!
This was requested on a message board that limits the number of images in a post/private message. This is a tutorial for PaintShopPro 6, but it's not like PSP varies greatly from version to version - blur is blur, layer is layer, it may not be exactly where I say it is, but I'm sure you'll find it. This is also assuming you know that when you make a layer, that little thing that says "Normal" is the Blend Modes and you are interested in learning how to use them ;)
If there are any questions, just ask.
Zee icon vee vill be making today is...
At the end I'll explain the order the layers are in. This is just how it's assembled from start to finish.
Also if you see any BROKEN images, just hit reload. My server is wonky.
You start with a picture... Which I had to crop out the bottom because it had a watermark. It's lovely, really, doesn't he look sweet?
Then I duplicate the background, as I am wont to do, and put a Gaussian Blur on it of between 5 and 8. Then I set the layer to Overlay with a 46% opacity. That allows a bit of softening from the Blur, but it doesn't muff up the image underneath, and lets the background pop a little more:
The next thing I do is add a little interest by creating a new layer (I obsessively make new layers for e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g) and checking out a gradient. I keep my gradients in a folder on my desktop, and set the folder to "Thumbnail View" so that I can have PSP open with my image sitting there while the folder sits on top and I can compare stuff as I scroll through.... I have a lot.
By the way, as an aside, I work in a .psp file constantly. In fact, until the second I upload, I don't compress it to .jpg. And I always save my .psp files, in their own folders, in case I need a copy of a layer later, or want to dupe an effect. And obviously it'd help doing these tutorials, wouldn't it? I never merge, I never compress, I leave each layer as is. I suggest icon makers do the same. Compress at your own risk.
So
julia_thorne13 makes these delightful BIG gradients that you can find the first set of right here. They are 200x200 and I'll tell you why I like them. You can move them around. With 100x100 stuff you're stuck with placement, all you can do is flip, mirror and colorize. With 200x200 you can move the light and dark bits around however you want. This is important. Also important is this: from your open explorer window, when you find the gradient you like, DRAG it onto your PSP desktop; do a CTRL C to copy the whole thing and then hop over to your icon and do CTRL L. That pastes as a new layer. So no more "Make a new layer, go copy, go paste." Just one step. Also, I prefer not to do a CTRL A before copying because when you go to close all your open stuff it wants to know if you want to save everything and the answer is always no. With CTRL C you get the same copy ability with no stupid ass questions.
So. We've got ....
What we have here is some lightening up of the image, adding color and adding a bit of focus to the left. We've also got a nice light background to stick text on. Contrast is good, right? Right.
But we're not done yet. That's boring. We need something. Something to fill the gap over there yonder. So we open up the vast Brushes (image packs, naturally) folder and browse. And browse, and browse. Oh look, Light Effects! Yes please!
By the way, I do the same with Brushes as Gradients. Inside the Brushes folder I have subfolders for Skies, Lights, Textures, Borders and Words. There's miscellaneous stuff in there too, as well as stuff I've thought I would use but haven't so I shift them off into "Not Using" Folder. Could I be more of a virgo? Why yes! I actually edit the file names of 99% of my brushes/gradients to add the artist's name at the end. And in Gradients I even mass renamed the whole bit to be Gradient 001 - 315. Then added artists names afterwards. I win at teh Virgo!
I feel horrible but I don't have a link to the Tiramisu that made the gorgeous flame brushes that I used next, and I spent 20 minutes scanning 100x100 and other links to find her. There are a lot of people with that name on LJ. I even searched ... well let's say I searched a lot, so if you stop by and see this tutorial, comment dammit. Or if someone knows her, please link me!
So we're at...
It looks kinda lens-y, kinda outdoor light-y, pretty neat, n'est pas? He's already being lit from the left side, this just adds emphasis and almost makes it seem like that flame is the light. By the way, the brush came actually upside down and flipped to the side, I moved it around until I got the right placement. As icon makers do.
Now we need text. We don't always need text, but in this case, I want some text. And placement of text is always an issue, I've been trying for interesting placement lately, but for this we're going flat out to the side where all the space is, and where there now resides a loverly glow.
Text takes me a long time. I have hundreds of fonts, as most people do, and I'm never really sure what I'm looking for until I find it. Sometimes I'll drop an icon and leave it alone for a month until I find the right font or see something I want to try or just have the energy to futz around with it. And I promise there will not be this much text in my other tutorials.
Ironically enough, I was just using this font on another icon so I knew immediately what it is. It's Hootie! on size 9, lower case (it's grungier than uppercase which is bolder). Set to normal blend mode!
But it's so very smalllll, we need an anchor, something to pull the whole icon together. Perhaps his last name? Oh yes. Same font, Hootie! set on probably about a size 12 with a bit of kerning, I'm thinking between 10 and 25 to space it out a bit. Then I erased all the bits that were on the actual person, changed the Blend mode to Multiply, and changed the opacity to 14, so it looks faded and behind all the "currentness" of the icon. If that makes sense.
Oh my god, can you feel the excitement, we're almost done! But... but... It's nice. It fills in space, it has some color, some focus, you can still see the character, but... it feels unfinished. And believe me, I do not use borders on over half of my icons, but this one needed another anchor, another bit of black to set it up and polish it off. So off I went to my Borders folder to see what I could find.
Don't ask me how I can tell, but looking through my set this particular brush I used is by Spiralling, who likes us to link to her brush journal of
stargarden_, and it's her brush set Frames Grungy 02. First one up on the top left of the image pack. But, it was too much, so I actually resized the border either to 110% or 125%, then pasted that on top of the icon. It gives less coverage, a little bit of blur from the resizing, but it still adds that final anchor. Now obviously, the order in which an icon is assembled is important, because those Blend modes look different in different places.
So the order is, from the TOP down:
Danny text layer - normal mode
Border layer - multiply mode
Flame/Light layer - screen mode
Masterson text layer - multiply mode (14% opacity)
Gradient layer - hard light mode
Copy of background layer - overlay mode (46% opacity)
Background layer - no changes (maybe sharpen)
That was kinda difficult to put together, I admire those who do tutorials on a regular basis.
Comments and questions, please feel free. And if you learned anything, lemme know, if you use any of this rambling nonsense, show me, I love looking at pretty things!