Funky Bases // Advent Children Photoshop:CS Tutorial
How to get 
or under the
First, choose your image. Mine is Cloud from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
Next, choose any snippet of the image you'd like for your icon. It doesn't matter what the size is. We'll worry about resizing later. this is the part of the image I've chosen;
Now, I want you to duplicate your image twice. I set the top layer to screen, and the middle layer to multiply via the drop-down box on the layers palette.
Leave the background image as it is, and your picture should look like this;
Now, we're going to flatten the image. Go to Layers>Flatten Image. This will then make all the layers into one. Now, sharpen the image 2-3 times. I did it three times, and it has a sort of blocky effect.
Don't worry about that now. We'll take care of that when we resize.
Now, duplicate the sharpened background layer, and go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Toy around with the levels until you get a desired effect.
These were my settings;
And my image looks like this;
Now, duplicate the image that we changed the levels on, then go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation, or hit CTRL + U.
My Hue/Saturation settings are;
And my image now looks like this;
If you think Cloud's skin is too yellow, you can erase it or use the dodge tool to lighten it, but I'm satisfied with how it looks.
We now go to Layer>Flatten Image, then we go to Image>Image Size and make it 100x100.
Should look like this;
If you want to make the image stand out more, sharpen it once.
And you're done!
For fun, I changed the Hue/Saturation again for a different effect. If you're going to toy around, don't forget to DUPLICATE LAYERS.
By decreasing the Hue/Saturation on the duplicated image;
You still see colors, but they aren't as vibrant;
Anyway, it's all trial and error, so have fun! I'd also love to see what you come up with. :}. Image Heavy.
or under the First, choose your image. Mine is Cloud from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
Next, choose any snippet of the image you'd like for your icon. It doesn't matter what the size is. We'll worry about resizing later. this is the part of the image I've chosen;
Now, I want you to duplicate your image twice. I set the top layer to screen, and the middle layer to multiply via the drop-down box on the layers palette.
Leave the background image as it is, and your picture should look like this;
Now, we're going to flatten the image. Go to Layers>Flatten Image. This will then make all the layers into one. Now, sharpen the image 2-3 times. I did it three times, and it has a sort of blocky effect.
Don't worry about that now. We'll take care of that when we resize.
Now, duplicate the sharpened background layer, and go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Toy around with the levels until you get a desired effect.
These were my settings;
And my image looks like this;
Now, duplicate the image that we changed the levels on, then go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation, or hit CTRL + U.
My Hue/Saturation settings are;
And my image now looks like this;
If you think Cloud's skin is too yellow, you can erase it or use the dodge tool to lighten it, but I'm satisfied with how it looks.
We now go to Layer>Flatten Image, then we go to Image>Image Size and make it 100x100.
Should look like this;
If you want to make the image stand out more, sharpen it once.
And you're done!
For fun, I changed the Hue/Saturation again for a different effect. If you're going to toy around, don't forget to DUPLICATE LAYERS.
By decreasing the Hue/Saturation on the duplicated image;
You still see colors, but they aren't as vibrant;
Anyway, it's all trial and error, so have fun! I'd also love to see what you come up with. :}. Image Heavy.