Icon Tutorial

Hmm. I decided that I wanted to do a tutorial. So I did one. ^_^

It's for this icon; , and Photoshop 7.0, although I'd imagine it translates into PSP easily enough. :)

And you can find it here:

Okay, so someone in my RP requested that I make a Zacharias Smith/Theodore Nott icon. Zach is played by Ryan Phillipe, and Theodore by Adam Herald.

1. Started off with these two images;


2. I cropped Ryan to 290x376 [same as Adam], duplicated the layer, and sharpened once (Filter => Sharpen => Sharpen);


3. It was too sharp, I thought, so I moved the Opacity down to 50%, and merged the layers;


4. I copied Ryan (Alt+S, Alt+A, Ctrl+C) and pasted him onto a new layer over Adam. Decided Ryan was too dark, so I duplicated the Ryan-layer, set it to screen, reduced the opacity to 50% and merged it to the first Ryan-layer. Then I cropped the image [2 layers; Adam and Ryan] to 250x250px;


5. Double clicked Adam-layer [which was the background] to unlock it, set both it and Ryan to 'Soft Light' then went to Edit => Free Transform and shrunk Adam until his head was closer to the size of Ryan's head. Then I used the move tool to realign the two of them;


6. Created a new layer underneath Adam and used one of crumblingwalls's colour gradients;


7. Turned the visibility off the Gradient layer and Adam, and used the lasso tool to select, and then cut (Ctrl+X), the background from around Ryan. Then used the blur tool to smooth the edges;


8. Again, removing the background, this time on Adam. I used the magic wand to select and cut (Ctrl+X) the pale blue background, and the eraser tool to remove his shirt collar, then the blur tool to smooth the edges;


9. I made all the layers visible again, and used the blur tool on Adam to stop his neck and hand showing across Ryan;


10. Image => Image Size => 100x100;


11. Duplicate Adam and Ryan; merge them so you have two layers that have both adam *and* ryan on. Set the bottom layer to 'Normal' at 50% opacity, and the top one to 'Soft Light', at 50% opacity;


12. Duplicate the 'Normal' layer and apply a Gaussian Blur (Filter => Blur => Gaussian Blur) at a radius of 2.5. Then press Alt+F twice to repeat;


13. I didn't like how much Ryan's hair stood out from the background, so I used the blur tool on all three image layers to soften it;


14. I then duplicated the Normal, *unblurred* layer and set it to Motion Blue (Filter => Blur => Motion Blur) at -45 angle and a distance of 20. Then I duplicated the unblurred normal layer again, set the duplicate to Overlay, merged the two and set the new layer to Normal, 75% Opacity;


15. The left side of Adam's face was too dark, so I used the Dodge tool, set at Highlights and 30% Exposure on all of the image layers, just on the left hand side of his face until it showed up more;


16. I duplicated the top [Soft-lighted] layer twice. I left the top layer alone and set the other two both to Motion Blur (bottom one to -45 angle and 30 distance, top to 45 angle and 30 distance);


17. I duplicated my gradient layer. I moved it up to just above my three 'Normal' layers, and below my three 'Soft Lighted' layers. I set it to Saturation;


18. I Duplicated the Saturated gradient layer, and moved it to the top, above all my other layers. Then I duplicated it again, changed the Fill and Opacity of both the duplicated layers to 50%, and set the very top layer to Hue;


19. I decided that I wanted a little texture on this icon, unlike the others in the set. I used the dropper tool to pick out a Khaki colour from where Ryan's hair merged with Adam (D0BF93). Created a new layer, set on Soft Light, and chose a square grid brush (I think it was by dtissagirl, but I wouldn't stake my life on it - all my brushes are credited in my userinfo). I decided that the effect was too harsh, so I used a single Blur filter on it (Filter => Blur => Blur) and then reduced both the Fill and the Opacity to 75%;


20. Now for the border. I used the same khaki colour (D0BF93) to flood fill a new layer. Then I went to Selections => Select All, Selections => Modify => Border (Alt+S, Alt+A; Alt+S, Alt+M, Alt+B). I set the border to 1px, then went to Selections => Inverse (Alt+S, Alt+I), and I cut out the main colour (Ctrl+x). I then went to Selections => Reselect (Alt+S, Alt+E) and used the eraser tool to make sure that the border was just 1px wide, with no overlap. I set the layer to Colour Burn;


21. Now for the text. I made a new text layer under my border layer. I've made a whole set of these icons, and the text one each one has been nice and plain. So I used Scriptoria Small Caps set at 2.3pt with the anti-alias on Strong to write 'Zacharias/Theodore'. I set the layer to linear burn;


22. This was much too dark, obviously, so I double clicked the layer to bring up the blending options box (also; right click => blending options). I chose 'Outer Glow', and left it at it's original settings. I then chose 'Stroke', set at 1px , Screen and 75% Opacity with the same colour as my Glow (FFFFBE);


23. This still didn't look right, the text was too hard to read, so I went back to my Stroke option and changed the colour to my khaki colour (D0BF93). It still refused to look right, so I removed both of my blends, moved the text to the opposite corner, and created a new layer underneath my text layer. I selected a small rectangle around my text, and filled it in with my khaki colour, setting the layer to Screen. I used a Blur filter twice, and then Motion Blur once (0 angle, 30 distance). I duplicated my text layer, making sure that the duplicate was on Linear Burn, and that the blends. weren't on. I then used the Blur and the Burn tools on Adam's hair on the image layers to make the 'dore' part of Theodore show up better;




And there you have it, a finished icon, and a finished tutorial. Phew, that took a long time. I hope it's useful to sombebody, at least. ^_^