Zombie/Bloody Celeb Icon Tutorial
Okay, well, since I'm really starting to contribute to the icon community, I thought I'd go ahead and create my own tutorial. So, for Halloween, here's a tutorial on making some zombies/bloody people icons! Like you haven't seen that before....
Here's what we're going to learn how to make!
Warning, though: this tutorial is rather long!
Oh, and, yeah...this tutorial is for Photoshop users...I use Photoshop 7.0...
First, lets open a nice image of a celebrity! I chose this one of Elijah Wood! Now, I made sure to get an image where there isn't much feeling as to not mess up the “dead” feel.
Now, lets do a nice crop of Wood....I cropped around Wood's face, but made sure not to place him too much in the center. For an added affect, I rotated the crop ever so slightly for an angle.
Next, lets sharpen the image a bit and make sure the levels are correct.
First, I'm going to go to Image>Adjustments>Auto Levels.
The image is now a tad darker in certain places around Wood's face. Now to sharpen.
First, I duplicate the background layer and then go to Filters>Sharpen>Sharpen.
Since Opacity is your best friend, I went ahead and Sharpened once more and then lowered the opacity of the duplicated layer to 40%. Your image, though, may need it more or less depending on how sharp it ended up.
Okay, now after flattening my image, I know I want my image to look a little old and worn to bring out the “dead” feel.
Go ahead and duplicate your background layer. Click on your background layer after duplicating it and create two new layers(Layer1, Layer2). Fill Layer 1 with a navy blue and Layer 2 with a gold yellow. They should look like this:
Hex Code-#E3EA18
Hex Code-#160D95
Now, set Layer1 to Exclusion and lower the Opactiy to 35% and then set Layer2 to Color and lower the Opacity to 10%. Click the little eye next to the background copy and your image should look like this:
Now, click where the eye usually is so you can see your top layer(Background copy). Go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate and set the Background copy to Darken and lower the Opacity only slightly to 95%. Your image should now have a “dead” kind of look to it.
Don't worry about the yellowish background caused by our Yellow Color layer. It shouldn't be so obvious later on.
Now, lets make him look a little more “evil”. Create a new layer over all your other layers and fill it with a bloody red. Mine looks like this:
Hex Code-#720707
Now, set the red layer to Overlay and lower the opacity to 60%. Your image should now look like this:
See, now he looks a little more demonic. Well, looks like we're almost ready to start adding blood, cuts, etc, but first, lets add a few brushes to add to the “feel”.
Flatten the image and quickly duplicate the layer and set it to soft light. I felt this brought out a little more of the red and yellows in his face to get rid of any natural skin color. Flatten the image. Now, you can go ahead and add one or two new layers.
On layer1, I used the eye drop tool to find a color from Wood's face and then added a texture brush from LeaNoctis. It looks like this:
I then set the layer to Soft Light at 100%. This then gave the image better feel and made parts of Wood's face look burnt/bruised. Next, I added another LeaNoctis brush to Layer2 with the same color. It looks like this:
I then set the layer to Soft Light, but this time lowered the opacity to 50%. I liked how this brush made Wood's face appear more bruised. Now, your image should look like this:
Now, the moment ya all have been waiting for: the photo manipulation! It's finally time to add those cuts, bruises, and blood! Go ahead and flatten your image and then duplicate the background layer just incase you mess up! Now, this whole thing may be a bit easier for me because I'm using a tablet, but if you're careful, you should be able to do the same things with a mouse! The key tool we will be using is the burn tool.
Now, go ahead and zoom in to around 400% or more. Choose your burn tool and then go up to the options and set them as follows: Use a Soft Round brush at 21 pixels with the Range at Midtones and Exposure around 70%-80%. Go over certain areas of the face to darken them a bit, but not too much. We have to have some light areas so we can make some good bloody areas and scratches.
Here's what I have after a little bit of burning:
Now, since we don't want to go too crazy with our Midtones, lets go ahead and start making some bloody cuts, etc and then we can always go back and add more Midtone burns. Change your Burn tool settings to Soft Round brush at 5 pixels and the Range to Shadows and the Exposure to 85%. Duplicate your Background copy and be sure to work on the new Background copy2 layer. Zoom to 400% and slowly add random bloody cuts. Going over a previously burned area will lead to a much darker color and eventually to black. Use this knowledge to range the density of the cuts, so some are rather deep and others are just on the surface. Also remember that you can always decrease the exposure if you find that the black is appearing rather quickly. You can also change the size of your brush whenever you like.
After messing around a bit, I came up with this bloody Wood:
That took me about 2 minutes to do, but I already had a good idea on where to place my cuts. You, on the other hand, may want to experiment for a longer time to really figure out how you want your celeb to look.
Now, I feel rather satisfied with how Wood's skin looks, but his eyes, they still look too “human”. Create a new layer above your 3rd background copy and brush over the eyes with a dark red. Set the new layer to overlay and your eyes should look something like this:
Now, the big question is: what the hell are we going to do with that empty background?! Well, we're going to make it all bloody, that's what! Go ahead and flatten all your layers and then make a new layer atop your background layer. But, before we even start to add brushes, we're going to have to make sure no brushes for the background ends up on our perfectly bloody celebrity face! Go ahead and add a layer mask to your new layer and, with the layer mask selected, paint with black all over your celebs face.
Now, I'm going to use some random blood/stain brush packs I downloaded. Make sure to click back on your new layer and pick a nice bloody red. I then used 2 or 3 blood brushes from Noturna, set the Layer to Overlay and then duplicated it 4 times, setting the forth layer 83% and using a low motion blur. I duplicated the layer one more time, but this time cleared the layer of the last few brushes and added another large brush from Nocturna and set it to Color Burn at 50%. So, now my image looks like this:
I'm not real happy with how light the background is compared to how dark and creepy Wood's face is, so I'm going to have to fix that! I duplicated the last layer to carry the layer mask, but cleared the layer and went ahead and added my own texture brushes. With a black color, I used a texture of bricks and then motion blurred it and set it to Hard Light at 70%. I then duplicated it 3 times. The first two duplicates, I left with the same setting as the first, but the third: I cleared the layer and added, with a blood red, another texture brush, but this one of roots and set the layer to Multiply with 50% opacity. Here's what the image looks like now:
I then flattened the image and duplicated it, used a Gaussion Blur with a scale of 1.5 on the duplicated layer, set the duplicated layer to Screen with an Opacity of 55% and then added another new layer atop the duplicated layer with some random blood brushes and set to Soft Light at 70% for good measure. My image now looks like this:
And, since I still felt the background was rather empty, I duplicated the background layer and used Free Transform to make the duplicate very large and moved the face down a bit. I then set the duplicate to Overlay and erased any of the duplicate that was over Wood's face and lowered the opacity to 45%. So, now I'm image looks like this:
Now, if you feel you need text or anything, you can add it now. I would suggest finding a nice color using the eye drop tool from your celebrity's face and then adding some text to the background. But, I'm not going to be adding text to my icon since I feel it looks fine as it is.
What I am going to do, though, is add a border around it. After making another new layer, I chose a color from Wood's face as the base color and chose a border from a border pack created by inexorablyhere. I choose a border which looks like this:
And set it to Overlay at 45%. I then added another new layer and used another border brush in black from inexorablyhere which looks like this:
And set it to Overlay at 75%. After that, I felt I was done and this is the outcome:
Whoa, that was a long tutorial! I do hope it helped and it was my first icon tutorial! Good luck!
Also, the texture brushes I used were:
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Here's what we're going to learn how to make!
Warning, though: this tutorial is rather long!
Oh, and, yeah...this tutorial is for Photoshop users...I use Photoshop 7.0...
First, lets open a nice image of a celebrity! I chose this one of Elijah Wood! Now, I made sure to get an image where there isn't much feeling as to not mess up the “dead” feel.
Now, lets do a nice crop of Wood....I cropped around Wood's face, but made sure not to place him too much in the center. For an added affect, I rotated the crop ever so slightly for an angle.
Next, lets sharpen the image a bit and make sure the levels are correct.
First, I'm going to go to Image>Adjustments>Auto Levels.
The image is now a tad darker in certain places around Wood's face. Now to sharpen.
First, I duplicate the background layer and then go to Filters>Sharpen>Sharpen.
Since Opacity is your best friend, I went ahead and Sharpened once more and then lowered the opacity of the duplicated layer to 40%. Your image, though, may need it more or less depending on how sharp it ended up.
Okay, now after flattening my image, I know I want my image to look a little old and worn to bring out the “dead” feel.
Go ahead and duplicate your background layer. Click on your background layer after duplicating it and create two new layers(Layer1, Layer2). Fill Layer 1 with a navy blue and Layer 2 with a gold yellow. They should look like this:
Hex Code-#E3EA18
Hex Code-#160D95
Now, set Layer1 to Exclusion and lower the Opactiy to 35% and then set Layer2 to Color and lower the Opacity to 10%. Click the little eye next to the background copy and your image should look like this:
Now, click where the eye usually is so you can see your top layer(Background copy). Go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate and set the Background copy to Darken and lower the Opacity only slightly to 95%. Your image should now have a “dead” kind of look to it.
Don't worry about the yellowish background caused by our Yellow Color layer. It shouldn't be so obvious later on.
Now, lets make him look a little more “evil”. Create a new layer over all your other layers and fill it with a bloody red. Mine looks like this:
Hex Code-#720707
Now, set the red layer to Overlay and lower the opacity to 60%. Your image should now look like this:
See, now he looks a little more demonic. Well, looks like we're almost ready to start adding blood, cuts, etc, but first, lets add a few brushes to add to the “feel”.
Flatten the image and quickly duplicate the layer and set it to soft light. I felt this brought out a little more of the red and yellows in his face to get rid of any natural skin color. Flatten the image. Now, you can go ahead and add one or two new layers.
On layer1, I used the eye drop tool to find a color from Wood's face and then added a texture brush from LeaNoctis. It looks like this:
I then set the layer to Soft Light at 100%. This then gave the image better feel and made parts of Wood's face look burnt/bruised. Next, I added another LeaNoctis brush to Layer2 with the same color. It looks like this:
I then set the layer to Soft Light, but this time lowered the opacity to 50%. I liked how this brush made Wood's face appear more bruised. Now, your image should look like this:
Now, the moment ya all have been waiting for: the photo manipulation! It's finally time to add those cuts, bruises, and blood! Go ahead and flatten your image and then duplicate the background layer just incase you mess up! Now, this whole thing may be a bit easier for me because I'm using a tablet, but if you're careful, you should be able to do the same things with a mouse! The key tool we will be using is the burn tool.
Now, go ahead and zoom in to around 400% or more. Choose your burn tool and then go up to the options and set them as follows: Use a Soft Round brush at 21 pixels with the Range at Midtones and Exposure around 70%-80%. Go over certain areas of the face to darken them a bit, but not too much. We have to have some light areas so we can make some good bloody areas and scratches.
Here's what I have after a little bit of burning:
Now, since we don't want to go too crazy with our Midtones, lets go ahead and start making some bloody cuts, etc and then we can always go back and add more Midtone burns. Change your Burn tool settings to Soft Round brush at 5 pixels and the Range to Shadows and the Exposure to 85%. Duplicate your Background copy and be sure to work on the new Background copy2 layer. Zoom to 400% and slowly add random bloody cuts. Going over a previously burned area will lead to a much darker color and eventually to black. Use this knowledge to range the density of the cuts, so some are rather deep and others are just on the surface. Also remember that you can always decrease the exposure if you find that the black is appearing rather quickly. You can also change the size of your brush whenever you like.
After messing around a bit, I came up with this bloody Wood:
That took me about 2 minutes to do, but I already had a good idea on where to place my cuts. You, on the other hand, may want to experiment for a longer time to really figure out how you want your celeb to look.
Now, I feel rather satisfied with how Wood's skin looks, but his eyes, they still look too “human”. Create a new layer above your 3rd background copy and brush over the eyes with a dark red. Set the new layer to overlay and your eyes should look something like this:
Now, the big question is: what the hell are we going to do with that empty background?! Well, we're going to make it all bloody, that's what! Go ahead and flatten all your layers and then make a new layer atop your background layer. But, before we even start to add brushes, we're going to have to make sure no brushes for the background ends up on our perfectly bloody celebrity face! Go ahead and add a layer mask to your new layer and, with the layer mask selected, paint with black all over your celebs face.
Now, I'm going to use some random blood/stain brush packs I downloaded. Make sure to click back on your new layer and pick a nice bloody red. I then used 2 or 3 blood brushes from Noturna, set the Layer to Overlay and then duplicated it 4 times, setting the forth layer 83% and using a low motion blur. I duplicated the layer one more time, but this time cleared the layer of the last few brushes and added another large brush from Nocturna and set it to Color Burn at 50%. So, now my image looks like this:
I'm not real happy with how light the background is compared to how dark and creepy Wood's face is, so I'm going to have to fix that! I duplicated the last layer to carry the layer mask, but cleared the layer and went ahead and added my own texture brushes. With a black color, I used a texture of bricks and then motion blurred it and set it to Hard Light at 70%. I then duplicated it 3 times. The first two duplicates, I left with the same setting as the first, but the third: I cleared the layer and added, with a blood red, another texture brush, but this one of roots and set the layer to Multiply with 50% opacity. Here's what the image looks like now:
I then flattened the image and duplicated it, used a Gaussion Blur with a scale of 1.5 on the duplicated layer, set the duplicated layer to Screen with an Opacity of 55% and then added another new layer atop the duplicated layer with some random blood brushes and set to Soft Light at 70% for good measure. My image now looks like this:
And, since I still felt the background was rather empty, I duplicated the background layer and used Free Transform to make the duplicate very large and moved the face down a bit. I then set the duplicate to Overlay and erased any of the duplicate that was over Wood's face and lowered the opacity to 45%. So, now I'm image looks like this:
Now, if you feel you need text or anything, you can add it now. I would suggest finding a nice color using the eye drop tool from your celebrity's face and then adding some text to the background. But, I'm not going to be adding text to my icon since I feel it looks fine as it is.
What I am going to do, though, is add a border around it. After making another new layer, I chose a color from Wood's face as the base color and chose a border from a border pack created by inexorablyhere. I choose a border which looks like this:
And set it to Overlay at 45%. I then added another new layer and used another border brush in black from inexorablyhere which looks like this:
And set it to Overlay at 75%. After that, I felt I was done and this is the outcome:
Whoa, that was a long tutorial! I do hope it helped and it was my first icon tutorial! Good luck!
Also, the texture brushes I used were: