I remember being so frustrated awhile back when I couldn't find a…: icon_tutorial

I remember being so frustrated awhile back when I couldn't find a nice tutorial for mini-movie icons, that was easy to do. But now I've learned how, and I've decided to write a basic tutorial for people wanting to learn. ^^ And it's my first, so bear with me. Also, it's got quite tedious explanations, for those absolute beginners benefits. ^^

We're making this icon:

And if yours comes out looking alot like this one...do NOT market it. That's like stealing credit. Got that? ;) Alrighty.

Right-o. We're going to start with this image:

I did this part in Photoshop 7, but you can do it in ImageReady as well.

Crop it and resize it, and we get this:

Now we're going to sharpen it once (Filter->Sharpen), and apply a border by using the marquee tool (the very first button on your toolbar). Surround the entire icon->right click->stroke->1 px black. You now have this:

Hmm...okay, it works, but it's a bit grayish. So, we go Image->Adjustments->Auto Contrast. Now it's darker, but nicer. If it's too dark, just go Image->Variations->Lighter. Remember that contrast effect because we'll be applying it to EVERY frame.

Now, copy it using the marquee tool->Ctrl c, and paste it to the base. Use the second tool on the bar (the little black arrow with the four arrows beside it) to move it into the nicest spot you can find. We end up with something along the lines of this, so don't be alarmed if it doesn't look exactly like it:

Nice, right? Psh. We're not even done yet. On the layers palette in the lower corner, click on the base layer. Then, grab the marquee tool and outline the little frame, then right click->stroke->1 px black. Now it has a border, and we have this:

If you get a better position for your footage, it'll probably look better, but for this- meh. ;)

Now, go to your layers palette in the lower corner and delete the frame by right click->delete frame. We're left with this:

Cool, eh? I learned that trick from

myownsatellite. =D Because she's awesome.

Do NOT close the little mini-frame, okay? Leave that open.

Now we've got our all purpose base layer. We're going to click on the switch to ImageReady button if we're still in Photoshop (the little button at the very bottom of your toolbar in PS7), or if we're alread in ImageReady we're ready to go.

If you'd decided to put text on it, your going to merge those frames (Ctrl->Shift->E). The base will now be on our animation bar in the lower left corner. First off, we determine how many frames we have for the icon. In this case, it's 16. So we're going to click this button, then paste the frame AFTER the selection, as per the prompt that comes up. Or click that button that looks like a peeling sticky note, and it'll do the same thing (I just realised after I wrote this, lol). Now we have two of our base. We're going to repeat this step 16 times, until we have 16 bases.

Remember the mini-frame? We're going to check out what size that is and memorize it. Width: 50, Height: 34. That's what each frame will have to be.

So open up that little frame in ImageReady, or just re-crop the screencap in ImageReady. Either works. But yes, follow those steps above for making it look nice, then marquee it and paste it onto the first base. Use the little black arrow tool we used before to move it into the border we made earlier. Once you have it done right, it'll look like it did before. Nicely done.

Now, repeat that process for every frame, each time switching to the next base. If you were previously doing it in Photoshop, start doing it in ImageReady. And if you need to undo a bad crop, just press Ctrl->Z. That'll back you up a step.

Now, we've got all our frames on the icon. Whee. If you want to set a time for each to dwell on it, click the thing under the base that says "0 sec" and select your amount of time. For this one, we're going to apply a 1 second delay to the very last base, #16. Now we're all done. File->Save Optimized as->Vincent(or something). And we're all done!

This is my third mini-movie, so it may not look as expert as everyone elses, but it gets the job done. ;) Post yours and let me see how you did! Heehee.

*Note: If I'm missing a black border around some of them, that's my own fault. Sorry. ^^

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