Aladdin tutorial
How to go from this 
to this 
Program Used: PS CS3
Translatable: Not sure. Requires one selective color layer but I'm sure the icon would turn out fine if you exclude it and adjust coloring accordingly.
Difficulty: Easy
Okay, first you have your base.
[What I like to do first is: Duplicate the base. Then delete the original. Why? The original is locked and CANNOT be moved. The copy version is NOT locked and CAN move. Okay then. Moving on.]
Blah. Too dark. Too pink. Not enough light. What is a user to do?
Well, first I use the Brightness/Contrast layer.
New Layer --> Brightness/Contrast
Brightness: +136
Contrast: +19
That gets me to this:
It's not too dark, now. But it's still... purple.
New Layer ---> Selective Coloring --->
Magenta [text box entry from top to bottom]: -12, -54, +34, -23
Okay, not too bad. I can start seeing human-colored flesh but there's still too much Magenta in it.
New Layer ---> Color Balance
Shadows (from left to right): + 22, -5, -88
Midtone (from left to right): -35, +40, -100
Highlights (from left to right): 0, +22, -70
YAY! They're human again! Still too dark, though.
New Layer ---> Brightness/Contrast
Brightness: +23
Contrast: -8
Getting better. But I really do not like how the sky above Aladdin and Jasmine is looking. It's way too botched for my taste. Select the image in the layers table so you can edit it.
On this picture I use the smudge tool
with a basic brush as so: 
Go over the blue sky and blend the colors together to make the sky appear softer.
Whew. That's better. Onto the colors! Don't forget to go back to the top of the list in the layers box! This new layer should be above the Brightness/Contrast layer you just performed before the smudge.
New Layer ---> Solid Color ---> #F9F8D5
Setting: Color Burn
I like where this is going. It gives it a bit more depth and more color. Not a lot but I like it. Now, add another solid color layer.
New Layer ---> Solid Color ---> #E0F7F8 (that's the letter E, the number zero, the letter F...)
Setting: Color Burn
Another subtle difference in color that I like.
Now for the last color layer.
New Layer ---> Solid Color ---> #251900 (last two digits are zero!)
Setting: Exclusion
All right. Almost done! I feel like it's missing some texture so I go back to my paint brush and click on the Basic Brush set. I choose a circular brush with the frayed edging and I adjust the size of it to be 200 px instead of 300 or 100. 100 is too small and 300 is too big.
I then choose the color to WHITE (or #ffffff for all you HTML folk out there) and I add a New Layer. That way I can move the brush/delete it if I don't like what I did without ruining the icon I just created.
Not very flattering, is it? That's okay. Adjust the Opacity to 20%
This is the result:
I like it! But... the sky is rather dull and the icon is just blah. It needs something just to wrap it all up. Aha! That's it. A tiny scribble text by
ohfreckle does wonders. Just don't forget to duplicate the layer to make the scribble visible.
And you're done! Feel free to play around with the colors. I noticed that the darker the color for an exclusion layer the lighter your icon will be. The lighter the exclusion color the darker the image will be.
Other icons used with this method:
I hope this tutorial is helpful! It is my first one so I hope it wasn't too hard to follow.
Original entry here
to this Program Used: PS CS3
Translatable: Not sure. Requires one selective color layer but I'm sure the icon would turn out fine if you exclude it and adjust coloring accordingly.
Difficulty: Easy
Okay, first you have your base.
[What I like to do first is: Duplicate the base. Then delete the original. Why? The original is locked and CANNOT be moved. The copy version is NOT locked and CAN move. Okay then. Moving on.]
Blah. Too dark. Too pink. Not enough light. What is a user to do?
Well, first I use the Brightness/Contrast layer.
New Layer --> Brightness/Contrast
Brightness: +136
Contrast: +19
That gets me to this:
It's not too dark, now. But it's still... purple.
New Layer ---> Selective Coloring --->
Magenta [text box entry from top to bottom]: -12, -54, +34, -23
Okay, not too bad. I can start seeing human-colored flesh but there's still too much Magenta in it.
New Layer ---> Color Balance
Shadows (from left to right): + 22, -5, -88
Midtone (from left to right): -35, +40, -100
Highlights (from left to right): 0, +22, -70
YAY! They're human again! Still too dark, though.
New Layer ---> Brightness/Contrast
Brightness: +23
Contrast: -8
Getting better. But I really do not like how the sky above Aladdin and Jasmine is looking. It's way too botched for my taste. Select the image in the layers table so you can edit it.
On this picture I use the smudge tool
with a basic brush as so: Go over the blue sky and blend the colors together to make the sky appear softer.
Whew. That's better. Onto the colors! Don't forget to go back to the top of the list in the layers box! This new layer should be above the Brightness/Contrast layer you just performed before the smudge.
New Layer ---> Solid Color ---> #F9F8D5
Setting: Color Burn
I like where this is going. It gives it a bit more depth and more color. Not a lot but I like it. Now, add another solid color layer.
New Layer ---> Solid Color ---> #E0F7F8 (that's the letter E, the number zero, the letter F...)
Setting: Color Burn
Another subtle difference in color that I like.
Now for the last color layer.
New Layer ---> Solid Color ---> #251900 (last two digits are zero!)
Setting: Exclusion
All right. Almost done! I feel like it's missing some texture so I go back to my paint brush and click on the Basic Brush set. I choose a circular brush with the frayed edging and I adjust the size of it to be 200 px instead of 300 or 100. 100 is too small and 300 is too big.
I then choose the color to WHITE (or #ffffff for all you HTML folk out there) and I add a New Layer. That way I can move the brush/delete it if I don't like what I did without ruining the icon I just created.
Not very flattering, is it? That's okay. Adjust the Opacity to 20%
This is the result:
I like it! But... the sky is rather dull and the icon is just blah. It needs something just to wrap it all up. Aha! That's it. A tiny scribble text by
ohfreckle does wonders. Just don't forget to duplicate the layer to make the scribble visible.And you're done! Feel free to play around with the colors. I noticed that the darker the color for an exclusion layer the lighter your icon will be. The lighter the exclusion color the darker the image will be.
Other icons used with this method:
I hope this tutorial is helpful! It is my first one so I hope it wasn't too hard to follow.
Original entry here