Tutorial 08: Yoite

Requested by 2baki.

How to go from to in Photoshop. Uses only texture dropping, so it should be translatable to other programs.



This one will get a bit complicated at some point, but I'll try to explain it as good as possible. Also, this icon was inspired by the beautiful circle technique from Pam @ iconxlatte. <3


1. Get your base ready~ I cleaned this Nabari no Ou image and cropped Yoite out of it.



I didn't like the white background, so I took this texture by bambinainnero on Multiply, 100%. You don't need to do that when your image already has a colorful background. I merged the layers and actually the base I'll be working with from now on is this:




2. Since I decided that I'd go for a circular shape with this icon, I needed something nifty for the background. Take this grainy texture by ewanism and put it UNDER your base, set to Normal, 50%. Then click on your base layer again, select the circular marquee tool and make a circle as you see fit. Go to Select > Invert Selection and then hit Delete. Your icon should look like this now:




3. Now that we have a rough frame for our icon, we can go into the details, like... doing something about the contrast. Duplicate your circle-shaped image base (= the Yoite image layer) and set it to Soft Light, 100%. It should look a whole lot better now!




4. To get a pretty border around your image take a pattern texture that fits in nicely. I chose this one by hanako_lovely. Put this between your image layer and the grainy background layer and repeat the circular marquee tool thing from step 2, just make the circle bigger this time.




5. Now comes the complicated, tricky part. I didn't want to leave the grainy background... well, gray, but go for more colors. So I took this texture again (you can just choose a colored texture of your liking that goes well with your image) and put it UNDER the grainy background layer, twice, and set them to Multiply, 100%. Since we lowered the opacity of the grainy layer back then the texture shines through. <3 It needs to be a bit dark btw, because I'll be going berserk with light textures later and if it's not dark enough now we'll all go blind. D:
On a second step I went to the grainy background layer and erased a part of the left bottom so that Yoite's coat shines through, but you don't need to do that with your icon.
The order of all your layers should be like this now (bottom > top):
2x colorful layer on Multiply (from step 5) > grainy texture on Normal, 50% (from step 2) > pattern texture on Normal, 100% (from step 4) > your image base from the very beginning > a duplicate from this image base on Soft Light, 100% (from step 3).




6. You know what's missing, right? Shinies! Take this light texture by expose42 and one of her burn lights from this set (which is amazing). Set both to Screen, 100% and erase parts that are disturbing. Then go back to your pattern layer, duplicate it and drag it all the way to the top. Lower the opacity to Normal, 75% and erase parts that are covering your character's face. Should look somewhat like this now:




7. For more shinies take one or two lens textures. Honestly, I erased so much I can't tell you which I took, but since all my lens textures are either from gravira or hellodarliing you can go and take a look there. Of course, other light textures are fine, too. <3
Set them to Screen, 100%.




8. Next I took this texture (by ?) on Soft Light, 100%. Again I erased some parts.




9. The right side is still missing something, so I added this light texture by gravira on Screen, 78% and this one (by ?) twice on Screen, 100% (I moved them around differently) to make it more interesting. I also added a part of this one by ohfreckle, again on Screen, 100%.




10. Almost there~ ! For a finishing touch, make another duplicate of your image base, drag it to the top, desaturate it and set it to Soft Light, 30%. That makes the colors much more vibrant.




11. This step is optional: you can leave the image as is, but I thought that the background outside the circle was too light (now I think differently, LOL). So I went back and made a color fill layer with #EAA650 between the grainy and the pattern layer and set that to Multiply, 100%. Thus the light orange tone of the final result. Add text if you want, and that's it!





Questions? Just ask! :D


Other examples:



Be creative and experiment however you want, and I'd love to see your results! I'm curious what you come up with. :D

Please comment to this post since I'll most likely respond there, and you can still request tutorials for icons from this batch. :D