[Edit 23/01/05: And now, all appears to be well.]
My first post and my first tutorial. What an evenful day.
FOR PHOTOSHOP CS. TRANSLATABLE TO OTHERS. I HOPE.
We start of with this picture of Cloud Strife from the upcoming Advent Children movie.
Right, so, the picture is really blurry. Go to filter>sharpen>sharpen. In this case, I did that four times until I got a picture like this:
Crop to 100x100 with Cloud over to the right side. Like this:
Go to filter>sharpen>sharpen again (SHORTCUT: Pressing ctrl-f repeats the last used filter, so you can just use that if you want) and sharpen once. Usually, I find that makes things too sharp, in which case go to edit>fade sharpen, and fade by about 50%. This time, I liked however, so I kept going.
Next, I grabbed this base by
disappearicons (which are beautiful and wonderful and indispensible, I swear)
and copied it into a layer above the picture of cloud. I set the blend mode to screen and the opacity to 80ish%. (I used 83%, but it will really depend on the picture you use.) The result is:
Make a new layer above the others, and fill it with a blue grey. I used 9EAF9C, otherwise known as this:
Set this layer to screen at 50%, leaving us with:
Duplicate the picture layer, move it to the top, and then set it to soft light. Duplicate that layer and press ctrl-shift-u to desaturate it (or go to image>adjustments>desaturate).
It's still a little to greyed-out, so head to layer>new adjusment layer>levels (SHORTCUT: clicking on the half-black and half-white circle at the bottom of the layer window also brings up the adjustment layer menu, just choose levels from there).
Press ok until you get to a menu like the one below. We'll be working with the two sliders circled in red.
Moving the black slider in makes dark colours darker. When I use this menu, I usually bring the black slider in to where all those big black hill-bits start. Moving the white slider in makes light colours brighter. I usually bearly touch this one, maybe moving it a millimetre.
It's really a matter of taste and the picture you're using, but my input levels for this picture ended up: 11 1.00 250
Tada! But I still want darker shadows, so I go back to the layer adjusment menu (layer>new adjustment layer or using the black-and-white circle on the layer window) and choose selective color. Press ok until you get to this window:
Choose Blacks from the drop down list and then move the slider for Black up to about 50%.
After that, I'm still not happy with how light Cloud's hair and skin are looking, so I duplicate the very first picture layer and drag it to the top. With a soft eraser (size 17, opacity 100%), I erased everything but Cloud's face, like so:
I lower the opacity of my eraser to 32%, and I use this brush
(by I forget who) to stamp Cloud's face five times, just to blend it in more. Then I lower the opacity of the layer to 73%.
Now, I like the colours. I selected a part of the picture farthest to the right
and ctrl-shift-c to copy all the layers.
ctrl-v to past, and then drag it all the way over to the far left. I didn't like all the white on the edge of the layer, so I selected a bit and deleted it.
For the border, I picked a brown off of Cloud's shirt with the eyedropper tool (423115, in this case). On a new layer, I stamped this
border brush two times, in two different places, like this
to create a border around the whole icon and then a line between the duplicated bit of Cloud and the original picture.
Now for text. I hadn't planned on any, originally, so I flip around my playlist for a while and decide on the words "I had to fall" from Linkin Park's "In the End".
Specifics:
"i had" is in 18th Century, 13pt font, crisp anti-aliasing with "small caps" on
"to" is in 18th Century, 15pt font, crisp anti-aliasing with "small caps" on
"fall" is in 4990810, 16 pt font, crisp anti-aliasing with "small caps" on
When I had them placed in a spot I liked, I couldn't really read the "I had" part, so I right click on that text layer and bring up the blending options/effects menu. Choose outer glow, and change the colour to a dark brown from the picture (I used 3D2C12).
Set the rest of the options likeso:
Opacity: 75%
Spread: 10%
Size: 2px
Range: 25%
Do the same for the other text layers (SHORTCUT: Right click on the "effects" bit under the "i had" text layer and choose "copy layer style"
then right click on the other text layers and choose "paste layer style").
The border is sort of bugging me at this point because it doesn't really seem to blend in with the rest of the icon. So, I decide to do three final things.
On a new layer above ALL the others, I use a browncrumblingwalls gradient 
, and set it to lighten at 21%.
Above that, I put another new layer with another browncrumblingwalls gradient 
, and set this one to lighten at 40%.
Finally, I repeat the levels adjustment layer step with input values 15 1.00 242, then I flatten, save, and we're done!
Phew. How'd I do?
My first post and my first tutorial. What an evenful day.
FOR PHOTOSHOP CS. TRANSLATABLE TO OTHERS. I HOPE.
We start of with this picture of Cloud Strife from the upcoming Advent Children movie.
Right, so, the picture is really blurry. Go to filter>sharpen>sharpen. In this case, I did that four times until I got a picture like this:
Crop to 100x100 with Cloud over to the right side. Like this:
Go to filter>sharpen>sharpen again (SHORTCUT: Pressing ctrl-f repeats the last used filter, so you can just use that if you want) and sharpen once. Usually, I find that makes things too sharp, in which case go to edit>fade sharpen, and fade by about 50%. This time, I liked however, so I kept going.
Next, I grabbed this base by
disappearicons (which are beautiful and wonderful and indispensible, I swear)and copied it into a layer above the picture of cloud. I set the blend mode to screen and the opacity to 80ish%. (I used 83%, but it will really depend on the picture you use.) The result is:
Make a new layer above the others, and fill it with a blue grey. I used 9EAF9C, otherwise known as this:
Set this layer to screen at 50%, leaving us with:
Duplicate the picture layer, move it to the top, and then set it to soft light. Duplicate that layer and press ctrl-shift-u to desaturate it (or go to image>adjustments>desaturate).
It's still a little to greyed-out, so head to layer>new adjusment layer>levels (SHORTCUT: clicking on the half-black and half-white circle at the bottom of the layer window also brings up the adjustment layer menu, just choose levels from there).
Press ok until you get to a menu like the one below. We'll be working with the two sliders circled in red.
Moving the black slider in makes dark colours darker. When I use this menu, I usually bring the black slider in to where all those big black hill-bits start. Moving the white slider in makes light colours brighter. I usually bearly touch this one, maybe moving it a millimetre.
It's really a matter of taste and the picture you're using, but my input levels for this picture ended up: 11 1.00 250
Tada! But I still want darker shadows, so I go back to the layer adjusment menu (layer>new adjustment layer or using the black-and-white circle on the layer window) and choose selective color. Press ok until you get to this window:
Choose Blacks from the drop down list and then move the slider for Black up to about 50%.
After that, I'm still not happy with how light Cloud's hair and skin are looking, so I duplicate the very first picture layer and drag it to the top. With a soft eraser (size 17, opacity 100%), I erased everything but Cloud's face, like so:
I lower the opacity of my eraser to 32%, and I use this brush
Now, I like the colours. I selected a part of the picture farthest to the right
ctrl-v to past, and then drag it all the way over to the far left. I didn't like all the white on the edge of the layer, so I selected a bit and deleted it.
For the border, I picked a brown off of Cloud's shirt with the eyedropper tool (423115, in this case). On a new layer, I stamped this
Now for text. I hadn't planned on any, originally, so I flip around my playlist for a while and decide on the words "I had to fall" from Linkin Park's "In the End".
Specifics:
"i had" is in 18th Century, 13pt font, crisp anti-aliasing with "small caps" on
"to" is in 18th Century, 15pt font, crisp anti-aliasing with "small caps" on
"fall" is in 4990810, 16 pt font, crisp anti-aliasing with "small caps" on
When I had them placed in a spot I liked, I couldn't really read the "I had" part, so I right click on that text layer and bring up the blending options/effects menu. Choose outer glow, and change the colour to a dark brown from the picture (I used 3D2C12).
Set the rest of the options likeso:
Opacity: 75%
Spread: 10%
Size: 2px
Range: 25%
Do the same for the other text layers (SHORTCUT: Right click on the "effects" bit under the "i had" text layer and choose "copy layer style"
then right click on the other text layers and choose "paste layer style").
The border is sort of bugging me at this point because it doesn't really seem to blend in with the rest of the icon. So, I decide to do three final things.
On a new layer above ALL the others, I use a brown
crumblingwalls gradient Above that, I put another new layer with another brown
crumblingwalls gradient Finally, I repeat the levels adjustment layer step with input values 15 1.00 242, then I flatten, save, and we're done!
Phew. How'd I do?