This was posted to 
icon_tutorial, and I'm x-posting because I feel like it, dammit.
Alright, this is something I discovered when I was working on icontest type stuff. I was trying to work with a black and white picture, and I wanted to put some colors in it somehow. But, because it was an icontest, I couldn't use any outside pictures. I was allowed to use gradients, though, and I was messing around and came up with something interesting. So I thought I'd divulge my secret.
We're gonna learn how to start with this:
and end with something like this icon:
We're working with PSP8, but I think it should be pretty translatable. I'm not going to get really detailed because I'm lazy, but if there's anything confusing please just ask me about it.
Alright, so you start with a picture. Pretty self-explanatory. (That's George Harrison, by the way, because he rocks.)
And then you take your picture, and you make a base. You lot can handle that, I'm sure, because you are spiffy. Crop it and resize it, and set it aside for now.
Then you go back to your first picture, and you take a random little bit. Try to get weird shapes and contrast and the like. I usually make this bit 50x50, but it doesn't really matter.
Then resize that bit to 100x100.
Now Gaussian Blur that somewhat. I usually use a radius of somewhere around 3-6. In this case, I used a radius of 5.
Now, add a new raster layer, and fill it with a gradient. I used one by
crumblingwalls.
Next, set the gradient layer to Difference.
This is what really gets your colors. If it doesn't look good, try using different gradients, changing the angle, etc, etc. You lot are smart, you can fiddle with it.
I usually rotate this layer by 90 degrees one way or the other, just so there's no way it will be recognizable as part of the image. This step is obviously optional.
And that's basically it. Throw that pretty thing you made on top of your base that we made earlier. Play around with the blend modes and everything. There's a lot you can do. This is what I did:
Obviously not a finished icon, but whatever.
You can really do a lot with this. Here's some others I've made like this:
Yippee, we've got one for each Beatle now! That second one of Paul was the first one I did, and as you can see that one is a finished icon. It won second place at themacca_stills icontest community!
If you're an especially creative-type person, as I'm sure you are, fiddle around. You don't need to be told to fiddle, do you? Start with a colored picture if you like. Or use other tools in the blurring step - the other kinds of blurs, smudging, etc, etc. I really don't need to tell you how to be creative, do I?
I'm getting tired of typing, so this is all I'm going to say. Please lemme know if there's anything confusing you, I'd be glad to help. I hope you've enjoyed my lovely little tutorialish thing!
icon_tutorial, and I'm x-posting because I feel like it, dammit.Alright, this is something I discovered when I was working on icontest type stuff. I was trying to work with a black and white picture, and I wanted to put some colors in it somehow. But, because it was an icontest, I couldn't use any outside pictures. I was allowed to use gradients, though, and I was messing around and came up with something interesting. So I thought I'd divulge my secret.
We're gonna learn how to start with this:
and end with something like this icon:
We're working with PSP8, but I think it should be pretty translatable. I'm not going to get really detailed because I'm lazy, but if there's anything confusing please just ask me about it.
Alright, so you start with a picture. Pretty self-explanatory. (That's George Harrison, by the way, because he rocks.)
And then you take your picture, and you make a base. You lot can handle that, I'm sure, because you are spiffy. Crop it and resize it, and set it aside for now.
Then you go back to your first picture, and you take a random little bit. Try to get weird shapes and contrast and the like. I usually make this bit 50x50, but it doesn't really matter.
Then resize that bit to 100x100.
Now Gaussian Blur that somewhat. I usually use a radius of somewhere around 3-6. In this case, I used a radius of 5.
Now, add a new raster layer, and fill it with a gradient. I used one by
crumblingwalls.Next, set the gradient layer to Difference.
This is what really gets your colors. If it doesn't look good, try using different gradients, changing the angle, etc, etc. You lot are smart, you can fiddle with it.
I usually rotate this layer by 90 degrees one way or the other, just so there's no way it will be recognizable as part of the image. This step is obviously optional.
And that's basically it. Throw that pretty thing you made on top of your base that we made earlier. Play around with the blend modes and everything. There's a lot you can do. This is what I did:
Obviously not a finished icon, but whatever.
You can really do a lot with this. Here's some others I've made like this:
Yippee, we've got one for each Beatle now! That second one of Paul was the first one I did, and as you can see that one is a finished icon. It won second place at the
macca_stills icontest community!If you're an especially creative-type person, as I'm sure you are, fiddle around. You don't need to be told to fiddle, do you? Start with a colored picture if you like. Or use other tools in the blurring step - the other kinds of blurs, smudging, etc, etc. I really don't need to tell you how to be creative, do I?
I'm getting tired of typing, so this is all I'm going to say. Please lemme know if there's anything confusing you, I'd be glad to help. I hope you've enjoyed my lovely little tutorialish thing!