General Icon Making Tips and Photoshop Instruction

Program(s): Photoshop (I use CS3 but certain parts will be translatable for earlier versions)
Involves: General icon making tips; including colouring, background extension, sharpening + more.
Translatable: Photoshop specific but certain parts are general enough for any program.
Steps: N/A
Difficulty: Beginner and upwards





Before anything else I want to stress that I always, ALWAYS, make the following adjustments on individual layers. See this cap for an example of what I mean. That way you can always go back and make changes to your 'adjustment layer'.

So first things first, we need an image! On the left you can see the original screencap of Lydia (with lurking!Josie) from Southland.

When I’m browsing thorough a folder of caps I am looking for pictures with potential. Two key features are: light and colour. I loved this particular cap because of the strong lightplay of highlights and shadow on Lydia’s face. Working with a flat image that has no immediate light source can be hard work.

Though this cap currently has a murky-green background I could see the potential to change this into a bright, pretty blue, using a few layers. I also loved how Lydia’s shirt was similar to the background colour, but seperated from the wall by her black jacket. This would allow her to stand out but also make a naturally easy colour-block style icon.



See example: right-hand screencap.

I find around 90% of the time that the original screencap I have chosen is currently too dark for the style of icon I like to make. A quick and easy way to brighten up your image is to use the layer style ‘Screen’.

Duplicate your background/base layer (a quick way to do this is to hold ctrl and press 'J'), and then in your layer palette look for your ‘layer style’ drop-down menu. Scroll down and click ‘Screen’. Then simply adjust the opacity of your layer until suitable.


Above you can see the first stage of my icon to the completed icon. As this is more of a guide to my process rather than a step-by-step guide how to make this exact icon I'm going to try and keep the explanation more generalised (bare with, I'm not good at this remember!)



So firstly I needed to blend across the plain background to cover up all the white and that icky yellow/green door by Lydia's shoulder. I do this easily using the 'Smudge' tool, choosing any of the standard Hard Mechanical round brushes and adjusting the hardness to around 80%. I have the strength at 70-90%. Then simply drag the background across, filling the space.

It is better to have your brush with a higher hardness because it decreases the radius of the cirle, meaning you are less likely to accidentally blur the edges of your subject which you are smudging around.

Once you've got a full background you might think it looks a bit rough; you can always adjust the softness of your brush (to say 30%) and the strength to 30-40% then sweep across the background and blend it together more softly. Just be careful you don't get too close to your subject or you may be smudging their edges without even realising (I have done this lots of times!)
Once it's a nice matte surface we can continue.

Next we go through our brightening-up process. As I said above a great easy way of doing this is with the 'screen' layer. A fancier way of doing it (but no less easy) is to use the 'curves' tool.

IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > CURVES or CTRL + M

I'm no professional so my explanation here isn't going to be gospel. Basically though the chart represents the light levels in the chosen layer. The chart reads so that the shadows are on the left, midtones in the middle, and highlights on the right. As you can see from this chart the light level is very dark, so I drag the line upwards over the empty area to brighten it. On icon you can see how the layer is immediately brighter and the highlights more prominent.


Here's a little introduction to the various colouring tools that I use regularly.

SELECTIVE COLOURING

(is your best friend)

Selective colouring is one of the most useful tools in Photoshop, and if you have it in other programs then that's awesome because it will definitely help.



With selective colouring you can pinpoint each colour within your image and adjust it accordingly. I always have my selective colouring set to 'relative' as it is more subtle than 'absolute', and will adjust with more detail.

COLOUR BALANCE

Colour Balance is less meticulous than selective colours but is a great way of increasing and adjusting certain colour levels. Maybe your image is too red? Drag the marker the other way to increase the blue and balance the colours out. It's easy and really useful, just play around and see what you get!

HUE / SATURATION

I always feel like a cheating cheater from cheatsville when I use hue/saturation, but there is honestly no easier or quicker way to add a little extra oomph to your icon. Just don't over do it or it'll end up looking like a psychedelic trip-out (unless that's what you were going for, in which case you just carry on there, you fab hippy.)

TEXTURES

Adding textures is a great way to add a little something extra to your icon. I often add textures throughout the process of making my icon, particularly colour/gradient ones, but texture can also be very useful right at the end. My current "thing" is adding a painted/grungey style.

THIS IS WHERE LAYER STYLES IS REALLY AWESOME.

The texture I have used in my example works wonders on 'screen', adding that white "grain" on the right-hand side. If you feel by using the screen style you have brightened up your icon too much simply duplicate the texture layer, set it to 'soft light' and adjust the opacity accordingly.

Sometimes I pick a texture and then go through every single layer style, just trying them all and see if any of them come up with an awesome, and unplanned, effect. Sometimes it's just all trial and error, so just have fun with it!

LIGHT

Light textures are excellent in highlighting certain areas of your icon and directing focus. I often use them to emphasis the light direction, or to add shine. Light textures usually work best using the 'screen' style (for highlight) or 'soft light' (for darkening/highlighting).

If you don't wish to use a ready-made texture you can always use your brush! Just choose a medium to large size round soft-edge brush (hardness at 0%) and dot white around in the areas you wish. Set to screen and adjust your opacity as necessary. Simples!

BLUR

You're probably looking at the blur picture going "wtf, why would I want to do that, you crazy lady?" but bare with, I will explain.

At the end of every icon I make this is what I do: I apply all the layers I have (IMAGE > APPLY IMAGE...) and set the blending to 'Normal.' I then apply one of two blur filters to the layer: Lens or Gaussian. It's entirely up to you, they will pretty much have exactly the same effect. Apply the filter as you see fit (for Lens I usually don't go over radius 20 and for gaussian no more than 1.5. Now set your layer style to 'Soft Light'. See how it instantly increases the contrast and accentuates the highlights? Adjust the opacity until you're happy.

SHARPENING

Sharpening and I have never been the best of friends, but with that whole blurring thing above you're going to need it.

I sharpen my icons in two ways: 'Smart Sharpen' and/or normal 'Sharpen'. Above the blur layer apply your image again and then go to FILTER > SHARPEN >. Choose 'Smart Sharpen' from the menu.



Now as you can see (and Lydia, quiet you, I'm almost done!) there's a whole bunch of options. What you can see in the example is what I would typically choose. All I can say is mess around with the settings and see what you are happy with. Some images will need greater sharpening than others.

After this I then apply my layer again (I know I know) and then on this one I do one more sharpen, FILTER > SHARPEN > SHARPEN. I then adjust the opacity of this layer (usually quite low) and VOILA, you've got your edges and details back.

Okay so I'm going to stop talking now, I admire you if you got the end! And if you did I hope you don't feel like suing me for the minutes of your life you just lost.

There are several things that I haven't gone over here but that's because each icon is different and Photoshop has an endless array of facilities. But as a basic tips & tricks tutorial I hope it was of some use to you.

Comments and feedback = ♥!