Coloring and blending tutorial

How to go from this and this to

Program(s)+version: Photoshop CS3 (but most likely works with PS 7 and above too)
Involves: Curves, color balance, levels, layer masks, textures
Translatable: Mostly translatable; has a few selective coloring steps that are completely skippable
Steps: 57 (oh good lord)
Difficulty: Moderate/difficult -- I tried to make it clear where things are and how to find them, but the tut still assumes some basic knowledge of PS.

First, I crop and resize the first screencap:



I duplicate the layer (Ctrl + J) and set it to Screen, 50% opacity.



To give it some contrast, I duplicate the layer again and set it to Soft Light, 70% opacity.



Next, I crop and resize the second screencap, and paste it on top:



Obviously, there's some stuff I want to get rid of:



So I use a layer mask, using a black brush to paint over the parts I don't want:

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The second cap is really dark, so I duplicate the layer twice, setting the first to Screen, 100% opacity and the second to Screen, 20% opacity.



To create some contrast, I duplicate the layer one more time and set it to Soft Light, 50% opacity.



I want to add a yellow-ish tint to part of the icon, so I use a Layer > New adjustment layer > Color Balance layer:

Midtones: -19 -5 -14
Shadows: -18 -11 -20
Highlights: +15 +19 +9
Make sure "Preserve Luminosity" is checked.



But I'm only really interested in adding that yellow tint to <-- this part of the icon, so I use Layer Mask again.

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To brighten up the colors, I use a Layer > New adjustment layer > Curves layer:

RGB - Input: 122, Output: 143
Red - Input: 117, Output: 131
Green - Input: 125, Output: 131
Blue - Input: 255, Output: 255



Again, I'm only really interested in applying this to that bottom-right half, so I use another Layer mask:





Now I start filling up the surrounding white space. I first go back to the first screencap, crop out a piece of blue sky with clouds, and paste it on top of the icon:

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I use another Layer mask to get rid of the parts covering Juliet screencap #2:





I copy and paste the piece of the first creencap again, moving it to the left to cover up the white space there too.

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I use a Layer mask again to get rid of the parts covering Juliet:





There's still a sliver of white space in the top-left corner, so I copy the little piece of sky/tree, paste it, and then smudge the blue parts using a soft smudge brush at approximately 36 px diameter:

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Again, I use a Layer mask to erase the parts covering Juliet:





I want to cover up some of the white space here:

So I copy a little bit of sky again and paste it there:

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I use a Layer mask to remove the sides and corners:





Finally, I copy a bit more of the sky and paste it on top:

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I used another Layer mask to remove parts of it to make it look more blended:





Now that the white space is covered, I can work on getting the coloring where I want it. I first use a Layer > New adjustment layer > Levels layer:

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To brighten up the top-ish half of the icon (here: ), I use another Layer > New adjustment layer > Curves layer:

RGB - Input: 116, Output: 134
Red - Input: 122, Output: 132
Green - Input: 124, Output: 130
Blue - Input: 255, Output: 255

... with a Layer mask:





Then I use Layer > New adjustment layer > Color Balance to brighten up the icon:

Midtones: +32 +26 +17
Shadows: +7 +8 +5
Highlights: +20 +14 +12
Make sure "Preserve Luminosity" is checked.



Then I paste the following texture, setting it to Soft Light, 50% opacity.

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To brighten the icon a tad more, I fill a new layer with #DCC18A, setting it to Soft Light, 20% opacity.

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I create another fill layer with #FFB594, also setting it to Soft Light, 20% opacity.

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I then paste the following texture, setting it to Soft Light, 30% opacity.

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It looks a bit plain, and I want to add something artsy to it. So I paste the following texture, setting it to Multiply, 100% opacity.

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I'm only really interested in keeping this part of the texture: , minus the stuff closer to the center too. So I use another Layer mask:





I want to make everything brighter, so I use a Layer > New adjustment layer > Curves layer again:

RGB - Input: 123, Output: 135
Red - Input: 127, Output: 135
Green - Input: 124, Output: 130
Blue - Input: 255, Output: 255



I then use a Layer > New adjustment layer > Selective Color layer, set at 70% opacity to kind of enhance the reds/yellows. This layer doesn't actually make much of a difference though, so you can skip it.

Red: -13 +9 +9 +0
Yellow: -17 +12 +11 +0



I use another Layer > New adjustment layer > Color Balance layer to brighten the colors some more. (This is also where I realize, too late, that all my coloring steps are redundant. XD)

Midtones: +21 +19 +7
Shadows: +25 +24 +21
Highlights: +23 +19 +19
Make sure "Preserve Luminosity" is checked.



Then I merge everything down (Ctrl + Shift + E) and sharpen it.



I want a little more... diversity in texture, I guess, so I added a little gray streak, set at Normal, 40% opacity.

--> -->

Next, I want to illuminate the icon with a light texture, so I go to one of my favorite light textures, rotate it, blur it with Gaussian Blur, 5 px, and set it to Screen, 100% opacity.

--> --> --> -->

I don't want to obscure Juliet, and I want to make the light look like it's kind of swirling around her, so I use another Layer mask:

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I rotate the texture again and paste it, setting it to Screen, 100% opacity. This gives the icon some light in the bottom-left corner.

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I use another Layer mask:

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I then duplicate this layer, setting it to Screen, 30% opacity.



I use the light texture again, cropping and rotating it like so:



I paste it onto the icon and set it to Screen, 30% opacity.

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The icon is looking a bit washed out with all the light textures, so I paste the following texture and set it to Soft Light, 50% opacity.

-->

I add another Layer > New adjustment layer > Levels layer:





I only really want the layer to be applied to this part of the icon:



So I use another Layer mask, filling it in with black and using a white fuzzy brush to paint over the spot where I want the levels layer to show up:

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There's a white/washed-out part here that I don't really like:



So I paste the following texture, setting it to Hard Light, 100% opacity, and using a layer mask to erase most of the texture except for the part I want:

--> -->



Now I use my last icon-brightening texture, setting it to Soft Light, 80% opacity.

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I use a Layer mask to remove the texture from the right half of the icon, where things are starting to look too magenta:





Here I use Layer > New adjustment layer > Selective Color again, but again, it's optional. I just want to enhance the blue in the top-right corner of the icon:

Cyans: +100 +100 +100 +100



I duplicate this layer twice, setting the first to 100% opacity and the second to 50% opacity.



I use a little white blob, set at Screen, 30% opacity, to add some light near Juliet's forehead.

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In the corner of the icon, it looks a bit bumpy/rough:



So I merge everything down (Ctrl + Shift + E), duplicate the layer, and smudge that part of the icon.



So that's it!

I hope this was helpful and/or not too long and boring! Please let me know if there are any problems or mistakes, or if anything is unclear. Thank you! :D