Entry tags:

josh holloway, lost, tutorials

This is going to get posted to i-t, but it's going here too. Sorry to those few of you who might get it twice.

Three simple tutorials:





Alright, so I decided I wanted to make some tutorials. So I ended up doing three tuts, all featuring Sawyer from LOST...mmmmmm, Josh. Hope you enjoy the eye candy. The icons are all relatively simple and so I'm hoping the tuts will be very easy to follow. I'll do my best to be detailed, but if there's something you don't understand, PLEASE ask. And here we go!

Tutorial #1:
We'll be making this icon:

I started with this image, from lost-media.com:

I was actually using the full-size version of the pic, but I'm posting the small one so you can see what it looks like.

I cropped the image into a square. When I cropped it, I rotated the crop box just a little bit. Sawyer had his head tilted back a little bit, so I rotated the box to exaggerate that tilt. Once I had it cropped, I played with the levels a bit. I usually do this before resizing. I forgot to make a note of what exactly I did, so sorry about that.

Generally speaking, I look at the black mountain-ish looking graph and use that to determine how to adjust the levels. I go through red, then green, then blue. If there's a huge mountain towards the left, and nothing on the right, I drag the right-most slider in a little bit. I believe that's all I did for the red, green, and blue levels to this one. After I do those, I do the RGB one if it's needed. Usually when I'm working from screencaps, they're a bit dark, so I drag the right-most slider in a little bit for the RGB levels too.

Once I've got the levels how I want them, I resize the image to 100x100, and I have my base.


I duplicate the base layer and set the duplicate to screen.


I know I'm planning to put a soft light layer on top of this, and that will make it darker, so I decide I want it even lighter. I duplicate the screened layer so now I have two screen layers on top of my base.


Now, I duplicate the top layer and set it to soft light. You can duplicate any layer you want at this point, because they're all the same on different blend modes. I usually use the top one so I don't have to drag my layers around afterwards.


At this point, I realized that I forgot to sharpen before I did all this stuff. So I select all (ctrl+A) and copy merged (ctrl+shift+c) and then paste as a new layer (ctrl+V). It won't look any different, because all you've done is make one layer out of everything you had. I do it this way instead of flattening so I still have everything underneath, just in case. Then I sharpen this layer.


I'm really liking the way this is starting to look, very bright and vibrant. With that in mind, I try a trick I learned from a tutorial recently. Whoever wrote that one, thanks! First, I make a new layer and fill it with a bright blue color.


Change the layer mode to soft light.


Sawyer's starting to look very blue. Which might be good, if that's what I was going for, it doesn't really look bad, but in this case, I don't want blue, I want bright and vibrant. So I follow the second half of that trick and make another new layer and fill it with a bright reddish orange.


Set that layer to soft light as well.

The blue and orange, being opposites, counteract each other. There isn't even that much difference from what we had before those two layers, but the icon is a little brighter, and I like that.

I'm thinking I want a little more vibrance, so I duplicate one of my soft light layers and drag the duplicate to the top.


It's getting a little too saturated now. The object wasn't exactly to make Sawyer into the human cheez-it, so I desaturate that top soft light layer by pressing ctrl+U.


It needs a little...somethin' else. So I search through my textures and stuff until I find this one that I think could work well.

Made by me, by the way.

Paste the texture as a new layer on top. I set it to soft light, because I knew I wanted it to be subtle.

I like the way this looks. The texture adds a little color to Sawyer's face, and it also adds a little streak below his chin and up in the sky. Noticeable, but subtle, just the way I wanted it.

I decide to leave this icon without text, so the only thing left is a border. I don't always add a border, but I decided I wanted one here, so I use the pencil to draw in a 1px border.


And, we're done!

~*~

Tutorial #2:
To make this icon:


I start out with this image, again from lost-media.com:


I crop it, but this time I crop into a rectangle instead of a square. Once again, I rotate the crop box a little bit. Again, I play with the levels first. I bring the right-most slider in about halfway for each of red, green, and blue. Then, looking at it, I decide it needs a bit more red, so I bring the red in a little bit more. I then bring the RGB in a little bit too to lighten it up. Then I resize so the width is 100 - the height ends up being 65.


I sharpen this base.

And it looks really bad.

So, I go to Edit>Fade Sharpen and fade it somewhat.

Ah, much better.

Next, I duplicate the layer and set it to screen.


And then I duplicate again and set this layer to soft light. Make sure the soft light layer is on top.


Once again, Sawyer is starting to get extremely orange, so I desaturate the soft light layer.

Much better.

I'm thinking I want this to be a little lighter, so I duplicate my screen layer.


It still seems a bit too saturated, so I desaturate that second screen layer as well.

MUCH better.

However, it's now a little bit TOO light and desaturated, so I reduce the opacity on that layer to 50%.


Just in case you've lost track, I now have (from bottom to top): my base, a duplicate base on screen, a desaturated duplicate base on screen at 50%, and a desaturated duplicate base on soft light. Whew.

Now that I have my coloring the way I want it, it's time to get the double image thing going. First I enlarge the canvas size to 100x100. When I do that, I make sure that on the little location grid, I click the top center box, so my image I already have is on top. Then, I select all and copy merged and then paste. Now I have a new layer that is the same as everything I have so far. I drag this layer to be underneath everything else, and then I use the move tool to move it down where I want it.


Now, once again, I feel like it needs something else, so I search through my textures. I find this one.

Again, made by me.

I like the way it looks, but I don't think green will go too well with my icon, so I adjust the color balance. When playing with the color balance, you want to drag the sliders AWAY from colors you have too much of, and TOWARDS the colors you want more of. I drag the slider away from green (towards magenta) and then I drag the top slider towards red (away from cyan).

This looks like something that will work much better.

I paste the texture as a new layer on top of my icon. I set it to screen at 50%.


Now, it still needs something else towards the right side. I use a brush made by vered that I got from this tutorial. The brush I used is the ninth one in her set. I really like these brushes, thanks, vered! I use this brush to draw in white along the side, making a splattery sort of thing. Make sure this is on a new layer.


It's a bit much, so I set the layer to soft light.


Now it's not quite enough, so I duplicate the layer.


Looking better! Time for text. I type the word "intensity" in white using the font face "Violation," which you can find at dafont.com if you'd like it. I rotate the text around and move it where I want it.


Next, I add some tiny text. It says "just one of the many services I offer," but it doesn't really matter because you can't read it at all. The font is Castellar, and the size is 3pt. This text is also in white. I reduce the opacity of this layer to 80%.


Woohoo! I really like the way this looks, so the only thing left to do is add a border. Once again, I decide I do want a border, so I draw in a 1px black border.

All done!

~*~

Tutorial #3:
Making this icon:

I start out with this image, once again from lost-media.com:

Aww.

I crop it into a square and then play with the levels. I bring the rightmost slider for the red down a little bit, bring the green down even more, and the blue even more. Then I bring the RGB down a little bit too, to brighten it up more. Once that's done, I resize to 100x100 and sharpen.


I duplicate the base and set this new layer to screen.


Then I duplicate again and set this layer to soft light. Make sure this layer is on top.


He's getting WAY too orangey. So, I desaturate the soft light layer.

Woo, better.

I decide I want it a little lighter, so I duplicate the screen layer.


Once again, it's a little more saturated than I want, so I desaturate this layer too.


It's sort of TOO bright, especially around his nose, so I reduce the opacity to 30%.


That looks more like the coloring I want. Time for text! I chose the word "haunted" as in "by the ghosts of his PAST!" Muahaha. I used the font Libel Suit, which I'm really loving lately. You can get it at dafont if you want it. I type it at 24pt, using a peachy-tan sort of color. And then I rotate it around and get it where I want it.


I duplicate the text layer twice, so I have three in all, and arrange them how I want them. I set the opacity of one to 23%, another one at 42%, and the third at 84%, because, hey, after all, it is a LOST icon! And I'm obsessed like that. LOST fans will understand the numbers, everyone else can ignore me. =P


I decide this icon wants a border as well, so I draw in another 1px black border.

And, we're done!

~*~

So, that's it for the tuts. Hope you liked them! Once again, if you have any questions, please ask. Also, if you happen to like any of the icons and want to use them, go ahead. Just be sure to credit either plasticpepper or modposh. modposh is my icon journal, so if you like these, drop by and check out my others! (shameless plug...haha) I'd love to hear your thoughts about the tutorial as well!