for my friend, saint, here is a general guidance on how to make a border for your roleplaying icons. should you have any question once the tutorial is over, feel free to reach out to me via IM or askbox. well, first of all, here is some of the borders i’ll be guiding you guys on to make:
(1) basic borders - dark outline, with white lines.
(2) dotted or dashed borders
(3) or how to add borders on a rounded icon
note: the brown-background is merely to show how the border would look like in case the white background doesn’t allow you to see it, but rest assured we will be having our icons in .png to support transparency. on another note , i’m very aware that the icons aren’t pretty — i don’t put any psd or any adjustment on the icon itself (taken from here) — but feel free to adjust the borders or your icon later on once you’ve fully understood the tutorials because im really teaching you the basics of how i usually do it and it’s really adjustable :))
what you will need:
photoshop, definitely.
1. BASIC BORDERS ICON
for starters let’s start with the first one so, have your icon — set it in whatever size you want ( the new trend is the smaller the better , i set mine usually at 65x65 although for this tutorial it would be 100x100, but you do what you like my friends ) — and leave it be .
now my next step is only an advisable step — like you don’t have follow it if you don’t want (you can still do your border in any case) but what i would do is create some transparency space behind a.k.a.
(1) make sure you duplicate your picture so it could be another layer (or you could turn the background into a layer itself)
(2) and just use the crop tool to expand the size a little bit
if a pop up showed up to ensure if you really wanna do that and name it, just press okay (in my case, i don’t bother naming them unless it gets crowded later), and then you would be left with this
NOW SEE HOW I MAKE SURE THE BACKGROUND LAYER WON’T BE AVAILABLE ??? yes, do that please. just click the eye of the background layer (NOT THE BACKGROUND COPY) and we can move on to out next step, which is secure a few spaces behind the icon in transparency.
of course it doesn’t have to be as a lot as i’ve done it above^ , but that’s just to make sure that people can understand what i meant. now to do the next border is very easy. there’s a lot of ways of course, to do it, but what i did is —
(1) locate your quick selection tool
(2) just select the heck outta your icon until it covers all area
(3) create a new, EMPTY layer
(4) go to edit > stroke > changes the setting to 3px and a white colour and click ‘OK’
(5) locate your quick selection tool again, do step (2) till step (4) except this time it’s on your WHITE BORDER layer and change the setting to 1px and a darker colour than white and click ‘OK’
and the picture demonstration would be:
figures above showed the located quick selection tool as per Step (1)
figure above showed the area of the icon are being wholly selected as per Step (2)
figure above showed ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP i.e. add a new layer pls as per Step (3)
two figures above showed the process of Step 4
figure above shows the result of Step (4) aka you made your white already border yay !!!! but we’re not done yet. because the outline of that white border still needed to be implemented to “complete” the look. but since you know the previous step, just re-follow it. however, here are the picture demonstration in case you need it :)
three figure above shows the repeated steps done to create the darker outline to the WHITE BORDER as step 5
the end result:
a.k.a
note: feel free to get rid of the extra transparency space if you wanna !
2. DOTTED OR DASHED BORDER
usually, the dashed or dotted border comes with the basic icon border. meaning people tended to do the basic icon border and then added another outline outside that border to make it extra fancy and nice ! The steps i’ll be taking to do that would be
(1) All of the steps above to make the Basic Icon Border
(2) Locate your Custom Shape Tool
(3) Click your Rectangle Tool
(4) Adjust it on your border
(5) Once the shape is determined, go to fill and reduces it from 100% to 0%
(6) Make necessary adjustment if you’d like, and you’re done !
the picture demonstration would be
figure above shows an icon with complete basic border icon ready as per Step (1)
figure above shows the located custom shape tool as per Step (2)
two figures above shows the next step once the custom shape tool is selected
figure above shows the result the custom shape tool once the area is selected as per Step (5). however, worry not! because the next step will guide you on how to adjust it
FIRST, if your custom shape tool ends up giving you this
instead of dashed or dotted outline, just do the next steps, which are
once you’ve chosen your preferred outline, go to your Layers, and change your Fill
figure above shows the steps to reduce the Fill from 100% to 0% as per Step (5)
it should give you this:
figure above shows the end result
figure above shows any available spots to adjust your dotted border further as per Step (6)
THE END RESULT
a.k.a.
3. ADD BORDERS ON ROUNDED ICONS
Alright, since this is a tutorial to make borders, I won’t go into how to make ‘Rounded Rectangle Icon’. If it’s requested, sure, but for now — I’m making the tutorial with the intention the rounded icon have already been created. So the steps are as followed:
(1) Have your icon ready at whatever size you need with the Rounded Rectangle already in place.
(2) Locate the Custom Shape Tool > Rounded Rectangle Tool
(3) Create the shape following your icon, and adjust until you’re satisfied.
(4) Changes the shape into Smart Filter so you can select the whole area using Quick Selection Tool. Once changed, select it fully. Then closes the Rounded Rectangle Shape.
(5) Add a new layer. Go to Edit > Stroke > Adjust your width and color > Press ‘Okay’. In assumption that this will be your WHITE BORDER layer, your width should be at 3px and the color should be white #fff.
(6) Now select the areas of the WHITE BORDER layer. Create a new layer. Go to Edit > Stroke > Adjust your width and color > press ‘Okay’. In assumption that this will be your OUTLINE DARKER BORDER, your width should be at 1px and the colour should be of darker color than white.
(7) You should be done.
pictures demonstration are as followed:
figure above showed the rounded icon are in place as per Step (1)
fIgure above shows the step in accordance to Step (2)
figure above shows any adjustment done to fit ur icon as per Step (3)
three figure above shows the steps in converting the Rounded Rectangle Shape into Smart Filters, selecting it using Quick Selection Tool and closing the layer as per Step (4)
four figure above shows the addition of a new layer (WHITE BORDER LAYER), the steps to choose stroke and give a white layer to the icon as per Step (5)
three figure above shows the selection into making darker outline as per Step (6)
THE END RESULT
a.k.a.
AND YOU’RE DONE.
note: my advice is, you should put all of the layers of the making of your borders under one file and put it ON TOP of the layers of your coloring PSD and save it. that way, you don’t have to repeat the process every time cause it’s already saved along with your psd file.
of course, any confusion at all, just hit me up.
and below, are some of my icon creation feat. different borders !
