so I’ve been asked before how I make my icons and I decided to make a quick tutorial for anyone to use, this is part one of the tutorial, where you remove the background from the subject
I use Adobe Photoshop CC 2016, but the tools are not that different from previous versions
so first I start off with an original image, I choose this image of Daisy Johnsons because she is lovely, larger image sizes makes editing easier
now that I have my image I sharpen it a little to make the selection process easier, and also to make the image look a bit cleaner
filter > sharpen > smart sharpen
I play around with it until it looks good, usually, I go for a more subtle change but it’s all up to preference
after sharpening the image I go and start taking the background away from the subject, for this image I’m just going to use that with the quick selection tool on the toolbar, if you can’t see it, its located underneath the wand tool
now we make a selection!
the marching ants around Daisy means that you have selected her, now we use a layered mask to take away the background
so far it looks pretty decent, but the edges are a little sloppy and you can still see some of the background through her hair and her shirt, this is when we use the refine edge tool
and a window pops up with several sliders that let you help clean up the image
after eyeing the image to see where you like the selection, click on the refine brush tool and paint in around the edges where you can still see the background, like in Daisy’s hair and in the nook of her sweater, if you go too far click on the drop-down box and select the second option and simply fill in where you might have erased too much
now your selection looks really good, and you can start making whatever edits you want with your awesome looking selection :D
first off, sorry for not answering in the ask but i couldnt go on the html part for some reason?? anyway
i used photoshop cs6
ok so first pick an image. if you want to work along with me, i decided to remake one of my fave icons. the colors in the scene were nice and very fun to color for me. (if you prefer working with larger images like me, here it is.) edit: the big picture doesnt show up for some reason for me. if it does the same to you just go to the su wiki's gallery for we need to talk.
next, i go to the quick selection tool
click the plus brush to add on what you want to make transparent, use the minus brush to remove things that you don't. my technique is to make the brush size 30 pixels and click on everything i want. however, in su the characters are outlined by black lines that your brush wont usually catch (it's even worse if your character is in front of a dark background). so i change the brush size to 3-5 pixels for that and zoom in holding down the ctrl and + keys. sometimes, you may need to make your brush size one pixel, but 3 pixels worked fine for me on this image. the only part of pearl that isnt outlined by black lines should be part of her um. idk how to call it, a shawl?? mesh?? who knows. but it's yellow so it should be easy to catch.
i would also like for you to keep in mind that it's very different for live action shows kind of. it can be more easier if the character's hair is in one place, or harder if the character's hair is in many places (idk how to describe it.)
after you're done, your image should look like this
afterwards, hit refine edge. if you did it correctly, your image should be ok. although tbh, sometimes when i do su i miss some of the pixels on the black lines and it doesn't look so good. if that happens, you should just use some smooth and it should look fine.
these are my settings
i only used a little bit of smooth and took some of the shift edge just in case i clicked on outside pixels. even without the settings it looks fine. note: in live action, i usually use a lot of smooth. editing animation is very different from editing live action. if you want, i can make a seperate tutorial
and then you should click on the layer mask button (just once). it should be on the bottom right of your screen.
aaaand then your image should look like this!!
at this point i like to do my coloring first. if you want the psd, you can ask. (but im gonna be very honest with you here it looks like Green Hell on live action shows.)
ta da!
and then i add a background!! go to layer on the bar thingy at the very top and go to new fill layer and then go to new color fill. this whole window thing’ll show up but you dont need to worry about that and just hit ok. you can choose whatever color you want, but for this icon, i chose a light pink
crop it 1x1 (square) and resize it to a 100 pixels
a little technique i do to make everything smoother is change the settings at the bottom to bicubic (best for smooth gradients). here's an image of it here
after you resize it, make a new layer and go to the brush tool and select the brush most to the left and set it on 0% hardness. place a blob wherever you want on the icon, but i put it on the top left
afterwards, click on that layer only and go to filter -> convert to smart filters -> gaussian blur. here are my settings for the blur, but you can do whatever you want
should look like this now
you can lower the opacity/change the blending settings if you want to.
next, i right click on what i made transparent, which in this image is for me layer zero and go to blending options (i can't take a snapshot of that but it should be at the very top)
this is my favorite part of making icons bc you can do sooo much with the blending options. usually though, i just add a gradient overlay. click on where it says gradient overlay. the part which you made transparent will covered with a gradient fiil. to fix that, lower the opacity/change the blending options. here are my settings for this icon
i lower the brightness/upped the contrast bc i felt the icon was too bright, but now we are done!!
bonus: another cool thing you can do is add drop shadow. here are my settings for my icon
result:
tbh i don't think the drop shadow suits the icon, but you can do it on plenty of other stuff too!
icon of anna for the frozenswannetwork so here´s a tutorial
please be patient because i´m not very good at explaining
p.s. I´m using photoshop cs6
okay so, first i get a screencap of whoever i want, in this case, Emma
then I crop it (100x100) and add the automatic contrast, color and tone [you can find them under Image]
then i use my psd
and this is where things get tricky. I usually hide the psd(by clicking on the eye next to the group) and select emma´s hair with the eyedrop tool
(i make the psd visible again), then i add a layer over the psd, set it soft light and paint over emma´s hair
this is the color i usually use for her: #9f9157
i also use that color to paint over her eyebrows (i recomend zooming in so that you don´t get the yellow on her face)
then i use that same process for her mouth and jacket (except i paint the jacket and mouth in the same layer that i did the hair and eyebrows and also selecting colors from the original picture of emma)
finally i like to use a bluish color for eyes (i like this one: #7ec1d2)
this is what she looks like:
now i select the picture of emma, go Filter: Focus, Smart Focus and choose these settings:
p.s. that only works for pictures that are HQ, if your picture isn´t you should play around with the settings
(also, sorry my photoshop is in spanish)
okay, next you have to select all the layers (which you can do by clicking the picture of emma, then holding the control key on the keyboard, select the rest of the layers and the psd group) after that click on merge layers
now, using this tool
i select emma (make sure you have the + one selected on the top:
)
then you right click somewhere in the dotted line and select refine edge (i think that´s what its called in english)
and these are the settings that i use
again, if the picture isn´t HQ you will have to modify them. I would recomment lowering the ratio and the smoothness, and taking away the fearther setting to 0
okay after you have the settings right, you click OK and then click on this icon
this is the result:
now, making sure i selected this emma (circled in red above) i select the eraser tool and make it 100% in size and carefuly go around emma without touching her-- this will make her blend in the background
next i make a new layer under the emma one
i select a ccolor for the background (#9af2d4) that is not too light, and then i click on this
and choos ethe first option (solid color) then i make another layer over that one but under emma´s, choose a color either lighter or darker than the one i picked (i´m using #c5fae8) select this again
but now i click on the second option (gradient)
there i choose whichever thing suits the picture better
then i usually use a texture that has writting on it, and set it to screen, i like to make my own writting textures by simply opening up a new layer 100x100 with a black background and writting quotes from the charcter in white with pretty fonts
i´m using this one (font: pea denise)
sometimes i add a texture under the letters to make it look better, like this
anyway, you add the picture (adjusting it so that i covers all the cavas) and set it to screen
then, i like to add a smoky texture over all of the layers. this one is my fav (i found it by googling smoky textures)
i like making it huge, and these are my settings: (i set it to whatever is under screen)
and here´s how it looks like
now the only thing i do is merge all the layers and make the image size 100x100 and done!
