MAKING ICONS IN BATCHES
So, as we all know, making icons can be difficult and very time consuming. but, making icons in batches can save you loads of time and a lot of tears!
first, you’re going to open photoshop. go to file -> scripts -> load files into stack.
you’ll come to a page like this. next, you’ll click browse.
go to the folder you want, and select the screencaps you want, click open.
now, my computer personally runs very fast, so i’ve uploaded as much as 1000 screencaps at a time. i would not recommend that for everyone. they do take time to load up into photoshop. if you don’t want to wait ten minutes, i would suggest doing up to 70-80 caps at a time. when you’ve got them all loaded into the box, hit okay and wait for the screencaps to load.
this is what it should look like when everything has loaded. ( ignore the timeline bar at the bottom of my screen, i’ll show you how to add that in later! ) now, what you’ll wanna do next is make the caps the size of your psd.
go to the toolbar and select image -> canvas size.
this box will pop up and it will originally show up in inches. make sure to change inches to pixels. otherwise you will be very confused at the result. change it to the dimensions of what your psd is, for example, width and height would be 100x100 if that’s the size of your psd. my psd is 120x120.
go ahead and click on proceed.
this is the screen you should have after you adjust the canvas size. to get the rectangular shape of your image, you’ll hit command+T ( control if you’re not on a mac ).
this is how you will adjust your image. for easy navigating, i recommend clicking one of the corners and holding down shift while you adjust. it will keep the image from getting distorted, and makes everyone’s lives a lot easier.
when you’re satisfied with the way your image looks, hit enter. to move on to the next image, click on the eye so that it isn’t visible. make sure that the image you’re editing is highlighted as well. otherwise it won’t do anything.
this is the step you will repeat until all of your caps are edited.
when you’re happy with the way your icons look, you’ll go up to the toolbar again.
window -> timeline
that will give you the timeline bar at the bottom of your screen.
make sure the setting is under create frame animation
next you’ll click the four horizontal lines on the right hand side of the timeline tool bar. you’ll want to click make frames from layers. all of the images will load into the toolbar.
if you’re like me, you’ll want your icons in order, so you’ll go back to the horizontal lines and select reverse frames. THIS STEP IS OPTIONAL.
make sure that you select the top layer, and the first one in the lineup on the toolbar.
next go to file -> open and select your psd from wherever you have it saved.
my advice to you: put your actual psd in a folder, with the background image outside. it makes things a lot easier.
now, you’ll want to drag the psd out of the tab like shown in the picture.
drag your psd folder from the sidebar to your new image.
adjust the psd to your desire, make sure it looks the way you want it to with your border etc.
when it looks the way you want it to and you’re ready to save, go to file -> export -> render video.
you’ll change the setting from adobe media encoder to photoshop image sequence.
select the way you want to save your file, as jpg or png etc. i personally save my icons as .png
find where you want to save your files to, whether a pre existing folder or a new one, name your file the way you want it, and then hit render. then you’re all done!