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Icon Creation: Featuring PhotoShop's best Features!
PhotoShop: It may seem pretty straight forward. All you need is a brush tool, that is, if you are a traditionalist. If you have a shaky hand, what if you want to create a wicked looking curve on a sword? What if you want a crazy magical effect from the colored background to make your icon pop? What if you need more tools to work with? This is your tutorial.
The pen tool is a very simple tool, with amazing results. Ever used Microsoft Paint's Curve tool? That tool lets you bend lines over one "anchor" point. Now imagine that same principle, but, you can bend the straight line in an infinite amount of anchor points. That's how pen works. NOTE: Pen tool is a lot easier for creating clean images than Freeform Pen Tool. Freeform Pen should always be edited for accuracy with the standard Pen Tool.
To start off with the pen tool, simply create two points. In a straight line, like such.
Now, to apply to a bend in the line, simply right click on the pen tool icon, and select Add Anchor Point Tool. Then, CTRL + Left Click to move your anchor around.
Do you see that line across the anchor tool with the squares on each end? Those squares allow you to bend the line into an S-shape. Just click on one and rotate it.
Now, one anchor point cancels out another. If you place two anchor points right next to each other, you can bend one to the point of the other anchor, but after the second anchor, it will be straight. See this example.
Liquify
PhotoShop: It may seem pretty straight forward. All you need is a brush tool, that is, if you are a traditionalist. If you have a shaky hand, what if you want to create a wicked looking curve on a sword? What if you want a crazy magical effect from the colored background to make your icon pop? What if you need more tools to work with? This is your tutorial.
Contents
Pen Tool
Liquify
Curves
Using Custom Brushes
Various Techniques
List of Resources
Using the Pen Tool
The pen tool is a very simple tool, with amazing results. Ever used Microsoft Paint's Curve tool? That tool lets you bend lines over one "anchor" point. Now imagine that same principle, but, you can bend the straight line in an infinite amount of anchor points. That's how pen works. NOTE: Pen tool is a lot easier for creating clean images than Freeform Pen Tool. Freeform Pen should always be edited for accuracy with the standard Pen Tool.
To start off with the pen tool, simply create two points. In a straight line, like such.
Now, to apply to a bend in the line, simply right click on the pen tool icon, and select Add Anchor Point Tool. Then, CTRL + Left Click to move your anchor around.
Do you see that line across the anchor tool with the squares on each end? Those squares allow you to bend the line into an S-shape. Just click on one and rotate it.
Now, one anchor point cancels out another. If you place two anchor points right next to each other, you can bend one to the point of the other anchor, but after the second anchor, it will be straight. See this example.
Liquify
Liquify is a more advanced smudge. While smudge looses contrast quickly, Liquify keeps the contrast equal as it is spread out over a distance. If you have seen any of my icons, you will see the effect of liquify in the background.
To start block down color like so. I prefer to scribble different shades and tints of the same hue, I just used a red, a light red, and a darker red for this (Normally I use 5+ colors).
Now, hit CTRL + SHIFT + X to enter liquify mode. It should look like this.
Now, I personally find the only buttons really useful are for brush size and pressure. Experiment with this tool until you have a cool looking effect.
Now, play with the different levels of each Channel or the RGB channel itself. You should be able to get it.
To start block down color like so. I prefer to scribble different shades and tints of the same hue, I just used a red, a light red, and a darker red for this (Normally I use 5+ colors).
Now, hit CTRL + SHIFT + X to enter liquify mode. It should look like this.
Now, I personally find the only buttons really useful are for brush size and pressure. Experiment with this tool until you have a cool looking effect.
Curves
Curves are a direct way to edit the channels of an image. REMEMBER: LIGHT IS DIFFERENT FROM PIGMENT. THE PRIMARY COLORS ARE DIFFERENT. An RGB image is consisting of 3 independent channels: Red, Blue, and Green. Here is an interaction chart of RGB. In RGB, any color consists of 3 values between 0-255.
Here is a chart of the different color interactions in RGB.
Green + Blue = Cyan
Red + Green = Yellow
Blue + Green = Magenta
Red + Green + Blue = White
Now, CYMK is a whole different story. CYMK is based of the Secondary colors of the RGB system, using Cyan, Yellow Magenta, and lastly, a BlacK channel. In CYMK, all colors mixed together make white, so a you need a darkness channel in order to do art. Here is a Color chart of CYMK.
Now, CYMK cannot support transparency, and can only be put into a handful of formats. Since CYMK does not support a working Targa file, it will not be covered fully in this tutorial.
Now, to get to the actual tool.
Then center line is mid point of the channel, the balance so to speak. The line represents around 122.5 - 130 of an RGB channel.
Now, the sides of the window signify the Threshold level. Threshold is a fancy way of saying how close the colors of an image is to the Primary and Secondary colors of RGB.
Now, the far right adjusts the threshold part of the image. Threshold is a way to describe what True Color a color is, or how close it is to a True Color. For example, in RGB, Orange is either thresholded as Red or Yellow, whichever one is closer to the original color.
Here is a chart of the different color interactions in RGB.
Green + Blue = Cyan
Red + Green = Yellow
Blue + Green = Magenta
Red + Green + Blue = White
Now, CYMK is a whole different story. CYMK is based of the Secondary colors of the RGB system, using Cyan, Yellow Magenta, and lastly, a BlacK channel. In CYMK, all colors mixed together make white, so a you need a darkness channel in order to do art. Here is a Color chart of CYMK.
Now, CYMK cannot support transparency, and can only be put into a handful of formats. Since CYMK does not support a working Targa file, it will not be covered fully in this tutorial.
Now, to get to the actual tool.
Then center line is mid point of the channel, the balance so to speak. The line represents around 122.5 - 130 of an RGB channel.
Now, the sides of the window signify the Threshold level. Threshold is a fancy way of saying how close the colors of an image is to the Primary and Secondary colors of RGB.
Now, the far right adjusts the threshold part of the image. Threshold is a way to describe what True Color a color is, or how close it is to a True Color. For example, in RGB, Orange is either thresholded as Red or Yellow, whichever one is closer to the original color.
Now, play with the different levels of each Channel or the RGB channel itself. You should be able to get it.
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