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Full Icon Tutorial for Paintshop Pro 8
This tutorial assumes at least a basic knowledge of Paintshop Pro
How to make this icon:
First, we need
a base.
I used a publicity photo from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which
you can get here if you want to start from scratch.
I rotated the image so Harry was at a slight angle, and cropped it.
Duplicate this
layer (Layers>Duplicate). Now, it's a bit fuzzy. So, we're going to sharpen
the top layer. Go to Adjust>Sharpness>Sharpen More. Now it looks like
this:
Duplicate the
sharpened layer. Set the first layer to Screen, and the top layer to Soft
Light. Select the top layer, and go to Adjust>Hue & Saturation>Hue/Saturation/Lightness.
Set Hue at 0, Lightness at 0, and Saturation at -100. Click okay. It should
now look something like this:
Pretty, huh? Now, create a new layer, and place it between the Screen layer and
the Soft Light layer. Select the fill tool, and fill this layer with the Ice Blue
gradient,
with the angle set to 255. This is adjustable, and it's entirely up to you what
gradient you use, and what angle you set it to!
Set this layer
to Exclusion. It should look like this:
Horrible, isnt
it? Set the opacity down to 50% - it changes the look of the icon entirely...
and makes it look very pretty!
Now, thats not
too bad, but it could do with a bit more colour. Create a new layer. Using
the brightest shade in the gradient fill (or just a light, bright colour of
your choice if you're using a particularly colourful gradient), in this case,
#8DCDFF, fill the new layer, and set it to overlay.
Still not too
bad, but a bit too bright for my tastes. Let's lower the transparency of the
overlay layer to around 60%.
Ah, much better! Now, I really like that. The colours are lovely, but not obtrusive.
I'm going to stick with it. Now, it's border time. I'm going to use a border brush
I made myself. If you want, you can use
it yourself:
Use a dark shade
from the icon for your border. This just helps tie the whole icon together.
Now, I think
it's ready for the BANE OF MY VERY EXISTANCE. ...or text, as some of you may
know it. I never have the faintest idea what I want to write on icons - infact,
I tend to rely very heavily on the use of song lyrics and movie quotes for
my icons. I sometimes spend more time trying to come up with text than I do
actually making the icon in the first place! I'm listening to I'd Die For
You by Bon Jovi at the moment, and so the lyrics, "I would never mean
to hurt you," are what I'm going to use. The font is Trajan Bold, and
the size is set on 6, and it's the same colour as the border. After a bit
of fiddling to get it positioned nicely, I ended up with this:
Now, I think
the text could stand out a bit more. Selecting a colour from Harry's cheek
(#C5BECE), I put a drop shadow on the text. Effects>3D Effects>Drop
Shadow, with the settings on: Offset: Vertical: 1, Horizontal: 1. Attributes:
Opacity: 100, Blur: 2. Click OK.
Now, that's nice,
isnt it?! I think I'll leave it at that, 'cause it's just pretty.
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