003. watch the party die ( psd )

[splatstick]

a modification of my utopia psd but specifically for icons! the changes - black color fill (@ 50/70) - an additional gradient map - an additional brightness layer - adjustments to the channel mixer (now @ 50/70) - adjustments to the hue + saturation layer 💥💥DOWNLOAD LINK💥💥 edit as needed. neither credit nor comments are necessary but very much appreciated. thank you, and take care!

Comments

cap sources

[splatstick]

(frozen comment) how to adjust for red scenes 😈

[splatstick]

so you got the utopia for icons psd but the scenes are too red or warm. overwhelming the icon. washing out details. it's like a kenny rogers roaster opened next door. it's giving seth rollins vs the fiend at hell in a cell 2019. what do you do?? the icon above has no color correction but the two layers of brightness and contrast have been adjusted (+55/-10 and +45/+23). sometimes, i'll do a cursory brightness adjustment first. but usually, i do it at the end because the color correction can make the icon brighter or darker without touching the brightness or curves. it's up to you tho. - vibrance 1: currently at +25. lower it or delete. vibrance off - channel mixer (labeled as optional; above levels 1): lower the opacity and fill, or delete. sometimes i keep it in red scenes because... idk it's like. sometimes red scenes can also be too cool and blue. so i put it to 50%/50% or leave it as is, and adjust the other settings to compensate for the added warmth. idk to me i feel like it's needed sometimes. for this one, i left it on. left is on; right is off - hue and saturation (labeled as adjust if you want...; above selective color 1): DO NOT DELETE! the master's saturation is at -55. no need to mess with that so go to reds, which is at +43. lower it. red hue at +28 - selective color 1 & 2: DO NOT DELETE! on the reds tab, turn up the cyan to 0 or higher. you can also turn down yellow, magenta, black. here is the settings for this one. finished product note: the optional folder softens reds. so turning it back on may solve the redness or, at least, make it so you won't have to adjust the settings too much. you can keep it off but it'll mean that the settings must be adjusted even more (as can be seen here, which is the finished result sans optional folder). conversely, if the scene is too blue or the subject's skin tone is washed out, do the opposite. crank up vibrance 1 and the channel mixer's fill/opacity. delete vibrance 2 (labeled as optional). turn down the master on hue and saturation from -55 to idk -40? play around with it! if you have any additional questions, message me. thanks!

[ravenna]

hey there! idk if this is the right place to ask or even if you'd be willing to take the time to answer, so i totally understand if you ignore this, BUT - i've been using your psds to practice iconmaking (and i so appreciate that you make them available), to varied results. my question is: how the heck do you sharpen anything?

i'm sure some of it is my vision issues making it hard for me to tell when something looks right (my screen resolution is scaled a little big, and my browser is scaled a LOT big), but i'm really in like some crunchy pixelated circle of hell, lmao.

[splatstick]

yeah, it's not a problem!!!

so sharpening. i do "smart filters" > "smart sharpen." make sure you "convert to smart filters", so you can adjust your filters. for live action, my default level is at 100. however, i've noticed different versions of photoshop(or whatever photo editing software)'s smart sharpening vary. i use photoshop 2023, and i have smart sharpening at 100. but the previous version i used (photoshop cs6 i think) was at 200-250. i think the version i used before cs6 was 150ish.

so rn all i can really recommend is play around with the smart sharpen tool! some shows/movies have soft filters, so they require a higher setting, whereas others are sharpened in editing, so they only need the default setting. older shows and movies (esp. lower-budget ones) will need more sharpening. for non-live action medium (specifically hand-drawn), i use a lower setting at 50. and honestly, some caps might not need any sharpening (line art in particular; in some cases, i've had to use "smart blur", so it's not soooooo sharp when i resize them).

btw i sharpen before i crop. someone told me that's what they do, so now i do the same idk

hopefully, i helped you, but if you still have questions, i'm happy to answer as best as i can!!!

thank you, and have a good week!!

[ravenna]

ty so much for the info! definitely gives me some new angles to play with to see if i can make it click. i use photopea like a peasant but it has smart objects and appears to be identical in that regard.

btw i sharpen before i crop.

do you edit the whole shebang before you crop/resize?

[splatstick]

ALRIGHT i think i figured it out

on photopea, you're gonna wanna smart sharpen after you crop and resize. the icon on the left was smart sharpened at 150% before the crop and resize, while the icon on the right was smart sharpened afterwards.


big props to you using photopea tho 🙌 i used it years ago after my ""free"" subscription of photoshop ran out and i was shaking and crying within five minutes. i do not have the emotional fortitude for it

i edit after i crop and resize. most times, i have a crop already in mind when i pull up the cap. but i know of an icon/graphic maker who would crop after they edited, and they explained that editing the pic first and seeing how it looked with its shadows and coloring, told them where to crop. but my icons are stick figures compared to the works of art they made, so perhaps you should do what they do and not what i do lmao (i can't find where they said it, but it was in response to someone asking about their cap sources. here's their tumblr btw if you wanna see their work)

thanks :')

[ravenna]

you're so kind for fussing with it on my behalf, ty for the examples!! yeah i uh, i'm not even going to say what version of photoshop i used last, we might end up fossilized by proximity, but it was ancient enough that i wasn't too hampered by giving photopea a whirl after several years of not having ps access.

thanks again for the intel! i'm gonna carry on fussing with these new tips and then probably get sick of it and commission you for icons anyway eventually lmao, but maybe you know how it is, sometimes you've got a character who has really inconsistent scenes or very brief appearances and a gal just wants 1 or 2 new icons every so often, blah blah. you're a gem as ever!!

[splatstick]

i get that!!! a lot of times, in my haste to cap a show for an actor, i miss a couple of their scenes, and i don't realize it until days or weeks after i've finished and uploaded the icons. or i discover another show or movie they were in. so now i MUST cap those missing scenes, or that show or movie, even if i get only 1 or 2 icons, because i'm a completionist!!

it's a struggle!!!!!

and if you find yourself that gal who wants 1 or 2 new icons every so often but is sick of photopea, feel free to toss those caps to me, even if i'm closed. sometimes, i like to screw around in photoshop for a few minutes, so it'd be no trouble!

thank you, and take care of yourself!!!