Scrapbook Graphics - Tutorial #1: Icon Basics

Hey guys! Just thought I might kick off this graphics journal with a little tutorial. (:

Lesson #1: Icon Basics

Today we're going to look at the basics of icon making with a simple yet sophisticated World Cup icon of the German loss against Italy yesterday. We'll be going from this to this:


Level: Written with labeled screencaps for a beginner unfamiliar with the software, with a few ideas for intermediate users.

Note: Some of this may seem a little redundant to people who are used to making icons (or at least to their program), but I think it's good if I start out with a rather long tut to base more advanced ones on later, so you'll know what I'm talking about then.

//Step 01//

Save the image you are using to make the icon to your computer, and open it using your graphics software. (I'm using Ulead PhotoImpact 8.)

//Step 02//

Once you've done that, crop your picture to 100x100, or whatever size gives you what you want to see in your icon, with space for extra effects. For this icon, I cropped it down to 200x200 so I could have both Oliver Neuville and some room for text.

Like this:



//Step 03//

If you cropped your image to a size larger than 100x100, click the Transformation tool and resize it down to 100x100. (Screenshot)

//Step 04//

Time to make the image more interesting! =D The easiest way to do this is to change the Brightness & Contrast of the image. Go to Format > Brightness & Contrast, and change your image as much as you want. I gave my image of Neuville more contrast and made it brighter, and then increased the contrast alone. (Screenshot).

Now your icon should look something like this:

, compared to

* Intermediate: If you wanted to go a little further, you could duplicate your image, set it as a new layer over the original copy, and merge it using the numerous effects found in your Layer Manager.

(I was satisfied with the way it looked, however, so I didn't use this tip. But don't worry, guys, we'll go over this method another time! ^^)

//Step 05//

Now that you're done editing your image, it's time to add text and other lovely decorations!

For text, I typed in "heartbreak" in Libel Suit, bold white, size 15. Then, I set the Character Spacing at 1 and positioned it in the upper-center part of the icon. (Screenshot)

Our icon with text:

//Step 06//

I thought the text shouldn't just be floating around next to Neuville's head, so I decided to add some tiny text to "hold it up", and give the icon some more structure. With PhotoImpact,you can do this two ways:

a) The "Right" Way: you can actually open a new text box in size 1 or 2 font, bold, and type random things in to make the real tiny text. It's a lot of fun to do, but sometimes it doesn't show up as well as you might want it to.

b) The Imitation: use the paintbrush with a brush head size of 1 pixel to draw straight lines of different sizes, like text, under Zoom (I use 500%). A lot of Photoshop tiny text brushes end up looking very similar to this, so why not imitate? Plus, it shows up better on just about any background. (Screenshot)

Our icon with the new Imitation tiny text in grey:

//Step 07//

To finish the icon, I thought we could fill up the space to the left of the text and tiny text with some squares the colors of the German flag. To do this, I:

-drew one smallish square with the Path Drawing tool
-copied it two more times, and
-positioned them next to each other.

Then, I:

-*merged them as a single object (open the Layer Manager, select each box, then right-click)
-flipped it, and
-pulled it up next to the text and tiny text.

Like this:



After that exciting step, you should end up with something like this:

//Step 08//

Finally, the last thing we need to do is color each square with a color of the German flag, which is black, red, and orange-ish gold. Select the Bucket Fill tool, pick a color, and click in the proper box to color it. Simple enough, no?

* Intermediate: If you'd like to have a little more fun with it, here's something that I did. Find a German flag online with Google Images, copy it, paste it as a new image in a different window, and use its colors with the Eyedropper to color your squares. Both accurate, and fun! =D

Now, you finally have your finished World Cup icon:

And that's all there is to it! Not that bad, right?

Comments are greatly appreciated, and if you make any work using this tut I'd like to see it!

Feel free to friend me for more tutorials, as well as icons and brushes made like this one!

x-posted at photoimpact and icon_tutorial