(no subject)

[bandera]

SOO.

1. Duplicate the base layer (ctrl+j) and set your top layer to screen. I usually like to put mine around 35% opacity, give or take.
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2. add a brightness/contrast layer ( layer -> new adjustment layer -> brightness/contrast) and push the brightness up to 30 - 50 range depending on how dark the icon is. In this case, i set it at like 35.
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3. slap a texture on it and set the texture layer to soft light. typically at 100% opacity. I usually use ctrl + t to play with the size of the texture and where I want the blues/pinks to end up. it gives it a nice effect usually, i like this one a lot.
( texture )
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4. stare at it for a little bit and decide if it's too much of one color. in this case, holy shit chuck you're super orange. make a new selective color layer and play with the sliders on the red and yellow options from the drop down menu, decreasing or increasing as you see fit. sometimes i'll also go into "neutral" and touch the black down or up a little depending on how light the image is/how much extra contrast i want.
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5. make a gradient fill layer ( new adjustment layer, not just a gradient! ) and create a gradient that starts white and turns black. hit ok. change the style to "radial" so it makes a big circle. move the circle where you want the character to be highlighted. hit okay again, set this layer to soft light, and adjust the opacity until you get the right mix of dark and light so it doesn't look like a white blob but it's still just gently highlighted. in this case, i set it to about 61% opacity.
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6. hit ctrl + shift + alt + e to stamp your layers together and create a top layer! oooh nice. if it's too bright now, you can turn the opacity down, but i thought this one was fine. I didn't even screencap this one because I didn't do anything to it.

7. sharpen that layer with a plain old sharpen. (filter -> sharpen.) then, hit ctrl + shift + f and use the slider to make the sharpening less harsh, so it's not really obnoxious. this can be anywhere from 10% to 90% -- depends on the image.
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8. OPTIONAL: sometimes if an image is too dark, i use curves to brighten it a little by putting one dot sort of 3/4ths of the way to the top and pulling it up or down. this one just takes some fiddling--i can't nail down a process that totally works every time. i didn't do it on this icon tho so.

9. flatten everything, hit save. VOILA.
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