InsaneJournal

I have had an awful lot of people comment asking how I make my icons (see also, lovibond), so after explaining it to someone entirely lovely, I thought perhaps some other people would like to know. I do not have an action, but if someone wants to make one (and share it) I will post it here. I do each layer by hand. With that said:



Right. This is the photo we're going to work with. When we're done it will be this bad boy:



Your first step is to resize it to 100x100. I have the crop tool set to 100x100, which is a godsend for quick cropping. Once you're happy with the positioning:

Layer - Duplicate - Screen - Between 50-60%. I never use 100% as I find it too harsh. I would rather redupe the screen layer if I need it to be still lighter. I find going a little lighter is better than going a little darker because of the way different computers interface with icons (I switch between my macbook and my desktop pc) and the fact ij consistently uploads icons a little bit darker than they first appear.

Once you've achieved the lightness you want, go ahead and merge all the layers. Then:

Layer - Duplicate - Soft Light - 50% & Sharpen. This step is the non-negotiable one. I don't really deviate from this. You may see the icon a lot of red/brass to it; some of you will like that, some of you may not. I tend not to. So my next step is:

Layer - New Adjustment Layer - Colour Balance. I tend to use between -10, -20 on the red/cyan midtone level. This tends to mute and calm the red quite a bit: I find messing with magenta/green and yellow/blue starts to make the background colours go wonky. If you're still unhappy with the brassiness, you can do:

Layer - New Adjustment Layer - Hue/Saturation with -5 saturation just to further mute the orange/reds. I rarely, rarely do this step, but it can be useful if you prefer more flat, blue icons.

Now merge all.

Finally, I duplicate the layer and add a gaussian blur filter at 1, which I set to about 40% to get the "glowy" look. If your icon is a little too dark or light for your taste, merge all, and run a curves on it, either pulling down from the middle or moving it up from the center. If you start futzing with the sides, it's going to get all weird (the bottom quadrant is for fill flash, the top for contrast).

Now the final key to making sure your icons upload right is to go to: file, save for web and devices, make sure it is .png -- and most important -- convert to srgb is checked. TADA.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate. I hope this helps. Play around with it and make alterations as you want. I get asked every now and again, so I figured I ought to just share it :)