Icon Texture Tut #01
Making light textures like this and this out of images
The Basics- Level: Basic
- Used Photoshop CS2
- Translatable: All photoshop versions, possibly into PSP
Option 1
1) Pick an image. Any image! I'm in a Veronica Mars mood so I used this picture from Logan & Veronica Online. The coloring of your image usually doesn't matter. Crop it so it's on a 100x100 base, it should be small because the glowing effect we'll use later doesn't work well on big canvases.Result:
2) Make a new curves adjustment layer, to darken your image enough to remove some detail, and keep few important parts. My settings were RGB: 154, 94.
Result:
3) I add a gradient map adjustment layer (NOT gradient overlay) and added a pretty gradient to add an interesting color effect. I used this gradient from Signe's second gradient set.
Result:
4)I made a new layer and merged everything into it (Control>Shift>Alt>N>E).
5)Now for the fun part! Go to Filter>Stylize>Glowing Edges. I used the below settings, but you can adjust it according to your image.
Edge Width: 14
Edge Brightness: 3
Smoothness: 2
Result:
6) If your image is a little dark and blah like mine, use Auto Contrast (Alt>Shift>Control>L) and Auto Levels (Shift>Control>L).
Result:
7) Add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer and increase the Saturation to your liking. I increased mine to 20.
Result:
Have fun!
Option 2
Here is another way (And yes I'm still in a Veronica Mars mood!). You'll basically find that making these textures comes down to how you color. The point is color and light.1) I take my base crop it to 100x100px.
Result:
2) Make a new brightness/contrast adjustment layer. Try adding some contrast to define it more but reduce the brightness or in the end the lights will come out too white. I used -15 and +10
Result:
3) Here's where we color. I chose curves to bring out the reds, when we add the Glowing Edges effect it will invert the colors slightly and we'll get some blues. I used these settings:
Red: 109, 139
Green: 133, 106
Result:
4) Repeat steps 4-7 from option 1.
Result:
Neat huh? Enoy and don't hesitate to comment!