[TUT] How to create a sleek, vintage avatar. [REQ]

[Mucski]

First let's clarify, TUT on my series will mean TUTORIAL of course, and "REQ" is by request. This doesn't mean someone requested a tutorial, rather that they requested something and I decided to make it as a tutorial.

This way every little tutorial will have a tiny story behind it if that's the case, if not, well just do it anyways.

So a couple of days ago, or maybe weeks ago, Scratch told me, my avatar looks cool. And I told him I shall make him one, ever since his expecting it, well maybe not, but I thougth, why not do it anyways.

Before I begin I am fairly aware that this is much more easier to do in Illustrator, but due to my lack of Hardware, time, and knowledge, I will not do ANY illustrator tutorials for a while. You can however ask Wucas, who apparently is skilled in it.

You will get this once you complete the tutorial

So let's get started.

First let's create a 800 x 800 72 dpi new Photoshop document. This can vary, I prefer it this way.

Now let's create a circle (yes I decided to go with a circle avatar instead of a square like mine, for the sake of this tutorial and Scratch), don't worry about the jaggy edges in mine, it's because Windows XP is old, and it displays shapes like this, because it has a tiny 1 pixel selection around it that disappears once you click on something else.

Now let's change it's color to something cool, retro.

Now let's add a retro border to it. I chose a big border, so I went roughly guessing with 25 px, but this depends on prefference. Also change the borders color to a nice appealing "yellowish" color that matches our retro blue.

Now let's choose our font. I chose Arial, Black and 121px. This is also relative to your prefferences. Now change it's color to the same as your border.

Now let's apply the shadow underneath the "S". Simply drag a new rectangle above it, and transform it as needed until it matches your S's height.

Now let's change it's color to a darker version of our retro blue, and drag it bellow the "S" layer, so we can adjust it further

Now you'll need to rotate it, and once more adjust it to fit every edge that it touches on the "S"

Now let's cut down the shape's bottom to fit exactly into our circle. So I contracted the selection with 23px.

Don't forget to Rasterize your shape first otherwise it can't be deleted

So if you did everything right, you should have this by now

Now let's start adjusting the "shadow" to fit behind the "S" exactly. Start with a selection tool and cut down the un-needed parts

Once done, now it's time to start cleaning up and tweaking the shadow

If you done it so far, you are great. Keep on going, not much more to do now ...

So first, backup the whole thing. I just created a group, and hid it, then duplicated the group and flatten it.

And now for the finishing touch, let's add a noise to it

Make sure you don't add too much, or it will ruin the whole thing

DONE!

 

[Detox]

Definitely a high quality tutorial right there, good job! We'll all be going around with the same avatar as you now.

Well done, and thanks for the contribution

 

[Rey]

Good job mate ! It's a fast and great TuT

 

[Scratch]

Thanks mate, I'll use it when I get a sub back else I'll lose this avatar which is 128x128 </3
As for the tutorial it seems easy to do and quick, I might try to do something with this

 

[Kurokiri]

Simple and awesome tutorial .. thank you ~