filtering color for grays

Ahh, this is such a late response to the requests for a tutorial on the example icons of my Color Highlights light textures set! I'm so sorry about that- it seems I'm forever trying to catch up to a billion things. :\ Anyhow, this particular icon had generated the most interest for a tutorial...so I finally got around to it. Better late than never? ^^;

Base: Final:

( On to the tutorial... )

Note: This tutorial is not meant to be copied exactly. Use it as reference, use it to learn what you can do- please don't use it to just reproduce some exact replica.

First off, thank you all for the supportive comments you've left me in regards to my rant about my problems with bandwidth and graphic theft. I'm taking a lot of your suggestions into consideration and am currently working on implementing a few of them. I'm really happy to know that I have your understanding and support in dealing with this- so thank you again! *hugs + smiles*

Another purpose of this post is really to clear up some questions about what hotlinking (aka direct linking) really means and why it upsets me (and many others) so much. Over the past few days, I've received several worried questions about it- and it made me realize that it's still a term that some may not be familiar with, so I thought I'd explain a bit.

Before we begin, here is an example of a page that has hotlinked to my images and downloads (not to mention taking my textures without permission...but that's another issue entirely -_-). If you check the URL of those previews, icons, and downloads- you will notice that it directly leads to my server. It's the same exact one I use for my journal here. Which means this person is literally using the bandwidth from the server that I'm paying for. That is called hotlinking.

( Details + Why it's bad... )

Someone requested a coloring tutorial- and since I haven't written tutorials in a while I figured I'd give this one a go. Here's a fairly simple one we're going to do, using a NANA manga scan:

Base: Final:

( Coloring Tutorial Under the Cut! )

Note: This tutorial is not meant to be copied exactly. Use it as reference, use it to learn what you can do- don't use it to just reproduce some exact replica. That's just not cool...and what's the fun in that anyway right? :p

Many of you have been requesting a tutorial for these icons that I posted as examples for my gradient color light textures. Sorry it took me this long to get around to it, but better late than never right? ^^; This tutorial will basically cover how to use my color textures to achieve the following 3 icons with very minor alterations to get the different color scheme you see.

Tutorial Results:


( Tutorial for Using Gradient Color Textures )

I got several requests for tutorials explaining how to use the light textures I posted last week, so I figured I'd whip an easy one up. Here's the first tutorial using the sample icon I gave for the monochrome set. A bare minimum effect that'll get you from base to final product of this U2 icon:

Base: Final:

Difficulty/Level: Easy; Beginner with at least basic PS or PSP knowledge.

( Tutorial for Monochrome Light Texture Here )