First Time Photoshop Icon

[chumawumba]

I am an amateur at Photoshop, and I tried making an icon for my YouTube account based on the shape of an iOS icon for the first time. I just messed around with different tools and after about an hour, I came to this. The only web tutorial I used was on how to make a radial gradient. (Like the iCloud icon.) What do you Photoshop pros think? I am always looking for ways to make my images better.

 

[12dylan34]

Pretty good for your first time, but here are my thoughts.

The anisotropic metal texture is a good start, but it needs more detail. Generate some fractal noise ("clouds" in Photoshop, I think), squeeze it down on one axis, then warp to be circular, then multiply/screen it over your image. Alternatively, google around for a texture that you can screen/multiply over your graphic. Look at

for reference. Notice the graininess of the texture.

Secondly, I don't like the black on the bottom. Too distracting. Tone that down by either making it lighter, or not as large. Maybe you were trying to create depth with that, but it shouldn't be that dark, so brighten it up a bit. Tone down the inner shadow's opacity on the letter too. This is just a small detail, but maybe add some grey shapes on the bottom edges of the letters to make it look like I can see the sides of the metal where the letter is cut out.

Third, I don't care for your font choice. It's not bold enough to draw my eye immediately. Try something thicker with more rounded corners.

Lastly, why is the metal texture still visible in the teal letter? Is there another layer of metal below the one that's cut away? If so, it should be offset a bit to account for that. It detracts from the illusion of depth that you're trying to create as it is.

It's a great start, and it's impressive that you were able to do this unaided, but could use some work.

Keep applying yourself this way in all of the software that you want to learn, and you'll learn very quickly.

 

[chumawumba]

Pretty good for your first time, but here are my thoughts.

The anisotropic metal texture is a good start, but it needs more detail. Generate some fractal noise ("clouds" in Photoshop, I think), squeeze it down on one axis, then warp to be circular, then multiply/screen it over your image. Alternatively, google around for a texture that you can screen/multiply over your graphic. Look at

for reference. Notice the graininess of the texture.

Secondly, I don't like the black on the bottom. Too distracting. Tone that down by either making it lighter, or not as large. Maybe you were trying to create depth with that, but it shouldn't be that dark, so brighten it up a bit. Tone down the inner shadow's opacity on the letter too. This is just a small detail, but maybe add some grey shapes on the bottom edges of the letters to make it look like I can see the sides of the metal where the letter is cut out.

Third, I don't care for your font choice. It's not bold enough to draw my eye immediately. Try something thicker with more rounded corners.

Lastly, why is the metal texture still visible in the teal letter? Is there another layer of metal below the one that's cut away? If so, it should be offset a bit to account for that. It detracts from the illusion of depth that you're trying to create as it is.

It's a great start, and it's impressive that you were able to do this unaided, but could use some work.

Keep applying yourself this way in all of the software that you want to learn, and you'll learn very quickly.

Thanks for the feedback.
I think removing the metal texture from the letter is actually a really good idea-I did not think of that. I used Myriad Pro Light for the font, which is a very thin font. I wanted it to be thin, but I guess making it thicker seems better. I do have a question though: How to I remove the metal texture under the teal letter?

 

[Parkin Pig]

I can never read these threads without having a go myself. Here's my effort and here's how I did it:

Create a radial gradient - you're clearly comfortable with this so we'll skip the details.

For the metallic grain, create a new layer and fill it with a 50% grey. In the 'Filter' menu choose 'Noise-Add Noise', then use 30% noise (or experiment to taste) and ensure 'Monochromatic' is checked.

Next, select 'Filter-Blur-Radial Blur', and set 'Blur Method' to 'Spin', and 'Amount' = 90.

Now comes the magic. Select the blend mode of 'Overlay' for this layer, and there's your grain. The reason we used a 50% Grey is that it neither lightens nor darkens the layers below when using the 'Overlay' blend.

If you now add your text on a new layer you will avoid having the radial gradient running through it.

I agree with 12dylan34 that the font needs to be chubbier - I've used Ariel Rounded MT Bold here, although it started to remind me of the Facebook logo, so I suggest you play with different fonts and different settings to the ones I've mentioned until you're happy.

 

[chumawumba]

I can never read these threads without having a go myself. Here's my effort and here's how I did it:

Create a radial gradient - you're clearly comfortable with this so we'll skip the details.

For the metallic grain, create a new layer and fill it with a 50% grey. In the 'Filter' menu choose 'Noise-Add Noise', then use 30% noise (or experiment to taste) and ensure 'Monochromatic' is checked.

Next, select 'Filter-Blur-Radial Blur', and set 'Blur Method' to 'Spin', and 'Amount' = 90.

Now comes the magic. Select the blend mode of 'Overlay' for this layer, and there's your grain. The reason we used a 50% Grey is that it neither lightens nor darkens the layers below when using the 'Overlay' blend.

If you now add your text on a new layer you will avoid having the radial gradient running through it.

I agree with 12dylan34 that the font needs to be chubbier - I've used Ariel Rounded MT Bold here, although it started to remind me of the Facebook logo, so I suggest you play with different fonts and different settings to the ones I've mentioned until you're happy.

Wow that is pretty impressive. I used your advice and added some noise and made text bold, and I can say it looks much better now!