Tutorial: Fiery Emblem

Hi everyone!
As I promised, I will show you the tutorial on how to make this emblem kind of thingy for your Facebook cover.

To get started, you're going to need to download a few things like brushes, stocks and stuff like that.

Vector Shields

You need Adobe Illustrator to open this, the main reason is so you don't lose the sharpness of the shield when you transform it.

Fire brushes

Some basic fire brushes.

Vector line brushes

A set of vector line brushes

Tempera & water color brushes

A set of brushes we're going to use for the background



Now, let's start with the cover.
Open up your shields in Adobe Illustrator.

I'm going to take this shield because it looks kinda sinister and that's what I'm pretty much going for.
Create an 850*314 canvas in Photoshop because that's the ideal size for Facebook covers, at that size it doesn't get cut or anything like that.
Just click on the shield, copy and paste it in Photoshop and set it as a "Smart Object". That way, you won't lose the quality.
Now you want to give it some color. I was going for a fiery emblem so I choose these colors:

Set the gradient tool as Reflected and you'll get something like this.

Let's add some effects to the shield so it doesn't look as plain.
I added another gradient on top so I get a cool burning effect. Select your shield layer, press ctrl + LMB and create a new layer. On the new layer, select your gradient tool, set it to black and transparent and just pull it down.

The next thing we're going to do is make it shiny, polished metal and that stuff. You can use this trick on lots of metal things and it'll look really nice.
Once again, press ctrl+click on the shield thumbnail, create a new layer and with the black color selected, press alt + backspace. You should get the exact copy of your shield, just black.
Now go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise, select Gaussian, Monochromatic and bring it up to 400%. Ctrl + click on your shield and go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur, set it to 45° and the distance to about 50 pixels.
Set that layer to soft light and the opacity to about 50%. If you've done everything right, you should get something like this.

Now for the flames and that wicked stuff. Load your fire brush and select the one that's 297 pixels in size.What you wanna do now is change the brushes' size and color to fit it in. Don't worry if it's too big or something, we'll take care of that later.

You should start by doing this, ctrl+clicking the shield, pressing ctrl+shift+I to invert the selection and deleting the pieces that are out of the borders.
You can do that a few times and it'll make a nice some kind of a 3D effect. That should leave you with this. (I added a splatter brush at the bottom, it's not necessary, but it looks better. You can use any splatter brush.

Now, to enhance that 3D effect, we need to add some shadows.
To do that, you just select a fire layer, press ctrl+J, ctrl+click the lower layer, press alt+backspace with the black color selected. That should leave you with two layers, one after another, with the bottom one being black. Reposition the black one so it's like a shadow, down right is where I usually put them. If needed, delete the stuff that got out of borders like I explained before.

To top the shield off, we need to add some borders, make it stand out and all that. Go back to your Illustrator, take the exact same shield and make it slightly bigger in Photoshop. Ctrl+click the original, small shield and with the big shield selected in your layers, press delete to delete the inside of it.

Now make a copy of that border by pressing ctrl+J. Make one of those invisible and resize the other one so it fits your shield perfectly (at least the bottom half) and delete the top half with your eraser. Color the half-border using the alt+backspace shortcut with #e5a407. Set it to Multiply and lower the opacity to 79%.
If you got that right, you'll get this.

You can leave the other border like it is, just make sure it is on top of all the other layers.


That's the shield part. I wasn't too sure what I wanted for the background, so I just improvised.
Take your beloved gradient tool, set it to Linear and just pull it from one corner to the other.

Copy that yellow layer using ctrl+J, press ctrl+shift+U to desaturate it and move it on top of your yellow layer. Now go to Filter>Sketch>Water Paper and move the sliders until you get the desired effect. After you've done that, set it to Overlay and you should get this.

Now what you wanna do is take your tempera & water paper brush and click a few times with #ae140d on a new layer. Put the layer in between the water papered layer and yellow layer. Now set the layer to Multiply.
You can also add some black behind the shield with your brush. Just make sure to set the opacity to 15% and click a few times.

Now use your vector line brush and place it like it's coming out of the shield. Of course, it should be on a new layer, black color and be sure that you've restored your opacity to 100%. Make the layer Soft Light and that should be enough.

I've just added some shadows behind the shield so it blends in better. If you forgot, ctrl+J on your shield, paint it black, put it behind the shield and set the layer to Soft Light.

Notice how I made two layers so I cover more surface.


We're almost over, woo!
Create a layer on top of all layers and go to Image>Apply Image. Press OK and set the blending mode to Multiply. Lower the opacity the 57%. The last step you do is go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects. Set it to Omni and make it like the shield is glowing and the rest is kinda fading. (I usually leave everything like it is, except intensity.)

And that's it! You can add your nickname or anything if you want, it's optional.
Now you can reward yourself 'cause it took a whole lot to do it.
If you've got any questions, ask away, I'd be happy to help.
Also, post your outcomes!

Love, Shock.