Wednesday, May 9, 2007

How to make a metal texture in Photoshop

This tutorial will show u how to make a metal texture in photoshop.

Start with this-->


IInd Step -->
we will need a rectangle with rounded edges (right click on Shape tool to select it) and light grey background.



IIIrd Step-->
Create a new layer and fill it with the same color. This layer will contain brushed metal texture.


IVth Step-->
Add a lot of noise (filters menu - noise - add noise).




Vth step-->
Next, use Motion blur filter (filters - blur - motion blur) with the angle set to 0 and distance about 70 pixels. Then, hit Ctrl-Shift-L (Auto Levels) to increase texture contrast.



VIth Step-->
Now, hit Ctrl-G (group) - it will apply texture layer to shape layer, so that only a part of texture inside the shape is visible. To make texture look natural, adjust its blend mode (I changed normal to soft light, you might also want to try overlay, or linear burn, etc, and also to play with opacity).




VIIth Step-->
Now the tricky part - we're going to create a custom gradient to give our metal a nice reflection effect. Select shape layer, open its blending option (layer style), turn on gradient overlay, choose black-to-white gradient, and then click on gradient itself to open gradient editor. You'll see it has two "stops" - black and white. Now, click two times in the middle right below the gradient to create another two stops (see the screenshot). Make one of them dark grey, and the other one light grey.



VIIIth Step-->
After you're done with gradient, change its blend mode to overlay, or soft light. The result should look similar to shown here.


XIth Step-->
That's not all yet - create a new layer, and use a large brush with blurred edges to draw 2 white diagonal lines (you can also apply some blur). Then hit Ctrl-G to group this layer with previous, and, again, change its blend mode to overlay or soft light.




Xth Step-->
The little screws would be a nice final touch. use shape tool to draw a small circle. You can do it black or white - we're going to make it transparent later.



And you are done!