I will try to show you through this tutorial how to create
a metallic looking texture. There are probably another
hundred ways to do it so you must play around with layer
options, blending options and filters, as well as your
own imagination. The best way to create a texture is to
have a real one nearby, found anywhere on the net, most
probably on google's
image search.
Now everything I did was done with
photoshop 7, and a few brushes that you can download for
free on ressource sites or even make your own (explained
in this tutorial. Now, on to the texture !
*Note: all links open in new windows...
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View / Download PSD 5mb |
> Made
with: : |
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:::Step 1: Basic Texture
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I
used a picture probably found on the net as a reference
texture - as you will see this has nothing to do with
the final, photoshop-made texture. I used the eyedropper
tool to take the lightest color as a foreground color,
and the darkest one as a background color, to use
these colors as my basic gradient. You can choose
anything you like for your colors. Click
here to view (and download) the texture. |
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Open up photoshop;
create a document, RGB, whatever size you want (I
kept mine smal;l 700x500 or such because I later used
a brush that had this same size). Fill your background
layer (or a new layer) with a nice, large
linear gradient, I used the two tones of
gray but any grey-ish blue-ish tone will do - just
keep in mind the colors should not be extremely bright
or dark. |
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Give
your gradient some noise - I chose
6% level of noise, Gaussian (because it sounded cool)
and monochromatic, it wouldn't look too nice with
colors. This should give you the 'brushed' aspect
of the metal. The more noise, the rougher the metal
will be, if you only use a slight noise the texture
will look smooth and chromy.
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actual 'brushing' is done with the motion
blur, very handy filter. Once again you can
change anything in your filter options, but the longer
the streaks the smoother the metal and the angle doesn't
really matter. I chose a 12° angle on a distance
of 12 pixels.
At this stage you might want to crop
your image because the motion blur doesn't affect
the area near the borders, so crop your image leaving
out the borders. It didn't show up too much on mine
so I didn't crop - but I usually do with the motion
blur... |
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Now
you can work on the contrasts and
give the metal texture more highlights and dark tones
- you can use any of the handy tools photoshop provides,
I went in for a bit of contrast an played around with
the curves, giving the image more light and dark colors. |
That's
it ! You've got the basis of a metal texture. Now
if you are doing 3d I'd recommend a few things - keeps
a black and white layer following the steps, or make
a new layer and give it a grayscale - this is to be
used for bumpmapping - highlight maps or reflection
maps. Try to make the gradient straight, not slented,
to give the texture a seamless pattern. (here's
a good tutorial for making seamless textures with
non seamless ones). |
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2: Pumpin' it up |
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What
should be done now is add details - give the texture
more realism; that is - a proper lighting, some
scratches and non uniform colors. (plus a little
extra at the end).
For the scratches - there's only one way to do it
- brushes. You can make them yourself or download
them. Search on google for rust, metal or scratch
PS7 brushes. (here's
a good brush site). The other solution is make
your own brushes - here's
a tutorial on how to do them - basically you
take scratch from photos, exisiting pictures etc
and give it a very high contrast.
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The brush is used was made from
the metal texture of the beginning of the tutorial;
I used the curves to make it look fuzzy and heavily
contrasted and then turned it into a brush Edit>Create
Brush (eventually save your set of new
brushes, can be handy for later projects)...
The blending options you mostly use with the brushes
are the cherished dodge and burn
options. What I did was use the eyedropperto
pick the color of the light area, use my brush with
the 'color dodge' mode and a 35%
opacity.
Since the color dogdge doesn't affect dark areas
I use the same brush (but changing brush would be
wiser). Picked a dark color and used my brush on
the bottom area with a 'color burn'
and 35% opacity. (Click
here to view the texture as it is of now)
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We've
got one fine texture now - and what would make it
even better is a nice lighting. Now DON'T do this
if your texture is to be used for a 3D model - it
won't look good I assure you...
The lighting effects are found in Filters>Render>Lighting
Effects. Once again you must play with the
position, strenght of lighting (check the material
percent for example). I used a spotlight with the
numbers that are shown on the image on the left (click
here to see the details).
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We're
almost done now. The *extra* bits that I was talking
about are here. I viewed science-fi movie and noticed
that ships always had metallic grated for the hull
and almost always was grease/oil leaking or smearing
from the joints. So what you can do is re-create those
'leaks'.
Here's how you do it: create a new layer, and make
the rectangles in black, using lines 1, 2 or 3 pixel
large. Now make a copy of that layer, and smear the
copy using the smudge tool and a
round brush set to 80% opacity. You've got to give
it your own feel. You can even make rivets or anything
else.
Now for the final touch, take the first layer and
give it a bevel and emboss - to give some depth (click
here to see the details of the blending options I
used) |
That's
it ! You're texture is done ! Now what you can do
is add a few more brushes (on the psd posted I added
some clouds, changed their contrast and set them 20%
transparent as a dodge layer)... Now it's your job
to turn everything your own way. Mail
me textures you did, I'll post them on this site
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