Realistic Metal Effect

Realistic metal effect tutorial

Photoshop effects tutorials are a bit like recipes; they are all very similar with just slightly different amounts and ingredients. This tutorial is a step by step explanation, and for those of you who are more advanced users may seem overly detailed. If you try it though, I think you will see the obvious areas where the process can be streamlined.

This particular tutorial uses text as its starting point, but the same principles will apply for any black and white image, whether created in a Vector based drawing program like Freehand or Illustrator, scanned from other source, or drawn from scratch

This tutorial demonstrates how to get a realistic metal effect from black and white shapes (like text). For this demo we will use Channels, the Lighting Effects filter, the Type tool, and layer blending modes.

The images from this section are from the Macintosh version of Photoshop 5.5, but the methods used here will work on all versions of Photoshop 4.0 and later. All of the processes are the same for Windows as well.

Double check your image occasionally against the example images.

Please feel free to e-mail me with questions or comments.

Step One: Getting Set Up

1. Go to File >> New

Set your image up to be whatever size and resolution you will need for your final output. For this demo I am using a 256 X 256 pixel RGB image at 72 dpi (screen resolution). Make sure the Background is white.

An important note: many of Photoshop's filters only work in RGB mode. If you are working for print (CMYK, Duotone, etc,) start in RGB and convert your image when you are finished.

2. Make sure your Foreground and Background colors are set to the default of black and white, (type "D" on the keyboard) with black as the Foreground color.

3. Select the Type tool (the "T" key from the keyboard, or the "T" icon from the toolbox)., for our purposes, it doesn't matter if the type is aliased or anti-aliased...

Type your text in and click OK to accept.

4. Now render the type layer. Go to Layer >> Type >> Render Layer.

5. Create a new layer (Layer >> New >> Layer…)

6. Holding down the option key, go to layer options and select Merge Visible.

This takes a snapshot of what you can see in your document and pastes it in one layer.

Your finished text (Steps 1 through 6)

Layer options from Step 6

Using the Merged Visible (Step 6)

In our next steps, we'll make a couple of alpha channels.

Quick note first. I'm going to detail out some steps that are a little bit of the long way around. I'm trying to show you some other functionality of Photoshop, not just a rote recipe. I encourage you to tweak all this stuff and find your own way.

7. Now select all (Select >> All) and copy (Edit >> Copy). Deselect (Select >> Deselect).

8. Go to the Channels palette, then channel options, and select New Channel. A dialog box will appear with the name "Alpha 1" in it and a new channel will appear underneath the R G and B channels. Paste the layer you just copied into this channel (Edit >> Paste)

9. Invert this channel. (Image >> Adjust >> Invert) This is our mask for the image.

10. Duplicate the channel named Alpha 1 ( channel options >> Duplicate Channel)

11. Apply a Gaussian blur to the channel called Alpha 1 copy (Filter >> Blur >> Gaussian blur), but don't blur it too much. I used a blur of about 2 pixels.

This channel will be used for lighting effects.

If you haven't already done so, save your document now.

A new channel created in Steps 7 and 8

The results of Steps 8 through 9

Step Two: Light that Sucker Up

12. Return to your Background layer, and turn off visibility of the other two layers (click on the eye icons to turn off visibility)

13. Go to Filter >> Render >> Lighting Effects

Play to get the settings that you want, but make sure the Texture Channel option is selected, and that alpha 1 copy is chosen. Also make sure that "White is high" is checked if you want the image to be raised. Uncheck that box to have your image look sunken. Move the sliders around to get as much or as little relief as you want your image to have.

The Lighting Effects dialog box in Step 13

14. Now load our first channel, alpha 1, and invert the selection (Select >> Load Selection >> "Alpha 1")

(Select >> Inverse).

15. Hit the "delete" key, and deselect (Select >> Deselect)

Step 14 the results of the filter

Step 15 After deletion

Step Three: Add Some Texture

Find some textures that you want to use to simulate metal. There are several on this website, and for this demo I'm using silver.jpg and rrusty.jpg You can download these images on a Mac by control clicking on the picture and downloading the image to your hard disk. In Windows, right click on the image and save it.

Once open in Photoshop I resized both texture images to 256 X 256 pixels (Image >> Image Size with Constrain proportions checked) to keep them closer to the size of the image we're working on.

16. Apply a texture:

First copy the metal base texture (in this case, silver.jpg) by using Select >> All and copy Edit >> Copy. Deselect (Select >> Deselect), return to the first image, and paste (Edit >> Paste).

17. Change the layer blending mode from "Normal" to "Multiply" and set an opacity level of 78%.

18. Let's get rid of the texture except where we want it.

Load our first channel, Alpha 1, again and invert it (Select >> Load Selection >> "Alpha 1") (Select >> Inverse).

Hit the "delete" key, and deselect (Select >> Deselect)

19. And for some more aging, let's use the rust image (rrusty.jpg) and repeat the steps we used to get the first texture in our image. This time we will use a different blending mode and a slightly different opacity.

Copy the rust texture (rrusty.jpg) by using Select >> All and then copy (Edit >> Copy). Deselect (Select >> Deselect), return to the first image, and paste (Edit >> Paste).

Change the layer blending mode from "Normal" to "Overlay" and set an opacity level of 72%.

Eliminate the unwanted portion:

Load channel Alpha 1, and invert it (Select >> Load Selection >> "Alpha 1") (Select >> Inverse).

Hit the "delete" key, and deselect (Select >> Deselect).

Presto! Your effect is done. If you are finished at this point, flatten your image (choose layer options, and select Flatten) and save it as your file of choice.

This method can be used for a variety of effects and images. With practice you will reduce the steps involved to just a few, and this will seem a simple thing.

silver

rrusty

The silver texture applied in Steps 16 and 17

Step 18 All cleaned up

The real deal, all done

Other Applications of this technique

The images below all use the method outlined above, either in full or as a starting point. Most of what you see here use the various textures available on this website.

larger version at the desktops page

See more at the ornaments page