Quick Tip: The Real Deal on Creating Chrome!

Vector drawing programs often supply templates for metallic finishes, but they can look like soft bands of blue and grey (silver) or yellow and brown (gold). Today I'm going to show you how to put a custom metallic finish with depth on your artwork and really turn your vector thing, into bling! Because I'm a simple kind of guy, there will be no transparency, mesh or 3D extrusion in this example, just a few cheeky tricks of the trade.

Step 1: Not Too Thin!

Whether it's type, a logo, or a simple geometric shape, the image you choose to create a chrome effect on mustn't be too skinny. We are going to give the effect of beveled edges and need a decent gap between segments of our artwork to avoid it looking visually messy. I'm going to add Chrome to my own name and thought a 50's script would look nice.
The linework between the "U" and the "S" looked a bit narrow so I gave the artwork a 1pt stroke and expanded the stroke Object > Expand and combined the segments Window > Pathfinder > Add to shape area. Ordinarily the type would look a bit too thick and chunky but for what we need it's just fine.

Step 2: Base Blue

I'm going to start with a base color blue fill in CMYK mode (25C-05M-0Y-5K). I'll be adding and fading other colors to this value, so write the combo down or better still create a custom swatch. One of the main features of chrome reflection is a dark section running through the middle of the graphic. As a visual yard stick create a non printing guide line to work with. With a dark blue 0.5pt stroke draw below the line at left and come across each upright element of your design in a slight arc to top right, try and make them as random as possible (It's the irregularity that makes the effect look real!) Make a duplicate of the blue line, pull it down slightly and color it in our base blue. Join the 2 lines together using the Blend Tool (W).
Using a copy of the base shape paste it ontop of the blend and mask Object > Clipping Path > Make. You should get a smooth transition from dark blue down to base blue

Step 3: Pushing Points

You may get a few visual glitches happening (see the odd color jump in the first "L") but it's not to much of a drama to fix. All we have to do is move some of the individual points on the lower line to the left or right till things smooth out again. It may be easier to see if you paste the blended artwork ontop of the original blue graphic.

Step 4: The Devil is in the Detail

It's not a big thing and you can leave it out if you like, but a small vignette from our dark blue to a nearly black-blue along the top line really adds punch to the chrome effect. Use a copy of the original line draw you small block shapes underneath it then join the 2 lines together to make one object. Duplicate the base graphic then shift-click to select the block shape and divide up the 2 shapes Window > Pathfinder > Divide. Delete the unwanted portions and adjust each vignette blend to be darkest at the top, change the angles of each blend slightly to keep it irregular

Step 5: Highlight and Low Lights

To get a sheen happening either side of our dark line we are going to use 2 radial blends. Both have an outer color of our base blue, but the first has a central color of a light blue (don't use white it's too harsh) and the other is mid/dark blue. Once you've drawn a couple of circles use the Shear tool to angle
the circles into fat cigar shapes.

Step 6: Vignette and Blend Mash Up!

This is where the fun bit begins, combining our linear blends with squiggly line vignettes! Using copies of the 2 oval shapes slide them over your graphic to get a nice arrangement of light and shade. Be careful placing them to close to the darkest vignette section in the middle. My dark blue blend (highlighted) is coming up too high and clashing with the vignette on the last "L"
Tip: try not to be too obvious, little snippets of vignettes showing is better than plonking one right down in the middle and use them sparingly as the effect can turn into a mess if over used. The idea is to not let people know how we created the effect!

Step 7: Are We Using Layers Yet?

Once you are happy with your arrangement take a copy of the base graphic again and paste infront of the blend circles and mask as before. If you haven't done so already, keeping all these art elements on layers, Windows > Layers is a good way to keep the stacking order neat and avoid selecting elements you don't want!

Step 8: Shiny but Flat?

Now the shading and masking are done, I've place the chrome lettering on a fading orange background and added a brown drop shadow, but it still looks a little flat?
We need to add an edge to the graphic to give it depth plus create a light source from top left to make the edge shine!
 

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Step 9: I'm working on the Edge Man

Taking another copy of the base graphic (and pasting into a new layer perhaps!) Select it and option-click to slide out a duplicate version up and to the left slightly. It only has to be a little thicker than hair line to be effective. Any more than that and we get visual problems with the skinnier parts of the design as I mentioned before.
Use Window > Pathfinder > Divide and delete everything except the lower right hand slivers of the carved up shape. Color these elements a couple of shades darker than base blue, again not to much, just enough for your eye to pick out a change in tone. this is the shadow part of our edge work.
Repeat the duplication process again only this time pull the top most shape down and to the right, the divided shape from this action will be the highlight area at top left. Color it a light blue a little lighter than than the middle of the highlight radial blend.

Step 10: Mistakes and a Re-cap

Once you place the highlight and low light edges on the graphic, it really comes together. The edges also act as a mask on the vignette and radial blends making it hard to see where one effect starts or ends. This is good as we want the chrome to have and overall look to it, not be a collection of individual effects. As I worked on this tutorial I made 2 initial mistakes. ONE I used to many blends and drowned out the effect, you do need a certain amount of flat blue showing to give the shine credibility and TWO. I made my edges way too thick, when you are creating them you think they are way yo skinny and won't show up, but they will dear reader, they will.
Here's a re-cap from left to right showing the effects we used and how the chrome comes to life - Hope you found this helpful :)
Cheers
RussellTateDOTCom

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Colorful Glowing Text Effect in Photoshop

Posted by David Leggett in Photoshop Tutorials on August 18th, 2008

After seeing some recent Type work by Vicenç Fontanet (or, Drasik), in his recent project for “Miniblack“, I just had to give the effect a shot myself in Photoshop. It’s a wondeful little style that could easily be integrated into any dark graphic design where some upbeat text is needed.

Step 1 – Choosing a Background

For the best results with this effect, you’ll want to use a dark background. The background should have a hint of color, and should avoid from being too dark (such as pure black). Being inspired from Drasik’s work, I’ll use a dark violet (#120612).

Just to get this out of the way, as you may notice throughout this tutorial, there are LOTS of different ways to go about accomplishing this effect – this is just the way I found to be most convenient.

Step 2 – Setting the Type

We’ll be setting the type in a not-so-traditional way, which will allow us to get a special layering.
Using the Type Tool, type whatever it is you’d like to apply the effect to, BUT only type one letter per layer. That is, you need to type a letter, apply the text, then create a new type layer with your next letter. When all is said and done, you should have a separate layer for each letter.
You’re image probably looks something like this (Quick Note: Type used below is Century Gothic):

Well, that leaves something to be left desired.
Rather than wasting too much time trying to get things aligned perfectly, let’s handle it all in a quick step. Select the Move Tool. Create a selection around the first letter (Ctrl + Click the Layer Thumbnail in the Layers Palette). Next, Select ALL of the Type Layers (Click the Bottom Type Layers name, hold shift, then click the top Type Layers name). Now, in the Options bar, Click “Align Bottom Edges” – the icon that looks like this

Deselect everything (Ctrl + D), and now start moving your individual letters so that they slightly overlap one another.

Step 3 – Add a Gradient

Create a new Layer above your type layers. Using the Gradient Tool, and a White to Transparent gradient, fill in the work area so that the Gradient is not TOO OPAQUE, or TOO TRANSPARENT where it overlaps with the text, but fades nicely in that area. The gradient should move from top to bottom – Top being the most opaque (Hold Shift to make a perfectly straight gradient).

Step 4 – Cutting out Letters

Imagine that we’re making shaped-cookies. It’s a stretch, but stay with me. In a way, this gradient will serve as our ‘dough’, while the letters will be our ‘cookie cutters’. Those individual type layers created earlier are tools we can use to create shapes from the gradient.
Let’s go through it step by step and see if it makes more sense. Create a selection of the layer contents for your first letter (Ctrl + Click the Layer Thumbnail in the Layers Palette). Now, Select the Gradient Layer (By “Select”, I mean click the layer – do not select the layer contents. We want the selection of the first letter to remain). Copy (Ctrl + C) and Paste so that you’ve created a copy of the gradient in the shape of the letter. If you were to disable ALL of the layers except for this new layer you just created, and the background, you’d now have this:

It’s really a lot simpler than it sounds. Repeat this process for the rest of the letters, always making sure to selecting the gradient layer (the dough) prior to cutting out your layer. When you’re finished, put away all your letters and gradient layers (delete them, or hide them).

Step 5 – Just Add Color!

You may want to name all of your individual layers, that way you don’t lose track of which letter is which, but perhaps you’ve got a manageable number and that’s not necessary.
Create a new layer above all your ‘gradient-letters’. Grab the Paint Bucket Tool, and a bright color (I’m starting with #7fff5d). Create a selection of your first gradient-letter (Ignore any messages you may or may not see about no selection being shown), and fill in that selection with your selected color on the new layer. Set this layers Blending Mode to Screen.

Repeat this process for the remaining letters (each color on a new layer). Try using the same colors more than once every now and then.

Step 6 – Merge

When you’re sure that the type is set correctly, Merge all of your gradient-letters (Select the layers, then Ctrl + E). Then, Merge all of your colors into one layer (Make sure the blending mode is still set to screen).
You should now have two layers – one with the plain gradient layers, the other with the colors for the letters. We didn’t have to do this, it’s just easier to manage.

Step 7 – Getting the Glow

Duplicate your gradient-letters layer (Not the color layer). Apply a Gaussian Blur (See our Filters Tutorial) with value of 1-3 on this layer.

Repeat this step (Duplicate & Blur) on your Color layer. Set this layer to Lighten or Screen (use best judgment). Depending on the saturation and intensity of your colors, you may choose to duplicate the color layer a second time.

Step 8

Using the Eraser Tool, and a soft brush, go back and erase parts of the colored layers so that the type appears to fade from color to a ghostly white.

Step 9 – Reflect

Select ALL of the layers being used for the text effect, then Duplicate them. Merge the duplicated version into one layer. Use the trendy Surface Reflection Technique shown in our 5 Essential Reflections for Photoshop Tutorial to mirror your type.

Step 10 – Adjust as Needed!

From here on out, I’ll let you play on your own with the effect. I’d recommend playing with lighting effects in the background — simple things like adding some highlights behind the text… though you certainly could go all out as Drasik does in his work!
Here are some additional steps I took to improve upon the effect:

Playing with additional blurs can also add a bit of liveliness to the text. Try Duplicating a layer, and applying a motion blur to see how that works out for you!

Feel free to grab the PSD if you’re having any trouble!

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Create Dynamic Lighting Using Custom Brushes in Photoshop

Earlier today we released a free brush set called Rays of Light, and I wanted to follow up that release with a quick tutorial on how to use the brush set. Below is quick design using the brushes. Lets take a look at how this was created.

First up, you’ll need to download and install the new Rays of Light free brush set.

Step 1

I found this image of a skater by Robert Bejil Photography. I removed the skater from the background using Quick Mask Mode (Q). You can use whatever selection and extraction methods you prefer. I then copied and pasted the skater onto an 800×800 pixel document with a background set to #101010.

I then ran a High Pass Filter (Filter | Other | High Pass ) with a Radius around 15 to give the figure a slight HDR look.

Step 2

On a layer behind the skater I applied one of the wider light ray brushes at a diagonal.
Note: You can adjust the angle of a brush using the adjustment arrow below. It’s found on the Brush Panel. (Window | Brush)

I used a medium gray for the color when applying this brush.

Next up, on a layer above the skater, I applied another light ray brush. This time I used white as the color, and I adjusted the angle to match that of the background brush.

To punch up the glowing effect of the foreground light rays, I applied an Outer Glow layer style to that brushes layer. I used the following settings.

Step 3

With a soft black brush I applied some shadows on a layer behind the skater.

Finally…

I added a Gradient Map adjustment layer above all other layers. The adjustment layer’s blend mode is set to Overlay. I used the following gradient.

Note: This is one of the defaults in the gradient editor.
Below is my final image. I hope this gives you some ideas and inspiration for using our latest free brush set.

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