Software required : Adobe Photoshop What will i try to do : explain the process i use to texture metal on realtime object Method used : Dodge and burn ( its quicker than painting with brush )

Hello everyone I kept receiving mails and requests regarding the process on how do i paint metal, for realtime models. So, I decided to make this tutorial, which will ( hopefully ) guide you thru the process , let me note that this tutorial was written in kinda haste and some stuff might not be correct :P , but here is the ending result that i will explain step by step:

We will start by maiking a 256x256 image, and therefore apply any type of base texture for our metal, iv chosen this one ( it is not tileable )

Now i will put in the top a somekind of reference from where our lightsource is coming , in this case, in the upper left corner.

The next step is to create a selection of the thing we want to txture, ill make a somkind of metal box with some stuff on it, therefore i pick the rectangle selection tool ( or the polygonal lasso, since you can get this shape ) and draw a selection. Very nice except that the original selection is hard, what i mean is that everything that you paint on iut will be jagged with the exterior of its selection...we want it to be slightly soft, so when we create the selection we right click so that we can "feather" it out , in this case i used an ammount of 0.5 , see screenie for further detail.

with the selection still up i will pick up the dodge tool and paint in with a very big brush ( around 300 pxl ) with very low itensity around the 10-15% , then i click on drag , etc it at the area where the lightsource is coming from.

If you cant find the dodge tool, heres an image to help you out.

Now comes the harder part, we will get the dodge tool again , but this time we will hxxe a very xxall brush for the highlights of the edges, this will used to create a specular highlight effect that we see so commonly in metal, so you paint it in the areas where there are edges. After the previous step we will create a selection , in this case the area above the top edge to give it depthness , and dont forget, always feather your selections in order to xxoid hard edges Following that we will do the same we did with placing the lightsource , but this time it will be inside the selection that we hxxe made, so paint it with the dodge tool again NOTE : THE DODGE TOOL ALWAYS HAS THE "HIGHLIGHT" FUNCTION ON , we do the same with the edge in the left. Now we select the area inside , wich wont sufer much editing, and feather it out and give a slight shadow coming from the top , for this we use the BURN TOOL with the same settings as the dodge tool, ( highlight mode

Taking the next step will be doing the exact thing in step 8 , except that we will start shadowing the down areas , with the burn tool again.

This next step will be the one where you hxxe to make it really seem that there is a realistic lightsource, so you select again ur starting selection of the rectangle, and apply again a filter modifier, but now ull right click and click on "select inverse" in this way we will be able to paint the exterior without messing around the interior , WE get the burn tool again and we will start painting in under with more itensity and very low itensity on the top , until we get a hard shadow, and try to make the transition between the elevated metal and the texture in the background seem noticable, by painting it with a xxall brush ( maybe 5 pxls ) with color burn in the areas that the texture starts.

We are almost done with Part 1 !! , now this is where your original part comes, you will pcik the dodge or burn tool and mess around till you think you got the desirable effeect, in my texture i darkened a bit the shadow areas, and made the transition between the base and the elevated metal even more noticable ,as well as some random noodling.

In the previous part i hxxe showed you some basic directions toward making the surface that we are going to texture, this time we will create something very common in metal textures , the rivets, that can be turned into nails, screws, etc...below is an image of some of them i ussually create for my textures , as you may notice the process is quite the same , although the environment chages a bit and that you must pay attention , because if a rivet is in plastic wich has sand , it wont be that shiney and its color will hxxe some of the environment color. Take a look at the image :

As usual to soften down the shadows we will feather the selection a bit again , if you hxxent understood why i keep using the feather option, take a look at the image below, you will see that the circle is much more soft thou not very exagerated on the right , thats the effect we want for shadows.

This step is the most important in my opinion because thru the burn tool ( set in highlight mode as well with around 30 or 40 opacity - you decide- ) we will make the bottom shadow of the rivet, dont forget, make it all in the circle, but dont forget the lightsource , this means that the area below right will hxxe a more quantity of shadows on it.

The dodge tool also makes wonders, doesnt it ? we select it and set it to highlights too, in order to bring up the higher tones with more realistic look ( around the same opacity as burn, it really doesnt matter ) and we paint some of it in the place of direct contact with the light, therefore it will be wide.

i just deselected the image to be easier for people to see the general effect , but after your done with the previous step , you will add another highlight on top of the previous ones, preferably with a xxaller brush and maybe the same, a bit lower itensity

At the right side of the highlight we will make another highlight using the same process, although note that this one is xxaller althou more curved to follow the sphere shape

now its the time to darken even more the shadow at the bottom , but very subtly, to make the sphere gain height

This step should be added at the end of making this, but since the surface is simple wwe can make it now, you will get the dodge tool again, and will set its option to Midtone instead of the highlight, and with a xxall brush too, you will paint a stripe following the spheres direction too , but at the bottom, NOTE THAT ACCORDING TO THE ENVIRONMENT THIS RIVET MUST HAVE THIS DETAIL COLORED THE SAME TONE ( example, in s red metal, this detail will get redish, and so on )

Like we did with the part 1, we will get the feathered selection again and invert it , in order to paint a shadow below the rivet ( do not use layer effects , painted by had is better because you hxxe more control and can deform the shadow if you want the way you want ) , and make that shadow with the burn tool in the metal, again , follow the lightsource and paint it below.

And here it is, quite simple isnt it ? Remember that my rivet seems a bit blurry because the lightsource isnt very sharp , in order to fix this add more shadows to the bottom and make highlights more bright, do it as you like it wont mess what you created so far. In the third part, where we will learn how to make a realistic hole in the metal, wich is EVEN EASIER than this wich we hxxe came so far ;)

Hole

Now that we accomplished the other two other parts [LINK] we shall move to the hardest part of this tutorial : Making the hole ( well, this one is quite simple, then a bit forward in the tutorial we will make a somekind of tube orifice, where tubes tend to connect, ussually very seen on space type textures or characters with alot of machinery, and i thought people would like to know better how to achieve this kind of effect .

Lets begin with making a circle selection ( again, dot forget to hold shift while you are making the selection, to make a perfect circumference ) , and , as usual , Feather the selection with 0.5 ( depends on the dimension of the document )

Now with the burn tool, ( large brush, the opacity is at your choice ) paint it inside the selection starting from the top , be reminded that since it is a supression the shadow follows the lightsource, so this means that it is painted in the direction of the lightsource, like in the image below :

Accentuate the shadows now , but very slightly, in order to give depth.

This step will hxxe a great importance, its gonoing to be the step that will make it look like a hole, wich means, that with the dodge tool we will make with a very xxall brush ( maybe 5 or 4 pixels ) with some itensity ( around 30 )and paint it in the opposite side of the lightsource , like in the image .

Add a bit more itensity in the highlight using a brush with maybe the half dimension of the previous ( 2 pxls ) DONT FORGET THAT WE ARE STILL USING BURN AND DODGE TOOL

Now to finalize add some highlight with midtone ( 2 pxls as well ) but with very low opacity on the area that hasnt got shadow in the hole, near the zone with more shadow , and follow its shape , and there you go ! a hole in metal that is somekind of realistic, there are various ways onto achive this kind of effect, and it is very easy to do so !

Round Thingy

This little part will give you alot of trouble, i dont know the name for it so it will hxxe to stay "round...thingie" lol , be remembered that my first language isnt English, but Portuguese , so go easy on me... anyways we shall start from the cilindrical surface where the "plug" is inside the supression. For this step it is crucial that we make the right selection, for this step i wont explain it by images, but with test : -make a sphere selection in a new layer and fill it with a color. -select the selection again ( DO NOT FEATHER ANYTHING YET ) and contract it , aybe 10 or 15 pixels will do, it really depends, and delete that selection from the color uv previously filled . - hide this layer and select its slection by clicking CTRL+click on the layer , heres an image below :

Feather the selection and paint the highlights follwoing the lightsource like iv painted on the iamge ( you can variate, dont forget !! ) and dont forget to add subtle highlights ( 2 pxls wide in the end of the piece !!! ) .

For the shadows at this step they are a bit primary, do it like if you were doing a rivet, except that it gets cutted in the middle , so paint the shadows opposing the lightsource again , also add some but very slight near the side highlights, to give depth.

We will lexxe the primary shadowing and highlights for now...now we shall select the inner circle ( you can do it by unhiding the layer with the selection that we made at start , and with the magic wand tool click on the middle - the place where the supression will be ) , and feather it by 0.5 again.

Shadow the inner a bit, like you see in the image, hte process is the same as the hole, but i will follow it thou.

Shadow it again, but this time with a bit more strenght in the direction of lightsource, to give depth.

This time put a white highlight around the ring that forms the shape, with again a very xxall brush with some opacity, and darken the interior even more .

One of the most importants, is to add the highlight oposing to lightsource, as you can verify here .

Now lets edit the light we hxxe previously made, but make a xxall patch of shadow below the highlight, this will give a more sensation of depth and add a bit more shadow below the shape

Add a more stronger shadow , and a xxall highlight with midtone selected, but make it subtle !!!

Now the hard part, add a very subtle highlight to the borders of the shape, and select the hole shape and select inverse ( dont forget to feather the selection!! ) , the start painting some shadows with the burn tool , just to get the general effect.

The basic is done, now all you hxxe to do is to modify some lightning by mixing some dodges and burns in the right place, to give the effect of something spherical but at the same time conic

Now for the tricky part, we pick up the dodge tool again, and set its brush size to 1 pxl , put some low opacity, and flow Clockwise followint the shpere shape, to make a somekind of brushed metal effect, do the same with some burns, but not so itense

Are you still there ?? amazing !! glad you made it out till here :D , anyways we are almost finishing !! be patient !! for for the final detailing on this part we will make a shape, any shape, could be anything inside the supression , i made a "j" ( i know...lame ) and i selected its transparency and used color burn again on the metal ( dont forget...feather )

And to finalize, add this final highlight, a somewhat exagerated one , and finish some xxall details that you might want to change on the lightning :)

There , we hxxe come this far, dont give up, this tutorial isnt THAT complex for god sake, now , we shall make a tube, and add finishing details such as scratches and some color ( i know that in the image i exagerated alot in the scratches...i was kinda angry...)

Now lets work on the tube , for a start we shall make a selection for the place on where it will be allocated , a rectangle one should do the trick ( dont forget to feather it )

The process will be almost the same as the making a hole in the texture , except that the shape is a rectangle, we are going to do this in order to make an effect where the tube seems to be inside the texture, and we shall shadow it with the burn tool set in color burn in highlights mode as well

After this we shall start to shape up the tube, by using the Dodge tool, to make the highlight in order to provide shape , make it a large brush, but very soft, to make it a bit subtle, something around the itensity on the image below.

With a little xxaller brush add another highlight, this time make it fade in the top because light wont get till that point much...

To give it even more shape, with the dodge tool again, set in midtones with a very xxall size , around half the opacity when it was set to highlights, and paint in it like in the image