How to Hand Paint Convincing Metal Textures

Racer445 on Dec 1st 2009 with 90 comments

Metal texturing is something that is all too often done poorly by simply overlaying photos on top of one another. While this can look alright if done properly, it usually ends up looking like stone or concrete, which does not look or act the way that metal does in real life. We can counteract this by making our own low-contrast base texture, using our own brushes, and also using lots of layers and masks, and finally end up with a hand painted texture that looks and acts much more like real life metal.

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Tutorial Video

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By Racer445

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Hello, I am Racer445, a self taught hard surface and weapon artist from the east coast of the United States. I have been working with computer graphics programs since 2006 and have been working on a career in the field since mid 2008. I am dedicated to my profession and am experienced with 3D Studio Max, Photoshop, and Mudbox.  

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Discussion 90 Comments

Comment Page 2 of 2 1 2
  1. Mike says:
    July 25, 2010 at 2:14 pm

    Nice, I like the subtleness. Adding tons of wear and tear is an easy way to make stuff look like it’s interacting and fits with the actual world around it, but usually you have to look real close to actually see it IRL, although it’s always there.

    One thing that could be improved to help believability is that all the screws were rotated the same way.

    Reply
  2. cyber says:
    January 2, 2011 at 7:12 am

    This is a good tutorial, but it was too fast, I could not follow it I was not able to exactly understand what he did or what the settings were to get used to some of the elements. I could not follow along, sorry man it was jus too fast.

    Reply
  3. nomanrahid says:
    January 30, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    Please, can anyone help me about how author make photoshop action for creating automated edge scrapes?

    ITS REALLY HELPFUL. Help us.

    Reply
  4. ruben says:
    February 7, 2011 at 9:23 pm

    Dude. How did you do the reflections at the end you didn’t explain. Also can we see how you made the normal maps and dirt passes without actual geometry?

    Reply
  5. bill says:
    February 13, 2011 at 2:04 am

    yeah he used a high poly model to bake the normal and the AO onto a plane

    Reply
  6. stenionet says:
    May 16, 2011 at 8:04 am

    Thanks for the tutorial.
    It would be great if you put the PSD file do download.

    Reply
  7. whitemagus says:
    October 14, 2011 at 7:35 am

    The best tut I have seen.
    Thank you so much!

    Reply
  8. 1 says:
    January 18, 2012 at 8:01 am

    You`re going to fast, not a tutorial but more like showing off some skills. Can`t keep up with it

    Reply
  9. WhiteNORTHstar says:
    January 26, 2012 at 4:05 am

    wow, I’m awed… I’m a beginner so it was so fast with so much great information that I couldn’t really take it in… but I suppose I could watch it again and again.

    anyway, terrific skills… it was super to watch and hear an expert in action. Thank you for taking the time to share.

    Reply
Comment Page 2 of 2 1 2

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