How to Hand Paint Convincing Metal Textures

on Dec 1st 2009 with 94 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Software: Adobe Photoshop
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
  • Estimated Completion Time: 1 Hour

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.

Final Effect Preview

Click on Image for High-Rez Version

Tutorial Video

Download

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

Don’t miss more exciting tutorials and articles published daily! Subscribe to Cgtuts+ by RSS.

 
Enjoyed this Post?

Subscribe to our RSS Feed, Follow us on Twitter or simply recommend us to friends and colleagues!

By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

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.  

Plus Premium
 
 
← Older Comments
  • Mike

    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.

  • cyber

    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.

  • nomanrahid

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

    ITS REALLY HELPFUL. Help us.

  • ruben

    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?

  • bill

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

  • stenionet

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

  • whitemagus

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

  • 1

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

  • WhiteNORTHstar

    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.

    • tabbytomo

      “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.” – GOOD attitude.

  • NiceAndSlow

    That automated Photoshop action (Scrapes and Torn Edges) needs some explanation. What are you doing exactly inside these actions?
    Otherwise this is a really interesting tutorial. Thx for posting.

  • andrew

    I too would like to see how this automated Photoshop action (Scrapes and Torn Edges) was done.

  • tony

    Where are the source files???

← Older Comments