Preserved Topic: Need Help Creating a Bullet ;)

I was playing around in PS earlier, and I was trying to make a bullet for a gun. I was able to create the head of the bullet using Photoshop and KPT5, but I still can't figure out to make a shell that looks good. Everytime I try to create a shell, it looks like utter crap. Perhaps someone here knows a good way I can accomplish this?




Thanks in advance for the tips......

I would try making the shape with the pen tool.. should be pretty easy.. then maybe some noise and motion blur for texture. For color you could either use a gradient or lighting effects w/appropriate colors to give a brassy feel. I just play till it comes to me but that's where I'd start..

cyoung

wow... thats a shiny bullet it is! do you happen to have any extra bullets laying around that you could take pics of? if no i will be back later if i can find a 22 shell. I know there are a few in my room.... hmm......
hey, okay it would just be like a shiny pipe, if the bullet is taht shiny....

]

Sure that's a nice looking bullet, but if you put that in a gun you'll blow your hand off. A real bullet is made of lead. Dark grey, no shiny. The casing could look like if you shined it up a bit. Well, to each his own.

1. create a rectangular selection for shell on new layer
2. linear gradient tool - I used the default 'steel bar' gradient- vertical linear gradient (layer 1)
3. new layer - made small vertcial rectangle at left side of main shell -copied to new layer (layer 2)
4. transform vertically a bit to get the left/base end of shell (layer 2)
5. added a 'huey/sat adjustment layer' -check colourize and added golden/brass colour.
6. loaded selection of shell layer and base of shell layer and used this to mask out the background of the adjustment layer - see the psd file - this applies the huey/sat to just the shell
7. new layer - elliptical selection approx width of shell - linear grad again vertically (layer 4)
8. placed this layer under the original shell layer (layer 4)
9. new layer above shell layer - soft paintbrush low opacity - brush in some black to give impression of indentation between shell case and end of shell (layer 3)
10. new layer - added vertical one pix line as a divider between the end of shell and bullet. (layer 5)
11. now have basic shell and bullet
12. used a combination of dodge and burn. plus some curves and levels to accentuate shape etc..

well thats how I did it.... I added the layer numbers in the description above so you can follow along with the .psd file below if you want...

give it a go and dont forget to play and experiment
http://216.71.144.243/sig/bullet/bullet.zip (40kb)

~Vp~

edit: got to lose these fingers.. they dont work proper

[This message has been edited by vogonpoet (edited 05-24-2001).]

wow... Vp... so clean.... so thourough...

why don't ya shut yer trap and go mop somethin'.


Nah.. seriously... Vp's right on...
Just make up another layer set to a low opacity and use the air brush to create more of a shine on teh body if ya want it.

Dang, put vp's bullet together with Acidbox's shine (loves that shine!) and that's one heck of a bullet!

Mucho Coolo, gentlemen!

Well, I took a little of what Silence said into consideration. It didn't look like a real bullet. So, I found a 40 cal. bullet at my place and modeled my new one after it. To get my bullet, I took a little of what vogon suggested and put my own little twist on it. I didn't get the shading exactly right, but I will try to redo it again. I seem to be having some trouble with getting the shading/lighting to line up. I added some lighting fx and that seemed to help a bit, but.... anyway, I'll shut up. Here ya go.......




I also did this version..... a little lighter on the shading, and I cut out the tail of the bullet.





[This message has been edited by acidbox (edited 05-24-2001).]

Beautiful Acid. The second one is almost perfect.

looks pretty good acid.. now just ditch the KPT and it will rock ~Vp~

Yeah, those do look pretty good. On the back of the bullet there should be a small groove instead of just the black ring. Also, there should be a small groove where the slug sits against the casing. Right now it looks like a solid junction.

You might want to tone the shading down just a tad more, especially on the slug. The casing looks really good but may be a bit too much on the gold side. Casings are usually brass which isn't quite as yellowy.

What you have does look very good though. I think the KPT is fine personally, its not like you overused it or anything. Although, you could probably acheive just as convincing an effect on the casing using only curves and a cylindrical gradient.

Nice work!

Vp... layin' down the law.... lol.

Thanks for everyone's help. I am going to try to make a new one with no KPT, but I find it really hard to make a shiney bullet similar to mine without it. I guess I'm just not at that level yet, but I am sure that it is easily possible. I did use the airbrush a lot for the lighting f/x and that made it look pretty decent, but I supposed you could do the whole thing in airbrush if you have the patience Anyway, I was able to make one similar to what VP posted (thanks for the tips) , but I wanted someting a little more crisp and vivid. VP, maybe you know a way to accomplish this? Maybe an appenditure to your version of the bullet? Thanks again!

quote:

---

...I suppose you could do the whole thing in airbrush if you have the patience ...

---

..now yer talkin'.