Preserved Topic: Realistic Chain

Hey, can anyone help me out or point me in the direction of where i can create a realistic 3d kinda looking chain, maybe not 3d, but realistic.... not a plain "O" connected a bunch, but like jewelry, a necklace chain
Thanks alot to whoever can help me out here =P
- Tony

DL? I think this is your dept.

Like a herringbone type necklace?

I think I'd draw out a shape that I could repeat over and over again. Then add some depth to that shape and go at it.

Check this out

cu
~Xdreamer.ch~

Thx for the tut... but see thats what i ment by the "O" interlaced or whatever, u dont want that.... i want that concept.... but that duznt help me =/
dunno how to explain what a chain necklace looks like... maybe it is a herringbone ?? i have no idea what that is

Use 3dsmax, just create a bunch of textured, deformed toruses and link them together and offset them a little bit so that they look lik a chain.

In the PhotoShop forum : "Use 3dsMax"

Brilliant.

Now then, Mitsu, you're going to have to describe the chaining better, what kind of links etc. or better yet, supply an image (photo) that we can see. There are thousands of different types of necklace chain, so the "help" you're going to get is just going to degrade from here (if that's fucking possible).

We want to help out, but we'll be a bit lost until we understand your aim

Peter



[This message has been edited by DarkGarden (edited 06-13-2002).]

Hehe, ya i dont know 3dstudio max
umm, I'll try to get a good picture of what i want, and i'll post it, if it takes awhile i might just start a new thread

Ok.... here are 2 pics.... Something similar to one of these
One of em
Second

WOW...Thats very good!

I mentioned using 3dsmax/a three-dee program because it could get a realistic looking job done and then you can touch it up in PS

CFB: those are photographs...

What I would do is make the shape of one link, then you can applying your shading, highlighting and whatnot and then duplicate it over and over, positioning and distorting it as needed.

Gotta agree with synax here...to an extent.

Makes the single link shape (a broken oval) and then do your rough high and lowlights. Don't put in the finishing touches (the brightest shine areas, or the darkest shadows) since the shadow and light areas will change dependent on where along the chain it is. Copy, move and distort, and then do your touchups after it's all roughly in place.

Layers are your friend in this, but be careful you could make a hell of a huge file off one good length of chain.

I'm sure a few of us will have a go at this along the way..so make sure to keep posting your results here.

Quick hack #1



Just to get you started,
1) eliptical marquee tool, make oval, fill w/medium grey
2) Select>>Modify>>contract (amount depends on original size) play with it til you get the size link you need. Delete.
3) retangular marquee tool. Make bar in center same size, fill w/medium grey.
4) Alt+click Layer To select . Go to Channels, click Save selection as channel button at the bottom, Go to Filter>>blur>>gaussian Blur . Blur at 8, again at 4, again at 2, deselect, again at 1.
5) Go back to the Layers pallette, click layer. Go Filter>>render>>Lighting Effects.
settings , again, will depend on size..( Lots of wiggle room here. Play with it. If you don`t like the results, CTRL+Z and try again) Be gentle. For this , I used the default light, made it round by dragging the handles, centered it over the link. at the bottiom of the pallette, make sure the channel you just made is selected, by default it`s called Alpha 1, click OK.

Now you have a generic link.

Hold CTRL+ALT and drag the link. You get a copy in a new layer.
CTRL+T to transform/rotate as needed, build your chain.
select a light source, paintbrush/airbrush highlights/shadows as needed.

TADA



Cell245

Ok, thx guys... I'll try these ideas... hope i can pull it off

bob:
can you make pretzels?

I had a whole tutorial written up to explain this step by step, but I did something that made my browser fritz out and made me lose it.

Here's the channel I used to make the chain link get it's "twisted" look



[This message has been edited by synax (edited 06-14-2002).]

What I recommend, is taking the channel and making your whole chain on it instead of just the individual link, THEN apply the lighting filter to it. That way your light source will be consistent and realistic instead of the same light source, rotated and flipped. I'll edit this post and post an image of what I'm talking about.

Like this

[This message has been edited by synax (edited 06-14-2002).]

excellent synax

Hey syntax thanx.... if ya had a few spare momoments coulda ya write that step by step tut? If not thats kewl, dont want to ask too much =P

hey synax really nice work

Or could you tell me how you get that twisted look?

there's so many different styles of necklace chain - the shapes you use could be endless... A really nice looking style of chain is called a box link chain, it's probably one of the strongest styles, as jewelry goes...

It looks similar to the O link style you've been trying to avoid, but the links are square instead of round... You could go with Neofrog's link tutorial, and change the shapes more toward cubes, then it's just a matter of applying the textures and shading for it. If I get a free moment I'll create the image and post it...

Herringbone is nice too, that would just be a repeated chevron pattern with some depth, there's also the more common S shaped link out there... That's what the more common necklaces use...

Bodhisattva: an enlightened being full of generosity who sticks around in this world to show others the way to enlightenment.

Ok, I'll re-write the tutorial, just let me wake up first and then I'll write 'er up. I assume you're pretty new to Photoshop so I'll try and make it as detailed as I can.

[Edit: hmmm, it's not letting me post my tutorial... I keep getting an Internal Server error (500)...]



[This message has been edited by synax (edited 06-14-2002).]

1. Create a new document and apply a gradient to the background so you're not working on a solid color. This helps your eyes with adding realism to your chain. I personally always work on a gradient or textured background unless I need the solid color for some reason.

2. Switch over to your Channels palette and create a new channel. Select your rectangular marquee tool and make a rectangle and fill it with white. I made my rectangle 150px wide and 90px heigh.

3. Deselect (Ctrl+D) and goto Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur... I blurred mine with a radius of 25px. Depending on the size of your rectangle, you may need to adjust your radius. It should end up looking something like this:


4. Open your Levels dialog (Ctrl+L) and drag your end sliders close to each other around the center. It should look something like this. What this does is smooths out your gradient to a nice curve.

5. Select your channel (Ctrl+Alt+4) then goto Select -> Modify -> Contract... I entered 15px. Now goto Select -> Modify -> Smooth... I entered 10px. Now fill your selection with black. Deselect. You should now have the shape of a single link. Here's what mine looks like:


6. Now duplicate this channel (Drag it to the new Channel icon at the bottom of the Channels palette). Select the channel (Ctrl+Alt+5) and goto Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur... I blurred mine with a radius of 4px. Now invert your selection (Ctrl+Shift+I) and fill it in with black. This will eliminate any jaggies that appear around the edges.



[This message has been edited by synax (edited 06-14-2002).]

7. Select the paintbrush tool and grab a soft brush. Mine has a radius of 65px. Turn your Opacity down to about 20% and start painting in the corners black. You should end up with something like this:

This will create the twisted look later on. The darker corners represent the lower part of the twist.

8. Now goto your Layers palette and create a new layer. Fill it with black. Now load up the last channel you made (Ctrl+Alt+5) and fill it with white. Load up your first channel (Ctrl+Alt+4) and hit Ctrl+J. This will make a new layer with a black and white link on it.

9. Move your link around and rotate it until you're happy with its position. Now just erase the part of the link that's over the lighter/higher part of the link underneath it. You should end up with something like this:

Keep repeating this process until you have your whole chain.

10. Now you're probably going to have alot of layers, one for each link. What you're going to do now is merge them all together (Ctrl+E) EXCEPT for the background layer. You should end up with one layer over your background that has your whole chain on it. Select this layer (Ctrl+A) and cut it (Ctrl+X). Now switch over to your channels palette and create a new channel. Now paste (Ctrl+V). You should now have your chain as a channel.

11. Duplicate this channel and open your levels dialog. Now grab the white slider and move it over to the left until it looks like this. There may be a few jaggies, but that's ok.

12. Switch back over to the Layers palette and fill your empty layer with 50% gray (Shift+F5, then select 50% gray from the drop down menu).

13. Now goto Filter -> Render -> Lighting Effects... and set your setting like this and hit OK. Now load up the last channel you made (Ctrl+Alt+7), invert your selection (Ctrl+Shift+I) and hit Delete. Your image should start looking like a metallic chain.

14. To get that chrome look open up the Curves dialog (Ctrl+M) with your chain layer active. Play around with the curve to your liking, this is what my curve looks like.

15. Now you can add things such as colored reflections and a dropshadow to your chain. My final product looks like this:


You can grab the PSD right here.

[This message has been edited by synax (edited 06-14-2002).]

synax: Nice job - I've added a link to the mini-tutorials section:
http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/581/

[edit: if you'll excuse the pun]

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Synax - Very nice. I'll be playing with this little tut over the weekend (and after the workweek I've had, I needed something like this to take my mind off of it). Thanks!

Emps - D'oh! That's bad, if entirely coincedental.



Odd behavior; even temperament...

Done in 3D Studio by me http://www.zooboing.com/patrickhoesly/folio/PH_folio_3D_Chains.htm