Preserved Topic: Small Gold Texture (Page 1 of 1)

'lo all. It's been awhile since I posted, but I've been reading most of the stuff that turns up on this forum anyways.

Was hoping someone could give me some pointers and/or a tut on generating a gold texture, but one which would scale down in size fairly well. I'm working on making small icons for a game, so the size would be about 40x40px, eventually, but a large "master version" would be good to have.

I have seen and investigated the "metal" tutorial on the Gurus network, which I enjoyed, but it's not quite what I need or am looking for.

This may seem vague, unfortunately. I can't think of many ways to describe this exactly. If you don't understand, please question me further on specific things, and hopefully I can clarify.

Thanks in advance.

-Xel

P.S. I do not intend for the gold to have any sort of image reflected in it.

Thing is, "gold" doesn't have a texture. That's kinda the idea behind how it looks so shiny.

You can't really make a gold texture to overlay an icon...it's all about reflection and light/shadow - and that is very specific to each image.

Hm. Point taken, though, problem not solved.
Alright, well, I'll post a couple images of the kind of "small version" I'm eventually looking for, but I want to be able to make a large and highly detailed one as well, which.. Well, I guess I just don't know how I'd get started.. eheh!

Please copy/paste the URL, apparently clicking ain't working for some reason.

http://www.geocities.com/xelcl/pendant.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/xelcl/cad.jpg

-Xel
(edit..silly links..)

[This message has been edited by Xel (edited 06-01-2003).]

The reason the links are not apparently working is that geocities doesn't accept remote loading.

What DL said ... and to expand on this:

Gold comes in different shades ( compared 3 pieces under the same light just now and each one has a different shade or Hue to it ). If it is new - it is shiner and if it is an older pieces it looks rather dull. Also if you check different Tuts each one has a different Tint of Gold.

Google Results Gold Texture Tutorial Photoshop

I looked at a few - there is no reason that you cann't adapt one of the TECHNIQUES that is used for Gold text to whatever shape you want to make.

Just an afterthought here - Tutorials like the ones for Gold are usually written to demonstrate the different steps involved but the settings ( % and so on) are only a suggestion don't be afraid to change those a little to get a different effect.

sib

oops forgot:

I am sure that if you post your process with one of the tuts and you need to modify it or run into a problem - someone will give you pointers. It is so much easier if there is an image <- my experience at least



[This message has been edited by sib (edited 06-01-2003).]

quote:

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Point taken, though, problem not solved

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Well...I guess I don't understand what the problem is. I'm assuming those images are the ones you've made already? If so...you seem to already be doing what you want. As I said, there's not really any way to apply a "texture" to an object to make it look like a shiny metal...you have to just get in there and define the shadows and highlights and get the colors right.

Perhaps if you can be more specific about exactly what it is you want here......?

Okay, I looked around at the tutorials on google, and even though none of them helps very well with exactly what I'm trying to do, it helped pinpoint the problem..

You see, nearly all of those tutes are for text, whereas I'm trying to develop an intricately shaped object, however.. While I'm a little familiar with Channels and using Lighting Effects to achieve these 3d-ish kind of shapes, I..

1) Don't know quite know how I could make such shapes in a channel, as I've done little more than spheres, like in DocOzones "Glass" tutorial. It seems beyond my PS mental power to think in my head how I could make a shape like that in the "cad" picture.

2) Don't know how, after the 3d effect was achieved, I could get the thing looking like gold.. I think the only methods I would know of would be to make the lighting effects put the color in (which tends to look.. I dunno, artificial?) or to "multiply in" a layer of a orange-yellow with some noise in it, which also looks fairly.. stupid when done on a 3d shape. Or maybe *I'm* just stupid. =D

And so you know, I did *not* do those pictures I linked to, they are from a game. ( A game that most of you have probably never heard of )

-Xel

Ah, ok. A little progress.

However, I don't think the answer I'm going to give here is going to be what you want -

1) For the types of shapes you are going to want, lighting effect won't really be an option. You'll basically need to do a lot of hand work with the pencil and the paintbrush. Especially since you're going to be working so small. If you are serious about doing this type of icon work, you'll really need to get used to woring on the pixel level.

2) As far as color: it would be easiest in most cases to make the image in greyscale first (not actually in Greyscale Mode, but simply use only only black/white/grey to make the image) and color it after. You can do this two ways: paint over the greyscale with the appropriate colors, using lowered opacity and verious modes (multiply for shadows, screen for highlights, etc) on the brush itself, or use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.

To get an idea of *what* colors are needed, you will need to spend a good deal of time studying reference material. Photos will do, but try real life objects if possible.

There is no easy answer to this, no filter combo that will do it...it'll be working by hand at highly zoomed levels.

Also...'inverting' your colours (Ctrl+i) from yellow/orange to tones of blue can be helpful. Blue is basically on the other side of the colour wheel and I sometimes find it easier to work with different tones of blue then 'invert.' Give it a try.

Also, DL, you missed one part..
"...but I want to be able to make a large and highly detailed one as well..."

And I spose if you hadn't noticed yet, or anyone else following along yet hadn't noticed, I'm not really savvy with P-shop even if I have a rudimentary understanding of most commands/tools in PS, so make sure you explain out what you're telling me, instead of just one word replies I am not capable of about 95% of the stuff that has been done in this forum.

Anyways, as far as the large version goes, ... well, I can't quite understand why this* (see below) is so shitty, and looks nothing like a gold rod. I can't get shine, I can't get the reflectiveness of the material, it's just a fricking lighting-effected bar with a little noise It seems like I should really know how to do this, but "observing reference material" (as many people say in this forum) does almost nothing for me. Sure, there's a freaking gold coin, but if I want to make MY gold coin shine in PS, staring at the coin in real life isn't helping.

At this point, it seems like I consistently dive in the deep end of PS without going through the midpoint yet, heh.

Okay, that was a bit of rant. Apologies. I guess I felt frustrated.

(Here is the "this" I referred to earlier. Granted, this was a 3 minute effort, but knowing how to proceed is beyond me.. And you guys could prolly do it in 3 seconds. Remember to copy/paste) http://www.geocities.com/xelcl/bar.jpg

-Xel

Hey Xel maybe this tutor will help?
http://geda-online.com/tutorials/goldtext/

its for the text, but might as well work for other objects...



[This message has been edited by Ruski (edited 06-02-2003).]

Dracusis pointed me here at one point. Maybe it can help you as well.

1) I don't see any one word replies here I see a lot of explanation....

2) The large detailed version and the small icons will by necessity be two completely different projects. Decide which one you want to focus on.

3) If observing reference material doesn't help you, then you must not really be observing very closely.

You observe reference material to figure out how light effects the forms, what kind of colors appear in the shadows and the highlights, how the transitions into highlight and shadow go, etc.

So, by observing a photo of a gold coin or other object, you will better understand what makes it look like it does.

Understanding *why* something looks like it does is one of the most important things you need in order to recreate it.

4) At this point I'm really not understanding what you expect us to do for you...you say you're not very "savvy with photoshop" well...then you need to RTM and go through some of the tutorials at the GN and at Hands on. You can also find some good pixel-level work tutorials in the FAQ I imagine, as the subject has come up many times.

You're asking about some pretty complex issues here, and you seem to expect us to be able to simply plop a simple step by step down for you.

As I said before, you're really going to have to get in there by hand for a lot of what you're trying to do here. These things don't just get whipped up with filters - it takes work, in the form of observation, study, and practice.