pendako metal tutorial

pendako metal tutorial

You must know how to use layers and layer modes in Photoshop for this tutorial.
I've borrowed Dai's character, Kanon, as our metal model. Thank you Dai!

Welcome to naska's little metal and shiny surface tutorial. First of all, let's fill up the metallic areas with middle gray. Make sure the gray is on a separate layer than everything else. The hat and the collar gray are on 2 separate layers here:

Add highlights, shadows, core shadows and reflective light. Hard and soft edges really help as well. If the image is cartoony don't think too hard about accuracy, just get in the basics and make it feel right for you.

Go to image > adjust > brightness / contrast and bring up the contrast of the gray layers. Fiddle around with both options until you feel it looks good. Things look shiny now!

To make your surfaces more interesting you can duplicate the metal layer and fill it with a pattern. Collapse the pattern layer and change the layer mode for different effects. I found a free metal texture online by doing a google image search and I set the layer mode to "overlay" for the metal collar.

You can also create a new layer and add color to your metal by turning the metal layer mode to "color". The character currently has a purple color layer on her hat and I added slight hints of purple and yellow into her collar. You can barely see the slight colors but it really adds! The character is still far from completion but I hope this tutorial helps you out in your future metallic creations! ;)

All artworks on this site are property of John Kim and Naska Chijoue (unless stated otherwise) and may NOT be used for private or commercial purposes.
Metal tutorial is copyright of www.pendako.com.

Welcome to naska's little metal and shiny surface tutorial. First of all, let's fill up the metallic areas with middle gray. Make sure the gray is on a separate layer than everything else. The hat and the collar gray are on 2 separate layers here:
Add highlights, shadows, core shadows and reflective light. Hard and soft edges really help as well. If the image is cartoony don't think too hard about accuracy, just get in the basics and make it feel right for you.
Go to image > adjust > brightness / contrast and bring up the contrast of the gray layers. Fiddle around with both options until you feel it looks good. Things look shiny now!
To make your surfaces more interesting you can duplicate the metal layer and fill it with a pattern. Collapse the pattern layer and change the layer mode for different effects. I found a free metal texture online by doing a google image search and I set the layer mode to "overlay" for the metal collar. You can also create a new layer and add color to your metal by turning the metal layer mode to "color". The character currently has a purple color layer on her hat and I added slight hints of purple and yellow into her collar. You can barely see the slight colors but it really adds! The character is still far from completion but I hope this tutorial helps you out in your future metallic creations! ;)