Diamond Metal Plate

[NoNonsense]

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to make this:

 

 

1. Open a blank image and make a new layer. Use the ellipse tool to draw a thin ellipse (size doesn't really matter, i like to start things fairly big)

 

2. Select the lower half, cut it (ctrl+X) and paste it in a new layer (ctrl+shift+V). Use the arrow keys to move it up several pixels, so the narrow ends become more "pointy".

Merge both layers (ctrl+M) & delete the excess lines.

 

3. select the shape (diamond) and copy paste it (in a new layer), use the arrow keys the move it down (and merge down). Repeat until you have 4, make sure they're all at exactly the same distance apart.

 

4. Re-size canvas (ctrl+shift+R) to a square and align object to middle center. Duplicate layer and rotate 90°. (both in the effects tab)

 

5. Use the (L&R)arrow keys (in combo with ctrl) to move both layers apart and merge both layers.

 

6. (here i doubled the canvas size) Rotate 45° (ctrl+shift+Z), fill the canvas using the move tool, mirror/rotate. duplicate layer after mirror/rotate zoom in (ctlr+scroll) and use existing diamonds as a reference. it's very important to be meticulous here, since we'll be creating a repeatable pattern even a pixel off can mess the whole thing up.

 

7. Using the bucket tool, fill the lower (white) layer with dark grey, create a new layer above that one and fill it with light grey

 

8. go to the top layer, select the "empty" space in between the diamonds with your magic wand tool. keeping it selected go to the light grey layer and hit the delete key.

 

9. duplicate the (light grey) layer. Select all the diamonds using the magic wand tool (click on a diamond in global mode or in flood mode click on the empty space and reverse selection, ctrl+i)

go to effects>>selection>> Bevel selection

 

Personally i think it only looks good on half of them, that's why we duplicated the light grey layer. select all diamonds on the other layer and repeat the effect with alternate lighting direction.

 

10. select all the "bad" diamonds in the top (light grey) layer using the lasso tool (you can select all at once holding down the ctrl key) and delete, then merge both layers.

 

11. Now we have to create a repeatable pattern, which is not so difficult, but kinda hard to explain. start with selecting an (undefined) amount of your image

 

using the move selection tool increase the selection in size and place the edges roughly at similar places in the diamond pattern (avoid the actual edges of the image, since the beveling kinda screwed up there) make the light grey layer invisible and zoom in to the top edge of your selection near the center nub. place the edge of your selection on an easily recognizable place according to the diamond pattern.

 

scroll down to the lower edge and place that edge on the exact same place

 

do the same for the left and right edges and crop to selection (ctrl+shift+X)

(if somehow this doesn't work out, you weren't precise enough in step 6)

 

12. make all layers visible and flatten (ctrl+shift+F), resize (ctrl+R) the image to 25%

 

13. resize canvas (ctrl+shift+R) to 200% keeping the original in the (upper left) corner

14. duplicate the layer and using the move tool or (ctrl) arrow keys to place both next to one another.

 

merge down, duplicate and move it down to fill the canvas and merge down.

 

15. Repeat steps 12,13,14,13,14 (or any other variation till you get to the size of the diamonds and of the canvas you desire)

 

16. duplicate the metal plate. create 5 new layers, 2 above and 3 below the plates. Make the plates invisible

 

17. lowest layer: effects>>render>>clouds (see pic for settings)

 

18. layer above that: effects>>render>>clouds (see pic for settings)

 

set the opacity of this layer to 110 the blend mode to darken

 

19. layer above that: effects>>render>>clouds(see pic for settings)

 

set blend mode of layer to lighten

 

20. make the metal plates visible, set the blend mode of the lower one to darken, of the top one to overlay.

 

21. the layer above the plates: fill it with light grey (same as beginning) with the bucket tool

 

set the blend mode to reflect and lower the opacity to 133

 

22. top layer: select black as color and with the paintbrush tool at a very high width (i used 55) draw a thick line following the edges of the image

 

23. apply a Gaussian blur (effects>>blur) of 180

 

24. Flatten the image (ctrl+shift+F) and you're done.

 

NOTE: Diamond metal plates can be either diamonds, 4 pointed stars, or rounded diamonds (such as i used) in 2, 3 or 4 rows. Many variations are possible, some plates only have the rows in one direction in stead of both (as used here)

Experiment with clouds, colors, blurs& blend modes to acquire the texture you desire

 

[Curmudgeon]

Well-written...completely different way to create it versus the diamond plate tutorial which used to be on here (I believe it was cjmcguiness who made the other)

His was easier to line up, positive of that, but without having david.atwell reinstate the other tutorial, I couldn't remember how the process went.

Do you have the tutorial images in jpg form instead of png? with this stupid dsl service I've got now, it was taking too long to load

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Well-written...

Agreed! An excellent tutorial and I love the result.

Do you have the tutorial images in jpg form instead of png? with this stupid dsl service I've got now, it was taking too long to load

The images are quite large. They should be considerably smaller if you saved them as either *.GIF or *.JPG - which is why the Tutorial Guidelines request these file formats (hint hint) :wink:

[NoNonsense]

Well-written...

Agreed! An excellent tutorial and I love the result.

Do you have the tutorial images in jpg form instead of png? with this stupid dsl service I've got now, it was taking too long to load

The images are quite large. They should be considerably smaller if you saved them as either *.GIF or *.JPG - which is why the Tutorial Guidelines request these file formats (hint hint) :wink:

thanks, sure thing, i actually knew that, just saved'm as PNG outta habit; i'm heading to bed now, i'll convert them first thing tomorrow.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Brilliant, thank you.

[NoNonsense]

i started with converting'm to JPG but i ended up with larger filesizes then PNG ???? so i converted them to GIF's.

[flip]

Clever way to make the rust.

[chrisco97]

Nice first tutorial, I like the outcome. I also agree, nice way to make the rust!

[NoNonsense]

thx peops, glad y'all like it.

i'm happy to share

@welshblue: very neat variation on the coloring.

[Skitzo]

hey not bad

it actually looks like metal.

i shall use this soon..

[NoNonsense]

hey not bad

it actually looks like metal.

i shall use this soon..

Cool, post a link , so i can see the result?

[ChitoDog]

Would love to try this tut out. Any way you can fix the broken images NoNonsense? Thanks ahead of time.

[yellowman]

So many things to remember, you need SeamlessTextur eMaker

Try this video for the plate's pattern:

[Bob11]

I too would love to have the images for this tutorial reuploaded. Very frustrating. I just downloaded and installed Seamless Texture Maker (as part of an effect package) on one of my computers. I also watched the video tut. I was amazed. Tonight I plan to install the effect package (including Seamless Texture Maker) on my other computer and tackle that video tut. Even though I'm still a newbie, it looks like something I'll be able to follow. The tut here seems to add to that. So NoNonsense, here's another humble request to include the images to this tut. Thanks.

Here's what I did with the YouTube tut. I learned a lot from doing it. I always wondered what the tiling option in the rotate/zoom effect was for...Now I need the pictures that go with this tut to learn more...

Edited July 10, 2011 by Bob11

[ChitoDog]

So many things to remember, you need SeamlessTextur eMaker

Try this video for the plate's pattern:

+1 Thanks for the video tut yellowman. However, I was stuck halfway through the tut because I'm missing the 'Engrave/Emboss' plugin. I've looked for it in the help search, but can't seem to find that specific plugin or in which plugin pack it must have come in. Can you or anyone perhaps know where I can find it? Thanks in advance.

Edited July 17, 2011 by ChitoDog

[yellowman]

It is in Toil's Effect pack, download the Zip file:

[ChitoDog]

It is in Toil's Effect pack, download the Zip file:

+1 Thanks for the plugin link yellowman.

[Devilon9000]

Looks really realistic.

[nitenurse79]

Nice job