Making a Jewel

[barbieq25]

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

Making a Jewel - who could resist! If there is anything that needs to be changed please let me know. With the demise of Radial Blur Deluxe, this tute has been re-written to reflect alternative plugins although some images will still be the old ones.

Plugins:

Align Object

Drop Shadow

Fast FX or Glow and Soften Portrait

Bevel Selection

Gaussian Blur

Circle text

FONT:AEROFOIL

 

This is what you should end up with (or at least close to it):

 

Original image

 

Updated version

 

Make sure you have all the plugins & font downloaded before you start.

1. Start with a 3200 x 2400 canvas.

2. Make the background black. (CTRL + SHIFT + I)

3. New layer

4. Select yellow for the primary colour. Select Circle Text and Aerofoil, put a capital A in the text box 40 times and the remainder settings as shown below:

 

 

5. Select Magic Wand at default, set the flood mode to global and click outside the circle. Press Ctrl + I to invert the selection.

6. Bevel selection at the following settings as shown below: (Depth @ 10, Highlight colour 225, 227, 107 Shadow colour 147, 126, 7, Strength 1.00)

 

 

7. Run Curves at the setting shown below:

 

 

8. Gaussian Blur @ 2.

9. Duplicate layer and set to Overlay mode. Save your work if you haven’t already done so. If you run out of memory, the program will crash and you’ll lose the lot.

10. On the layer beneath the Overlay mode, use Fast FX Glow – Radius: 6, Brightness -32, Contrast 48.

11. On this same layer run Soften Portrait. Mostly for this one I use the opposite to what we do here but each gold wire is slightly different and you should experiment. For this one we will leave the Softness @ 5, Lighting @ 20, Warmth @ 0.

12. Merge the 2 gold layers down.

13. New layer (above the gold). Select brush width to 20. With yellow create a circle (hold down the Shift key) until it looks like it will cover the inner circle of the gold. Use the drag handles to fine tune the circle & then use Object Align & Centre Both. In the image below we selected the shape & then resized but with Version 4 onwards we no longer need to do that thanks to the hard work of Rick the developer. See below:

14. Repeat steps 5 to 12. Save.

15. Create a new layer above the black background.

16. Add an image of your choice. I chose the Australian Flag in the original & a rose for the second jewel. You can use any image you like.

17. Use Magic Wand to select the outside of the plain gold circle circle (select contiguous not global). Ctrl + I to select the circle.

18. Go to the image layer & blur or distort to your liking. I used Gradient Blocks @88 & everything else at default. 

19. Ctrl + I to select outside the circle & press delete to cut the excess.

20. This step is only necessary if you coloured circle is not a solid. Go back to the golden circle layer. Select the inner circle. Create a new layer just below the layer with our coloured circle. Change your primary colour to black and fill the selected circle with black. Select the coloured circle layer and merged these two layers down.

21. Deselect all. Go to golden circle layer and Drop Shadow at the settings below:

 

 

22. Select the golden circle text layer and Press Ctrl + F to repeat the Drop Shadow at the same settings.

23. I used Helen’s Galaxy Ball Tute for the ball highlight: http://forums.getpai..._1

24. I duplicated the rose , used Splinter at maximum x 2 &  duplicated that layer & True Blurred it & adjusted the opacity of the layers to suit.  I merged all of the jewel layers except for the highlight, and then Drop Shadowed @ 1 with blur at max, X @5 & Y @12.

25. Save your image as a .PDN That way you can re-use parts of the image or make any changes. Then save it as a .PNG, resize your image to 25% and save again before posting.

 

I am looking forward to see how interpret the tute.

[ptuZ]

simply amazing! will try this in a min and post my try

EDIT: Here it is!

Not as good as yours but still i didnt did so much on the "glossyness" of the ball.

Edited September 21, 2010 by ptuZ

[j.d.melek]

thanks for sharing bbq.

will work on this right away..in a little while..so much to do sooooo little time..

will let you know how it goes..

regards j.d.

[barbieq25]

putZ, that is a very nice effort! The gem art could be moved over just a bit. Some of the wire frame showing through. I love the gem - a bit of work on the highlight is all. You did such a great job on the gold! Well done! Thanks so much for posting your result.

j.d. look forward to seeing yours too. I know what you mean. I meant to be getting ready for work!

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Nice job Barbieq25! I love that use of circle text.

Just so you know, you can make the plugin name(s) clickable by using this format for the link:

[topic="4193"]Align Object[/topic]

Which produces this link: Align Object

PS the Flag Image link looks broken.

[barbieq25]

EER - thanks so much for showing me how to make the things clickable! I've seen it explained before but it never stuck in my head. Now it has. Yep, the link was busted but fixed now.

Many thanks for your help.

[chrisco97]

Thanks for sharing this! My result is on DA, will post here soon.

--

EDIT: Here it is!

I call it "United"

[csm725]

Wow. Without a doubt STICKY REQUEST. Wonderful tut. I like the use of Curves because it's the same as my text tut

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Wow. Without a doubt STICKY REQUEST. Wonderful tut. ...

Request granted. Also moved to Creations - a better fit than Miscellaneous don't you think?

[barbieq25]

I am truly honoured! My first tute & it gets a sticky. Thanks EER & CSM725 for requesting it. It really means a lot to me.

[ZebraNasty]

Alright so here's what I made. I couldn't figure out how to incorporate the glossiness into the ball and kind of gave up on that part.

[barbieq25]

Ok, attached to this post should be the .PNG file for the ball highlight. I am not that good with attaching stuff & links etc. but I think it has worked. It looks like there is nothing there because it is white & the forum background is white (at least on Mine).

Open the file in Paint.NET, Ctrl + A, Ctrl + C. Open the jewel image, add a new layer & Ctrl + V to paste it. Let me know how you go with it. Jewel looks great. Love the colours.

Please feel free to use the ball anytime.

[Pixey]

Hi Barbieq - Thank you for this amazing tutorial which I'd been longing for. I made three attempts, mainly to choose colours, and then had one gigantic crash ....... but fortunatley I had somehow saved the jewel. One area I was a bit confused with was at step 30 where you say "On topmost flag use Drop Shadow at max width and blur, twice. Do you mean the Blur radius to be used on max?

Thanks for the great tute Congratulations on the Sticky

[barbieq25]

That is correct for the Drop Shadow. When you Drop Shadow something that is quite transparent such as the radial blurred flag, the shadow colour kind of sticks to the more solid bits & kinda gives the image a bit more substance or opacity (geez, good with words aren't I?). When you do it twice it makes it even more solid & brings the image out a bit more. The black seems to improve the colour but you could use other colours too. I did one once with orange (don't recall which image but I think it had fire or flames in it).

 

I really like your jewel. You did a fantastic job! Great choice of colours.

Yep, at that canvas size it is prone to crashes, hence the need to save often. It takes a lot longer to create an image & sometimes moving stuff can be so frustrating but the end results are a very polished piece & no jaggies. This way of working works for me but I know others that use 600 x 800 & use DPY's AA plugin but it doesn't always work for me. Another idea is to periodically shut down PDN to clear the history but you have to be absolutely certain you don't want to undo anything. Whichever way works for you, go for it.

Again you did a great job & I am pleased that you got some use out of this one. It is a pleasure to see so many great results. I have seen the ideas applied to other images on the forum too. Very heartening. Thanks for your feedback.

[Sarkut]

Thanks barbieq.

This tutorial is very helpful, and long awaited.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Sarkut

[barbieq25]

Sarkut, that is amazing! I love what you did with your jewel! The reflection of the gold on the gem & the back part of the gem so that it looks like a gem on top of a gem - great idea! Love the colours & shapes in the background. Really great work & I am honoured to have you follow my tute. (Yes, I did promise for a long time.)

[j.d.melek]

at last!

not quite what I started out with. ..some slight variations..(my fault..not the tut..tut is great!)

http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae39/jdmelek/march%202010/BBQJEWELWIPfini.png

thanks bbq. and congrats. on the sticky.

regards j.d.

[barbieq25]

You did great! The idea with tutes is to get a starting point & to get an idea of how to do things so that you can make your own. Very nice work!

[Heat Stroke]

Cool tut! im not very good at this sorta thing, but this will help!

[barbieq25]

I like the gold work - really very well done & the background too. The gem looks like it has fingerprints in it - way cool effect. You've taken this tute & created an image unique to you. Well done. Hope to see more like this from you. The tute is a good jump off point for may metal textures & gems too.

[Manc]

Great tutorial mate,here's my effort.any tips for backgrounds would be appreciated.Shape was an accident,pressed 3d shape on wrong layer.lol

[barbieq25]

Mate, glad you liked it! Tips for backgrounds would be to try every tute known to man & play with the plugins. My fave is the Radial Blur Deluxe & Polar Inversion.

This one I want to try myself:

Your outcome is really good. I like what you did with the inside of the gem. The trick is to remember what you did - I am hopeless at that. The background is quite out of the ordinary too. Green & gold, & mate...must be an Aussie like me. Great outcome!

[Manc]

Thanks mate.here's another effort.No not aussie mate,from Manchester but live in Ipswich hence the sig.Hreen and gold is probably my Irish roots.lol.P.S how do attach a sig image?

Edited October 11, 2010 by ipswichmanc

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Edit your sig using Your Settings > Profile tab > Edit Signature.

If you want to include an image you'll need to upload it to a host and insert the link (just like in a post).

[barbieq25]

Very nicely done! I'd never have thought to use an image - now I got even more ideas running around in my head! Love the way you did the reflections too - superb!