how to make shiney gold/silver graphics

[midnight]

New here. I stumbled upon a website that offers (you pay them to do it) realistic gold and silver graphics. I'd rather make these myself than pay someone to do it for me. I was wondering how can I make this happen? Do I need to download specific plugins? Can someone give me a step by step guide on how to do this?

Here's the drawing I wanna use to turn gold.

[olav.k.m]

There are many different methods people use for making gold, but you could try this:

1. Cut out the star using magic wand (just hold shift and click on something white then press ctrl+x to cut it out )

2. Then using curves, make the star yellow by switching to RGB mode, unchecking "Blue" and moving the left anchor point of the other two colors to the top left corner. Like this.

3. Add another layer, move it under the layer with the star and fill it with black

4. Then you have what you need to make a gold star following step 5-12 in this tutorial: LINK

Just mind that your picture is a lot smaller so you will need to adjust settings like "depth" when using bevel selection to a lower number.

Good luck

Edited January 29, 2011 by olav.k.m

[mountnman]

http://forums.getpai...making-a-jewel/

http://forums.getpai...201-gold-metal/

http://forums.getpai...<Family-friendly forum.>-screw-head/

http://forums.getpai...hrome-tutorial/

http://forums.getpai...hiny-gold-text/

http://forums.getpai...d-pitted-metal/

http://forums.getpai...xture-tutorial/

ALL of these tutorials deal with metal, most with realistic gold, and by no means is this all of them, take a spin around the tutorials forum, it can pay off in spades

Edited January 31, 2011 by mountnman

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Wonderful selection of tutorials! I first thought of the Metallize plugin, which applies a chrome or metallic sheen to an image. But I don't think it will work on a monochrome image such as this (works best with gradients). If you were to introduce gradients....,

[olav.k.m]

Metallize also works well if you use bevel selection first. I would look through the different tutorials posted, try playing around with curves, metallize and different blending modes.

I gave it a go using bevel selection, metallize, and a whole lot of messing around with blending modes:

[midnight]

Thanks for the advice! I've been playing around with the gradients and metalized tools. What I did was created a whole new star but without the lines. Took it from there. The metalized plugin is great but I was hoping it'd had an option where you can make your objects shiney (with a high polished reflection effect.). Tried using Specular but all it did was make my gold break up (which made this really cool line effect.)..

I also checked out a few tutorials - problem is, I can't make my mind up on which one I want! They're that good.