I did a nice easy "Brushed Metal" tutorial a while back. Fill with grey, add noise, motion blur, adjust brightness/contrast, crop, done. See image above^^^ But now in actually using the image texture I find I need to know how to get that same brushed metal texture to look brushed in circles - as if a mechanical thing has inscribed lines on a flat circle of metal with... say a brillo pad - by holding the pad in the centre of the spinning circle and slowly drawing the pad outwards to the edge thus creating circular brushed marks. How can I do this? Also is it possible to bend the brushed metal texture to get the lines to go in a curved sweep rather than either straight or circular?

First thing to try would probably be Filter->Blur->Radial Blur A (very) rough lo-resolution example attached, it would not be hard to make a more realistic version in higher res (which would reduce the coarseness of the lines, etc.)

Filter-distort-wave, here you`ll find all you need. Play with settings until you get the desired result. Very useful thing is Randomize button, every time you press that button it will produce another version of curent settings ;) Tihomir

lundqvist, Tried your suggestion, but I can't seem to get it looking as good as yours...^^^ Also do I need to cut off the corners like you did?

Tihomir, Tried your method, tried it lots of times in various combinations but I couldn't get it to work at all.

You will probably need to mask it with a circular mask at some point. It will certainly help if you use a canvas larger than the size you want to end up with so that you can mask off the edges. If you find definition lacking try Auto Levels or just manually tweaking the contrast through Image->Adjust->Brightness/Contrast or Curves. Also, highlights can be airbrushed on with a white and Color Dodge mode and shadows with black and multiply. Also, a little manual work might be required on the very center becuase of course Radial Blur has little effect on the center of the blur. I think Alien Skin have filter that emulates this type of brushed metal, but it's more fun to try to achieve it with the tools supplied :)

This is youre base which is good, first duplicate the background and set it to screen, duplicate again and apply difference clouds set the mode to luminosity, duplicate again, then add H/S adjustment layer with this settings +8, +44, +12. Set the mode to linear dodge, then add levels adjustment layer with this settings 126, 1,40, 255, and for output levels 73, 198. Flaten everithyng and desaturate with CTRL+SHIFT+U. Thats it, now if you want you can tweak with levels the contrast ;) Tihomir

lundqvist, Aha! So your version in message 2 above isn't a shot showing the effect on a model, but the "shine" is artificially applied in PhotoShop! I see. In that case it won't do for my purposes as I need a uniform result so that the lighting in Bryce adds the shine so that the model with this texture fits in with the rest of the scene. Tihomir, Sorry, but I don't understand what you said. a) that doesn't look like my texture, it looks patchier. b) What does "duplicate the background and set it to screen" mean? Particularly the word "screen" is baffling me. c) How "duplicate again"? d) What are "difference clouds" and where are they? e) what "mode" where? f) what is a "H/S adjustment layer" and how do you add it to anything? Where are the "settings" you mention? etc etc "contrast" is about the only thing I know where to find (appart from using ctrl L for levels, I can do that.) Sorry about this Tihomir. lundqvist, "I think Alien Skin have filter that emulates this type of brushed metal, but it's more fun to try to achieve it with the tools supplied :)" It's also a lot more likely to help me learn how to actually use this program. But thanks for the suggestion. Fran

Combined screen shots of PS 7.. Hope it's not too confusing.. And not too different from CS if you're using it. "H/S adjustment layer" Hue/saturation layer?

"In that case it won't do for my purposes as I need a uniform result" Hmm, in that case, just radial blur the black/white noize but don't apply any faux-shading with, it will then be flat-shaded. Then Bryce's material properties can be used to effect the specularity, reflection, etc. You may also be use it as a bump map for the same texture (but the strength would need to be very low).

It is youre texture, but lundqvist is right just radial blur the black&white noise, then in bryce add the rest :) Tihomir

Ravynsworld, Thanks very much indeed, very easy to understand and not in the least confusing. I'm saving this page for later use. Brill! lundqvist, I'm fairly sure that's just what I did, so that's okay (not sure what 'faux shading' is anyway) But yes, on the Bryce mat properties, that's what I intend. As for bump - I was thinking of about 1.6.... okay? Thanks to all; lundqvist, tantarus & Ravynsworld for all your efforts to help me with this, much appreciated. Fran

Ah. Thanks Ravynsworld for the explanation of the clouds version. That will come in very handy for slightly grubby metal - that is IF the clouds thing will also work on the plain brushed metal at the top of this thread... At present though I'm trying to get a clean new metal effect. and not getting very far... When I boost the brightness & contrast on it I get this banding (see pic) even on the highest radial blur - I don't want that. I'm trying for something more like Lunqvist's version in message 2 above - but without the light and dark zones - I need it to be uniform. Is this possible?

Hang on...

Is this the way to go? I've tried the highest radial blur (on it's own no good as pic in message 13 demonstrates) but then I applied the radial blur again, on a lower setting (17) just to see - It reduced the banding considerably, so I tried again with the same low setting, and once again, and now I've got this...

Do you think this will be good enough, or should I keep on with more radial blurs? (at 17? or higher?)

Message edited on: 12/01/2005 07:38

Yes I think that will work, but might need a bit of contrast boost. My approach, FWIW, would be to begin with a canvas filled with black/white noize. Then apply radial blur with a low spin setting, maybe 15. Then, to keep hitting CTRL-F until the circular bands seem smoothed out enough - Not being concerned about contrast at this point, just to get a nice set of concentric bands. Applying the same filter repeatedly at a low setting lets you decide when you've got what you want interactively. Once I'd got a base that I was happy with, I would start to worry about contrast and start using levels, curves, or brightness/contrast to get the variance I'd like. The contrast between light and dark in the image will have a bearing both on the texture and the bump map of course and you might use different maps for each, derived from the same source image, but with differing contrast. Hope you get the effect you're seeking :)

Yes, that what I did, more or less. Hadn't thought of using levels though. And thanks for the tip on using 'same image/ different contrast' for the bump. I'll try that.

Just, on the side, In machine work, it's called "Wood Burnishing" if yoou ever see a picture of a bank sized vault door, you'll notice the pattern. Lou.

I tend to take money out rather than put it in, so I dont see many vault doors... unless George Clooney, dressed in black is clicking uselessly and repeatedly on a small, grey, battery-driven remote switch... And even then I tend to be concentrating on George, rather than the texture of the vault door... I'll try to remember next time.