Today's tutorial comes in response to a reader request from Tom and it won't be about lighting effects, glows, or sparks. Instead, I will show you how to create the brushed aluminum texture similar to the Apple products!
Step 1
To start, create a new document. As I wanted to create a wallpaper for my laptop I used 1440x900. Unlock the background layer, then apply a Gradient Overlay using a Layer Style. Use Multiply for the Blend Mode, for the style use Radial, and for the colors use #f2f2f2 and #c3c3c3.
Step 2
Create a new layer and rename it to "noise." Select the Paint Bucket Tool (G), fill the layer with white, and change the Blend Mode to Multiply . Make sure that the background color is black and go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Use Monochromatic, Uniform, and 8-10%.
Step 3 Creating the Pattern.
With the Ellipse Tool (U), create six very small circles. Select them and align them horizontally. Then click on the Distribute Vertical Centers Button. It will make the distances among the circles the same.
Step 4
Make sure the rulers are visible. If they are not, just go to View > Rulers. Now add some guides like I did and move three of the circles like the image below.
Step 5
Duplicate the three circles from the first column and move them as I did in the image below.
Step 6
Select all circles and Convert them to Smart Objects. If you are not using a CS2 or CS3 version of Photoshop, just go to Layer > Merge Layers. Then double-click on the layer to open the Layer Style dialog box. First add a Color Overlay, use a very dark grey, or even black. After that, add an Inner Shadow.
Step 7
Hide the background and the noise layers. With the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) select four circles but use the others as reference for distances. Then go to Edit > Define Pattern. Name it "holes."
Step 8
With the Rectangular Tool (U), create a rectangle. Then, again, lets use a Layer Style. First change the Fill Opacity to 0. Add a Pattern Overlay and select the pattern we have just created. Then just copy the rectangle and place it on the other side of the image.
Step 9
Add your logo or any symbol you would like to use and place it in the center of the image. Go to the Layer Style and select Gradient Overlay. For the Style, use Reflected and black-and-white for the colors. After that, select Bevel and Emboss and just follow the image below.
Step 10
Then create a new layer on top of the logo's layer and name it "noise logo." Fill it with white and change the Blend Mode to Multiply. With the Rectangular Marquee Tool, create a selection like the image below. After that go to Filter > Pixelate > Mezzotint, then Filter > Blur > Radial Blur, like we did on the Creating a Vinyl Record In Photoshop tutorial, and the last thing will be to change the Opacity to 50%.
Step 11
Create a selection from the logo, just click on the thumbnail of the layer while holding the Command/Control key. Then make sure that the "noise logo" layer is selected, and go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.
Step 12
With the Pen Tool (P), create a shape like the image below. Convert it to Smart Objects and go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. Select Zoom for the method and click OK. Go again to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur and this time use the Spin method.
Step 13
Repeat Step 11, but this time apply the layer mask to the “rays†layer.
Step 14
Create a new layer rename it to “white brush.†Make a selection from the logo again, like in the Steps 11 and 14. Select Brush Tool (B) with basic brush with 35px width, and select the white color. Start painting some areas that will be the highlights of the logo.
Conclusion
This technique can be easily applied on Web design and interface design projects. Besides that, we can create a huge set of holes patterns with different sizes and distances that will be very useful for future projects. I hope you enjoyed the tutorial!
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )kelisjunky March 13th
Pretty Nice!
( )Eva March 13th
Nice and so simple
Thanx
( )Kim Dolleris March 13th
beautiful…
( )craZed March 13th
Very cool , thanx : ]
( )chandan March 13th
supercool
( )Markus March 13th
I was waiting for this, and it came pretty fast!
It is great! Realistic
( )ZaFaR March 13th
GREAT,COOL TUTORIAL, THANX’S
( )kuldeep March 13th
Very cool!!
( )Salva March 13th
nice one
( )Leo March 13th
thx for the tutorial!!
( )dip March 13th
Great!!!
( )Will use it right now in one work, thanks for the good idea
Shane March 13th
Great reader request Tom
Thanks for the tutorial Fabio. Very nice work – and it’s quite a short series of steps too!
( )Paulo Sales March 13th
fab…
( )Arnaud March 13th
Very usefull !
( )giackop March 13th
yes.. cool and simple.. thanks fabio
( )Lamin Barrow March 13th
Nicely done effect. Thx
( )andy stewart March 13th
http://www.andystewart-design.com
( )Nodster March 13th
hi there
in Step ten i am unable to get complete
‘With the Rectangular Marquee Tool create a selection like the image below. After that go to Filter > Pixelate > Mezzotint,’
when i create the logo noise layer, the new layer is transparent, i fill it then can create the marquee area but the filter option is not available.
can someone give a pointer where i may have gone wrong.
Thanks
( )gonzavgn October 12th
go to image/mode and select 8 bits, when 16 bits its marqed you can use that filter
( )Leyre March 13th
Another wonderful tutorial. I love you guys!
( )Kev March 13th
cant get step 3 to work; it wont let me select the ‘Distribute Vertical Centers Button’. can any1 help?
( )PLZ
Luce December 8th
Are your tiny circles on different layers?? Because they have to be.
The alignment options are available when the directionnal arrow is selectionned in the tool bar (V).
( )Andrei Constantin March 13th
I was looking for the tut since yesterday when i’ve seen it on your blog.
( )good job
PixlNinja March 13th
WOW.. ! thankyou very much.. Actually I was trying to get such a result in many ways..
( )Sumesh March 13th
Quick and easy tutorial, this one.
Been some time, especially after marathons by Collis and Andrew.
( )JamieO March 13th
Nice tutorial. A tutorial that shows ways to take that brushed metal effect and turn it into a tile-able texture / background image would be very nice as well. Metal is one of those topics which there seem to be a lot of little ones that are ok, but I haven’t found a “PSDTuts” quality one yet…
( )b00m March 13th
wow I love the background
( )Andrew D March 13th
Awesome! Looks very real.
( )Martin March 13th
very nice fabio but the logo is gay
you could pick a better logo
( )Ozwall March 13th
excelente tutorial !!!
( )saludos!!
JoelG March 14th
slick.
( )Markus March 14th
Martin are you danish?
( )Dragolux March 14th
Very nice tut! The result is awesome. Thanks for your contribution!
( )Tom March 14th
Thanks for running my request!
There are so many effects in this that can be applied in so many ways. Which is why I suggested it!
Very well written, and I’m sure I can use this effect in many ways.
Thanks again.
( )Wouter March 14th
Hello.
I tried this tutorial but i lost the point on step 9.
I used a brush tool but can’t get him oke like your steps
Can you help or made that stap with screenshots ?
Ty
(Further : Nice tutorial)
( )Wade March 14th
I really appreciate the instructions for this tutorial.
( )I can’t quite remember which one, but a while back I felt retarded and couldn’t quite get through a step similar to 11 in this tutorial. Will post results when finished!
kev March 14th
on step 3 theres the alignment panel thats used with the elliptical tool but i cant seem to find mine. how can i open find this to do the Distribute Vertical Centers Button part? thanks.
( )John March 14th
Sweet.
( )Brent March 14th
Dude, you rock!
( )VectorCars March 14th
Ha-ha
Very nice..
( )Felds March 14th
I’m sorry if I’m being stupid… but where is the “brushed” part?
( )Henriette f.r March 14th
Hi
On step 12 it says “…Convert it to Smart Objects and go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur…” But how do I convert it to Small Objects?
I love the turtorial! =D
( )Michael Steel March 14th
Cool!! Congratulations. from Colombia
( )Tama March 14th
cool! thank you!
( )Cain March 14th
Final product is soooo cool. Looks like a real apple product. Great tut and thanks for sharing.
( )Ben Griffiths March 14th
Cool, this has to be one of the better brushes metal tutorials I have seen, thanks!
( )goldenthunder March 14th
this is way cool! nice job!
( )Fabio Sasso March 14th
Hey guys thank you very much for the comments… now let me try to answer some questions.
@Henriette – Probably your Photoshop version doesnt have the Smart>objects feature, it’s not really necessary though you can do everything without it.
@Nodster – Make sure that the right layer is selected, because I did what you said here and it worked.
( )Jonathan Solichin March 14th
Nice. Step 11 is a nice touch. very detailed and stunning. Good job.
( )Bruce Ackerman March 14th
Did one for Kerosin Clothing.
( )Thanks!
http://i31.tinypic.com/29w7mdi.png
Wil March 14th
Very nice! I made something similar a while back for a wallpaper, with a similar layout and perforated theme.
( )Ham March 14th
cool! Arigatou!
( )jayhan March 14th
Cool tuts! Thanks for sharing your skill
Loves it.
( )mikeyork March 14th
Beauty & Styled
( )PSDTUTS ROCKS!!!
Joefrey Mahusay March 14th
Nice tut again Fabio thanks for sharing.
( )BogDinamita March 14th
really cool one for real
( )Braintrove.com March 15th
Very nice. I like it! Great job.
( )wildwise March 15th
simple and reallistic. Nice one
( )dev March 15th
i luve u…..
( )maurizio March 15th
Very very nice….. and easy…….
Thanks from italy ……….
( )computer jobs March 17th
Thanks for tut. it was really helpful
( )Fubiz March 17th
Very good technique!
( )David March 17th
I’d like a little clarification on Step 3 as well.. What settings does the ellipse tool need to be on?
( )ryaninc March 18th
I really like this one! Well done, I definitely learned a few things from following along. Thanks!
( )Stronghold Crusader Extreme March 18th
its looks quite good thought
( )Abhisek March 18th
Great tutorial. I really like it…
( )Reader March 19th
Sorry I am writing this here but I don’t know where else to.
I was wondering what there is in the psd file you can download and psdtuts require when you submit a tut. Because I am writing one and got a bit confused when I read about that.
Any help would be great
By the way
( )Wonderful tutorial. Will be very useful for my design work
Thanks
Andrew J March 19th
Awesome and free! My favorite price
( )Mark H. Abucayon March 19th
This is simple yet nice. thanks for the tut
( )Katalog Stron March 19th
Looks nice.
( )workingondreams March 21st
superb!
( )Omar Essam March 22nd
thnxxxx alottt that helped me muccccchhh
( )Alex March 22nd
Wow this is a very great and easy tutorial. Im 12 ad i’m a professional graphic designer and i’ve been using Photoshop since grade 5. http://www.nowthatsintense.piczo.com
( )haeclark January 12th
“Im 12 ad i’m a professional graphic designer and i’ve been using Photoshop since grade 5″
( )….Ummm….I doubt the professional part, especially since to be a professional, you must have a quality portfolio…and your link has broken images.
reader April 1st
Really cool! Thanks for sharing!
( )Tom April 3rd
The metal effect on the hearth is amazing. Great work!
( )Enes Kaya April 8th
Very gorgeous effect. Thank you!
( )Qbrushes April 26th
simple but great outcome.
( )riri May 7th
great metal effect, thanks for sharing!
( )John May 17th
Great tutorial. Like some other people here, though, I’m looking for a way to create a metal/brushed-metal image that can be tiled as a web-page background. Anyone here have any links to good tutorials that help to do that?
Thanks!
( )Maya June 16th
Really great !!!
Thanks
( )wibo June 17th
kickarse tutorial, top-quality everything.
( )raj June 30th
Excellent work!
Thanx
( )hm July 5th
How do you white brush step 14 to neatly in the center? isn’t the 35px brush too big? i’m having tough time on this step
( )suckoja July 8th
Thanks a lot! This is just so cool!
( )araz September 5th
dear sir or madam, we need a proffesional gold material design on our company arm. can you help us? what`s your prices? singerely yours ARAZ
( )Peredo September 28th
Oh that’s incredible it amazing. i like so much i remember the Mac Pro
( )dave October 5th
Way too hard for me
( )tsauri28 November 2nd
thank you for your tutorial, it’s so useable for me..
:B
( )Galinette December 13th
awesome!
( )Max December 16th
Great tut! Thanks!
( )sam December 16th
Nice tutorial, but I’m still struggling finding the Distribute Vertical Centers Button.. theres no aligment panel.
Using Photoshop CS3.
Couldn’t google the solution.
Does anyone know where it could hide?
greetings to fellows anyway
( )sam December 16th
@kev (and everyone
)
( )just found it out myself.
just do as you’re told xD – create the circles and then select all 6 layers – the alignment panel will appear.
anon February 11th
THANK YOU PSD Tuts!!
( )These are all so helpful
Legs March 21st
Just as a heads up for those who are struggling at step 3..
( )Make sure you have EACH of your 6 circles on a seperate layer. One for each circle. Click the top layer and hold down shift, then click the bottom circle layer. Either press V for move or select the move tool and then the alignment panels will appear up the top.
Alexandre Broggio April 9th
good work
( )ActiveBox April 21st
wow thankx bro, this is what i’m looking for
( )Jeevan April 29th
Thanks for this detailed tutorial.
( )jp May 4th
nice!! 10x
jp
( )Ivy May 5th
Nice
( )iddaa May 8th
cool! thank you!
( )iagofs May 24th
I just love tutorials that are Mac-themed
Congrats on whoever did this!
( )haeclark January 12th
*barfs after reading mac comment*
( )Indya May 26th
that’s awesome. thanks for sharing.
( )Alovatt June 1st
is step 12 on a new layer?
( )JJ June 18th
Outstanding effect and tutorial. One of the most realistic metallic surfaces I have seen in years. I am using it right now!
( )Montana Flynn June 23rd
very sleep tut
( )JP August 13th
how do i add my logo?
please reply. great tutorial by the way
( )haeclark January 12th
instead of using the heart mac logo, use your own…its very easy…just do the same thing as the logo provided…but instead, use your own!
( )María deL Pilar September 19th
I LIKE A LOT, I LOVE YOU
( )KISSES
Jeremy January 5th
Very nice! Thanks for the tutorial.
( )