This tutorial covers the making a logo with a shiny or metallic look .
Step 1
Before starting, add two guides centred vertically and horizontally. Create a new layer and fill it with a colour [alt + backspace]. Enter into Free Transform mode [ctrl+T], then drag the guides to the centre and they will snap into place. Then discard the layer.
Make a new layer and name it ‘Circle’. With the ellipse tool [U], draw a circle. Start from the centre and drag outwards while holding shift and alt to make a perfect circle of 560 pixel diameters.
Select ’subtract from the shape layer’ or [-]. Drag outwards from the centre while holding shift and alt and make another circle with a smaller diameter to look like the example above.
Step 2
Double click on the ‘Circle’ layer to add a gradient overlay.
Use a very light grey to a dark grey. I used #333333 and #DADADA.
Step 3
Make a new layer named ‘Circle Top’. On this layer, use the same method in step 1 and make another circle that is slightly smaller than the first one. This second circle should cover most of the one below.
Give this circle a gradient of lighter grey, #686868, that fades into a darker grey, #181818 and then back to the lighter grey. Use the settings in the example above.
Step 4
Control + click the ‘Circle Top’ to add a marquee around the circle. Make a new layer called ‘Circle Top Shine’. Choose the elliptical marquee tool [M] and pick the ‘Subtract from Selection option. Then, remove part of the marquee selection.
Choose the ‘Circle Top Shine’ layer and grab the gradient tool [G]. Modify the gradient so that is fades from white to transparent. Fill the selection with a gradient.
Step 5
Make a new layer named ‘Background Circle’ under the ‘Circle’ Layer. Draw a circle with the elliptical tool [u]. Give it a gradient overlay that starts with a shade of blue and fades down to a darker shade of blue. I used the colours #394f78 and #0a0f14 and give the circle an inner glow. I changed the inner glow colour to black and the blend mode from ‘Screen’ to ‘Normal’.
Create another layer above the ‘Background Circle’ named ‘Background Circle Highlight’. With the marquee tool [M], choose a circle with the same method you used to make the first two circles. While holding [alt] and [shift] drag from the centre to make the first circle. Using ‘Subtract from selection’ cut out the centre to leave a thin selection.
With the gradient tool [G], select white fading into transparency. Drag down on the top half of the selection, and then drag up from the bottom half of the selection. Then deselect [ctrl + D] the circle and give it a Gaussian blur of about 4.5 pixels.
Step 6
Make a new layer above the ‘Background Circle Highlight’ layer named ‘Background Circle Shine’. With the elliptical marquee tool [M] draw an oval shape towards the top of the background circle. Use the gradient tool [G] with a white fading to transparency to fill in the circle. Change the layer’s blending mode to ‘Soft Light’.
Step 7
After drawing a shape, put it on a layer above the ‘Background Circle Shine’ and name it ‘Shape’. Size it and place it so that the edges are just barely behind the circle layer above it.
Right click on the first layer, ‘Circle’, and choose ‘Copy layer style’. Then right click on the ‘The Shape’ layer and choose ‘Paste layer style’. It should now have the same gradient as the first circle layer.
[Ctrl] click the icon on the ‘Shape’ layer to add a marquee around the shape. Navigate to Select -> Modify -> Contract. Select 3 pixels. The marquee will then shrink by 3 pixels.
With the ‘Shape’ layer and the shrunken marquee selected, click [ctrl + J]. This will copy the marquee selection and make a new layer out of it. Name this new layer ‘The Shape Top’.
Double click on the ‘The Shape Top’ layer to open up the layer effects dialog box. Give it a gradient that fades from a light grey at the top down to a darker grey. I used #FFFFFF and #000000 and moved the scale slider up to 150%.
Step 8
Repeat the same technique we used in step 4 to add a shine to the shape. Make a new layer above the ‘The Shape Top’ layer and name it ‘The Shape Top Shine’. Now, [ctrl] click the icon on the ‘The Shape Top’ layer to add a marquee selection. Using the elliptical marquee tool [M] deselect the bottom half. Then, fill the selection with a white to transparent gradient.
Final Result
To add a final touch, add a drop shadow to the ‘Circle’ layer.
|
|
|
|
|