Artificial metal effects are, without a doubt, extremely popular amongst all Photoshop users. Its not hard to work out why, of course, because the spectacular results often speak for themselves. It stands to reason, therefore, that there are also many different ways to achieve similar results, some more suited to certain tasks than others. My technique is rather unique in that it uses ONLY layer effects, and nothing else.
Learning how to use the built-in lighting effects filter is one of the most important skills you'll ever learn for Photoshop. It allows you to add volume and reality to normal 2D objects.
Creating photorealistic scenes is one of the hardest tasks of the apprentice designer, and its made all the more difficult by the fact that nature itself is very complex & hard to replicate. The human brain is remarkably perceptive, and can detect if a scene looks wrong, even if the conscious mind can't pinpoint the problem. One of the most common mistakes is omitting or creating unrealistic reflections. The aim of this tutorial is to show a simple technique for creating realistic reflections in Photoshop.
This tutorial will learn you how to make new brushes as well as making a nice sparkle-effect. It's not hard to do, so you don't need to be very good to make it :)
