I've tried just about every photoshop tut. out there as well as the tut. posted by Polygon but I just can't seem to make a decent metal texture. Any of you got some really good tips or links to some great tutorials? I know I ask a lot from you guys but I'm also trying to give back to MSA as much as I can.

Im not the best at this, but I can give you some tips.

I start with a normal grey texture, sometimes i pick a grey that is near the yellow or the red, to have a more rusty look. Then I use doge and burn brushes to give a little bit of texture, then with some brushes i have to add some details like scratches onto the texture. After i have a basic texture i just copy it to the mesh, and work on it till it looks good. I think the trick is on the lightning, you gotta look at other models, and pics of weapons carefully to see how the lights work.

If someone has a wood tuturial now that would be a great thing to post, cuz metal is easy but making a good wood its really hard.

I just use photoskins of wood, you get lots of detail and it looks, well, real. For photoshop I know of 2 ways to do it however I'm sure you've all heard of them. select two brown colors, one light and one dark. Go to Filter/render/clouds. Then go to filter/noise/add noise. Move it to around 20 or so then go back to filter/blur/motion blur. Blur it just a little bit and set the direction for what you want.

way number two is exatly the same except make the actual texture area a tiny vertical sliver. do the add noise part but for blur, go to transform and scale it far out to the side.

hope that helps.

i can't find a wood tutorial...

here is how i make metal, and it looks pretty realistic.
1.Set your foreground color to 25,25,25 and your background color to 57,57,57.
2.Filter>render>clouds
3.Take the dodge brush(200px soft brush, 38% exposure, midtones) and dodge randomly all over the image, but leave spaces undodged just for the sake of randomness.
4.Take the burn brush on the same settings, except with 28% exposure this time, and brun all over randomly.
5.Duplicate that layer, and on the duplicate do Filter>artistic>sponge.
6.Set the duplicate layer's opacity to 20-30%, and merge the two layers.

P.S: if you want it darker or lighter just do Image>Adjust>Brightness/contrast.

P.P.S: it's better if you make the metal texture right on the mesh so when you do the 3rd and 4th steps, you can make the dodging mostly on the side that your light source is coming from for a more realistic effect.

My best tip: learn to draw. There's A LOT of little tricks that you'd prolly never think of otherwise. For example: when making a black like a shadow, don't use just flat black. Make it a mix of purple and black, because that adds depth and makes it a more velvety color. Use color as shading, instead of white to add light, use a very light shade of yellow, and a very dark shade of blue or purple. Lighter shades of red textures should be more orange in appearance, not pink. It goes on and on, there's a lot of weird little things like that.

Also another thing im wondering about.

Making lighting effects.

Whenever I try and brush or airbrush a light effect onto my skin, it's always too bright and never seems realistic. I've messed with the colors and opacity but I still cant figure out why I cant seem to get it right.

when youre dodging, always use a soft brush. You'll usually want it on highlights and around 38% exposure. With burning have it on highlights also on 28% exposure(unless you want it darker faster then make it higher).

If you are creating shadows use opposite colours to the light source eg. orange light = blue shadows. look for a colour wheel diagram to assist you.

WARNING: use this technique very carefully and sparingly or your gun will look like a sixties pop video.

Buy a tablet with cordless pen it will make your life far easier and is more natural and precise than a mouse

For making metal texture do not use grayscale as it creates a dull metal.

Try to create very gentle reflections and shines so it doesn't look like chrome remember this guns been out on the field for a few months. Add a few scratches and dents just don't get carried away.

Build up all your effects slowly and make full use of the layer tools so you can try effects out with out damaging your base texture.

I see what you two are talking about but I just can't get the light line to look realistic. I've tried everything I can think of but my light reflections on the gun look to bright and unnatural. What is the best way to make light reflections on the texture?

Could you show us some of your textures?
That way we'd be able to give you some more useful advice.

Ok sure here it is. Once again I havn't done any dogeing or buring yet so it still isnt finished, there are no scratches or anything, just a simple base coat. I'm gonna keep working it until it looks good enough to be called a "skin" on the DoD forums.

its too brushed to be a gun skin, it looks more like stainless steel.

ok then how would I make it look more gun-metal?

The metal on a gun is almost always precision machined. That means they are finely cut and polished. If it's a cylindrical piece that had to be lathed, there may be very fine scratches going around the piece, but for the most part, a skilled machinist leaves no markings on metal.

The stuff you do see on gun metal comes from dirt and wear. A nice way to get a base is to get a very large irregular brush, and do a very light dodge and burn across the entire surface. It gives a good base texture to the metal. when it comes to colored lighting, it has to be very subtle to look good. Try putting all your colored lighting effects on seperate layers, then messing with blend modes and transparency. Idealy, you want it to be just barely noticeable. Flat surfaces are easily the most difficult to get to look good, so try and use large and indestinct highlites and shadows to give an impression of slight variation. Here again, less is more, as any strong hghlights or shadows on a flat surface can make it look dented or bent. Scratches and dirt are good for breaking up monotinous surfaces, just be careful not to get carried away.

The whole thing is about subtlety, keep thing light, and build it up until it start to look good. Make sure to check your texture on the model occasionaly, as it can look much different when applied to a 3d surface.

Thanks some very good advice there Trigger, thanks for pointing that out, but my main question still remains, how do you make the starting basic metal base coat you "put" on the mesh before adding scratches and highlights and such. What basic procedure can I follow to get a decent metal base?

look at my post, it tells you how to get one :x