Making Metal Chains
This tutorial requires the Intermediate Chrome Curves Preset I have included for your convenience. Download the preset and save it to your Gimp user 2.6 Curves folder and restart Gimp. You may wish to simply recreate the curve as it is shown, and then save it if you don’t want to restart Gimp.
Step 1.
Open new image 300x500 pixels at 300 ppi.
Step 2.
Create a new transparent layer and name it Link. Create a vertical and horizontal guide in the exact center of your image, 250 pixels for the vertical guide and 100 for the horizontal guide. Select the Rectangle select tool and check the boxes for Rounded corners and Expand from center. Set the radius for the Rounded corners to 150, then place your mouse cursor in the exact center of your image, where the two guides intersect, and make a selection 350 pixels high by 200 pixels wide.
Set your FG color to 989898 and fill the selection. Now shrink the selection by 50 pixels and hit the delete key to “cut out” the center area of the link, then go to Select>None.
Step 3.
Create a new transparent layer and name it Side. Make another rectangle selection from the center, but this time 350 pixels high x 50 pixels wide, and fill it with the gray color, then deselect it. (Select>None)
Step 4.
Now that we have our two basic shapes, we need to give them some form so they have a more 3D look. Turn off the visibility on the Side layer and duplicate the Link layer. On the duplicated layer, go to Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use 25 for both settings. When you are finished, turn off the visibility of the blurred, duplicate layer. Select the original Link layer and go to Filters>Map>Bump Map and enter the following settings, making sure the Link copy layer is selected for the bump map.
You will have quite a bit of distortion resulting from the max depth setting, so lock the alpha channel (click the little box at the top of the layers dialog).
Go to Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use 10 for both settings to smooth out the surface of the image, and then go back and unlock the alpha channel.
Step 5.
Now turn off the visibility of the Link layer and turn on the visibility of the Side layer. Delete the blurred Link copy layer and repeat step 4 for the Side layer, following all the same procedures. (Duplicate/Blur/Bump/Blur) And you should have something like this.
Step 6.
Go to Image>Guides>Remove all guides. From here you can add additional layers set to different layer modes to apply color, rust or whatever. Let’s make this one look like it is chrome plated. We will cover different ways to achieve this chrome effect in a future tutorial, but for now let’s work with the simplest method.
Since our image already has “shape” or depth as a result of the blurring and bump mapping process, all we need to do now is adjust the curves. Still working on the Side layer, go to Colors>Curves and match the settings shown below, which is the Curves preset I included called Intermediate Chrome.
Once you have your curve adjusted, as shown, click OK to apply the settings. Keep in mind that using curves in this manner only works well on a grayscale image. The highs and lows of all the curves change the intensity of each area in the shape of your image to get those adjusted shades of light and dark gray that simulates the chrome look.
Step 7.
Turn off the visibility of the Side layer and turn on the visibility of the Link layer., and repeat Step 6., this time to the Link layer, and apply the Intermediate Chrome settings using the Curves dialog.
Your Link layer should now have a nice chrome look as well.
Step 8.
From this point we just need to save each layer as a separate PNG image. Delete the background, and turn off one of the layers and save the other one that is still visible. Repeat with the other layer. Once you have them both saved as separate images, we are ready to make our chain.
Step 9.
Close your image window and open a new image, 1000x1000 pixels, then go to File>Open as Layers and navigate to your saved PNG for the Link. Then repeat for the Side. Once you have the two saved images open, select the Move tool and tick the option for Move Active Layer. Select the Link layer and move it into position in the upper left hand corner of your image, and move the Side layer somewhere out of the way for now.
Step 10.
Select the Link layer to make it the active layer, then select the Rotate tool and click on the Link image in your window to activate the Rotate tool. Using your mouse pointer “grab” one of the corners of the image and move it to rotate the image to a position similar to the one show below, then click the Rotate button in the tool dialog.
Step 11.
Select the Side layer and use the rotate tool in the same manner to rotate the layer then use the move tool to position it. Move the Side layer to the top of the layer stack in the layers dialog so it appears to be “linked” with the Link layer and not underneath it.
Step 12.
Start adding links and side view links to your chain, working with one layer at a time, by first, duplicating the layer, then alternately use the Rotate and Move tools to position them. You should not have to reposition a layer in the layer stack again to make them appear correctly in your image like we had to do for the first Side layer. They should all work.
You will find that each time you rotate a layer, it will increase the over all layer size in order to accommodate the new position. If you have to rotate and move several times, it begins to grow quite a bit so you may want to use the Rectangle select tool to select a smaller area and reduce the overall layer size, then go to Layer>Crop to Selection. This is not a must, however, resizing it sometimes makes the layer easier to work with. You can then continue to rotate and move your layer until you get it exactly like you want it.
Step 13.
When your chain is completed, right click on each layer one at a time and select Layer to Image size. Turn off the visibility of the background layer, and right click anywhere in the layers dialog and select Merge Visible layers. When the dialog box pops up, click Merge to combine all the link layers, then turn on the visibility of the background layer.
Step 14.
Select the merged layer with our chain, and go to Filters>Light and Shadow>Drop Shadow and apply these settings.
Our chain is complete!
Step 15.
Just to make our image pop a bit more, lets do something with the background layer.
Set the FG color to B7B0DC and the BG color to 333333. Select the Blend tool and set the Gradient to Foreground to Background. Set the shape to Radial and using the rulers at the left and top of your image window, move your mouse cursor to the center of the image and drag from the center to one of the corners to apply the gradient.
Merge all your layers again and you’re done!
I hope you liked this tutorial. Next up is
Metal Wurx –Part XI where I will show you how to get that hammered metal look like this.