How to make Heavy Metal effect using Photo shop
STEP 1 50% Gray Whatever your object is, you must start with a flat fill of 50% gray.
STEP 2 Selection
	•	Using the rectangular marquee tools make a banded selection horizon tally across the object.Hold down shith and create several more marquee selection of varying size across the object.
	•	Feather the selection by five pixels (alt+ctrl D)
	•	Open the levels dialog box ( ctrl L) and increase the black out put slider to about 64, then click OK.
	•	Use the keyboard arrow to move the selection down about 8 taps and invert it (ctrl+i )
STEP 3 Bevel it If you have Photo shop 5 or higher. Add a bevel using layer effect.. Once you have made your bevel, make a new blink layer below and merge the object layer down with the blink layer, this will fuses the effect to the object so you can do step five. If you are using eye candy, just make a nice bevel and go to step five.
STEP 4 Curve Ir. With your object layer selected, open your curved dialog box (ctrl+m) and make a curve kinda like you see here. Click on the diagonal line and drag up and down.
STEP 5 Colorize it Hit ctrl + U to bring up your hueand saturation dialog box. Click on the colorize box on the lower right, then slide hue to 225 and saturation down to 15. This make the metal kind of blueish but you can color it any color you want.
STEP 6 Sharpen it , drop shadow and completion Use the unsharpened filter, run the filter amount 106%, Radius 1.0 peels and Threshold 3 levels.By using these settings, your chrome will stand out and will add a realism to your pic.

STEP 1

Having a source pic

Make sure you have something to rain on...

STEP 2

Make some noise

Create a new layer above the background layer and fill it with black. Run filter ( noise) add noise Choose: Gaussian Monochrome and an amount of around 65: Depends on how big your pic is and how much rain you want.

STEP 3

Motion blur

Now run a motion blur filter filter blur motion blur. Use a setting of an angle of 60 and a distance of 25 pixels. Set the layer blending mode to (Screen) this will make all the black transparent. >Image> adjust > levels. Slide the central grey arrow to the right until the rain looks right.

STEP 4

Tada ! Now you have rain!

Add to it's realism by adding puddles and reflections on hard surfaces.. make little white "V"s where the rain bounces off stuff in the foreground.

How to make lens flares on your art work using Photo shop

STEP 1

Choose your image and layer setup

Create a new layer above your background layer. Fill it with 100% black and change the layers to blending mode to screen. Screen makes the black invisible so only stuff that is lighter then black will show up on this layer. This is important.

STEP 2

Apply the filter

Make sure you are applying the leans flare to the black filled layer and not the background layer. Well now you have the lens flare but it is a little bright and in the wrong place. Choose your move tool.

STEP 3

Move it

Now you can drag your lens flare anywhere on the pic that you want to. You can also work on the picture on the background layer with out missing up the effect. If the flare is too bight or the wrong color, you can always re-color it and not affect the other layer.

How to draw a smoking gun or anything smoking

STEP 1

Choose your smoking object to Airbrush

on a new layer airbrush some grey over the origin of the smoke. Use a soft brush setting and a lower opacity.

STEP 2

Spatter

Now you will need some pepper. Change your airbrush setting to dissolve and shoots some white and black particles on to the grey spot. Use just enough to smear.

STEP 3

Smudge

Grab the smudge and smear the pixels upward in an S like motion. If the effect is too severe you can smooth it out later.

STEP 5

Finishing effect

Grab your eraser tool and set it to airbrush with a soft brush setting and trim out the unwanted smoke. Use the dodge and burn tool to add highlight and shadows to your smoke. Resumer any pixels that look to hard. Lower the smoke layer opacity to your taste.

How to draw a plasma ball using Photo shop

STEP 1

Make a ball

Make a white ball on it's own layer.

STEP 2

Make a glow

You do not have to layer effects for this. Make a copy of the ball, then select it and expand the selection by five pixels. Feather the selection by five pixels and fill it with oranges or a good fire color. Then merge the original what ball on to the orange glow.

STEP 3

Smudging

Start with a large brush setting and softly drag from the center out. Then choose a smaller brush setting and make the little wisps you see around the edges. Your plasma ball can be what ever color you like so be creative.

How to make Heavy Metal effect using Photo shop
STEP 1 50% Grey Whatever your object is, you must start eight a flat fill of 50% grey.
STEP 2 Selection samba
	•	Using the rectangular marquee tools make a banded selection horizon tally across the object.Hold down shith and create several more marquee selection of varying size across the object.
	•	Feather the selection by five pixels (alt+ctrl D)
	•	Open the levels dialog box ( ctrl L) and increase the black out put slider to about 64, then click OK.
	•	Use the keyboard arrow to move the selection down about 8 taps and invert it (ctrl+i )
STEP 3 Double check Your object should look something like this. You can get the same effects by holding shift and airbrushing dark bands across the object .
STEP 4 Bevel it If you have Photo shop 5 or higher. Add a bevel using layer effect.. Once you have made your bevel, make a new blink layer below and merge the object layer down with the blink layer, this will fuses the effect to the object so you can do step five. If you are using eye candy, just make a nice bevel and go to step five.
STEP 5 Curve Ir. With your object layer selected, open your curved dialog box (ctrl+m) and make a curve kinda like you see here. Click on the diagonal line and drag up and down.
STEP 6 Colorize it Hit ctrl + U to bring up your hued saturation dialog box. Click on the colorize box on the lower right, then slide hue to 225 and saturation down to 15. This make the metal kind of blueish but you can color it any color you want.
STEP 7 Sharpen it , drop shadow and completion Use the unsharpened filter, run the filter amount 106%, Radius 1.0 pexles and Threshold 3 levels.By using these settings, your chrome will stand out and will add a realism to your pic.

Selection:	An area marked of for painting by using one of the following tools: The Lasso, the Wand, the Marquee, the Pen, Quick Mask, Alpha Channels. Only the area inside the selection will be effected.
Marching Ants	: A slang term created by photo shop users to describe the animation effect Photo shop uses to show the selected area...because it looks like little marching ants.
Cuts:	Creating selections on top of a filled object to alter the underlying color in the specified area.
Bezier Curves:	Term for the control modules of a vector line. The modules consists of Node points and Handles. The node point designates the point on a curve where the line changes direction. The Handles control in which direction and how severe the change in vector will be. Variations of a line are controlled by "Dragging" the handles toward the node point for a drastic curve or away from the point for a subtler arc.
To Command or Control	:I use windows so I say "Ctrl" and "Alt" when referring to keyboard shortcuts but the same shortcuts can be used for Macs.

Screen Mode:	Screen mode takes the base color and adds light to it. Basically it's an easy way to get a lighter value of your base color. Great for adding highlights. . Change your airbrush properties to 12% pressure / Blending mode = Screen. 1 = 1 pass over the base color 2 = 2 passes over the base color 3 = 3 passes over the base color ? It increases the light value of the fill color by screening it against itself until it reaches White. You can also screen against the base color with a different color for a varied effect. A good example of this would be a blue object under a red light would be screened with a red color to realistically simulate the effect a red lit source has on a blue object..try it!
Multiply Mode:	Multiply is the opposite of screen. It will darken the base fill color against itself until finally it reaches Black. TNo more searching for the perfect shade value for a color. Just multiply it against itself with blending modes! Seem too Airbrush properties = 12% pressure / blending mode multiply 1 = 1 pass over the base color 2 = 2 passes over the base color 3 = 3 passes over the base color
Applications:	So now you know how to make things darker or lighter based on which blending mode you choose...what do you do now? What's the best way to implement this technique? Dramatic results can be achieved in a few easy steps: Here's an example for a flat surface.
Step 1	Start with a flat fill color. If you set your art up like I showed you back in the "Coloring Line art in Photo shop" tutorial, You should already have your art broken up into large flat color fills. Choose a color that is the darkest shade of what the object will be.
Step 2	Grab your Radial Gradient tool. In the properties palette for the tool set the blending mode to screen and the opacity to 12% or so. Also, set the gradient to go from "Foreground to Transparent". Make sure you have your object selected or you'll paint over the entire picture. Drag the Gradient tool from the intended light source towards the shadow.
Step 3	I like to use the "Pen" tool for precise cuts. It takes a little bit of practice to get used to the pen tool if you are unfamiliar with "Bezier Curves". After you've created your pen path, hit "Enter" to make it into a selection (the enter key by the numeric pad...not the enter by the " key). You can also use the lasso tool if you are uncomfortable with the Pen tool. Just make a swooshy selection on the surface somewhere. Hit Ctrl+H to hide the "marching ant" selection and grab your airbrush. Set it to 12% pressure and a screen blending mode. Stroke gently along the selection...oooh pretty!
Step 4	Keep this up a few times adding overlapping selections until you have the desired effect. Use a relatively large airbrush so you spray the majority of the selected area. Remember to use Ctrl+H so unhide the selection again and Ctrl+D to deselect and make another selection

Step 1: Fill an area	Create a new grayscale document big enough to cover the area of the art we will be transferring this halftone to. Fill it with 75% grey
Step 2: Run the halftone filter	Go to Filter>Sketch>Halftone pattern Use these settings
Step 3: Threshold	If your dots look a little grey. Choose Mode Adjust Threshold Slide the slide over till the image is black and white only
Step 4: Blurry	Apply a Gaussian blur. Play with the settings used a .8 pixel blur...you may need less or more depending on the size of your picture. Why the blur? This will help us make the pattern look less like a checkerboard.
Dark Dots	Open the levels dialog box by hitting ctrl+L. Drag the 3 arrows next to each other in the position shown. Here's the results:
Medium Dots	Open the levels dialog box by hitting ctrl+L. Drag the 3 arrows next to each other in the position shown. Here's the results:
Light Dots	Open the levels dialog box by hitting ctrl+L. Drag the 3 arrows next to each other in the position shown. Here's the results:

Step 1: Choose		The blast has to come from somewhere. I put a circle here for tutorial purposes but you just pretend it's a gun muzzle or someone's hand, k?
	your source
Step 2: Make the base of the bolt		Use the polygon lasso tool and click out a blast beam selection in perspective like you see here.Make sure it's on it's own layer. Fill it with a good bolt color...light blues, purples, greens and reds are good. Make sure it's a bright color high on the saturation.
Step 3: Getting in touch with your inner bolt		Now...create a new blank layer above the outer bolt. ctrl+click on the outer bolt layer to make the bolt a selection. Contract this selection by a few pixels and fill this new contracted selection with white on it's own layer. You should now have something like you see here.
Step 4: Blurry		Apply a Gaussian blur to each layer. Play with the settings used a 2.5 pixel blur...you may need less or more depending on the size of your picture. This technique also makes a good light saber.
Step 5: Snap, crackle, pop		On another new blank layer, grab your paintbrush, set it to 1 pixel, 100% opacity, normal blending mode and brush out some lightning forks along the beam.

Ctrl+H =	shows/hides marching ants.
Ctrl+D =	Deselect current selection
J =	selects Airbrush
G =	selects Gradient Tool
Shift+G =	cycles thru gradient types
L =	selects Lasso
Shift+L =	cycles thru Lasso types
P =	Pen Tool
A =	Direct node select tool
B =	Brush(paint brush)

Ctrl =	Cmd
Alt =	Option