Photoshop tutorial
How to Make This Rusted Metal Tribal Effect in Photoshop
Turn a single letter into a spiked, rusted metal tribal mark using nothing but native Photoshop. You build the shape from a stroked outline and a Threshold layer, paint the spikes in with a tapering brush, then stack three nested groups of layer styles to give the flat shape depth. A clipped grunge texture at the end does the rusting.
Setup
Document
Photoshop document: 16 in x 20 in, 300 dpi, 8-bit.
Settings
- Size 16 in x 20 in (4800 px x 6000 px)
- Resolution 300 dpi
- Color mode RGB, 8-bit
Step 1
Document Structure
Organize your document with a solid white background layer, your letter (or shape) above that, then a Threshold adjustment layer at the top.
Layers
- Threshold 1 Adjustment layer, top of the stack
- A The letter or shape, as a text layer
- Color Fill 1 Solid white background
Step 2
Fill Opacity and Stroke
In the layer styles of the letter/shape, reduce the Fill Opacity to 0% and add a stroke.
Advanced Blending
- Fill Opacity 0 %
- Channels R, G, B all checked
- Knockout None
- Blend Interior Effects as Group Off
- Blend Clipped Layers as Group On
- Transparency Shapes Layer On
- Layer Mask Hides Effects Off
- Vector Mask Hides Effects Off
Stroke
- Size 133 px
- Position Center
- Blend Mode Normal
- Opacity 100 %
- Overprint Off
- Fill Type Color
- Color Black
Step 3
Color Fill and Blend If
Add a black color fill layer under the Threshold adjustment layer and invert the layer mask. Then group these layers and use the Blend If layer style to remove the white values in the group.
Blend If
- Blend If Gray
- Current Layer 0 — 246
- Underlying Layer 0 — 255
Layers
- Group 1 Holds the four layers below; Blend If is applied here
- Threshold 1 Adjustment layer
- Color Fill 2 Black fill, layer mask inverted
- A Letter, with the Stroke effect from step 2
- Color Fill 1 Solid white background
Step 4
Paint the Spikes
Use a soft brush and a white foreground color to draw in the layer mask of the black solid color.
Use the Fade control to taper your brush strokes. Increase Size and Roundness Jitter to make your brush strokes messier.
Brush Settings (Shape Dynamics)
- Shape Dynamics On
- Size Jitter 10 %
- Size Jitter Control Fade, 50
- Minimum Diameter 0 %
- Angle Jitter 0 %
- Angle Jitter Control Off
- Roundness Jitter 50 %
- Roundness Jitter Control Off
- Minimum Roundness 25 %
- Flip X Jitter Off
- Flip Y Jitter Off
- Brush Projection Off
- Smoothing On
Brush stroke reference
- Top Normal
- Middle Fade: 50
- Bottom Fade: 50, Size jitter: 10 %, Roundness jitter: 50 %
Step 5
First Layer Style Group
Put this group inside another group, and apply the Bevel & Emboss, Inner Shadow, and Color Overlay layer styles to the parent group.
Bevel & Emboss
- Style Inner Bevel
- Technique Chisel Hard
- Depth 1000 %
- Direction Up
- Size 139 px
- Soften 2 px
- Angle 117
- Use Global Light On
- Altitude 53
- Gloss Contour Custom (steep V)
- Anti-aliased Off
- Highlight Mode Screen, white
- Highlight Opacity 100 %
- Shadow Mode Multiply, black
- Shadow Opacity 51 %
Inner Shadow
- Blend Mode Multiply, black
- Opacity 58 %
- Angle -43
- Use Global Light Off
- Distance 21 px
- Choke 39 %
- Size 90 px
- Contour Linear
- Anti-aliased Off
- Noise 0 %
Color Overlay
- Blend Mode Normal
- Color Mid grey
- Opacity 100 %
Step 6
Second Layer Style Group
Put this group into another group, and apply the Bevel & Emboss layer style to this parent group. I would keep everything the same as the previous Bevel & Emboss, and only adjust the light source, Gloss Contour, and Highlight Opacity.
Bevel & Emboss
- Style Inner Bevel
- Technique Chisel Hard
- Depth 1000 %
- Direction Up
- Size 147 px
- Soften 6 px
- Angle 63
- Use Global Light Off
- Altitude 16
- Gloss Contour Custom (rounded step)
- Anti-aliased Off
- Highlight Mode Screen, white
- Highlight Opacity 44 %
- Shadow Mode Multiply, black
- Shadow Opacity 0 %
Step 7
Clip the Grunge Texture
Put this group into one final group. Then bring in your grunge metal texture, set the Blending Mode to Overlay, and clip it to the final parent group.
Grunge texture layer
- Blend Mode Overlay
- Clipping Clipped to the final parent group
Layers
- grunge Grunge metal texture, clipped to Group 4
- Group 4 Final parent group
- Group 3 Bevel & Emboss from step 6
- Group 2 Bevel & Emboss, Inner Shadow, Color Overlay from step 5
- Group 1 Threshold, fills and letter from steps 1 to 4
Finish
Result
Done!
