Jewel

[Moth]

Here's a jewel I made. I hope you all like it.

[Lompoc42]

nicely done moth! You should tell us how ya did it!
KOP

[Moth]

I am happy to hear of your interest. I'm not the best at writing tutorials but here it goes... ;\

For the Background

Create a new document sized 600 x 600 px
Run a Linear Gradient white to black with white on the top
Run Filter/Artistic/Pallet Knife (Stroke size 25, stroke detail 3, softness 0)
To add some color Image Adjustments/ Hue& Saturation/ Colorize and play with the Hue slider. I choose green to contrast with the red jewel.

For the Jewel

Use the Rectangular Marquee tool, Fixed sized 450 x 450 px
Fill the Marquee with the Linear Gradient called Silver going from the upper left corner to the lower right. Keep the Selection On!
Run Filter/Distort/Wave(5 generators, type Square, wave length 10 min 324 max, amplitude 05 min 404 max, scale 100% and 100%, undefined areas set to wrap around)
Copy Layer
Edit/Transform/ Rotate 45 degrees, Set layer to Multiply. Link and Merge with the Copied Layer.
Copy Layer.
Edit/Transform/Rotate 22.5 degrees. Set Layer to Overlay.
Switch to the Elliptical Marquee but keep size fixed at 450 x 450 px.
Center Marquee. Inverse the Selection and Delete. Do the same for the layer below so you should have two 450 x 450 px circles. Inverse the Selection.

To add color
Add a new layer and fill the Selection with a color of your choice, set layer to Vivid Light.
Copy layer for more intense color if you wish.

For shading
With the selection still active, add a new layer and fill the selection with a Radial Gradient black to white so you end up with a "black spot" at the top. Set layer to Vivid Light but adjust the fill to 42%.
Copy the layer but switch the layer to Overlay. Fill is still at 42%

To define edges
With the Selection still on, add a new layer and fill marquee with white. Select black and Stroke the selection with a 6 pixel stroke location centered. Lock the transparency of the layer and guassian blur 8 pixels. Set layer to Multiply. Inverse selection and Delete.

Copy the Layer if you wish darker edges.

The Shadow and Refraction you probably already know about...

[wbiss]

Thanks for sharing your technique Moth! ;) Your 'garnet' looks really great.

[Erik]

indeed: thanks for sharing.

[Sanby]

Thanks for sharing, that is awesome!!

Sanby

[Moth]

;\ Thank you all for your kind words. I'm glad you like my garnet.

I actually came up with this technique several years ago. How long ago you may ask? Well, I was using photoshop 3 at the time...

What I posted is just the basics. You can play with just about every step and make something totally different. The rotation of the layers, the layer settings, the wave filter all interact in pretty cool ways, and it can get real interesting if you colorize the different layers such as what I did with the picture posted below. So everyone have fun! I would love to see what you all come up with.

[Erik]

quote: "The Shadow and Refraction you probably already know about... "

some probably don't, but are a bit hesitant to ask.
So I will.
I would appreciate it a lot if you could add a bit of explanation on this part too.

And then I suggest we all get our feet wet and dive in. OK, gang?

[Moth]

[doh] No problem. I forgot not everyone knows these things. [doh]

To make the shadow,

Create a new layer above the background but below the jewel.
Select the Elliptical Marquee tool, still set fixed sized 450 x 450 px and center it directly below the jewel.
Now Select/Feather 4 px
Fill the Selection with Black with the Paintbucket
Deselect
Move the Black Circle down until it looks right. (I moved mine down 35 px using the Move tool and the down arrow from the arrow pad)
Adjust the layer opacity to 80%

To make the refraction

Create a new layer above the shadow layer but below the jewel.
Select the Elliptical Marquee tool and change the style to normal
Create an ellipse that wider than it is tall. Mine is roughly 150 x 75 px.
Select/Feather 4 px.
Choose the same color you used to colorize your jewel.
Select the Paintbucket and fill the selection.
Move the Refraction until it looks right.

There you have it. Have fun!


[excited]

[Erik]

;)

I was wondering how long it would take for anyone to ask (it's not that obvious?, but I lost patience. thanks for adding this. It makes your tut complete.

We might better move it to the tuts forum...I'll ask His Transparancy...