Sunday 21 July 2013

Chrome Curves

I already posted a tutorial about alpha-curves that are good for shaping the alpha-channel. In this tutorial its all about Value or Chrome-Curves.
The channel of the curves-tool is set to the default of 'Value' (instead of Alpha).

Chrome-Curves are a way of shaping a gradient (for example), into something that looks metallic or chromed.



For demonstration purposes i filled a text selection (almanaque 145px) with a gradient:

(40ies) Grey to White (#666666 - #ffffff)


Chrome-Curves can have all sorts of shapes, from simple to extreme.

Basically its a wavy shape that goes up and down along the diagonal line in your curves diagram or, in the more extreme cases, from bottom to the top of the curves-tool dialog-box.
Here are some examples:



Curves applied to the gradient filled text:

See how the gradient changes, the more i manipulate the curve.








Bevelled Text


For the next demonstration im adding a bevel to our text and then apply custom chrome-curves.




See how tweaking the curve, step by step, changes the chrome look:









More examples for chrome-curves shaped gradients:








Chrome-Curves on a bumpmapped layer:

Finally a different approach: bumpmapping a 50ies grey layer with a 6px blurred channel and then chrome-curves.


3 comments:

Akros said...

These curves give a beautiful effect in texts. It's always nice to save some of these curves in presets.
I always get confused if I use the "curve-tool" in value or Alpha. But as there are only two options, it is not as big a mess as well.
Thx for all Esper!

Espermaschine said...

I was thinking about uploading some curves-presets, but i think its totally unnecessary.

Distinguishing alpha and value curves is quite easy. If you want to change the colour, you use Value. If you want to manipulate the shape and/or transparency, then use alpha.

Akros said...

Ahhh! Now it's easy! If color then Value, else, Alpha! This tip made ​​things more transparent. It was a tip "Alpha"! lol. Thx Esper!