[ thin chrome ]
Okay, sure -- chrome is one of those things that's both overdone and easy to overdo. But it does have it's uses, doesn't it? What's a gearhead site without it?There are also about a thousand variations of this out there, and I'm sure you can add it to the list. This one does have a special purpose, however: It's good thin. Excellent for piping around a site, trim, thin text, etcetera. It's also easy to modify for both thicker lines and different color variations.
I'm sure that I didn't do this from scratch, so I'm certainly not taking all the credit for it -- and I can't remember from whence it comes, so I can't give them credit. Sorry about that...
And like everything else in this section it's dedicated to the lazy at heart so it's done using nothing but the dynamic filters in Photoshop. Be warned, however, that it does take some definite cycles to render -- if you use it a bunch, your redraw can bog and your raw file size will climb.
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[ drop shadow ] More or less standard settings for a dropshadow; 75% #000000 multiplied, whatever orientation you'd like for it [default of 120° here] and in this case 3/0/3.
Obviously, this can be played with; a dark blued chrome with a deeper blued dropshadow, for, example, can end up looking fairly spiffy. |
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[ inner shadow ] Things set a bit shy of default here. A setting of #000000 at 27%, using the same light as your dropshadow, at 10/0/5. You're also going to want to note the contour and change accordingly.
On thicker objects, you'll want to tweak this a bit by setting your size and distance wider. |
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[ inner glow ] These settings: Structure set for #ffffff at 100/0; Elements set for Precise, Edge and 60/3; Quality set for a straight line contour, andti-aliased at 25/100.
Note that anti-aliasing for the Quality contour; this seems to give a cleaner reflection line. |
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[ bevel & emboss ] Here things get a little odd -- and let me know I probably filched the original somewhere and have modified it. I generally don't futz around in these ranges, more's the pity.
Inner bevel, set to a hard chisel and a depth of 1000%, 'up' direction and 215px size. Shading is set to global, with a curved countour and the highlights set at 100%. [The grey here is #9b9b9b]. Obviously, these can be tweaked to change the overall color of the chrome -- but this works for the purist sort of thing. |
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[ gradient overlay ] Stock settings here are a normal blend mode at 100%, a grey-white gradient [which we'll get to in a second], reflected style and angled at 120°; the scale I tend to futz with depending on what I'm working on.
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[ gradient settings ] The gradient settings are a bit odd -- but nothing major. From left to right:
0% - #b7b7b7 - 100% opacity 27% - #ffffff - 100% opacity 38% - #ffffff - 100% opacity 100% - #c2c2c2 - 100% opacity It can be messed with to... blah, blah, blah. You know the drill. |
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[ stroke ] The settings: 1px line, outside, normal blend, 100% opacity with the fill color #acacac.
One important note -- this is obviously going to widen what ever size object you're drawn, so be prepared to compensate. I have noticed it just doesn't look right without it, however. |
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