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Draw a realistic car rim

Genre: Photoshop Skill level: Moderate
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In this tutorial you will learn how to draw a realistic car rim, and I will show you where you can apply this.

Note: Before we start this tutorial we have to check whether the snap settings are set OK, since we'll need this today. So check whether it is as below:




Before we can start drawing, we have to make a new document. The larger the document is, the more detail you can bring on it.

This time you will make a new document with the configuration as below.



STEP 01
OK let's start. First make a new layer (ctrl + shift + N), and call it 'outer rim'. Then take the elliptical marquee tool (M), and than look at the top of your screen, and set the selection style to 'fixed size' and take the settings below.



Than click elsewhere in your document to place the selection. Fill the selection, do this by grabbing the Paint Bucket (G), and fill the selection with #d2d0d3.
Now this is important! Make sure outer rim is exact in the middle of the document. An easy way to do this is to highlight the outer rim layer (ctrl + left mouse button on the avatar of layer), press ctrl + A, to select the entire document. And click on the buttons as given in red.





Next thing to do is to delete a part out of the circle. Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and make a selection like below. Make sure the selection is in the middle of the outer rim circle. If you are sure about that, press delete.



You now see the circles are not smooth, and we don't like that. We want them looking smooth, so we are going to add a channel to this layer and configure it. Press ctrl + left mouse button on the avatar of the outer rim layer to get the selection activated. Delete the content of the circle you just filled, by pressing delete.
Now go to your layer pallette and click on channels, then click 'create new channel'.



Call this channel 'outer rim'. In your document you will see this now:



The first thing we got to do is fill the selection with a color, I prefer white. Grab the paint bucket tool (G) and fill it.



Deselect the selection (ctrl + D). You see really good, the circle is NOT smooth. Next step is add a Gaussian blur to the channel.
Filter>blur>Gaussian blur, and apply these settings:



Next to do is changing the levels.
Image>adjustments>Levels
And apply these settings:



Now press ctrl + left mouse button on the channel you just modified, to make the selection active. Now go back to your layers, and click once on the outer rim layer in your layer pallette, you will see the black background from the channels will disappear directly. Now we are ready to fill the selection and get a smooth result. Grab the Paint Bucket (G), and fill the selection with #d2d0d3. This is what your rim should look like have:



STEP 02
The next thing we have to do is draw the inner circle of the rim. Make a new layer (ctrl + shift + N) and call it 'inner rim'. Take the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M), and make a circle with a diameter of 75px. The easiest way to make this, is by using a fixed size, as you learned earlier this tutorial. Fill this layer with #d2d0d3. Also make sure that this layer is exact in the middle of the document. This circle does not look smooth again, so we have to make it smooth. We got to do this on the same way as we did before, with the channels. You should be capable to make this on your own now.
This is what you should have after that:



STEP 03
So, now we are ready to draw the spokes. Make a new layer (ctrl + shift + N) and call it 'spoke'. Take the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), and make a selection with a fixed size of 25x100px (width/height), and fill it with #d2d0d3. Now we are going to make the spoke look nicer. Make sure you are on the spoke's layer: edit>transform>perspective.
Below I will show you how you gotta modify it:



Now move the spoke with the move tool (V), to the middle of the rim, you'll notice that the snap points come in handy now! Make sure the spoke is as here below:



Now we are going to make the second spoke. Duplicate the first one (ctrl + J). Then press edit>transform>rotate 90 CW, and place it as below.



As you can see I added some aid lines to help me to place the spokes in the middle. This lines are made with the help of 'rulers'. You want them too? Click left mouse in one of the rulers at the edge of your document, and drag it to the middle of your document. If the snap is set OK, it'll snap automatticly to the midpoint.
Now we are going to make the third spoke. Duplicate the first one (ctrl + J). Then press edit>transform>rotate and take the settings below:



And place it between the first and second spoke.



Now we are ready to merge the first three spokes. Select them all:



After that, duplicate the merged layer (ctrl + J) And then Edit>Transform>Rotate 90 CW And place the layer on your document like this:



Merge the layers 'spoke copy' with 'spoke copy 2'. And then Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal
And place the layer on your document like this:



STEP 04
When you have done this, we are ready to make the rim look realistic. We will add a Lighting Effect. First merge all the layers of the rim with each other, because we want the lighting effect to apply on the whole rim. Filter>Render>Lighting Effect
And take these settings



Make sure you uncheck 'white is high', and apply a texture channel.



Now we need to add some accents, this means we will add the wheel-nuts. Add new layer, and call it nuts. Make a very small black circle. You can make the circle look smooth, but it's not really needed since the circle is so small, I leave it up to you. After that apply these blending options to the layer 'nuts':





You should have this then:



Duplicate the nuts layer 3 times and spread them out over the rim



Add you favorite logo to it, and you have made your rim.

Now that you have made you own realistic rim you can paste them under cars or something like that.