How can I make my dresses have a metallic sheen to them?

Hey,

I'm new to SL clothes designing and so far have only made a couple of dresses - I intended them to have a cotton feel to them which worked out well but now I want to create some dresses that have a silky/metallic look to them.

I've tried highlighting, doging and burning in photoshop but I can't seem to get the right effect, I was wondering if anyone knew of any good, easy to follow tutorials that could guide me?

Your instincts are good, as far as highlights. A metallic sheen needs fairly well-defined highlights, so try being more aggressive with them than you would for a soft fabric and don't over-blur or smudge the edges. I haven't found that dodging and burning helps much, but then I don't use either one very frequently anyway. I find it's too easy to go overboard before I know what happened.

Here's what works for me:

I have found that it helps to start with a background texture that has a lightly brushed look, so I add a little noise (about 10%) to my base fabric layer and then apply enough motion blur to give it a bit of sheen. I apply highlights on a new layer that has been filled with 50% Gray and set in Overlay mode. I paint the highlights with white, using a higher flow rate and a harder brush than I would for highlights on a gentler fabric like cotton. It's hard to quantify the settings here; I just have to mess with hardness and flow rate until it feels right. (Something like 40% hardness and 15% flow rate is a good place to start, for some reason.) Then I apply enough Gaussian blur to soften the edges of the highlights a bit when I have finished painting. Finally, I adjust the Levels on that layer to further accentuate the highlights until I get a pleasing effect.

There are probably a zillion other techniques that work for other people, but I stumbled on this combination of techniques by trial and error and it seems pretty effective. Give it a shot.

Thanks so much for that - I'll give it a go!
I've been sat in front of photoshop for the last 3 hours trying to get the right effect with no luck, but here goes....

I think that metallic and silk or satin are very close - I wrote a tutorial a while ago that shows you how to create this look in Photoshop:

http://www.suztv.com/SatinTutorial.html

Curves is the answer for most of what you want.

wow, how the heck did I miss that tutorial!!!
I have been wanting to do a draping satiny type effect for awhile but been lost on how to do it so it looks good

that is awesome!!

ty ty ty

Oh, I love it, Sioxie! I would not have thought of making so many adjustment layers. This looks so much nicer than the way I've been doing a satiny texture. MUCH richer.

I read about your tutorial and I would love to take a look at, but some how, I'm not able to find it...could you please send me a link...thank you very much!










QUOTE=Sioxie Legend]I think that metallic and silk or satin are very close - I wrote a tutorial a while ago that shows you how to create this look in Photoshop:

http://www.suztv.com/SatinTutorial.html

Curves is the answer for most of what you want.[/QUOTE]

Hmmmmm.... That's odd. The link that Sioxie gave us in the post works just fine for me. I just checked it again to see if maybe the link was broken. It's not.