In this tutorial, I will be taking you through the steps to create a rendering of a car. It will take you from initial sketch to this stylized polished off piece suitable for a presentation. The time taken to complete such a rendering depends on the complexity and the level of detail on the car. This particular one took me about an hour. So grab a cup of coffee and let’s get started!

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Photoshop CS4
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Estimated Completion Time: 1-2 hours

Step 1

For this tutorial I will be rendering the side of a vehicle. This is just a random sketch of mine that I chose. Notice the wheels are vastly exaggerated perhaps a little too much, but for the purpose of this tutorial it works fine.

There are countless different ways to render a vehicle and the purpose of the rendering should determine the style of the rendering. If you are in the initial stages of a project, you can be very loose with your rendering and only spend about ten minutes on it. If you are further along in the project the rendering will be tighter to demonstrate a truer illustration of what the real vehicle might look like. This tutorial demonstrates how I would tackle the latter. The style is my style and should be used as a guide and catalyst to developing your own style.

Scan your image and open it up in Photoshop. The quality of the sketch is not important in this case because the whole thing will be redrawn in Photoshop and any mistakes will be corrected (for example, one of the wheels might be smaller than the other).

Select Alt + Command + I and change the document size width to 210mm and the DPI to 300. This means that if the resulting image is printed at full size on an A4 sheet of paper the quality will be good, even if it were to be printed at A3 it would still look good.

By default the sketch will be on a layer called “Background” and the layer will be locked. To unlock it, right-click on it and select Layer from Background … a New Layer dialog box will appear, click OK and the layer will change to “Layer 0.” Now click “Layer 0″ once so that it is selected, then double-click it and change its name to "sketch." Next click the little padlock above it to lock the layer.

Go to Layer > New > Layer to create a new layer, then rename it "bg." You can now drag and drop layers to reorder them. Place the "bg" layer below the "sketch" layer. These two layers will remain at the bottom of the layers tab.

Step 2

This is the most laborious of the process. Using the Pen Tool (P) trace over your sketched lines. Use as few points as possible to keep the sketch flowing, light and clean. As an example, the top curve uses only two points, the first one and the end.

Step 3

Go to the Brush Tool, select a Hard Round 1px brush and make sure the color is set to black. The Opacity and Flow should be set to 100%, which is the default.

Create a new layer (Shift + Command + N) and call it "outline." Click on the Pen Tool, right-click anywhere on the image and select Stroke Path, the dialog box should come up with the brush tool selected (this should be the brush that was defined earlier). Make sure simulated pressure is not selected and click OK.

In the path panel (Windows > Paths) the "work path" will be highlighted in blue. Click outside of the blue area to deselect it. The paths will now be invisible. To make them visible again click on the work path (notice that the background is a light blue color, this is just a personal preference of mine and is not necessary).

Step 4

Select a medium color, (I have chosen a light blue, but it can be anything in the midrange), make sure that this is the foreground color.

Make sure that the "outline" layer is selected, then use the Magic Want Tool (W) to select all the areas of the car that will be made into metal. Between each piece selected there will be a gap where the line is, so you need to expand the selection by 1 pixel. To do this go to Select > Modify > Expand, and enter 1 in the box, then apply.

Make sure that the selection is still active. Now create a new layer and Edit > Fill the foreground color. Rename this layer "base" and make sure that it’s below the "outline" layer.

Step 5

Reduce the opacity of the "outline" layer.

Step 6

Using the Magic Wand Tool (W) select the wheels and ground area and any area which will be black. Now fill it with black. Put this layer underneath the "base" layer.

Step 7

For this next stage I have modeled some wheels using Alias (I am in the process of writing a tutorial on how to do this, visit Designer Mart for more news on this in the future), though you can find a stock image of wheels to use.

Step 8

Create a new layer and name it "outer lines." Go to the Brush Tool (B) and select a slightly thicker brush that is Hard and Round with 3 Pixels for size. Turn the paths on. Grab the Direct Selection Tool (A) and click on an outer path to select it, then right-click and select Stroke Path. Turn the paths off to get a clearer view of the new stroke.

Step 9

Create a new layer and name it “glue.” Using the same method as Step 7, create the strokes to highlight the glasshouse and lights.

Step 10

Create a new layer and name it "shutlines." Use the same method as in step 7 to create some shutlines. Select the Eraser Tool (E), right-click anywhere on the image and select a large, soft, round shape. Use this eraser to rub out bits of the ends of the shutlines to make them look lighter towards the ends.

Step 11

It’s important to decide which parts of the vehicle face upwards and which face downwards. Any part that faces up will reflect light and any part facing down will be darker.

Create a new layer and name it "ground darkness." Command + Right-click the base layer to select the area. Make sure that the "ground darkness" layer is selected.

Select the Gradient Tool (G) and make sure that the black to transparent setting is active and apply it from the bottom of the selection upwards.

Step 12

Make the "outline" layer active and use the Wand Tool (W) to select the shapes above the wheel arches. Create a new layer and name it highlights. Fill this layer with white, then use the Eraser (E) tool to soften the top edges of the arches. Using the techniques described above work your way down the car.

Step 13

The area underneath the glass is facing upwards so it will reflect light.

Step 14

The area at the top of the side of the car, known as the waistline, is a large area facing upwards so it will be lighter. I’ve added a little darker bit to the bottom right of it. Sometimes when something large reflects the sky it’s nice to add a little break in it. Some houses or trees might create such a shadow.

Step 15

The sill area will reflect light.

Continue Learning…

Our goal for this tutorial is to draw a realistic leather briefcase entirely from scratch. We’ll use Photoshop’s amazing layer styles and incredible brush engine to create textured leather, convincing stitches and gold-plated locks. Let’s get started!

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Photoshop CS4
• Difficulty: Advanced
• Estimated Completion Time: 2 hours

Video Tutorial

Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.

Step 1

Let’s start by creating a new RGB blank document, choosing a 512 px square canvas. Activate Snap from the View Menu (Shift + Command + Semicolon key). Set up two guides to mark the center of the canvas.

Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U), choose Shape Layer and set the Radius to 10 px in the Options bar (1a). Draw a brown rectangle by Alt-clicking and dragging from the center of the canvas (1b). This is the briefcase’s main body, so name it “main.”

Step 2

Let’s achieve a higher realism by introducing some color variation. Set up the foreground (2a) and background (2b) colors to brown hues, then go to Filter > Render > Clouds. This will create an irregular stain pattern with the two colors that simulates leather’s natural color variation (2c).

Step 3

Let’s add a real leather texture. Download this image and place it in the document, naming its layer “texture.” Scale it down proportionally until it’s slightly bigger than the briefcase (3a). Command-click the “main” layer to select its pixels then add the selection as a mask to the texture (3b).

Set its blending mode to Soft Light and reduce the Opacity to 50% (3c). It looks a bit dull, doesn’t it? Let’s add some life to it. First bring up Levels by entering Command + L and move the right-hand slider closer to the center (3d). This raises the white levels, making the texture look brighter.

Step 4

Now select the “main” layer and double-click on it to bring up the Layer Style window. First add a dark brown Stroke to mark the perimeter (4a), then Inner Glow to simulate concavity around the edges (4b). It looks better already (4c).

Step 5

Now duplicate the layer and scale it down, clearing all styles (5a). Add an Inner Glow style to simulate a full pocket (5b). The hard edge is wrong, though, so go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and choose 3 px. Now there’s a smooth color transition (5c). Now back to the “main” layer, add a Gradient Overlay to darken the top part as it is shadowed by the flap that we’ll draw later (5d).

Step 6

Now we’ll use a clever technique to create the stitches. Draw a small rounded rectangle (6a), then from the Edit menu choose Define Brush Preset and name the brush “stitch” (6b). You can erase the rectangle now.

In the Brushes palette set the brush’s properties. Set its Diameter to 8 px and the Spacing to 550% (6c). These values were found by trial and error using the preview at the bottom of the palette. The brush is ready to be put to good use.

Step 7

Choose a pale yellow color for the stitches (7a). Now create a rounded rectangle (choose the Path option for the Rounded Rectangle Tool) sized between the “main” and “main copy”. The stitches will run along this path (7b). In the Paths palette you’ll see the path you just created, double-click on its generic name and enter “main-stitches” (7c).

Now create a new layer and make sure it’s selected. Back to the Paths palette, right-click on the “main-stitches” path and select Stroke Path. A dialog will pop-up. Choose the Brush Tool and uncheck the Simulate Pressure option if it’s not already. Here’s the result (7d).

As you can see, the brush doesn’t conform to the path so the little dashes are always horizontal. We need to erase the vertical sides. Then marquee-select the dashes at the corners and rotate them 45 degrees (7e, 7f). It’s OK if they don’t look symmetrical, as that looks more natural.

Continue Learning…

Illustrator’s built in Symbol Sprayer can be a highly useful tool for quickly creating awesome pattern graphics. Let’s look at creating a few vector skull graphics, then combine then into an intricate pattern design to customise a skateboard deck.

We’ll be using our design to create a custom skate deck graphic, but it doesn’t have to stop there. This technique can come in handy for any design project.

Open up Adobe Illustrator and draw a circle onto the artboard. Hold Shift to constrain the proportions.

Draw a Rounded Rectangle onto the artboard, alter the radius of the corners by pressing the cursor keys. Overlap the rectangle with the circle and Align along the vertical axis using the Align Palette.

Combine the two shapes using the Add to Shape Area option from the Pathfinder palette.

Adjust the stroke of the new shape to add a thick black outline.

Draw a circle filled with black, then duplicate it to the side. Group the two circles then align them centrally with the overall skull outline.

Grab the Star tool and click and drag a shape onto the artboard. Before releasing the mouse, press the downward cursor key to limit the points to three, creating a triangle.
Go to Effect > Stylize > Round Corners, enter a figure of around 10mm to round off the pointed edges.

Scale and position the triangle as a nose on the skull.

Use the Rounded Rectangle to create a long thin shape. Copy (CMD+C) and paste in place (CMD+F), then move to one side while holding Shift.

With the two shapes selected, go to Object > Blend > Make. Go back and adjust the Blend Options under the Object menu to give three specified steps. Go to Object > Expand and select just the Object checkbox.

Duplicate the skull outline and send it to the top of the stack (CMD+Shift+]). Temporarily fill it with a random colour. Ungroup the collection of rectangles, then go to Object > Compound Path > Make. Select both the new skull outline and set of rectangles and use the third option from the Pathfinder palette to trim out the excess.

Repeat the last few stages to create a set of three skull graphics, each with slightly different proportions to add a little variety to the pattern.

Select each graphic individually and click the New Symbol icon from the Symbols palette.

Grab the Symbol Sprayer tool and select the first skull graphic from the Symbols palette. Click and drag across the artboard to place the first few instances of the graphic.

Click and hold the Symbol Sprayer icon to reveal the secondary tools. Double click the Symbol Rotator to adjust the settings. Change the Method to Random.

Use the Symbol Sprayer Rotator to spin the skulls in various directions, creating a purely random layout.

Select the Symbol Sizer tool and change the Method to Random. Then use the tool to add a variety of sizes to the symbols.

Continue Learning…

In this tutorial, we’re going to teach you how to replicate Apple’s iPod Nano. Not only will we recreate it’s signature body form, but also the headphones and put them in a unique setting that makes it pop. This an easy to follow step-by-step tutorial, and altering the final appearance should be a piece of cake, especially if you’re a Plus member! Changing the appearance is only a metter of picking a few different colors or adding your own textures as skins!

Final Image Preview

Let’s take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join PSDTUTS PLUS for just $9/month.

Step 1

Create a new document with these settings like 1a. The first layer, call it “background” and fill any color. Then Open the Blending Options and settings (1b).

Step 2

Create a new folder, call it “ipod”. In this folder, create a new layer, call it “ipod” as well. Select the Rectangle Tool (U) to draw a rectangle shape like the one below (2a). Select the Pen Tool and click on the shape. After that, create four nodes of the shape as shown. At the top line, click to make a node between two top nodes. Then correct the top line of the curve by holding “Command” down, and clicking and dragging the node upward by a little (2b). Do the same with bottom line, but downward this time(2c). Then press Command + Enter to make the selection and fill that with color (2d).

Step 3

Open the Blending Options menu for “ipod” and adjust the settings like in image 3a. Create a new layer on top, call it “light ipod”. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to make a rectangle selection and fill it with white (3b). Then reduce the Opacity to 30% (3c).

Step 4

Create a new layer on top, call it “screen bg”. Use Round Rectangle (set Radius: 5px) to draw a shape like one below and fill it black color (4a). Then open Blending Option and setting (4b).

Step 5

Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to make the selection (5a). Press Command + J to duplicate this selection, rename the new layer “screen bg light”. Reduce the Opacity to 30% (5b). Then open the Blending Options and use the following settings (5c).

Step 6

Create a new layer on top, and call it “screen”. Use the same tool to make the rectangle selection right in the middle of the “screen bg” and fill it with black (6a). Then open Blending Options and use these settings (6b).

Step 7

Use the Polygon Lasso Tool to make the selection like in 7a. Press Command + J to duplicate this selection, rename the new layer “light screen”. Open Blending Options and use the specified settings (7b). Then reduce the Opacity to 30%.

Step 8

Create a new layer on top, call it “button bg”. Use Elliptical Marquee Tool to make the circle selection and fill it with white (8a). Then open Blending Options and use these settings (8b, 8c).

Step 9

Create a new layer over “button bg”, and call it “circle”. Use the same tool to make the smaller circle selection and fill it with white (9a). Then open Blending Options and copy these settings (9b, 9c). Add a button icon on “button bg” (9d).

Step 10

The right earphone is up next.

Create a new folder (outside “ipod” folder), call it “right earpiece”. Use the Elliptical Marquee Tool and the Pen Tool (P) to draw like in the steps below (10a). In turn, open the Blending Options of each layer and use these settings (10b, 10c, 10d).

Step 11

Create a new document (20 x 20px) with a transparent background. Choose the Custom Shape Tool, select the diagonal shape (11a). Draw and fill with black (11b). Then go to Edit > Define, name it “diagonal” and close this document (no need to save).

Step 12

Come back to the main document. Create a new layer under “right 03”, and call it “right 06”. While holding “Command” down click on the layer “right 03” to obtain its selection. Go to Select > Modify > Contract, put Contract by 2px. Go to Edit > Fill, at Contents select Pattern, at Custom select “diagonal”.

Step 13

The left earpiece.

Create a new folder (outside “right earpiece” folder) between “ipod” folder and “background”, call it “left earpiece”. Do the same steps of “right earpiece”.

Step 14

In the “left earpiece”, create a new layer on top, call it “shadow left” and according to the following images:

Step 15

Create a new layer under “left earpiece” folder, call it “line”. Use Pen Tool to draw like 15a. First, set Brush tool is hard brush 4px, black color. Then press U, click right mouse on the image, select Stroke Path to draw black line (15b). Open Blending Options this layer and setting (15c).

Step 16

Press Command + J to duplicate “line”, rename new layer “line shadow”. Move it under “line” and reduce Opacity to 40%. Then move this layer down a little.

Step 17

Create a new folder under “left earpiece” folder, call it “shadow”. Use Brush Tool, Pen Tool, and Elliptical Marquee Tool to draw accordin to the following images below:

Final Image

And that’s it for this device! For a quick makeover, download the source file and apply your own colors and skins!