Metallic twirl

Another step by step tutorial in wich I explain how you achieve this nifty twirl with a metallic look. Please note! Due to the randomness of the clouds filter, your final result might differ a little from mine.

Step 1
Start a new document, preferably 800x600pixels. Make sure your foreground and background are set on black and white. Good, now we're set to go. Go to "Filter => Render => Clouds"


Step 2
After we have chosen some goodlooking clouds we're goin to add a new filter. It's almost all filters actually, nothing more to it. Now go to "Filter => Pixelate => Mezzotint (type: Coarse dots)".


Step 3
Guess what? That's right, another filter. Go to "Filter => Texture => Patchwork (Default settings)". Note! In photoshop CS4 you might want to click "show all menu items" because it is hidden by default.


Step 4
Next filter is wave distortion. Go to "Filter => Distort => Wave (Settings: see image)".

(click for full size)

Step 5
In the pre-last filter we're adding the twirl to our effect. Go to "Filter => Distort => Twirl (Angle: 999°)". Now, you might wonder, how does a brilliant mind like mine comes up with all of these steps to achieve something like that. The truth is ... I had no clue of what I was doing in the first place.


Step 6
Still looks like a bunch of stripes, so we're going to blur it. It's the last filter too! Go to "Filter => Blur => Radial blur (Settings: see image)".

(click for full size)

Step 7
Now add some more depth in it. Go to "Image => Auto levels" and voila. If for any reason auto levels is not in your menu (like mine in CS4, I have no idea were it's gone) than use auto tone, contrast, color. It should do the same thing


Step 7
For the last part you'll have to duplicate your layer. Make sure the duplicate layer is on top of the original one and selected.
Now go to "Edit => Transform" and flip it twice.
- Flip it horizontal
- Flip it vertical

For the duplicate layer i've set the layer style to "Linear Burn" but you might want to experiment with different ones too.

Final result. Remember that your result can differ from mine due to the clouds filter randomness. If you can't manage to get a good result try using the same document size as me.


Ps. I'd love to see your results, so leave a message if you want.

Source from: http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Metallic-Twirl/41855