Metallic Effect For Logo

[Hardouken]

Hey,

 

wanted to ask you guys something, I'm currently working on a logo for a friend and he wanted me to have the circle around the logo in a metallic/silver look. The logo will be added to a business card later on and he wants the metallic effect only on the business card, not on his hp, letters etc.

I'm not sure how to get that right. I tried the metallic option but every time I use it, it fills the whole circle with that effect and using a blending mode for the circle doesn't even seem to work. I'm not really familiar with Affinity Designer so I would be really thankful if you guys could tell me how to get that metallic effect.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Madame]

Hi.

 

If your circle is on it's own layer you can use "Style" -the tab beside the "layers"tab in the layers panel.
I think there's a metal style there. You can add on a 3D effect from the effect panel as well.

 

You can also add a metal picture layer and nest it to the circle. (Clipping mask)

 

I think your logo is very "stylish".

[Madame]

Here's a video about layers and nesting

[A_B_C]

In case you want to apply the metal effect just to the stroke and not the fill of the circle shape, the simplest way to do so might be to expand the circle stroke using Layer > Expand Stroke and apply the style afterwards.  :)

 

Please note, that doing so will currently create a lot of nodes, so you could also use the Donut Tool to create the circle (ring) around your letters and apply the metal style to the donut shape. And please be aware, that there are fabulous metal styles by evtonic3 and Chris van Cleve:

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/12199-assortment-styles-vol-1/?p=52758

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/16559-dream-styles-volume-2/?p=74993

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/3686-dream-styles/?p=14487

 

Cheers, Alex  :)

[Hardouken]

Alright! Thanks to both of you! Helped me a lot.

 

But I'm still not sure how to manage to get that shiny silver look on the business card. You know what I mean? Like in the picture below. Is it something the printing shop has to arrange or how can we archieve that effect on the business card? :S

 

 

 

 

I think your logo is very "stylish".

 

Um thank you? :)  Just wanted to let you know that my logo is still in the "rough" phase, haven't payed much attention to exact position of the logo elements etc. yet. Anyways feel free to critique. ;)

[A_B_C]

This shiny look is due to the use of inks that contain effect pigments … nothing you can do by applying gradients …  ;)

 

http://designshack.net/articles/graphics/an-introduction-to-working-with-spot-colors/

[Madame]

I don't know if I used the wrong word.. "stylish" means elegant I thought.
Hope I didn't offend you. Not so easy when English isn't my native language. ;)

 

CC isn't my strong side, though.

 

Whenever I working on something, I "never" manage to finish it. So.. I'm my worst critic I think. 

Luckily, it's easy to get back and change it in Affinity. ;)

[Hardouken]

This shiny look is due to the use of spot colours that contain effect pigments … nothing you can do by applying gradients …  ;)

 

http://designshack.net/articles/graphics/an-introduction-to-working-with-spot-colors/

 

Thanks for the info. So I assume it's nothing which could be done by using affinity designer? The guy in the link yu posted, uses illustrator. I'm not sure about AD though... Or do I have to talk to the guys who print the business cards? Unfortunately I'm not that experienced when it comes to printing. So I have no clue. :S

 

 

I don't know if I used the wrong word.. "stylish" means elegant I thought.

Hope I didn't offend you. Not so easy when English isn't my native language. ;)

 

CC isn't my strong side, though.

 

Whenever I working on something, I "never" manage to finish it. So.. I'm my worst critic I think. 

Luckily, it's easy to get back and change it in Affinity. ;)

 

Of course you didn't offend me, just thought, maybe there's something wrong with the logo, but nevermind, I'm guilty of misunderstanding. ;)

So thanks for the compliment. ;)

[A_B_C]

Hi Hardouken,

 

of course, this metallic effect can be achieved, but not by applying gradients. To put it simply, this effect is created by using some special sort of ink in the printing process, and you will have to employ a spot colour in Affinity Designer in order to specify the sort of ink to be used. But doing so will only make sense if your print shop offers the option of printing spot colours (or rather the option of using inks specified by spot colours), and in particular, if metallic inks are available as well. So you will have to talk to the folks at the print shop first. I would suggest sending them the image you posted above … just to make clear, which effect you want to achieve.

 

Hope that helps …  :)

Alex

[Asha]

Hardouken, that thumbnail you posted looks like a glossy varnish to me. That is done in the printing stage. To prepare your file, you should have a 100% stroke on your circle in a special varnish color from your palette. It will be color separated similarly to how a Pantone color would be.

[A_B_C]

Asha, you are very right … there might also be some kind of varnish in play …  :)

[JofreJKD]

Just create your own

I find that designing in 500dpi works best for me when I design custom promotional products like lapel pins or challenge coins

have what you want to apply the effect to on one layer and have it selected (black art only). click on fx on the bottom of the layer box

slight outer shadow (play with it)

click 3D (default should work)

Bevel/Emboss - Type-Inner, slide up the depth and Radius - soften just a hair

gradient effect (will vary depending on how you want the metal to show. blend mode usually shows as screen, type usually linear, but you may need to change to see what looks best) try to use a neutral gray/silver and you will have your silver metal.

color overlay - play with the color a bit to get your gold, brass, bronze, copper, black nickel, colors (i.e. gold will use something like a corn yellow-ish hue)... but play with it.

 

I designed mine perfectly in Photoshop to be almost photo realistic and I imported to Affinity Photo- still trying to get it to look like the way I had it, still working on it, but at least it's a start. once you apply the "fx", go to styles tab,  go to the tiny little menu on the upper right and select add styles category - name it something like Metal Styles or something. make sure the metal part/layer is selected, go to same little menu and click add style from selection. Then you can name it (Polished Silver metal... Polished Gold metal...etc.... antiqued Gold metal.... brushed silver metal...you get the idea).

 

Here's a couple of images of pins and challenge coins I did in the past to give you an idea

 

 

[34"LG Ultra Wide Curved]

Nice thread just cam to use it today.

[JofreJKD]

I changed something- because the import of my styles from Photoshop didn't pan out exactly... ignore the bevel/emboss.  leave unselected. just use 3D and adjust shininess. avoids artifact. that being said... I started with silver (neutral to get a decent effect going, then adjusted the colors). I am still working on it, so not everything is yet fixed except Polished Silver, Gold, Brass, and Copper metal style effects (bottom of list) along with, so far, Elec Blasted Silver Metal for recessed areas. I am still working on the rest to bring them up to speed from the import.

 

I will share what I have so far. I'll be adding additional metals and include Antiqued versions later and their recessed/electric spark effect versions as well. again. works in 5in x 5in @ 500dpi

To get the beveling effect to work for that raised up edging from the recessed layer, you need to cut out the black art (in this image the words Metal Effect), so that the beveling will trace along each letter (or graphic)... 

 

I hope this helps

 

***Update see my next post for a more updated styles file*** I got rid of the last one

Second pic shows deeper stamping of metal (just duplicate that layer, offset the bottom one a bit to the right and down, and increase the top one's shadow effect slightly)

 

 

[JofreJKD]

Updated Styles to include all major polished metals

Silver

Gold

Brass

Copper

Black Nickel (looks like a graphite metal, dark grayish/blackish, but shines like silver)

Dyed Black

 

Also recessed Electric/spark (sort of like a better matted sandblasted look, but never use sandblasting in production as it looks terrible, always use electric sparkle)

 

exception is dyed black, you just have recessed dyed black (this would be used for something like a Black ops pin when it can't be shiny)

 

I will need to work on the antiqued metals next and will update when I have a chance.

 

Hope this helps anyone. let me know what you think.

 

***update*** yes, I removed this one too. see the next note with completed version of my styles file

 

[JofreJKD]

To fill colored enamel in pins and coins, use pantone solid coated colors and use same effect as the recessed metals, but with one of those colors without the noise/sparkling effect. it will look like soft enamel cloisonne style

For Hard Enamel Cloisonne (Epola), just remove the beveling effect as well and make the enamel appear just about as flush with the raised metal as possible. I know I'm contributing to the post about metal effects, but I may as well teach people how to make the product go from die struck only to cloisonne enameled style, since so close...

 

[JofreJKD]

Okay Finished- 

Please note: as you'll see from my artwork examples for Antiques metals, I had pretty beautiful metal textures/striations in my recessed antiqued areas... Affinity Photos doesn't seem to have the ability to apply this within the style other than that 1 effect of sparkling (or noise)... adding textures within the style would be helpful. But it's about as close as I can get.

Here is the *for now* final version

All polished and recessed and antiqued and recessed styles of metal

*another tip: when designing a pin or coin and using hard enamel/epola, you cannot use dyed black metal and must use Black Nickel Metal. Bear in mind it isn't jet black and will definitely shine silvery much like graphite does.

*coins can be done in dyed black metal, but feel horrible, like they are made of plastic instead of metal (it isn't, but feels that way), so not recommended whether or not you are using hard or soft enamel

*trading pins with cartoon graphics work well with dyed black- but these are things than are learned over time with experience and holding the physical products in your hand.

 

 

******Serif, please make it possible to rearrange styles and organize them*****

JofreJKD Metal Styles.afstyles

[JofreJKD]

Make sure you are cutting out the raised metal areas for both color fill enamel or the recessed metal layers so the beveling effect can look more realistic- see pic

[Medical Officer Bones]

Or fire up a 3d app, and create your 3d metal object. I find that is more effective, and leads to better looking results. Much more freedom too.

It took me a few minutes to create these.

[JofreJKD]

1 hour ago, Medical Officer Bones said:

Or fire up a 3d app, and create your 3d metal object. I find that is more effective, and leads to better looking results. Much more freedom too.

It took me a few minutes to create these.

Yes, while I agree there are about a million ways to do just about anything, this is a forum on how to do it in Affinity Photo, so I am providing instructions and tools for use in Affinity Photo. Whatever 3D app can be used is irrelevant in a thread meant for another software. They could download Blender for free and even animate it, but that's not the point here. That doesnt help someone trying to learn how to use Affinity Photo. While it's simple to do a bar with text, it is not for frankensteining graphics for a custom promotion product.

How will your 3D software fair in prepping factory ready flat B&W art to create a laser cut mold? Or preparing for spot color or cmyk process? Looking pretty wont prepare your file for real life actual use.

I would ask that you stick with Affinity products in their own support forums. You'll just confuse people. Just to be a bit cheeky, let's see how well you do in doing one of my challenge coins above... how easy is the 3D software now?