Gel Tube

In this tutorial I will teach you how to create a gel-like tube inset in a metal bar. Lets start off by creating a new photoshop document that is 400x400 with a white background.

The first thing we need to do is set our colors. Set your forground to a gray (I used #8E8E8E) and your background to white (#FFFFFF). Create a new layer and name it Metal Bar.

Next grab the Rectangle Marquee Tool and draw a rectangle about 225x65 in size.



With the rectangle still selected, grab the Gradient Tool select Linear Gradient with Foreground to background.

Now we need to edit our gradient to give it a metal look. Click the Gradient Preview to open the Gradient Editor and use these settings:



With the new gradient, hold down shift, click at the top of the rectangle, and drag down to the bottom of the rectangel.



Next we need to add some noise to give a grainy look. Go to Filter » Noise » Add Noise. Set the amount to 5, Uniform, and make sure Monochromatic is unchecked.



Now to create our gel-tube. Grab the Rounded Rectangle Tool and set the radius to 50px. Now draw a tube-like shape that is almost the width, and about half the height of the metal bar. You can use any color you choose. Your shape will be created on a new layer (probably named Shape 1) rename this layer to gelTube.



Now we need to apply an inner shadow to this layer. Click the Layer Style button at the bottom of the layers pallett. We'll want to apply an Inner Shadow with these settings:





Now we need to add some highlights to our gel-tube. Ctr+click the gelTube layer to load its selection. With it still selected create a new layer, name this layer highlight.

Now press D on your keyboard to reset the colors, then press X to reverse your colors. You should now have a foreground color of white and a background of black. With the gelTube still selected go to Select » Modify » Contract, contract by 5px. Now go to Select » Feather, feather by 5px.



Next grab the Gradient Tool select Linear Gradient with Foreground to Transparent. Now, while holding shift, click a few pixels above the selection and drag about halfway down the selection. This will give our tube a gel-like look.



Next select the Metal Bar layer, and create a new layer above it. Name this layer Inset. While on the Inset layer crl+click the gelTube layer to load its selection.

Next go to Select » Modify » Expand, expand by 2px.



With the selection still loaded press X on your keyboard to reverse your colors, you should now have a foreground of black and a background of white. Now grab the Gradient Tool select Linear Gradient with Foreground to background.

Now while holding shift click at the top of the selection and drag down to the bottom of the selection. This will make it look as the tube is inset in the bar. Your completed image should look like this:



Well that's it, you can mess around with the settings to get different results, or you could add some other effects