What We’ll Be Creating
Creating The Shield
Start off with a new document (Ctrl + N) 1280 x 1280 pixels at 300DPI, fill (G) your background however you want. I’ve filled mine with a cool blue color with some halftone dots in the top and bottom corners.
Select the “Custom Shapes Tool” (U) then from the many available shapes select a shield shape.
Once selected drag the shield onto your canvas.
Select the vector mask of the shield shape, hold the Ctrl key and select the path. Copy the path (Ctrl + C) then paste (Ctrl + V) the path. With the path still selected “Free Transform” (Ctrl + T) the shape, hold down the shift and alt key on the keyboard then resize the shape making it smaller. Once your done resizing press enter to accept the change then press the “Subtract From Shape Area” button from the toolbar.
You should have something like this.
Right click your shield layer and select “Duplicate Layer” from the flyout menu, drag the duplicated layer underneath the original layer then select the “Move Tool” (V). Move the shape down until you have something like the image below. It might be a good idea at this stage to change the color of the shape to make it easier to see.
Finally using the “Custom Shapes Tool” (U) drag a new shield at the bottom of your layer stack which covers the inside of the shield. (Try and make the new shield the same size as your first shield).
Adding Style To The Shield Layers
Add the following layer styles to the inside of the shield (The last shape you created).
You should have something like this.
Add the following layer styles to the 3D part of the shield.
You should have something like this.
Finally to the last shield shape (The Outer Shield) add the following layer styles.
You should now have something like this.
Quick Note:
Depending on how big you have made your document and shield shape, you may need to lower some of the strokes and inner shadows within the layer styles.
Adding The Shield Detail
Select the “Custom Shapes Tool” (U) then select the “Registration Target 2” shape.
Drag the shape from the middle of the inside of the shield. Once your happy with the shape set the layers blend mode to “Soft Light” and “Opacity” to around 50%. Finally add a layer mask to the layer then drag a “Radial Gradient” from the middle of the shape dragging towards the edges.
Select the “Type Tool” (T) then type out what ever text you want on the shield.
Now go to “Edit > Transform > Warp” select “Arc Lower” from the warp menu to warp the text, use the slider to set the amount of bend you want on the text.
Once your happy with the warp press “Ctrl + T” and resize the text so it fits within the shield.
Now add the following layer styles to the text layer.
You should have something like this.
Select the “Custom Shape Tool” (U) then drag out a new shield shape the same size as the inside of the shield.
With the vector mask selected drag a rectangle over half of the shield whilst holding down the shift key on the keyboard.
Quick Tip:
Holding down the shift key automatically adds the new shape to the vector mask.
Once you have add the rectangle select the “Subtract From Shape Area” button from the toolbar menu.
Now add a layer mask to the layer and drag a linear gradient from the left to right then set the layers opacity to 20%.
Turning The Shield More Cartoon Like
Select all your shield layers then right click and select “Duplicate Layers” then right click again and select “Merge Layers”. Desaturate the colors of the merged layer by going to “Image > Adjustments > Desaturate” (Shift + Ctrl + U).
Now right click the layer and select “Convert To Smart Object”, were now going to apply a number of filters starting with the find edges filter “Filter > Stylize > Find Edges”. Next select “Filter > Brush Strokes > Sprayed Strokes”.
Then select “Filter > Brush Strokes > Angled Strokes”.
Then select “Filter > Texture > Texturizer”.
Then finally “Filter > Artistic > Colored Pencil”.
Once you’ve added the filters set the layers blend mode to “Linear Burn” and the opacity to around “70%”, you should have something like this.
Add a layer mask to the layer then select some grundge brushes, or painted brush strokes then using the color black color over parts of the shield making some of the marks created by the filters disappear. The brushes are available freely on the internet and shouldn’t be too hard to find.
Conclusion
Thanks for taking part in this tutorial, if you managed to finish this tutorial I’d love to see some of your results. Feel free to post them up on our Facebook Fan Page Or Tweet them via twitter @photoshop_plus.
Using the mask you added you could also take the shield one step further and produce something like this.
