How To Make A Speaker
Skill level: Intermediate
Programs used: Photoshop 6
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| When building an interface, it is a great idea to add as
many technological "gismos" as possible, e.g. flashing lights,
knobs and dials, or in this case a speaker. I've always wanted to make a
custom-built subwoofer.... |
| 1. Create a new canvas, about 400 x 400 pixels, with a white
background. |
2. Put you cursor in the middle of the canvas (200, 200) then
using the elliptical marquee tool  ,
hold down "SHIFT+ALT" keys to ensure the circle is dragged out
from the center and perfect in proportions. Make this selection about 350
x 350 pixels. |
| 3. Name the layer you are working on "Outer Rim" and choose
a light grey and dark grey for your foreground and background colors. I
suggest a light grey of RGB value (204, 204, 204) and a dark grey with RGB
value (51, 51, 51). |
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4. Select the gradient tool 
and drag a straight line gradient from the top-left to the bottom-right
of the circle. Now for the purposes of this tutorial, select the "Image>Adjust>Hue/Saturation"
menu command and select a nice gold color, say HSB values of (40, 43, 0).
You can deselect your circle now by selecting the "Select>Deselect"
menu command or pressing "CTRL+D". |
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| 5. Create a new layer above the last and call it "Indent". Drag
another perfect circle selection from the center of your canvas, but this
time make it about 305 x 305 pixels. Repeat step #4, but this time the gradient
should be dragged from the bottom-right to the top-left. Next, select the
"Image>Adjust>Brightness/Contrast" menu command and take
the contrast up about 20 notches, so as to create more contrast between
the two layers. Deselect. |
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6. Create a new layer called "Another Indent" and drag a small
circle selection from the center of the canvas, 78 x 78 pixels. Repeat step
#4 but again, the gradient must be dragged from the bottom-right to the
top-left of the selection to create the illusion of an indent. Also adjust
the contrast by taking it up by 20 notches again.
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7. Create another new layer, this one called "Bulge". Drag a smaller
circle selection from the center, about 70 x 70 pixels. This time make sure
your gradient is set on the radial gradient 
and drag a straight line gradient from the top-left, a centimeter inside
your selection, and end up on the bottom-right of your selection. Adjust
the hue/saturation again, then deselect.
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9. Press "D" to reset your color palette, your colors should now
be pure black and white.
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8. Now create another layer between the "Indent" and "Another
Indent" layers and call it "Speaker Shield". Drag out a circle
from the center, about 292 x 292 and making sure your gradient type is set
back to linear 
and drag a straight-line gradient from top-left to bottom-right of your
selection. Deselect.
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We could leave the speaker like this, but the speaker shield
looks very plain without any texture on it. We will now put ripples through
it as you might see on some real-life speaker shields.
9. Create a new canvas, 400 x 400 pixels, and fill the background
layer with a mid-tone blue color (it doesn't matter what color you use,
just as long as it contrasts with white).
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10. Now create a new layer and using the rectangular marquee tool  ,
drag a small selection, and fill this with white. Make a new layer and repeat,
using a different sized rectangle on a different part of the canvas. Do
this about 10-15 times, making sure you cover most of the canvas, as in
the example below:
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11. Now change the opacity of each of the rectangles individually so you
get this effect:
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12. Now click the eye 
on the background layer to make it invisible, then activate the layer with
the first rectangle you made and press "CTRL+SHIFT+E" to merge
all visible layers. Next select the "Filter>Distort>Zigzag"
menu command and use these settings:
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Turn the background back to visible and this should be the result:
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| 13. Next, using the ellipse tool drag out a perfect circle from the center
of the canvas, and select a good portion of the ripples; you will need to
fill all of the speaker shield on your original canvas. Next press "CTRL+C"
to copy your selection. Go back to your original canvas and paste the ripples
between the "Speaker Shield" and "Another Indent" layers.
Change the blending options for this new layer to "Soft Light".
Now make a perfect selection of the "Speaker Shield" layer by
holding "CTRL" and clicking on the layer in the layers palette.
Press "SHIFT+CTRL+I" to inverse your selection and making sure
that the ripples layer is your active layer, hit "DELETE" to clear
the all the excess ripples from your image. |
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14. Lastly, the ripples add too much of a lighting effect
to the speaker shield, so to counter-act this effect, press "CTRL+I"
while your "Ripple" layer is active to invert the colors. There
you have it, your own 'thump-the-roof-and-shatter-the-windows" speaker!
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