short berm tutorial

[MX45]

I've explained this once before, but I think it was a bit confusing. Hopefully with some visual aid, it'll be easier to follow.

I reccommend making your berm on a whole new document, then copy/paste, or drag the layer over to your track.
Try to work in a scale as close to your track as possible. The greater you have to resize, the more the berm will be altered. (mine are big just for the example of this tut)
Do it on a 1:1 ratio image size. (128x128, 64x64, 5000x5000, etc.) You'll see why....

1. Make a gradient with the proper shape you want. Whatever technique you use for gradients is fine. If you happen to know how I sometimes go about shaping them, then you know mine can be way more complicated than this  :P  Make sure you start and end in black, and leave a good portion of the end black, especialy the left side (it'll be the inside of you berm)

1----

2. Set the gradient to radial, and drag it out from the exact center, on out. (hit crtl+r to show rulers, right click on the ruler and change to percent to be perfect. Start from 50/50, exact center). You should have this:

2---

3. Make a new layer, marque half the image, and fill with black. Merge layers together (ctrl+e).

3---

4. Go to filter/blur/radial blur, and set it between 15-25. then blur it, repeat this as many times (ctrl+f), untill the ends are nicely faded in and out. Around 10 radial blurs, this is much better than doing a single radial blur at say 50 pixels. The center of the berm, needs to be the focal point to the blur, hence 1:1 ratio.

4----

5. Finally add a layer like this ontop, and then set the blen mode to multiply, and adjust the opacity of the layer. This makes the center of the berm peaked more.

5---

Merge all layers, Complete:



Max render:




You can then move this berm onto your track, set the blend mode to screen, and it'll fit easily over any terrain.
If you know how to use the opacity sliders on the gradient efectivly, that's another way to go about the gradient (its better too).  Adjust the brightness/contrast also for some fine tuning on your track.
You make 90 degree berms the same way, just black out 3/4 of the berm in step  3.
I hope that's easy to follow.

Here is the photoshop doc.
http://www.nhgz.com/hosted/KXmotox45/images2/berm.zip

[mx333]

Hey thanks a lot for taking your time to show us this...this is really sweet thanks.

[DBR_Dodgy]

yeah they are the best burms ive seen and ridden, i used a few on my last project.   great job mike.

Ian.

[cR]

Man that looks sweet, I've used my own style for years now, but that looks much better!

[brenticus44]

wow man you have no idea how much this helped out...before i had no clue what i was doing...so i asked somone if they knew where to find tutorials on brems and i got linked here. this had really helped out, thanks man!

[Robbo566]

I'm still having troubles with using this method. I find it hard to make because my Disp Strength I use is 100. And If I use pure white, you can imagine how tall the berm is. I have tried lowering the white value, but it gets a little hard to see. But I guess with some trial and error, I could make an alright one.

But now I am having some problems with the Radial Blur. Do I have to use the Marquee or Lasso Tool do select around the berm?

I can do berms the traditional way (making a quarter moon shape using the Circle Marquee, selecting and blurring. But I really like how your berms look. The berm I am trying to make is a 90º Right hand corner. Does it still work just as good? I assume so.

I'd really like to try out them berms, they do look nice. So I wouldn't mind some in the track I am creating now.

Thanks for your time!

[DBR_Dodgy]

if your having trouble with the hieght of your berm, just lower the opacity on that layer until your happy with it.

Ian.

[MX45]

Main thing is be sure you have the center of your radial gradient smack center with the free transform piviot point. Thats why I recommended you do it on a square size image, so its easier to be exact. The radial blur uses the same focal point, so by having it centered, you're blurring around with the berm, and only really effecting the entrance and exit.

Like so....

[cR]

I recommed people not to use a white > black gradient but a white > transparent gradient on a new layer, easier to edit it then and you can allways add some detail underneeth it like terrain and stuff..

[MX45]

I agree too, and if you know how, then go for it. The steps are the same. I didn't feel like going into the extra detail of explaining it. But different situations call for different methods.