Tutorial: Dirty Dog Tags

This tutorial will show you how to create stylized dog tags from scratch, including the chain, using nothing more than a couple of marquees, layer styles and a few nifty tricks.

While intended for beginners, you’ll need to know your way around the basic tools before attempting this. It should take around half an hour or so to do.

Step 1. Setting up

Let’s create a new document, say 600×600 pixels and fill it in white. Once you’re ready, go ahead and create a new layer and rename it to Tag. Grab the Rectangular Marquee tool it to a fixed size of 150×210 pixels.

Click on the canvas to create a selection and fill it in black. Now, grab the Elliptical Marquee tool and set the size to 150×70 pixels. Move the selection to the top of the rectangle’s edges you created earlier and fill it in black. You can refer to the image seen here if you don’t understand what I mean. Repeat the same process for the bottom edge.

You should now have a rough dog tag outline. That’s wasn’t too hard, was it?

Step 2. Style it up

We need to apply several different Layer Styles to achieve our 3D metallic look. To view Layer Styles, simply right-click on your Tag layer and select Blending Options. Apply the changes shown below. You should end up with something similar to the image shown below.

Step 3. Getting Rough

Now that we have our basic dog tag look, we need to rough them up to make them seem a bit more realistic. Hold down the Ctrl key and click on your Tag layer’s thumbnail in the Layers window. This will create a selection with the outline of your tag. Create a new layer and rename it to Dirt.

Now, grab your favorite grungy, dirty brushes and set the brush opacity to about 10%. Start brushing on various details, making sure to overlap some edges to create darker spots. If you don’t have any grunge brushes, a good place to start would be Vered’s or DeviantArt.

After a few passes, you should end up with something somewhat similar to my results.

Step 4. Masking

It’s getting there, but it needs just a bit more work. Click on your Tag layer to activate it and click on the Add Layer Mask icon to create a layer mask. Select the brush tool and set your brush’s opacity down to 3% or so and do a few quick swipes with grunge brushes. I would recommend a hard-edged brush to create a few scratches.

Once you’re done with your scratches, we’ll create the chain hole. With the tag layer’s mask still activated, select the elliptical marquee tool and set to the size to 18×18 pixels. Move the selection to the top, center point of the tag and down about 12 pixels or so. Fill the selection in black to mask away that potion of the tag, creating a hole. Don’t forget to also mask away some of that dirt, too.

At this point, you should have a complete dog tag, so let’s move of to the chain but before we do, let’s keep our PSD clean and group our layers. Click on your Dirt layer, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the Tag layer. Once you have both layer selected, head into Layers and select Group Layers (or simply hit Ctrl+G). Rename the group Tag.

Step 5. Creating the chain

Chains are easier to create than you think. Let’s create a new layer and name it Chain. Now select the Brush tool and reset your brushes to Photoshop’s default set. From the list, select the Hard Round 9 pixels brush and make sure to set your brush opacity back to 100% if you still haven’t done so.

Let’s create the chain’s path first. Select the Freeform Pen tool and draw a chain path, making sure you go through your tag’s hole. You can see the path I’ve drawn here. We’ll be using this path a few times, so don’t lose it.

Let’s make this easy on ourselves and make our brush do the hard work. From the top menu, click on Windows and select Brushes. In the Brush Tip Shape menu, increase the Spacing value to a whopping 135%. Do you see where I’m heading with this?

Once again, click on Windows and select Paths. Right-click on the work path we’ve created earlier and select the Stroke option. From the pulldown menu, choose the Brush tool and click OK. Voila! Instant chain. Don’t lose your path yet, we need it in the next step as well.

Head back into the layers palette and create a new layer called Chain links. Click on the Brush tool and select the Hard Round 3 pixels brush. Head back into the Paths menu and again, right-click on your work path and select stroke, choose the Brush option and click on OK. That should create a nice link between your chain. You can deselect the path and move the Chain Links layer under the Chain one.

Step 6. Bling bling chains

We now have a completed chain, but it needs a metallic treatment. We can do this easily via Layer Styles, so right-click on the Chain layer and select Blending options. Apply the styles below and click OK when you’re done.

While we’re here, we can re-color our chain links via layer styles as well. Simply select the Color Overlay option and choose a medium gray.

Step 7. Mask the extras

We’re almost done! All that’s left is to remove the excess chain from the tag. Click on your Chain layer to activate it and press the Add Layer Mask button. Select the Brush tool and choose the Hard Round 9 pixels brush we used earlier and mask away the chain that leaves the hole to the outer edge. Repeat the same process for the chain links and call it a day.

Don’t forget to clean up your PSD and save your work!