D2-Tutorial #3-Boydstun

How to create a brushed metal texture in Illustrator.

Start with a gradient of 2 different shades of gray. The darker shade on either end with the lighter in the middle.

Make it horizontal by changing the angle to 90 degrees.

next go to Effects > Texture > Grain

Make sure the Grain Type is set to horizontal, then adjust the sliders until you reach the desired effect.

Now you have your brushed metal gradient that you can use for whatever you might want.

I used it with the pattern tutorial that Sam did for the first tutorial, creating a letter D over the gradient shape

Going to Object > Clipping Mask > Make

Ta da