This is what we will be creating. A fully robotic horse, made from all sorts of metal materials found online and by taking your own photos. 
This is Ashkarok. it took me about 3 days to get the design right.
A good few years back I found a tutorial from the Photoshop Lady that showed me how to create the face of a robotic horse. You can still see this tutorial here: Robotic Horse.
So firstly, decide on the horse you want to use, and the pose. For Ashkarok, I used a rearing horse. Cut it from its background, and press control, click on the horse layer to create a line of marching ants around the horse, and then create a new layer, and fill it with black (#000000). Hide the layer for now. This will be used as the base, so that in the end, the real horse will not be seen at all.
This tutorial taught me everything I needed to know about manipulating metal and creating something awesome with it. It shows you how to use the transform tool and forms the basis for the tutorial today. Give it a go and let’s create this one.
Following the first tutorial should give you the guidelines to create the face, but you need to get a little more creative when you look at the shape, and of course the fact that the horse has its nose in the air this time. Using the liquify tool comes in handy here, like when trying to create the mouth etc. but i also used it to create the “mantle” around the neck of the horse. Just don’t use the effects until the entire horse is created.
So, what are we waiting for 
Let’s get the rest of the horse done now. Starting with materials. For the rest of the horse, you need a few images of pipes, the motorcycle image you used to create the face, and some leg armor, (lol yes leg armor), and then lastly some tube covers. These you will add to the legs as “joints”.
Firstly, after working on the head and following the tutorial, create the face, minus the bridle. I also left out a few areas around the ears, like the large disc on the side and the large pipe over the eyes, and created 3 small pipes instead.
Ashkarok’s head turned out like this:
Also, after merging all the layers to create the mane, I bent it using the transform tool and while holding control, clicking on individual edges manipulating the mane to follow the neck of the horse a bit better.
Ok, let’s get to the body. This is where things get interesting and a tad more complex than the face. When you look at the horse, you can see that quite a bit is visible. The tummy, the legs from the other side, all of this needs to be given a metal coat. Here we use the leg armor, firstly using the transform technique used to manipulate the mane. Use the leg armor to cover the legs in pieces, when you look at ashkarok, you can see I have left the joints open.
When this is done, we use a blur tool, and basically smudge any reflections etc. from the armor, until it still looks like shiny metal, but nothing of its previous environment is left behind. In the image here, you can see the black showing through pieces of the metal. This is the effect I am trying to create, and I feel it’s an awesome backdrop for the metal exterior.
Working on the body, remember how you created the neck? Use the armor once again (not the leg ones though) and this time, transform the metal so that it fits across the horse’s back, but up to the beginning of its tummy. We are going to add piping and other bit for the tummy. Make sure the layers for the back are created one beneath the other, which gives you the same effect as the neck, but slightly bigger metal pieces. It should look like this when you’re done.
Where the side of the horse begins, leading to its tummy, take a piece of pipe, and create two or three duplicates of the pipe. Line them up, one beneath each other and highlight the first pipe layer, hold shift and click on the third pipe layer, all three layers should now be selected, press control and E, to merge the three layers. Holding control, click on the thumbnail image of the pipe to create the marching ants around the pipe, and let’s get tricky. For many who have not used the puppet warp in Photoshop, here’s your chance to try. While the pipe is selected, click on edit, puppet warp, and it loads a mesh around the pipe. our mouse then allows you to create “points” on the warp that will allow you to manipulate the pipe further, to mold it to the side of the horse. Mold the pipe so that it follows the horse’s chest, and dips inward toward its back legs.
Create a new layer under the pipe layer, and to this add the image you used to create the side of the horses face, and under its eye, (the motorcycle engine piece). But cut it so that the long metallic piece is cut away and you’re left with a square of sorts. This way you will not need to mold or liquify too much to get these pieces to fit onto the horse’s tummy.
You can see in the previous image, how the layers are added one beneath the other, and then merged to create one layer, which is then transformed holding control and moving individual points.
To manipulate the back leg, took a bit of ingenuity. Because it is bigger and wider as it tapers to the actual leg from the body, I took another piece of leg armor, and transformed it to fit the general shape of the leg. I then added a liquify filter to the leg so that it molded to the leg, but at the same time even when placed under the “back” layer, the leg still looks solid, and maintains its shape. By now, you have already manipulated the tummy to taper inwards at the top of the chest and inwards at the back legs, So, duplicate the back leg top layer already done, and cover the inner side of the second back leg. Carefully delete the excessive metal, until it takes the shape of the inner leg.
Now, you can finish the rest of the legs. Remember to keep them in pieces, and remember the liquify one point of the metal to be overlapped by the next leg layer, leaving the joints open. The joints will be covered with the hidden black layer to make it look like hard plastic beneath the joints.
This is the end of part one. Part two is here linked to the bottom of the page where you will learn how to create the shadow, the tail flame and its reflections, and of course its background.
