Putting in the background

Now it's time to work on the background. This threader is in a sort of chamber with metal walls and grooves, covered by specks, grit, and so on. I'm not sure how much detail I want on it, but as usual, I'm starting with vector shapes and layer effects to get the general shapes in. It looks pretty basic compared with the details of the foreground element, but that's okay at this point. Actually, it looks pretty good as it is. I'm using layer masks to fade away various layers as they move toward the right side of the image. With everything blocked in and placed correctly, now I can start painting and figure out how much detail and texture will go into the background.