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Stephen G. Petrany is a full-time graphic designer and part-time instructor at Bradley University in the United States. He likes to work in Photoshop… More about Stephen↬
Step-by-step Guide To Building Realistic Textures In Photoshop
Photoshop can be used for more than just retouching or manipulating images. You can create your own texture. In this article, Stephen Petrany will introduce the basics of techniques to help you build custom textures. It will cover the three functions Photoshop relies on to create most textures – filters, layer styles and brushes. You will see that creating high quality textures for art or design does not require the talent of a painter. All it takes is a little understanding of Photoshop and knowledge of the tools and how to manipulate them to get the effect you want.
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Textures are everywhere – the concrete on the pavement, the fabric of your chair, even the glass (or plastic) surface of the screen you’re looking at now. It is natural that textures attract us because we see and feel them every day. And it’s no wonder why texture has become such an important element of design – so important, in fact, that I want to share with you the tricks and tools to create your own textures using Photoshop.
Photoshop is not just for retouching images or manipulating images. It can be used for several things, such as creating your own textures – as long as you know where to look. In this article, I will introduce the basics of techniques to help you build custom textures.
I’ll cover the three Photoshop features that I rely on to create most of my textures – filters, layer styles, and brushes. Before we get into that, I want to point out the importance of texture. See the picture below:
In the image above, we see a scene without texture. (Well, it’s a texture, flat gray. Without at least one texture, the image wouldn’t exist.) The second image (right) shows a fully textured scene (wood on the frame, dusty table surface, fabric on a chair. , etc.) . In fact, this entire image was created in Photoshop (without using external images), using many of the techniques described in this article. Note that this article explores how to create textures, but if you are interested in learning more about using textures as an element of design, there is some additional reading at the end of this article.
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Filters are still seen by many as cheap gimmicks with no real functionality that can be implemented in Photoshop. (I know, I’ve been on the same page.) Photoshop filters, on the other hand, are incredibly powerful effects that, when used correctly, can produce amazing results. If filters aren’t part of your regular Photoshop workflow, I encourage you to take a second look at these underrated effects and use the tips below to get started.
No one ever said you can only use one filter. Instead, try adding a second or a third or more. Experiment with different filters and see how they interact with each other to create new effects. Filter gallery panel (
) even has a filter stack where you can preview how multiple filters work together. The image below shows how the Craquelure filter becomes more attractive by applying it to the Crosshatch filter through the filter gallery.
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Let’s take another look at how multiple filters work together to create custom textures. The image below shows a basic example.
The image below shows the steps needed to recreate this texture. The texture starts with a blank canvas (left). Added noise filter (
) (middle) is randomly introduced into the scene and provides a good basis for subsequent filters. Because filters work by manipulating pixels on layers, the order in which they are applied is important. So using the emboss filter (
Additionally, some filters only perform better when applied more than once. See the picture below the circled box. Use sphere filter (
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) gives only moderate results. But using it a second time creates a more believable dimension (right).
Tip: Before applying the filter, convert the layer to a smart object to activate the smart filter. Smart filters are non-destructive and can be changed quickly.
Experiment with different combinations of filters to see how they interact with each other. You’ll soon be able to predict how a filter will work with other filters to create certain effects. Let’s move on to the next tip.
Tactical tiles, while desirable, often require a lot of time and effort – why not let Photoshop do most of the work for you? Some filters (such as cloud and noise) will naturally produce grids when the document is a power of 2 (for example, 256 × 256, 512 × 512, even 512 × 1024). If you start with one of these textures as a base and build on top of it, you’ll find that you can quickly create complex, stacked textures with little extra effort. The image below shows an example of a texture created using the cloud filter as a starting point.
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) applied to a document measuring 1024 × 1024 pixels. As with noise, the cloud filter provides a certain randomness that works well with other filters.
At this point we are free to adjust the dimensions of the image without compromising tiling capabilities. Therefore, do not put the size across
, we can compress the texture while keeping it fit (left). Now if we add the Posterize effect (
), we can break the texture into several shades of gray with lighter edges (center). Edge Find Filter (
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To learn the full process of how these textures are created, check out my “Custom Wood Textures in Adobe Photoshop” tutorial.
Layer styles are another way to introduce texture to a scene. They offer several options for beautifying layered content. It’s always a good practice to experiment with each setting in the Layer Styles panel to learn how they work. Here are some tricks I use when working with layer styles.
When creating textures in Photoshop, blend mode does what it says: blends. Multiple texture layers can be blended seamlessly into a complex texture, as shown below:
Tip: Working with gray textures when using blend mode makes blending easier to control (color can always be added later).
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When trying to create a complex texture, it can be difficult to pull it off in one go. Instead, try breaking down a complex texture into a series of simpler subtextures. Note the texture of the table surface in the four images below. Each image represents a simple texture that is combined with other images to create a more complex final texture.
Using layer styles may be an obvious choice, but many people often ignore the “Advanced Blending” section of the default layer styles panel. Hidden in plain sight are some of the most powerful mixing options. Here you can decide how the layer mask will affect a style: Does it hide the layer style or limit it to only the visible part of the layer? At the bottom of the menu is a “Blend If” slider. This slider can easily produce complex blending effects.
Take the picture below. The glossy texture of the paint is created with minimal effort using the “Blend If” slider.
The “Blend If” slider controls how a layer blends into the layer below it, as shown in the image below. The first paint layer (left) looks too flat, but has enough variation to allow the “Blend If” slider to work. Next, large white areas are painted on a new layer (right) to determine where the blending should take place. Adjusting the “Blend If” slider on the white layer will produce a glow effect in the image above.
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To learn more about how this image was created, check out my “Make a Brush in Photoshop” tutorial.
Sometimes a team will benefit from having two of the same team style with different settings. In previous versions of Photoshop, it was difficult to do this without using destructive techniques. With the introduction of Smart Objects in CS2—and now the ability to add layer styles to layer groups in CS6—Photoshop makes it easy to apply and reuse multiple layer styles on the same layer. This technique was used to create the liquid glass bottle pictured below.
When examining the fluid from the scene alone, it starts with the general shape of the layer itself (left). The inner shadow and overlay gradient layer styles are assigned to the (middle) layer. The layer is converted into a smart object,
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