Tutorial: Creating a Light Texture (light brush/light image)

[charliemc]

It's very simple to create your own light textures -- also called light brushes and light images. (Generally you would save this and use it as an additional layer, rather than use it as a conventional PSP texture.)

Edit: I started by explaining the distortion/ripple method -- but I've also added the distortion/wave method. Both work quite nicely!

If you wish you can click the following four images to see the full (200 x 200) size:

You start with a solid black (HTML: #000000) image:



Then end up with something like this:



When applied to an image, it looks like this:

   

1. Open Paint Shop Pro (PSP).
   
   
2. Open a New image, 200 x 200 pixels, black (HTML: #000000).
   
   
   
   Note: If you want this to be a light texture for an icon, obviously you would make the size 100 x 100 pixels in size. But you also have the option to create your light texture at this size, then reduce it by half!
   
   
3. Go to Layers > New Raster Layer. Click OK.
   
   
4. Go to your Tool Palette and select the Paint Brush Tool. Use the following settings:
   Brush: Click the drop-down and select the Default brush.
   Shape: Round
   Size: 10
   Hardness: 100
   Step: 32
   Density: 100
   Thickness: 100
   Rotation: 0
   Opacity: 100
   Blend mode: Normal
   
   
5. Go to your Materials palette and set the Foreground and Stroke Properties to Solid Color, white (HTML: #ffffff).
   
   
6. Use your Paint Brush to scribble a simple design. (This one ended up looking a bit like a 'w' or an 'm' -- but do whatever you wish!)
   
   
   
   If your Layers Palette isn't open, open it now. (You can toggle this on and off by pressing the F8 key on your keyboard.)
   
   
7. Go to your Layers Palette and lower the Opacity of your top layer to 60. (Do this by moving the Opacity slider from 100 left until you reach 60.)
   
   
8. Go to Layers > New Raster Layer. Click OK.
   
   
9. Go to your Tool Palette and select your Flood Fill Tool. Use these settings:
   Match mode: none
   Blend mode: Normal
   Opacity: 100
   
   
10. Go to your Materials palette and set the Foreground and Stroke Properties to any Gradient (no texture). I used Autumn, leaving my Angle: 0 and Repeats: 0. But you can use whatever you want.
    
    
11. Flood fill the new layer with your gradient color.
    
    
12. Go to your Layers Palette and change the Blend Mode of your top layer to Color (not Color (L)).
    
    
    
    You've now got this:
    
    
    
    
13. Go to Layers > Merge > Merge All (flatten).
    
    
14. Go to Effects > Distortion Effect > Ripple. Use the following settings:
    Center offset
    Horizontal: 10.00
    Vertical: 50
    Settings
    Amplitude: 60
    Wavelength: 90
    Edge mode
    Repeat (selected)
    
    Click OK.
    
    
    
    
15. Go to Adjust > Blur > Motion Blur. Use the following settings:
    Angle: 90
    Strength: 20
    
    Click OK.
    
    
    
    That's your light texture. If you want, you could Duplicate this and use the Overlay blend mode. But as you'll discover, you can successfully apply any number of effects to this texture!
    
    I then took the following image:
    
    
       
    
    I mirrored the newly created light texture -- then made a copy and added it as a new layer, setting the blend mode to Dodge. (I left it at 100% Opacity, but you could lower this, as well.)
    
    Yes, you can play around with the size of your brush, fill it with a solid color or pattern, flip it, mirror it or move it around on the image you apply it to -- and try various blend modes!

Another Version -- Distortion/Wave

We'll start with the following (as above):




(using a slightly different gradient)

After step 13 (above), do the following!


1. (ver. 2) Go to Effects > Distortion Effect > Wave. Use the following settings:
   Horizontal displacement
   Amplitude: 8
   Wavelength: 50
   Vertical displacement
   Amplitude: 8
   Wavelength: 50
   Edge mode: Wrap (selected)
   
   Click OK.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. (ver. 2) Go to Adjust > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Use these settings:
   Radius: 2.00
   
   Click OK.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. (ver. 2) Go to Layers > Duplicate.
   
   If necessary, open your Layers Palette (F8 toggles it on and off).
   
   
4. (ver. 2) Go to your Layers Palette. Change the blend mode of the top layer to Overlay.
   
   
   
   
5. (ver. 2) Go to Layers > Merge > Merge All (flatten). You can now Save!
   
   Here's how it looks applied to our image:
   
   
   Both versions are fun and offer slightly different effects. Naturally this is also impacted a great deal by your original 'scribble' (drawing). (smile)
   
   Here are some other examples (of the distortion/ripple version):
   
   
      
   
   
      
   
   Isn't that fun?
   
   Do feel free to share what you come up with!
   
   ==CharlieMC, assistant moderator