#42 - Texture Guide - The Basics / Soft Light & Grunge Texture tutorials
Dear, Watchers!
So, here is what I spent most of my time today and yesterday doing, writing up this long rambly texture guide that mm3butterfly asked for, and fuuurs, rowofstars, and darlingheart seconded. Well, here you go ladies, I hope that you each find something useful in this rambly tutorial. Do take a deep breath before diving in, because it is quite massive. :p Enjoy! Also, as I spent a lot of time on this, I would appreciate all of your thoughts and feedback! Thank you! :)
Basic mindset and the necessary tools for texture making:
First things first; when you decide to make textures, there are a couple of different approaches and mindsets you can go about it. Let's have a look at them:
1. There is the scenario when you are just around an already open Photoshop and you open random images to work with, trying different things, new or the same old ways and something happens.
2. There is the scenario when you do have the idea in your head that right now you are going to make textures; no matter what, but you don't have an exact outcome in mind, so you experiment.
-> This is actually a very very good option for beginners at texture-making, because it serves you with the opportunity to do several things; try out the simpliest/craziest/hardest/...etc. ways, and actually a good way to get familiar with Photoshop tools you haven't used before, or to refine your existing skills you have. Lord knows I discovered a lot of things "accidentally" while trying to make a new type of texture.
3. There is the scenario when you have the exact idea what you want your textures to look like.
For me, these are the three basic moods/ways/approaches I have which lead to me ending up with at least half a dozen textures in a short while.
Secondly, you have to keep it in mind that we are making textures here, and that there is no real limit or boundaries to this process and to all the ways and directions you can go about it. Texture making is as free, as for example painting watercolour brush strokes on a piece of paper, raw or delicate as they come out of your hands and soul. The process is as flowly, as for example the rivers flow in their paths; they do not always know the "perfect" way, at times they might have "obstacles", but in the end they always find their destination. It is quite similar with textures: you might not always know what you are doing, you might get frustrated if something doesn't goes according to plan, - oh Lord knows how I get like that from time to time - but you try different things and eventually you will surprise yourself with a colour composition, or a play with lights that you did not think you could have achieved, without that frustration that led you to try a different technique.
Now that you are deep in the wisdom and knowledge that you are rich with options and there is no limit to your creativity, we can move on to take a look at the basic tools that are necessary and some that are very handy when it comes to texture making:
1. ~ So, let's open our Photoshop (no offence to anyone who is working with another kind of creative software, I hope you can still enjoy this guide anyway) and open a new work surface!
Assuming there might be newcomers to Photoshop among those who are interested in making textures (the rest of you skilled pros, please feel free to scroll down. :)) here is a little visual aid:
-> to open a new work surface, you have to click on "File" in the upper Menu line, so this window will pop up:
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
-> select "New..." and press Enter, or just click on it and the following window will pop up:
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
Name: -> this is where you can name your work surface, it is not necessary though, but if you are a perfectionist, go ahead! :)
Preset: -> if you have any previously saved work surface sizes that you prefer, you can select the one you'd like to use from the dropbox menu. It is a good idea to save the sizes you most frequently use, it saves the time of typing it over and over and over again. :)
Width & Height: -> this is the actual place to define the size of your work surface.
Background Contents: -> here you can select the colour of your work surface you start out with. You can just leave it at white, because that is always the best option, or you can select transparent and an empty layer with the checkered-box grid will appear, or you can click on background colour, in which case Photoshop will set the colour you have set as your background to use.
These are the important parts of the New Surface window that you will always have to encounter when making something new, be it textures, icons, or whatever else you'd like to do.
-> When you typed and selected everything you needed/wanted to, just click on okay, or press enter your work surface will pop up.
2. ~ When we have our document open, we can get down to the actual work. Now I will list all the tools I use when I am making a texture and supply you with visual aid. I am making things up as I go, writing here, with an open Photoshop, so I can take caps of everything and save things when there is a need. Up until now I am actually writing this for already a good two hours (later on as I edit this this turned into nearly 2 days), so this is a long process, but I would like to try to give you something detailed and useful, so it will be worth at the end I hope. I don't want to do something "half-assed". Okay, rambling, completely not the point. Moving on...
I use the following tools when making my textures (and icons):
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
-> Marquee Tool (single row, column) -> You can use these tools for extending your background, or bits of the images. This tool is actually funky, striped texture making gold! In my case it is best used in unison with the Smudge Tool, to soften unnecessary edges.
-> Move Tool -> Well, kind of a basic tool for Photoshop, it is like the air which without PS would be useless, as moving around your images and being able to rotate them freely and place them anywhere you'd like is necessary.
-> Crop Tool -> Another golden basic. Finding the right crop can set not only the mood of your icon, but your textures as well. It is always important to have the right crop, and there is no real skill with cropping for me, I do it out of "feeling", it either clicks for me, or it doesn't.
-> Magic Wand Tool (very rarely) -> I mostly use this when there is a clear separating line between two areas/surfaces to either erase something, or change the colour.
-> Brush Tool -> I use this tool a lot. I use it for colouring, making Soft Light textures, setting up some Lighting, and even though this is not an icon making tutorial (that will come later), I use the brush tool when I am making a negative space icon to paint over the background that is not to my liking, or to add some more colour to parts and bits and pieces. The Brush Tool is your friend, so take her/him/its hand and never let go! :p
-> Clone Stamp Tool -> Oh, the wonders this tool makes work for me. This is one of those tools that aren't necessary, but extremely handy to have around. When there are a couple spots in a graphic that shouldn't be there, and of course they are located in sensitive areas, this is the best tool to use to fix that!
-> Eraser Tool -> Another necessary basic, for erasing unwanted bits and pieces.
-> Paint Bucket Tool -> I usually use this on a new layer, filling it with colour, but that is this tool's purpose anyway.
-> Gradient Tool -> I just realized I am mixing this and Gradient Map up, but nevertheless, it is here, because I have used this before. This tool is good for setting lighting and colour enhancements on your graphics!
-> Smudge Tool -> Extremely handy tool for softening unwanted edges, extending colours, little tricks like that. I use this tool in nearly everything I make.
-> Text Tool -> I mainly use it for typing the titles on my texture set previews, but lately I am trying to build a useful font folder and experiment typesetting on icons.
-> Pen Tool (also very rarely) -> I use this for textures when I would like to achieve and use some shapes that aren't in the shape tool area and I am lazy to look, I make it myself.
-> Shape Tool -> Especially the Rectangle Tool and the Custom Shape tool, very handy with boxy type of textures!
-> Eyedropper Tool -> The tool to pick up your colours from your images with, very handy, using it every occasion I make something.
-> Hand Tool / Zoom Tool -> Very basic, essential tools. I use them all the time. You can enhance your textures/icons even more when you zoom in to see your pixels. It is especially handy when you cut out/paint over a subject.
I use the following Mode when making my textures:
-> RGB Color
I use the following Adjustment Tools when making my textures:
-> Levels -> This tool is essential to set your basic lightning/contrast right. It is always a clever thing to set the levels yourself, than to use auto levels.
-> Auto Levels -> with Soft Light type textures this can be quite handy to be honest, with icons I never ever use this, it can screw up everything you have been doing.
-> Curves -> Another handy tool to play with the basic lighting/darkness of your icon and to fool around with your colouring.
-> Color Balance -> Handy colouring tool. I always use this moderately though, usually if I want an exact colour enhanced for example towards the yellows. Selective Colouring gives you broader options though.
-> Brightness/Contrast -> I use this moderately as well, I honestly prefer Levels over it. But if I use it, I only add this between +1 and +10, usually rather on the lower end.
-> Hue/Saturation -> This is what I use instead of Vibrance. I am still getting the hang of the right amounts though, but I grown used to it and learnt not to overuse it.
-> Match Color -> This is a handy tool that can neutralize your colour scheme, which is very very handy when it comes to weirdly coloured/dark screencaptures (with icons.)
-> Selective Color -> My favourite/basic colouring tool next to Curves. I usually mix it with Curves. I like this tool because you can enhance the colours in so many channels.
-> Channel Mixer -> This tool is a bit tricky, but I like to use it to enhance the colours after I used Curves and Selective Colouring. It takes a while to understand how not to abuse it, and it works best when moderately used.
-> Gradient Map -> I use this tool mostly to add gradient maps with which I turn my work into monochrome, or add some light effects setting the gradient map on Soft Light.
-> Photo Filter -> I rarely use it, but when I do, I focus on making the colours of my textures softer.
-> Invert -> I use this tool a lot when I am making textures, especially when I make black/white and sepia stuff, but lately I sometimes invert the colourful textures to try a different technique and end up with a better colouring.
-> Variations -> This is also a handy colouring tool. I mostly, but rarely use it with textures, especialyl when I need a colour to dominate the texture.
I use the following Filters when making my textures:
-> Blur -> Gaussian Blur/Motion Blur/Radial Blur -> These are important tools for all of my Soft Light textures, where I blur, blur, blur and smudge, smudge, smudge.
-> Noise -> For when I make grunge textures from scratch this tool is handy.
-> Offset -> This is the tool I turn to when I feel a texture is very boring, I play around with the settings so it moves my texture all over the place. It is also how my block-style textures are created. I love using this tool with icons too!
I use some more additional Filters when I make icons though, like Sharpen, I never ever sharpen textures!
Well now that we established the basics, let's move on, so I can share how I make my textures. I apologize for the length this guide is taking, I am scared of it, and been dreading writing it for a couple days as I knew it would end long and rambly, and I am one lazy person. Anyway I gave in to my promises, so! :) Ta-da:
~ For this tutorial, I am showing you how to work photographs into textures, even if you are very well able to do it from scratch as well, but for a first time texture-maker, or for one with little experience it is easier to make something pretty and rewarding out of existing resources, such as photographs. :)
Soft Light texture tutorial:
1. Choose your material!
Alright, now let's take a pretty, colourful image we have around. I saved this from hubblesite.org.
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
~ The first thing to do is to look at this image and decide the type of texture you'd like to do. I am going to show you how to make a Soft Light and a Grungy type of texture from this very photograph, as it is quite suited for both.
2. Let's crop our image!
With cropping your image you have to take into account the amount of colours and lights you would like to use. Here are just a couple different cropping styles that could be used as a base for your texture to-be:
~ Now from these cropped bases, let's choose the one you like the most, or the one that represents the composition you think is suited best for your texture.
3. Let's blur our image!
You can decide which base is suited for your purpose the best quite easily, by the amount of lights you will want your texture to have. The "thicker" the lights and colours are on the crops, will give your light texture a wider "body". I am not sure I am explaining this clearly, so just in case, I am going to blur the above presented a little and show you what I mean:
~ To blur your images, choose one of the crops, duplicate your layer (right click on base layer and then you can duplicate it or use the following shortcut: Ctrl + J) and go to your upper Menu line and look for the option that says "Filter", click on it and you will be presented with a list of filters that you can use! As I said in the introduction of my guide, your options are limitless and you can use these Filters to your advantage, in many many different ways. In fact, there are ones I haven't even used before, and ones I was only recently introduced to, to use properly.
Assuming there might be those of you, just starting out with Photoshop, here is a little visual aid:
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
~ Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur -> Clicking on Gaussian Blur will result in the following window popping on your screen!
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
I have decided to use a 10 pixel radius to blur my base, as I like to blur things very smoothly and that is why I am quite picky about blurred Soft Light textures and mostly use my own. But the important thing is, you can blur your image around as many times as you want until you get your preferred results, change the pixels to your taste and have fun experimenting with the different results blurring can give you!
Here are the results I have after a couple sessions of blurring. There were ones I only blurred once, and ones where I repeated the process one more time:
You could just stop here, if you wanted, because they are already textures, but to be honest, there aren't anything pretty and rewarding about them just yet, is there? :) So, let's move on to make our textures prettier!
4. Giving depth to our blurred material!
To give depth to your texture we have to play around with layer blending modes:
~ Duplicate your blurred layer once more and set the layer blending modes to Soft Light!
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
Adjust the Opacity from 100% to your preferred setting and repeat the process as many times as you'd like, as for each different photo a different kind of depth is requirred and all our tastes are different as well, that is the beauty of this free kind of art! :)
Here are the results I have after giving a bit of depth to my pieces:
Such difference between the previous results and this, right? Definitely starting to set the mood! Reaching this step will certainly make you feel better and further along on the texture-making road. When I first made stuff like these I was over-the-roof happy!
5. Giving more light, and a bit of more contrast to our textures!
We can go about further modifying our textures to look better and be more useful, by adding more light and contrast to it, set a better mood! We can do this in a couple different ways:
~ a. Curves! -> Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Curves
With Curves you can both make an image lighter/darker and work on colouring, right now with the first Curves layer we will give some more light to our image like this:
Please take it into account that I use Photoshop CS, so your version's layout of things might appear differently!
For giving more light to our texture, work on the RGB channel and move the little square around to your liking, mostly to the "upwards" area, as when you move it below the original curve placement your image will become darker!
Always, always use different settings on the different pieces, as they will need different amount of curves! But you can see it for yourself, if you move a Curves layer to another base, it usually needs some different settings
Here are the results I have after using Curves on these pieces.
These above are starting to resemble my textures, don't they? :) We are not far!
Using Curves on the different channels (red, green, blue) will give different kind of colours to your textures:
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
Here are the results I have after adding a layer of Curve colouring. You can repeat this process as many times as you wish to gain different effects:
Now you are definitely starting to individualize your textures! It is very important to have variety in one set to fit to many colouring/lighting needs, and to have an interesting set. I used to make texture sets where I would only make one medium/big texture and the make different crops, but thankfully I grew out of that, as making and providing a mixed set is more fun and also a more rewarding experince to fill the need of those texture-aholics! :)
~ b. Smudge! -> Press the letter R to have your Photoshop automatically jump on Smudge for you!
As I mentioned before, I am very picky about the way Soft Light textures are handled and I like them to be as smooth as possible, and they are not enough smooth for me just yet so I smudge my way to that. There is no real rule how to use the Smudge tool, at least if it does exist, I don't know, I do it out of "feeling", the same way as it is with cropping. I do have the following advices though:
- Before smudging create a new layer above the last layer and then merge them together in a way that you still keep all the history under it. Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E together and your layers will merge visibly above everything you have done before. This is a very hand thing to do!
When you smudge your surface, make sure to always select a Soft Round Brush and set the strength on the lower end between 0-25%, because that is when you can have the most delicate effect (for me that is)! The lower the strength, the more seamless the texture is going to be!
Here are my results after smudging and flipping some of them around:
So, these are much more me than the previous bunch, they are smooth, but with smudging they lost their shine and light, so with the next step we are going to fix that!
~ c. Curves Lighting/Colouring layers all over again repeated with the above explained routines.
So, I added their shine back and modified some colours further with one more Curves layer where I both worked on the RGB main and individual channels!
Here are the pieces I got:
Well, if you would like to you can just leave the textures like that, they are lovely, but if you are still not satisfied like me, move on to the next step!
6. We are almost done, lets give some finishing touches to individualize our textures!
You just need to do some more editing on your own, here is a list of things you can do:
- add some more curves layers
- experiment with levels to set the highlights of your textures
- add colour blobs with soft round brush or the Chalk brush, use motion blur, or any kind of blur on it and with using blending mode, blend it on to your texture
- use the source image you cropped from for further effects
...etc. As I mentioned before there is no real limits to what you can do with textures!
Here are my final results after adding some more curves, playing with levels, and motion blur blobs, flipping them around:
And we are done. See the huge difference between these and previous "models"? Individualizing your soft light texture gives you a more interesting, funky result! :)
Grungy Texture tutorial
There are many different ways to create grunge textures, but the easiest way is probably to get the effect from photographs, so I am going to show you that way!
1. Choose your material!
Let's take the same image that we have worked on previously, flip it around to your liking (Image -> Rotate Canvas) and resize( Image -> Image Size) it to 500 pixels width!
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
2. Make your image black and white!
There are plenty of several ways to do this, and you are more than welcome to do your own.
For beginners, one of the simpliest ways to make your image black and white is to use the Desaturate adjustment:
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate and press enter, or simply click on it and that will turn your image black and white!
3. Crop your image to your liking!
Again, let's make a couple different crops to your liking. By now, you probably see why we made the image black and white and get the basic idea of how we will have the grunge we need! So let's crop the image in a way that the tiny dotty areas are emphasized, but we can sneak in some of the by now "smoky" stuff too:
These are only some of the options as to how you can handle cropping this image. They look nice, even without much editing and you could already share/use them, if you wanted, but I personally don't like to share something so little edited, so let's move on to the next step!
4. Add contrast to your textures!
~ Duplicate your layer, and set the duplicated layer on Screen, playing around with opacity!
~ Then play around with Levels and Curves to your liking.
I played around with those settings above and got the following results, flipping them around:
5. Individualize your grunge textures, add your finishing touches!
Here are some tips you could do:
- Duplicate your grunge texture several times, set them on screen and delete parts, rotate bits and leave everything black and white!
- Add a Solid Colour Fill Layer and set it on Screen, then modify the opacity!
Here is a visual example, if you do not know how it works:
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
Here is how Level layers work:
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
So after playing around with Colour Fill Layers and Levels this is how my pieces are finished:
There you have it, pretty, softly coloured grunge textures!
Well, this is how I make Soft Light and Grungy textures, the basic idea at least. I hope that this guide is easily understandable, but if you have any questions, please let me know, I will get back to you as soon as I can.
One more advice: as you see I never sharpen my textures, because I don't think textures need to be sharp, as you will use them on icons and icons you sharpen, and I just don't like anything interfering with that, I think it is a good thing to avoid. :)
Also, I apologize for any language/typing errors. It took me 2 days to write this, and I have re-read parts plenty of times too, but there can be little mistakes in it.
I hope I could show you all something new and useful, agan if you have any further questions about this guide, please let me know!
Enjoy and have fun with experimenting and branching out!
Also, if you are interested in the textures I made while writing this tutorial, here they are as a proper set, without the usual showcase though, after all they have been showcases a lot above.
1 Texture Set
Size: 100*100 pixels
File type: .zip
Made with: Photoshop CS
Download [deviantart.com]
Enjoy!
Take care of yourselves,
with love,
Lex
So, here is what I spent most of my time today and yesterday doing, writing up this long rambly texture guide that mm3butterfly asked for, and fuuurs, rowofstars, and darlingheart seconded. Well, here you go ladies, I hope that you each find something useful in this rambly tutorial. Do take a deep breath before diving in, because it is quite massive. :p Enjoy! Also, as I spent a lot of time on this, I would appreciate all of your thoughts and feedback! Thank you! :)
Basic mindset and the necessary tools for texture making:
First things first; when you decide to make textures, there are a couple of different approaches and mindsets you can go about it. Let's have a look at them:
1. There is the scenario when you are just around an already open Photoshop and you open random images to work with, trying different things, new or the same old ways and something happens.
2. There is the scenario when you do have the idea in your head that right now you are going to make textures; no matter what, but you don't have an exact outcome in mind, so you experiment.
-> This is actually a very very good option for beginners at texture-making, because it serves you with the opportunity to do several things; try out the simpliest/craziest/hardest/...etc. ways, and actually a good way to get familiar with Photoshop tools you haven't used before, or to refine your existing skills you have. Lord knows I discovered a lot of things "accidentally" while trying to make a new type of texture.
3. There is the scenario when you have the exact idea what you want your textures to look like.
For me, these are the three basic moods/ways/approaches I have which lead to me ending up with at least half a dozen textures in a short while.
Secondly, you have to keep it in mind that we are making textures here, and that there is no real limit or boundaries to this process and to all the ways and directions you can go about it. Texture making is as free, as for example painting watercolour brush strokes on a piece of paper, raw or delicate as they come out of your hands and soul. The process is as flowly, as for example the rivers flow in their paths; they do not always know the "perfect" way, at times they might have "obstacles", but in the end they always find their destination. It is quite similar with textures: you might not always know what you are doing, you might get frustrated if something doesn't goes according to plan, - oh Lord knows how I get like that from time to time - but you try different things and eventually you will surprise yourself with a colour composition, or a play with lights that you did not think you could have achieved, without that frustration that led you to try a different technique.
Now that you are deep in the wisdom and knowledge that you are rich with options and there is no limit to your creativity, we can move on to take a look at the basic tools that are necessary and some that are very handy when it comes to texture making:
1. ~ So, let's open our Photoshop (no offence to anyone who is working with another kind of creative software, I hope you can still enjoy this guide anyway) and open a new work surface!
Assuming there might be newcomers to Photoshop among those who are interested in making textures (the rest of you skilled pros, please feel free to scroll down. :)) here is a little visual aid:
-> to open a new work surface, you have to click on "File" in the upper Menu line, so this window will pop up:
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
-> select "New..." and press Enter, or just click on it and the following window will pop up:
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
Name: -> this is where you can name your work surface, it is not necessary though, but if you are a perfectionist, go ahead! :)
Preset: -> if you have any previously saved work surface sizes that you prefer, you can select the one you'd like to use from the dropbox menu. It is a good idea to save the sizes you most frequently use, it saves the time of typing it over and over and over again. :)
Width & Height: -> this is the actual place to define the size of your work surface.
Background Contents: -> here you can select the colour of your work surface you start out with. You can just leave it at white, because that is always the best option, or you can select transparent and an empty layer with the checkered-box grid will appear, or you can click on background colour, in which case Photoshop will set the colour you have set as your background to use.
These are the important parts of the New Surface window that you will always have to encounter when making something new, be it textures, icons, or whatever else you'd like to do.
-> When you typed and selected everything you needed/wanted to, just click on okay, or press enter your work surface will pop up.
2. ~ When we have our document open, we can get down to the actual work. Now I will list all the tools I use when I am making a texture and supply you with visual aid. I am making things up as I go, writing here, with an open Photoshop, so I can take caps of everything and save things when there is a need. Up until now I am actually writing this for already a good two hours (later on as I edit this this turned into nearly 2 days), so this is a long process, but I would like to try to give you something detailed and useful, so it will be worth at the end I hope. I don't want to do something "half-assed". Okay, rambling, completely not the point. Moving on...
I use the following tools when making my textures (and icons):
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
-> Marquee Tool (single row, column) -> You can use these tools for extending your background, or bits of the images. This tool is actually funky, striped texture making gold! In my case it is best used in unison with the Smudge Tool, to soften unnecessary edges.
-> Move Tool -> Well, kind of a basic tool for Photoshop, it is like the air which without PS would be useless, as moving around your images and being able to rotate them freely and place them anywhere you'd like is necessary.
-> Crop Tool -> Another golden basic. Finding the right crop can set not only the mood of your icon, but your textures as well. It is always important to have the right crop, and there is no real skill with cropping for me, I do it out of "feeling", it either clicks for me, or it doesn't.
-> Magic Wand Tool (very rarely) -> I mostly use this when there is a clear separating line between two areas/surfaces to either erase something, or change the colour.
-> Brush Tool -> I use this tool a lot. I use it for colouring, making Soft Light textures, setting up some Lighting, and even though this is not an icon making tutorial (that will come later), I use the brush tool when I am making a negative space icon to paint over the background that is not to my liking, or to add some more colour to parts and bits and pieces. The Brush Tool is your friend, so take her/him/its hand and never let go! :p
-> Clone Stamp Tool -> Oh, the wonders this tool makes work for me. This is one of those tools that aren't necessary, but extremely handy to have around. When there are a couple spots in a graphic that shouldn't be there, and of course they are located in sensitive areas, this is the best tool to use to fix that!
-> Eraser Tool -> Another necessary basic, for erasing unwanted bits and pieces.
-> Paint Bucket Tool -> I usually use this on a new layer, filling it with colour, but that is this tool's purpose anyway.
-> Gradient Tool -> I just realized I am mixing this and Gradient Map up, but nevertheless, it is here, because I have used this before. This tool is good for setting lighting and colour enhancements on your graphics!
-> Smudge Tool -> Extremely handy tool for softening unwanted edges, extending colours, little tricks like that. I use this tool in nearly everything I make.
-> Text Tool -> I mainly use it for typing the titles on my texture set previews, but lately I am trying to build a useful font folder and experiment typesetting on icons.
-> Pen Tool (also very rarely) -> I use this for textures when I would like to achieve and use some shapes that aren't in the shape tool area and I am lazy to look, I make it myself.
-> Shape Tool -> Especially the Rectangle Tool and the Custom Shape tool, very handy with boxy type of textures!
-> Eyedropper Tool -> The tool to pick up your colours from your images with, very handy, using it every occasion I make something.
-> Hand Tool / Zoom Tool -> Very basic, essential tools. I use them all the time. You can enhance your textures/icons even more when you zoom in to see your pixels. It is especially handy when you cut out/paint over a subject.
I use the following Mode when making my textures:
-> RGB Color
I use the following Adjustment Tools when making my textures:
-> Levels -> This tool is essential to set your basic lightning/contrast right. It is always a clever thing to set the levels yourself, than to use auto levels.
-> Auto Levels -> with Soft Light type textures this can be quite handy to be honest, with icons I never ever use this, it can screw up everything you have been doing.
-> Curves -> Another handy tool to play with the basic lighting/darkness of your icon and to fool around with your colouring.
-> Color Balance -> Handy colouring tool. I always use this moderately though, usually if I want an exact colour enhanced for example towards the yellows. Selective Colouring gives you broader options though.
-> Brightness/Contrast -> I use this moderately as well, I honestly prefer Levels over it. But if I use it, I only add this between +1 and +10, usually rather on the lower end.
-> Hue/Saturation -> This is what I use instead of Vibrance. I am still getting the hang of the right amounts though, but I grown used to it and learnt not to overuse it.
-> Match Color -> This is a handy tool that can neutralize your colour scheme, which is very very handy when it comes to weirdly coloured/dark screencaptures (with icons.)
-> Selective Color -> My favourite/basic colouring tool next to Curves. I usually mix it with Curves. I like this tool because you can enhance the colours in so many channels.
-> Channel Mixer -> This tool is a bit tricky, but I like to use it to enhance the colours after I used Curves and Selective Colouring. It takes a while to understand how not to abuse it, and it works best when moderately used.
-> Gradient Map -> I use this tool mostly to add gradient maps with which I turn my work into monochrome, or add some light effects setting the gradient map on Soft Light.
-> Photo Filter -> I rarely use it, but when I do, I focus on making the colours of my textures softer.
-> Invert -> I use this tool a lot when I am making textures, especially when I make black/white and sepia stuff, but lately I sometimes invert the colourful textures to try a different technique and end up with a better colouring.
-> Variations -> This is also a handy colouring tool. I mostly, but rarely use it with textures, especialyl when I need a colour to dominate the texture.
I use the following Filters when making my textures:
-> Blur -> Gaussian Blur/Motion Blur/Radial Blur -> These are important tools for all of my Soft Light textures, where I blur, blur, blur and smudge, smudge, smudge.
-> Noise -> For when I make grunge textures from scratch this tool is handy.
-> Offset -> This is the tool I turn to when I feel a texture is very boring, I play around with the settings so it moves my texture all over the place. It is also how my block-style textures are created. I love using this tool with icons too!
I use some more additional Filters when I make icons though, like Sharpen, I never ever sharpen textures!
Well now that we established the basics, let's move on, so I can share how I make my textures. I apologize for the length this guide is taking, I am scared of it, and been dreading writing it for a couple days as I knew it would end long and rambly, and I am one lazy person. Anyway I gave in to my promises, so! :) Ta-da:
~ For this tutorial, I am showing you how to work photographs into textures, even if you are very well able to do it from scratch as well, but for a first time texture-maker, or for one with little experience it is easier to make something pretty and rewarding out of existing resources, such as photographs. :)
Soft Light texture tutorial:
1. Choose your material!
Alright, now let's take a pretty, colourful image we have around. I saved this from hubblesite.org.
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
~ The first thing to do is to look at this image and decide the type of texture you'd like to do. I am going to show you how to make a Soft Light and a Grungy type of texture from this very photograph, as it is quite suited for both.
2. Let's crop our image!
With cropping your image you have to take into account the amount of colours and lights you would like to use. Here are just a couple different cropping styles that could be used as a base for your texture to-be:
~ Now from these cropped bases, let's choose the one you like the most, or the one that represents the composition you think is suited best for your texture.
3. Let's blur our image!
You can decide which base is suited for your purpose the best quite easily, by the amount of lights you will want your texture to have. The "thicker" the lights and colours are on the crops, will give your light texture a wider "body". I am not sure I am explaining this clearly, so just in case, I am going to blur the above presented a little and show you what I mean:
~ To blur your images, choose one of the crops, duplicate your layer (right click on base layer and then you can duplicate it or use the following shortcut: Ctrl + J) and go to your upper Menu line and look for the option that says "Filter", click on it and you will be presented with a list of filters that you can use! As I said in the introduction of my guide, your options are limitless and you can use these Filters to your advantage, in many many different ways. In fact, there are ones I haven't even used before, and ones I was only recently introduced to, to use properly.
Assuming there might be those of you, just starting out with Photoshop, here is a little visual aid:
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
~ Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur -> Clicking on Gaussian Blur will result in the following window popping on your screen!
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
I have decided to use a 10 pixel radius to blur my base, as I like to blur things very smoothly and that is why I am quite picky about blurred Soft Light textures and mostly use my own. But the important thing is, you can blur your image around as many times as you want until you get your preferred results, change the pixels to your taste and have fun experimenting with the different results blurring can give you!
Here are the results I have after a couple sessions of blurring. There were ones I only blurred once, and ones where I repeated the process one more time:
You could just stop here, if you wanted, because they are already textures, but to be honest, there aren't anything pretty and rewarding about them just yet, is there? :) So, let's move on to make our textures prettier!
4. Giving depth to our blurred material!
To give depth to your texture we have to play around with layer blending modes:
~ Duplicate your blurred layer once more and set the layer blending modes to Soft Light!
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
Adjust the Opacity from 100% to your preferred setting and repeat the process as many times as you'd like, as for each different photo a different kind of depth is requirred and all our tastes are different as well, that is the beauty of this free kind of art! :)
Here are the results I have after giving a bit of depth to my pieces:
Such difference between the previous results and this, right? Definitely starting to set the mood! Reaching this step will certainly make you feel better and further along on the texture-making road. When I first made stuff like these I was over-the-roof happy!
5. Giving more light, and a bit of more contrast to our textures!
We can go about further modifying our textures to look better and be more useful, by adding more light and contrast to it, set a better mood! We can do this in a couple different ways:
~ a. Curves! -> Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Curves
With Curves you can both make an image lighter/darker and work on colouring, right now with the first Curves layer we will give some more light to our image like this:
Please take it into account that I use Photoshop CS, so your version's layout of things might appear differently!
For giving more light to our texture, work on the RGB channel and move the little square around to your liking, mostly to the "upwards" area, as when you move it below the original curve placement your image will become darker!
Always, always use different settings on the different pieces, as they will need different amount of curves! But you can see it for yourself, if you move a Curves layer to another base, it usually needs some different settings
Here are the results I have after using Curves on these pieces.
These above are starting to resemble my textures, don't they? :) We are not far!
Using Curves on the different channels (red, green, blue) will give different kind of colours to your textures:
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
Here are the results I have after adding a layer of Curve colouring. You can repeat this process as many times as you wish to gain different effects:
Now you are definitely starting to individualize your textures! It is very important to have variety in one set to fit to many colouring/lighting needs, and to have an interesting set. I used to make texture sets where I would only make one medium/big texture and the make different crops, but thankfully I grew out of that, as making and providing a mixed set is more fun and also a more rewarding experince to fill the need of those texture-aholics! :)
~ b. Smudge! -> Press the letter R to have your Photoshop automatically jump on Smudge for you!
As I mentioned before, I am very picky about the way Soft Light textures are handled and I like them to be as smooth as possible, and they are not enough smooth for me just yet so I smudge my way to that. There is no real rule how to use the Smudge tool, at least if it does exist, I don't know, I do it out of "feeling", the same way as it is with cropping. I do have the following advices though:
- Before smudging create a new layer above the last layer and then merge them together in a way that you still keep all the history under it. Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E together and your layers will merge visibly above everything you have done before. This is a very hand thing to do!
When you smudge your surface, make sure to always select a Soft Round Brush and set the strength on the lower end between 0-25%, because that is when you can have the most delicate effect (for me that is)! The lower the strength, the more seamless the texture is going to be!
Here are my results after smudging and flipping some of them around:
So, these are much more me than the previous bunch, they are smooth, but with smudging they lost their shine and light, so with the next step we are going to fix that!
~ c. Curves Lighting/Colouring layers all over again repeated with the above explained routines.
So, I added their shine back and modified some colours further with one more Curves layer where I both worked on the RGB main and individual channels!
Here are the pieces I got:
Well, if you would like to you can just leave the textures like that, they are lovely, but if you are still not satisfied like me, move on to the next step!
6. We are almost done, lets give some finishing touches to individualize our textures!
You just need to do some more editing on your own, here is a list of things you can do:
- add some more curves layers
- experiment with levels to set the highlights of your textures
- add colour blobs with soft round brush or the Chalk brush, use motion blur, or any kind of blur on it and with using blending mode, blend it on to your texture
- use the source image you cropped from for further effects
...etc. As I mentioned before there is no real limits to what you can do with textures!
Here are my final results after adding some more curves, playing with levels, and motion blur blobs, flipping them around:
And we are done. See the huge difference between these and previous "models"? Individualizing your soft light texture gives you a more interesting, funky result! :)
Grungy Texture tutorial
There are many different ways to create grunge textures, but the easiest way is probably to get the effect from photographs, so I am going to show you that way!
1. Choose your material!
Let's take the same image that we have worked on previously, flip it around to your liking (Image -> Rotate Canvas) and resize( Image -> Image Size) it to 500 pixels width!
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
2. Make your image black and white!
There are plenty of several ways to do this, and you are more than welcome to do your own.
For beginners, one of the simpliest ways to make your image black and white is to use the Desaturate adjustment:
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate and press enter, or simply click on it and that will turn your image black and white!
3. Crop your image to your liking!
Again, let's make a couple different crops to your liking. By now, you probably see why we made the image black and white and get the basic idea of how we will have the grunge we need! So let's crop the image in a way that the tiny dotty areas are emphasized, but we can sneak in some of the by now "smoky" stuff too:
These are only some of the options as to how you can handle cropping this image. They look nice, even without much editing and you could already share/use them, if you wanted, but I personally don't like to share something so little edited, so let's move on to the next step!
4. Add contrast to your textures!
~ Duplicate your layer, and set the duplicated layer on Screen, playing around with opacity!
~ Then play around with Levels and Curves to your liking.
I played around with those settings above and got the following results, flipping them around:
5. Individualize your grunge textures, add your finishing touches!
Here are some tips you could do:
- Duplicate your grunge texture several times, set them on screen and delete parts, rotate bits and leave everything black and white!
- Add a Solid Colour Fill Layer and set it on Screen, then modify the opacity!
Here is a visual example, if you do not know how it works:
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
Here is how Level layers work:
*click on the image to see a bigger version*
So after playing around with Colour Fill Layers and Levels this is how my pieces are finished:
There you have it, pretty, softly coloured grunge textures!
Well, this is how I make Soft Light and Grungy textures, the basic idea at least. I hope that this guide is easily understandable, but if you have any questions, please let me know, I will get back to you as soon as I can.
One more advice: as you see I never sharpen my textures, because I don't think textures need to be sharp, as you will use them on icons and icons you sharpen, and I just don't like anything interfering with that, I think it is a good thing to avoid. :)
Also, I apologize for any language/typing errors. It took me 2 days to write this, and I have re-read parts plenty of times too, but there can be little mistakes in it.
I hope I could show you all something new and useful, agan if you have any further questions about this guide, please let me know!
Enjoy and have fun with experimenting and branching out!
Also, if you are interested in the textures I made while writing this tutorial, here they are as a proper set, without the usual showcase though, after all they have been showcases a lot above.
1 Texture Set
Size: 100*100 pixels
File type: .zip
Made with: Photoshop CS
Download [deviantart.com]
Enjoy!
Take care of yourselves,
with love,
Lex