The product manufacturing process using three-dimensional computer graphics technology consists of several stages. One of the most important and mandatory stages is the stage of creating three-dimensional models, which in the future will be part of the story being told. And it’s absolutely not important what exactly three-dimensional models are created for or in which industry they will be used. Indeed, the main task of three-dimensional models is to create a sense of reality, to make the viewer believe in what he sees on the screen and to be completely in the grip of the story being told. Ultimately, three-dimensional graphics - this is just one way to convey to the viewer a story invented by a screenwriter.

But under the short phrase “create three-dimensional models”, there is a much more complex production process. A very important component in the stage of creating three-dimensional models is the creation of materials and textures for three-dimensional models.

The advertising poster of the short film "Archetype" by Aron Sims, the main role in which is played by a character completely created by means of three-dimensional computer graphics.
  Copyright © 2012 Aaron Sims

general information

Before a three-dimensional model appears on the screen of a movie theater, television or monitor, it must be created. As a rule, the term "create a model" means passing through the following stages of production in turn:

1. Creating an image of a future model.
2. Creating a geometric shape of a three-dimensional model.
3. Create a set of textures for the model and customize materials.
4. Customize the skeleton and snap the three-dimensional model.
5. Animation model.

The last two stages of production are present only if the three-dimensional model is a character. If it is just a detail of the environment, that is, the world in which events unfold, then to create such a model, as a rule, only the first three steps are enough.

Creating a model image performs concept artist  (concept artist) starting from the verbal description of the director or screenwriter. Received sketches are transmitted to the modeler  (modeling artist) so that he creates a three-dimensional geometric shape of the model. On this, the first two steps in the production process of a three-dimensional model end, but this is not enough for the model to be used in the final project.

The fact is that after the modeling stage the model has only the correct geometric shape, i.e. a dog is a dog, a car is a car, but the model completely lacks materials that betray its unique characteristics and make the model realistic. It is after the creation and assignment of the materials that the three-dimensional model of the dog has a black coat color, and the car is painted red and has a brown leather interior. Without materials, the three-dimensional model looks gray and faceless, but it is the materials that breathe life into three-dimensional models.

An example of a three-dimensional model of a mechanical soldier of the future. The left part is a pure three-dimensional model, the right part is a finished model with the assigned materials.
  Copyright 2011 © Mike Jensen
  Source: http://eat3d.com/zbrush_hardsurface

Creating and customizing materials

What is the “materials” that three-dimensional models need so much? By this term is meant a description of a set of surface properties. That is, the material stores within itself a description of what properties (parameters) the surface has. These are such properties as: surface color, gloss or dullness, the presence or absence of relief, reflection, transparency, glow, etc.

There are a huge number of materials, and each of them has its own sets of properties (parameters) inherent only to it. For each three-dimensional model, its own materials are created. For example, for a model of a glass glass you need only one material with the properties of color, transparency and reflection. And for a three-dimensional model of a person, several materials are needed. One for the skin with the properties of color, glossiness and relief, the other for the hair, with the properties of color, glossiness, relief and transparency, and the third for the eyes, with the properties of color, reflection and transparency.

Materials create texture artists  (texture artist), as well as modelers or specialists in setting up the render (lighting / shading artist). In large companies, the process of creating the geometric shape of a three-dimensional model and creating materials for it can be performed by different specialists. In a small company, all the work on the full production cycle of the model is most often carried out by the modeler.

An example of the appearance of various materials that are used for assignment to three-dimensional models.
  Source: http://www.vray-materials.de

But they create and customize materials usually in the same programs in which the geometric shape of the three-dimensional model is created. These are packages such as: Maya, Softimage, 3dsMax, LightWave 3D, Cinema 4D, Blender, Houdini, Modo and many others. As a rule, all these programs provide a convenient interface for working with materials. And the process of work is reduced to the fact that the artist needs to choose the correct value of a parameter in a particular material so that it more closely matches the desired surface.

The artist can change the values \u200b\u200bof material parameters in several ways. The first way is this is color. For example, a red cloak looks red due to the fact that the color parameter in the material that is assigned to the geometry of the cloak is set exactly in red. The second way to change or set the material parameter is this is a digital value. For example, the transparency property in a material can be specified by a number in the range from 0 to 100, where 0 - means that the model is completely transparent, and 100 - means that the model is not transparent. At the same time, a value of 68 - will make the model partially transparent. And the third way is this is using textures. For example, simply by assigning a landscape texture to a three-dimensional landscape geometry, we immediately make our three-dimensional model look like a landscape. It is the third method of setting the material that is most often used when creating complex types of materials.

An example of material customization in Autodesk Maya software.
  Source: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t\u003d94077

Using textures

Textures in all packages dealing with three-dimensional graphics are divided into two types:

• raster textures;
• procedural textures.

Raster textures are ordinary raster images that can be obtained in any way: photo, video equipment, image scanning, self-creation in raster graphics editors such as Adobe Photoshop, Gimp, etc.

Procedural textures are textures whose pattern is obtained thanks to a certain algorithm (mathematical formula). As a rule, such textures are not very detailed, but are very convenient for complex materials, where they are used to mix raster textures with each other.

More often texture artists use raster images to create materials of three-dimensional models. And here it is very important to remember one feature of the raster. It lies in the fact that the quality of a raster file is limited by its size. The larger the width and height of the image (image), the higher the likelihood that the material will be displayed in quality at any degree of approximation of the camera to the surface of the model. Therefore, modern models usually use textures with a minimum size of 2k (2048 pixels), and ideally, at least 4k (4096 pixels) and even more.

When using textures as an integral part of the model material, it is mandatory to create a texture scan of a three-dimensional model. If for materials that are created without using textures, and even in some cases when using procedural textures, creating a texture scan is not a requirement, then for raster textures this is a necessary requirement. Therefore, before they create textures for the three-dimensional model, they must do a scan of the texture coordinates.

Unfolding texture coordinates

To create three-dimensional models, there are a huge number of tools and each package for modeling has its own tools for this task. There are simulations based on splines, modeling using NURBS curves, polygonal modeling, modeling Sub-D surfaces, but usually at the very end, the model is transformed into a polygonal mesh. And one of the reasons for this conversion lies in the fact that for a polygonal wireframe it is not so difficult to create a scan of texture coordinates.

Under the term scan  (unwrap) - implies the process of creating for each polygon a three-dimensional model of its display (projection) on the coordinate plane. The models that create are geometric shapes located in three-dimensional space, and textures are flat images. Scanning allows you to solve the problem of how to apply a flat (two-dimensional) image to three-dimensional geometry.

To create sweeps, you can use both programs that simulate objects and specialized programs that perform exclusively the creation of sweeps. Examples of programs of the second type are programs: headus UVLayout, Ultimate Unwrap 3D, UVMapper, Unfold 3D.

There are several requirements for unfolding texture coordinates:

1. The size of the polygons on the texture coordinate grid should match or approach the size of the polygon on three-dimensional geometry. Otherwise, the texture on the surface of the model may be distorted (compressed or stretched).
2. You need to try to occupy the space of the texture square as efficiently as possible (the place where the texture coordinate sweep is located), otherwise this will lead to a deterioration in the quality of the texture display.
3. In most cases, layering (overlapping) of some texture coordinates with others is prohibited. An exception is only symmetric, and sometimes identical parts of the model.
4. It is necessary to try to make as few seams as possible (places of separation of texture coordinates) on the visible parts of the model.

Once the model sweep is ready, the texture artist can start creating a set of textures.

An example of a scan of texture coordinates (right) for a three-dimensional model of a gun (left).
  Source: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t\u003d80947

Create textures for a three-dimensional model

There are currently two main ways to create textures for a material that will be assigned to a three-dimensional model in the future.

The first method is to create textures in raster graphics editors (Adobe Photoshop, Gimp, Painter, etc.) from scratch or using ready-made raster images (photos, drawings, etc.).

The second way is to create textures in a specialized program for drawing textures immediately on the surface of a three-dimensional model.

Both methods are now actively used. Both one and the second have their supporters and opponents. And one, and the second way, you can get high-quality textures for models.

Before the advent of specialized programs, textures were painted only in raster graphics editors according to the texture layout template. This process is now used for various models. The only drawback of this method is that if there is a seam on the model (the place where the texture coordinates are separated), the artist needs to work it out perfectly so that it is not noticeable on the surface of the three-dimensional model. Although if the seams are made correctly, they may not even be noticed.

An example of a three-dimensional model of the "drone" (left) and a set of textures (right) created in Adobe Photoshop.

  1. What is required to create texture packs

- Archiver, for example, WinRAR

- Image editor that supports transparency. (Standard paint does not work, you need Photoshop, Paint.net or GIMP)

—Base knowledge of this editor

- Another pack of textures that you want to take as a basis.

2. First, download ‘clean’ texture pack here -

I advise you to download a standard pack for your pack and take it as a basis. Although you can take any pack.

Download (preferably unzip), place it in a convenient place and see the image below:

First folder (assets)  - this is what you downloaded. In the future, I will say what to do with the rest of the files (do not touch them yet). Extract folder assets  to a folder with the same name. This is the third folder, and we will work with it. Here are its contents:

blocks  - all block textures.

effect  - Better not touch.

entity  - textures of all mobs and portals and some items (like a stand with armor) are stored there.

environment- textures of rain, sun and moon are stored.

font -important files for the game are stored there (they must not be touched)

gui  - important folder, there are many important images. Different in-game game files. Textures anvil background achivok and so on. and tp (in principle, I think you will deal with this folder)

items  - textures of all objects.

map -texture of the map (in the game itself), not the world.

misc -there are the texture of the barrier and the texture under water.

models -textures of armor of all types (diamond, iron, etc.)

painting  - Textures of all paintings in minecraft.

particle -particle textures (what the scale of hunger, health, etc. looks like)

  3. Change textures

We open the folder in which we extracted the contents of the pack.

First, open the folder you need. For example, you want to change the texture of a diamond block, then go to the folder   blocks,  then we find   diamond_blockand throw the file into the editing program (preferably PhotoShop)

I will show an example on this program. For example, I want the face of a creeper on a diamond block:

Now change the cover of our texture pack. We find pack.png  we throw the file in PhotoShop and edit it. For example, I did this:

Now replace pack.pngto your   pack.png,which you did. Now when you enter the game and select the desired texturepack in the settings, our cover will be visible:

4. Verification

Let's finish the pack and check it out. Add the contents of our folder to a new zip archive, the name of which will be the name of the pack. In my example, the name will be dsa1.zip.

I added all the folders and all the images. In general, adding everything is not necessary, you need to add only what you changed. Understand that if you delete an image from your pack, then a standard image will be used in its place. And if your image does not differ from the standard, then why add it, it will only add “weight” to your pack.

Copy our pack to the texturepacks folder, which is located in the game directory. Now turn on the game and go to the pack texture menu and here is our pack:

Download the world. Well now, let's put our diamond block and check everything. As you can see, everything works (our perieresovaya texture is displayed)!

That's all. Your simplest pack is ready. You can, of course, make your own pack now, and customize it personally for yourself!

You can write ideas for the following articles in the comments, and if you have questions, write them also in the comments or

Everything ingenious is simple!

The main purpose of this article is to show some tricks and texturing rules that will raise your textures to a new level of quality. All the tips that you read in this article is not the only method for solving problems, but judging from my many years of experience in creating textures, I can say that these methods work in the best way (quickly and efficiently).

1. The expressiveness of the material - what is it?

The concept expressiveness of material  I will use very often.

Demonstration of NOT (!) The expressiveness of the material.

But in general, ultimately, it does not really matter if the texture itself looks good or bad if it looks great on a finished model.

However, a great way to check the quality of the texture is to look at the layout and note for yourself whether it is possible to recognize where what material (metal, stone, rubber, etc.) or to determine which part of the model is deployed here.

But if you work on modern materials or materials of a new generation (NextGen materials), then this is not always possible. Nevertheless, if you can still recognize the material, then this is a great chance that the material will look great on the model. But if the material cannot be recognized, then it is more likely that you will look at a set of random colors and pixels, but in reality it would have to be metal.

(Using photos as a texture can easily fix this, but more on that below.)

Besides good diffuse card (diffuse map) quality is also of great importance reflection maps (specular map) There are many tools that will create a reflection map for you, but they do not provide the necessary control. Especially when you work on different materials placed on the same texture, or with bright text.

Therefore, Photoshop remains the only great tool for creating reflection maps. Using it, you can make a mask that will exclude areas where the reflection map is not needed. And if you have white text on the texture, then using the mask you can dim the brightness of this text on the reflection map.

Above is a picture showing how you can create a reflection map for a simple texture with two materials: concrete and metal. Each material has its own level correction (Levels 1 and 2) with a mask. You can also use Brightness / Contrast instead of adjusting levels, but using levels gives you more control over the picture. And on top of the adjustment layers (Levels 1 and 2) lies Hue / Saturation so that the reflection map becomes black and white.

2. Base material

A good tone when creating a texture is the start of work with the base material. If you create a metal material, then first create a uniform (preferably repeating - tiled) texture, completely filled with metal. If damaged metal is needed, then damage can be added on top of the base material.

Be sure to keep the underlying textures. Thus, if you again need to create a metal material, then you take the base material and create a new one based on it.

This is very convenient if you are working on a number of typical objects or buildings. Thus, starting from the base material for each type of material on your texture, you can create good expressiveness of the material. After each part has its own material, you can start adding details.

3. All beauty in details that are invisible at first glance.

Quality texture on a low-poly model.

This is what a lot of people skip when creating textures - small parts. They are not visible during cursory viewing, but very much increase the interest and liveliness of the texture.

Depending on the style and theme, you can use both minimalism in detail and extremely textured textures.

Your job is precisely to give the viewer an object that looks drop dead. The elusive details are just perfect for this task, and these details can be anything. Stickers, paint residues, rivets, bolts, some scribbles with a black marker, dirt, grease stains, and anything else.

But the main point is to make all this inconspicuous / discreet. If you overdo it, the effect will be the opposite and the picture will deteriorate.

The object in the picture below is a very good example of creating parts in the right amount. As you probably noticed, the diffuse color is immediately loaded with details and most of them are invisible at first glance. On the object there are pieces of film, stains, stickers with text, scratches, rivets, labels, etc. These details give a realistic look to twenty-two triangles of the model.

4. Make your textures clearer.

Be careful. Some love clear (sharp) and sharp(crisp) textures, and others leave them a little blurry.

Personally, I prefer crisp textures, so I always apply the definition filter (Unsharp mask in Photoshop) to the entire texture as the final step.

Essentially, I'm just making a copy of my entire texture and making this copy the topmost layer. Then I apply the Unsharp mask filter to this layer (despite its contradictory name, this filter will make your texture more clearly).

I prefer to use a filter instead of Sharpen Unsharp mask  - with it you will not 100% ruin the texture. In addition, Unsharp mask gives additional control over the final picture.

There is a great temptation to make a very clear texture, but this can lead to all kinds of artifacts in the picture.

The first picture (normal) is the original texture. This is how it looks in Photoshop without any corrections.

The second picture is the original with the Unsharp mask filter applied at 70%. Details on the paint and scratches performed very well.

True, the highlight on the horizontal rib has now become very expressive, but it can be slightly dampened. (You need to do this on the original texture and reapply the Unsharp mask filter. In this case, you will have a completely clear texture at the output and save your .psd file in perfect order).

In the last picture, artifacts that you definitely do not need are clearly visible. White is clearly dominant here, as well as bright orange pixels on the sides of the paint, etc. This should be carefully avoided.

5. Use caution when using photographs.

Avoid using photos carefully when creating your textures. Read about one reason for this. It is very rarely possible to use part of the photo directly in the texture without adding / removing details or fitting the photo under UV-scan.

I am not saying that this is impossible. Some texturing experts are doing very well. But for the most part, the use of photographs for textures is the prerogative of beginners. But it would be better for them to look at other techniques for creating basic textures.

6. Use photo overlays.

Even with advice # 5, using photos is not always bad.

Photographs are a great way to add small details. Those. details such as small pores that dilute a simple, uniform fill and make the model less cartoonish.

The best way to demonstrate what is now in question  - This is to show the texture with and without photo overlay.

The best way to get a good effect is to go through all mixing modes (blending modes) in Photoshop "e and choose the most suitable for the pair: base material + photo.

Modes usually work well Overlay  and Vivid light. The result from other blending modes is highly dependent on the picture, but very often a scorched picture is obtained. But you always need to keep in mind the fact that photo overlay should be subtle.

These small details should be completely discreet.

Another thing to always keep in mind is detail scale.

If you need to add a slight defect in the paint, as in the second picture of the doors, then you must choose the scale of the details the same as the scale of your object. If the scales do not coincide, then the viewer will immediately notice a catch, since these paint defects will be inappropriate.

For the best overlay effect, I advise you to take a little time Blend if  (Mix if) for each layer.

This option is extremely useful if you have very light or dark areas in the picture that spoil all the beauty. With Blend if, you can significantly smooth them out. What if hold Alt and pull the slider, then it splits and you get a smooth transition between what is mixed and what will not be mixed.

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We hope you have already managed to try out text effects on your photos that we talked about in previous articles. Today we will deal with textures. A texture is a pattern characteristic of a particular material. Any objects that surround us have their own characteristic pattern, by which we can accurately recognize the object. Such identification occurs on a subconscious level. If in Photoshop you create a drawing of the surface of an object, then the viewer will definitely have an association with this object. Therefore, textures are often used as design elements for a variety of images, including photographs.

Leopard fur

To create a leopard fur texture, first of all, create a new image in RGB mode with a size of 200x100. Using the appropriate color swatches on the tool palette, change the foreground and background colors. Set the foreground color to black and the background color to light brown. Use the Paint Bucket tool to fill the image with the background color. Activate the Brush tool and set its basic settings: Master Diameter - 16 and Hardness - 100%. Draw leopard spots on the image. Change the diameter of the brush during operation so that the spots are of different sizes.

  Make sure that the spots do not repeat each other in shape and are at different distances from each other. Apply a Gaussian Blur filter to the image to give stains naturalness and get rid of sharp outlines. In the filter settings, set the Radius parameter to 1. Now add the fur to the texture. To do this, we apply two filters in turn: Add Noise and Motion Blur. The first is to add noise to the image. This filter is indispensable for creating textures and in many other cases. Select a filter from the Noise group and set the values \u200b\u200bof its parameters as shown in Fig. one.

Apply a motion blur filter. This interesting filter is mainly used to create the effect of rapid movement. Blurring occurs in a given direction, so that the impression of movement of the object. The photos of cars shot in motion at high speed look something like this. We will use it to create fur. Set these parameters as shown in fig. 2. This texture looks very impressive as a frame for a photograph (Fig. 3). This frame was created by the method described above, after which the Bevel and Emboss effect was applied to the layer.

Denim texture

In 1853, in the USA, where the gold rush was raging at that time, the German merchant Levi Strauss (Levi Strauss, or Levi "s) sold to gold diggers pants made of a special type of fabric, which was previously used for sails. New strong pants quickly found This is how jeans were born that the whole planet knows about a century and a half after the invention.We suggest you create your own jeans texture, which is perfect for taking photos from youth parties, hiking and hiking trips.

Create a new 200x200 RGB image. Set the blue color as the foreground color and fill it with the image. Apply a Halftone Pattern filter from the Sketch group to the image. It is designed to redraw the original image in grayscale. Halftone colors are determined based on the currently active primary Photoshop colors. This filter is not used often, but there are interesting options for its use, as, for example, in our case. In the filter settings, set the following parameter values: Size - 1, Contrast - 5, pattern type - Dot. Thanks to this, we get a blank for texture, which is not too similar to jeans yet. But we are only at the beginning of the journey. Use the Grain filter to add noise to the image. Use the following parameters: Intensity - 100, Contrast - 38, noise type - Regular. At first glance, it may seem that the resulting image (Fig. 4) looks like jeans texture even less than the previous one, but this is not so. Especially if you have powerful tools for adjusting the hue and color saturation of Photoshop. Call up the Hue / Saturation window and check the Colorize box. Using this window, you can change the tone, saturation and brightness of the individual color components of the image.

By moving the Hue marker, you move around the color wheel, which consists of successively arranged red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple colors. By checking the Colorize checkbox, you turn the image into a two-color one. It will consist of white and one more - optionally - color. Set the Hue parameter to 212, and the Saturation to 39. The texture will become exactly what we need - the denim. To make it even more believable, apply the Motion Blur filter you already know to the image. Set the Distance parameter to 2 pixels, and Angle to 37. As a result, a line appears on the denim texture. As mentioned above, such a texture is the best suited for the design of the frames of photographs from vacation (Fig. 5).

Marble

Some materials have a rather complex pattern, so it may seem that it will take a lot of time to create it. This is far from the case. For a person who perfectly knows the arsenal of Photoshop tools, it will not be difficult to create a complex texture pattern using standard filters and program tools. Here is an example of creating such a “complex” material as marble. Create a 800x800 document in RGB mode and apply a Difference Clouds filter to it. This filter creates some formations, very similar to clouds.

The color scheme of the clouds is determined from the currently set background and foreground colors. These colors are mixed with the original image. The Difference Clouds filter is often used as the first step in creating some textures for the same reason as Add Noise - their appearance is random. The result of using this filter is usually very surreal, which some use. Apply this filter several times - until the pattern of the future texture becomes a bit like a marble pattern (Fig. 6).

To better see the result, you can increase the brightness and contrast of the image. To obtain marble veins, you need to adjust the brightness levels. In the Levels window, by moving markers or setting numerical values, you can lighten or darken some areas. Move the middle slider to the far left to align it with the black dot marker. By adjusting the brightness levels, you can observe the result in the project window - the picture will become more like marble, streaks will appear on it (Fig. 7).

At this stage, the image must be painted in some color. This can be done using the Hue / Saturation window. Do not forget to check the Colorize box, select the color options. Such material can be used to decorate the frame of a photograph or to create various collages. Here's how, with its help, we transformed the photo of the steps in the park (Fig. 8).

Ancient scroll

People are often attracted to the unusual, something that they do not meet at every step. That is why images made "antique" always attract attention. In this example, we will try to master one of the methods of image aging in Photoshop and create the texture of an ancient scroll. Create a new image of size 700x700 in the RGB color mode, and then create a new layer (Shift + Ctrl + N). Select the Rectangular Marquee tool and select the inside of the image, leaving a narrow border. Fill the image with a beige-brown color, which is typical for old paper (Fig. 9). Apply the Add Noise filter to the image and select the appropriate Amount value. In the filter settings, set the propagation type to Gaussian and use monochrome noise.

Remove the selection and take the Brush tool. Set a high stiffness value and a small diameter and create torn edges in the image by walking around the perimeter. To complete the image, you need to darken the paper in some places. For this, the Burn tool is suitable, which reduces the brightness of the pixels, which darkens the image. Working with this tool resembles working with a brush, so it also has parameters such as the radius and stiffness of the brush. Choose a small value for the Hardness parameter, a small diameter of the brush and paint over the edges of the image so that they seem to have darkened with old age. Then increase the diameter of the brush, make it softer and slightly darken the center of your ancient scroll. This will require perseverance from you. The texture of the ancient scroll looks very impressive if you use it as a background for text - for example, for classic poetic lines (Fig. 10).

Crumpled paper

Paper is one of the materials that is best recognized. That is why it is often used when creating textures. In this example, we will no longer age the paper, but just try to wrinkle it.

Create a new image of any size in RGB color mode. Select the Gradient tool and set the type to Black, White. In the Mode list, select the Difference blending mode and check that the Opacity is set to 100%. Create a gradient fill on the image at a certain angle. Repeat this operation several times, changing the angle of the gradient fill and the width of the transition. As a result, you get an image consisting of randomly intersecting gradients. Bruising areas will occur where the gradients intersect, therefore it is desirable to achieve a pattern in which most gradient transitions converge at one point (Fig. 11). Apply an Emboss filter to the image. It allows you to create from the original image an imitation of a volume stucco molding resembling a bas-relief. The peculiarity of this filter is that almost the entire image turns gray. There are colors, but only at the edges and bevels. The settings for this filter will depend on what kind of drawing you have, as well as on the size of the image. We are sure that you can easily choose the settings for this simple filter. The higher the Height value, the more rounded shapes will be at the bends of the paper, so choose a small value for this parameter.

The Angle parameter determines the angle of incidence of light on the "bas-relief". The Amount parameter is responsible for the brightness and contrast of colors. At small values, the image goes into a solid gray background, at maximum values \u200b\u200bit becomes very bright, so it’s better to stick to the middle ground. You can adjust the effect using the Brightness / Contrast window. With it, you can make the image brighter or darker, as well as increase or decrease the contrast of the image. In this case, it is important for us to change the brightness of the image by setting the maximum value of this parameter. After that, we get a bright white sheet of crumpled paper. Finally, the final stage of the work is paper coloring. Using the settings of the Hue / Saturation window, you can select any color for the paper. The crumpled paper texture can be easily used to “crumple” a photograph. To do this, make sure that the size of the texture matches the dimensions of the photo you want to crumple. Follow this example until you apply the Emboss filter, but do not make the image brighter, and then open the photo in Photoshop. Move the resulting texture to the photo, thereby creating a new layer. Go to the Layers palette and change the blending mode to Linear Light. This mode gives the maximum advantage of color mixing. Set the Opacity to 30%. The photograph will become crumpled (Fig. 12).

To be continued.

Sergey and Marina Bondarenko

Textures surround us everywhere - concrete on the sidewalk, various fabrics, and even glass and plastic. We see them every day. And this is not surprising, because textures are important elements in the design.

Photoshop is not only intended for image processing and photo manipulation, it can also be used to create your own textures. In this tutorial, I will present some tricks to help you create your own textures. We will use filters, layer styles and brushes. Before we get started, I want to demonstrate the importance of textures. Pay attention to the image below.

In the screenshot above, we see an image in which there is one gray flat texture. If it were not there, then there would be no image itself. The image on the right is fully textured (wooden frame, furniture surfaces). In fact, all the textures of the second part of the image were created in Photoshop. Let's get to work!

Texturing with filters

Many users (mostly beginners) still perceive filters as unnecessary tricks that have no real use. But this is not at all true. Filters are very powerful and versatile tools that, when used correctly, give amazing results. If, while working in Photoshop, you do not use filters, then I urge you to take a look at these underrated tools again.

Apply multiple filters

No one says that only one filter can be used. Experiment and add a second, third and more filters. Observe how they interact with each other, and what effects are obtained.

In Photoshop there is a gallery of filters, where you can view the result of the interaction of certain filters. The image below shows that the Craquelure filter becomes much more interesting if you apply it after the Reticulation filter using the filter gallery.

Let's take another look at how several filters work together to create custom textures. The screenshot below shows an example.

Now look at how it is created. First, create a new document with a white canvas. Next, apply the Add Noise filter to it, to do this, go to Filter\u003e Noise (Filter - Noise).

This filter provides a good basis for the next filter. In order to obtain the desired result, it is important to maintain the sequence of the use of filters. Now apply the Emboss filter by going to the Filter\u003e Stylize tab. See the third figure on the right for the result.

In addition, some filters give better results when applied more than once. Consider an example with a Spherize filter on the grid, for this go to Filter\u003e Distort. Applying it once, the effect will be weak. Applying it a second time, the effect will become more noticeable.

Tip:  Before applying filters, convert the layer to a smart object so that the filters are applied as smart filters. They do not affect the original image and can be edited at any time.

Experiment with different filter combinations to see how they interact with each other. In the future, you can foresee how one filter affects another and how to achieve unusual effects.

Filters to create a wood texture

Creating a wood texture takes a lot of time and effort, why not let Photoshop do most of the work for you? Some filters, such as clouds or noise, are suitable for its creation, it is advisable to take a document of such sizes 256x256, 512x512 and even more than 1024x1024.

If you take one of these filters as a basis and combine with another filter, you will get complex wooden textures without additional effort. The image below shows an example of creating a texture in which the Clouds filter was used as the basis.

Now consider this as an example. As already mentioned, you need to apply the Clouds Filter (Clouds) to a white canvas measuring 1024x1024 pixels, for this, go to Filter\u003e Render. Like the Noise, the Cloud filter provides a certain randomness that combines well with other filters.

You can freely adjust the image size without affecting the applied filter. You can adjust the size by going to the tab Image\u003e Image Size (Image - Image Size).

Now, if we add the Posterize effect by going to the Image\u003e Adjustment menu, the texture will split into several shades of gray with a more defined pattern.

And finally, to indicate the edges, add the Find Edges filter by going to the Filter\u003e Stylize tab. As a result, the texture will turn into wood.

Texturing with Layer Styles

Textures can also be created using layer styles. They provide additional options for decorating the contents of a layer. Experiment with each style setting to see how they work. The following are some of the tricks that I use when working with layer styles.

Blend Modes

Using blending modes, textures are created by blending. At the same time, several modes can be organically combined in a single complex texture, see the image below.

Tip:  Work with grayscale textures (i.e. shades of gray) when using blending modes is much easier to control, you can add color later. Complex textures are created in several stages. Consider the texture of the countertops in the four images below. Each image is a simple texture, which when mixed form a complex texture.

Extra options

Using layer styles, you can achieve interesting effects, but many users often ignore additional options in the “Blending Options: Default” section of the layer style window. Some parameters have a significant role. Here, for example, you can choose how the mask will affect the style.

At the bottom of the window is the Blend if section with sliders. Using these sliders, you can easily create complex blending effects.

Take a look at the image below. The glossy texture of the paint was created using the very Blend if section.

The sliders in this section control the process of blending the layers. In the image on the left, the paint looks too “flat” unnatural. But if you work with the sliders, you can achieve a good result. In the image on the right, the wide areas are painted white, from here we see where the mixing takes place. White color shows where the glossy effect will appear if you adjust the sliders.

Before moving the sliders, hold down the Alt key, thus the sliders are divided into two parts, giving a smooth effect.

Duplicate Layer Styles

Sometimes, in order to achieve a more complex effect, it is necessary to apply two identical styles with different settings at once. To achieve this in Photoshop earlier versions without any consequences would be difficult. Thanks to smart objects, it is now possible to add styles to a group of layers (from CS6) and reuse styles on a single layer. This method is used to create liquid or glass. See image below.

Let's look at how fluid is created. We start by creating a common shape on a separate layer (image on the left). Next, add the Inner Shadow and Gradient Overlay styles (drawing in the center). Then the layer is converted into a smart object, it will be it that will allow editing layer styles in the future. Subsequently, the same two styles were reapplied, but to a smart object and with other settings, in order to achieve a more complex effect.

Looking at the image above, you can see what complex and realistic effects we can create using layer styles. For example, the Gradient Overlay style was applied to the middle image, as a soft gradient, which created the vignette effect - shading in the upper and lower parts of the form. Repeated gradient overlay was applied with different settings. It was used as a dense gradient, which indicated the shape and bottom of the bottle.

Texturing with a brush

Using the Brush tool, you can create a texture manually. If you are fond of digital painting, then you probably know some tricks of working with a brush. Below I will show you some methods of using this useful tool.

Brush panel

Many users when working with a brush adhere only to the hardness and size settings of the brush. But going into the brush panel, the range of settings will expand for you and the opinion about this tool will change. Here you can control the behavior of the brush, making the result random or natural. Pay attention to the image below.

To create realistic highlights, I turned to the settings in the Shape Dynamics and Scattering sections of the brush panel. By changing the parameters, I created a number of different brush strokes that look pretty natural.

Tip:  Another useful feature of the brush panel is that while editing any parameters, the brush stroke is immediately displayed in the preview.

Custom brush shapes

Sometimes, just changing the brush settings is not enough. Creating a new shape for the brush gives more opportunities to achieve amazing and at the same time natural textures. To achieve the desired effect, the shape of the brush does not have to be complex. I usually work with simple forms and change the parameters to achieve the desired result. A good example is the scratches located on the wooden handle of the brush in the image below.

The scratches were created using a simple shape, as in the image below to the left. I added the resulting shape to the brush set by going to the Edit\u003e Define Brush Preset tab. Find this brush in the set, adjust the settings in the "Shape Dynamics" and "Scatter" sections and you will get a brush shape that creates scratches.

Using brush and layer styles

The following method allows you to draw textures with a brush and layer styles, resulting in complex textured effects. The trick is that 0% is set to fill the brush to hide the color of the brush strokes, and then the layer styles are used. The image below shows an example. Here I used the method of creating dents on a metal frame.

The method works better if you use a brush shape that has several variations. This can be either a custom brush or a standard Photoshop brush, such as Charcoal 59.

After you decide on the brush, adjust the same parameters “Shape Dynamics” and “Dispersion”. Before using the brush, create a new layer and apply the Stamping style to it, then set it to 0% for the fill, as a result, the color will be hidden and the stamping style will appear. Now you can apply the texture to work.

Texturing with Images

Although these textures were not technically created from scratch, they can also be useful. Using textures from finished images or scans can be a quick and efficient way to work.

The most common errors in such textures are improper lighting layout or images look too “flat”. Fortunately, this can be avoided by reading the necessary lessons.

Conclusion

As you already noticed, the creation of high-quality textures for design does not require the talent of a craftsman or artist. You just need to know the basics of working in Photoshop, knowledge of tools and you will get amazing textures. I hope that from this lesson you learned new methods for yourself that will help you in your future work.