Tutorials::How To Make Textures

Intro

*Note - If you are a photoshop beginner, this tutorial may be too difficult for you. Try the basic photoshop tutorials that are towards the bottom of the tutorial index.
In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how I make textures. Keep in mind that there are countless ways to make them... texture making is really just fooling around with the program and doing whatever random things pop into your head. These are the steps I took to make one particular texture, but you don't have to take these exact steps. The purpose of this tutorial is so you can get a better idea of what texture making consists of.

This is what I will be making.

Step 1

First, I am going to take two pictures that I took in China and open them in photoshop. What you need to do is resize the pictures to whatever size you want the texture to be. I want this texture to be 1024x768 pixels, so that's what I'm going to resize them to. Here are the two pictures I'll be using: [X] [X]

FYI: The first picture isn't photoshopped, I made it intentionally blurry when I took the picture.

Step 2

After you've finished choosing the pictures and resizing them, edit them to your liking. The first picture is a bit too foggy for me, so I'm going to use the unsharp mask filter (Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask). Adjust the settings. I set the amount to 113%, the radius to 13 pixels, and the threshold to 0 levels.

I want the picture to be darker, so I'm going to duplicate the layer and set the top one to "Color Burn".

For the second picture, I'm going to sharpen it once (Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen), duplicate the layer, and set the top layer to "Overlay".

Step 3

Now it's time to combine the two pictures. Just drag one of the pictures onto the other, and ta-da! You've got both of them in the same canvas, but on seperate layers. If dragging doesnt work for you, select all (Ctrl+A), copy (Ctrl+C), and paste (Ctrl+C).

Step 4

Let's play with layer modes for a bit. (Layer Modes Tutorial) Try setting the cityscape picture to all of the layer modes and figure out which one looks best. I chose "Difference".

Well, I like the overall texture, but I really don't like the color. So I'm going to duplicate the 1st picture ("Background Copy" in the above screencap), put the duplicated layer on top, and set it to "Color".

Step 5

Now I'm going to create a new layer, stamp the visible layers into the new layer(Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E) and desaturate it completely (Ctrl+U).

Again, use this layer to play around with layer modes. I chose "Screen".

Step 6

Though it looks pretty good right now, I would like for it to be a little bit grundgier. Here's a little tip for making graphics grundgier: First, stamp the visible layers into one new layer (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E) like you did before. Then, sharpen it (Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen) numerous times until it starts looking like this: (I sharpened it twice)

Once it's sharpened enough, you can change the opacity, set it to a layer mode, or anything you want. As for me, I set the opacity of the sharpened layer to 44%.

Step 7

Another thing that might come in handy while you're making textures is Difference Clouds. To use difference clouds, the layer you're using it on must not be empty. Also, make sure that the colors on your color palette aren't similar and are fairly contrasting.
So, create a new layer and fill the canvas with white using the paint bucket tool. Change the colors on the color palette to black and white. Then, go to Filter>Render>Difference Clouds and watch the magic. ;)

Play around with the layer modes until you get what you like. I ended up setting the layer to "Soft Light". You can do whatever you want with it, though. The color of the difference clouds depends on the color(s) of the layer you're using and the colors in your color palette. You don't always have to use the paint bucket tool, either. Like I said, most of texture making is just fooling around.

Step 8

And that's it, really. There are countless possibilities to what you can do. You can use gradients, motion/gaussion blur, brushes, you name it. Just fool around with the program and see what you can come up with. [The Finished Texture]

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