How to use Textures Tutorial

June 29, 2008

This how to use textures tutorial will explain how to alter your images and add more interest to it.

This tutorial helps in many ways. Improving your knowledge of Photoshop, learning new things and how to use all types of textures to improve your designs - textures are extremely useful when you have boring images that need sprucing up.

Once you know how to do this you’ll end up tweaking it to suit your image, using different textures and discover more in Photoshop.

Feel free to request something similar this how to use textures tutorial.

Before (first image) & After (second image)

How to use Textures Tutorial - The Steps

Using textures can be extremely useful, but when starting out many people (myself included) have asked “how do I actually use these textures?” This tutorial will hopefully explain how to.

First of all, open an image you want to add a texture to - or you can download the one I have used above. Download Me!

Now open Photoshop if you haven’t already and open your own image or the one you recently downloaded. From here you can either use a texture of your choice or the one I used in the above image. If you want to use mine then download me!

Open whatever texture you are going to use in Photoshop and then select the texture - now use the copy short cut. CTRL/Command + C - then go to your image and use the pasting shortcut CTRL/Command + V

You’ll now see your texture is on-top of your image. Now you need to go to your layers pallet - if you can’t find it, press the F7 button on your keyboard and it will appear or disappear… either way, you’ll notice where it is. So, assuming you’ve found it, have a little look at it and try to locate the little drop down which currently displays the word “Normal”. Select that and change it to “Screen”.

Hopefully your image has turned out just like mine - so, using textures is a simple matter of copying a texture, pasting it onto an image and then changing the layer mode (normal/screen) to something other than “Normal”. When you want to have a play, try changing it to “Overlay” or “Soft light” - each and every one does something different and they work differently for all types of textures.

Aaannddd you’re done. I hope this tutorial was helpful and made sense - if you do have any questions regarding this “How to use Textures” Tutorial then feel free to leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to help you.

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Grunge Tutorial

June 29, 2008

This Grunge Tutorial will explain how to make the below texture.

These types of textures are extremely useful on almost all types of graphics; icons, collages, layouts and whatever else you’re making.

Knowing how to make these is really useful, often you can’t quite find the exact type of scratchy texture you want so it’s great when you can make it yourself.

Feel free to request a tutorial similar to this Grunge Tutorial.

Before

After

Grunge Tutorial - The Steps

First of all you need to download this file - it contains the slightly bigger before image and also 5 other textures I’ll use in this grunge tutorial. Make sure to save them somewhere you’ll be able to find them and once that’s done open them in Photoshop.

The grunge tutorial first step: Take the buckets image and duplicate it three times. To duplicate it go -> Layer -> Duplicate Layer… or use the shortcut: CTRL/Command + J - If you do this right, you’ll have four layers (3 newly duplicated ones and the original).

Now change the layer type of each duplicated layer… to do that select the layer, and go to your layers pallet, change the drop down menu from ‘Normal’ to the one I say below
- First Duplicated Layer (closet to original): Screen
- Second Duplicated Layer: Overlay
- Third Duplicated Layer (furthest from original): Screen

Select your 1st layer (closet to original) and then go -> Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur… - set the radius to 5.0 and press OK

Select your 2nd layer, you’re going to add the Gaussian Blur again, but this time just press CTRL/Command + F

Select your 3rd layer (furthest from original) and do exactly like we did before. CTRL/Command + F to add more gaussian blur to this layer.

Now select your original layer and go -> Filter -> Blur -> Radial Blur… - then click here - and change your settings of radial blur so they match mine…Note: On the right hand side of the settings you’ll see “Blur Center”, just click and drag it so that it moves to the top left hand corner - again, to match my own.

Select your 1st layer and then press CTRL/Command + F - this will add the radial blur to this layer.

Select your 2nd layer and then press CTRL/Command + F - this will add the radial blur to this layer too.

Select your 3rd layer and then press CTRL/Command + F - this will add the radial blur to this layer also.

Now we need to do the Gaussian Blur all over again - but this time on all of the layers, not just the duplicated ones. So, go -> Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur… and change the radius to 5.0 and press OK.

Select your 1st layer and then press CTRL/Command + F - this will add the gaussian blur to this layer.

Select your 2nd layer and then press CTRL/Command + F - this will add the gaussian blur to this layer.

Select your 3rd layer and then press CTRL/Command + F - this will add the gaussian blur to this layer.

Okay… the more exciting step: If you haven’t already, open the textures (in photoshop) you downloaded in the file earlier. Each of them are named ‘Texture Tutorial 1′ through 5. And all you’ll be doing is adding them to your buckets image and changing the layer type.

Find ‘Texture Tutorial 4′, it’s a black texture with very little markings. Select it (CTRL/Command + A), copy it (CTRL/Command + C), go to your buckets image and paste it (CTRL/Command + V) - then go to your layers pallet and change the drop down menu which says “Normal”, change that to “Soft Light”.

Find ‘Texture Tutorial 1′, it’s a white texture with gold/brown markings. Select it (CTRL/Command + A), copy it (CTRL/Command + C), go to your buckets image and paste it (CTRL/Command + V) - then go to your layers pallet and change the drop down menu which says “Normal”, change that to “Soft Light”.

Find ‘Texture Tutorial 2′, it’s a black texture with white markings. Select it (CTRL/Command + A), copy it (CTRL/Command + C), go to your buckets image and paste it (CTRL/Command + V) - now it needs to be inverted (CTRL/Command + I) - once that’s done then go to your layers pallet and change the drop down menu which says “Normal”, change that to “Color Burn”.

Find ‘Texture Tutorial 5′, it’s a grey, concrete kind of texture. Select it (CTRL/Command + A), copy it (CTRL/Command + C), go to your buckets image and paste it (CTRL/Command + V) - then go to your layers pallet and change the drop down menu which says “Normal”, change that to “Soft Light”.

Anddd….. your’e done! I hope this grunge tutorial was helpful, however if it was a little confusing and you’d like some help then feel free to contact us regarding this grunge tutorial - we are more than happy to help with anything.

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Photoshop Scratchy Tutorial

June 26, 2008

This Photoshop Scratchy Tutorial will explain how to make the below texture.

These types of textures are extremely useful on almost all types of graphics; icons, collages, layouts and whatever else you’re making.

Knowing how to make these is really useful, often you can’t quite find the exact type of scratchy texture you want so it’s great when you can make it yourself.

If you would like to request a tutorial similar to this photoshop scratchy tutorial then please feel free to - either click the link or leave a comment below.

Before

After

Photoshop Scratchy Tutorial - The Steps

Photoshop Scratchy Tutorial:Before you start off - please be aware that your texture won’t turn out exactly the same, the white scratchy bits will be in different places and scattered differently, but it will still turn out to have the same look as mine does.
To start off, you need a plain 800×600 black image. To do so, go into File -> New… A box should pop up, change all your settings to match mine, click here

Now you need to fill your image with a solid black colour, so go into Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Colour. Select the colour black, click OK. Then merge your layers by going into Layer -> Merge Visible.

Now you need to save this image to your Desktop, right click and select Save image as… Then go into Photoshop and open it up. Now click on the image you’ve just opened up and on your keyboard hold down the CTRL button (Or Apple button for mac users), once you’re holding down the CTRL/Apple Button, hold down the letter A on your keyboard. Your image should now be selected.

Now you need to define the image you selected as a pattern, so go into Edit -> Define Pattern… Click OK.

Download These Brushes, but if you don’t have Photoshop CS2/3, download the stamps here, then convert the stamps into brushes. Once that’s done, if you downloaded the brushes and not the stamps, continue loading the brushes into photoshop, if not, skip the the rest of this step. Go back into Photoshop and go into Edit -> Preset Manager… Click on the drop-down menu where it says Preset Type. When the drop down menu appears, click on brushes. Now click ‘Load…’ and select the brushes you just downloaded. Click OK.

Now go back to your plain black image by clicking on it. Click on the Brush Tool, once you’ve clicked that find the brush settings button, click here for a screen shot. When that box appears change all of your settings to match mine, make sure you have the same ones ticked too. click here for my brush settings.

Before adding brushes in the next step, you should know that… If when adding the brushes, there’s something you don’t like, simply hold down the CTRL or Apple button, then hold down the Z button on your keyboard to undo it.

Now comes the fun part. Click the brush tool and select the default 1px brush, it should be at the top of your brush list. Make sure all the brushes you use in this texture is white, you may change the colour if you like, but if you want my personal opinion, white looks best. Make sure the texture box is still ticked in your brush settings, make sure your other settings are as they should be too. Scatter the 1px brush around your black image, you should end up with white dots scattered everywhere, this is your base of your scratchy texture.

Once that’s done, go into your brushes and select one of the brushes you recently downloaded in this tutorial. Scatter one of them in a few places, careful not to make the brush too heavy and don’t hold it down for too long, otherwise you might end up with white splodges, which isn’t what we’re aiming for. For some of the brushes you may just need to click, for others you might need to click and then hold it, whilest moving your brush around a little, fiddle a bit, you’ll work out what looks best. Once you’ve had enough of the brush you’re using now, move onto the next and custimize your texture with the brushes, always making sure that your brush settings are as they shoulod be, like in the screen shot I showed you above.

Once you’ve done that, if you don’t feel it’s finished just yet, feel free to change your brush to a 1px white default photoshop brush again, that might add a bit of something.

And you’re pretty much done. If you want to make more textures like these with different brushes, you can go onto our brushes page and download some sets of brushes. Not all of them work properly for these type of textures, but now that you know what to do - I’ll leave you to play with it.

I hope this tutorial was helpful and made sense - if you do have any questions regarding this Photoshop Scratchy Tutorial then feel free to leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to help you.

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Noise Texture Tutorial

June 21, 2008

This Noise Texture Tutorial will explain how to alter your images and add more interest to it.

This texture effect helps in many ways. Improving your knowledge of Photoshop, learning new things and this type of texture is extremely useful when you have boring images that need sprucing up.

Once you know how to do this you’ll end up tweaking it and making all sorts of textures alike.

Feel free to request something similar to this noise texture tutorial.

Before

After

Noise Texture Tutorial - The Steps

Recently I have been using these types of textures on my graphic designs - I find they are extremely useful when I want to add a little more interest but can’t seem to put my finger on just how I should without making the graphic too cluttered. This method takes a few minutes to execute.

Firstly create a new image -> File -> New - Chose a size, for this tutorial I decided on 400 x 250 - make sure your layer is black

Now you need to duplicate your layer -> Layer -> Duplicate Layer… once you’ve done that your layers should look like mine.

Now if you look at your two black layers next to them you’ll see an ‘eye’, click on the top layers ‘eye’, once you’ve done that your layers should look like mine.

Now that you’ve got that sorted, select the bottom layer and then go -> Filter -> Noise -> Add Noise - a little box should appear, change your settings to mine.

Go back to your layers and click on the little ‘eye’ again, your layers will look exactly like they did in the first screenshot.

Now select the TOP layer and then go -> Filter -> Noise -> Add Noise - a little box should appear, change your settings to mine.

Right now you should have two layers, each layer has some ‘noise’, both different settings.What I do now is select the eraser tool, a nice large soft brush, lets say 100 because this image is quite small.
Then I changed the opacity to 70% - once you’ve got your brush ready to use select the top layer and begin erasing parts of the layer. Before erasing & after erasing

And that’s it, you can change the the settings of ‘noise’ to be less or more, you can erase more or less of the top layer, you can do anything! I just tend to mess about with the settings and paste the texture onto a graphic and set the layer type to lighten, overlay, soft light, screen or whatever else you feel would work.

Aaannddd you’re done. I hope this tutorial was helpful and made sense - if you do have any questions regarding this Noise Texture Tutorial then feel free to leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to help you.

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