In this tutorial, I will show you a simple, yet creative, technique that results in a realistic wood texture. This tutorial was written for anyone with a basic understanding of Photoshop.
This is what we will be creating:
Create a new Photoshop Document (File>New) to be 1500 x 1500px.
Select a dark brown color and Fill the canvas with it. For this image, I used #5a3222.
Create a new layer and name it ‘Grain’. Before we do anything to this layer, make sure your colors are reset to black and white.
Add some clouds to this layer by going to Filter>Render>Clouds.
Your image should resemble the following:
Transform (Cmd/Ctrl+T) the height of the ‘Grain’ layer by 600%.
Add a strong Motion Blur (Filter>Blur>Motion Blur) to the ‘Grain’ layer. I used a setting of 236px
Your image should now look like this:
This next step is what makes this texture possible. Go to Image>Adjustments>Posterize and set it to 25 Levels. You can see that our image has some good separations that we will use to create wood grain.
To get the wood grain to show, go to Filter>Stylize>Find Edges.
You’ll notice that we have a pattern that resembles wood grain, but it’s not quite there yet. Let’s darken this layer by adjusting its Levels (Ctrl/Cmd+L) :
We want to add some texture to the grain (as well as break it up). To do this, go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise and set the Amount to 65%.
Next, go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and give it the following settings:
This next step is optional, but if you want to add some depth to the wood grain, then we need to set it up now. Go ahead and make a copy of the ‘Grain’ layer and rename it to ‘Specularity’ (this will become our specularity map). Position the layer as shown below (you can hide this layer since we wont need it just yet):
Those who have used 3D software will recognize this word. It simply refers to a specific kind of highlight—usually a very focused spot of light on an object. A Specularity map is just an image that defines where the specular highlights go.
Set the Blending Mode of the ‘Grain’ layer to Multiply. At this point, you have a finished wood texture. However, we can continue from here and add some depth to the wood grain using the ‘Specularity’ layer.
Now, let’s start to refine the ‘Specularity’ layer. First, hide the ‘Grain’ layer and make the ‘Specularity’ layer visible
We need to Invert (Ctrl/Cmd+I) the ‘Specularity’ layer. Once this is done, bring up the Levels (Ctrl/Cmd+L) and adjust them as follows (the result will be our specularity map):
Change the Blending Mode to ‘Screen’ and set this layer’s Opacity to 10%. Go ahead to unhide the ‘Grain’ layer.
To fully get the effect of the specularity map, nudge the ‘Specularity’ layer down and right a few pixels. This effect is subtle, but worth it!
If you want, you can add some color variation to your texture by selecting the ‘Background’ layer and using the Dodge and Burn tools as shown:
Your final image should resemble the following:
Feel free to adjust the color of the ‘Background’ layer to acheive the wood coloring of your choice.
Tags: drawing & design, photoshop tutorials, texture tutorials, textures
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