Create Textures in Photoshop

In this Tutorial, we will create some textures that we can later use in your projects. They can be used as backgrounds or anything else.

The first one is a Rock Texture:

1 - Create a New Document and make it 1000 x 600 pixels with white as your background color.

2 – Change your “Background” and “Foreground” colors to shades of gray. Your foreground should be the lighter color. We used #b9b6b6 for the foreground and #646462 for the background.

3 - Then go to Filter > Render > Clouds, and then go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and apply the following values: Amount of 5 %, Gaussian as choice for the “Distribution” and check the “Monochromatic” box.

4 – Go to the “Channels” tab, on top of the “Layers” menu or in Window > Channels and create a new “Alpha Channel” by clicking on the button at the bottom of the menu. With it selected go to Filter > Render > Difference Clouds (you may need to repeat this many times, depending on your desired look). Then add noise to the layer bay applying the filter with the same settings we used before.

5 – Go back to your original layer and go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and use the following values:

6 – You can customize your texture by applying gradients, filters, colors, etc. We added a “Color Lookup” layer.

For the metal texture there are two options, Brushed Metal and Gold:

7 – For the Brushed Metal, create a New Document with the same settings as the previous one and with the same shades for “Foreground” and “Background”. Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and use an Amount of 100 %, Gaussian as choice for the “Distribution” and check the “Monochromatic” box.

8 – Then go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur use an “Angle” of 0 degrees and a “Distance” of 150 pixels. If you are working on the “Background” layer double-click on it to make it editable. Then check the “Show Transform Controls” button on the top left (Shift + Command/Control + T) and pull the left and right sides further out so the texture looks uniform.

9 – Go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and adjust the lighting to your liking. You can experiment with filters, gradients, layer effects, etc. and you can convert make your layer a “Smart Object” so you will be able to go back and change stuff.

10 – For the Gold, create a New Document with the same values as before. Change your “Foreground” and Background” colors to a light yellow and a light brown. We used # fced92 and # 826a2a. Then go to Filter > Render > Clouds and click OK.

11 – Go to Filter > Filter Gallery and apply the following filters:

Brushed Strokes: Sprayed Strokes (Click the “New Filter” button at the bottom to add another filter)

Distort: Glass

12 – Right-click on the layer and choose “Duplicate Layer”. Select your duplicate, change the “Blending Mode” to “Soft Light” and lower the “Opacity” to 80 %.

by @lornacane

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