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HOW TO MAKE TEXTURES
I don't have a scanner or a camera. These are (from what I understand) two of the most important tools when it comes to making textures. So I'm sorry this won't be a very enlightening how-to, but I think my way of doing things works pretty well.
So, here is the method I use.
Caps. Any time I'm going to make an icon, and I have my image all picked out, I start with a 100x100px canvas. Before I resize/crop the cap, I generally just move the image around in my 100x100 square, looking for anything that might make a good texture. A lot of caps have good bones and interesting details!
For example:
Start with this cap that hauntes so graciously provided me with a while back when I wanted to make Breaking Bad icons. When I first pasted the cap into my canvas, this is what I saw:
I liked this little section of the cap, and I needed a brownish texture with light and dark areas for the icon I was planning to make, so I didn't change anything. But for the sake of this how-to, we'll be mixing things up a little.
Usually I start off with the hue/saturation adjustment to find a color I think looks good. I decided I wanted a teal-ish color, so I went with a hue of +144, giving me this result:
I'm not crazy about the lines being horizontal, so I'm going to select all and rotate it using the free transform tool. (command+a; command+t; shift and then rotate with your mouse.) You have to do this to the cap layer, not the hue/sat btw.
Next, I feel like making a texture that only has light on the left and ride sides, almost like a border. So I'm going to paint over the middle to get rid of some of the teal stripes. I'd recommend using a brush with 0 hardness, and then smudging to make it less obvious...
Now I'm going to move the remaining stripes closer to the sides. It helps to stamp all visible layers and do the moving from there.
The right side is way too dark so I'm going to use levels (0, 1.00, 145) to brighten it up. Mask off everything but the stripe on the right.
Now the middle is really boring looking and we need some texture in there. Stamp all visible layers again, and go to filter→Render→Fibers. Variance:16, Strength: 4. Set this to screen.
It's usually at this point that I decide, "I really hate the colors of this" and I chicken out and go black and white. Apply a gradient map layer (black and white) with the white at location 80%.
Sharpen it however you like, and voila, a texture!
Just to show you the sort of stuff you can make with caps, here are a few textures I've been working on, and the caps that they came from. If you have questions about how I made these, feel free to comment and ask! (Right click; view image to see caps at their original size.)
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So as you can see, my process is this: find cap, fuck with cap. End of tutorial.
HOW TO USE TEXTURES
BE CREATIVE
Any way you want, TBH! I don't think there's a wrong way, but then the way I use and abuse textures isn't for everyone, so IDK. I'm pretty set in my ways, I think I only ever use textures on multiply, screen and soft light. Occasionally I'll use lighten, but that happens about once a year.
You can get a lot more out of textures if you perform gross operations on them (a la that one crazy guy from American Horror story or Frankenstein).
1) Try inverting (command+i) the texture to see if you get a different result you like better.
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(original texture set to screen)
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(nverted texture set to soft light)
2) Hue/Saturation adjustments. These are lifesavers, you can essentially get every color under the sun out of a texture.
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(original texture set to screen)
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(same texture; hue/sat of -134; set to screen)
3) Painting over things that don't work. If you're lazy like me, and you hate masking, you can occasionally get away with slight touchups.
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(original texture is from http://slayground.tumblr.com; resize; command+i; painted over)
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(set to screen)
4) In the same vein as painting, masking. We all have textures that are big, bold and exciting, but when you put them on your icon something has gone horribly wrong. Thankfully, there's no rule that says you have to use EVERY SINGLE PART of the texture, and we can get rid of what we don't want.
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(to enlarge: right click → view image; with the middle bit of the spade masked out so we can see erics face)
DONT BE A REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
I've had to learn this the hard way. Icons with 151869073429 textures slapped on them for no good reason (or worse still, icons with textures that simply DONT WORK) do not look good. You should have a goal you want to achieve with your texture use! Whenever I use textures, it's either because I want my icon to be dark, light, grungy, smooth, ornate, or balanced. Or I just NEED that texture for my composition.
My process has changed a little since the last q&a. TBH, when I make icons I generally start with texture selection. I'll peruse all my folders, looking for a texture to jump out at me. When I find one, I keep it in the back of my mind and go looking for an image that will work well with it. I know this is probably a backwards way of doing things, but it works for me! If I don't start with the texture, things can get repetitive (I'll just slap any old thing on an image if I don't start with a goal. This has gotten me into trouble loads of times).
HOW I USE MY TEXTURES
Someone asked if I could show how I use my own textures. I do the same terrible Frankenstein stuff to my textures, so I'll just show you my favorites and how they've been used in some recent icons.
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(set to screen; usually with a red/orange color overlay layer style set to multiply)
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(set to screen)
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(set to screen)
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(b&w gradient map; set to screen)
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(set to screen)
FAVORITE TEXTURES
bijoou
drankmywar
eamesie | lookslikerain | lovebasics | souvenirss | twinstrikeish
innocent_lexys
poshing
(to enlarge: right click → view image)
slayground
(to enlarge: right click → view image)
shoqolad
FAVORITE TEXTURE MAKERS
pandavirus @ welt_herrschaft ( texture tag); colourmayfade @ justaquicke ( texture tag); emonet25 @ krimson ( texture tag); poshing @ a_darkdesign ( texture tag); bijoou ( texture tag); cielo_gris @ velvetb0x ( texture tag); vikyvampirs90 ( texture tag); prettybutt @ atomicapples ( texture tag); lemonpunch @ iconpunch ( texture tag); eamesie @ oh_freckle ( texture tag); bijoou ( texture tag); drankmywar @ defaultsettings ( texture tag); innocent_lexys @ satine_violet ( texture tag); shoqolad @ distractiions ( texture tag); slayground (texture tag)
TEXTURE IDENTIFICATION*
*IF YOU WANT ME TO IDENTIFY A TEXTURE IN AN ICON OF MINE, POST A COMMENT AND & I'LL TRY AND FIGURE IT OUT
→ maker unknown* + slayground
→ me + innocent-lexys + innocent-lexys
→ innocent lexys + innocent-lexys
→ innocent-lexys + innocent-lexys + innocent-lexys + innocent-lexys
FOR Q&A, TUTORIALS, WALKTHROUGHS, TEXTURE RECS, ETC
REQUEST AWAY AT MY ASK THE MAKER 2.0 THREAD
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