Creating High Quality Synthetic Textures

Note: in order to see the images you need to be logged in

Here are a few methods to make the following: Clouds, Fur, Fibers, Foil, Fire, Chipped Stone, Glass block or Tile
(just felt like putting it in there), Brushed Metal, and Grass .


Clouds
1. Set colors to light blue and white
2. Go to Filters>Render>Clouds


Fire
1. Set colors to a yellow and an orange
2. Go to Filters>Render>Clouds
3. Duplicate this layer (Drag it onto the New Layer button)
4. Go to Layer>New Layer Mask>Reveal all
5. Reset your colors to B/W and go to Filters>Render>Clouds
6. Set the blend mode (in the top left of the layers palette) to color burn


Foil
1. B/W colors
2. Filters>Render>Clouds
3. Filter>Sketch>Chrome


Chipped Stone
1. B/W colors
2. Filters>Render>Clouds
3. Filter>Sketch>Bas Relief
4. Recolor as desired


Tile/Glass Block
1. B/W colors
2. Filters>Render>Clouds
3. Filters>Distort>Glass (set texture to blocks)
4. Recolor as desired


Fibers
1. B/W colors
2. Filters>Render>Clouds
3. Ctrl+Shift+L to do Auto Levels
4. Filters>Stylise>glowing edges
5. Recolor as desired


Fur (Photoshop 7 and up)
1. Set your colors to a light brown and dark brown
2. Set your paint bush to the Dune Grass brush (in the tool bar)
3. Scribble around
(Makes good grass if green)


Brushed metal
1. With the gradient tool set to the copper gradient (in the obtions toolbar) drag from the top left to bottom right of the doc.
2. Ctrl+Shift+U to desaturate
3. Filter>Noise>Add noise (Amount=25, Distrobution=Uniform, Monochromatic checked)
4. Filter>Blur>Motion Blur (angle=45, Distance 40)


Though I use all of these textures I did not discover all of them. They have been compiled from books, magazines, and my own experiences. So don't flame me if you recognize one of them. If you want to know how to make something that is not on this list post it here and I'll see if I can figure out how.

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Those work pretty well; and the directions are clear and easy to follow. Im definately not a skinner and not even a graphics guy (my avatar can attest to that) but those are easy to figure out/understand. good job. The end product looks real, too.

you are the true master of photoshop

johnfn: Thanks. I'm glad they were helpful.

Aznwhore: Thanks but that's not true. I am more the master of gooutandfinditformyselfness. So to speak. Off topic- I am going to be gone for about two weeks and could use someone to look over my icon workshop. You interested. Post in my icon thread.

hmm...started my icon request, np, ill do it.

ok...to be honest im completely new at the whole skinning thing.i'll cut straight to the point...how do i get a picture of the guy i wanna get a new skin for in my photoshop?Thx fer ya time.

I'm busy at the moment but I'll pm you later with an answer.

yeah. i was wondering that too. I have a custom model but how do i skin it?

Hmm... I'll just post my message to him.
__________

I assume that you have a model and skin, say a footman, from the game you want to tweak. First you need a viewer program of some sort. I prefer Warcraft 3 Viewer but there are others like Image Extracter (both in the DL section of this site) I will walk you through how to do this with WC3Viewer.

1. Open the viewer (Warcraft 3 Viewer)

2. Go to File>Open MPQ and choose war3.mpq (this is the file that hold all the skins/models/level/etc. for the origional game, not the expansion. This is important because the origional game has the footman file not the expansion. If, for example you wanted to skin Kael from FT then you would open the war3x.mpq) Hit OK.

3. Now that you have war3.mpq open, look in the box that lists the contents of that .mpq file. Go to this path by clicking through each level of files:
Units>Human>Footman>Footman.mdx

4. You should now see a footman in the blue window. Go to Current File>Extract (and convert) used textures. In the dialogue it list the various textures that are used in the model and what you want to do with them. You should see both Textures\Footman.blp and Textures\Guts.blp. The guts file is just the corps you see when the unit dies so it is not nessessary skin it.

5. Unhighligt the guts file so that only the Textures\Footman.blp is highlighted. In the obtions choose a location to extract the skin to. The desktop is an easy place to find it. Make sure that it is set to extract as a .tga file (look for a box in the lower right side)

6. Now open Photoshop and open up the file you just extracted from where ever you put it.

7. You can now edit the skin as you see fit.

*note* Some versions of Photoshop were not shipped with the targa plugin (lets you open .tga's). You can download it here

i couldnt find the dune grass brush. :(

It is only in photoshop 7 and later. Sorry. If you have photoshop 7 or later and and can't find it try reseting your brushes as you may have a custom set loaded.

Can u show a direct path to the dune brush tool i cant find it anywhere in the toll bar or anything. Its prolly somehwere really dumb but plz help me.

when in phototshop select the brushtool -hold ctrl and click --> a brushpalet will appaer and u just have to scroll down. :)

Ok, I know how to edit the skins bla bla bla. but.... when i change it to .tga edit it than save it, then try to convert it to blp. it says... Unknown file compression or something, could ne one help? :\