One
thing that always seems to throw off
the suspension of disbelief in a 3d
piece is it's prestineness. By adding
noise, scratches and other real-life
elements into the picture we can subtly
enhance it. It looks dern cool too.
Here's where we are so far:
Adding
noise is pretty much a guessing game.
You could just add a noise
filter on a separate layer and lower
that layer's opacity, but the result
would be rather bland overall, and
there are simple ways to vary the
noise effects.
You
could also use any number of grunge
maps, noise maps or other templates
(there are some nice ones on 3dTotal's
texture CD!), but what if you don't
have any available to you?
This tutorial will go through a simple
way of creating a varied noise effect
just by using Photoshop's native filters.
Start by creating a new layer and
naming it "noise". Hit the
"D" key to default your
colors. Now apply a Filter>Render>Clouds
filter to the new layer. Right away
apply a difference clouds filter
(Filters>Render>Difference Clouds)
to the layer and keep applying it
until you end up with something you
like. Clouds and Difference Clouds
create a random tileable pattern everytime,
so keep trying it until you end up
with a result that's high in contrast
and has several obvious "veins",
like below.
Now
this part will be different for everyone,
but open Image>Adjust>Levels.
Drag the middle (gray) slider a bit
to the left, making the veins a lot
more pronounced.
Now
you can apply the noise filter, I used
the settings below:
Amount:
21.33, Uniform, Monochromatic
Now,
here comes the trick. Lighten the layer
opacity to about 10-15% and change the
blending mode to screen You should end
up with something like this:
You
can sort of see the veins, but they
don't detract from the image. You
can further enhance or diminish the
effect to taste by using image>adjust>brightness
contrast on the layer. Here's how
mine ended up. It looks a little too
patchy, but that will be fixed up
later.
