Creating Wooden Planks using Photoshop

Hi, I have been planning to write this particular tutorial for some time. So here it is finally. This tut is basically an exercise in painting texture from scratch having no dependency on any photographic material just to give an idea as to how far you can actually take PS. So let's start.

Open Photoshop :)

Take a blank image. Canvas size 400px X 400px

Step 1

To make basic wood map we will use a gradient tool. Change the gradient type from SOLID to NOISE.

Apply the gradient and if it is colored make it Black and White by using DESATURATE.

Step 2

Make a new layer change mode to COLOR and fill with a nice wood color. I will leave the color up to you.

Step 3

If the wood map is too dark in some places use the dodge too in SHADOW mode to brighten up the map.

Step 4

Now to make it look like wood. Select the background layer and apply the LIQUIFY FILTER. It should look like this afterwards. Sorry can't give you a screen cap of the liquefy UI. Print screen doesn't seem to work in that mode. But use the first button, and the twirl button. They seem to work bet. Avoid the bulge and Pinch buttons.

Step 5

Now that you have the basic wood. Let's apply the grain. Come to the channels and make a new ALPHA. Apply the noise filter.

Step 6

Now apply the motion blur filter to it.

Step 7

Finally adjust the BRIGTNESS/CONTRAST to get the final result. Brightness = -60 Contrast = +70

Step 8

CTRL+Click on the alpha to select it. Make a new layer and fill it with a dark brown color. Change layer mode to MULTIPLY

Step 9

Now let's do something complicated :))
Hide the color layer and grain layer. Come to channels and CTRL+Click on any one of the RGB channels to select it.

Step 10

Unhide the color and grain layers and applies this selection as a mask to the grain layer.

The reason to do this it to blend the grain with the wood cuts.

Step 11

Now repeat the same procedure to add some light grains. Keep the Layer mode for the light grains to SCREEN.

This gives you basic wood map.

Now let's make it into planks

Step 12

Switch on the GRID. Adjust it to 100px with subdivision to 4 using preferences.

Step 13

Take the LINE tool and draw some cuts across the image

Step 14

To add some dirt around the cuts, I will use a very simple technique. Add an outer glow to the cuts layer

You can even paint it out but this way is much simpler and Lazier :)

Now for the final touches.

Step 15

Merge the color layer and the Background layer

Select parts of the wood map and start adjusting the curve value and Hue/Saturation to get variations in the various planks.

Repeat this procedure for all the planks to get the final result

Here are few more variation using the same technique

I hope this tutorial is helpful.

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