How to Make Lumber in Photoshop

nishantbaxi 1:57 am on March 11, 2010 | Answers: 1    
Tags: lumber, make (7), photoshop (30)

Rate Knowledge:

 Loading ...

• nishantbaxi 1:57 am on March 11, 2010
  

  Step 1Go to “File” and “New” to create a new document. If you’re creating an image as a desktop wallpaper or website background, set your document dimensions to 1024 pixels by 768 pixels with a resolution of 72 pixels/inch. These are the most common computer monitor display settings.

  Step 2Set the foreground and background colors using the toolbar on the right side of your screen. Click the color swatches in the toolbar to bring up the color picker. Choose your color based on the type of lumber you are trying to simulate; for example, choose a yellowish brown for pine or a reddish brown for cherry. Set the background color to a darker hue than the foreground.

  Step 3Select “Filter,” “Noise” and “Add Noise.” Set the amount to 70 percent, the distribution to “Uniform,” and check the box to make the noise monochromatic. The image should look like snow on your television (although a different color).

  Step 4Select “Filter,” “Blur” and “Motion Blur.” For vertical wood grain, set the angle to 90 degrees; for horizontal grain direction, the angle should be 0 degrees. Set the distance to 50 pixels.

  Step 5Use the black selection arrow to stretch the wood grain layer. The motion blur filter will leave the edges of your image looking too light, so just stretch the layer enough that those edges are no longer visible.

  Step 6Go to your layers palette; if it’s not already on your screen go to “Window” then “Layers.” Copy the wood grain layer by clicking and holding it in the layers palette, and then drag it to the new layer icon in the bottom of the palette (it is located to the left of the trash icon). Turn off the visibility on the top layer for the time being. Click on the eye icon to the left of the layer in the layers palette to hide a layer.

  Step 7Select the visible layer by clicking on it (either in the work area or the layers palette) and then select “Filter,” “Texture” and “Grain.” Set the intensity to 30 and the contrast to 5. Set the grain type to either vertical or horizontal to match the direction of the grain in your graphic.

  Step 8Turn on visibility for the top layer and set the blending mode to screen (for lighter woods) or multiply (for darker woods). The blending modes are located in a drop-down menu at the top of the layers palette. Experiment with blending modes and opacity settings (located to the right of the blending modes) until you achieve a look you like.

  Step 9Create a new blank layer by clicking on the new layer icon in the layer palette.

  Step 10Press “D” to set your foreground color to black and your background color to white.

  Step 11Set where you want the boards of lumber to be separated and use the rectangle marquee tool (located to the left of the black arrow in the tools palette) to select a 2-pixel wide column from top to bottom of your image for vertical wood grain (left to right for horizontal). You can set the style of the marquee tool in the tool menu across the top of the screen. In the drop-down list, select “Fixed Aspect Ratio.” If you are creating vertical lines, set the width to 2 pixels and the height to 768 pixels. For horizontal lines the height should be 2 pixels and the width should be 1024 pixels.

  Step 12Fill the selection with black by pressing “Alt” and “Backspace.”

  Step 13Move the selection over by 2 pixels so that the new selection is next to the black line and fill it with white by pressing “Ctrl” and “Backspace.”

  Step 14Move your selection to where you want the next break in the boards to be and repeat steps 12 and 13 as needed until you have as many boards as you desire.

  Step 15Set the layer blending mode to soft light.