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Graphic
Content: By Christopher "shaithis" Buecheler
I decided I wanted a little less yellow, and a little more of a rusty-red color, so I opened up the hue/saturation adjustment panel (located under the image menu, and the adjust submenu, or to use the way I normally describe menus, image:adjust:hue/saturation). Setting the adjustment color to yellow, I changed its hue and saturation to get a bit more red into the picture.
This is one of my two favorite parts of texture-making: dirtying up the texture (The other Is the tweaking process that ensues when you're ready to fuse your separate texture pieces together. More on that next issue). I like to use lots and lots of layers for this. They're a memory hog, though, so if you're running low in that department, make sure to save-n-merge often, to keep your layer count low. I've had textures use up to 40 layers before. In this image, I made a new layer, and simply scribbled around with the airbrush for awhile. Looks stupid now, but it's all in the final application. :)
Ripple takes those scribbles and makes them a lot more random and weird looking. The texture still looks like hell, but we've still got a few more steps to go.
Ocean Ripple doesn't appear to do much, other than add a bunch of white to the already rather distorted-looking texture. It plays its part, however. It's important that we keep in mind that all of this dirtying is going on within its own layer. It doesn't touch the base texture layer at all. It's also important to note that you should, especially when not doing specific work, experiment a lot with filters. Learn what each one does, and store that information. At some point in your life, you'll run into a time where you're thinking "now how could I get that effect into my texture"? Filters, and more specifically the creative use thereof, are often the answer.
In this image, I've selected a small part of the white, and then selected "select:select similar". This hilights all of the white parts of the layer. I then take a BIG eraser brush and get rid of all of the white (see that one over on the side labeled "90"? You can make your own brushes by clicking on an empty space. I always make a brush that's 90 pixels in size, 3 pixels in spacing, and 100% in hardness. This allows for quick fills with the airbrush, and quick erases with the eraser, among other things). This leaves me with a bit less of the squiggly black junk, and a little more randomness to the loops and whirls.
I made a new layer, but it suddenly occurred to me that this metal texture was too faded. A little work with the brightness/contrast controls ("image:adjust:brightness/contrast") solved that problem. I like a lot of variation and a decent amount of contrast in my textures. Too much, tho, and it'll look weird in-engine. It never hurts to save often, and occasionally import a version of your texture to whatever game you're using, to see how it's going to work.
Last image in this article, but an important one, because it shows the grid. Photoshop's grid is an important tool in texture making. I have mine laid out with a major line every thirty two pixels, and a minor line every four. This way, you can lay out any forms or shapes in your texture (more on that next week) so that the Level Designer you're working with has an easy time cutting them out in his editing program (which has a similar grid). You'll also notice I've hilighted the top and bottom rows of 32 pixels, and am offsetting them. The reason I did this will be explained...you guessed it, next time. :) So there ya have it. A good start, and some insight into how I make the stuff I make. I can't pretend to speak for other developers, though, and I don't believe (or intend on ever believing) that my way is the "One Right Way" or anything like that. As I said earlier: In texturing, the means justify the end. Next time: fun with bevels, making a "layered" texture, hand-drawing details, and more! Until then, shaithis - Christopher Buecheler is a freelance 2D artist.
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