Thread: Texturing old paper (photoshop)

Awesome find, Ravs.

Here is another tutorial that may be a nice complement: it shows how to use Photoshop's displacement map feature to (for example) make any writing/drawings on a crinkled piece of paper look actually drawn onto it:

http://www.taupo.co.uk/pshopt1.html

Scroll all the way down to the bottom to the dog's pawprint image to see what I mean!

(Plus it includes a link to a great wrinkled piece of parchment for a free download!)

Assuming that the tutorial says what I think it says, this must be done with a light touch if the map is to stay legible. Maps generally depend on linework and small detail. Displacement maps can really smear that around if used too robustly.

I am very much going to try this. I'm putting together some maps for a Western Hero game I'm gearing up to run and need them to look like they have been in the pocket of a cowpoke that has been on the trail for a while.

Elsewhere in the Guild forums our friend Butch Curry (aka, palehorse) posted the following, a link to his tutorial video(s) on creating parchment in Photoshop.

http://www.youtube.com/ZombieNirvana

Highly recommended. Enjoy!

A sneaky, yet simple technique to produce paper wrinkles is to simply photograph a piece of crumpled and flattened printer paper. Heighten the contrast in Photoshop and place it over your color/dirt/burned edges/whatever layers in Photoshop. Change the layer transparency to multiply, (or experiment), and it will produce a very convincing texture.
It is pretty quick and has the advantage of producing wrinkles which match the sorts of wrinkles actually created by crumpling paper, which follow distinct patterns not created by PhotoShop filters.

For instance, if I want to create a scroll, I will make my wrinkles by rolling the paper. If I want to create something that looks like it was a folded road map, I'll fold the paper accordingly. Below is an example of the latter technique. Note that the Luger and the SS dagger were photographed separately and composited later.

Awesome tip. Simple, yet very effective.

Nice-

Nothing beats the realism of the real world

-Rob A>