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Water (and Wood/Timber and Hair) tutorial


bEPIK

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This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it

This is what you will learn to make:
Water.jpg


And this is what you can do with it (timber, ???, hair, more timber, sunset):

 

1760985975_wood03v05.jpg.0f01e8b2c34517c90b72301340d537e2.jpg

 

wood%2003%20v01.jpg

 

water.jpg


Hair.jpg        Timber.jpg

Sunset.jpg



01. Draw a greyscale linear gradient with the Gradient tool (shortcut: G).

  • Hold Shift whilst drawing to keep the gradient straight.
  • The lower 10% of the image should be completely white. The white will be the dark part of the water, and without enough of it the water looks depthless.
  • The darkest shade the gradient should have has a colour Value of about 25. Colours darker than this produce water which looks over-exposed (light saturated).

1Gradient.png


02. Make a new layer (shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+N) above the gradient layer and change the Blend Mode to Negation (double click layer > Blending > Negation).
03. Reset the primary colour to black and the secondary colour to white.
04. On the new layer, render Clouds (Effects > Render > Clouds) with the default values except for the blend mode which should also be set to Negation.
2Clouds.jpg


05. Type Ctrl+F seven times to repeat the effect.
3Clouds.jpg


06. On the same layer use Outline (Effects > Stylize > Outline) with a Thickness of 14 and Intensity of 60.
4Outline.jpg


07. Flatten the image (shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+F).
08. Use Curves (shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+M) to colour the image, set the Transfer Map to RGB and move the colours as illustrated (Blue: (119, 139); Green: (143, 113); Red: (165, 98)).
5Colour.jpg


09. Duplicate the layer (shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+D).
10. Use Curves (shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+M) to colour the top layer as illustrated (Blue: (119, 143); Green: (119, 143); Red: (144, 119))
6Colour.jpg


11. Change the Blend Mode of the top layer to Overlay (double click layer > Blending > Overlay).
7Overlay.jpg


12. Flatten the image (shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+F).
13. Resize the image (shortcut: Ctrl+R), ensure Maintain Aspect Ratio is unchecked and increase the width to 350% of the original.

  • Smaller width increases produce “rougher seas” and larger width increases produce “calmer seas”.

14. Select part of the image that is as tall as the canvas and as wide as your desired final image.
14. Select all of the image (you can crop later, and it is easier to find a good combination that looks like water)
8Stretch.jpg


15. Copy (shortcut: Ctrl+C) and paste onto a new layer (shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+V) and change the Blend Mode of the new layer to Darken (double click layer > Blending > Darken).
16. Move (shortcut: M) the copy horizontally (click and hold on the image the use the left and right arrow keys) until you get something that looks watery.
9Darken.jpg


17. Select a new part of the bottom layer, copy (shortcut: Ctrl+C) and paste onto a new layer between the current layers (shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+V).
17. Select all of the bottom layer, copy (shortcut: Ctrl+C) and paste onto a new layer between the current layers (shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+V).
10Lighten.jpg


18. Set middle layer’s Blend Mode to Lighten (double click layer > Blending > Lighten) and Move (shortcut: M) it directly behind the other copy.
11Pre-Crop.jpg

19. Select the part of the image you wish to keep with the rectangle select tool (shortcut: S) and crop (shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+X).

Edited by bEPIK
Added new results
  • Upvote 2
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  • 3 weeks later...

Love it! Thanks!

-------------------------------------------------------------\

LOL O_O

-------------------------------------------------------------/

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  • 5 months later...

Eyo brad.pike, (sorry for double post)

I've been trying to get that wood effect you created all day, and I can't find the recipe for it. Can you maybe show us, please?

-------------------------------------------------------------\

LOL O_O

-------------------------------------------------------------/

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  • 4 weeks later...

Eyo brad.pike, (sorry for double post)

I've been trying to get that wood effect you created all day, and I can't find the recipe for it. Can you maybe show us, please?

If I get around to making it, the wood tutorial will be independent from this one; I wrote "And this is what you can do with it" because several unusual techniques are common to both textures, not because there is an additional step (so now that you've finished making the water, press F13 and it becomes wood). Unfortunately, all I have to recreate the texture from are six incremental PDNs with a big gap between step 3 and 4. The settings need a bit more tweaking, but it does look close.

P.S. Post your water results, I'd like to see them

P.P.S. Please

Edited by brad.pike
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  • 2 weeks later...

If I get around to making it, the wood tutorial will be independent from this one; I wrote "And this is what you can do with it" because several unusual techniques are common to both textures, not because there is an additional step (so now that you've finished making the water, press F13 and it becomes wood). Unfortunately, all I have to recreate the texture from are six incremental PDNs with a big gap between step 3 and 4. The settings need a bit more tweaking, but it does look close.

P.S. Post your water results, I'd like to see them

P.P.S. Please

It might be a selfish request, but I'd REALLY love to see how it was done. I hope you can find the steps again. (^_^)

I used the water effect in one of my Deviant artsies.

move_me_into_the_shade__please_by_freakkingx-d4a49xn.jpg

There's a gradient(ed) blur there. Here's the pure water effect.

  • Like 1

-------------------------------------------------------------\

LOL O_O

-------------------------------------------------------------/

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Mother of god that's amazing...

By step 6 I was thinking "Dude! Spirochetes!"

Hidden Content:
borrelia%20spirochete1.jpg

And by step 10 I was thinking "Microscopic view of Velcro!"

Overall very impressive tutorial with many many applications beyond what you listed.

The hair you made made my jaw drop and the textured wood dislocated my jaw entirely

SamusSig-1.png
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  • 7 months later...

Step 19. Copy a layer and flip vertically

 

Step 20. Stretch horizontally

water.jpg

 

Step 21. Flatten and Sepia

 

????? Use stretch repeatedly

????? Do some stuff

????? Flatten, copy layer, emboss, increase contrast of embossed layer, set layer to multiply, flatten, use curves to make image less dark

?????

 

Step 200? Save and wonder what the hell you did.

wood%2002%20v02.jpg

 

If anyone figures out how to get the timber in the original post, let me know

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Here I took that water image in the above reply, duplicated the layer, repeated the outline effect and then multiplied. Then I copied that layer and stretched it. And then like 20 recursive things. Copy layer, stretch, flatten, copy, unflatten, paste onto new layer, copy that layer, emboss, contrast, et cetera. Also, the soft saturation plugin is your friend. The wood part is possibly untutoriable, but maybe not.

wood%2003%20v01.jpg

 

Yay or nay?

Edited by bEPIK
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bEPIK The wood effect is impressive.  clap.gif.49fc959e58c688cb8f7d28d0b0164b4e.gif It has a "nearly looks like Walnut" look to it.

  I realize that this effort  is a work in progress,  but  consider a longer "stroke" for the "wood grain"  (as is, the "wood grain" looks too short or "chopped up" for all but some unique wood ).

I realize I'm not very clear, but thought I'd give you my thoughts for your continuing efforts. 

  • Like 1

           Scooter

  Age is only  a number --in my case a Really BIG number, but there you have it

When the prefect paint.net image is created, I will still be wondering "How they Do that?"- sigh☺️

       

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  • 3 months later...
On 4/20/2018 at 9:27 AM, Scooter said:

I realize that this effort  is a work in progress,  but  consider a longer "stroke" for the "wood grain"  (as is, the "wood grain" looks too short or "chopped up" for all but some unique wood ). 

I realize I'm not very clear, but thought I'd give you my thoughts for your continuing efforts. 

 

Like this? I made this from the flat PNG version of the picture from my previous post. Duplicating the layer, sliding the top one right, colour dodge, another layer glow, flatten, copy, undo, paste, difference, copy layer, colour dodge, flatten, copy, undo, paste, emboss, additive, flatten, copy, undo, paste, flatten, duplicate layer, stretch (vertically and horizontally), slide, difference, copy that layer, normal, lower opacity, copy base layer, stretch, additive. (Or something like that for those interested.)

wood 03 v05.jpg

wood 03 v06.jpg

Edited by bEPIK
Better picture
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