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In this tutorial I will leading you through the use of Filter / Distort / Displace... coupled with techniques in Pattern Fills to create a photorealistic woolen jumper effect.
First let's create our image base which will also serve as our Displace map
Create a new document measuring 640 x480 with a resolution of 72 pixels/inch (the size isn't all that imporant but my version started life at this size and in order to ensure you get similar result then this is where I started from) ensure that Background Content is set to Transparent.
Using the Gradient Tool (G) open out the Gradient Editor Dialogue Box to create a new gradient on the first layer you do this by clicking on the Gradient Tool's options bar putting your cursor over the gradient picker and left-mouse clicking
which open up the Gradient Editor as below
click on any of the preset gradients (Black, White would be the most appropriate) and then customise the gradient to create one similar to the one illilustrated above. You do this by clicking on the square Color Stops on the bottom of the Gradient Editor Preview or creating new Color Stops which you can do when you see the cursor change to the hand symbol and the popup text "Click to add a stop" appears.
Once you have either created a new stop or clicked on an existing stop you can edit it's colour by directly clicking on the Color: box
which brings up the Color Picker dialogue box and select your colour using it's palette and Color Slider
By moving the picker (the circle you see on the palette above) you can pick any shade that suits you and used in conjunction with the colour slider just to the left of the main palette you can chose any hue, or if you know enough about RGB or hexidecimal you can input the values manually on the right of the Color Picker dialogue box.
Build up your gradient using different levels of gray, black or white by adding more Color Stops as described above. How you create your own custom gradient is purely your choice, but you might want to try to match the one I have created for the sake of this tutorial. Once you are satisfied with your gradient, give it a name in the Name: box and click the New button and it will appear as a thumbnail icon in your Presets box for you to use as long as you wish. If you feel that you will have no further use for the gradient once you have completed your image you can easily delete it by right-mouse clicking the thumbnail icon and selecting Delete Gradient.
Now using the Gradient Tool fill your layer with your newly created gradient by clicking at one side of your image document and dragging the gradient line to the other side and clicking once more to create your gradient. Pressing shift whilst dragging the gradient line will constrain it to a straight line.
Your base image doesn't have to be exactly like mine, you might want to start with a 50% Gray filled layer and use the Dodge & Burn tools to create a more flowing base image. The gradient represents the highlights and shadows that make up the folds in your material so let your imagination flow at this point.
Create your Displace Map
Now that you have this base layer create a copy of the document using Image / Duplicate... and save the duplicate as "gradient-base-map.psd" or whatever name strikes you as the most appropriate. Save it to somewhere you can easily find it when you need to come back it.
New texturised layer
Going back to our original document we could add a preset texture directly to this new layer however it would flatten out the gradient and wouldn't flow with the folds of the material so instead we are going to create a new layer and fill with 50% Gray then apply Filter / Texture / Texturizer...
select the Canvas texture at the above settings.
*** The light direction isn't really important so you can play around with this as it is just a base texture***
Displace the texure to flow around the folds
We shall add a Displace filter to the texture layer to make the texture flow with the shadows & highlights of the folds making the texture more 3 dimensional. Ensuring you have the texture layer selected and chose from the main menu Filter / Distort / Displace... which will prompt you with this dialogue box.
Click OK and you will be prompted to locate your displace map - this is the one you created from a duplicate earlier which I called mine gradient-base-map.psd - locate your map and click on Open this will immediately apply your Displace Map to the filter layer. Now set the Blending Mode of this new layer to Hard Light to get something similar to this.
See how the texure now flows with the fabric, already it's starting to look realistic.
Let's add some colour
Okay so it's pretty bland at the moment but we can alter that easily enough by adding a Solid Color New Fill Layer.
Select from the main menu Layer / New Fill Layer / Solid Color...
when prompted with the Solid Color dialogue box name your layer appropriately and click okay
you will then be given the the Color Picker dialogue box to select you base colour from.
I used these settings.
But feel free to use your own settings as suits you. The beauty of using a Solid Color layer is that you can adjust it as many times as you like just by double clicking on it's Layer Palette thumbnail so it's not going to destroy your base gradient or texture layer.
Let's add our text
I've added two new text layers, one with my main logo "Maidenart" and a second with with a catchy (if not cliqued) sub text "design with style" but it doesn't matter what text you add it's your personal choice so be imaginative. I've chosen the font Arial Black as it's pretty solid but once again the choice is down to personal tastes.
I positioned the text slight more to the left of the image as when you come to apply your displace map it will displace it back into a more central positional.
Now make duplicate layers of both text layers and hide the original by clicking off the eye icon in the Layer Palette next to their thumbnails - this is good practice as you might make a mistake later and then have to do the Text Layers all over again, so duplicating them and working from the duplicates means you always have your original text layers as back up.
With one of the duplicate text layers highlighted in the Layer Palette select from the main menu Layer / Rasterize / Type. Repeat this process for the other duplicated text layer. Then using the same technique you used with the texture layer select Filter / Distort / Displace...
and open the same gradient-base-map.psd as you used before for each of the duplicate text layers. This will map the text to fit the fabric's folds.
Fair enough but hardly realistic, so we have to change the blending mode so that the text layers takes on the texture of the fabric.
Set both the displaced text layers to a Blending Mode of Soft Light in the Layer Palette and make a duplicate of each of these layers setting the duplicate layer to an Opacity of 25% - the reason for this will become clearer in a few moments.
With one of the the duplicated displaced text layer selected in the Layer Palette add a Stroke to the text Layer / Layer Style / Stroke using these settings.
then add a Gradient Overlay using these settings
select the "grey ripples" gradient you saved earlier so that the shadow and highlights match that of the base layer.
"Okay so what was that all about then?"
The reason for all that faffing about was to ensure your text blended into the fabric with a strong enough stroke effect to make it stand out whilst applying a gradient overlay to match the folds of the material this will greatly add to a photorealistic finish without using any destructive methods - in other words you can adjust the Layer Style to suit, as many times as you like, plus you can add further styling without destroying a single pixel of your design - now that makes for good practice and common Photoshop sense.
Now copy this layer Style to the other duplicated displaced text layer and the text is complete.
The texture is now developing but it still just looks like green coloured canvas and nothing like a knitted jumper.
Adding the ribbing effect
To add the ribbing effect of a knitted jumper we are going to add another Fill Layer this time set to Pattern fill.
So open the dialogue box by selecting from the main menu Layer / New Fill Layer / Pattern...
Select the Herringbone 2 pattern from the pattern flyout.
which can be found in the Patterns folder as highlighted above. When prompted select "Append to List" this will add the patterns from this folder to your existing list. Once you have selected the Herrinbone 2 pattern (as illustrated above) set the Blending Mode of the New Pattern Layer to Multiply and the Opacity to 25% to give you this result.
I think you'll agree that now it looks far more like a knitted jumper, the underlying texture gives it a strong base and the Herrinbone texture gives it the ribbed effect of knitted wool.
Punk it up!
The jumper style is complete but lets now rip it up. So I'm going to take you through the steps involved in creating a few holes and roughening up the texture to give a more aged feel.
In the Layer Palette select the base gradient layer, the one you started this project with, if this layer is a Background Layer you won't be able to add a Layer Mask so you now need to convert it to an ordinary layer by selecting from the Main Menu Layer / New / Layer from Background or alternatively double left clicking the base gradient's layer icon in the Layer Palette and renaming the layer to something appropriate.
Now that the layer is a ordinary layer you can now select from the Main Menu Layer / Layer Mask /Reveal All alternatively click the Add layer mask button at the bottom of the Layer Palette.
You now have a Layer Mask to work upon so first click off the visibility icons (The Eye symbol in the Layer Palette) next to all the other layers leaving just your base gradient layer visible then click upon the layer mask icon to select it and then press D followed by B -
D resets the foreground and background colours to the Default colours of Black & White with Black as the Foreground colour.
B selects the Brush tool.
Now in the Brush tool's options select a size of about 30 with a Hardness level of about 75%, double check that you are working upon the Layer Mask and not the base gradient layer itself by ensuring the layer mask is highlighted in the Layer Palette and then start to paint directly on image to start creating your hole.
You will notice (as illustrated above) that where you brush the base gradient layer becomes invisible showing through the background transparency grid. Resize the brush to a much smaller size by pressing the Left Square Bracket key [ found next to the P on the keyboard and take small bites at the edges of the hole to roughen it up, using smaller brushes you can make the shape of individual strands of wool as the close up below shows.
Now you have created your layer mask you will need to make copies of it for the other layers, we can do this by Alt + left mouse clicking on the base gradient's layer mask icon in the Layer Palette to bring it up in the main document and then Ctrl + A (Cmd + A on the Mac) to select all of the image, then Ctrl + C (Cmd + C for the Mac) to copy the entire mask followed by Ctrl + D (Cmd + D) to deselect the selection.
Now create a new layer mask for next layer above your base gradient layer (as explained earlier in this tutorial), Alt select the layer mask you have just created and Ctrl + V (Cmd + V) to paste in the copied mask which looks like the one illustrated below.
Do this for each layer then add a Layer / New Adjustment Layer / Gradient Map... below your base gradient layer, this will form your background layer and give the hole some depth. I've choosen a gradient between black and a dark gray tone, but you don't have to stick to this colouring you could, for instance, use a picture of someone's chest to show through the hole. But your hole in the jumper should now look something like this by now.
Next we'll add some random holes and tears which can be done rather neatly with another Pattern Fill layer which we will place above the Herrinbone fill. Select Layer / New Fill Layer / Pattern... from the main menu and as with the Herringbone pattern, if you haven't already got the Shag Rug pattern in your list then append it to your list from the Texture Fill folder ( as illustrated below)
Then select the Shag Rug pattern and set the Blending Mode of this new Pattern Fill layer to Darken with an Opacity of 50%.
Hey presto instant woolen damage to finish this tutorial - you can go on to add badges (buttons for you non-Brits) safety pins etc to punk it up further.
Enjoy your own punky jumper creation, and have a look at the other tutorials I have done.
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