Realistic Wood Grain in Photoshop

I've seen a few guides on here on how to make wood grain but I didn't feel they looked like wood enough. This technique was learned about 5 years ago and I've never forgotten it. Hope you don't too. :)

This technique was made in Photoshop CS2. I tried to make it in The Gimp but I couldn't find the same filters needed. If you can do it in Gimp, I would love to know.

Step 1 Open a blank window

Lets start off by opening a blank window of any size u want. I used 800x600. Then, change the foreground and background color to a dark brown and light brown color.

Comments

[ktabora]

Really thanks to compacho for this tutorial. It really helps for my string puppet animation.

[Thx4TheAmmo]

Nice tutorial, works for making lots of wallpapers

[YellowZealot]

How did you do the whole selective lighting deal? That would make a great instructable.

[future-tinker]

That's amazing

[Marble of Doom]

Really neat, never would have thought of it!

[GMZues]

Nice tutorial! Very easy to follow, and a beautiful result.
I managed to do it in GIMP with very little effort actualy.
I used the Distorts->Ripple filter (period=108, amplitude=75, threshold=0) and ran it 5 times. (I also used colorize to get right color)
Here's my result.

[FlipGuardian]

I did it with Gimp. To add the grain instead of "Filter > Distort > Shear." I went to "Filter > Distort > IWarp." Do you mind if I use this as a reference to make an instructional for Gimp?

[compacho]

Nice to know it can been done in GIMP easily. Thanks and feel free to reference my guide. It would be my honor :)

[the.mk95]

what do you use to make the text look engraved like that?

[bloke2022]

you could also just set the opacity on the text to 85% (or something close)

[compacho]

If I remember correctly, its "inside shadows" option from the layer effects button on the bottom of the layer window.

[the.mk95]

cool, thanks man i appreciate the help great instructable btw

[angelahopkin]

I thought you did a great job. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Angela

[bwente]

Nice tutorial. I have used a very similar technique in the past. I have added an extra step since CS2. Check out the liquify filter. Twirl, Warp, and Pucker are great for adding knots to the wood or making Birdseye Maple.

[compacho]

Yeah, I've seen other tutorials here that used the twirl and warp to add knots and realism and thought about adding it here, but its not my technique. Glad you liked this though.

[mrmucox]

All these tools are available in GIMP, though not as refined. Filter -> Render -> Clouds -> Render Clouds (though you have to start with a white layer over a medium brown layer and set the mode to overlay after rendering) Filter -> Distort -> Curve Bend (in place of Shear, also you need to set both curves, set one, then click copy, set rotation (90 or 270) and it has NO wrap-around). Filter -> Enhance -> Unsharp Mask

[compacho]

Ahh cool dude. I'm gonna try this now. Thanks.

[mrmucox]

And a second attempt:

[PKTraceur]

Banna Wood. Nice, looks cool.

[n1qaw]

I have CS3 and I have added some Actions that were suppose to be top notch for simulated grain. This is MUCH better and it warps REALLY well. Real looking wood furniture is now well within my grasp super

[PKM]

Short and to the point, but this is actually one of the better photoshop wood grains I've seen. Good instructable- I'll have a look in the GIMP when I get home to see if you can use the same technique.

[compacho]

Thanks. Glad you liked it. I'm all about trying to condense steps and sentences as much as possible.