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What is the best way to achieve a realistic grain effect in my computer sketches? I want to add more realism for my sandblasted designs. I can't seem to do it with anything in eyecandy.
-------------------- Wright Signs Wyandotte, Michigan Posts: 2785 | From: Wyandotte, MI USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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In either Corel or Photoshop I use an actual scan or photo of wood texture (there are tons of sources on the web for different species of wood pics) paste inside the sign blank and it looks great...
-------------------- Brian Stoddard Northwest Signs
I like to draw it by hand with a digital pen and pad and my favorite program called Painter... by Corel.
A passable woodgrain is pretty easy (and fast)
Practice makes perfect!
-dan
[ March 24, 2002, 04:47 PM: Message edited by: Dan Sawatzky ]
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8740 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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I have Painter, Dan. I will experiment with it. The photo idea sounds good too, it seems to be what others are doing from the look of their drawings.
-------------------- Wright Signs Wyandotte, Michigan Posts: 2785 | From: Wyandotte, MI USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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CorelDRAW comes with a couple good woodgrain fills that you can apply to any object from right within the vector drawing program. I have expanded them by making alternate versions with modified colors and even photographed my own surface textures like cedar shingles and brick that I saved in the same resolution and format as Corel's fills and saved in the same folders so I could access them through the fill menu. In other cases I have laid bitmaps of textures over a panel and used Corel's Power Clip command to lock them into a panel.
However you get the initial woodgrain into your background, making it look sandblasted would probably be most realistically rendered in bitmap format. Adding a transparent drop shadow to the copy would be part of the equation. Adding an emboss filter to the woodgrain first would also be a good idea, to make the wood grains appear to be raised fins. Pulling it all together would be some manual strokes at the edges of the letters to indicate the grain ramping up to the raised letter surface.
Here's one I made some time ago using all the steps I listed above. Today I might tackle it a little differently, but maybe it is of some value here. Good luck with mastering a technique of your own.
SONGPAINTER Original Sign Music by Sign People NOW AVAILABLE on CD and the proceeds go to Letterville's favorite charity! Click Here for Sound Clips! Posts: 1974 | From: Orleans, MA, Cape Cod, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I often print out a page with the wood background colors solid, then draw in the grain on the sign and the posts with a pen and with pens color in some flowers and landscaping. I prefer seeing some handwork on the presentation.
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6744 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
The Sign DNA has a couple of wood grain samples, I believe. Just distort them lengthwise to suit. It's very quick.
Brad in Kansas
-------------------- Brad Ferguson See More Signs 7931 Wornall Rd Kansas City, MO 64111 signbrad@yahoo.com 816-739-7316 Posts: 1230 | From: Kansas City, MO, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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What version of Eye Candy are you using? Check Alien Skin website for info on EC4000. Looks like it does what you're looking for. Also while there, check sys req's as it only works on newer systems & software. (exception of Photoshop 4)
-------------------- Bill Cosharek Bill Cosharek Signs N.Huntingdon,Pa
bcosharek@juno.com Posts: 703 | From: N.Huntingdon, Pa, USA | Registered: Dec 1999
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Thanks for all the replies. Well here is my effort from the ideas generated here. The best luck I have had getting the wood grain came from using Painter6 and then tweaking with some emboss tools etc. Also some Eyecandy. Still my main point is to get a nice realistic look without putting way too much time in it. Plugins are the answer in that respect. I saved the background for future use in other sketches. As of right now I am about 70% satisfied with the results.
-------------------- Wright Signs Wyandotte, Michigan Posts: 2785 | From: Wyandotte, MI USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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As said by Adobe, "Adobe Xchange is your place for actions, plug-ins, extensions, tutorials, and other helper files that allow you to easily add new features to Adobe products. You can even create your own files, upload them, and share them with the entire Xchange community. To begin, simply browse by product to find thousands of free, easy-to-use files that will help you get more out of your Adobe applications."
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A search on "wood" returns 110 topics from brushes, effects, etc related to Adobe products.
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Philippe JACQUES
-------------------- Philippe JACQUES info@magisign.com
Take a look at our NCS MagiSign plug-in for Adobe Illustrator : Posts: 185 | From: Ottignies Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium | Registered: Mar 1999
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