Introduction
While there are plenty of expensive tools out there for creating textures, you don’t need anything more than a copy of GIMP to get started making your own custom textures. A lot of textures are created using different types of noise and various image filters, many of which are readily available in GIMP.
In this tutorial, we will look at a number of different types of materials and textures that can be made using using nothing more than layers, filters, and blend modes without having access to expensive texture authoring software. Some rather convincing results are possible, and at the very least, you can easily create various materials to use while prototyping or testing different 3D objects in your projects in a matter of minutes.
Texture Tutorial: Brushed Metal
One of the simplest materials you can make with a tool like GIMP is a basic brushed metal. Start by creating a new canvas using a good 1:1 texture size for your project (1024×1024, 512×512, 256×256, etc.) As with the previous section of the tutorial, I am going to use 512×512 so I can fit everything within the width of this page. Make sure the canvas is black, or fill it with black if you created a blank white canvas. Now select Filters > Noise > RGB Noise to bring up the filter properties window. You can use the settings from the example image below or adjust the color value sliders to your liking.
RGB Noise
Press OK to apply the filter, which for now will look like a bunch of colored dots scattered around the canvas. Next, select Filters > Blur > Linear Motion Blur so we can stretch the noise into lines. Keep the angle set to 0 so the blur is applied horizontally.
Blurred Noise
It is still a little bit too colorful, and you can choose how you wish to do the next step, but there are multiple options to bring down the rainbow coloring of the texture. Select Colors > Desaturate to make the texture strictly black and white. Or if you prefer, you can use the Colors > Saturation option to bring down the level of color gradually. I prefer the second method personally, as I like to leave a little bit of the coloring in the texture to simulate lighting variances. Next, click on Colors > Colorize which allows you to change the overall color of the metal texture. I’ve gone ahead with a light steel blue color for the example.
Colorized Metal
You could stop here if you like, or you can play with the brightness and contrast values to adjust the color and shading in the texture, or you can adjust the Levels to bring certain parts out more. For the final step, create a new layer and select the Gradient tool. Drag a gradient across the canvas using white and a light gray color. Set the layer Blend Mode to Grain Merge. You can use the settings in the example image below or you can choose whatever works best for you. I have also turned down the opacity of the layer just a small amount so that it doesn’t affect the overall texture too much.
Gradient Layer
Using the Grain Merge blend mode gives us a sort of equalized lighting that is not quite as intense as the Multiply blend mode. You might notice that the center of the image is just a little bit too bright. To fix this, we can use another Motion Blur on our new gradient layer to spread it out a bit.
Blurred Gradient Layer
I’m going to leave the angle slider at 0 so the blur stays lined up horizontally, but feel free to make adjustments to the settings however you prefer, then press OK to apply the changes to the texture.
Final Brushed Metal Texture
That is all there is to making brushed metal textures using GIMP! Try using different colors in the colorizing step to produce things like gold, copper, or colored metals. You can even continue applying additional blend layers to add wear and tear or rust to your metal.
Texture Tutorial: Wood
Start by creating a new canvas using a good 1:1 texture size for your project (1024×1024, 512×512, 256×256, etc.) It doesn’t have to be square, but when editing the texture to produce seamless tiling, it may be easier if the texture is a square. For this tutorial, I am going to use a 512×512 canvas. Start by selecting Filters > Render > Clouds > Solid Noise to bring up the Solid Noise filter properties. Set the X value as high as it will go and lower the Y value to somewhere between 0.3 and 1.5 to produce a streaky, rippled image.
Solid Noise Streaks
You can mess with the Detail slider to add more graininess to the streaks or play with the Y size to increase or decrease the amount of variance in the banding. Make sure to select the Tileable tick box if you want the texture to be seamlessly tiled along the edges. You can also change the random seed value or press the New Seed button to produce different variations of the streaks.
Next, create a new layer over the existing one and select a nice base color for your wood texture. Once you have filled the layer with the color of your choice, switch the layer Blend Mode to Multiply and the color will mix with the light and dark areas of our streaky noise layer. Click on Colors > Levels to bring up the levels window, where you can make adjustments to the brightness levels of the image. You can use the settings in the example below or find what works best for you.
Adjusted Color Levels
To add a bit more grain to our wood texture, go to Filters > Noise > RGB Noise to bring up the RGB Noise filter properties. With Independent RGB unchecked, drag the Value slider to the right until you think it looks good and press OK.
RGB Noise Grain
Now to smooth out the grain just a little bit, go to Filters > Blur > Linear Motion Blur to bring up the filter properties window. The amount of blur you apply is up to your taste, but set the Angle slider to something vertical like 180 or 90 so the blur follows the direction of the streaks in the texture. The amount of blur is up to you, but press OK once you like what you have.
Wood with Motion Blur
Wood tends to have whorls and loops rather than straight lines, so the next step is to select the Warp Transform tool. This tool allows you to apply small warps and swirls to give the wood a more natural, knotted appearance.
Warped Wood Streaks
Create a new layer and this time, when using the Filter > Render > Noise > Solid Noise filter, make sure to check the Turbulence tick box and use settings similar to the first step of this tutorial. Drag the X value slider to the right and the Y value slider to the left so it is around 0.5 or so. This time, instead of using the Multiply blend mode, we are going to use something that lightens the texture a bit. Choose Screen or Grain Extract, whichever you think looks better and the new noise layer will be blended with the existing layers.
Wood with Screen or Grain Extract
There is another thing we can do here to add some more structure to the texture so it looks a bit more like wood. Create a new layer above the stripe noise layer and go to Filters > Render > Pattern > Sinus to bring up the Sinus filter. This produces a different type of noise that when stretched can resemble tree rings. Feel free to use the settings in the example below, or experiment to find something that you like! You can also press the New Seed button to generate a random seed and alter the noise variant.
Render Sinus Pattern
Press OK to accept and render the sinus pattern to the new layer. Now switch the layer’s Blend Mode to something more like Soft Light to make the rings blend in more with the wood texture. You can try different blend modes to see which you prefer. I also brought the layer Opacity down to about 50% so the brightness of the rings is a little less intense.
Wood with Rings
In order to apply some finishing touches to the texture, right click on the Color layer and select Merge Visible Layers so any more changes we make are applied to the entire image. Just to add a tiny bit more detail to the wood, go to Filters > Noise > CIE Ich Noise to bring up the filter options. This will apply a grainy colored noise to the texture so that the bands and colors look a little bit less smooth and unnatural. You can change the Chroma or Hue values to apply a coloring effect to the wood, which in some cases makes the wood look nicer. Press OK when you are happy with your color settings and the amount of grain.
Grainy Textured Wood
Now click on Edit and select Copy Visible to highlight and copy the entire image. There is one final thing we can do to make our wood texture a little bit more realistic. Create a new image the same size as the current texture (512×512 in this case) and paste the copy into the new document. Select Filters > Edge Detect > Image Gradient to bring up the filter properties window.
Grayscale Wood Mask
With the Output Mode set to Magnitude, press OK to apply the filter giving you a grayscale image mask that we can use to apply a bit of ‘bump’ to our wood texture. Switch back to the original wood texture and select Filters > Map > Bump Map to bring up the filter properties. Click on the square next to Aux Input to bring up a drop down menu where you can select the grayscale mask. This will now be used to apply an elevation bump to the wood texture.
Bumped Wood Texture
You can change the angle of the ‘bump’ by adjusting the Azimuth slider, or change the depth to your liking. You can see how it also applies shading not only to the stripes and rings, but also to the small grains we added to the wood. Press OK when you are happy with your settings.
Final Wood Texture
The results of the final texture are dependent on the random seed values you use, the level adjustments to the brightness/darkness of the texture, and the different settings you apply in each step, but you can achieve a relatively realistic usable wood texture in a matter of minutes using these simple filters! The final texture will not be seamless, so use the method you prefer most to fix the edges so they line up with one another when the texture is tiled. Thankfully, if you made sure the Tileable box was ticked in each of the steps outlined above, this will be a much easier task.
Texture Tutorial: Rough Stone
For this section of the tutorial, we are going to look at another filter that you can use to add depth and lighting to your textures. This can be combined with the other techniques and steps in this tutorial to produce different types of materials. Start by creating a new canvas using a good 1:1 textue size for your project (1024×1024, 512×512, 256×256, etc.) Then go to Filters > Render > Noise > Solid Noise to bring up the filter properties panel. You can use the settings in the example image below, or you can play with the values to find something you like. I have gone ahead and set the Detail slider to as high as it will go.
Render Solid Noise
Press OK when you are happy with your settings to apply the filter. Now duplicate the first layer so you have a copy of the solid noise. You can do this by right clicking on the current layer and selecting Duplicate Layer, or using the Layer menu at the top of the window. Go to Filters > Render > Noise > Difference Clouds to produce a new mask that has darker lines running through it.
Difference Clouds
Hide the difference clouds layer so you can see the original solid noise layer underneath. With the solid noise layer active, go to Filters > Light and Shadow > Lighting Effects to bring up the filter properties window. There are a lot of settings to mess around with here, so you can experiment to get different results. Make sure the light type in the Light tab is set to Directional, so the lighting is applied across the entire image. In the Bump Map tab, click on the Enable Bump Mapping tick box and select the difference clouds layer from the previous step.
Bumped Noise
The Material tab allows you to change various properties of the resulting texture, such as how rough or shiny it is, whether it is reflective or dull, or how bright the highlights are. Feel free to play with the settings until you find something you like, or you can use the settings in the example image.
Stone Material Settings
Once you are happy with your settings, press OK to apply the filter. You should now see the lighting and shadow settings applied to the solid noise layer in the form of ridges and bumps, giving a rather convincing stone appearance.
Final Stone Texture
You can experiment with different types of noise or grayscale bump maps to get different results, and changing the angle or distance of the light can produce all kinds of different types of stone or rocky structures. You can also use the Colorize option or blend a color layer with the texture to produce different colored stones and rocks. It is also possible to use the Bump Map filter for the same effect, though the highlights and shading will be a bit more uniform across the entire image.
Texture Tutorial: Stone Tiles
This next texture tutorial uses a few of the same techniques outlined in the previous sections, and you can combine or mix and match steps as you get more familiar with the different filters. Start by creating a blank canvas and fill it with a gray color. I tend to go with RGB (128, 128, 128) or (50,50,50) in GIMP’s color picker. Create a new empty layer above the gray layer, then select Filters > Render > Noise > Plasma to bring up the filter options. I have gone ahead and brought the Turbulence value as high as it will go and selected a New Seed value. You can use other types of noise for this step if you prefer, but I’m going to use Plasma for this tutorial.
Render Plasma Noise
Hide the plasma layer and select the original gray layer to make it active. Now go to Filters > Render > Bump Map to bring up the filter options and select the plasma layer as the bump map. This will give the gray layer a rough grainy appearance for our stone. With the plasma layer selected, go to Colors > Desaturate > Desaturate and make the plasma layer black and white. You can use this layer to give more roughness to the gray stone layer by changing the Blend Mode to something other than Normal. You can choose whichever Blend Mode you prefer, but for this tutorial I am going to use Soft Light and set the Opacity slider to about halfway (50.0) so the effect of the blend isn’t too strong.
Roughened Stone
Once again, duplicate the gray background layer. Now go to Filter > Distorts > Mosaic to bring up the options for the mosaic filter. Feel free to use whatever settings you like, or you can use the settings in the example image below.
Mosaic Tiles
If the tick box for Rough Tile Surface is selected, a grainy roughness effect will be applied across the entire surface of the image. You can change the lighting direction of the tiles, as well as the height or distortion values to get different variations. Change the layer Blend Mode to something other than Normal, so that the tiles layer is blended with the bottom gray background layer. I have chosen Grain Merge, but you can use any Blend Mode you feel looks best. The final step is to add a slight blur to the mosaic layer to smoothen out the lines in between the tiles just a little bit.
Blurred Stone Tiles
Select Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur to bring up the filter options. I am using a very low value so the detail added by the grain isn’t entirely wiped out. Press OK when you are happy with your filter settings.
Final Stone Tile Texture
You can add other steps to produce more wear and tear on the stone, or you can apply color blends or colorizing to make different colored stone tiles. The resulting texture will not be seamless, but there are many different ways to convert or edit your textures to be seamless, which we will cover in another tutorial.
Texture Tutorial: Lava Rocks
This section of the tutorial starts off very similar to how we put together our rough stone texture, though we will look at a few other things you can do using the same types of filters and colorizing. Start with a blank canvas and select Filters > Render > Noise > Solid Noise to generate the base of our lava texture. I have set the detail to a lower value (4.0) instead of increasing it all the way like we did with the rough stone. I’ve also lowered the size to around 2.0 for both the X and the Y size values.
Solid Noise
Now go back to Filters > Render > Noise > Difference Clouds to render another noise layer on top of the current one. This will add dark ridges all across the texture.
Difference Clouds
Now duplicate the layer and set the new layer’s Blend Mode to Dodge, then hide the new layer. With the original background layer selected, use the Colors > Colorize menu to add some orange or red to the solid noise.
Colorized Lava
Now select and unhide the new layer we just created. Once again, I’m going to use the Filters > Light and Shadow > Lighting Effects filter to produce a bit of depth and brighten some of the areas in the texture. The upper layer being set to Dodge should now make some of the texture more yellow and orange than the rest wherever the grayscale noise is lightest.
Lava Lighting
I’m going to use the stone texture from the previous section of the tutorial, so feel free to save the image to use, or pick a nice grainy stone texture that you would like to use. Import the stone texture into a new layer above the other two. I have set the Blend Mode to Screen for the imported stone texture. With the stone layer active, go to Filters > Map > Bump Map to bring up the bump map window. Select the original orange background layer we made with the solid noise as the bump map. Feel free to use whatever settings you like, or use the ones from the example image below.
Bumped Lava Rocks
I’ve gone ahead and set the Blend Mode for the filter to Grain Merge which will lighten some areas more while leaving darker or mid gray areas alone. With a bit of adjusting, you can get different variants or shading effects on your lava rocks.
Final Lava Rocks Texture
You can experiment and combine the techniques from each of these smaller tutorials to produce more detailed version of your textures, or try adding more steps to produce additional features or wear and tear.
This tutorial is under construction and more Texture Tutorials will be added over time!