Topic awaiting preservation: Advanced Wood Engraving tut...

I know there have been many threads on creating engraving in wood but I have a project that I have to get done this week in which I have to create a "koa wood" photo album (for a cd cover) and I really need it to have the most realistic look possible. I've done embossing in sand, etc. but I want this to look super realistic.

I'm going to a ukulele factory tommorow to shoot some sheets of koa to get various wood grain surfaces, I was going to just budget in to have it engraved for real
but I know the power of photoshop and I've been able to pull of some unreal stuff in the past.

So if any of you wizards know of any super-realistic engraving tuts, that would be awesome!

thnx!

quote:

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Radical Rob said:

I know there have been many threads on creating engraving in wood

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Yup, there have been quite a few just recently - one can say an abso;ute explosion (and all by the same author, funnily enough)...

(Edited by Bodo_baby on 10-19-2004 11:59)

I've asked my good old friend some pictures of "koa wood" and found this site. Then a method similar to that used in realtime 3D rendering popped in mind :

• duplicate the wood texture and apply a median noise.
• make a bump map version of your drawing ( in gray scale ), that you'll convert into a displacement map
• create a sort of environment map ( aka the picture of the environment/lighting you wish to see reflected/lighting the carvings )
• apply the displace map on the duplicated wood texture, and use the bump map as a layer mask

Adjust the opacities and blending modes and you should get something convincing.

The use use of a gray scale picture makes it easier to create some patterns including the short stripes in the moutains

Hope that helps, and congrats for your 5x duplicate thread combo



(Edited by poi on 10-19-2004 12:12)

I just had to grin at the multiple post, I think that has to be a record, radical indeed Rob
So after that bit of joy I had to give it a whirl. I not too sure what kind of engraving it is that you want, but Poi's method above will give you plenty of scope for experiment.
I have just thrown this together as an alternative using layer styles, so it only took 5-10 minutes to do. It could be made more relistic with a bit more care.

In the layer styles dialogue box select bevel and emboss, style Pillow Emboss, technique Chisel Soft. Then in Texture select the Koa wood (I forgot to say at the beginning, open up your koa wood image and select Edit>define pattern and save it).
Play with these settings to get the effect tuned to your needs. I am presuming from your post that you are familiar enough with Photoshop not to need a clearer walkthrough.
I know there are other ways to do this as well but this was the easiest to spring to mind.

:::tao::: ::cell::

Darkgarden had a great little mini-tute here way back when on doing this kind of thing. I don't recall enough as to whether it's specifically what you need, but if you can find it in the FAQ it should at least give you a good start.

Tao - I think you're on the right track with that, but the realism is definately lacking. The main issue is the opacity of the highlights - tone that down and it should feel a bit nicer.

It is here DarkGarden's Burned Wood Tut

30 second jaunt through the FAQ.

I have to agree with you DL, though I didn't intend to spend much time on the effect
Here is the same technique as before but with said opacity toned down.
Actually I'm still not very happy with the effect now that I'm taking it more seriously. Ah well, there y'are, that's the payback for a half assed attempt I guess. I think I'm just finding other things to play with instead of concentrating on learning to code my site. *Takes a deep breath and clicks on W3Schools*
Tao
[edit] Ah I see you've found it WebShaman (birthday boy) That looks like a nice tut for me to play with instead of torturing my ol' brain with code, cheers.[/ed]

(Edited by Tao on 10-19-2004 16:31)

I may as well post this up as well Radical Rob so you can see the burned effect. This is the first time I have tried this particular method, so it's not as good as it could be but you get the idea.
Righto, I'm off to W3Schools now, unless...
Tao
[doh]adding image[/doh]

(Edited by Tao on 10-19-2004 19:02)

Hey if anyone wants some Koa wood photos to practise on... here: http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/koa.htm

NOTE: a lot of the larger solid pieces are clickable links to larger photos.

PS: i'll bbl with an example of this effect.

(Edited by theGuest on 10-20-2004 06:13)

Cheers Guesty I always say you can't have too many wood textures

Yeah me2 Tao. It's the only texture that has an almost unlimited variety. So it's kind of a quest to collect 'em. hehe

Ok so... is this getting close to the effect you want Rob?
I'm still muddling over a few small detail, but this is the gist of it.

BTW Rob, one thing you neglected to mention was what style of carving you're after. There are more than a couple. Specifically though for this i'm wondering about the depth of the carving effect you want, and the type of cut effect you want for the shape being drawn? (for example i used a criss-cross cut pattern in the type)
Is my example a deep enough cut for your needs?



(Edited by theGuest on 10-20-2004 15:14)

TheGuest; did you use layer effects for the 3d effect? Try setting the highlights to the blending mode 'color dodge' or 'linear dodge' (possibly even overlay). You may need to lower the opacity a little, but it tends to look more realistic.

(I'd do it myself, but I can't get to photoshop atm)

Hi mahjqa...

Actually... i might of a mind to disagree with those choices... and my example image shows why.

The top pic is set to Overlay @ 100%.
The 2nd pic is set to Color Dodge @ 50%; which, unsurrisingly to me, looks pretty muc identical to Overlay. If the Opacity is set any higher you get a discoloured, hard plastic look.
And the 3d pic is set to Linear Dodge @ 50%. Any higher and it's just a bright washed out effect.



I chose Pinlight @ 35% simply because it 'dullened' the gloss effect. The only other decent option is to use Soft Light @ 100%; which ends up looking almost identical to Pinlight @ 35% actually.

Just to be fair though... the actually highlight appearance can go a number of ways. It depends on a few variables to the wood -- like if it's been glossed, polished, is wet or dry, etc. Plus lighting will effect this too. I simply chose one of the many options and went with it. The final decision on the exact look will be up to Rob to decide on. Prolly after some experimenting...

[chop]

(Edited by warjournal on 10-21-2004 22:46)

[chop]

(Edited by warjournal on 10-21-2004 22:46)

Woa. Triple post...

"Nothin' like a pro-stabbin' from a pro." -Weadah

Woah! Ya crap man! The friggin server just lost it on me right when i was posting?!
It stalled right on outa here and i kept trying to stop the page and retried to send.

Guess now i know that even when the page times out it stills parses the data. EXCELLENT! hehe

Sorry for making ya work overtime there syntax!

http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/wood/wood.htm

That's a nice wood tut. Probably the most realistic results I've seen. With a little effort you can even make it seamless as I recall. Engraving not included, but it shouldn't be that tough.

Wanted to thank everyone! Results came out fabulous! Showed my client several examples and he liked the most simplist one.
I used a combination of a few suggestions, primarily creating a duplicate layer, and adding noise, wind (left and right) and
tweaking the layer mode a bit as well as trancparency.

Let me buy you all a beer!

They do serve beer here right???

I asked about branding wood a long time ago. (This galaxy, not a far far away one.) Anyway, I forgot who Peter is (maybe DL-44?) but he helped me out with this:

Okay, fast and dirty, let's see if I can explain it. I just whipped it up tonight after seeing this post so the method is a bit fresh.

I cheated on the texture and had a premade one that I've used for a while. Thought the suggestions on wood texture above work well (especially F1's I'm a proponent of playing with real nature)

So, with our base wood texture in place..here we go.


1. Make a new channel, filling the shape you want "burned in" with white on the default black background. Make a selection of this (hold Ctrl or Command and click, or drag down to the dotted "load" circle)


2. Create a New Layer, and fill the selection with a medium, to dark grey. We'll name this layer "Grain" for when I reference it in a sec.


3. Create another New Layer (keep the original selection) and fill the selection on this layer with black, and we'll name this one "Burn". Click the eye beside the layer to make this one invisible for now. Now ditch the selection for now. (SELECT>>>DESELECT, or just click anywhere with the marquee tool selected)


4. Go back to the Grain Layer. Go to FILTERS>>>NOISE>>>ADD NOISE. Play with your settings for different results, but I used about 150 for the amount, and set to Gaussian, and monochromatic.


5. Now, go to FILTERS>>>BLUR>>>MOTION BLUR. Make a blur of 5 to ten pixels in the direction of the grain.


6. Still on the Grain Layer, go to FILTERS>>>STYLIZE>>>WIND. Use normal wind, no blast or stagger. Go from left. Click OK. Now repeat once.

Do the wind filter again, but change the settings to go From right. And repeat once more.

So that's 4 filterings with wind...two left, two right (in case anyone got confused)


7. Go to the Blending Mode menu, and select Color Burn. Play with the opacity a bit, but setting to about 80 percent or so gives decent results.


8. Now we cheat..heh. (WARNING: Purists or people using PS 4 or less, use Doc's inset bar tutorial for the next part, it's linked above, and is the preferred method when I'm not cheating )

Right click on the Grain Layer to and click on Layer Effects. Shut off the default drop shadow, and go to Bevel and Emboss.

Use an Outer Bevel, Down, with a depth of only 2 or 3, and a blur of 0 or 1. Play with your highlight and shadow, but setting to about 65% for both, and using either screen or color dodge for the highlights, and multiply, or color burn for the shadows works well depending on how "glossy" you want the burn edge to look.


9. Click on the Burn Layer now to make it visible again. Go to the Blending Mode menu and set to Color Burn. Start dropping the opacity until you get a nice dark shape, that still shows the wood grain through rather well. This step just helps keep the shape defined in the "burnt wood".


10. Go back to the Channels palette (or use the Ctrl Key Click method on the Burn Layer) and make the shape Selection again. Create a new layer above the Burn Layer, and name it Scorch.


11. get your Airbrush Tool, and make a few random strokes/splotches using black on the Scorch Layer. Deselect, and set to Color Burn. Again, play with the opacity to get the little overburnt areas to mesh with the grain.


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Now, that does it, except for the vertical "scorch lines" that you see there. I'll go through those really fast, as they're unnecessary, but they add to the reality of wood burns.
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12. Another New Layer, use the shape selection, and the same grey fill, and Noise settings we used for the Grain Layer.


13. Deselect, and go to IMAGE>>>ROTATE CANVAS>>>90° CW. Once that's done, do a motion blur (horizontal, a few pixels) and go to IMAGE>>>ADJUST>>>INVERT.


14.Run the wind filter again. From Right, and repeat two or three more times. Now redo the Invert from the last step.


15. Do a very slight gaussian blur (FILTERS>>>BLUR>>>GAUSSIAN less than 1.5 pixels) and set the blending mode to...you guessed it...Color Burn. Now adjust the opacity.... Rotate the Canvas 90° CCW....


and we're finished.
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Burnt wood that shows the edges of the grain that depress and burn out.

You can play with blurs on the Grain Layer to give more of a subtle edge, or airbrush outside the shape lines a little bit to account for an overburnt area. Have fun with it anyway.

Okee, that was much longer than I wanted, but hopefully it gets the method across to most. Let me know if it does or doesn't, I'll see what I can do.

Hope it helps.

Peter

I realize this comes too late for you Rad Rob, but maybe it will be fun to play with nonetheless.

bl00k