How to make real dirt/used textures

[ksgy]

In this tutorial I'll try to introduce how to make real dirt/used/aged/worn textures.

 

Here is the final product we are making:

 

First of all, let's examine how things are layered up on a surface in reality.

 

1) First layer, from inside to outside is the object itself. It has a material, in cockpit's case: metal, mostly aluminum.

2) Second layer is the painting, in our case black. Well, in reality, black is not back It's black and ALL the colors mixed together. If you take a photo from a black material, then you zoom in it, you'll see something like this.

3) Third layer is the fat from fingerprints. Where-ever you touch a surface, you leave your fingerprint which is a small amount of fat and sweat.

4) Fourth layer is the dirt, smudge which sticks into the fingerprints.

5) Fifth layer is all other dirt: dust, coffee, wiping trail from cleaning before, etc.

6) Sixth layer is the scratches. Not just in the paint, but even in the dirt layers.

7) Seventh layer is more like layer 0, because it's the worn. The missing parts from the paint.

8) The "cleaner" parts where you did not touched the surface, so there in no dust, no fat, no scratches.

 

 

So how can we achieve this in Photoshop?

Let's make an UV wrapped fake instrument, with almost white material, and bake the texture. We get a good start:

 

Then using google, find as much dirt, dust, scratch brushes as much you can. Download and install it to PS.

I mark the upcoming layers in red, full opacity to see it easy.

 

1) Let's do the fake "all" coloring

Add a new layer, fill with black, and add noise. Reduce the opacity to about 15%

 

2) The paint layer

Add a new layer, fill with black and reduce opacity to match the color you want to achieve. Mine is 89%.

 

3) Dirt - the big ones

The first layer, which gives us a simple used, dirty texture. Don't be generous. Use 2-3 brushes. Small ones, big ones, paint with it then erase randomly. Then reduce the opacity to barely see it, around 3%.

 

4) Dirt - the smaller ones

Add some smaller dirt "puffs". Randomly, where ever you just want, but watch out, don't cover too much on the big ones - you can easily get a "full painted" areas where all dirt layer matches, so it will be too homogeneous. About same opacity as the big ones.

 

5) Dirt - darken

Add some middle sized dirt puffs again, but now with black, or dark brown color. It helps to make it more non-homogeneous and more real. Opacity about 50%

 

6) Dirt around edges

Now, this one is a little tricky. Think about where dust can stay: where you can't touch it. Near inner corners, near small switches. These things can "hold" dust as they not touched when using the instrument. These dusts can make like islands:

 

Opacity about 7% and the color is a little yellowish white - since the dust is mostly sand and other small parts in the air.

 

7) Scratches

You can make scratches in paint layer to if you wish, but to be realistic, make scratches in the dirt! Make with a black layer then reduce opacity about 20%. So it will overlay and darken the parts which scratched by keys, by your shirt, etc. Of course you can erase from dust layer, but it's harder to fine-tune later.

 

8) Fingerprint fat, clean parts

Just above, there are parts - mostly bigger flat parts - where you barely touch - that means, it will stay more or less clean. Add like the scratches for later fine-tuning possibility: black layer and cover the big flat parts, about 35% opacity.

 

9) Optional: rust

Under the painting - if it's not an aluminum part - rust starts to eat up metal. Or if it's aluminum, it can be base-painted (or prime-painted) with a brown paint. Sometimes when the original paint wear out, the base paint becomes dim. Add a layer with dark brown-orange mix, and paint the corners. Opacity is about 25-30%

 

10) Worn

This is a little tricky. Since we want to maintain our PSD file and not to suck with later changes, we have to make a layer for worn. Simply paint on the edges, don't be generous where you touch the edges: like under the switches. Use use your thumb or wrist to fix your hand, so it get used and paint starts to crack then wear out. After painted, CTRL(or CMD on Mac) click on layer in Layers window. It makes a selection by the clicked layer. Switch to black paint, then hit delete. So, we kept shadows and all things that comes from the baked texture. If you make an other layer for worn, you have to repaint shadows in it. With this simple technique, you can keep, and can simply maintain the PSD later on if some change has to be made.

 

If you precise, you can add inner shadow and outer glow to the black layer, like a sharpen to fake the thickness of the painting. It makes more believable it is a paint-worn, not a texturing error

 

11) Labels

White is a tricky thing too. The white is not white Well, not full white. it's a little grey and/or yellow. You can make it more real if you add some yellow - or I think red if you live in the south hemisphere.

 

Seeing white

Could not find this study, but there is one, which states that people on north hemisphere sees the white more real if it has a little blueish color in it. But on south hemisphere, they see more white if it has a reddish color in it. If you find this, please link it

 

 

I hope this little tutorial helps how to make real aged textures. If you have any questions, let me know.

 

The PSD and the Blender file is attached in a zip file, to study the tutorial

 

tutorial-src.zip

 

PS: sorry for my english. If you find it hard to read, I'll try to re-phrase if you make suggestions how to express myself

 

 

--

Mihaly

[Airbus]

Thanks Mihaly; this should help people out quite a bit. Texturing can be quite a headache at times !

[liser]

Thank you soooooo much! I've been looking for tutorials on this matter some time ago and there are a few of them, but not so many applied to aviation. The most interesting I've spotted is this one: http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/photoshop/worn_metal/metal.asp'>http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/photoshop/worn_metal/metal.asp

BTW, what resolution are you using for the text? It looks soo nice!

Keep up that great work! I'm a big fan of your projects!

Edited February 4, 2013 by liser

[ksgy]

Thanks

The resolution is 2048x2048, but it's just a test. On L-410, I'm using 4096x4096, and there is a separate file for labels for higher resolution.

[ryancz]

Does that mean it will only be V10?

Great tutorial

[ksgy]

No

 

Does that mean it will only be V10?

Great tutorial

[Hampster]

Wow, great to see this... You make my work seem hopeless! (haha)

[Zaffa]

Thank you  for the great tutorial, may you point us to some of the brushes you actually use?

[Zaffa]

plus, how do you make the labels (for example on buttons) in different images?

[Michael_Chang]

dude. you ahve no idea how long i've been waiting for something like this! it's brilliant! thanks so much!

[ksgy]

@Zaffa: Sorry, I can't remember from where I downloaded the brushes. I just google-d "dirty brush photoshop" and downloaded all I found in the first page

For labels I've just used MilSpec 33558 Instrument Font and put below one of the dirt-layers.

@Michael_Chang: Thank you Glad you find it useful.

[parhamsalamati]

Am I late to say thank you ?!
Thanks anyway, Awesome guide for a good lookin' texture

[ksgy]

Just another great video tutorial how to make dirt/rust/grunge more real: