A Fabric Texture

Any fabric consists of two wefts that cross over at right angles. Photoshop has a filter, Motion blur, that is ideal for creating wefts.

First of all, we have to create a new, completely black image. We are going to apply our filters on this black background:

1. Select Filter > Noise > Add Noise.
   
   
2. Set this noise to a value of 400 and check the Gaussian and Monochromatic boxes.
   
   
The more noise you add to the image, the denser the fabric weft will be.


3. Select Filter > Blur > Motion blur.
   
   
4. Give this blur an Angle of 0 and a Distance of 50.
   
   
5. Apply a second Motion blur, this time with an angle of 90 degrees.
   
   
It is this double use of the Motion blur filter with two different angles that creates our weave pattern.

Figure 1: Two Motion blurs reveal the coarse weft of the fabric.

We have now created the basis of our texture, but the fabric weft is not yet visible. Two new filters will put that right:

1. Select Filter > Stylize > Emboss.
   
   
2. Give this filter an angle of 135 degrees, a height of 3 and an amount of 500.
   
   
The Emboss filter creates the depth that is needed to give the impression that the threads interlace.


3. Select Image > Adjust > Levels.
   
   
4. Move the black and white triangles along the levels line until you obtain a realistic-looking texture.
   
   
This adjustment of the levels completes the effect by increasing the contrast of the weave pattern so that each thread is defined more clearly. In this case, we have used Input levels of 85, 1 and 170.

Figure 2: A very realistic-looking fabric.