Things You'll Need:
- Adobe Photoshop software
- Some source images that might make good brushes (for example: close up of leaves, concrete sidewalk, etc. etc.)
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Step 1
Open up one of your source images in Photoshop. The first thing you'll want to do is desaturate the image (Shift+Ctrl+U in PS7). Then cut and paste what you've got into a new layer. Now delete the background layer. Once you're down to just the single layer, mess with the brightness/contrast until you get the desired effect (this will require you to think a little bit about how you might use the brush in the future - will you be wanting to use it as a 'grunge' effect ... something more technical ... etc. etc.)
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Step 2
Now that you've got the image looking like you want, you'll need to create it as a Photoshop brush. Go to 'Edit' then choose 'Define Brush'. Give your new brush a name and that's it!
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Step 3
Once you've got an amount of brushes made (I personally like to create 'sets' of brushes that all kind of work together), go to 'Edit' then choose 'Preset Manager'. A window with all your current brushes will pop up. You can click on each little square individually. What you're going to want to do is shift+right click on the series of brushes you want to save. Once you've done that, click on 'Save Set', give the set a name and save it to your computer (of course these brush files are what you're going to want to back up!).
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Step 4
If you've found a cool brush set on the web and you'd like to use them, after you download the file (usually a zip file), you'll want to extract them to your Photoshop/Brushes directory. To load a brush set in Photoshop, open the Brushes Palette ('Windows', 'Palettes', 'Show Brushes'). Select Load Brushes from the menu on the Brush Palette and choose your file. That's it!
Comments
etmarciniec said
on 7/16/2009 I'll have to try this, thanks.