Creating Digital Wood

I was creating a collage with a picture of a table and wanted to find some wood to collage. After a long search, I finally decided to create my own. Here are the instructions to create your own wood using Paint.net and a Video that will show you how. To create your own wood, you will need Paint.net a free graphics software and the additional effects plugins. You can go to http://getpaint.net to download it if you do not already have it. Watch the video, to see how it is done.

 

 

1. Create a new image 8 wide by 14 inches tall. You can vary the image, you will just want to make sure it is taller than wide as you will be stretching the image width wise for the final image. 2. Fill in the background with black.
3. Use the gradient tool to create random bubles on the background. Note the settings for the colors in the dialog. Note that the secondary color black is transparent.
4. From the File menu, select Effects>Render>Clouds to create more irregular shapes.
5. From the File menu, select Effects>Render>Bars to create the grain of the wood.
6. From the Adjustments menu, select Posterize to create the "growth rings" in the wood. .
7. From the Effects menu, select Photo>High Pass to create the final wood effect 8. From the Image Menu, select Canvas Size to resize the canvas so that you can stretch the image so that it will appear more like natural wood.
9. Now it is time to color the wood. From the Layers menu, select Add layer. Fill that layer with a color of your choice. Orange works for a standars wood color. It will completely fill the layer that is okay.
10. Adjust the layer properties, try the multiple, color burn, reflect and xor settings to see different effects.
11. Save your work! You are done! You now have your wood!