Displacement Map Fun with Paper

Supplies needed: My Supplies Tools we will be using: Rectangle Tool:      Flood Fill Tool:      Object Selection Tool:      Lighten/Darken Brush:

Step 1:

Place the DISPLACE.jpg located in the zip file into PSP's Displacement Map folder.


Step 2:

Create a new raster file (file > new), 525x325, white background.


Step 3:

Grab your Rectangle Tool.  Go to your materials palette and change the Foreground/Stroke
properties to null (transparent), and the Background/Fill color to #edb76a, or a color of your choice.


Step 4:

Draw out a rectangle, sizing it to your liking.  Name this layer 'paper'.
Angle your rectangle slightly, using the Oject Selection Tool or by going up to Image > Rotate > Free rotate
I rotated mine about 15 degrees to the right.

You should have something that looks like this now:



Step 5:

Right click on your paper layer and convert it to raster.
Add a drop shadow to this layer.  Below are the settings I used,
but you can apply any drop shadow you wish to your paper.

Vertical/Horizontal: 2
Opacity: 66
Blur: 10
Color: black
Shadow on new layer: checked

Lower the opacity of the shadow layer to 72%


Step 6:

Click back on your paper layer and go up to Effects > Distortion Effects > Displacement Map and
locate the DISPLACE.jpg from my supply download. 

Here are the settings I used, again you do not need to follow them, play
around with your settings to see what you come up with:



Step 7:

This is what my paper looks like at this point:

Don't worry about the drop shadow right now, we will change it later.


Step 8:

Now we'll add some highlights & shadows (highs & lows), using the Lighten/Darken brush.
(The drop shadow will help you determine what areas are high and which are low)

Grab your Lighten/Darken brush (or type the lower case 'L' to activate it).

Holding down the left mouse button and painting on your image will 'lighten' the area.
Holding down the right mouse button and painting on your image will 'darken' the area.

Here are the brush settings I used, change them to suit your needs.



Step 9:

Go around your paper with the brush, lightening the high areas, and darkening the low ones. 
Keep doing this until you get the effect you like.

When you're done, go back to your drop shadow (it should be on it's own layer),
and erase the shadow from the top and left side of your paper.

Here is how mine looked when I was done:



Step 10:

You can add another shadow to the top if you want, I didn't.  I aged my paper at
this point by adding some noise and brushes.


Step 11:

Click on the eye next to your background layer to close it.  Right click on any other layer
and select merge visible.  Crop your image down, if needed, and save it as a .png
or .psp file to preserve the transparency.


That's it, you're done!  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial; I would love to see what you do with it.