Question on creating Magma Texture

[SPWA]

I've been trying for a long time, mostly in Ai, to make a tileable Magma pattern. but never being satisfied with the results.

If you visit my blog you'll see it's mostly build-able paper models that I design then add graphics to, then freely distribute for anyone to download & build. I've always wanted to use a magma texture, & I try to stay away from stock, with the attitude "If I want to claim this as my work, I should do all the work", so I've never been able to. Although I have looked for it to get pointers, but never found what I'm looking for.

Now with my new found passion for Photoshop, & to expand away from just paper toys, I want to try again.

(sorry for the long intro to the question :redface

I want to achieve something like the pattern in the link, but from a direct overhead view not perspective, and more magma than dry earth. Without having to draw out every little piece preferably.

Link to Magma type image

there.. I'm done. Thx in advance

 

[bgoodman4]

I would look for photos that I likes and utilize them. To create that look from scratch would likely be quite a job.

That being said just about anything you need/want can be found on the net (or so I am told). As evidence, see the attached screen grab.

 

[Renegade]

+1

Another thought is to find a nice rock/marble tile (or photoshop pattern) and apply color adjustments.

 

[Paul]

I did it like this.



Creates

 

[bgoodman4]

Paul, how did you create the cracked earth? Did you grab an on-line image or did you create it from scratch. Seems to me this would be the HARD part if being created from scratch (but of course I could be wrong about that )

 

[SPWA]

I was about to ask the same question That looks very nice. I will have a look again at a google search but so far any link that promises a magma texture has been lava.. not the same thing.

 

[Paul]

Just google cracked earth from above, then pick your favourite image, i then used the magic wand for speed to pick out all the black cracks then delete them, making sure you have the same image opened twice the bottom layer turned off.
When you delete the black lines from magic wand application you will have empty cells left, you then make a new layer fill with red place below new black crackless layer and there you have it i then did another layer over the red layer and did some random lines across it in a darker red.

 

[IamSam]

I've been trying for a long time, mostly in Ai, to make a tileable Magma pattern.

I worked on this last night. I approached it like Paul did. I gave up when I could not get my altered cracked mud version to look right when I tiled it on a larger canvas. Maybe I was misunderstanding what the OP wanted.

 

[SPWA]

Phew.. *wipes sweat from brow* this took me 6hrs to do but it's completely hand done. Didn't do a tileable pattern in the end, as I'm not quite that insane.

Procedure I took (maybe not the easiest)
Created a layer with red & a layer with blue over the top
Created a layer mask on the blue, then used soft brushes between 2 & 5 to draw the lines. ( i had a couple of pics open for inspiration.)
Added fx to the remaining blue parts. Black overlay, and a rock texture.
The edges were quite blocky so I softened all of it using the blur tool
Added an orange outer glow to the segments
Changed the bottom layer to a Yellow / Red radial Gradient.
Then added another mask to the top layer, & added a few more finer cracks.

& here it is YAY. I will be using this in a few projects, but feel free to use also as long as you share the end results . I hope the fact that it isn't tileable still works for what I want.



Thanks PSG for the tips & inspiration to finally get it done.

 

[Paul]

 

[SPWA]

Thx for the thumbs up. It's nice to know it wasn't a failure . I really want to try again now, on a smaller scale & tileable but think I'll improve my basic skills 1st.

 

[ibclare]

I was going to post this yesterday but decided it didn't quite have the ferocious strength of color that magma has. However, if you're interested, I can post the psd. If I were to do it over since I made it in October, 2011, I would probably simplify it. If you want it, I may have time to redo it another way, though it would probably only be a few steps simpler. Here's the jpeg; it's about a quarter the size of the psd image.



You mentioned not using stocks, and this does use rocks. So that may not work for you. But your current ground texture looks good.