I have created a set of 16 psd (Photoshop) files that are color action ready. What does that mean for you? I'll walk you through the steps.

Required: zip file attached to this post
Png attached to this post - "Dusky Rose Strip"
Photoshop
Color action (or knowledge of manipulating color in Photoshop)

This tutorial assumes basic knowledge of Photoshop and that you will use color actions; basic color manipulation will not be discussed.

What is contained in the zip file - 16 psd files of volatile-colored wall panel and/or moulding AND two large, high-res swatches of each wall blank

Last edited by Zerographic : 14th Sep 2011 at 06:18 AM.

COLOR ACTIONS

There are many color action options available to you. Two of my favorite sets are by Pooklet and CuriousB.

Pooklet: Project Mayhem - these are the actions I'll be referencing in this tutorial. But please explore their Dreamwidth as they have new colors and actions since this linked post. I like the naturals best for natural wood colors.

CuriousB: Any Colour You Like - These colors work best if you desaturate the wall blank first. These colors are softer and more varied; suitable for everything from shabby chic to country to modern.

Once you have unzipped the files your actions need to be placed in:
Pshop7>Presets>Photoshop Actions

They will now be available to you in the Actions tab in Photoshop (more on that in a minute)

Last edited by Zerographic : 14th Sep 2011 at 06:20 AM.

STEP ONE

Open Photoshop.
Open a wall blank psd file. The one I use in this tutorial is "Volatile 3-4 Panel AN Strip."
Open the pic "Dusky Rose."





I like to have my chart of Pooklet's colors open just in case I'm not sure what color I'm going with. As you can see in the below pic your actions are run from a tab on the history window. Click on the Actions tab and expand [Pooklet} Project Mayhem.

If the actions are not there, click on the small arrow in a circle in the top right of the tab and click "Load Actions." This will bring up the folder you should have put the actions in. Double-click on the appropriate action set.

I'm going to choose Brisance for this wall. I like how it looks with the roses... and it's sorta my favorite color of theirs. :P





At the bottom of the Actions tab you will see the play arrow. Let it run. It should take just seconds, but don't press any keys in the meantime. A default last step for most color actions (including the two I linked you above) is Flatten Image. That means our lovely transparency just went away. We'll have to fix that...

Let's open a new document to create the actual wall in. Click File > New. Make the dimensions 256x512. The background can be white or transparent, it doesn't matter. My default is transparent so that's what you'll see here.

With the Dusky Rose Strip selected as your working document, press Ctrl+A. Then press Ctrl+C. Now select the new blank document and press Ctrl+V. Repeat these steps with the Brisance-colored wall panel.





Now you have the Dusky Rose Strip covered by that ugly grey square. We've got to get rid of it. You have two options - you can layer mask it or simply erase. Because I have hard edge square brushes, I usually opt for erase. For this application there is no difference in quality or effectiveness.





I finish erasing all the grey to reveal the Dusky Rose Strip. You may have to play with the positioning of the strip depending on where it pasted itself.

I have a serviceable wall! Options to enhance: take a small, soft, round brush and choose the Burn tool. Run the brush right under the edge of the crown moulding on the wallpaper level. This creates depth. Remember for any more advanced shading you may want to try that Maxis light always comes from the top left, so keep it consistent!

Before finalizing my wall I like to open one more new document. This one 512x512. I want to make sure that my wallpaper is seamless.





Great success! I hope that you can see the potential in the resources I have provided you and have fun creating your own stuff!

It's a shame that the file is no longer available

Which file is missing? I don't have any problems downloading the file in the first post.

Do you mean Pooklet's files? They are stored on her box account here: Pooklet's Box

Anything named "Actions" is what you want, as well as "3dot5 CUSTOM SPECTRUM" in order to get all the possible colors.