Tutorial : Adding textures, furniture and shadows in Adobe Photoshop 2

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Tutorial | Adding textures, furniture and shadows in Adobe Photoshop

This tutorial focuses on adding textures and furniture to floor plans. Textures will be added using Pattern Fill Layers and wall shadows will be drawn in by using the Brush Tool. Furniture will be added with a drop shadow using a recorded action.

Textures:

The images in this slide show correspond to the steps below.

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  1. Start by opening the texture you want to place. In this example we use a texture a wooden floor (free sample on the left).
  2. Go to Menu > Edit > Define Pattern.
  3. Name the Pattern and click on OK.
  4. Select the areas to fill in the floor plan with the Magic Wand Tool. Hold Shift (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) to add more areas.
  5. To make sure you have a nice overlap go to Menu >Select > Modify > Expand and make your selection 2 pixels bigger (this is to ensure there are no half filled pixels along the edges of the floors and walls).
  6. Go to Menu > Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern.
  7. Name the new Pattern Fill Layer and click on OK.
  8. In the next window select the new Pattern and click on OK. Make sure the new Pattern Layer is placed below the layer containing the floor plan drawing.
  9. Now continue creating new patterns and adding them to the floor plan.

Adding shadows to walls

To add shadow to the walls make a new empty layer. Make a selection and draw the shadows in using a soft brush. Hold Shift before dragging the Brush Tool to draw perfect straight shadows. Set the layer’s opacity to 40.

The Layer Style Dropshadow makes it easy to add depth to furniture and objects. Recording an Action will enable you to use a custom shortcut to speed up your workflow. The steps below describe how to record an Action.

[slider id=”adding-furniture”]

The images in this slide show correspond to the steps below.

  1. Open a furniture file, drag the object into the floor plan and position it.
    To scale use Ctrl + T.
  2. Go to Menu > Window > Actions.
  3. a – Click on the Create New Action button.
    b – Name the new Action.
    c – Select a shortcut for the Action (for instance F2).
    d – Click on Record (now every command you use in Photoshop will be recorded until you press stop).
  4. a – Go to Menu > Layer > Layer Style > Drop Shadow. Apply settings:
    b – Opacity to 40%
    c – Distance to 20 px
    d – Size 20 px and click on OK
  5. Click on Stop in the Actions Panel.
  6. Drag in other furniture and objects and use the new shortcut to add a Dropshadow Layer Style

Adding furniture with dropshadow

The Layer Style Dropshadow makes it easy to add depth to furniture and objects. Recording an Action will enable you to use a custom shortcut to speed up your workflow. The steps below describe how to record an Action.

  1. Open a furniture file, drag the object into the floor plan and position it.
    To scale use Ctrl + T.
  2. Go to Menu > Window > Actions.
  3. a – Click on the Create New Action button.
    b – Name the new Action.
    c – Select a shortcut for the Action (for instance F2).
    d – Click on Record (now every command you use in Photoshop will be recorded until you press stop).
  4. a – Go to Menu > Layer > Layer Style > Drop Shadow. Apply settings:
    b – Opacity to 40%
    c – Distance to 20 px
    d – Size 20 px and click on OK
  5. Click on Stop in the Actions Panel.
  6. Drag in other furniture and objects and use the new shortcut to add a Dropshadow Layer Style

The images in this slide show correspond to the steps below.

If you have questions feel free to drop us an email using the contact page.

Happy Planning,

Plan Symbols

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