Everyone loves a clean and a quality vector graphics whether it is a logo, an illustration or anything as it appeals in perfect lines with solid flat colors. Sometimes, this cleanliness is not all the key ingredient for the job so it requires some other shortcuts to bring a piece to life.
Through the next few steps, I will be explaining how to apply textures to your flat vector graphics in Photoshop step by step from the basic to the advanced level.
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Overall Grain Effect
One of the simplest ways to put overall grain subtle to your graphic is to apply film grain filter to it so that it will take out the harsh cleanliness of the vectors graphics away. Begin with opening the file in Photoshop.
Create a top most layer and fill it with the white color. Make sure you are working on RGB mode. Go to the filter options and from there you will find the artistic menu and select film grain. Adjust the sliders till you don’t get satisfied and then use it as a filter.
Now set the layer blending mode to soft light and play with the opacity value until you are satisfied with it. Lock the layer and keep it over your stacked layers so that all layers beneath it get affected by the grain.
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Applying a custom overall rough texture
Although there are some default PS textures in vector graphics but they will not produce the authentic look as they are too uniform. It’s always best to use the real world textures, scan them or photographed it for better use. In this, I have found a yellowing crewed paper which is old enough.
Begin it by converting the document into the grayscale and then navigate into the panels which you can find under Image – Adjustments. Now, simply play with the contrast of black and white, keeping in mind that the more contrasty and grungy you make, the more intense effect of the textured paper you will have.
Now simply paste the texture over any existing document where you have to apply it. In this case, I have again gone through the soft light as a blending mode so that it gets blended with the background. Hit CTRL+I so that image gets inverted highlighting the red part more and the lighter areas on the outside of the image.
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Applying Textures Using layer Masks In vector Graphics
Now it’s time to get advanced by using layer masks. Perform same operation which we had done before by picking up the texture and ramping it with the contrast right by making it some rough paint marks.
Now navigate it to the PSD into the specific layer in which you want to see the effect of texture. Select the layer and hit the “vector mask” found at the bottom of the layers panel.
After applying layer mask, click on the thumbnail of the vector mask and hold it while holding Alt at the same time to show the layer mask. Paste the texture layer into the layer mask and you will see that the black textured areas will get knock out. For seeing the effect again just press ALt+Click. To move the texture within the layer simply deselect the link between the thumbnails of the layer and the layer mask.
