question about distressing designs

[lazerviking]

i was just wondering if people had any advice on the best ways to distress or tarnish designs or could supply a sweet resource for some nice textures to do that with. thanks

[Skrunchey]

for textures, i would suggest going into a local textile (flooring/countertop) store and ask for swatches... they have little tiles of texture samples and give them away pretty redily.. you can then pick a few you like, scan them in, make them tilable if needed (in PS) and then use them as textures in your work... after scanning them i make them black and white and will put them on their own layer.. and make the layer a multiply layer.. then the whites of the texture are transparent... i will also play with the layer opacity so the texture isn't too distracting...

hope that helped~ skrunchey

[Peskykid]

A quick way to get some results, or at to least put you on the right path is pick a one of the messier brushes - (near the bottom of the brush pallete) set it to a low opacity and burn, then gently work away with it on the piece - playing more attention to the edges or raised areas. The colour you use to burn with will also make an impact, don't use too saturated a colour - a dull brown isn't a bad starting point.
For a second pass the dodge brush can be used to with similar settings to pick out some of the areas you'ved roughed up. Dodge and buring can easily make a picture look over saturated or shiny if overdone so use with restraint!

check to see if you texture is the type that might attract mold as well.

[trevor]

you can get a lot of amazing (and free) brush sets on the adobe forums
i use many of them with my graphic designs ( look for about 20 of my shirts in major retailers in sept / oct) if you supply an example of what your looking for i can help
my usual method involves really dirty custom brushes as an eraser at low opacity
maybe i can whip up an example tonight after work that is not under contract if you like

[fedezz]

http://www.mrretro.com/image_filters.html
Definitely the best distress texture pack out there. It also includes the ps action to screw with your image. Worth every penny.