KSL Graphics

The following tutorial will walk you through the process of making a mission tile roof texture using Photoshop. This texture is formatted to use in conjunction with the Mission Tile model from AccuStudio. A modified version can be downloaded from the links to the right.

There may be an easier way to accomplish this process, but this is what I find works for me.

Please feel free to send comments or suggestions to me:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

When you open the file, you will find several folder sets containing elements of the tile layering. Each has some effect on the final result. Feel free to adjust and tweak these pieces to your liking.

Not the first on the layer list, but the basis of the material coloring is the Tile Base Color folder. this folder houses the base tile color layers. These are colors that can be used to generate the tile colors. These layers can be modified using any number of tools available in Photoshop. For example, a color overlay layer filter can be used to blend another color into one of these base colors or make an new layer. You can use the layer adjustments to tint or change saturation levels.

To create the supplied color layers, I opened a graphic found on a tile manufactures web site and modified a copy of the white_base layer with the Match Color tool.

In order to maintain a master set of tile colors, I found it useful to copy the desired layer color preset into Color Mixes folder. This way, you wont accidentally delete colors as you work through versions of your tiles. In Photoshop CS, sub-folders are used group the tile color into 4 categories; Dark, Medium Dark, Medium Light and Light. I felt that 4 color ranges was enough as the gradients and layer masks (see below) very the color tones sufficiently.

Alternately, solid filled layers can be used and Color Overlay Filter Styles can be used, and adjusted as needed. This technique can add the ability to adjust the coloring as needed with ease. For me and my business, I'm given a specific product color name for the blend and being able to pull from the Base Color folder is handy.

Once you have your colors loaded into the Color Mixes folder, you will need to apply the masks to separate the tile colors.

First, Holding the CTRL key, select the appropriate mask layer in the Masks folder (ie. Dark). This selects the elements of that layer to use as the layer mask. Then select color layer in the Color Mixes folder to apply the mask to. Click the mask icon . This applies the selection as a mask to that layer, allowing the others layers to become visible.

Repeat these steps on the remaining layers in the Color Mixes folder with the appropriate mask to the appropriate layer.

The Gradients layer in the Masks folder can be used to apply an additional mask to the layers to variegate a tile with 2 colors

This completes phase one of the tile building process.

There now can be some fine tuning and texturing of the tile material. First let cover the Gradients layer in the Color Mixes folder. This layer is used to provide the color blending that a clay tile will naturally have. Again, any of the Photoshop tools can be used to modify or filter this layer to achieve the effect you want. Try different blending modes and adjusting the layers opacity to get the look you want.

Alternately, this layer can be tinted to apply a constant color hue over the entire tile surface.

Final adjustments can be made using the preset layers in the Tile Tint folder. Any combination of these layer filters can be used to fine tune the color tone. experiment with these layers or create your own.

Using these layer filters will adjust the properties of the layers below without actually altering them permanently. these layers can be moved and positioned anywhere on the layers tree, altering only those layers below them.

That's the process I use and it allows me to have a tool set to start from and draw from to create custom blends and match the specs from the manufactures.