Photoshoppery
D.I.Y. Textures in Seconds

Sometimes you're working in Photoshop and need a texture, but you're too lazy to dig out your photo CDs or search online. Instead, you can build almost any texture you need in seconds with some creative use of filters. Here's a quick and dirty tutorial on how to do it.

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In this example, the goal is to create a plant texture, suitable for some bushes or underbrush. Starting from scratch, we'll Add Noise, at 30% intensity:

Then Facet, to smooth things out.

Invert the image, to make the dark portion prominant.

Then we set a Color Overlay, with the Overlay blending mode:

And voila, we have a reasonable mossy texture in 30 seconds flat.

Wood is just as easy, here's the recipe:

Add Noise, 100% Intensity
Motion Blur, 90 degrees, 150 pixels
Image->Adjust->Brightness/Contrast, +25 Contrast
Ripple, 10%
Layer Effects Color Overlay, Multiply, for brown color
Layer Effects Gradient Overlay, for shadows

And water is no problem as well:

Edit->Fill with aqua color
Add Noise, 100% Intensity
Motion Blur, 45 degrees, 100 pixels
Distort->Ocean Ripple
Distort->Wave, around 25% strength
Artistic->Plastic Wrap->Fade Lighten, for the white reflection

There you have it - create your own textures in less time than it takes to search online, and you won't ever have to worry about getting sued for copyright violations, either. That's what I call a win-win situation.