Distressed Look

[Conor Knoxx]

anyone have any good and/or simple ways to take a solid vector graphic (or text) and give it a "distressed" look? As in... cracks, faded areas, etc. The finished result would be for digital print, not for cutting.
I'm using Flexi - but I could easily size the vector and export it - then edit it in photoshop, if that's an easier program to do this in...

 

[john1]

You can use a grunge brush set in photoshop and create that look. Just set the brush on the eraser and it will work fine.

 

[xxaxx]

I would just put it in photoshop, find a few grunge, old paper(or old wood or whatever style you are going for) and crack textures you like to put over the top of that base layer and then change the blending modes and opacities on the layers to get your desired effect. Also if you want certain areas to be less grungy than others or anything like that, apply a layer mask to the layers and paint in black and white on the mask to show or hide specific areas that you paint in.

Eventually you should be able to get whatever look you are going for using that.

 

[thinksigns]

http://vimeo.com/37759196

 

[tsgstl]

Here's what I do:

Figure out what "look" I'm going for
Google Image search cracked or speckled what have you
Convert the pic I find to black and white
Vectorize autotrace it
Scale it to the desired size and place it over the image


Like this

 

[SignProPlus-Chip]

Machine Wash

 

[ucmj22]

as TSGSTL said, I have a couple free "grunge" or "distressed" vectors that I probably got from vecteezy and I just lay them over top. If it is going over somthing else, I contain the grunge element in a clipping path of the same shape it is covering.

 

[GAC05]

This distressed look seems really popular on the web right now - not sure how it is done.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[synergy_jim]

Go Media has some nice vector grunge packs that work well.

 

[ForgeInc]

One easy, simply way is to get a texture of "grunge" you like, (be it scratches, crumpled up paper, etc,) save that texture as a bitmap in photoshop, then place that linked bitmap file into Illustrator (or, ahem...corel). Place linked file...mask it, etc as needed. You can then apply any color you want to the link within Illustrator without having to adjust it in photoshop.

That's pretty much how I did the texture shown in our logo.

Vectorizing textures is never the way to go, you won't get the detail and the files then have a tendency to be huge and slow

 

[HulkSmash]

Easy way

To go google, type in vector grunge.
Put over desired image you want to put the effect on.

Lower Opacity, mask.. Profit.

 

[Jackpine]

Look here.
http://seamless-pixels.blogspot.com/2012/09/free-seamless-marble-textures.html

 

[Conor Knoxx]

wow, those are awesome ideas! I knew I came to the right place for this :signs101:
Thanks all, I'll git'er done!