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How Do I Make a Roughness Map in Photoshop?

Last updated on September 23, 2022 @ 9:45 pm

Roughness maps are a great way to add some extra detail and variation to your textures. In this quick tip, we’ll take a look at how to create a roughness map in Photoshop.

First, open up your texture in Photoshop. We’ll be using this stone texture:

Next, go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Add a little bit of noise – enough to give the texture some variation, but not so much that it looks completely different. We used an amount of 5% for this texture:

Now go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate. This will remove all the color from the texture, leaving us with a black and white image:

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Next, go to Image > Adjustments > Levels. Pull the black slider in towards the center until you start to see some white speckles appear in the texture. This will add some variation to the light and dark areas of the texture:

Now go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Add a very small amount of blur – just enough to take the edge off of the noise. We used a radius of 1 pixel:

Your texture is now complete! Just save it as a PNG file and you’re ready to use it in your game or application.

Roughness maps are a great way to add extra detail and variation to your textures. In this quick tip, we looked at how to create a roughness map in Photoshop using noise, desaturation, levels, and blur filters. By following these steps, you can easily create your own roughness maps to use in your own projects.

Morgan Bash

Morgan Bash

Technology enthusiast and Co-Founder of Women Coders SF.