Clothing Folds

I have seen many clothing items that have folds in them (without using the Wrinkles features). The folds appear to have been done in Photoshop when the texture was made (either that or they come from the actual clothing items that were used to make the textures). So my question is...

If you make your own textures from scratch, how do you make the folds?

I haven't done it myself, but wouldn't a little judicious use of the darken tool do the trick?

I use a combination of the Photoshop clone tool and hand painting with a tablet using photos for reference. Once you get a feel for wrinkles and folds you can create custom brushes that will save you a lot of time.

I use the Burn and Dodge tools, on *very* low opacity settings.
then i use clone stamp (on a seperate layer!) to add fabric detail back into areas that have become *too* dark or light, adjusting the opacity of the clone stamped area until the blending of it and the layer beneath look right.

I either do what Neph suggested or in PSP 7, I use the "apply texture" feature (I have some "folds" textures) and tweak it until it looks right on the piece .


Zana

Thanks for all the tips!
I did my research (Google is your friend ) and found a neat tutorial on how to paint clothing.
Here it is for all who are curious:
An exercise in painting clothes using Photoshop

Warning: There is some nudity since the beginning of the tutorial shows how to draw the clothes on the body.
Parental guidance is advised.

Hehe, I know the guy who runs that site. Very nice guy, and very talented. He does gorgeous work.

Yeah, what everyone suggested. Dodge and burn with a tablet is indeed your friend. What I also do is smear, and before I do any of that, I apply a very gentle noise filter to give a little natural variation in colour.

All of the above Here's another useful tip for wrinkles and folds... if you're using PS7 or CS use the liquify filter to slightly stretch the fabric texture or pattern on the sides of the fold, and compress it a bit along the ridge. That helps give the illusion that the texture of the cloth or textile print conforms to the fold.

Patch tool in Photoshop also can be used from a texture swatch if it has the folds/wrinkles showing. Just have to blend the fabrics around the area.

Otherwise all of the above.