How to create a displacement map in

Photoshop
by Vray World Team
This is not a unique but a simple and quick way to create a displacement map in
Photoshop.

For this example we have selected a map from cgtextures. With a yearly membership you can
download high resolution tiled textures saving you time and money. For our example we used
this soil texture. Our purpose for creating this displacement map is to make the final texture have
a small black border around of each individual stone. Lets see step by step how we can achieve
this result.

Step 1.
Here you can see our main texture with all the applied layers.


Step 2.
Add a hue-saturation adjustement layer and decrease the saturation value to -100 in order to
create a black & white texture.
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Step 3.
Add a levels adjustement layer and adjust the sliders as shown below. Our purpose is to create
intense contrast but don't over do it.


Step 4.
Merge the layers (ctr+alt+shift+E) and then invert the resulting layer (ctr+I).


Step 5.
Add a levels adjustement layer and increase the contrast by adjusting the sliders as shown below.
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Step 6.
Merge the layers (ctr+alt+shift+E) and then invert the resulting layer (ctr+I).


Step 7.
If we don't wish our map to be too sharp we can add a gaussian blur filter. For better control we
could add it as smart filter for a finishing touch. For this process we select the layer -> right
click -> convert to smart object -> filter -> gaussian blur.


Step 8.
This is the final croped image, from a 5000x5000px texture in which you can see the black
border around the stones which is what we wished to create.
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