In this tutorial we show you how to add a marle fabric swatch (or any fabric for that matter) to a t-shirt template file in 6 super fast steps. Adding a fabric swatch to your template opens the door to even more possibilites with what can be done with an apparel template file. For example, imagine an e-commerce store that sells t-shirts in many different colors (including grey marle). Now, imagine a guest coming to your website and being able to view all the different color options. To set this up would take hours of photographing every different colorway and touching up those photos. Forget the photography, use a template. Nike do it and so can you! Here’s how it’s done.
Preview of Final Results
What You’ll Need.
Photoshop CS or Newer required. Estimated finish time: 2min.
Download this tutorial in PDF format (10.2 Mb)
STEP 1: Open the ghosted t-shirt template file
Note: All Prepress Toolkit Photo Real Ghosted apparel templates are designed to be used with Photoshop CS or newer software versions. Some PrePress Toolkit Photoshop templates use Smart Object Layers which are only available to users with Photoshop CS3 and newer. For users with Photoshop CS and CS2 you can convert these smart object layers into regular layers. Smart Object Layers are not necessary for this tutorial.
STEP 2: Add the grey marle texture
Place the grey marle swatch (downloaded from the ‘what you’ll need’ section above) into the photoshop file by going to (File > Place)
STEP 3: Masking off the excess
You should now see your grey marle swatch at the top of the layers palette. Next, make sure you have the grey marle swatch selected, then holding the Command key (MAC) or the Control key (WINDOWS) click on the [Mask] Garment layer to make a selection of the garment outline. You should see what designers refer to as “marching ants” marching around the outline of the garment (this lets you know you have made a selection). With the selection made, click on the MASK icon located at the bottom of the layers palette. This will mask off the excess parts of the grey marle swatch and reveal the shape of our t-shirt.
Your grey marle swatch layer should now look like the below image.
STEP 4: Movin’ on down
This is the easiest step. Move your newly masked grey marle layer down so it appears just above the layer labelled as GARMENT COLOR
STEP 5: Pretty Impressive, now lets color it
So right now you should be looking at a pretty sweet grey, marle colored, ghosted v-neck t-shirt. The next step is to adjust the color of the grey marle swatch. To do this we need to add a Hue and Saturation layer filter onto the grey marle layer. With the grey marle layer selected, click on the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette and select Hue/Saturation.
STEP 6: Adjust it
Now you will have a Hue/Saturation layer above your grey marle swatch layer. On the settings for Hue/Saturation make sure Colorize is checked. All we have to do now is play with the Hue and Saturation level to get the desired color. In this tutorial we have gone for a red marle color with the Hue level set to 0 and the Saturation level set to 90.
Now that was pretty easy! All that’s left to do is add in your owns t-shirt design graphic.
Adding your artwork.
Let’s add some artwork to your t-shirt design template. For users with Photoshop CS3 simply double click on the **Place art here** smart object layer and copy your artwork into it. TIP: In this smart object layer document there is a layer labelled as Art Placement guide. Turn this layer on to give you a visual guide as to where to place your artwork, but remember to turn the visibility of this layer off before saving the smart object layer document. For users with Photoshop CS and CS2 the smart objects layer will not be available for you so instead simply add you artwork to a new layer below the SHADING layer.
Quick Color reference guide
Use the below adjustment layer values to quickly make the marle colored ghosted t-shirt design templates pictured below.
Ash Marle
- Hue: 219
- Saturation: 0
- Lightness: -86
Blue Marle
- Hue: 200
- Saturation: 90
- Lightness: 0
Green Marle
- Hue: 172
- Saturation: 75
- Lightness: 0
Navy Marle
- Hue: 219
- Saturation: 94
- Lightness: -64
Red Marle
- Hue: 360
- Saturation: 100
- Lightness: -12
Lavender Marle
- Hue: 275
- Saturation: 74
- Lightness: 14
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