Need Help with Creating Pinball Cabinet Web Splatter Paint Simulation

Question

EM pinball cabinets (primary those produced in the 1970’s and earlier) had a webbing paint splatter effect on them. I’m creating some custom decals for a machine instead of painting it, but I can’t seem to figure out a way to replicate this webbed-splatter effect in Photoshop. If you look closely, most of the splatter appears to be hair-like instead of just drops of paint.

I’ve tried a variety of brushes and effects, but I can’t see to come very close. I would sincerely appreciate it if anyone can point me in the right direction to simulate this effect.

Conrad_C · Answer

Have you tried defining a pattern based on a sample of the actual spatter?

Obviously the example I made in the picture below doesn’t look so great because I didn't take the time to resolve the visible seams (for one thing, the original tile needs to be a lot larger), but this is how I got that far:

Downloaded your image.
Subtracted the color from the spatter pattern.
Selected the largest spatter area that didn’t have another graphic on it.
Chose Edit > Define Pattern.
In another document, created a new Pattern Fill layer and selected the pattern I made; that’s what you used in the final picture.

Maybe if you have another example with a larger unobstructed area and if it was at a higher resolution, you could make any seams and repetition less visible. And if the pattern was defined in grayscale, it would be easy to color however in whatever way is needed for different machines.

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