Creating Procedural Texture Masks with Photoshop's Clouds Filter (w/UE5 Examples)

Procedural masks offer a fast way to blend textures, create natural transitions or add dirt/weathering.

One old school texturing method is to use Photoshop and the infamous Clouds filter to generate quick, tiling black-and-white masks. These masks will work in any game engine and of course UE5 as that's what I'll use as an example.

In this post I'll walk you through creating basic masks and then improving upon them entirely in Photoshop. Then I'll also show you how to export them properly and use them in UE5 to blend textures.

Video Tutorial

What Is a Texture Mask?

A mask is a grayscale texture that controls visibility or blending:

• Black hides parts of the texture
• White makes parts of the texture visible
• You can also use Masks to blend between 2 different textures
• Gray values create partial blends/transitions

Option 1: Creating Simple Mask w/Clouds Filter

• Create New Document: File > New: set document dimensions at 2048 × 2048 (2K) or any power-of-two resolution (1024×1024, etc.)
• Resolution: 72 dpi
• Color Mode: RGB Color, 8 bit
• Background: White

With the image set, do the following:

• Set Colors to Black and White: Press D on the keyboard (shortcut to reset foreground/background to default black/white)
• Order doesn't matter (black foreground + white background, or vice versa)
• Apply Clouds Filter: Filter > Render > Clouds
• This instantly generates a random, organic grayscale pattern.

• Export the Texture, this will be your Mask
• File > Export > Export As  Format: PNG (keeps file size low with good quality)
• Transparency: Off (not needed for masks)
• Image Size: Keep at original (2048×2048)
• Name it and Save

This simple clouds result is soft with many mid-gray values, good for subtle blends.

Option 2: Variations for Better Black-and-White Definition

Re-running or combining filters sharpens contrast and separation (key for clean blending and transitions).

Variation 1: Re-Apply Clouds

• After the first Clouds generation, press Ctrl + Alt + F (repeats last used filter)
• Each application generates a new pattern with better definition between blacks and whites

Variation 2: Clouds + Difference Clouds

• Apply Clouds filter once
• Then Filter > Render > Difference Clouds
• Repeat Difference Clouds (Ctrl + Alt + F) until satisfied
• Difference Clouds creates strong black/white separation with fewer grays

Export these the same way as before.

Option 3: Non-Destructive Contrast Boost with Adjustment Layers

• Start with basic Clouds
• Add Adjustment Layer: Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels (or Curves)
• Adjust the Levels sliders or the Curves sliders, experiment until you are satisfied with the mask results

Note: All these masks are seamlessly tiling, no visible seams when repeated over large surfaces (making them ideal for terrains, walls, floors, etc.).

Example of Using These Masks in UE5

Import the texture masks into UE5 by dragging the PNGs into UE5 Content Browser.

For each mask texture:

• Open the texture mask in Texture Editor and disable sRGB
• Then Save

Set up a New Material by having 2 different Albedo textures, Lerp node and imported Texture Masks like so:

Depending on the texture mask being used, the blend between textures will either be more subtle or more visible. But with the above Cheap Contrast setup you can control the imported mask.

Texture Mask 1: Clouds

Texture Mask 2: Difference Clouds

Texture Mask 3: Clouds with Layer Adjustment

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