How Do I Make?: Pattern Creation in Photoshop/for SL – Part 1

Nearly everyone in SL has had that little ‘ding’ inside their head that tells them that they *really* want to create something in SL, something to make their mark. The majority of tutorials for SL are either forgotten about, old and defunct or non-existent, and although I find it easier to self teach – I know that some prefer the little launch pad that a concise tutorial gives.

Every other Saturday, I’ll be giving tutorials on various things in SL, this week starting with texture creation. I’ve been creating textures in SL as a personal hobby for over a year and a half now, and I’d happily like to pass that passion on, once you see how easy it can be to create your own, fully customised texture, you’ll be making more and more and be flooding the grid with some freakin’ awesome textures that don’t look like total shit!

Too many times in SL I see ripped textures from the web, or unedited Filter Forge monstrosities, seemingly made while the creator was blinded by their own special idea that directly using FilterForge textures in SL has definitely, never ever been done before. Nope.  Worse, I see 64×64 pixellated messes, or even *worse*,  still images in the ancient .gif format. Gifs are for animations!  I don’t understand how SL could be stuck like this, as texture making is one of the simplest ways of putting your creativity into SL, and good textures are very, very popular – hell even the shit ones are popular, that’s how desperate SL is for good texture makers.

I apologise in advance for the length of the post – I think the design knowledge *behind* the creation is just as important as the actual creation of it. If you want to skip ahead to the good part, feel free.

These tutorials will rely on you using that creative noggin of yours, as I won’t be using anything other than inspiration from the web.

You will need:

• Photoshop (Or GIMP or something. I don’t know the menu’s in GIMP, so you might need to wing it, and figure it out on your own – sorry >.<)
• Basic knowledge of the above.
• An SL Client (SL 2.0/2.1 works best – I know Emerald has temporary texture uploads, but with texture making for building, you don’t normally need to test the texture out inworld, in my experience.)
• Inspirational resources. (That inspiration, not ‘copy directly’, or ‘steal for profit’.)

I’l be using Photoshop and Illustrator CS5 I won’t be using any of CS5′s special magical witchcraft features in this tutorial, so you can rest easy. (Note: Educational copies are a LOT cheaper than the full price versions.)

• We’ll be working on a 1:1 texture. This means that each side will be the same length.
• Textures for building in SL usually come in 1:1 proportions, though they can be found in 1:2 or 2:1 proportions.
• It is always better to work in a higher resolution than you need, so that you an resize it to smaller proportions without losing quality.
• Check tileability (I don’t know if that’s even a word…it is now!) in a new Photoshop document. You’ll be able to see any faults without having to upload to SL.
• We will be using the Brush tool for this tutorial, some Filters and some Layer Styles/Blending Options.
• PNG, TGA and JPG are the textures used in SL.
• TGA is mostly used for clothing, and uses transparencies via Channels. I’ll go into more detail on this at a later date.
• PNG can handle transparencies with and without using channels and can compress textures without losing quality. SL has issues with these in the sense that even if you have no transparencies, the way the texture layers with other transparent/PNG textures can flicker or look odd.
• JPG can’t handle transparencies, and doesn’t compress as well, but it still provides a lot of clarity and texture quality. This is the format we will be saving to today.

About Textures

Take a good look at the way tileable textures are styled – note how the individual pieces are placed, and if it is tileable – not the placement of the elements that make it tile. Note how the pattern flows, and how it attracts your eye. (Click the following images to go to the original source.)

The above image is an example of a ‘borderless’ tileable image. This is the simplest way of making a texture seamless. You make sure the edges of the texture are plain, so that when it tiles, there is a gap between the major patterns. Essentially it’s just a repeating pattern.

The above image is an example of continuation – the pattern is tiled in all directions, and is completely seamless. This is the way we will be doing our texture. It is more work, but the results are far more appealing to the eye.

The Working Process

It is always best to do a little visual research before you start working – I find music also helps. I tend to make visual style boards before making textures, so I can have the image open while I work, as a reference and constant inspiration. This way I am more focused on the style I have chosen, and I’m not distracted by outside influences.

This is one of my style boards.  Notice that there are lots of florals, and some modern prints, bold shapes and striking colours. It’s not really important to have complimentary images here, just images that you either like the colours of, or styles that are related to the end product you want to create.  In this case, I don’t have a style board, as the design we’re doing is straightforward.

Lets begin our image!

Making a pattern in Photoshop

Open up a new image, with the dimensions of 512 x 512, and 72 pixels/inch. Call it Pattern Image.

Make sure your rulers are visible (View > Rulers or CTRL+R/CMD+R for Macs), and make sure that Snap-To is on (View > Snap To or CTRL+SHIFT+;/CMD+SHIFT+; on Macs)

Go to View > New Guide… and add a guide at 128, 256 and 384, both vertical and horizontal. You’ll have to click View > New Guide for each guideline, unless your eyes are good enough to pull them from the rulers manually.

Your image should now look like this;

Good stuff – now lets begin making a custom pattern with some brushes. If you’re going to sell these textures, you’ll need the permission/appropriate license from the original creator, however as this is just for a tutorial – we can use this brush set from Gvalkyrie at Deviant Art.

Create a New Layer, either by clicking this icon at the bottom of the Layers channel, pressing SHIFT+CTRL+N (SHIFT+CMD+N on Mac) or by going Layer > New >Layer.

Make sure your foreground colour is black and go to town with the brushes. Make sure they’re smaller than your image size, by typing in a smaller number than 512 here:

You can also change the direction of the brush by pressing F5 to open the Brush editing menu, and changing the angle by typing it in, or using the directional arrow.

Make sure, when you are doing your brushing, that you don’t go outside of the edges  and that you don’t overcrowd the image with detail – you’ll see why in a moment.

Examples;

This is a good example. The brushwork is within the confines of the image dimensions, meaning when we offset the image, tiling will be simpler. The image isn't crowded and there's room for more textures, once we offset the image.

This is a bad example. The brushwork is chaotic and overflows off the edges, and we won't be able to tile this image, even if we offset it.

So, once your image looks similar to the top one, go to Filter > Other > Offset, and offset it by +256 on both directions, make sure Wrap Around is checked.

You should now have something that looks like this. It’s already tileable, but there’s a nice big space for more brushwork in the middle now!

Add in some more details (I know mine looks like shit!) until you’re happy with how it looks.

Now, press CTRL+A (CMD+A for Macs) to select the whole image, and go to Edit > Define Pattern. Name it whatever you’d like and click OK!

Thus concludes the first part of the tutorial. In two weeks, we’ll be using our brand new pattern to make a wallpaper for our skybox! I know it’s been a long entry, and I’m so happy you followed everything through to this point. If there’s anything you’re not sure of, just comment and I’ll be sure to answer any queries!