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Before we talk about Seamless Patterns, let us first understand what the hell is 'seamless'.
So 'seam' basically means 'the edge'.
Here's the Google definition of it.
So 'seamless' obviously means 'one which doesn't have an edge'.
However, you cannot convert any texture directly to a seamless pattern.
Let me explain.
So this is a pretty looking texture, right?
So if we select all of it, and then we go to Edit and then Define Pattern, and let's
say we name it 'Concrete'.
All right, let's hit OK.
Now let's test the pattern.
Press Ctrl or Command + D to deselect that, and then click on the Adjustment Layer icon
and let's choose Pattern.
The same pattern is going to show up that we just created.
At the moment it looks just fine.
However, as soon as we change the scale to something like 50, look, or let's go even
lower, 20.
Right.
This is a pattern, but you see the edge.
If you just zoom in, you see these edges, right?
Let's increase the size of that we can see it more clearly.
If you just zoom out, the edges are very clearly visible, which means the seam is visible,
which means it is not seamless.
It does have a seam.
So today we are going to learn how to convert these textures and pattern images into seamless
patterns - how to make them seamless.
It's going to be fun.
So without any further ado, let's get started.
Here we are back in the brilliant world of Photoshop and although there are tons of ways
to create seamless patterns, today, I'm going to share with you three examples.
And any other photos that you want to download from this tutorial, all you got to do is check
the link in the description.
So let's take a look at this photo.
First of all, to check whether this is going to translate into a pattern well, you can
use the Offset Filter.
So with the Background image selected, you can go to Filter, and then Other and then
just select Offset.
Once you choose that, you can actually check Wrap Around, and then if you just increase
or decrease the Horizontal and Vertical, the image shifts.
If it's not clear to you, let me just show you what it does.
So this is the original image.
As I increase the Vertical, see, the image comes down and comes back from the top and
you can see the edge very clearly.
It's not aligning properly, which means that if we convert this into a pattern, that's
going to be a problem.
Let's try the Horizontal.
The horizontal is pretty okay, but you can still see the edge.
Look at that.
It's so crisp and clear, the vertical edge, right?
So we need to make sure that both of them align properly.
For the vertical one, we can clearly cut it off and crop it nicely, but for the horizontal
edge, look at this, we need to fix it.
We need to do something to fix it.
Let's start with the vertical.
Hit Cancel.
This was just for checking.
You saw that the edges were not matching.
And the reason was probably it's not straighted well.
So first, let's start with straightening it.
Press C for the Crop Tool, and then at the top you will see Straighten.
Just click on that and choose any one of these.
And I'm going to choose this line, going to click and drag and create a straight line
along that line between the wood.
Alright.
It seems to be a little straightened.
Hit Enter or Return to apply the change.
Now, we need to crop it well.
With the Crop Tool still selected, click on the middle to bring up the crop.
And then I want to bring this a little bit inside so that it starts with that edge.
Check till the top whether there is some area left out.
See, there is some area left out.
So we're going to take it even further.
And here as well, I think, there are some areas left out.
Take it even further.
Let's do the same in this area.
We're going to start with that edge.
Let's take this.
If you want to keep the white, you can, but I'm just making sure that it's all well aligned.
Once the edges are well defined, hit Enter or Return and also make sure, at the top,
I would always recommend to keep it checked off, which is Delete Cropped Pixels.
But in this case, I want it to be checked on so that you can check it well with Offset.
If you keep this checked off, these areas on the outside of the crop will not be deleted,
which can be a good thing and for the most part, it is a good thing.
But in this case when you're creating a pattern, just make sure it is checked on and hit Enter
or Return.
Now don't forget to check it off later for your future projects.
Now, let's try the Offset again.
Let's go to Filter - Other - Offset.
Forget about the Vertical.
Let's look at the Horizontal.
Horizontal is fine, right?
We are not seeing any edges.
It's all looking great.
But we still need to work with the Vertical.
As we are bringing it down vertically, look at the horizontal edge.
It's just not matching.
So we need to do something for it to match.
What if we bring the top area of this image and invert it and place it at the bottom?
That way, it would exactly be the same, right?
So, with the background layer selected, press Ctrl or Command + J to make a copy of it.
Now press Ctrl or Command + T to bring up the Transform, right click on it and choose
Flip Vertical.
All right.
What we want in this layer is only the bottom area, just this area.
So click on the Mask button, and we just want to keep the bottom, right?
So let's take the Gradient from black to white and let's create a very simple gradient.
So just the bottom area is changed and placed with the top area inverted.
That's what it is.
You can play with the gradient to see what suits the best.
Once you have done all of this, one other thing that you can do at the end is that,
it looks perfect by the way.
One other thing that you can do here is, you will see some repeating pattern, look at this
dot, right, look at this dot, it appears again.
So when you change this to a pattern, it will give the viewer a sign that this is clearly
a pattern which is repeating again and again and can be disturbing.
So what you can do, you can create a brand new layer at the top and with the help of
the Clone Stamp Tool or the Healing Tool, so I'm going to choose the regular Healing
Brush Tool, just remove some of these dots and irregularity so that they don't repeat
again and again and make it uneven.
Just break away from the patterns.
There you go.
Let's remove them and let's keep them in the bottom.
The goal is not to make it look like it has been inverted and placed at the bottom.
Also, the goal is that when it's repeated again and again, the same patterns or the
same dots or irregularities don't show up again and again.
So you can take all the time in the world to clear these up.
See, this is repeating.
See this irregularity.
See it's repeating again and again, so we need to remove one of these.
All right, I think it's enough.
You can extend it even more if you wish to.
Once you have made all the changes, let's create a Stamp Visible Layer at the top.
So press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E or Command + Option + Shift + E. This creates a merged
layer of everything that you see in the canvas right now.
Now, you can select all of it or leave it at that.
So I'm going to select all of it by pressing Ctrl or Command + A, or if it's small, it
might be useful to also press Ctrl or Command, hold Ctrl or Command and click on the thumbnail.
It will also select all of it.
And then let's go to Edit and then Define Pattern.
Now, let's name this 'Colorful Wall'.
Hit OK.
Now let's test this pattern.
You can test it in the same image or a different image.
I'm just going to create a pattern.
Click on the Adjustment Layer icon and then choose Pattern.
It's going to create and it's going to show the pattern that you last created.
And at the moment, it's looking fine.
And also if we just decrease the scale, it will look fine.
And here's the great part, you can move it any which way you want.
You can take it up, you can take it down, you can take it to the left and right.
Even with scale 100, you can just adjust it according to your taste.
Move it up, move it down and it will look fantastic, because we have removed what?
The seam.
Thus making it seamless.
It's time we move on to example number two.
Sometimes you might have an image which is already well established as a pattern.
However, you cannot directly convert it to a pattern.
Have a look at this.
Let's test it with Offset.
So let's go to Filter - Other and let's choose Offset.
So if you have a closer look at this area, see, it suddenly ends, right?
See this line, it suddenly ends right there and something just doesn't feel right even
though it is a well established pattern.
Probably it's not cropped right.
So we need to find a starting point and an ending point such that after the ending point,
if the starting point repeats, it looks seamless.
Makes sense?
No?
Let me show you.
So first of all, let's hit Cancel.
And we need to find just a starting point.
This would do.
Look at this area where this area starts and we need to make a selection of it.
Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool right there and then just zoom in and find a starting
point.
So this seems to be a good starting point and I'm going to start from right here, from
the very first pixel.
So this seems to be a nice place.
Let's create a rectangle.
Now, we need to transform the selection and stop at a point where just this area repeats.
So right click inside the selection and choose Transform Selection.
Now let's drag it to the right.
You can make it bigger if you wish to, just a little bigger, and drag it and find where
it repeats.
See, it repeats again right there and stop before the very first pixel.
So let's drag it and stop about right there.
This seems to be right.
Let's do the same for the top and the bottom as well.
So let's drag it.
This seems to be a good starting point.
So I'm going to start right there.
And just end where it repeats.
See it repeats right there.
And we're going to end it just above that area.
Once you're satisfied with, I think I need to move it a little bit to the top.
Be very careful with this.
Once you are satisfied with the selection transformation, hit Enter or Return.
Now you have this selection.
You can move it to a brand new layer by pressing Ctrl or Command + J. Now you could have done
it in the same layer, but it's always good to have the pattern on a separate layer.
Anyway, hold the Ctrl or Command, click on the thumbnail to make a selection of that
and then let's go to Edit and Define Pattern.
You can just name this 'Abstract', hit OK and let's now test this pattern.
Ctrl or Command + D, click on the Adjustment Layer icon and then choose Pattern and it
will show the last pattern.
Even if I decrease the scale to, let's say, 53, see, there is no seam.
Zoom it.
Zoom on it and check.
You will find no seam.
Everything seems to be perfect in this case.
Coming back to the texture that we witnessed in the beginning, let's start with third example.
If we just directly convert this into a pattern, it didn't work as we learned.
Let's check with the Offset.
Let's go to Filter - Other - Offset.
See, the edges are showing up.
However, this time, we are going to use Offset to our advantage.
So let's try to put this along the middle.
So it is somewhere in the middle, it's okay.
You can play with the Vertical.
Once it's around the middle, you don't have to be accurate about this, this is just for
your reference, hit OK this time.
Now all we need to do here is to remove these lines.
The top and the bottom and the sides, the left and the right are already seamless because
we have actually brought them, we have actually slided them and the edges are the ones that
we need to fix.
So, very easy to fix in this case.
We just need to fill it with Content-Aware Fill.
With the Rectangular Marquee Tool selected, let's create a selection around it.
All right, and let's add to this selection by holding the Shift key and then just add
this line as well.
All right.
Is there any other extra area that you need to add?
I think this white area might be a disturbance.
Let's add that.
Any other area?
It seems to be nice.
Once the selection is made, let's go to Edit and then Content-Aware Fill.
This will be shown in Photoshop CC 2019 and above.
If you don't see it, you can just go to Fill and then choose Content Aware.
So we are going to go to Content Aware.
It shows you a lot of options to fill up these areas.
You can play with Color Adaptation, Rotation Adaptation and all of that stuff.
However, in this case, I'm going to leave it to default values and it does a pretty
good job in this case.
Hit OK if you're satisfied.
If you're not, you can change the values and see what looks good to you.
Hit OK.
All right, now that area is filled.
Now let's try converting this to a pattern to see if there are any changes we would like
to make in this case.
So let's select all of it or you can also directly do it by going to Edit and then Define
Pattern and we can name this 'Concrete Wall Draft 1'.
Alright.
Now, click on the Adjustment Layer icon and then choose Pattern and decrease the scale
to about 40%.
Let's see if we see any issues.
Well, this looks pretty seamless.
However, there is one thing I see.
See this white blob?
That's something we need to fix.
So hit Cancel for now and have a look.
Do you see the white blob at the top?
I do.
So let's make a selection around it.
You can use the Rectangular Marquee Tool or the Lasso Tool.
I'm just going to make a selection around it or anything.
Just zoom out and see if anything looks like it will repeat and look bad.
These are some areas that we need to fix.
Now, once you have made the selection, you know what to do.
Let's go to Edit - Content-Aware Fill and hit OK.
Done.
Now let's try to convert this into a pattern.
Let's go to Edit and then Define Pattern and you can name it whatever you want - 'Concrete
Wall Final'.
Hit OK.
And now, let's test it.
Click on the Adjustment Layer icon and then choose Pattern.
And this time let's set the scale to about 40%.
Yes, it looks so much better.
Now there are areas like these that I would like to remove.
But anyway, it looks really good.
Now you can also use Curves Adjustment Layers and burn this area just a little bit, make
it a little darker, and then create a pattern.
It's just a lot of trial and error here and there.
But it's a pretty good pattern.
You can just put the scale to about 60%.
And the great part is you can move it around, which is amazing.
You can just adjust it according to the subject if you're using this as a background.
So that's how to transform any, actually, convert any texture or pattern image into
a seamless pattern.
All you have to keep in mind, and the basic goal, is always to remove the same.
Also, it's important that you remove the stuff that stands out too much because when you
convert that particular image into a pattern, that standing out feature is going to repeat
again and again, and it's not going to look good.
Like in the last example, we had that white blob that we removed?
It's important to remove those distractions.
In this video, we did learn a few tricks.
In the first example, we learned the art of inversion, right?
So we took the top part of the image, inverted it and put it at the bottom to make it seamless
with the help of the Gradient Mask.
Remember?
In the second example, we properly cropped it so that we could have a proper starting
point and an ending point, and after the ending point, if we put the starting point, it should
look seamless.
And in the third example, we simply used Content-Aware Fill to cover the seam.
I hope this video helped you in some way or the other.
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Thank you for watching.
I'll see you guys in my next one.
Till then stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating.