Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create a fun, simple tessellation.
Basically, a tessellation is a repeat pattern in which its positive and negative spaces fit into each other like a puzzle.
The negative shapes create the positive pattern
and the positive shapes create the negative pattern.
If you want, you can even add lines or textures to them.
Make sure your foreground and background colors
are black and white, respectively.
If they're not, press "D" on your keyboard.
Create a new document by going to File and New.
Make your document a square.
For this example, I'll make the Width and the Height 870 pixels each
and the Resolution, 150 pixels per inch.
Fill it with black by pressing Alt + Delete on WIndows
or Option + Delete on a Mac.
This fills it with the foreground color which is Black.
We'll add guidelines that will divide it into 9 equal sections.
To do this, go to View and make sure Rulers and Snap are checked.
If they aren't, just click on them.
Click New Guide and tick Horizontal.
In the Position field, type in 33.33%.
Then, click OK or press Enter or Return.
If you don't see the guideline, press Ctrl or Cmd + H.
Go back to View, New Guide and this time, type in 66.66%.
Then press Enter or Return.
Go back to View, New Guide and tick Vertical.
Type in 33.33%, press Enter or Return
go back to View, New Guide and type in 66.66%.
Go to the ruler on the left and drag out a guideline until snaps to the left side of your document.
Drag another one across until it snaps to the right side.
Go to the top ruler and drag guidelines to the top and bottom.
Open your Rectangular Marquee Tool and drag a selection across the middle square.
It'll snap to the guidelines because we have Snap checked.
We'll cut the square from the background and copy it to its own layer by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
Hold down Ctrl or Cmd as you click on the square to make a selection of its shape again.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection next to the active layer.
Click the black square to make it active and hide the guidelines by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + H.
Click off the eyeball of the background to temporarily hide it
and invert the foreground and background colors by pressing "x" on your keyboard
or by clicking this curved, double-arrow icon.
Next, we're going to draw 2 shapes inside of it.
They can be any shapes you like
as long as they don't touch each other.
One shape is at the top and the other shape is on the right or left side.
To draw them, you can use any tool you like
such as the Pen Tools, any of the Lasso Tools
or as in this example, the Pencil Tool.
I'll keep the Size small and the Hardness, 100%.
Draw a shape at the top and on one of the sides.
If you use the Pencil Tool, fill in the shapes with the Paint Bucket Tool
Click inside each of the shapes to fill them in.
Click the eyeball back on next to the background to make it visible.
Go to Select and Color Range.
Select Highlights and click OK.
This makes a selection of the white shapes.
Once you have their selections,
open your Lasso Tool
and make sure the icon to intersect the selections is highlighted.
Draw around the top shape, so it retains this selection
as it deselects the other.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + J to cut and copy the top shape to its own layer.
Hide the top layer and go back to Select and Color Range.
Press Enter or Return and this time,
draw around the selection of the other shape.
Click the thumbnail of the original shapes to make the layer active
and press Ctrl or Cmd + J
to cut and copy the lower shape to its own layer.
Make the guidelines visible again by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + H.
Press "v" on your keyboard to open your Move Tool
and drag the side shape across until it snaps
to the opposite side of the middle box.
Make the top layer visible and active.
Now, drag the top shape straight down
until it snaps below the bottom of the middle box.
Click the thumbnail of the original shapes layer
to make it active and invert it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + I.
The shape that you have on your screen is the tile
that will eventually comprise your tessellation.
Go to Select and Color Range to make a selection of it.
Make the top layer active
and click the New Layer icon to make a new layer above it.
Press Alt or Option + Delete to fill the selection with white.
Now that we've created the final shape,
we can trash the layers below it that comprised it.
Make the shape active and make 3 copies of it
by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J, 3 times.
Drag the copy to the left until it snaps together with the middle shape.
Make the layer below it active
and it to the right until it snaps together.
Make the next layer active and repeat.
Make the second layer from the top active
and invert it.
Make the top layer active and invert it.
Hide the background.
Merge the shapes together
by Shift-clicking on the bottom shape to highlight all the layers
and press Ctrl or Cmd + E.
Make 3 copies of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J, 3 times.
Drag the copy straight down
until it snaps together with the other shapes.
Then, invert it.
Make the second layer active
and drag it up until it snaps together with the shapes below it.
Then, invert it.
Make the next layer active
and drag it up until it snaps together.
Then, hide the guidelines.
This is Marty form Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!