Introduction
imageSynth is a plugin for Photoshop that creates seamless tiles out of photographs. It's great for texturing, and it's available here on the DAZ website at this link:
http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/shop/itemdetails/-/?item=4651&cat=366 .
Now, imageSynth can make some beautiful seamless tiles on its own, but bricks present and interesting challenge. Because the pattern of bricklay is very recognizable, the automatic processes for imageSynth won't work for turning a photo of a brick wall into a seamless tile. This tutorial will give you a step by step method for accomplishing the desired effect.
NOTE: I don't know why the zip uploaded twice, but they are the same file.
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imageSynth creates seamless tiles by blending parts of an image (or the edges of a whole image) together... well, seamlessly. The user can either select what areas (called chunks) he wants to be blended, or allow the program to randomly choose them. He can place the chunks by hand or, again, allow the plugin to automatically fill in the tile. It's a very versatile and useful plugin, especially for texturing.
First this tutorial, you'll need to find a photo of a brick wall. To make things easier, I have provided one for you. A larger version of the picture below is in the file provided (BrickPhoto).
Notice how there is a slight curve to the lines in the bricks. This is because of the camera lens. |
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In Photoshop, start a new project, a picture the size of the tile you want to make. I'll be working with a 500px by 500px image. Go to Filter>Luxology>imageSynth and load your brick photo. If you were to just tile the image yourself, trying to line up the lines as best as you could, you may get something like this:
Because the original image isn't perfectly straight, you get some very obvious defects in the tile. This won't work.
If you try selecting the straightest brick you can find and automate it, you get something like this:
Now that definitely doesn't look like a brick wall. You may be thinking, "Hey, why not take that one brick and set it out by hand, like in the first example?" You could do that, but then two more problems arise: 1) the bricks all look the same, so the seamless tile loses realism, and 2) unless you calculated the size of your image exactly, the brick pattern might not line up properly on the top and bottom, ruining the seamless effect. |
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Step 3 - Starting Your Bricks
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Make sure the High Pass filter (in the lower left corner) is set to 25. Then, find the straightest brick edge you can and select an "L" shape, with the long edge on top and the short edge on the right. This will be your template for the bricks. Start lining them up in a brick pattern, working alternately from the top and bottom, making sure that the edges will line up correctly in the end. When you get to the middle, you may need to widen your bricks a bit to make the pattern fit (notice how two of my rows are a little wider than the others). Just bridge the gap with a short vertical edge. You should have something like this:
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Step 4 - Fill in the Bricks
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Now for the easy part. Select on your brick photo just red areas. Make as many chunks as you like (I selected 12). Now, use these chunks to fill in the areas between the edge lines, using the tab button to rotate through the different chunks. This will make each brick unique, so it looks more natural.
When you're finished, hit Apply. |
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Here's your new brick tile. It looks natural, like seperate bricks were actually stacked, and it's seamless.
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