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Your repeat patterns can often benefit from
overlapping several layers of imagery. Of
course, for the overall design to be in repeat,
overlapping layers must also be in repeat
and have the same repeat size. (In more
complex patterns, overlapping layers may
have repeat sizes that differ by a factor or
fraction, but that is a subject for another
tutorial.) Here, you will learn simple tricks
to create SymmetryShop patterns with the
same structure and repeat size. You will start
with a pattern on a uniform background and
replace the background with a pattern that
exactly matches the repeat of the first one.
- Open the file LiliesMono.psd, which
accompanies this tutorial. The file
contains a pattern of lilies created in
another SymmetryShop tutorial, "Putting Designs in Repeat—Automatically". You can also use your own pattern created with SymmetryShop.
There are three components in the file
LiliesMono that were created by
SymmetryShop and are now of interest:
the SymmetryShop Layer (the pattern
layer, which the plug-in rebuilds every
time it runs), the SymmetryShop Selection
(the channel that contains the selection
that you used to create the pattern), and
the control path (the work path that
determines the repeat of your pattern).
- First, you will duplicate the
SymmetryShop Layer. Open the Layers
palette (Window > Layers), Ctrl-click
(Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS)
the SymmetryShop Layer and select
Duplicate Layer... from the pop-up
menu. The new layer name can be
anything you want as long it is not
"SymmetryShop Layer". Let it be
SymmetryShop Layer 1. This layer will
retain the original pattern after the plug-in
replaces the contents of the
SymmetryShop Layer with a new
pattern.
- Next, dispose of the SymmetryShop
Selection channel, which we don't need
for the purposes of this tutorial. Click
the SymmetryShop Selection channel
and then click the Delete button. Or, if
you want to work with the Lilies pattern
later, you may rename the channel
instead.
- The control path you will leave alone. It
will simply be there to ensure that your
new pattern layer has exactly the repeat
size you need.
- With preparation out of the way, you are
ready to create a new background
pattern. First you will replace the
uniform background with a gradient.
Click the background layer in the Layers
palette to select it.
In the Photoshop toolbox, choose some
combination of the foreground and
background colors, for example, magenta
and cyan, respectively. Click the Gradient
tool in the toolbox, and then click
somewhere close to the lower-left corner of
the image and drag diagonally up to about
the center of the image.
- Launch SymmetryShop by choosing File > Automate > Artlandia
SymmetryShop.... As no part of your
gradient was selected, the plug-in will
automatically select the region that is
bounded by the control path. This is
what you want. Increase the tiling size to
3 × 3 to see the repeat clearly.
Note that the Clip at Control Path
checkbox is selected and so your pattern
consists of a checkerboard created from a
piece of your gradient. The repeat of your
checker pattern is exactly the same as the
repeat of the main Lilies pattern because
both patterns share the same control path
(and of course the same symmetry, which
happened automatically because the plug-in
re-uses the original settings when it
rebuilds a pattern into an existing
SymmetryShop Layer).
- Your pattern is basically ready. To add
the final touch, you may smooth away
checkerboard boundaries by letting
pieces overlap and feathering the strict
rectangular selection. Some 30% overlap
and the 25 px feather produce the
pattern you find at the bottom of the
page.
- Click OK to return to Photoshop.
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