Tileable Textures

Al Hart

GIMP and PhotoShop have routines to make patterns tileable, but I wanted something we could run directly from SketchUp.

This new feature of NprTools uses an algorithm described by Paul Bourke

Here is an example of taking a non-repeatable swirl pattern, making it tileable and placing it in SketchUp.

Original Pattern

Tileable Pattern from NprTools

Repeating Texture used in SketchUp

This example was not very tileable in the first place, but makes it easier to see how this works. It works well with patterns, like grass or carpets, which are almost tileable. But it will make any pattern tileable.
See: Tileable Patterns

ScottPara

Al,

Are we talking "tiled" textures or making a texture seamless? For myself, I would want grass seamless so that the repeat is not to obvious. Just trying to make sure I understand what you are trying to do before commenting more on some alternatives to look at that I use regularly.

Scott

Al Hart

@unknownuser said:

Al,

Are we talking "tiled" textures or making a texture seamless? For myself, I would want grass seamless so that the repeat is not to obvious. Just trying to make sure I understand what you are trying to do before commenting more on some alternatives to look at that I use regularly.

Scott

I put together a sample for you.

This is a grass image grabbed from the internet. For real grass you would probably use an image looking down on the grass. But the imperfections in this image will make it easier to see how this works.

Grass after processing in Tileable Textures. There are some lines in it. I think when I work on the algorithm more thay will go away.

New grass texture tiled in SketchUp.

ScottPara

OK that is what I thought you meant. I gave the grass image a shot (maybe 1 minute) in one of the 2 programs I use to make images seamless. If this is an idea for you I would suggest you look at Luxology's Imagesynth and the way that works. It is fairly stable and does a great job for the money.

Scott

Grass SP (Medium).jpg

juju

Scott, you do know that ImageSynth2 has been available for a while. Available as standalone or Photoshop plugin.

ScottPara

Yes, I have used it for a while. It is not always the most correct solution but it has more options than some of the others. Version 2 is faster but not anymore stable on textures above 2k....even on a beast of a machine.

Scott

solo

I recently got a new texture making toy that has taken the number one spot from my previous texture making app Imagesynth2.

Check it out: http://www.pixplant.com/

dale

Looks like a nice tool but ...alas not for Mac

ScottPara

Pete it is FAR better than Imagesynth in my opinion but does not have the control that Imagesynth has.

Scott

ashscott

I'm creating repeating tiles of bricks but the bricks vary in color and size/shape throughout one texture - my understanding is that automatic systems such as pixplant can't help in this instance?

Thanks

Gaieus

Well, pixplant has a feature to incorporate repeating patterns (if there are any of course). Also you can add as many "seeds" (i.e. colour variations) as you wish.

(Which brings into my mind that I should go out and take a bunch of photos for my pixplant...)