As long as the walls are lit similarly, and uniformly, it's not really a problem. Here's the seamed section of the wall above (see seams.jpg & no seams.jpg below). I've made the wall a tile in other words, and positioned it to display the seams using pattern features found in Painter (v.6 - v.10).
Once you can see the seams like this, it's simply a matter of selecting, copying and pasting similar sections over the seams. In this case, I made about 6 simple rectangular selections and pasted them as layers along the seams. I didn't even soften the edges of the layers, which would smooth transitions. I did use a cloning brush to disturb the straight edge where the moss grows along the ground, thereby making it more a function of the wall rather than defining the ground level.
In all, it's about 5 minutes work, very quick, very simple. And since you can then clone your layered image (think Image: Duplicate: Merged in PS) and capture the image as a tiling pattern, it's quite easy to test by using it as a fill, but at a smaller size so any objectionable patterns of repetition show up.
This is a powerful feature, and it has been around since 1999. I'm not really that much of a 3D modeler, but I find Painter an indispensible tool for working with textures. I'm always surprised that more 3D artists don't know about it. That probably has more to do with Corel's marketing insight and wisdom than anything else, however.
Now here's the rub. That just opens the door. Once you have made the wall a tiling pattern, you can paint with it (see wall.jpg). This wall example is just a simple brush stroke, but note how the texture bends as it scales. Well, it can do alot more than that. How about being able to lay down a matching complex alpha with the painted pattern, and making the result a tiling pattern too, simply by chosing to paint it that way, no post processing necessary?
Dennis @ DigArts
