Seamless Tile Generators

[jphelps]

I'm looking at seamless tile generators to create seamless textures in Max using jpeg images. Has anybody had any experience with any of them and are there any of them that anybody would recommend?....Or, is there a better way to quickly create seamless tiles?

[JonasEm]

Maybe Bricks'n'Tiles? - 3d-rekonstruktionen.de/bricksntiles/

[Dave Buckley]

if you already have photoshop, do a quick google search for creating seamless textures and you should find something within 5 minutes

[ronll]

If you want to do it yourself in Photoshop, open the image and note the pixel dimensions. Then go to FILTER > OTHER > OFFSET. Check "Wrap Around" and set both Horizontal and Vertical offsets to half the number of the dimensions of the image. Then hand touch-up the resulting joints in the middle of the image. Now the image will tile.

[SandmanNinja]

Ron's pretty much summed it up.

The only rub would be if there is uneven lighting across your initial image.

But that's what I do for rocks, bricks, etc.

[jphelps]

I just tried the Photoshop method Ron suggested for some terrazzo images that I scanned in. I used a flatbed scanner to obtain the images and I think the lighting is pretty even across the image but I am still getting tiling in my Max rendering. It's a little less than it was before but not by much. Is there something I am missing perhaps?

[lyca]

http://www.luxology.com/whatismodo/imageSynth.aspx

 

go for this one and you will really win a lot of time

[jphelps]

Yeah, I've looked at it and I'm ready to give it a try.

[SandmanNinja]

Ah yeah - I had the free demo of this. VERY GOOD plug-in! $100 isn't bad either, considering how powerful it is

[bjornkn]

You may find that the high-pass filter may help:

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20010523/hajba_pfv.htm

for a tutorial on its use to prevent tiling effects.

Use clone and patch tool in PS to "paint out" any seams.

If you try to make a terrazzo tile floor the tiling will be less obvious the more tiles you put in your source file. 3x3 tiles is absolute minimum? 9x9 is much better, but sometimes you may need 50x50, or more, if there is a lot of variation in the tiles. The attached image uses 20x20 tiles with quite high variation, and you can still see that it starts to tile when you see a large area at the same time.

[SandmanNinja]

I was just playing with Photoshop CS3 and there is a Pattern Tiler (under Filter I think), and it's not horrible.

[M V]

http://www.redfieldplugins.com/

 

Go to bottom of the page and install Seamless Workshop for Photoshop. Its freeware and an awesome little plugin! Makes great seamless tiles with little effort.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

I just want to throw one comment into the mix... seamless tiles does not mean non-tiling textures. Textures often need TLC in PhotoShop to make them appear non-tilable.

[Dave Buckley]

agree with the homeless_guy above

[bjornkn]

I agree too.

I have never seen a generator being smart enough to make a texture not appear tiled, including that ImageSynth. Particularly it it contains some visible features. The best is often applying some hard work in PS or similar.

A good tip is to make a pattern of your texture, increase the canvas 300% or more and apply the pattern to it.Then you edit out all the seams and visible repetitions using clone/patch e.a. Repeat the procedure again if it still tiles visibly/unacceptably.

Another thing that destroys the unformness is camera lens and perspective distortions, which can quite easily be fixed in PS, but probalby not so easily in most generators?

[jphelps]

Ok, I think I get it. Seamless tile generators are not magic and can't replace all the work necessary to make a texture not appear to be tiled. In my terrazzo, for example, I did the work in photoshop as suggested below and did get rid of the dark areas along the seams. The texture itself still repeats in every tile. This is apparent if you look closely at the image on screen but not so obvious as the darkened seam areas were. This ain't perfect but it's acceptable for what I'm doing. I do appreciate the discussion. I am learning alot... primarily that I have alot to learn. Thanks.

[Fran]

Ok, I think I get it. Seamless tile generators are not magic and can't replace all the work necessary to make a texture not appear to be tiled. In my terrazzo, for example, I did the work in photoshop as suggested below and did get rid of the dark areas along the seams. The texture itself still repeats in every tile. This is apparent if you look closely at the image on screen but not so obvious as the darkened seam areas were. This ain't perfect but it's acceptable for what I'm doing. I do appreciate the discussion. I am learning alot... primarily that I have alot to learn. Thanks.

 

Particularly for terrazzo, you could try using the Cellular procedural in max, maybe in combination with the Mix map. The Cellular map has an option that makes it look like the chips in terrazzo. Just a thought.

[bjornkn]

If you only have one terrazzo tile you could make a 4x4 (or more) tile texture easily. Copy the tile to new layers and flip, rotate etc with some of them. Edit some of them with clone/patch and very soon you have a texture that does not look tiled.

[SandmanNinja]

Hey - just picked up (for me) the latest issue of 3D World and it has a DVD included with the top 50 short animations ...and... a free, full copy of SynthImage!!

 

Yippie..

[jphelps]

I've heard a lot about 3D World Magazine. How does one get their hands on one in the States?

[taran0]

theres a program called seamless texture generator

 

does a great quick job to remove highlight and create a tilable texture, its small and can run from a usb stick - i never leave home without it

 

it wont work fro everythign but 60percent of the time it just works and then i mgith just do a 15 second touch up in photoshop

 

taran