Design Corner / Seamless Tiles: Part 1
Seamless tiles, when properly used, can spice up your web site without adding much to your bandwidth bill.Seamless tiles, when properly used, can spice up your web site without adding much to your bandwidth bill.
Seamless, tiling images are great because the file size is small for such a large area. It’s easy enough to create them with patterns which have transparency, but there are several ways to create a good pattern which has no transparency at all.
Method 1: Clouds
The Clouds Filter is an interesting filter in that it generates random grayscale colors which not only repeat themselves every 128 pixels, but also tile together seamlessly. This can make for some interesting effects.
1. Create a new canvas, 128 x 128 pixels, with a transparent background. Select the “Filter >Render >Clouds” menu command.
2. Now select the “Image >Adjust >Hue/Saturation” menu command, and make sure the “Colorize” tab is checked. You can now adjust the sliders to find a color which you are looking for.
3. We can take this texture and go further with it, to make a wonderful rocky texture. Create a new canvas, 128 x 128 pixels, with a transparent background. Run the Clouds Filter once on it.
4. Now go to Channels Palette by clicking on the channels tab in the layers palette. Now create a new channel by pressing the “New Channel” button and activate this channel by left-clicking on it (it should be called “Alpha 1”).
5. Run the Clouds Filter on this channel. Go back to the layers palette and activate your “real” clouds layer. Now select the “Filter >Render >Lighting Effects” menu command, and use these values:
6. You can now colorize your texture in the same methods as before; adjusting the hue/saturation of the image.
Of course, the only problem which can’t be fixed is the repetition of everything, so distinct features stand out a lot. But it’s a small price to pay for these great tiles.
Blue Design Studios has been providing quality adult site design services at reasonable prices for more than a year, and can be reached through their web site at www.bluedesignstudios.com.