Jump to content

DOWNLOAD MODS

Are you looking for something shiny for your load order? We have many exclusive mods and resources you won't find anywhere else. Start your search now...

LEARN MODDING

Ready to try your hand at making your own mod creations? Visit the Enclave, the original ES/FO modding school, and learn the tricks of the trade from veteran modders...

JOIN THE ALLIANCE

Membership is free and registering unlocks image galleries, project hosting, live chat, unlimited downloads, & more...

Guest Workshop: Texturing - Making Seamless Textures


Hanaisse
 Share

Recommended Posts

Texturing - Making Seamless Textures (PS)

Clone Stamp Tool

by: Hanaisse

We’ve all been there, browsing texture sites for that perfect one we need to make our model special, change it to our liking, apply it, and ...... UGH, what’s that line doing there!?

Unsightly texture lines occur when your model needs more than the size of the .dds texture and uses multiple instances of texture to cover all of it. This isn’t a bad thing and doesn’t require the texture size to be bigger. Some are very obvious ( a pattern off kilter, light/dark seams ) but all are fixable. A properly tiled texture will not be noticeable.

This workshop is going to walk you through making a texture seamless in Photoshop, and hopefully share some helpful hints & tips along the way.

:smarty: Smarty Says: This is just one way of many to make a tile-able seamless texture and what I consider the simplest. If you have another method, please feel free to write a Workshop and share.

Requirements:

Photoshop

Basic working knowledge of Photoshop

Basic knowledge of applying textures to meshes

Step 1: The texture

I’ll start with a very basic texture that’s sure to not be tiled. I’ve downloaded it from here (right click and Save).

If I were to convert it to a .dds now and apply it to a model (I’m using foldedcloth05.nif as an example) this is what it would look like. Not very good.

gallery_1515_264_55457.jpg

Open it in PS. Right click on the Background layer and select Layer From Background to make our changes.

:smarty: Smarty Says: At this point I always Duplicate the layer and only work on the copy, so that if I mess it up bad enough I can delete it, re-duplicate it and start over.

Step 2: Offset

Select Filter > Other > Offset.

gallery_1515_264_60398.jpg

Set Horizontal to +155 and Vertical to +125 and you’ll see this. Click OK.

gallery_1515_264_217999.jpg

These are the previous boundaries of our texture sample moved away from the edges so that we can see them. These are what make unsightly texture seams because all the sides don’t match up. We’ll make them disappear.

Step 3: Clone Stamp Tool

Select the Clone Stamp Tool.

gallery_1515_264_17371.jpg

Check under Brushes and make sure to use a Hard Round brush, at no more than 15px in size (larger sizes are harder to control).

gallery_1515_264_25880.jpg

At this point you want to decide what the best way to cover those lines would be. Do you want to go with the lighter texture or darker texture? Yes, you can always mix the two.

With the brush cursor, select a spot close to the horizontal seam line but not touching it.

Hold down the ALT button. The cursor will change to a cross. Click on a clean spot. This will ‘select’ that part of the image to copy (or clone) over the line we want to hide.

gallery_1515_264_155328.jpg

Release the ALT button and move the cursor brush over the line. You’ll notice inside the circle is the image of what we selected. Left click to apply it. Presto! The line has disappeared in that spot.

gallery_1515_264_86832.jpg

Move the cursor along the line and continue clicking. While doing this, the ‘selected’ area moves along with you, noted by the cross you see when you click, so be careful what you click to apply. If you don’t like the look of what is selected in the cursor, use the ALT button to select another texture spot.

Continue covering the seam lines, both horizontal and vertical, moving the cursor up and down slightly to blend what you are applying with surrounding areas, alternating light and dark if necessary.

:smarty: Smarty Says: Reselect clean spots with the ALT button often.

DO NOT go off the edge of your texture, just make sure to reach the edge with the circle brush cursor and not overlap off it.

gallery_1515_264_150177.jpg

Step 4: Double check

When the texture looks good it’s time to double check with Offset to see if we’ve accidentally made other seams.

Click Filter > Other > Offset again. Move the Horizontal and Vertical sliders around several times to view the texture. If you find another seam you want to fix, stop and repeat steps 2+3 above. Then double check again until you are satisfied.

:smarty: Smarty Says: You can either Cancel out of Offset if you like the original view of your texture or use Offset changes to move it to a different view.

Our texture is now ready to use. Click File > Save, re-save it as DXT1, create mipmaps and apply it to the mesh.

gallery_1515_264_9301.jpg

Much better! We’ve made a beautiful new towel.

Tips and Tricks; The Clone Stamp Tool can also be used to correct uneven textures, to cover light areas with dark or dark areas with light, clean up a “dirty” spot, hide that scratch we don’t want or to blend those highlights better.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...