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Ever wonder where all those
seamless backgrounds come from? How does the creator get them to
blend so...well, seamlessly? If you've tried to create your own,
I'm sure you've perused at least a dozen tutorials on the
subject. Some may have garnered excellent results, and some not
so much. I'm not going to grade the quality of anyone else's
tutorials here. I know from personal experience that a single
error to a technique or misplaced step will award the writer a
small avalanche of email. Been there, but I'm not complaining.
You folks keep me sharp, and I like it that way!
This week I'm going to give a
personal twist to the ol' seamless background creation niche.
I've warmed up the digital cam (my trusty Mavica... forgive me
Jim Patterson, but I love that camera) and snapped a few shots.
Let's see if we can't create something interesting.
I call this one 'Spikes On
Cinderblock'... my attempt at industrial photography.
1. First off, duplicate the
background layer by dragging it to the new layer icon on the
bottom of the layers palette.
2. Select the copied layer.
Go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal.
3. Click the 'Add a Mask'
icon on the bottom of the layers palette.
3. If you are unfamiliar with
masks, you will notice that the foreground/background colors are
white/black respectively. We are about to apply a gradient to
the layer mask, which will render half the layer visible (that
covered with white) and have will reveal the layer beneath (the
black portion of the gradient).
4. With the Mask selected,
click the gradient tool. Click inside the gradient in the
options bar to bring up the gradient editor.
5. Click the white color stop
and manually enter '35%' for the location. Select the black
color stop and manually enter '65%' for the location.
6. Click the Mask field for
the copied layer in the Layers Palette. As strait as you can,
draw the gradient from left to right across the layer.
7. Take a look at your image.
You should see something like this.
8. With the top layer still
selected, hit Command/CTRL+E to merge the layers together.
9. Duplicate the background
again. We are going to follow the same procedures as above, only
this time we will flip the new layer vertically instead of
horizontally. Also, this time apply the gradient to the mask
from top to bottom rather than left to right. When completed, it
should look like this:
10. Merge the layers again.
11. Go to Image>Adjust>Image
Size. Deselect 'Constrain Proportions' and enter identical
measurements for the width and height.
Here's the image:
So is it seamless? Well
here's a quick test. First. I'll reduce the size again. Next,
I'll go to Edit>Define Pattern. Third, I'll create a new
document. I'll then test my background by filling the new
document with the new pattern.
Try saving the above tutorial
as an action. Here are a couple additional examples:
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