maandag 9 mei 2011

Seamless Texture Series: Brick Tile Maker


I have a lot of freeware programs on my computer - I just love finding new ones to play with; I particularly love programs that make textures. I've decided to do a series of tutorials for these programs. You'll find the entire series here.
This tutorial is for the Brick Tile Maker program. As its name says, it makes bricklike textures. It's easy to learn and so much fun to play with!

For this tutorial you will need the following:
Paint Shop Pro. You can download the latest fully functional version of this program here.
The Brick Tile Maker program, which you may download here.

Step 1. First, an overview of the menu items in this program. When you open the program, it'll look like this.
Step 2. Click File>New and choose the size you want your tile to be. I've chosen 160 x 120 for mine.
Step 3. You can manually build your textures if you wish just by moving the colors and patterns sliders around. My favorite thing to do is hit the "Random Design" button (circled in black in the screenshot) and then play with the settings. When I hit the random settings, this is what I got.
It's easy to see how this design is constructed simply by looking at the settings for the color and pattern tabs.
  
Step 4. Now just to familiarize you more with the buttons and tabs. First, take a look at the bottom of the screen You'll see a tab with numbers. Moving the arrows up or down will change the distribution of the colors. Play with it!
If you want to see the hex color codes for the colors in your image, check this box.
Use this slider to make your image brighter or darker.
If you want to clear the present image and start over, just hit the clear tab.
Step 5. Now take a look at the top of the screen.
If you like the random pattern created, just save it by going to File>save picture as. Choose the format you want to save your graphic in (you can choose either jpg or bmp), and choose the location where you want to save it.
If you want to save it as a project so you can continue working on it later, just go to File>save project.
The Tools tab gives you the option of using your texture as your screen wallpaper.
If you want to see some other sample tiles, just click on the Examples and take a looksee.
Step 6. Ok, back to the texture. I wanted to change my texture a bit. You can just play with the colors and patterns until you find something you like. Experimenting is part of the fun of this program!
Look at the sliders. The values are from 0 - 100. If you leave the slider on 50, it's the same as being in neutral, nothing will be displayed. If you move the pattern to the left, you'll get a dark color outline; moving it to the right will give you a lighter color outline.
For example, I chose the first pattern on the first pattern tab and moved the slider to the left.
  
And this is the same slider moved to the right.
  
Step 7. Here's my finished tile.
Easy eh? That's all there is to it. Just play with the settings and create something you like. Have fun!
Here are a few variations I've made. I made the tiles with the Brick Tile Maker and then took them into Paint Shop Pro to change the color (use the Adjust>Hue and Saturation>Hue/Saturation/Lightness function). Feel free to save these for your personal use. To preview the texture tiled, just click on it (Netscape users: this may not work for you, sorry). To save, just right click>save picture as, and save to your computer.
    
    

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