Tutorials:Create Seamless Texture

From OptiTexHelpEn

This procedure describes a general method for scanning and editing image textures using any image editing software.

Scanning

Import/Scan the image into your favorite image editing software.
A scan of 200dpi resolution should be more than enough (Please make sure the final resultant image you save doesn’t go over 72dpi).
The scanned fabric should be as smooth as possible with no wrinkles. If needed, iron the fabric before scanning it
Scan a large area of the fabric to insure a large area to select from.

In order to get a seamless texture/pattern some image editing is needed:

Using the selection tool, select the area you wish to use as your texture.
Scanned images are usually very large and need some scaling down. Resize the image to a normal working size; 1 to 1 real scale. (See Image # 1). Note: Due to 3D hardware limitations, texture files should not be too large. The maximum recommended texture size is 1024x1024.

1. Initial scanned texture image.
In order to ‘clean’ the borders so they fit well together we need to use the ‘Offset’ tool. In Adobe Photoshop, Select Filters/Other/Offset. Set horizontal offset to half the image’s width and vertical offset to half the image’s height. Lets say your image size is 200x200, you need to set both horizontal and vertical offsets to 100. As you can see in Images 2 and 3, the borders of the image are now in the middle of the image allowing you to smooth them out.

2. Image offset is half the image size.

3. Image borders close-up.
Using the Rubber-Stamp tool, copy portions of the texture to the areas where it appears ragged (See Image # 4).

4. Seamless borders using the rubber-stamp tool.
When you’re satisfied with the result, save the texture image as a JPEG format. Note that you can compress the image file for smaller sizes. However, quality lose may occur when compressing. Try to experiment with various compression values and check the results.