tutorials

Seamless Textures with Photoshop

This tutorial shows you how to create a basic seamless texture from a photo using Photoshop. It assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Photoshop.

Please note: You need Photoshop 7.0 or greater to use the healing brush tool.

Textures from Photos

You can take your own photos to use as textures or download some from free websites:

What to look for

Source photos should be evenly lit - Since lighting is applied in a level editor or 3d modelling program (in most cases), there is no need for existing shadows on textures. Unwanted shadows are very difficult to get rid of. The best time to take texture photos is on an overcast but bright day, where the sun will cast as little shadows as possible.
Avoid images with specular - Shiny materials such as metal and glass will look strange with existing reflections that don't move. Most 3d applications now support shaders, so reflective effects are added later.
Look for repeating patterns - If you're taking photos of bricks or tiles, get enough of the pattern needed to make it repeat. Look for where the pattern could possibly start / end.
Use a high resolution - The bigger the image, the higher the detail and the more there is available to use. Choose a resolution which is much bigger than the intended size of the final texture.
Avoid photos taken at an angle - Take photos as "square-on" as possible to the surface. Avoid any perspective in the image, this makes it a lot easier when you turn it into a repeating texture.

Evenly lit

Surface with shadows

Bad perspective

Too shiny

How to make a seamless texture

1: Crop and resize

Choose an area of the photo to use as a repeating texture. You don't have to use the whole photo, pick an area which looks like it would repeat well. Crop the image to a rough square shape.
Resize the image (Image > Image Size) so it's a square. I resized this texture to 512x512.

2: Offset filter
Go to Filter > Other > Offset and offset the image by half of its original size. For example if the image is 512x512, offset it by 256 horizontal and vertical.

3: Remove edges

The healing brush tool can be used to remove unwanted edges by painting and blending over an area using an existing part of the image. Alt + Click defines a source, and left-click paints it on another area. Don't paint over the edges of the image, or the original image won't be seamless any more.

Use the offset tool again if there are still any visible edges at the top, bottom, left or right of the texture.

4: Copy and paste over edges (Optional)
It's often easier to copy and paste existing areas over the seams, especially when geometric patterns are involved. Here's the quickest way:

Select an area with the Magic Wand Tool
Click Layer > New > Layer via Copy
Drag the new layer over the seam with the Move Tool

Source photo from Mayang's Textures

5: Remove obvious repetition (Optional)
Some textures have very visible repetition when applied to a surface, which looks unnatural. I removed the dark patches and one of the flowers here:

Before

After

Combining Materials

The healing brush tool can also change the appearance of surfaces. The concrete brick texture on the left was made to look like stone by using the rock photo in the middle. Alt + Click on the source image and paint on the texture you want to change.

Original concrete texture

Rock texture

Combined version