Create seamless textures in Photoshop.

Seamless textures are images that can be used in 3D modelling software (e.g. 3DS Max) or in the creation of surface effects in image editing software such as Photoshop.

Let's say you are creating a vase like the one below. You create the model and add a material consisting of a diffuse texture map with 2x2 tiling. On some of the renderings of this modelling you will see the following:

The discontinuity in the texture of the vase are called seams. As the 2D texture image is stretched around the vase and repeated the left/right/top and bottom of the texture meet each other and because the texture is not seamless you see where, for example, the left side meets the right side of the same image. In this case with 2x2 tiling the effect is more pronounced and you see where the four images used to texture the vase meet forming a cross.

This tutorial shows you how to make seamless textures in Photoshop to get rid of this effect

Load the image and create an offset

• First load the image you want as a texture into PS and write down the width and height (by the way, textures usually work better if they have same width and height)
• From the pop-up window choose half the width as the horizontal offset and half the height as the vertical offset. In the example on the left the image is 256x256 pixels, so an offset of 128 horizontal and 128 vertical is chosen
• The image will be shifted by the required amounts revealing the seams (make sure Wrap Around is selected)

Get rid of the seams

• From the Toolbar on the left hand side choose the Clone Stamp tool
• Adjust the size of the brush (the circle) so that it covers the vertical seam and bit on either side by pressing the [ or ] keys
• Adjust the Opacity to around 70%
• Position the mouse just to the left of the vertical seam but make sure the seam is not included in the circle.
• Press the Alt key to sample this region
• Now drag the mouse vertically along the vertical seam - it should be replaced with the sample region.
• Do the same to get rid of the horizontal seam.

Get rid of repeating patterns

• This is the result of getting rid of the seams
• However, see the circular mark on the bottom right of the image? This will repeat if your texture is tiled and won't look realistic so lets get rid of this too.
• If you have CS5 use the Patch Tool by pressing 'J' and select this region first and then drag it to another part of the image to replace it.
• If you don't have CS5 use the Clone Stamp we used above. Select a different region of the image. Press Alt to sample and then draw over the mark to replace it.

Before and After