Quick And Dirty Tutorial - Random Star Technique to Hide Seams
In another thread http://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2530533/#Comment_2530533 I mentioned that I use a different technique to remove seams from textures. This technique uses random star patterns cut out from the texture and moved over the seams to hide them.
The eye can spot strong horizontal and vertical lines. So, if you cut out square patterns you will easily see the edges.
This quick and dirty tutorial is meant to demonstrate the technique and is certainly not meant to be final and polished.
I learned this technique from a photo retouching book almost 20 years ago. Unfortunately, I forget the author's name.
First, we need a texture.
Let's pick a 2048 x 2048 area and do an offset.
The key to this technique is the shapes. Using the polygon lasso tool, create a random star shape WITH NO STRONG HORIZONTALS AND VERTICALS. Right-click on the image below, select view image, and look at the random star shape in the top left quadrant. Make something like that.
Here's a closeup of the polygon lasso shapes you want to make.
Now we copy that shape, paste it over part of the seams. In the image below, I've pasted the star on the seams. See how long it takes you to find it.
Now, repeat and start moving random star shapes over the seams.
At this point, you can still see some edges on the star shapes. Now, start making small random star shapes and cover up anything that sticks out. I'm going to stop here
With practice, you can very quickly cover up seams using this technique and avoid using any blurring along those seams.
The eye can spot strong horizontal and vertical lines. So, if you cut out square patterns you will easily see the edges.
This quick and dirty tutorial is meant to demonstrate the technique and is certainly not meant to be final and polished.
I learned this technique from a photo retouching book almost 20 years ago. Unfortunately, I forget the author's name.
First, we need a texture.
Let's pick a 2048 x 2048 area and do an offset.
The key to this technique is the shapes. Using the polygon lasso tool, create a random star shape WITH NO STRONG HORIZONTALS AND VERTICALS. Right-click on the image below, select view image, and look at the random star shape in the top left quadrant. Make something like that.
Here's a closeup of the polygon lasso shapes you want to make.
Now we copy that shape, paste it over part of the seams. In the image below, I've pasted the star on the seams. See how long it takes you to find it.
Now, repeat and start moving random star shapes over the seams.
At this point, you can still see some edges on the star shapes. Now, start making small random star shapes and cover up anything that sticks out. I'm going to stop here
With practice, you can very quickly cover up seams using this technique and avoid using any blurring along those seams.
Replies
I totally wish I would have known about this back when I was still doing pixel art heavily! This would have saved me a LOT of grief! I'm not sure how much a diagonal line I could make at lower resolutions, but at moderate-res, which was the majority of work I did, this would have been the best. Thanks again for sharing this man!
Have you ever tried this technique with a starshaped brush and the Clone Tool? Seems to me that would speed it up quite a bit.