22 August 2008

[tutorials, teh_funnay] You Suck At Photoshop #15: Donnie's On The Run with Define Pattern

1722.


Donnie's got his bolt-hole ... and a few minutes to teach us about filling a space with defined patterns:






Of course, his way of hiding out is quite easy for Sn4chbuckler to figure out. It should be remembered, however, that the only thing Donnie excels at is Photoshop ... in everything else, he's a shambolic mess.


What Define Patttern does is allow you to select a bit of some pattern, whatever it is, and create a pattern swatch out of it. This pattern can then be used as fill in other selections or in objects or whatever.


Actually, the demonstration of Define Pattern is a good one, but there's more at work here. What you got here was a basic lesson in tessellation. Tessellation is simply the covering of a surface in tiles such that there are no gaps or breaks. At its heart it's not really even complicated ... if you take 25 Scrabble tiles and lay them out in a 5x5 grid, you've got a tesselation right there.


The magic happens when you use the tiles to carry a patter. M.C. Escher was the Zen master of tessellations, of course. When Donnie is berating you into selecting a certain part of the soundproofing pattern such that repeating it will create a seamless look, he's trying to make you think of dividing out a pattern chunk so when it's tessellated, it'll repeat with no obvious breaks.


Your not only thinking inside the box, you're also thinking outside the box ... and along the boundaries of the box, how that box will intersect with the other boxes, and how those other boxes will continue the pattern.


The folks at Big Fat Brain are brilliant this way. I wonder if they knew they were teaching a highly advanced art concept?


Well, just watch Donnie. Hope for the best. I don't like the look of that fellow peering in through the window ...


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