tantababy

Thanks John, I have used this method in APhoto for seamless textures and it works brilliantly for that. For pattern making I prefer ADesigner as I can keep the elements as vectors, but I love the ability in Affinity to be able to combine different features of the suite....

I would say feature as it's just showing you the outline of the canvas....or in photo I think it's the outline of the pattern tile.

Is this in Affinity Photo - as in using the pattern layer feature? The thin line in your photo does show in Affinity Designer when you are not 'clipped to canvas' and is basically just showing you where the edge of the canvas is but as you say when you export it as png or jpg it only exports the canvas so doesn't show anyway.

This method is how I am creating Seamless patterns in V2, hope it helps.

Excellent, pleased to have shared. I have found pattern design so much more fun this way. Still a bit of a pain to set up but once I had I made them as templates so hopefully only need to do that once and then just get on and draw.

Hi Trent, Nice video and yes that is a quick and easy way to make a seamless pattern. Problem I can see is that that method will only work for full drop patterns, if you want to do something else like diamond, scallops, ogee, half drop or brick it won't work. Using symbols as I described above also allows you to rotate, resize or flip your elements as the action will be done exactly the same way in the other symbols and there is no need to duplicate any elements. I tend to draw my own elements/assets and using the symbols method means it happens live around the whole design so I can alter, change and move anything as I go. I guess it all depends on what your end goal is as to which method you prefer.

I watched and researched numerous ways of pattern designs to try and make seamless patterns effortless and after watching some Skillshare classes where they used Illustrator to make patterns I noticed that when they were using the Pattern tool they had elements that were off the canvas it clicked that that was what we needed to do in Affinity. The key is using a canvas of the size you want your pattern to be but DO NOT use an artboard. Doing this means you can use the clip to canvas function which allows you to see your assets that aren't on the canvas, just like in Illustrator. It is so simple and was there in plain sight the whole time. I create a symbol just as you would when using the artboard and Live preview (or pattern tile as above) method but instead of adding the extra symbols to the live preview (on another artboard - the old way) I duplicate them around the edges of the canvas (this can be done to create full or half drop patterns in the same way as the old live preview way). I then just add assets or draw as you would to the original symbol, the beauty is they will appear in every symbol and won't be cut off like they are when clipped to artboards. Using the preview button at the top right to 'clip to canvas' shows you only the main pattern tile, any asset that goes over one symbol in to the next will be shown within the tile, click the preview button again and you will see all your symbols and how your pattern will look. Export the canvas as png/jpeg as you would normally for use in POD etc. I have created myself templates for full drops, half drops, scallops, ogee, brick, diamond patterns (both reflected and unreflected) in this manner. Best of all I never need to duplicate and transform assets. Affinity pattern.mp4