Need help with filling a shape with a pattern

[chriscaldwell]

Hello everyone,

I have a client project that I'm working on and need to figure out how to fill a shape with a pattern that was created years ago whilst creating a logo in Photoshop. 

Attached is an image with the logo. It is filled with a sort of grey with black specs in the outermost area. This is the section that reads "Advisors LLC"

Anyway, the client wants me to fill a shape that I created, in this case the arrow (above the logo), with this grey with black specs pattern.

I am stumped on where to begin!? I thought perhaps cutting a sample of the area with the marquee tool and saving as a pattern?

Any help would be great appreciated.

Thank you.

[firstdefence]

Drag the texture into the document and make the texture image a child of that shape.

[chriscaldwell]

I wish I understood better. I put a little marquee around a portion of the texture from the logo image. Then I went to edit>copy. I then tried to use the move tool to drag over the arrow image. Nothing happened. Thank you.

[dutchshader]

You can use the gradient fill tool for this, in the options select image, repeat

[chriscaldwell]

Thank you. I'm clicking on gradient tool, and from the available options in the context tool bar I've selected Bitmap from type. But it opens up a file browser window. Can you please tell where the this option to select image and repeat is? Thank you so much. 

[dutchshader]

It is in the context toolbar, where i said repeat it should be wrap

[firstdefence]

1 hour ago, chriscaldwell said:

Thank you. I'm clicking on gradient tool, and from the available options in the context tool bar I've selected Bitmap from type. But it opens up a file browser window. Can you please tell where the this option to select image and repeat is? Thank you so much. 

You have to export the small texture object as a PNG/JPEG file and then you can select it from that browser window, think of it as loading a texture, the Extend: option is where you can change how that texture behaves. The problem however, is that small texture swatch isn't going to be seamless, i.e it won't match at the edges so you will end up with a grid effect with that texture.

[chriscaldwell]

I appreciate the help. But I do not see "Wrap" anywhere in the context tool bar. And when I tried the export/jpeg/png and then selected the texture from the file browser it literally made the entire arrow vanish and be replaced by a gigantic swatch of texture. So, I'm getting closer to solving this great mystery 2 days after it was due to the client. lol

[walt.farrell]

Your Context Toolbar looks a little odd to me. On Windows, after you've chosen the bitmap fill file from the file selection dialog the Context Toolbar looks like this:

Where I've added the red highlight you have a "reverse gradient" icon that isn't present on Windows when using a Bitmap fill. And you're missing the Extend and Quality options.

[firstdefence]

Seems to be a missing option in the Mac version. Actually it does appear I wonder if this is related to the size of the file because I have loaded a PNG before and it didn't show the extend and quality options.

[firstdefence]

Made a short video, also added the texture PNG I created to see if your extend and quality options appear using the file.

 

Texture file:
 

[chriscaldwell]

Firstdefence, this is utterly brilliant. I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to create another tutorial for me. Im just grateful.

Did you create that texture .png from a sample from the logo, or from scratch? 

(I hope Affinity rewards you in some way, because you just got them another customer. THANK YOU.)

And also thank you to Walt, Dutchshader, and ErrkaPetti for jumping in and offering suggestions, too.

 

 

Edited October 27, 2019 by chriscaldwell
Forgot to ask about .png

[firstdefence]

4 hours ago, chriscaldwell said:

Did you create that texture .png from a sample from the logo, or from scratch? 

I did it from scratch, I used Affinity Photo and the legendary Filter Forge 8 plugin, I created the texture using the Electricity Filter, saved it as a preset then from Affinity Photo muted it down a little to try and match the tonal shades of the texture, I also exported it as seamless. 

Thanks for the kind words Chris. 

[lacerto]

The problem I had with this feature was that I tried to apply it to a pixel layer. You can use a bitmap to fill a pixel layer, but the extend options will not be shown in this case:

 

But as soon as you fill a vector object, there are no problems:

Is this limitation by design, or have I made some mistake in using the pixel layer?

 

[firstdefence]

Excellent observation @Lagarto

[Alfred]

16 hours ago, dutchshader said:

It is in the context toolbar, where i said repeat it should be wrap

I mentioned in another thread some time ago that I think ‘Repeat’ and ‘Wrap’ are the wrong way around. ‘Repeat’ shouldn’t just repeat the edges, it should repeat the entire pattern; ‘Wrap’ should stretch only the edge pixels to fill the remaining area.

[chriscaldwell]

This is such helpful info. I have learned so much new stuff from this. From EPS files, to transparency, to filling with a pattern, to sampling color. , It makes my day (actually night here in Phoenix, AZ).

Regarding the Filter Forge plugin, I'm at their website and notice there are several variations of this filter with several prices. It also says "Last Day to Save 80%."

Wondering if it's always my "last day to save" on this plugin? Also, may I ask which version of the plugin do you mostly use, firstdefence? Prices are from 29 USD up to 308 USD. I'm just a one person team here.

__________________

On another note, this Open House sign seems so bland. I think it would look better on a vertical board, but the client needs to use a horizontal. So basically, a circle and an arrow. So boring. I'm not sure what I can do to jazz it up anymore, since these are such simple elements. It's gotta be a white background and a horizontal layout on an 18 inch X 24 inch board.

This is all I've come up with at this point (attached). Any keen or clever designers out there who may have some suggestions within the limitations are most welcome.

Thanks so much!

Chris

Ps. Lagarto, I'm betting firstdefence will know the answer to your question, I wish I knew so I could offer something to this forum.

CRA_sign_2.afphoto

CRA_sign_1.afphoto

Edited October 27, 2019 by chriscaldwell
typo

[firstdefence]

@chriscaldwell I bought the pro version.

On the website here (UK) the 80% offer has gone.

[firstdefence]

Re the logo, I would have to say a complete redesign would be a much better option. Apology for the criticisms but the logo looks very old fashioned circa 1990's, very of it's day  it's also quite dark and muted which is ironic considering the realtors location. I'm guessing the colours are because of the desert area? (I'm on the website)  I'm not sure what the arrow is supposed to represent and seems to complicate the logo. The raised text in the logo is a bit cheesy. Try to keep to known fonts, using obscure fonts can complicate matters if other people need to edit and may not have those fonts on their system. The cleaner the better for legibility reasons, you want people to see the name and be able to read it.

I think this logo needs some sunshine, maybe utilise a famous landmark to tie into the community. Lets drags CRA LLC into the 21st century and see what we can do eh! 

 

[chriscaldwell]

The pro version is 79 dollars right now with the 80% discount. Sounds like a good deal, almost too good to be true since it says normally 399 USD. I'll pull the trigger, would rather pay 79 now. 

I agree with your assessments of the logo. Unfortunately, it's what the client has given me and asked me to make these Open House signs. They are essentially just Real Estate signs that point to which house on the street is open for inspection by potential buyers. That's why the arrow is needed.

I am hoping to be able to convince the client to allow me to re-design it, but for right now, it's what he's provided.

____

Just found this during a Google search re: Filter Forge. It's from 2016. Hope it helps someone:

LOL: So I found out that you only need to change the browser or the computer (or delete all cookies) in order to get your own 80 percent off “for two days” again. Actually on the second day they reduce it to 75 percent off - which I don’t like at all. Not sure I want to buy software from a company that gives “special offers” like these…

 

Edited October 27, 2019 by chriscaldwell
additional info added.

[firstdefence]

3 hours ago, chriscaldwell said:

The pro version is 79 dollars right now with the 80% discount. Sounds like a good deal, almost too good to be true since it says normally 399 USD. I'll pull the trigger, would rather pay 79 now. 

I agree with your assessments of the logo. Unfortunately, it's what the client has given me and asked me to make these Open House signs. They are essentially just Real Estate signs that point to which house on the street is open for inspection by potential buyers. That's why the arrow is needed.

I am hoping to be able to convince the client to allow me to re-design it, but for right now, it's what he's provided.

____

Just found this during a Google search re: Filter Forge. It's from 2016. Hope it helps someone:

LOL: So I found out that you only need to change the browser or the computer (or delete all cookies) in order to get your own 80 percent off “for two days” again. Actually on the second day they reduce it to 75 percent off - which I don’t like at all. Not sure I want to buy software from a company that gives “special offers” like these…

 

Got ya, the arrow now make sense, I'm sure we can tweak it a bit, maybe make the arrow sharp instead of rounded corners, maybe a fish tail on the end, make the text stand out more in front of the texture etc.

Nice tip re the different browser, it works too lol!

[Sara72]

3 hours ago, chriscaldwell said:

The pro version is 79 dollars right now with the 80% discount. Sounds like a good deal, almost too good to be true since it says normally 399 USD. I'll pull the trigger, would rather pay 79 now. 

Im getting the same offer too, (im in the uk) with free upgrade to version 9, also get lots of email offers, its always on sale lols , i have an old version 4 pro and it works just as good, so i think they are just desperate to get people to update.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Lagarto said:

The problem I had with this feature was that I tried to apply it to a pixel layer.

Adding any kind of gradient fill to a pixel layer is a destructive process: similar to painting on the layer with a brush, it replaces whatever pixels might have been there to begin with & other than via undo or the History panel you can't recover any original pixels one the gradient 'paint' has 'dried,' if that makes any sense. All you can do is add a new gradient fill, which replaces whatever pixels might have been there.

For the bitmap fill type on a pixel layer, for some reason there are no "Extend" options offered & it always uses the (as @Alfred said poorly named) "Repeat" one. So not only is it destructive, if the bitmap fill is not initially sized larger than the canvas, the streaky looking repeated pixels around the edges are baked into the pixel layer. 

To get rid of the streaks, a mask or clipping an appropriately sized shape to it could be used, & then the result could be duplicated & manually placed to create a repeating pattern of a sort, but it is a clumsy workaround at best.

BTW, at least on my Mac, for a pixel layer changing the gradient from fill to stroke consistently crashes Affinity Photo as soon as I select a file to use as the stroke fill. It has done this for earlier versions than 1.7.x as well so I think it is a long standing bug.

[firstdefence]

4 minutes ago, summersara said:

Im getting the same offer too, (im in the uk) with free upgrade to version 9, also get lots of email offers, its always on sale lols , i have an old version 4 pro and it works just as good, so i think they are just desperate to get people to update.

I have the version 9 beta installed and it works with Affinity Photo. 

 

[Sara72]

16 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

I have the version 9 beta installed and it works with Affinity Photo.

Thats good to know, might think about updating, its tempting :)