Using clone brush in a pattern layer

[Rhodomazer]

I'm using Photo 2.0.4, trying to make seamless tiles from photographs.  Watching the Pattern Layers tutorial, it looked like I would be able to use the clone brush to blend the upper margin of one iteration with the lower margin of the one above it, but the clone brush just stops painting at the boundary of the pattern-source box.  Is there a control somewhere that I'm missing?

Thanks.

[Old Bruce]

Sounds like Protect Alpha is ticked in the Paint Brush tool's Contextual Menubar. Change to the Paint Brush tool and untick it,

[Rhodomazer]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

Sounds like Protect Alpha is ticked in the Paint Brush tool's Contextual Menubar. Change to the Paint Brush tool and untick it,

Thanks for responding. 

I checked the Paint Brush>Project Alpha and it was already unticked. 

Just to check Paint Brush, I tried using it instead of the Clone Brush and got the expected results the tutorial showed for using the Paint Brush. 

A small clip showing the Paint Brush test: 

Just to play around and see if I could trick Clone into working, I tried sourcing the clone from lower/non-pattern layers but output in the pattern layer was still truncated by the current frame of the pattern.  I also tried grabbing the content within the pattern frame and moving it across the border, hoping it would allow me to edit the image borders within the confines of a single frame, but placing it across a border just make everything outside of the border cease to exist.

Edited March 4, 2023 by Rhodomazer

[Old Bruce]

Try these settings, Current layer and Below and untick the Aligned setting. The Aligned off will start each new brush stroke from the original location that you Option + Clicked to get the source.

[Rhodomazer]

I did those but it didn't change the results.  Cloning still ceases at the border of the current pattern frame.  

(Mostly unrelated: As an aggrevation that may be either a minor bug or else oversight on my side, when I tried to see what changing global source might do and then reverting to original state - now whenever I do things with clone (place a new anchor or click Clone after having used another tool for a while), it pops up the "Sources" box and I have to keep closing it.) 

[h_d]

Can't remember where I learned this technique but I most definitely didn't invent it...

Start with a suitable image - it must be square.

Go to Filters - Distort and choose Affine. Set both Offset X and Offset Y to 50%. Extend Mode  must be  Wrap:

 

 

Click Apply. You'll now have an image with a noticeable division into quarters (as above).

Use the Clone Brush to clone over the quartering boundaries, sampling from areas away from the boundaries themselves. As you do so, the visible boundaries will disappear.

Now go to Filters - Distort and choose Affine once more. With Extend Mode  still set to Wrap, set both Offset X and Offset Y to -50%.

 

 

Click Apply. You now have an image which can be used as a seamless tile in a pattern layer.

(Mine doesn't look ideal because there's a lot of tonal and textural variation in the original. You'll be more successful with grass.)

I must have picked up this technique either from an Affinity tutorial or a previous post on these forums. No credit to me except for remembering what to do.

 

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by h_d
Added info about Extend Mode.

[Rhodomazer]

*Laugh*  I just finished doing exactly that. 😄  In trying to search the archives, I saw mention of someone trying to use affine to make seamless images and it looked like what I had been doing with GIMP so I tried it out and it was a definite improvement.

Affine was a bit finnicky at first - I had to restart my program (the Wrap extend mode wasn't working) and it tried affining the original image and not what I thought I had cropped it down to, but by making a fresh save I got it to work just as you described.  Thanks.

[h_d]

50 minutes ago, Rhodomazer said:

it tried affining the original image

After you've cropped, rasterise. That should avoid a fresh save.