Creating Organic Abstract Patterns in Adobe Photoshop

1. Introduction & Overview + Contest Details: Organic abstract patterns are mesmerizing, trendy, and extremely versatile in their application. While they might seem to be very time consuming to create, they don't have to be. I'm Jenya from ITT Creative and in this class, I will show you a quick and easy process for generating organic abstract patterns using Smart Filters in Adobe Photoshop. This technique will allow you to create as many different organic patterns as you want. Each of them being unique and random, and all of this without needed to draw hundreds of elements. In this class, I will also show how to adjust and customize your organic patterns, walk you through the process of adjusting your patterns to make them seamlessly repeatable, show how to define manage and use patterns presets, so that you can use your patterns to cover a any surface, share with you how you can optimize your Photoshop workflow by taking full advantage of Smart Objects, Smart Filters, and the color and pattern fill layers, show how to save your pattern for print and web, and share a few ideas about how you can take your organic patterns a step further. By the end of the class, you'll have your own organic abstracts patterns, which you can then use to create your own range of print on demand projects, incorporate into branding or packaging projects, use in Illustrations and digital collages, or any other way you can think of. This class is for anyone who wants to add a new image making in pattern design technique for their creative arsenal and learn a few new Photoshop tricks along the way. To celebrate the new year [inaudible] ahead for the first three weeks of this class, we'll be running a special contest. One lucky winner will get a one year Skillshare Premium Membership. So, be sure to post your project in this class before Thursday 25th of January 2018 for a chance to enjoy a whole year of free learning. I cannot wait to share with you this Photoshop technique and see what you create with it. So, jump right in. Let's make some awesome organic patterns. 2. Document Setup: Let's begin with setting up a new document in Photoshop. As straightforward as it may seem, there are a few very important points here. So, make sure you follow along and set your document up correctly. When you choose the size for future document, make sure that it is square and a multiple of 128. With the techniques which we're going to be using in this class, setting the document's dimensions to multiples of 128 will make your life easier when creating repeatable seamless patterns, and you'll see why later on. I'm going to set the size of my new document to 3,200 by 3,200 pixels, which is 25 times 128. Three thousand two hundred pixels is a good starting point if you want to create a repeatable pattern with a nice variation of shapes and because there is room for scaling your pattern down if necessary. Even when no tiled, the pattern will be big enough to display online and it will turn out to be about 27 by 27 centimeters unprinted. In this class, we're going to be using a combination of Photoshop filters to degenerate organic shapes. Technically, the effects which you are going to be using can be applied in any document size. But the larger the size, the longer it will take to render the effects. If you want, you can go for a larger size. But in this case, you will need to be prepared to wait for quite a bit of time for the effect to render. But if you're patient and if your computer is powerful, then this shouldn't be a problem. If your computer is not that powerful and you don't want to create something this big, you can reduce the height and width of your document. For example, to 2,560 by 2,560 pixels. But, in any case, whether you use bigger or smaller size of the canvass, use multiples of 128. Then, make sure you set the resolution to 300 dpi, so that you can easily use your files for print and keep them looking sharp when you display your work online, even in fullscreen or any other large size. Because the effects, which you're going to be using to generate the patterns can only be applied to eight bit RGB documents, make sure that you set the color mode to RGB, and the bit depth to eight bit. If you're creating work for print, still start your project in the RGB. If your intended output is CMYK, you will be able to convert your document into it later after all effects are applied. In the background options here, select Transparent so that you won't need to delete any layers when you create a document and can jump right in. Now, let's quickly give this document a name, and when it is done, click "Create" to make a new document. The first thing to do after creating a new document is to quickly save it, so you know where to find it. Here, set format to PST and click "Save". Now, we can begin working on our pattern. 3. Generating Organic Shapes: As a demonstration for this class, I'm going to be creating a layered pattern similar to the one used on the class cover. The first step in creating it is putting together all of the effects to generate the organic shapes which form the basis for this kind of patterns. So, let's begin. The first thing we need to do is go to the Layers panel, select the empty layer and rename it to something like Pattern 1, so that we know this is the bottom layer of our pattern. Then we need to right click on this layer on the layers panel and in the menu which will appear, select Convert to Smart Object. Converting this layer to smart object will enable us to place smart filters to it which can be easily be rendered and adjusted to create layered pattern shapes. So, this step is very important. After you have converted this layer into a smart object, go to the Tools panel and make sure that the foreground color is set to black and the background color is set to white. If you have not modified your shortcuts, you can press D on your keyboard and Photoshop will reset the foreground and background colors to black and white respectively. Then having the smart object layer selected, go to the menu Filter, Render and select Clouds. These clouds are going to be the basis of the shapes in our future pattern. Now, we need to add a few effects on top of these clouds to make them into solid smooth shapes. So, while still having this layer selected, go to the Filter menu again and select Filter Gallery. In the filter gallery window, we will need to have three effects. So, let's add to a new effect layers here by clicking on this button and then set the bottom one to grain located in the Texture section and set the other two to stamp located in the Sketch section. At the moment, this doesn't look right. So, we need to set this effects up. Let's hide the top stamp effect for now and the goal to the grain effect. Here, set the grain type to stippled, intensity to 50, and contrast to 80. I will explain how these settings often they look in a moment, but before that, let's set up the stamp effect which is right above the grain effect here to see a more finished pattern. So now in the stamp's settings, set the light dark balance to 25 and smoothness to about 30 to begin with. Now this looks better. The stamp effect creates this sort of solid stamped shapes and determines how the edges of this pattern look. In combination with the stippled green, you can set light dark balance to 25 and forget about it as change in this case won't make any difference. On the other hand, changing the smoothness settings will change the appearance of the edges. The higher the smoothness value, the smoother the shapes are and if you want to have jagged edges in your pattern instead, set smoothness to around 20 or below. I like the look which is created with smoothness value around 45. So, that's what I will use. Now, let's go back to the grain effect and see how we can use its settings to adjust the pattern. With higher intensity values here, there is more black in the pattern and with the lower values, there is more white. On the other hand, the higher the contrast value, the larger the white areas are and vice versa. During the next step, the black areas in this pattern will become transparent. So, think about the white areas as are those which will contain the final color and form the pattern. Use the contrast settings to find cue in the size of the pattern elements for any set intensity value and use the combination of these two settings to control the overall coverage created by the shapes in this pattern. As for the grain type, keep it set to stippled because it allows to create more interest in organic shapes. I will go back to the settings I used initially, so it is intensity set to 50 and contrast set to 80. With different combinations of grain settings and the highest smoothness values in the stamp effect, you might start getting some blurry shapes and edges in your pattern and this is not really desired. So, this is when the second stamp effect comes into play. So, turn its visibility on and then set the light dark balanced to 25 and set smoothness to about 15. This will make this blurry edges become solid shapes instead. You can also reduce the smoothness value even further, but I wouldn't recommend going below 10 because then the edges will become a bit too rough which is also not ideal. I will keep smoothness set to 15 and if I notice any funny edges in my pattern later on after re-rendering and coloring it, I can go back here and turn smoothness of the second stamp effect down until all of the edges look right. Now everything is ready, so let's click OK here to apply these effects. After these effects are applied, you will be able to see them on the Layers panel, edit as the Filter Gallery effect to the effect stack with the smart object layer here above the Clouds. To change the settings of these effects, simply double click on their name here to open the filter gallery window. Now, if you double click on the Clouds filter, they will be re-rendered and the spots in the pattern will change. So, you can keep on re-rendering to clouds until you get the pattern you like and you can always go back to them at any stage of the process and re-render them when necessary. So, what we have just covered here is the basis for generating random organic shapes in Photoshop and that's how easy it is. Next, we need to work on color in this pattern and adding transparency to it to be able to use multiple pattern layers. 4. Creating Transparency & Colouring the Pattern: To be able to layer this pattern on top of any background and to create more patterns on top of it, we will need to add some transparency to it. In this pattern here, we are going to make all the black areas into gaps. But before we do this, let's quickly add a layer which will act as a background to our pattern shapes. So, go to the layers panel, click on the Add a new fill or Adjustment layer button on the bottom of this panel and add in your solid color fill layer. In the Color Picker Window which will open, set the color to any color you want to use as the background underneath the pattern. If you have some color swatches which you want to try out, you can pick them like this. I'm going to go for this purple color here, but you can use any color you want. When ready, click OK to create in your solid color layer. When it's added, drag it bellow this marked object layer here. Now, let's make these black shapes in the pattern transparent so that we can see this color for the gaps. Right click on this Marked object layer on the Layers Panel and from this menu select Blending Options. In the Layer Style window which will open, make sure that the preview is shaped here so that you can see the changes as you make them. Now, in the main Blending Options section, go to the Blend if settings and make sure that it is set to Gray here. Then go to the black toggle on the top slider here and drag it to the right so it shows one here. You'll see that the black color in your pattern has disappeared. Now, hold on the Alt key and drag the right one out of these indicators further to the right. This will split the toggle in two. The further you drag this part, the smoother the edges will become. You might not see this tool here at the moment, but when you color the shapes, splitting these indicators will allow to avoid pixelated edges in your pattern and make them look smoother. I'm going to set this indicator here to 180 and give this one set to one. If you want, you can play around with these settings but I suggest you stick to the same tried and tested values to save yourself some time. Now, let's apply these settings by clicking OK here. So now, we can see the background color here through the gaps in the pattern. Next, we need to color this pattern to be able to create the look we are after. To do this, we need to make sure that this layer with the Blend if settings is in a group on its own. So, select the Smart Object layer on the Layers Panel and press Command G, or Control G in Windows to put it in a group. Make sure that the solid color fill layer in the background is outside this group and below it. Now, let's quickly rename this group to make it easier to navigate through the document later. I'm going to give it the same name as the smart object inside. To color these pattern shapes, we are going to use another solid color fill layer. So, let's click on the Create new fill or Adjustment layer button and select solid color from the list. In the Color Picker Window which will pop up, set the color to any color you want. Working with my theme, I'm going to go for this orange color here. When you have added in your solid color fill layer, make sure that it is above and outside the group with the pattern, and drag it there if it isn't. Now, in order to use it for coloring the shapes in the group below, we need to cleave the solid color layer to this group so this color would only fill the visible areas in our pattern. To do this, hold on the Alt key, move your mouse between this layer and the group below and click between them where this arrow icon appears. Now, this color only fills our pattern shapes. So, this is our first organic pattern done, and you can totally use it as it is. But the fun starts when you add more layers to your pattern and this is what we're going to do next. 5. Adding More Pattern Layers: Organic patterns look even more exciting when they are multi-colored and layered. Layering your patterns can also add a camouflage feel to them especially when the color palette is right. In my patterns, I like using four colors. One of which is the background color and the other three I use to color at least three separate pattern layers. But you can use less or more pattern layers and colors if you want. Just bear in mind that with more pattern layers, you will be able to create more random, intricate, and playful patterns. Since you don't need to draw anything, all it takes is just copying in the smart object with the pattern, adjust in the settings and re-rendering the clouds to create a different pattern for a new layer. So, let's quickly add more pattern layers to our document. On the layers panel, select the group with the pattern and the color fill layer which is clipped to it and duplicate them by dragging them above themselves while holding down the Alt key. Now, we've got two versions of the same pattern. Let's rename the second group and then that will click on this cloud to re-render them and generate a different pattern. Now, we need to change this color. Double click on the top color fill layer here, and set the color to another color you want to use. I'm going to use this dark bluish color which will contrast nicely with the other colors I've got here so far. Okay. This is starting to look more interesting. After changing the color of the second pattern, you will be able to clearly see it. At this point, you might want to re-render the cloud until you get these two pattern layers working nicely together. You can stop here with just two pattern layers. We'll repeat the process as many times as you want depending on how complex you want your pattern to be. I'm going to quickly add the third pattern layer and set it to a different color. But, instead of covering all these layers below, I want this pattern to be made out of smaller spots. So, I need to adjust the effect which create the shapes in this pattern. This and with all other adjustment is what we're going to look at next. 6. Adjusting Pattern Coverage & Shapes: Because of how this shapes is generated, there is a lot of room for experimentation, and you can create a lot of different patterns very quickly by rerendering the clouds and adjusting the settings with the filter gallery effects. So, let's start where we left off in the previous part and adjust the effects while they stop pattern layer to create smaller spots of color here instead of these large shapes. So, double click on the filter gallery effects name here on the layers panel, and let's have a look how we can do this. When the filter gallery window opens, you will just see this one layer still in black and white. Remember that we illuminate black in the bottom, and the white areas are the areas which contain the color in our main document. So, to have smaller elements in this pattern, I need to have less white here, and this is going to be my main objective when adjusting the effects settings. As I mentioned before, the combination of the intensity and contrast settings with the grain filter, the last control, the amount of white and black in the pattern. So, play around with the settings until you get them out of white in the image that you like. I'm going to set intensity about 60 and set contrast to 35. So now, there's considerably less white areas in the pattern. As for the stamp effects, I'm not going to change either of them because I'm happy with the smoothness of the edges in my pattern. But you can change the smoothness of the low stamp effect if you want to change the smoothness of shapes in your pattern. When ready, click okay to update the effects. Now, I've got these small bits on top of my other pattern elements which make it look a little bit more playful and random. Now, I will quickly rerender the clouds a few times to get a nicer spread of these spots. Something like this looks good. If you want to have more layers of smaller pattern elements, you can cope with this group and the color clipped to it as many times as you want, and change the color to any color you want to use. I usually like to put another layer with smaller pattern elements above all other layers, and it light one of the colors which I used to color lower layers in the pattern or the background. So in this case, I will use this one here. Now, I'm going to put color into the clouds, and go and further adjust the filter gallery effect. Here I'm going to reduce contrast even further to 20 to be able to have small spots. I want these shapes to be even smoother, so I will go to the lower stamp effect and increase the smoothness to 50, and this is done. So, this looks like fun. Apart from putting layers with small pattern elements, [inaudible] or other parts of layers, if you just want to have a bit more size variation within one color, you can pose a number of smart objects with different effects settings applied to them within one group. For example, like this. Regardless of whether you want to have larger or smaller elements in your pattern, experiment and fine tune the patterns to adjust their coverage and smoothness of the shapes to your liking. Don't forget to rerender the clouds if you want to change the patterns, because all the shapes in our pattern are based upon Photoshop filters, their maximum size is determined by the filter settings. So, you cannot drastically increase the scale of the spot and gaps in your pattern just by adjusting these effects, but there is another way of doing it. So, let's have a look at it. 7. Scaling Pattern Shapes: What I am going to show in this part is not essential for creating organic patterns in their basic form, but it is crucial. If you want to have full control over the scale of the elements in your patterns. This is one of the trickiest part of the whole process, so make sure that you follow it precisely. So, for example, I want to have larger elements in my pattern here, and I cannot get the scale I like with the different combinations or the Filter Gallery Effect settings. These shapes are based on the size of the clouds generated by Photoshop. So, the way to make these clouds larger is by scaling them. But because we have applied them as a smart filter in the main document, scaling the smart object there at the moment, won't result in change in their size. So instead, we need to generate clouds within this smart object. Firstly, let's hide all of the layers we don't want to touch, and go to the group which we want to contain and enlarge the pattern. Here, select the smart object layer, right click on it, and select "New Smart Object" via Copy. The copy of the Smart Object will be added above the original smart object. Creating an new smart object via copy this way, allows us to keep the smart object contents of these two objects different from each other. This is very important as we don't want to modify this original smart object because all other partners layers are also based on it. So hide the original smart object, and select the copy. You can rename it right away like this, so you know that it is a separate scaled version. Now, let's remove the clouds filter from the effects stack for the smart object. Then, double click on the smart object's layer thumbnail, and this will open the contents of the smart object as a separate document. Within the smart object, there should be one transparent layer. So, let's select it and convert it to a smart object. Then, make sure that the foreground and background colors are still set to black and white, and go to the Filter menu, render, and select clouds. This is the same process we have followed before and we can render the Clouds the same way to change the button. Now, to be able to scale these clouds in the main document, we need to change the image size of the smart object. So go to the menu, image size. Here, you will need to input the new size of the smart object document. This new size must be smaller than the size of the main document and is still used to be a multiple of 128 so that you can easily create a repeatable pattern. This might be a little bit of reverse logic, but it is the best way to scale the bottom up, and not to make the main document unnecessarily large or messy. So depending on how much you want to enlarge these clouds in the main document, decrease the image size here. So for example, I want to double their size, but because 3,200 is 25 times 128, I can either go for 12 times 128, which is 1,536 or with 13 times 128 which is 16 64. If I set the size to exactly 1,600 which is half or 3,200, this pattern won't be so easily repeatable. So here is a little compromise. I'm will go for 13 times on 128, which is 1,624 and apply changes. This is just an example, and you can experiment with other sizes of the document which are multiples of 128 but smaller than the main document. If you increase the size of the smart object, you will have smaller elements in your main document instead which is also good to keep in mind. So, after you have resized the smart object document, and re-render the clouds to your liking, you need to save it. So just press Command S or control S in Windows. After it has been saved, go back to your main file with the pattern. Here you can see your updated smart object. Now, it only covers a part of the canvas. So we need to resize it to color the whole canvas instead. So select the Smart Object layer, and press command T or control T in Windows to launch the free transfer mode. Then, go to the options bar and change the width and the height values here to the size of your main document. So for me, it is 3,200 pixels. After inputting the new values here, press enter to apply changes and exit the free transform mode. So here is a scaled up button. The edges of the shapes here are still as crisp as before because the filter gallery effects which create this graphical are applied on top of the contents of the smart object, so no pixelation occurs. If the scale of your enlarged button is not right, go back to the smart object contents and change the image size as required. Save the changes and again see the updated pattern in your main document. Remember that every time you change the image size of the smart object document, you will need to resize the smart object in the main document to the size of the canvas. Otherwise, it either won't cover the whole canvas or it won't be easily repeatable. This process is not asstreamlined as just dealing with the effects within the main document. But it allows to achieve the desired effect and still keep this pattern easily adjustable to become repeatable. So, keep this technique in mind and use it well, and if required by the project you're working on. If you need to scale more than one layer in your pattern, make sure to create new smart objects via copy, wherever really you want to modify using this technique. When you are happy with all the pattern layers, it's a good idea to go through all the groups and layers and rename them to keep the document tidy and the contents easily recognizable. Next, let's have a look at a couple of different ways all we can make through the menu adjustments to our patterns. 8. Manual Pattern Adjustments: Despite the fact that you can adjust the effects, scale, and re-render the Clouds, the more pattern there as you hit, the trickier some overlapping bits might become. But don't get hung up on them during the development stage, and only release of them when you're finished with the effects and have an almost final pattern in front of you ready to be used as it is or to be modified to become a reputable seamless pattern tile. So, when you are at this stage of the process, you can make some manual adjustments to your pattern elements. Because in my pattern, I have added little spots of the same color as yours below in some places there are some awkward overlaps. If you have something like this in your pattern, it's a good idea to fix these areas either by hiding one of the elements or by moving it in a slightly different place where it won't overlap with anything else with the same color. This is just one scenario where manual adjustments are required. You might have a different reason altogether, including just removing or moving elements for the sake of composition. But in any case, techniques are the same. Without rasterizing your smart objects, you can remove certain elements from the layers using a filter effects mask or a layer mask. When it is smart filters, fields or effects masks should be created by default, and you will see it like this on the layers panel. So, click on the mask for the smart object which contains the elements which you want to hide. When it is selected like this, you will be able to modify it. Then select the Lasso tool and draw a selection around the area you want to hide. Close the selection by going to the starting point, and when the selection is closed and active, make sure that you foreground color is still set to black and press Alt, backspace to fill the selection with the black color. Black color on the mask indicates the areas which are hidden. White is where the layer contents is still shown. So, if you want to bring the elements back in, you will need to create a selection and fill it in with white instead, by pressing Command Backspace or Control Backspace in windows. The principle of working with the filter effects masks is the same as with layer masks. So, if you need to learn how to work with layer masks in more detail, don't hesitate to check out my class, source and mix botanical illustrations photography to create trendy designs. Another thing you can do is move some parts of the pattern around if you're not totally happy with their placement. The following process is destructive. So, you won't be able to adjust the effects or under the cloud after you started. So, it's a good idea to save this document with all the layers, filters, and effects as a separate PSD master file so that you can revisit it in the future and create more variants of the organic patterns by changing colors, re-rendering the clouds, and adjusting the effects. After saving this document as a master, save it again under a different name but also as a PSD. So, when you're working in the new document, select the group which contains the elements you want to move around, and then press Command E or Control E in Windows to merge the contents of this group with all of the applied effects including, the blend-if effect which creates transparency. So now, this is just one layer without any effects applied to it. Now, hide all other pattern groups so that you can better see what you're working with. If you need to move some of the elements in relation to elements on another layer, you can turn down the opacity of either the layer which you're working with. If it is above the other layers, or if it is below, turn down the opacity of other pattern of groups and layers like this. Then select the layer which you need to work with, pick up the Lasso tool, and draw a selection around the element you want to move. Close the selection, switch to the Move tool, and move the element in a new desired location either by using the mouse or by merging it into place, using the arrow keys. If you want to create repeatable seamless pattern, which we're going to do next, make sure that you don't move any elements on the edges of your canvas. Otherwise, adjustments for Thailand won't be so simple. When ready, don't forget to reveal all other layers and choose the opacity of all the elements back to 100 percent. Then save this document as a PSD. So, this is a all-completed non-repeated pattern, and you can go ahead and use it as it is. Alternatively, if you want to have a large area covered by this pattern, you can quite easily create a repeatable pattern based on these shapes, and this is what we're going to look at next. 9. Re-arranging the Pattern to Make It Repeatable: More often than not, it is useful to have a repeatable seamless pattern which can be used to cover any size, especially if you are creating a surface pattern which needs to be tiled during printing, or if you are making a website background where tiling optimizes the loading time. In order to be able to seamlessly tile this pattern across large surfaces, we will need to make a few little alterations to make it seamless. The same as one of the manual adjustments techniques which we have looked at in the previous part, the process of making this pattern repeatable is also disruptive. So, you will not be able to adjust any effects or reenter the colors after you start rearranging the pattern. So, if you still want to make any adjustments, you have to do it now. Before you proceed with the following steps, make sure you save this document as a PSD and re-save it under a different file name, yet again. Use this new document to create your repeatable pattern. So for me, it is the third file already. To make the following process smoother, go to the View menu and make sure that Extras are ticked. Under the Show section, you have Guides and Canvas Guides checked so you can see them when they're added. Also, check the Smart Guides here, so you can see the alignment and the measurement hint which will make everything easier and more precise. Then make sure that in the same menu, Snap is on and in the Snap To section here, Guides are also checked. This is important because otherwise, you won't be able to properly use the guide which we're about to add. So, let's add the Guides which will help us to cut the pattern. Go to the View menu, select New Guide and add a Horizontal guide in the middle of your document. Because my document is 3,200 pixels in height, I need to add a guide at 1,600 pixels. If you're working on a different size canvas, divide it by two and make sure you add your guides in the middle. Click OK to add a guide and then repeat the process, but this time add a Vertical guide also in the middle of the document. When you're done adding both guides, go to the View menu and check Lock Guides here, so that you don't move them by mistake. The process of making this type of organic patterns repeatable is not very difficult, but it depends on how many different colors and layers you're using. So, let's begin with hiding all of the layers except for the bottom group contained in the smart object with our pattern and the background color underneath it. Now, select the group with the pattern and press Command E, or Control E in the Windows, to merge its contents. To make it easier to see what we're doing and just to make the shapes look a bit neater, select this layer and press Command U, or Control U in Windows to open Hue Saturation adjustments window and turn down the lightness to a minimum so all the shapes become black and click okay. So, now we can work with these shapes and at the moment, we don't need to have this solid color fill layer visible. It is a good idea to unclip it from this layer. Otherwise, everything we paste above this layer in the future will be clipped to it by default and it will mess up our workflow. The first step in making this bottom conform to our future repeatable tile, is to cut it into four parts along these guides. So, let's go to the Tools panel and select the Rectangular Marquee tool. Now, carefully select the top left quarter of the pattern and make sure the selection snaps to the side here and to the guides we have just added like this. Also, make sure that your selection is 1,600 by 1,600 pixels, or a quarter or the size of your document, if you're using a different size. Next, press Command X, or Control X in the Windows to cut this area, and then press Command Shift V, or Control Shift V in the Windows to paste it in place. So, this is our first fragment and it is in exactly the same position as it was before. Let's rename this layer to A, so that it is easier to work with when we start rearranging these fragments. Next, select the original layer with the remaining three quarters of the patter and select the top right quarter the same way. Cut and paste it in place and rename it to B. Then repeat the process for the bottom left quarter and rename it to C. And then rename the remaining bottom right quarter to D. Now, we have our four parts separately and we need to rearrange them so that these middle areas along the guides here become the size of our tile instead. So, select the Move To and make sure that Auto-Select is not checked in the Options bar here. Now, select layer A on the layers panel and move it on the canvas into position D. Make sure that it snaps to the corners and the guides, like this. Also the measurement hints, which show by how much you have more of this fragment should show ways which are exactly half of your canvas size for both axes. This is really important to keep an eye on, especially if some of the pattern fragments do not have elements touching the sides, which will most likely be the case when you start moving top bottom layers with smaller elements. So, keep this in mind, otherwise, your pattern won't tile perfectly. After moving the fragment A into the position of fragment D, select layer D and move it into position A. Again, making sure that it snaps in the right place. Then repeat the process by swapping around fragment B with fragment C. So, here we are. If you don't look very close, you might even think that this pattern is seamless already. And indeed, it almost is. Because we have used the document dimensions which are multiples of 128, the clouds pattern generated by Photoshop was created as a repeatable fragment. So, this was a little trick for making our life easier. But if you have used a different size which is not a multiple of 128 at any stage, then you won't see almost perfect seams and you will have much more work to do. Now, if you zoom in and look closely, you'll see that the seams are actually not spot on because of how filtering effects interpreted the edges. But it won't take a lot of effort to fix them and make them perfect. So, the next thing which we are going to do, is go along the guides an adjust the shapes at the seams. 10. Editing the Seams in a Repeatable Pattern: Because these seems just a little bit off, it won't take too much time or effort to get them looking right. Depending on what is going on in your pattern, you will have to edit the shapes to make them move either by adding to them or by removing their part or better removing certain bits altogether. To be able to work with this pattern and remove the seams, the first thing we need to do is merge all pattern fragments into one layer. So, let's select these four layers on the layers panel and press Command G or Ctrl G in Windows to group them together. Then copy this group by dragging it and hide the original. Rename it so you know what's inside this group and keep it hidden just in case you do to go back to that later and change some file or start this stage of reworking these seams from the very beginning if something goes wrong. Now, select the visible second group, then press Command E or Ctrl E in Windows to merge the layers within the group into one layer. Now, we can start editing. When it comes to editing these sort of shapes, I like using the Lasso tool creating selections and filling them in or deleting them. So, let's select it on the tools panel and make sure that the foreground color is set to black, and Feather is set to zero in the Options bar here. Also, go to the View menu and turn off Snap for now so that the shapes you draw won't snap to the guides. Then zoom in nice and close to the seam you want to start with and start drawing smooth lines to connect the shapes contours with each other, for example like this. Make sure that you close the selection by returning to the original starting point. If you release the mouse button too early, you'll have a straight line connecting the endpoint of tthis selection which might not be ideal. Now, with your selection active, press all black space to view your selection with black. Press Command D or Ctrl D in Windows to select this area and double check that the shape looks nice and smooth. If not, undo the last three steps by pressing Command Alt Z or Ctrl Alt Z in Windows three times, and repeat the process to get the shape just right, and then, move onto the next shape. Alternatively, you can cut parts of the shapes off to make them into one smooth shape. To do this, make the selection of the area you want to remove, close it, and then, instead of filling in the area with the black color, simply press backspace to delete it. Work along the guides and rectify all of the problematic seams. Make sure that you do not touch any of the edges around the outside of the pattern, otherwise, it won't be repeatable. Now, I will speed it all up and quickly finish all of the seams off so that you can see the process from start to finish, but without spending too long watching me doing stuff. So, here we are. When you think you have finished making new pattern seamless, that will chip all of the seams. At this point, you can also hide the guides by pressing the Command semi-colon or Ctrl semi-colon in the Windows, so that they don't obstruct the view. This looks good. Use the same shortcut to turn the guides back on and this is the first layer of how repeatable pattern done. Rename this pattern layer, so it is easier to reference it in the future when defining pattern presets. Now, we need to repeat the same process with the other layers in our original pattern. So, turn the snap back on so that you can use the guides properly. Hide this layer, and go onto the next group which you need to arrange. Make it visible, merge together. I'll give it a solid color, and go again for the same process of cutting it into four quarters, rearranging them, and working with the seams to make another repeatable pattern layer. So, this is another pattern layer done. Repeat the process as many times as required. If you're working with pattern fragments which do not have cut elements on at least two adjacent sides, snaking them into place will be problematic. So, in this case, turn the snap off and carefully move them into the correct position while switching the numbers which will pop up as measurement hints. When the numbers are exactly half the size of your canvas for both axes, release your mouse button to place the fragment there. Here, I do not have any cut elements at all. So, I could have left this pattern layer as it is. But because these spots need to work with the spots on other pattern layers, I decided to move the fragments for this layer the same way. So, here are all of the pattern layers which I had in my original pattern made seamless. After making all the pattern layers into repeatable tiles, let's quickly turn the solid color layers back on and clip them to their respective pattern layers to see all the pattern layers colored and they're working together. So, here is our seamless organic pattern consisting of a number of pattern layers which can be used to fuel any sizes of documents. But to be able to use them across different projects, next, we need to define pattern presets. 11. Defining Pattern Presets: Now, as we have finished cutting and arranging all pattern layers to make them seamless, we can start defining pattern presets. There is a couple of ways you can go about it, dependent on how much control over your pattern layers and colors you want to have when you're using them in your work. If you have already finalized all the colors in your pattern and want to use this whole layered pattern as it is, you can define pattern from the overall layered composition. To do this, make sure that all the patterns and solid color fill areas are visible and then press Command A, or Contol A in Windows to select the whole converse. Then, go to the menu Edit and select Define Pattern. Give your pattern a name, something recognizable especially if you're making a lot of patterns. When ready, click OK. Your pattern is now ready to be used and can be applied any way you want. If there is another set color combination you want to use this pattern, then edit all this color fill layers and define a new pattern from the new color version. Alternatively, you can define patterns from each of the pattern layers with transparency. This way, you will have a set of patterns which you can use separately or layer later on when applying them, color them separately and even move them around and scale them in relation to each other. So, hide all the color fill layers, including the layer which is used as a background color. Then, hide all of the pattern layers apart from the bottom one. Repeat the process by selecting the whole canvas and define in pattern for the Edit menu. Name each individual pattern according to its position within other layers, bottom pattern layer being the first. This way, you will be able to easily find the right pattern when you start applying them separately and arranged them in the right order. One by one, go through and define patterns out of all of the pattern layers you have in your document. Next, let's have a look at how we can use and take full advantage of our pattern presets and pattern fill layers. 12. Using Your Pattern Presets & Pattern Fill Layers: After you have finished defining your patterns, you can start using them in your designs. Make sure that you save your file with a repeatable tiles separately. At this point, we don't need it anymore, however, it's a good idea to keep it for future. Close the file with a repeatable tiles. Now, let's create a new document which we will be using to create a design in a specific size. In my case, I want to put my designs on Society6, and the recommended minimum size for most products on Society6 is 6,500 pixels with 300 DPI in RGB color mode. So, this is how I'm going to set up my document. However, you can use any size you want, it really depends on what you want to create. So input your desired settings here, give your document a descriptive name, and when ready, click create. Save your new document right away in a PSD format so that you can keep a fully editable file with your design. Click "Save", and now, let's add our pattern. Go to the layers panel, click on the "Create new field or adjustment layer" button, and select pattern. In the Pattern Fill menu which will open, select the pattern which you want to use. If you have your full color finalized pattern, you can select it here. The great advantage of using patterns fill-layer, instead of fill-in in a layer destructively or the paint bucket tool, is that you can change the scale of your pattern and move it around, manually aligning it with the canvas to have a nice coverage and avoid awkward edges. Just make sure you avoid scaling your pattern up because this will reduce it's quality. The scale option is the best use for scaling your pattern down. When you are ready with the scale and position of your pattern, click "Okay" to apply it. Because this method is non-destructive, remember that you can always revisit the pattern settings at any time by double clicking on the thumbnail or the pattern fill layer on the layers panel. You can move the pattern around within the canvas using the move tool like this. So, if you're using your finalized whole pattern like this, then you are done. On the other hand, if you have not decided on the colors and want to create multiple collaborations, you can easily do it now with your separate pattern layers. Let's click on the pattern fill form now in the layers panel, and instead of this finalized pattern, select the bottom pattern layer here. So, let's set the scale to 100 percent to begin with, and click "Okay." So, here it is. To color it with any color you want, all you need to do is add a new solid color, fill layer, so that a color you want using the color picker will select the color from your swatches while the color-picker window is open or if you've done before, and click "Okay" so you apply the color. Make sure it is about the pattern fill here, and click to it by alt clicking between these two layers. Because all pattern has transparent areas in it, this color will only fill the visible areas in the pattern. At this point you will probably want to add another solid color there to act as a background. So, set the color, and apply changes. Then on the layer's panel, drag the solid color layer below the pattern layer and rename it to background. Now we can carry on and add as many pattern layers as we want to make things a little bit more manageable and the document, and not to get in them as with fill layers and clicking from the patterns, there just quickly put these two layers in a group and rename it so we know what it is. Then we can simply copy this group, double click on the pattern fill layers from now, and change the pattern to the next pattern on the list which we're going to use. For example, this one. Again, position the pattern anywhere you want and click "Okay." The go and adjust the color you're using, and rename this new group. Repeat the process again with the other patterns you want to add, and keep changing the color positioning and scale as you want. I want to have the same number of patterns and the same colors as in my original layered pattern. So, that's what I'll quickly do here. Okay, this is done. The main advantage of using separate pattern fill layers and coloring them using the color fill layers is that you can easily rearrange everything, scale and move the pattern contents, and easily recolour individual pattern layers to create a lot of different variations of the finished pattern which will look different from each other even though they're based on the same pattern layers to begin with. So, experiment is combining your patterns in different ways. Next, let's quickly have a look into how you can manage your pattern presets in Photoshop. 13. Managing Pattern Presets: After you have defined your patterns, it's a good idea to save all your Pattern Presets in one place, so that you can easily load them in the future, use them on another computer, share them if necessary, and generally to keep them safe. To manage your Pattern Presets, go to the Swatches Panel, click on the button in the top right corner of the Panel, and in the menu which will appear, select Preset Manager. In the Preset Manager window, go to this list, and send the Preset Type to Patterns. Look for the thumbnails and choose which patterns you want to save as a set. You can select a range of patterns in order, if you hold down the Shift key, and click on the first and then on the last pattern in the range you want to save. Alternatively, you can Command click, or Control click in Windows, to select a number of patterns not inside the range, what to deselect some patterns from the previous selection. When your selection is ready, click on the Save Set button. Give yourself a name, define the location where you're saving your patterns, and proceed by clicking on the Save button. You can load your Save Pattern Presets, in the Preset Manager Window by clicking on Load here. Or you can add them when you are working with Pattern Fill layers. To do this, click on the Pattern from now in the Pattern Fill dialog. When the Presets open up, click on the cog icon here, and load your Pattern Presets by choosing Load Patterns here. The Pattern Presets which you see in Photoshop are document independent, which means that you will see these patterns in any document which you open, until you reset, replace, or reload the presets, or define new patterns on My Newly Delete Patterns from this selection. Saving your patterns as a separate preset library, means that whatever you do to these patterns here, your original patterns will be safe unless you all write your original preset library with a new set. So, keep your Pattern Presets organized and handy. 14. Further Development & Alternative Looks: When you are down with creating your pattern, and have filled a document of a desired size with it, you can play around with applying additional effects to this whole image to create some interesting alternatives. If you go on experimenting further like I am about to show you, make sure that you save your existing final pattern document as a PSD. Then save a copy all the same document for the experiments. That's a lot of documents we have created during this class. But being organized and keeping editable files for different stages of the process, definitely pays off when and if you need to revisit the same project in future. Now, in this new file, go to the Layers panel, and Shift+click on the first and the last layer to select them all. Then right-click, and choose "Convert to Smart Object." This will convert the contents of this document into a smart object, which means, that if you need to edit it, for example, change colors or position pattern layers, you can still do it but within the smart object instead. So, this process is non-destructive, but still better than in a separate document from the final pattern in it, let's call it "Normal Form." So, here is a smart object with a pattern and you can start experimenting with applying different effects to it to see how it will change. So, select this layer on the Layers panel, and let's go to the field the Menu, and have a look at a few different filters, which you can apply to this pattern to make it more fun. One of the cool effects which you can apply to your pattern is mosaic effect under the Pixelate category here. Applying it, allows you to make your pattern a little less organic and definitely, more digital and you can set the size of the enlarged pixels or cells in the effects dialog. After you have applied this effect, you can always double-click on its name on the layers panel, and adjust the cell size to your new desired size at any time. So again, this is the benefit of using a Smart Object here. So, that's the first alternative effect you can create. I'm going to delete this effect now. Let's move onto the next category of effects you can try, which are more in keeping with the organic theme. Organic patterns can look even more interesting, when they are distorted. So, in the Filter menu, go to the Distort category, and explore different fields are here, and play around with their settings. One of my favorites here is ripple, which creates totally different looks, when it is set to different sizes and the amount values. So, know the settings and I'm showing here as examples and experiment further with them yourself. Shear filter, allows that a sort of direction to your pattern, which you can manually adjust in the graph in the effects dialogue. When using this filter, set the undefined areas to wrap around to keep the pattern covering the whole canvas. Wave is a very powerful distortion filter, which allows you to create a lot of very different effects. As there are a lot of settings to experiment with, and there is no right or wrong here. Another of the filters which I really like here are twirl and zigzag. But of course, there are other fields are here, including spherize, pinch and polar coordinates, which can also create a pretty interesting result. Another filter which creates fantastic distortions is a wind filter from Stylize category. So, check out these different options. Something a bit more experimental is the "Liquify" filter. In the liquify workspace, there are a number of tools which you can use to manually distort your image. When it comes to organic patterns, I like using this filter to create a sort of marbling effect, which can be done using the forward warp tool or twirl clockwise tool. A good thing to keep in mind in relation to the twirl clockwise tool is that if you hold down the "Alt" key whilst using it, you will create a counter clockwise twirl instead. Remember to use the reconstruct tool to restore the image or its part or to reduce the amount of distortion. So, this is a totally different playground without any specific right or wrong things which you can do. So, I will leave you to explore different tools, and experiment with the brush settings to achieve the effect you're after. So, these are my favorite distortion filters and you can even try applying more than one filter to this pattern at the same time. So, consider playing around with them and see what you can create. Unless, you are printing your patterns on a fabric or on any other substrate which will add texture to them, you can also consider texturing your patterns digitally. So, let's open up the Filter Gallery window, and check out a few texturing effects. We only need one effect here at a time, so remove any additional effects from the stack. Then set the remaining one, to texturizer from the texture section. Here, experiment with a different scaling, relief, and light direction options, and explore sandstone, canvas, and burlap textures to create a look you like. I do not recommend using the brick texture here as it is a rather small, low resolution, and not extremely realistic. But if you want to make your organic pattern look like a painting on a brick wall, or even like a distressed wall painting, be sure to check out my class, Worn Wall Paint Texture and Effects in Photoshop. Whilst in the Filter Gallery window we know, you can also check out a couple of brush strokes effect, namely "Spatter and Sprayed Strokes", which are more about stylizing than texturing, but can allow you to add some interesting variation to the edges of the shapes in your pattern. So, know the settings here, and experiment with them further yourself if you want. So, the effects which I have shown you are my favorite when it comes to playing around with the organic abstract patterns. But feel free to explore other ones or leave your pattern as it is if you prefer it in its pure form. 15. Saving Your Patterns for Print & Web: After you have created and finalized your patterns, you will need to save them so that they can be used online or in print. When you're ready, go to the menu File, Save As, and save your document in a JPEG format. If you want to put your work online or print it, use print on-demand services such as S86. Make sure that you have the color profile enabled, give your file a name and click Save. In the JPEG options, always go for the maximum quality when you're saving your document for print. Click OK, and now you're ready to upload your file for print in RGB color mode. If you're uploading your work to social media or any other platform which will compress your work upon uploading, also go for the maximum size. However, if you upload any work to a site which requires a specific size, for example, here on Skillshare with two-megabyte size limit, then firstly, you might need to resize your document by going to the menu Image, Image Size, and reducing the size here. You don't need such a huge image, so something around 1,600 pixels mark will do nicely. Apply changes and proceed by saving the resized document as a JPEG. If you're saving multiple JPEGs from the same original file, make sure you name them differently, not to override them with each other. In the JPEG Options, you might still need to find a balance between quality and file size. So, check different quality options going from the maximum quality down and stop on the file size here looks right to you. When you are ready, click OK to save your file. If you need to save your work for print using the CMYK process, then you will need to convert your file to CMYK color mode. To do this, go to the menu Image, Mode and select CMYK. If your conversion AP has the document containing Smart Objects and color filling areas, select Don't Merge in this dialog window. In the next dialog which will pop up if your document contains Smart Objects and Smart Filters, which cannot be applied in CMYK document, select Rasterize. So, here's our CMYK document, and because we still have color fillers available, we can adjust these colors to make them print better. If you have a color guide at your disposal, for example, PANTONE color bridge, you can reference CMYK values for the specific colors you want to use and input them in the Color Picker. But in any case, if you're preparing your work for print in CMYK, always get in touch with your print shop to find out their requirements, acquire their special color profiles and produce proof prints before printing a large batch. When ready adjusting the colors, save your document in any desired format. For example, TIFF, and don't overwrite your original piece default. Make sure the required color profile is embedded, and click Save. So, here are our patterns ready for print and for sharing online. 16. Final Thoughts & Conclusion: With the techniques shown in this class, you can create anything from multicolor organic patterns, to camouflage type patterns, to experimental abstract graphics. So, experiment and have fun. Try out different color combinations, including traditional colors found in camouflage patterns, or go for something bright and quirky, or soft and pastel. Even with the same shapes used in your patterns, using different colors schemes will allow you to create patterns in completely different modes. If you're interested in learning where to find exciting colors to use in your work, don't hesitate to check out the part about color research in my class, Mastering Duotones in Photoshop. Experiment with different scale of the elements, and complexity of your patterns, and consider creating pattern collections. If you want to learn about how to build pattern collections, and to get some ideas about how to use your patterns in interesting ways, don't hesitate to check out my class, Creating Trendy Designs with Abstract Patterns in the Illustrator. Also, you're not limited to filling in the pattern shapes, this is just sorted color, and you can always experiment with a gradient fill layers and click them into your pattern shapes instead. You can learn about it in out Gradients and Photoshop, and how to use gradient fill layers in my class, Mastering Duotones in Photoshop. Also, you can use other patterns and fill the organic shapes with them. You can even bring in some abstract patterns created in Illustrator, define patterns out of them and, use them here to create some excitement images. If you want to learn how to create these abstract patterns in Illustrator, be sure to check out my class, Creating Trendy Abstract Patterns in Illustrator. If you need to create a vector version of your organic pattern, you can take it into Illustrator layer by layer, trace it, and then rework it into a repeatable tile there, if necessary, using the range of tools and techniques covered in my class, Creating Trendy Abstract Patterns in Illustrator. Organic abstract patterns can be used as awesome prints for apparel, home textiles, wallpapers, wall backdrops for photoshoots. You can also use them as graphic devices in all sorts of design projects, including packaging and branding, both in print and online. You can also create exciting images, if you lay your organic patterns filled with solid colors, gradients, or abstract patterns, or with photographs, or incorporate them into illustrations or designs. So, be experimental about your patterns and their application. Create more caps or take your patterns a step further, and turn them into your own range of print and demand products. I can't wait to see your organic patterns, and how you use them. So, make sure to post your work in the project gallery for this class. Don't forget that for the first few weeks of this class, we will be running a special contest, and you can win a whole year of free learning on Skillshare. So, be sure to participate by posting your project in this class before Thursday 25th of January 2018, and check out the contact details on the community board for this class. We also love seeing projects done an our classes on Instagram. So, if you post your work there, please tag attitudeskills and check out our Instagram profile. So, that's it for this class. I hope you have enjoyed it, and learned something new. If you like this class, please leave a review so more people could discover it. If you have any questions, leave a comment on the community board for this class, and I will have an answer and provide feedback. Be sure to follow us here on Skillshare, to be the first to know about our new classes. Also, don't hesitate to follow our page on Facebook, to see what we are up to, get all the latest updates. Send us private messages if you need to get in touch about something, and not to miss if you are featured in our Student Spotlight gallery. Thank you for watching this class, and I hope to see you in our other classes. 17. Bonus: Making of Organic Design with Distorted Type: - way , way, way, way, - way .