Textile Design Part 2: Create a Halfdrop Repeating Pattern in Photoshop | Design & Photoshop Skills

1. INTRO: Hi. My name is April Winnie Wells. I have a free lads, textile designer and illustrator. Welcome to my Siris of classes on textile design. In the second class of the Siri's, I'm gonna take the designs and motifs we created in the very first class and show you how to put those into a repeating pattern. Info to show If you haven't taken the first class, don't worry, because I'm going to show you techniques that you can use to create any half drop repeating patterns any time you want to. So in this class, I'm going to teach you what 1/2 drop repeating pattern is. I walk you through the basics of how to create one in factor shop and then show you had to create a more complex, all over pattern. I will then walk you through the steps on how to apply your pattern to the free technical bedding mockup I've included for Danglard, really excited about teaching you these techniques, and I can't wait to see what half drop repeating patterns you create. So let's pop over to the first class and get started 2. 1. WHAT IS A HALFDROP REPEAT PATTERN?: so welcome to this class. In this video, I'm going to explain what 1/2 drop repeating pattern is. So what is 1/2 drop repeating pattern? The definition is a layout in which the motif is repeated halfway dine beside in the vertical direction. So, for example, if you want to create a pattern that 64 centimeters by 64 centimeters, then use Divide this in half and create your pattern within a tile that is 32 centimeters wide by 64 centimetres deep the half dark magic then happens when you drop the repeat tile down on the vertical. Buy half the debts off the design. So I'm just going to show you here in a pattern that I've been working on. And this is the one I'm going to show you how to create in this tutorial. So I should concede. Here I've got my original tile, which is 64 centimeters by 32 centimeters wide, that I've repeated it the low and then I've taken the pattern off to the side and you can see here this is how you build up half drop first child, then the second tile below, which is exactly the same as the first and off to the right. I've got the next one. In the next video, I'm gonna walk you through hard to create art board info to shop. So you there. 3. 2. CREATING THE ARTBOARD FOR YOUR REPEAT: So I'm not going to walk you through the steps on how to create an art board for your half drop repeating pattern in photo shop. Go to file the new. Now I'm going to create a template so that I can use this again and again every time I want to create 1/2 drop repeating pattern. So I'm gonna name this half drop template. No. As I'm going to show you how to create a pattern that's a 64 centimeter by 64 centimeter Repeat, gonna make quite a large art board. We're gonna keep these at 200 centimeters each for the width and the height. If you need to change it from RGB two c m i. K. And you could just use this drop dying, but I'm gonna work an RGB and then just click, OK, now you're going to need to make sure that you've got your rulers on for this part of the process. So if you haven't then just click on command R on your keyboard. So I'm just gonna turn mine often on so you can see them Come on. So the next step of the process is to actually set up a grid system in which you can build up the repeating tile. So click em on your keyboard or select the marquee tool from the list of tools and other top. Just make sure that styles has fixed size. So now I'm going to change the width to 64 centimeters on the height to 64 centimeters. Now, if you click in near the top off the left hand corner off the art board, I always like to leave a little bit space around it. You can then click onto the ruler on drag dying your guide. Now you need to make sure that snap is turned on. So just go to view girl dying to snap and just make sure it's a check mark. Next to that, I would just continue to pull out all your guides from your rulers and snap up against the Marquis Select. Okay, that's the first bit dumb. What I'm gonna do is change to resume toe gazette on my keyboard. I'm going to zoom all the way into the magnifying glass, becomes white, which is the maximum setting. I'm just gonna check that my rulers are My guides are tight up against the market. Fantastic. Okay. Gonna see. Might by doing command zero click back to my marquee, and I continue just pulling it. My guides. You want to do this several times down on a few times across just to build up the 64 centimeter by 64 centimeter? Repeat. So now you've done that. The next thing you to do is to divide this in half again. So back up at the top of the Marquis. Select Stellan, make sure it's has fixed size and change this toe. Half the word's gonna make this 32 centimeters by 32 centimeters. Now you want to click the mice back in to the original guides and then dry. Got the new ones from the rulers. You're gonna make a boxes that are half the size of the original. Repeat, I'm just gonna do this across the entire art board, filling it all up. Thank a last one. So now we've created the grid system for half top Repeat. What we're going to do now is actually create a tile area that we're going to create the pattern within. So if you click on the you on your keyboard or go to the rectangle to at the top. I'm gonna put in the width and the height sighing Aim to make this 32 centimeters wide by 64 centimeters high, going to click back into the top left hand corner off my original guides and click OK, and then a box will appear. I'm just gonna zoom away in just to make sure that this tile shape is tight up against the guides, which is here. It's really important that you make sure when you're doing repeats that you're repeating, pattern is always tight up against the guides because any mistakes with the pixels can really show at the end result of the pattern. Okay, so there we have it for no, I'm going to save this as a template for the next time. I want to create a repeating pattern. We're ready to go. We don't have to set anything up to navigate where you'd like to save it and click save. Okay. In the next video, I'm gonna talk to the process of high to create a repeating pattern. See, you know 4. 3. THE BASICS OF CREATING A HALFDROP REPEATING PATTERN: So in this video, I'm going to walk you through the basics of how to create 1/2 drop repeating pattern. No, in the previous class on how to create a placement print week designed a T towel from hand drawn motifs. So I'm going to use the same motifs in this tutorial. So actually have taken the original detail design from the previous class and ivory colored them into this gorgeous sort of blue teal color. I'm gonna grab all of these motives that are layered together. I'm going to drag them over to the new template that we've set up as a group of illustrations and a placement print. I really like the flow of this motif. So I'm going to start by no, actually doing too much to it and keeping it pretty much the same. So I'm just going to drag them as a group over on top of the tile area that will be working on. I'm risking his semen so you can see it a little better. The first thing that we need to do is make the orange tile in the background transparent so we can say that were lining up correctly. If you click onto this rectangle layer and changed the drop, dying to say multiply. Now what I'm going to do is grab this on the motives above it, holding the shift key, dine and then do command G or controlled G on your keyboard to group them together over on your artwork. Hold on the old on the shift and click onto your artwork and drag it down below the original. I'm just gonna zoom in using zed on the keyboard to bring up resume to zoom all the way in to make sure they're lined up correctly with the guides. If they haven't lined up correctly in a some white space, you could just adjust this, and you can also see if you've had any overlap because you've got the multiply on. You can also use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge it up and down as well. Now I've zoomed out using command zero or control zero on your keyboard, and I'm going to repeat this process to hold down the Olt Key to duplicate the shift to keep it in line and drag it beneath the original again. I'm zooming in on. I'm just double checking that my artwork is lining up with the guides. Fantastic. Go back to the layers panel. Hold on, shift and select all three layers together and then over on the artwork. Hold on the old key and drag the artwork to the new position. So now I'm just zooming in and I'm going to use the arrow keys on my keyboard as well as my nice to line up. You seem all the way in until you see the little squares appear and then you can move it around. You know, it's lined up exactly and snapped into place. So now we've built up the beginning off the half court. Repeat, I'm just going to check. Are there some areas I'm not particularly happy with? Not sure about. This area on the flow are quite like these motifs to connect together in some way. But there isn't a gap between them. We also need to work on the large space between the motifs as well. So in order to correct this issue, we need to go back and work on the original tile. So I'm going to delete all of the duplicates have made apart from the three that make up the basic half drop. Repeat and then you want to open up the group that contains all the motives for the very first tile that we created. So I'm going to ungrateful these so we can easily edit them, suggest right, click on it and do ungroomed and do ungreased again. As you can see here, each one is on individual layer. Now, I can start moving things around. Clear up the gaps. Next select V on your keyboard or the Selection two and just make sure auto select is checked at the top. Next, I'm going to lock the other repeat tiles so I don't inadvertently move them by accident. Now, with my selection tool on, I'm just going to start moving some motifs around. I'm just gonna zoom in so you can see a little better. No, I actually want to work on this area, which is actually here at the top. I'm just going to go in and move motif surrounded. Edit this pattern ever so slightly, using all the techniques we covered in my first class. So I duplicated and dragged out a newly and you can see from the guides. But the position of this leaf is gonna be roughly invest location when it repeats itself. So now I'm gonna work in filling in this gap here. I quite like these flowers sitting at the top of 30. So I'm gonna hold down the altar key while I've got my selection tool on and drag these time to duplicate them. I'm going to resize and transform and depict Cates and leaves hopefully career a little cluster that will fill in this gap. So I'm just gonna speed through this for you now. - So now I've created this little cluster you can see from the guidelines and it's going to set toe roughly about here. When the pattern is repeated, I'm just gonna move it across a little and adjust it. And then what we need to do now is Tyler out again and see how it looks. So now I'm just going to unlock the ones that we locked previously. Just select them and click the unlock button and then delete them again. We're going to go through the process off selecting all the motifs and doing command G or controlled d on your keyboard to group them together, going to call them motifs. Then I'm going to select that motif group with your indirect angle in the background and do command or control gee again to group them together. Then, with old and shift held down, grab the group on. Just drag it below the original tile again. Zoom in and make sure lines up with the guides. And if you need to use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge the motif tight up against the guidelines and just repeat this process one more time, below way, grade the vertical pattern. We're going to create the half drop, so I'm going to use shift to select all the layers on. I'm gonna hold on Ultima keyboard and drive these cross again. I'm gonna use that on my keyboard to zoom in, making sure got those three JICA cut layers selected. I'm going to zoom all the way in and use a mixture off the mice on the nudge tools, which are the arrows on the keyboard to make sure it's lined up tight. No, over on the layers panel. I'm going to hold on shift, and I'm going to select all the layers as one group the back over on the motif keeping shift on hold on the old key and drive the motifs over to the right with your mouths. The old key duplicates it on the shift key, keeps it in alignment. Then I'm gonna change to resume to said on your keyboard and zoom all the way in just to make sure it's lined up with the guides. They might. Now what I'm going to do, I'm going to expand each one of these eight and turn off with orange rectangle in the background so I can get a real feel for the pattern. Now the next thing I'm gonna do is add in the background color, so use hockey you on your keyboard or select the rectangle to and just draw a rectangle and go up to the Phil. And you can either select a color by clicking on the little chips or on the color picker to pick a color for your background. Then, when you happy with that, just lock the layer, then press backspace on your keyboard. Unlock it, and this will create an entire layer filled. The name was gonna drive this right to the bottom. You might have to just dig a little bit and drop it on top of the background layer. So now we've got a color in the background and we have our motifs on top. Okay, so let's have a look at this pattern. I'm quite happy with this, but there are some tweaks I'd like to make to this cluster that sitting in amongst the main design. So what we're gonna do is go back and edit the main tile that we created. So I'm just turning that on and off so you can see which one it is. I'm actually going to change the size of this slightly. So at the top, here are constrained proportions, and I've changed. Then it's just a case of deleting all the duplicates that you made turning on the rectangle in the background and re tiling this design night again. Again, I'm doing this using old on shift on my keyboard while dragging with a nice as always. I'm zooming right in just to make sure that lines up with the guides just the same as before. Just repeat this process dying and then across horizontally at the half drop position. I'm just going to speed through this for years. So, like before, I'm just gonna go in internal all the oil in direct angles in the background so I can see the pattern. Yeah, I'm liking that. But I'd still like to adjust this motif a little bit better. So one tip that you can do here, you can expand ICT, each group and each tiled repeat and add to select the thing that you want using the shift key on your keyboard. I've selected them all. I'm actually adjusting. This is one group. Okay, some of it happy with that. What I'm gonna do is minimize all these again. Turn on all the rectangles. I'm going to use the shift to select them as one group, holding down old and shift at the same time while dragging and duplicating this across to the right. Like before. I'm always zooming in as far as I can to check that. I lined up the repeat with the guides. Now that I've turned off all the orange rectangles in the back kind like in a double, check the pattern yet and I'm happy with this. I like the flow of the mo teats and have a little clusters sit in between. So now all that's left to do is to save this pattern for future use. So I'm going to go to file save as a navigate to where you'd like to save it. I'm just making sure that it says PSD On the end, I'm clicking, say, in the next video, I'm going to take you through the process on how to create the repeats Watch, See you there. 5. 4. CREATING THE REPEAT SWATCH: So now I'm gonna walk you through the steps to creating the repeats watch pattern. The first thing I like to do with this is to turn off the background colors this because I like to create a pattern swatch that is completely separate from the background. Which means if I ever need to change the color in the future, this is really easy to do. I'm just gonna scroll, dine, turn off the background color I created on the white background layer. Then, to create this watch, just press em when you keyboard or select the rectangle marquee tool at the top. I'm just make sure the style says fixed size, and I'm gonna change this to 64 centimeters by 64 centimeters. The next step is to click your minds into your pattern. I always like to click somewhere in the middle of the pattern. You don't want it to overlap onto the sides and miss any of the motive. So once you're happy with the placement off the marquee on your pattern, and you know that you've got everything in go up to edit and then define pattern, this might take a little second to load up. Sometimes my computer takes ages. At this point, you want to give it a name. So I'm gonna name this floral blues and that I always put in the repeat size. So 64 centimeters by 64 centimeters. This is so in the future. I know exactly what size I created the pattern. Then we're going to create a brand new art board. Forget to file and new. I'm going to set the width of 64 centimeters on the height to 64 centimeters. And I'm gonna name this floral blues. Repeat 64 centimeters by 64 centimeters. So this is the art board in which we're going to create our repeats. Watch. The first step is to add in your back row in color. Same is before use the rectangle to to draw on a rectangle. Select the fill color that you want, lock it, click backspace on your keyboard, unlock it and then I'm going to name it. The next step is then to create a brand new layer that we're going to put a repeating pattern into to click on the little button to create a new layer. And I'm just going to name it and then the top. You want to click on edit, then fill. When this dialogue box pops open, make sure you change the use to pattern and then in custom pattern, just click on the drop down and navigate to the pattern that you've created when you happy click. OK, fantastic. So now what we've got is a pattern layer on a background color. Now it's just a case of going to save this. Go to file, save ours. Just navigate toe where you'd like to save it. Impressed, Safe. So this is an exact 64 centimeter by 64 centimeter repeat tile. And it's this file that could be sent off to a client for them to create their own perfectly repeating patterns. In the next video, I'm going to walk you through the steps on how to create a more complex, all over repeating pattern. So you there 6. 5. HOW TO CREATE AN ALL OVER PATTERN: So now you know the basics of how to create 1/2 drop repeating pattern. I'm going to take you through the steps to create an all over pattern. This is a little bit more complex and a little bit more time consuming, but I think we can do it together. So I'm going to use the motifs that we used for the last pattern. But this time I'm gonna break up the large motif. I'm gonna move them around and create all over floral design. So I'm starting here by making sure that I have the selection too long. I've ungroomed all the motifs. I'm also making sure I've got auto select on so I can quickly and easily pick up some of the flowers and move them around. So initially, how I'm doing this is by I I'm using the orange rectangle in the background as the art board, and I'm moving the motifs over just sliding them about putting them next to each other, rotating them. I'm just getting a feel for how this might build up. I'm keeping an eye all the time on how much background or how much grind is showing. Three. I want to make sure there's an even mix off background on motifs. So I've decided to dilate out some of the larger flowers and concentrate just on the smaller flowers. So after I've done an initial layout going to tile, the image ICT just really quickly just to get an idea for the rhythm office, repeat so again, using the techniques we learned before off, selecting them on dragging, withholding the old key to duplicate and then zooming all the way in just to check up the alignment against the guides. Now I'm going to do is drag him out once more across to the right so I can get a full look at the repeat. Okay, so the next step as before, he said, Just turn off all off the orange rectangles in the background and they're going to turn over the background color that we had on before. Okay, now the next thing I always do is zoom away out, and I sort of squint at the design and make it all merge together so you don't see anything in detail, and this helps bring up any errors in the design. So, for example, I'm not particularly happy there's someone gaps still in this design. So what I'm going to do is delete off everything except the three original tiles that make up the repeat. I'm just going to start working on filling in some of the areas I didn't like here. I'm just moving this motif over. I can use the guides. I can see here where the repeat is going to be, but you might find it easier to turn the or indirect angle back on again. So I'm just going to speed through this, Okay? So now I'm a little bit happier with the position of the leaves, the motives. It's just a case off. Tiling this out again and checking how we feel about the pattern. So now I've turned off all the rectangles. I'm going to do the same again and zoom. Now, I'm not particular happy with these areas. I can see that there's quite a strong with Pete and Gap following that really noticeable to the I. So I like to do is create a new layer on top of all the repeating patterns and grab a really bright contrast in color on the brush to I'm just gonna mark in the areas that I'm not very happy with. So I don't like this area. I think it's too noticeable the gap and it draws the eye in. And I also don't like this area as well, which is the same as here. I think it's a bit of a strong app that automatically draws your eye in. I'm just marking the zone. So when it comes to editing the original tile, I know where to concentrate my efforts. But now I'm just gonna work through this process off, rotating, transforming and duplicating my motifs to fill in these gaps at any point. If you want to, you could turn back on that top layer where you marked on the errors. I find this really useful as it helps me throughout the design process. Just be aware of what I need to fix now. I corrected those errors. I'm going to do the same as before, delete out all the duplicates and re tile the site. But now I've re child it and turned off all the background rectangles again. I'm going to zoom here. I can see by turning the background on and off. I'm still not happy with this lying that's appeared in the design. It runs off diagonally on the half drop. So what I'm gonna do is mark this on a new layer again, delete the 1st 1 and create a new one. I'm just gonna mark on the areas that I think needs of attention. So, for example, Bisset Larry here on this little Larry here. So why don't you marked his own? Just repeat the process as before, but now I've child this out again. I'm gonna zoom, I check it. So I'm just turning off my guides. And you can do this by going to view guides unclear. I'm just turning his off so I can get a better feel for the image. Yeah, there are still a few areas I could go on to tweak, but I think let's stop now and I'll take you through the next step. So again is before I'm gonna put on the marquee selects to I'm gonna make sure the style is fixed size and I'm going to change this to 64 centimeters by 64 centimeters. Make sure the background layers a roll off. Once you place the Marquis onto the design, go to edit. Define pattern. I'm going to name this blue floral all over pattern 64 centimeters by 64 centimeters and then press. OK, so then, to create your swatch file, go to file new and then change it to 64 centimeters in the width and 64 centimeters in height and click OK again. It's the same as before. Going to create a new layer and go to edit Phil, make sure the use is selected as pattern on, then the custom pattern. Just click on the drop dying and select the new pattern you've created and click. OK, so there you go. There's the fill off the pattern. Gonna go back to the repeat and use my eyedropper tool to pick up this lovely blue color in the background. I'm gonna go back to my repeats watch and put on the rectangle to draw a rectangle on the screen at the fill. Select the color that you want and turn off the stroke so again is before we like to lock this layer, then hit backspace or delete on your keyboard and then unlock it. So there you have it, a perfectly repeating tile of 64 centimeters by 64 centimeters. So now just save it and go to file. Save eyes, navigate to where you'd like to save it. Name file. Just make sure it says PSD on the end and click save in the next video. I'm going to walk you through the steps on how to use the free bedding. Look up. I've included on the class page. See you there. 7. 6. USING THE BEDDING MOCKUP: I'm now going to take you through how to use this free bedding mock up I created. You can download it from the website and open up into photo shop. So over in the layers panel, I've grouped everything together into colored layers, so it's easy to follow. If you open up the bedding more cup player and then expand out the pillows, just double click onto the first icon, and this will load up the pillows for years. Just say okay to this. Our message. The first thing I'm going to do is create the background color for my pillow again. It's the same as before, using the rectangle to or you on your keyboard to a rectangle onto the art board. If you want to change the color, you can use the drop down at the top in failed to select the color that you want. When you're happy, just lock this layer, click backspace on your keyboard and unlock it, and this will create a whole field. The next thing I need to do is at the very bottom off layers. Click on the little icon that allows you to load up a new layer, then across from that click on the next one and select pattern. Once this loads up, you can change the swatch by using a little drop down arrow and selecting the SWAT. So I'm going to pick the one that we just created in the last video. And then you can change the scale, so I'm going to make this a little bit smaller, so you can either type in or use the slider. So you make this about 20% where you can slide it up and dying. I'm gonna go bet smaller for 11 on when you're happy. Click OK, The next thing we need to do is create a clipping mask. So select the two layers using shift and then right click on Do create clipping mask, and this will crop it all to the shape off the pillow when you happy just saved us by going file safe and once it saved. If you go back to the original markup file, you'll see that it's updated pillow. I've also set this up so that the patterns watches will update automatically take. So now it's just a case of doing the fill for the next pillow. So I'm now going to do the do they? So I'm just came to expand out. Do they layer on as before, double click on the little white icon and say okay to the message again, I'm gonna create a color for the do they? So it's using the rectangle to I'm just gonna swap over these color chips and you can do that by clicking on the little arrow or by pressing X on your keyboard. So draw a rectangle onto the screen, lock it backspace on, unlock it again. I'm going to click on the new layer icon And then across from that click on the one allies Me to Select Pattern. Gonna make this quite large this time because I want this to be quite different from the pillows. So I'm gonna set this to about 70% maybe 60 to say, Let's have a little play yet I'm quite happy with 52 takes a click. Ok, now I'm just going to save this file on update the diva, And once this is saved, you can go back over to the bedding, mock up and see that the do they has been updated as well. Asus watches. So the next step is I'm gonna do the tone down on the debate. If you open this out, you can click onto the color chip and then select the color that you'd like to have the turn dines. I'm going to use the background color here. Okay, that's great. And the next thing I'm going to update is the color palette. Just click onto that layer and expand out, and you can see that each chip has been set up for you to edit these just double click into the icon and the color picker will be brought out. Just select the color that you'd like and fill in each chip. The next step, I'm going to show you how to edit the titles over in the layers. Many We just expand out the yellow layer, click on collection name. We just use the text tool by clicking t on your keyboard. You could highlight the collection main on over type. I'm gonna call this floral blues. You can then use the same process to change the date. The version on the copyright information. Once you're happy with this, you can go ahead and save it. I'm going to save this for my website portfolio. I'm going to go file, say, for the web. Once his dialogue box pops up at the top, I'm gonna keep it. Is J. Peg and I'm going to keep the resolution as high at the bottom in the image size, I'm going to keep the width and height the same and click save. Just navigate toe where you'd like to save it and click save. So there you have it. One bedding, Look up, Ready for your portfolio or website. In the next video, I'm gonna talk you through the class project and give my final thoughts. See you there. 8. 7. CLASS PROJECT & FINAL THOUGHTS: thank you for joining me for this class. I'm just gonna chat a little bit now about the class project. I'd love for you to try out these techniques in photo shop, using your own mutates and design elements. Please feel free to use the bedding mock up for one of your own. I love load your completed repeating patterns onto the project page. I'm really excited about seeing what you guys can produce. I think it's always really refreshing to see what other people can come up with. Thank you again for taking this class. I hope you've really enjoyed it. It's been quite a challenge to break it all down into easy to follow steps. So I hope that it's been something you find worthwhile. If you're interested in textile design, it would like to know a little bit more about how I created the motifs I used in this class . Why don't you pop over and have a look at some of my other videos? In particular, you might be interested in textile design. Part one design an illustrative placement print right. Take you through how to draw, scan, re color and create a placement print. I always like to connect on Instagram, so don't hesitate to pop over and say hi. Thanks again. Take care. Bye, friend out.