By Steve Shanks
In this tutorial I'll show how to turn a photograph into a tiling texture using Picture publisher 8, but any paint program will be able to do this. Open the photograph and select the mask tool and the shape mask.
Now drag select the top section of the photo, making sure you get right into the corners. I have used a white line in the image below to illustrate where the mask would go.
Next turn this selection into an object (Object-Create Object from mask. Ctrl W) and flip it on the vertical (Image-Flip-Vertical. Ctrl F8) now move it down to the bottom of the photo making sure you have the bottom and sides lined up. Now we'll blend the edge in, this is easier if you hide the marquee (Object-Hide Marquee. Ctrl End) so do that then select the Paint on mask from the mask tools and set it up the same as the image below.
Now start removing part of the Object until it's blended in with the original, if you take too much off just select the + button and add it back in, carry on doing this until you can't see the join. Now combine the Object with the image (Objects-Combine-All objects with base Ctrl Shift F)
The next step is to do exactly the same as above but with the side of the image, it doesn't matter which side you do but remember to flip it on the horizontal (Ctrl F7).
The final stage is to make a bump map so make sure you saved the image and you have no masks left and all objects are combined. Then go Image-Convert to-Grayscale and then go Map-Contrast/Brightness-Joystick and turn up the contrast quite high until you get an image like the one below
That's it, you now have a tiling texture and matching bump map ready to use in the 3D application of your choice.
Copyright (c) 2000, Steve Shanks, All RIghts Reserved