Varian's Dreamview: DreamDesign - Quick Tips for Digital Graphics: Seamless Tiles

	DreamDesign Digital Graphics Tutorials Main Index
	Making Seamless Tiles: Pinwheel Method

To Pinwheel, you'll need the ability to rotate a graphic 90 degrees. This techinique is similar to Mirroring, but the patterning effects are quite different. Some images will not do as well in this method as others, but after you've experimented with it for a time, you'll get a feel for which will or won't work with it.

Increase the window 200%, and paste your image to the upper-left corner.

Rotate the window 90 degrees and paste the image again.

Rotate the window 90 degrees and paste the image a third time.

Rotate the window 90 degrees and paste the image the final time.

Due to the nature of the Pinwheel pattern, the hard edges don't necessarily need to be made invisible, but should be de-emphasized. This can be done with a blur or blending filter, or by adding texture or a special effects filter.

Select this image to see its tiled appearance.