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Originally Posted by visualchemistry
I'm sure there's a simple method to do this but I can't seem to figure it out.
How do you take a high res texture image and convert it to a .PAT file for use in layer styles? I've been using some of Shelly Long's styles from the downoad area which are really highly detailed and produce good results in print as well.
Would be nice to know how to do it and then perhaps be able to let other people download them
Thanks
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Before making a .pat file, make certain you understand how to create a tileable pattern from scratch, that makes following these instructions easier.
As an example, create a brushed-metal look, do so by creating a new grayscale image and then Filter>Noise>Add Noise. You will want to experiment with the settings, but you could try these as a starting point, Amount=400%, Distribution=Uniform and turn on Monochromatic. Next select Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Again play with the settings to see what you can get, but you can use these as a starting point Angle=0, Distance=60.
Once the texture is made choose Select>All. Followed by Edit>Copy. Now use the Crop tool and select the area you like to use for the pattern and press Return or Enter and image will crop.
Then expose the seams by selecting Filter>Other>Offset and set the Vertical and Horizontal offset settings to around half the width of the image.
You should be able to see the seam that prevent the image from being a seamless tile, now we need to retouch them and make them disappear. When you work with a photographic image most likely you will use the Rubber Stamp too, but since we copied our full-size original to start with take advantage of a different approach to this. Choose Edit>Past and create a new layer, then choose Layer>Add Layer Mask>Hide All. If you have done everything correctly you will see two thumbnail images for the currently active layer.
Choose the Paintbrush tool, choose white to paint with, and choose a very large, soft-edged brush about 1/3 the width of the image. Use that large brush to cover up the seam by painting over it VERTICALLY. That will make the pasted image show up over the seam and blend into the rest of the image, which should mow be a seamless pattern.
The next step is to define your pattern, choose Layer>Merge Down, then Select>All, and Edit>Define Pattern.
Ta da!! You should now be able to create a new, large document and choose Edit>Fill to apply the pattern.
You also could use the Pattern Maker filter, but it is no substitute for using the manual tiling techniques I have outlined above. But generally speaking you find an image you like then choose Filter>Pattern Maker. In the dialog box you select the area you would like to create as a pattern, then click Generate multiple times until you like the result.
Sometimes when using this method the seams are too obvious, if you see that, try increasing the smoothness setting, this will lower the contrast of the next pattern you generate.
If the Pattern Maker chops up the photo objects too much then bring the sample detail setting up a bit and regenerate the pattern.
The Pattern Maker works best on images with a lot of sharp-edged detail, because it seems to literally rip your image to shreds and then reassemble the pieces in a random way. Once you have the look you like click the disk icon in the lower right area to save the pattern. Don't forget that saved patterns can be used with the Layer Styles.
Hope this helps you out, and good luck.