1. Getting Started
PixPlant creates seamlessly tiled textures from photos. Creating textures can be as easy as doing the following:
- Find an image that will be used as seed image: a photo with a pattern (for example a brick wall) or without a pattern (for example pebbles). Click the Seed Add button at the top-right of the PixPlant window. You can use a local image file or copy an image from the clipboard.
- Click the Generate button at the bottom of the PixPlant window.
- The generated texture is created in the Canvas Area at the left of the PixPlant window.
2. The Canvas
The Canvas is the large area at the left side of the PixPlant window where the generated images are displayed. By pressing the Generate button, you can either generate an entire image or just an area, selected with the mouse on the Canvas. When generating to an area, only the selected portion and a small periphery will have new pixels, carefully generated to integrate with the surrounding image.
Each time you press Generate, PixPlant creates a different image in the Canvas, so you can press generate multiple times until an image you like or one that can be further refined by generating into its sub-areas is generated. The Undo and Redo buttons at the bottom can navigate back and forward through the most recent images.
A common workflow is to generate an initial full image and then selecting and generating only to image areas that should be different, sometimes also unselecting certain seed image areas so that they do not appear in the generated area.
The generated image can seamlessly tile horizontally and/or vertically by selecting this in the Tiling combo-box, before generating. When generating tiled images, the Canvas area will display a tiling of the generated image, with a grey line marking the limits of the main tile.
To offset the generated image, press the right mouse button (or Shift key) and move the mouse - this is only possible after generating in a horizontally and/or vertically tiled mode.
Generate
The Generate button at the bottom of the PixPlant window generates a new full image using the current seed image(s) and tiling settings. To abort generating a new image, just click this button again, whose label during generation changes to "Abort". During image generation a progress bar is displayed at the top-left corner of the window, next to the "Canvas:" label.
You can press the Shift key while clicking the Generate button, to generate using only the currently selected seed image. The button provides feedback on this by changing its label to "Generate from Current Seed Only".
If you're not happy with the generated image, just generate again (or press Undo and then Generate) as PixPlant will each time generate a different image. However, if generating to an area and that area does not change much when generated multiple times, you'll need to increase the size of the selected area or add variety to the seed images by adding copies of the image and changing their Straighten settings.
Generate to an Area
To generate to an area, click in the canvas with the mouse and drag to select a rectangular area. Then click the Generate button which will create new pixels in that area and in a small periphery around it.
The Shift key can be used to generate using only the currently selected seed image.
Tiling Mode
On this option you can select whether the next generated image should seamlessly tile, horizontally and/or vertically.
If a tiling mode is selected, after generation is complete you can offset the next generated image by clicking the right mouse button or the Shift key while dragging the mouse over the Canvas area.
Offsetting the Canvas
After generating a canvas image with tiling (horizontal and or vertical), you can offset the generated image, by pressing the right mouse button (or pressing the Shift key) and dragging the mouse over the Canvas area.
Canvas Zoom
The + and - zoom buttons allow zoom-in or zoom-out of the generated image in the Canvas area.
The 1:1 zoom button displays a 100% view of the Canvas, displaying pixels in a real 1:1 size.
The Fit zoom button will display the entire canvas in the currently available screen space.
Full Screen Preview
The full screen preview button displays the currently generated canvas across the entire screen area, at the current canvas zoom level - this is very useful to examine repetition across the tiled texture. If the Canvas was generated with tiling, it will tile as necessary to fill the screen.
When in the fullscreen mode, you can press any key or mouse button to return to the main interface. You can also offset the texture in the screen by pressing down (but not releasing it) the mouse and dragging. As soon as you release the mouse key, it will revert to the main interface.
Undo/Redo
Press to switch back and forward between the recently generated images. For reasons related with memory optimization only up to 5 undo/redo levels are possible.
3. The Seed Area
The seed area is the right side of the PixPlant window where you can handle everything related with the seed images: adding, adjusting, out-selecting parts and more.
The seed area starts with the Seed List, where you can select the current seed image which all seed controls will act upon.
Below the Seed List is the Seed Edit area, where parts of the seed image can be out-selected so as not to appear on the generated image.
After the Seed Edit area, a number of controls define how the seed image will be used to generate the Canvas image.
Seed Add & Delete
The Seed Add button opens a popup offering options to load a new seed from a file or clipboard and provides access to an online seed image search area. It's also possible to add a new seed by drag'n'drop from the system Explorer/Finder and other applications.
If the "Add Seed from File..." popup option is selected, the new seed image can be loaded from a file in any of the commonly used formats: JPEG, JPEG-2000, TIFF, PNG, PSD, BMP, GIF, etc. Alternatively seed images can be drag & dropped into the PixPlant window.
With the "Add Seed from Clipboard" popup option you can load an image previously copied to the system clipboard. This is very handy to transfer images from other graphics applications, from a web browser, etc.
Selecting the "Find Seeds Online..." option will open a new web browser window accessing an online area which contains a directory of seed images that can be used with PixPlant.
You can generate from multiple seed images - and it's usually a good thing as it increases variety in the generated image - as long as they are visually related, or PixPlant won't be able to use the images that don't share similarities. For example several pictures of a wall help to increase variety in the generated image, but adding other unrelated photos will difficult PixPlant's work as visual similarities will be harder to find. When using multiple seeds it's also important to respect the size of the image elements, which must be as similar as possible between images.
Next to the Seed Add button we have the Del button which removes the current image from the image list. Please note that the selected seed will only be removed from the Seed List, the actual source file will not be deleted.
Seed List Area
This area lists the currently loaded seed images, including the currently selected image which is marked with a highlited border.
Seed Edit Area
The Seed Edit area allows you to remove parts of the seed image which should not be used for generation.
To unselect an area so that its pixels should not be used, just click and drag the mouse over this area: the cursor will show a minus [-] sign and the unselected area will disappear into black and won't be used for generation.
To make a previously unselected area usable again, just move the mouse cursor over the area (the cursor will show a plus [+] sign), then click on it and the area's pixels will reappear from black and will be usable for generation.
To increase the size of the Seed Edit area, in order to see a larger image of the seed, you can click the Expand button at the bottom of the PixPlant window, next to the Redo button.
Take care that unselecting most of the seed image can make PixPlant's work more difficult and slow as it will have less of the original image to be inspired from, potentially causing lower variety in the generated image.
Equalize Seed
Select to equalize and filter the luminosity and/or color of the current seed image.
Selecting these options creates a more homogeneous seed image, which simplifies image generation specially when generating seamless textures.
Because it is usually very useful, the light equalization setting is automatically enabled when a seed image is added.
Straighten Seed Window
By clicking the "Straighten Seed" button, the Straighten window will appear, where you can correct misalignments or perspective problems in the original seed image. For better tiling, specially of images with repeated elements, it's important that the image is as aligned as possible with the horizontal and vertical sides.
To straighten the image, set the 4 control points to map into a real rectangle area in the image, such that the transformed result will be aligned with the sides.
To see the resulting image, simply move the mouse out of the edit area in the window: a preview of the straightened image will display. You can also press Shift while inside the edit area, which will display the preview (but only while Shift is pressed). By moving the mouse back inside the edit area (or releasing Shift) you can continue to edit.
This window can also be used to crop the image to an area of interest: this is done by selecting a smaller rectangle aligned with the original image sides.
For more precise editing, please increase the size or maximize the window, which will expand the edit area.
This window includes two more options: a button to reset the settings to the previously detected values, and a combo box that allows the automatic display or not of this window on each added seed.
The small animated sequence in the top-right corner succinctly shows the purpose of the window: to rectify the image or part of the image into an aligned area.
Seed Pattern Window
This button opens the Seed Pattern window, where you can define the pattern grid that better includes the image elements. Although PixPlant automatically tries to detect the best pattern grid when the seed image is added and after doing a Straighten Seed, it is not possible in all cases to detect the pattern, which can be corrected or set by using this window.
If the "Seed Pattern" button label displays in orange, it means PixPlant thinks you should take a look at the detected pattern to correct or disable it. Make sure you have first straightened as well as possible the image in the Straighten Seed window.
What if the image does not have a pattern? In this case, simply press the "Image Has Not Pattern" button at the bottom, to tell PixPlant not to worry about patterns for this seed.
If the image does have a pattern, click on the main area and drag the mouse: you'll notice that a grid is displayed over the image - make sure this grid is as aligned as possible with the repeating pattern in the image. If the pattern in the image is somewhat irregular, try setting the grid that covers most of its repeating elements as well as possible.
Note that in some cases it's not possible to use a perfect grid, on those cases the best grid that covers most of the elements must be used instead.
A few examples follow. On the last example no pattern exists, so the "Image Has No Pattern" button must be pressed.
For more precise editing, please increase the size or maximize the window, which will expand the edit area.
Two more options are available in this window: a button to reset the settings to the previously detected values; and a combo box that allows the automatic display of this window: on every new seed/straighten, only if not detected, or no automatic display at all.
The small animated sequence in the top-right corner succinctly shows the purpose of the window: to allow correcting/setting the pattern rectangle of the seed image.
Seed Scale
In the Seed Scale settings you can define the scale of the current seed image. Besides influencing the size of the seed elements in the generated image, the seed scale is important for correct tiling, so that image elements can spatially "meet" at the sides of the generated image.
The Width and Height sliders will change the width and/or height scale of the current seed image. By moving these sliders you can set the size and proportion of the seed elements that will appear in the generated image. You'll notice that the sliders will stick to certain values after being moved: this happens because of the Lock (at the right of the sliders) and Snap (below the sliders) settings.
If the Lock button at the right of the sliders is set, both Width and Height values will be locked to be the same. But the Width and Height values might not actually be the same if the "Snap to Seed Pattern" setting is enabled: in this case the values will be locked to be as similar as possible while still respecting the snap restriction.
When the Snap to Seed Pattern option (below the sliders) is enabled, the
seed scale values are forced to the best values for optimal tiling of
seed images containing regular elements.
When checked, this setting will force the seed scale
sizes to the best values so that image elements
spatially "meet" at the canvas edges.
If Snap to Seed Pattern is greyed out, the seed pattern is unknown and no
tilling snap is performed: in this case edit the Seed Pattern
setting above to correct this.
When used with Seed Scale Lock, the seed scales
will snap to the nearest possible proportions,
however they might not be equal.
If the seed image does not contain regular elements,
this setting is not useful and can be disabled.
Scale ranges from 40% to 240%. To set the default 100% scale, just click on the 'Width:' or 'Height:' text labels of the sliders.
Extra Seed Symmetry
These settings allow PixPlant to use symmetric variations of the seed, which can improve generation specially if the seed does not contain regular repeated elements.
Selecting any of the 'Horizontal', 'Vertical' or 'Both' options will allow PixPlant to explore those symmetries when generating from this seed.
Take care that when generating from a seed image with highly regular elements, as using these settings might generate undesirable visual symmetries in the generated image.
Shortcut Keys
The following shortcut keys are available:
| Ctrl + Keypad + | Canvas Zoom-in |
| Ctrl + Keypad - | Canvas Zoom-out |
| Ctrl + 1 | Zoom Canvas 100% |
| Ctrl + F | Zoom Canvas to Fit |
| Ctrl + L | Fullscreen Canvas |
| Ctrl + A | Add Seed from File |
| Ctrl + V | Add Seed from Clipboard |
| Ctrl + O | Find Seeds Online |
| Ctrl + G | Generate |
| Ctrl + Shift + G | Generate from current seed only |
| Ctrl + Z | Undo |
| Ctrl + Y | Redo |
| Shift + F1 | Show interactive quick help |
| F1 | Display this help |
The next shortcut keys are only available in the PixPlant Standalone edition:
| Ctrl + N | New Canvas |
| Ctrl + S | Save Canvas |
| Ctrl + C | Copy Canvas to system clipboard |