Balancing textures

Creating balanced repeating textures is easy with AVAs design tools

There are several tools in AVA which can be used to balance a texture. Below is a selection of our favourite ones.

Carbon Copy

Carbon Copy From Crop Box

This method of repeating files makes it simple and efficient to put jigsaw repeating patterns into a square repeat. It can be used with almost any type of design, whether there is a hint of a repeat in the original document or not.

Open a document to be put in to repeat and drag a crop box over a single repeat of the design. Try to be as accurate as possible.

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Tip: If you know the actual repeat size double click the Crop Tool and enter the measurements directly and then simply drag the crop box to the optimum position (where it cuts through the least number of important motifs as possible).

Hold down ^ (control key) and click inside the crop box and select Crop To New Document from the contextual menu which appears.
The cropped area will open into a new document. Put this document into repeat using the Repeat Popover. We recommend using a 2 x 2 repeat whilst editing repeat joins. Remember to apply a repeat drop if needed, and tick Frame First Repeat. This will help you to identify the repeat join. It can be turned off at any time if the frame interferes with your editing.

Select the Carbon Copy Tool from the Tools Palette and change the Source popup menu in the settings pane to Crop Box.

Click into the original design, hold down the option key and click once somewhere on the design to define the source of the carbon copy. It doesn’t matter where you click as long as it is within the original design.
Click back in the new document and fix any areas within the design that do not join correctly on the repeat edges.

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Tip: To aid the fixing process, view your new and original files side by side on the screen so you can see the cursor position on both. The source location (shown with the cross cursor on the original document) will be mapped to your new document using the crop box area as its initial guide. This allows you to copy from the area outside the source crop box and enables you to fix the design more effectively.

Press the arrow keys on the keyboard when using the Carbon Copy Tool in this mode to make the source cross move within the design by the exact amount of one repeat. When working on the top to bottom repeat join for example, press the up or down arrow keys once and the source cross will offset by the vertical repeat distance so that you can copy from the other edge of the original design.

The left and right arrow keys can be used in the same way to fix the sides. The software will automatically calculate any drop which is set. If you get lost when navigating with the arrows, simply press the esc key on the keyboard to reset the source point to its original position.
Continue working in this way with the Carbon Copy Tool, moving the source point from one repeat edge to another using the arrow keys to choose the best information from the original document. For example, you may find that a particular motif on the side repeat is better painted in the original on one side that the other, but perhaps further down the repeat the best motif is on the opposite side of the original. This method allows you to pick and choose what looks and works best in the new design.
Once you are happy with the whole repeat, discard the original file and save the new one.

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Dodge & Burn

In photography, dodge and burn tools are used to affect the exposure of a design. In AVA, the Dodge and Burn Tool uses the shape of the selected brush, the pressure settings and the brush transparency to reproduce these effects. It can be a very useful tool to correct the colours or tones of motifs or areas at repeat joins where scanning has introduced differences in the design.

Select the dodge and burn tool in the Tools Palette or press O on the keyboard to automatically select this tool and open its setting window. The Type pop up bar displays the tool types of dodge, burn and sponge. These can also be selected directly in the tools window by clicking and holding on the tool. This way you can see which tool type is selected. You can also use your up and down arrow keys to change between types.

When either the dodge, burn or sponge tools are selected, a coating window will appear, in which you can quickly edit the settings:

Dodge - lightens the area you paint over
Burn - darkens the area you paint over
Sponge - changes the saturation of the area you paint over
Dodge 1st, Burn 2nd - will dodge the first layer you have activated and burn the second
Burn 1st, Dodge 2nd - will burn the first layer you have activated and dodge the second

In dodge or burn mode, the range pop up bar gives the options highlights, mid-tones and shadows. This controls the tonal range which will be affected by either of the selected tools. If you use the Dodge 1st Burn 2nd or Burn 1st Dodge 2nd tool, you can activate two layers and apply the selected options respectively.

In sponge mode, the range pop up bar changes to saturate or desaturate. This changes the saturation of the area that is painted over. Sponge mode only works on RGB Images.

Exposure allows you to control the amount of effect that the tool has on the design. For example, setting the exposure to 100% would have the maximum effect, whereas setting the exposure to 10% would have a minimal effect.

Tip: The exposure can be used alongside the brush transparency to create a very soft, subtle effect.

The Movie

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Gripping Brush

This function allows you to apply your Gripping with a brush rather than to the whole file (or in a selection), this can help you to balance non tonal textures very quickly and with great control. As the gripping is applied with the brush you could also use the function to apply a grip only to particular parts in a design.

Getting started with the Gripping Brush :

Open the Brushes Library by double-clicking on the Brush Tool in your Tools Palette, from from the Window menu.
From the dropdown menu to the right of the action icon (see below), select the Gripping option.
Go to Window Menu > Gripping and set your desired grip mode and amount.
Activate the relevant layers and paint onto the area, which you wish to grip using the Brush Tool, now as you paint instead of painting you will be applying your gripping to the layer(s) selected with the brush, see movie below!

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Tip: By working with the Gripping Window open, you can quickly change the settings, and apply them instantly with the brush to your design.

Use a Palette to combine the brush settings with the settings in the Gripping Window. Doing this means you can recall your setup by the click of a button, rather than having to set up the Brush Tool and the Gripping Window each time. Palettes also help you store several settings, and enable you to switch between these settings quickly and easily.

After using the Gripping function it might be a good idea to switch the mode back to 'Brush'.

Double click movie to view full screen.

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Stamp Brush

This tool is popular amongst engravers and designers who want quickly develop, balance and enhance textures and designs.

Selecting motifs is very simple. Similar to the Carbon Copy Tool, you hold down ⌥ (option key) to select the area you want to stamp throughout your design. Selections can be made in rectangles, ovals, by using a lasso, or by using current brush (setting your current paintbrush as a stamp). Once a selection has been made, the selected motif can be resized using the 1 and 2 keys, and rotated as you work using the 3 and 4 keys. Each click of the 3 and 4 keys rotates the angle by 1º. All resizing and changes made to the angle of the stamp can be reset by pressing 0 on your keyboard.

For anyone who is left handed, the [ and ] keys can be used to resize the motif, and the left and right arrow keys can be used to rotate.

Drag from centre - your selections will be drawn from their centre point as opposed to the top left
Snap to selection - snaps your selection to the content within the selection. This option is on by default
Set Source From Current Selection - sets any existing selection in the document as your stamp motif
Add stamp to Brushes - will add your current stamp into the Brushes library

The movie below shows you everything you need to know.

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Creating a texture from scratch

It is possible to create a marble or stone texture from scratch using some creative tools. You can very quickly fill up a design or add texture using this method

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Note: These steps are just an example of how we would create a texture from scratch and not an exhaustive list.

Using filters to create texture

Open your layout file and magic wand the mask you want to work with
Add a new 8 bit layer
Go to View Menu > Filter Browser
Add a new filter set by clicking the + (plus button).
Choose your filter from the list - we recommend using the Clouds as a starting point, as this is a great way to add texture and granularity
Click Apply to apply the texture

Using existing textures to make brushes and build your design

Open a separated texture file
Look through each layer and look for interesting areas to turn into brushes. For more information on how to do this click here.

We recommend making a few different ones to balance the texture and make it look less CAD created.

To make these brushes look even better, we advise to increase the spacing to over 100% and also tick Rotate while Painting to give a more randomised effect. You can also make use of the Pressure Size and Pressure Density options if you are using a Wacom tablet.
Snap to the mask in the tile layout file and start to paint with the new brushes, building up texture.