Mystery Cloud Pattern 2010?

[Gareth_Williams]

Hi, does anybody know if this pattern is a setting or default of some sort in Photoshop or if somebody has made it themselves? It looks a bit like the clouds pattern I’ve got now but that’s only black and white? Anyway, I found this on a map of Iron Age Celtic tribes of Britain about 15 years ago. I liked the look of it and screensavered it so I could use it on my own illustrations but ideally I’d like to know how to make it in PS so I can use it to fill a bigger area.

Does anybody recognise this?

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I suspect this may be based on a photograph/scan – could be geographic features or a corroded surface or … 

You could try to emulate it with combinations of Smart Filtered Layers (Clouds, Find Edges, …) and some painting. 

The coloring could probably largely be emulated with a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer. 

[Conrad_C]

One problem with the pattern is that the seams and pattern repetition are very obvious. You could easily improve on it. And, you can make your own in less than one minute.

The clouds in the photo below were made by setting up a sufficiently large canvas, setting the Foreground and Background colors to green and black, then choosing Filter > Render > Clouds.

[Trevor.Dennis]

The individual pattern blocks are too small to produce anything useful, and it is so dark.  I tried to isolate a single tile, which turned out to 156 pixels square.  It's one heck of an ask to make anything out of so few pixels.  Topaz Photo Ai upscaled it 4X, reduced noise and made it brighter.  I mirrored it to get it to 1248 pixels square.

Gareth, textures like Render > Clouds and Render Fibers are referred to as Fractal Noise and are incredibly useful for doing things like randomising brightness (by using render clouds in an adjustment layer's mask).   They wouldn't create your texture because it is not really random enough, but I am sure you could find uses for it when upscaled like above.

[Gareth_Williams]

Wow! Conrad C! That looks great. I'll try and copy that. I'm just reading all the other contributions now. There is a lot of good stuff on this thread. Thanks!

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

If you need to build a tiling pattern for uses like a repeated web page background, you can do it this way:

1. Build one square tile using a method like Filter > Render > Clouds, and edit that as needed (e.g. adjust contrast or color). 

2. Choose View > Pattern Preview to simulate how that one tile looks if repeated edge to edge. 

3. If you see things like visible seams or obvious repetitions, use Pattern Preview to monitor how the document appears when tiled, as you touch up the edges to make the pattern look the way you want. 

Remember that Pattern Preview is just a tiling preview, so the actual document is still just one tile.

Left: Default view. Right: View > Pattern Preview enabled.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

The Filter »Clouds« itself provides seamless results for side-lengths that are intergral multiples of 256px. 

[Gareth_Williams]

I did render clouds in a 2048px square canvass, then scaled it down to 1024 and like c.pfaffenbichler said it is seamless. So I guess I could turn that tile into a pattern that repeats, and it would look pretty good. However, if I can manage to isolate a seamless area of the original pattern I posted surely I can do the same thing with that anyway. I will try and do that. However it is NOT 156px like Trevor.Dennis said. Each individual tile is smaller. A 780px area gets in about 5 and a half repetitions of the tile. 156 would be 5 in a 780px area! Anyway, I will try! I will update the thread with the results when I can. Hopefully good results! Thanks again.

[Gareth_Williams]

Thanks guys! I did render clouds and it does look pretty good in 2000px square canvass. If like c.pfaffenbichler says the render provides seamless results for side-lengths that are multiples of 256px, I will try it in a 2048px square and hopefully I can make a pattern that can repeat that 2048px square tile across any size canvass, or a segment of it if smaller. I will update the thread with the results when I can. Hopefully good results! Thanks again.

[Gareth_Williams]

Ok, I’ve isolated a seamlessly repeating square section of the pattern. It’s 4 by 4 repetitions of the tile and a 588px square in total. I’ve also made an 8x8 that is 1176px. Anyway, can I make it a pattern that appears in my patterns window or would I have to use View > Pattern Preview to build a tiling pattern for uses like a repeated web page background? Thanks again.

[c.pfaffenbichler · Accepted solution]

Is the pattern as is seamless or not? 

If it is then just use Edit > Define Pattern. 

Please post the image. 

[Gareth_Williams]

It is seamless and that does work! Brilliant! With massive thanks to you guys it's job done!

[c.pfaffenbichler]

[Gareth_Williams]

Thanks Pfaffenbichler. That looks Ok but I much prefer Conrad’s one. I’ll have a go myself later this week and update the thread with the results. Hopefully good results!