Fun With Tiles #2

See also Part 1 and Part 3.

This was done using Gimp 2.2.

Symmetrical Seamless Tiles

Symmetrical seamless tiles are tiles where you can't tell where the edge of the tile image is, when you look at it on the desktop, and this is achieved by making it completely symmetrical.

For this tile stuff, we're starting with the following base image, which was cut out of a photo I took:

Make Seamless

Use the "Make Seamless" filter to make the image seamless.

Filters -> Map -> Make Seamless

Sometimes this filter works well, sometimes this doesn't.

Result:

MirrorSplit Plugin

This uses the Mirror Split Plugin to create a tile which is a two-way reflection of one quarter of the image.

Filter -> Distorts -> MirrorSplit

Apply the filter twice, once to get one reflection, and then again, in the opposite direction, to get two. That is, if, for example, you reflected the Right half of the image, then the second time, reflect either the Upper or Lower half of the image.

Result:

Kaleidoscope Plugin

This takes reflection one step further, by applying a Kaleidoscope effect. There are a few different Kaleidoscope plugins for gimp; not all of them work with every version.

But if you can get one to work, it is really a lot of fun!

Result: