Mastering Half-drop Repeat: Photoshop's Smart Objects Revealed

[@katewestfall9721]

Absolutely brilliant tutorial- thank you so much for sharing this!

[@MelArmstrong]

You're most welcome! I'm glad it was helpful for you!

[@love-in-idleness2]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate having the video AND the written instructions. This is terrific. :)

[@MelArmstrong]

Thank you! I'm glad it was helpful!

[@m.duraipandithenmozhi8162]

Thanks for your presentations on photoshop lesson

[@velvetbees]

Not only is your pattern delightful, this tutorial can be done in CS5.5, which I have because I still use old 32 bit filters in my artwork. This is ingenious and just what I wanted. Thank you.

[@MelArmstrong]

Glad I could help!

[@staceynewstead]

Thank you Mel! I just discovered your channel. Really love your illustrations and your instruction is amazing!

[@josephjessicastanish5480]

This was SO helpful. Thank you so so much for sharing what you've learned with us! *Just* getting into licensing and I feel much more confident now that I'm able to make these types of patterns. I really appreciate it!! ♥️

[@MelArmstrong]

That's wonderful. Glad I could help!

[@sandrabedoya5620]

Greate tutorial!!! Love your skillshare classes, and your youtube videos really helpful!

[@mpenney23]

Hey thanks for posting, I've been watching a number of videos trying to figure out how to do this and this is the best one so far!

[@MelArmstrong]

Thanks so much! I'm super glad its useful for you!

[@sarah.sojourns6861]

the best pattern design tutorial Ive ever seen... and thats been almost all of them on KZbin by now 😅 Thank you for being such a great teacher!

[@MelArmstrong]

awww...thanks so much Sarah! I'm so glad it's been useful.

[@haymur8533]

Thank you so much.. It helped a lot as I have a Photoshop CC 2017 version and that version doesn't have a Pattern preview option, I was finding it hard to do a half drop pattern but with your method I did a half drop pattern and it worked.❤

[@MelArmstrong]

Glad it helped!

[@KaterinaBuscemi]

As far as I can tell, the 2024 version of Photoshop also doesn’t have a pattern preview for half drop, only full drop. Please correct me if I’m wrong, Mel. But this is a great workaround. Thanks!

[@anneherbert6297]

Excellent tutorial, thank you. Having the written instructions as well is extremely helpful too. ♥

[@MelArmstrong]

Glad it was helpful!

[@ross2musiclive395]

I’m learning so much from you, Mel!!! Thank you!!!!😊😊

[@MelArmstrong]

@@ross2musiclive395 you’re welcome

[@TutuWells]

THANK YOU so so much for sharing this!!!... this may be the best tutorial on pattern design I've seen

[@MelArmstrong]

Awww...thanks so much! I'm so glad you found it useful.

[@kiloindianovember]

Great tutorial thank you!

[@MelArmstrong]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching!

[@annegregory3365]

Thank you! So easy to follow. Love your skillshare classes too. xo

[@DebbieHarris-d2o]

Thank you for this tutorial I've learned so much from you on KZbin and Skillshare over the years. I am struggling with smart objects. When I go into the smart object layer and move motifs around and hit save, everything changes expect my original motifs in the diamond. Can you offer any suggestions on how to correct this? thank you

[@MelArmstrong]

If I'm understanding what's happening correctly, I wondering if you may have selected "New Smart Object via copy" when you created your first duplicate of the original diamond instead of just duplicating it? You could just remove the original diamond and place a copy of one of the others into the diamond, if that makes sense?

[@DebbieHarris-d2o]

@@MelArmstrong Yes, it created a copy on top. Thank you for your feedback!

[@noinudee]

hi mel. Thank you for the clear instruction. I have a question ^ ^ hope you can help me with. i've done some half-drop patterns on procreate before and want to use it in photoshop. Is it possible to set them as a half drop or I have to move things around again? Thank you ;)

[@Digidesignresortcom]

Mel, thanks for the great video and the PDF - very helpful!

[@MelArmstrong]

It's a pleasure! So glad it was helpful!

[@Digidesignresortcom]

@@MelArmstrong I tried to create a pattern with your instruction. Thanks again but the PDF and the tutorial do not fit, e.g. in the pdf it says bottom middle while in the video it is middle - just saying because I couldn't create that pattern, not to complain - only in case you wanna update it 🙂

[@DevineDirection-youtube]

I did not understand how you extracted the repeat tile. What calculation you used for drawing the rectangle??? Please help.

[@MelArmstrong]

I recommend downloading the accompanying pdf which has the instructions on how to make the calculations. Link in description.

[@Fabianadongbang]

Excelent Content!! Thank you so much for this, I am learning a lot with you!!

[@MelArmstrong]

I'm so happy to help!

[@RekhaKrishnamurthi]

This was very helpful! I’m going to try out this method. Thanks for the PDF instructions too! My motifs are in Procreate…would I import them into a new document in Photoshop?

[@MelArmstrong]

Hi Rekha, thanks for watching. I draw my motifs in Procreate also. I normally export as a PSD then open them up in Photoshop. I convert each motif into a smart object, which allows me to resize and retain the quality, then pull them into the pattern file.

[@RekhaKrishnamurthi]

@@MelArmstrong Thank you!

[@kendraminadeo8553]

@@MelArmstrong That's a hot tip! Thank you!

[@nataliedavison5592]

@@MelArmstrong what size canvas do you create your motifs in procreate?

[@marcybrennanart8477]

Would you be able to do this using Photoshop’s Pattern Preview and skip all the x/y stuff?

[@MelArmstrong]

ahhh...now that would be amazing, but unfortunately, this can't be done with Pattern Preview. I do believe a feature request has been submitted to Adobe to implement it, though, so fingers crossed we can use Pattern Preview for half-drops in a future update.

[@mischiefk3717]

How did you come up with the vertical figure of +2426 pixels? A 12" canvas converts to 3600 pixels at 300 dpi? Really confused

[@MelArmstrong]

Yes, a 12" canvas is 3600 pixels at 300dpi. The 2426px is the vertical alignment of the smart-object when I move it to the bottom. I then use it to extract the repeat tile at the end. The repeat tile will be smaller than the canvas (canvas = 3600x3600px). My resulting repeat tile is 3064 x 2426 pixels. Hope that makes sense?

[@janci00019]

there is also "Pattern preview" under "View" option.

[@MelArmstrong]

Yes I use pattern preview a lot. Doesn’t work for this half-drop method though.

[@ozkanozer83]

thanks for vlog............

[@brendangoodenough173]

Appreciate your time and work, Mel, but there are far easier ways to achieve the same results in PSD..

[@MelArmstrong]

Yes, I agree there are many ways to achieve a half-drop in Photoshop. For me, this is the easiest and most effective. :-)

[@annaguettabi3974]

Can this be done with the “pattern preview” option?

[@MelArmstrong]

Unfortunately, no, it can't. Hopefully in future versions of Photoshop!!

[@bobbyseaford]

Hi from Tassie Mel! Great tutorial, thank you - looking forward to trying it out. Can the pattern be scaled up? For example, if making patterns for a quilt cover, or sheet set? We are keen to develop some linen and I want to make a pattern for it, but don't want our illustrations to be tiny when printed ...if that makes sense? Thanks in advance!

[@MelArmstrong]

Hey Bobby! I would start with a canvas as big as possible. Because you probably know the approximate size of the quilt or sheet, you could work out how big you'd want each motif, then you could decide the size of the repeat tile or starting canvas. Unfortunately, because Photoshop is raster you can't scale up. If you use Illustrator you can scale up as much as you like, but Illustrator doesn't allow you have all the lovely painterly textures like Photoshop does. Hope that makes sense?

[@MelArmstrong]

by the way Tassie is on my bucket list!!

[@dorisw2507]

I have a dumb question because I'm new.... I am not sure why this is a half drop ? Is it because the sides of the diamonds interlock? Does it always have to be diamonds?

[@MelArmstrong]

Not a dumb question at all. It's a half drop because of the way the block is dropped halfway down the vertical axis on either side of the middle verticle blocks. Maybe have a look at my blog post here...melarmstrong.com/create-a-half-drop-repeat-in-photoshop/ The images I have on there show the difference between a square block and a half drop. The diamond is just my preference for a really seamless repeat, you could have a square if you like.

[@ozkanozer83]

This is how to make at illustrator