Pattern sheets

Make a pattern sheet opens a workspace to put many 2D images on one 1024x1024 sheet. The finished sheet works with the usual photo import.

Start a sheet

There are two ways in:

• On the Patterns tab, New pattern has Make a pattern sheet (photos and video frames on one sheet), right after Photo texture. The sheet opens straight away; its ← back arrow returns to New pattern with the name kept. Done saves the sheet, then opens a 256×256 Photo texture with your typed name and the photo card already on the new sheet (Frame it | Warp it). The tile starts on Transparent (the Solid | Transparent dropdown), so the sheet’s empty space stays see-through. Select Use photo to put it on the canvas, then stamp it on the tile.
• In Paint or the Pattern studio, select Photo. The Add a photo window has Take a photo, Camera roll, Type words, and Make a pattern sheet.

Collect your photos

Four buttons are at the bottom, beside the strip, for adding images:

• Video: In the app, opens the device’s gallery showing only videos (the first time, the app needs access to your photos). In a web browser, it opens the file picker for videos. Once a video is loaded, Video reopens it until the app is closed. Selecting a video opens the Pick frames from your video timeline. Drag the slider to move through the video; the ‹ and › buttons step back and forward 0.1s at a time. Take frame adds the current frame to the strip without closing the window. Pick another video opens the gallery (or file picker) again; the new video replaces the old one in the same card.
• Photos: Opens the image picker. You can select several at once to add to the strip.
• Camera: Opens the device camera and places the photo right in the strip.
• Your figs: Shows your figs as flat 2D cutouts (the fig’s card picture). Selecting a fig adds its picture to the strip. If the fig has two or more saved poses , a row of its poses shows instead. Selecting a pose adds a see-through cutout of the fig in that pose. The row stays open so you can select more. As saved adds the fig’s card cutout. Done closes the row.

The strip has up to 24 items. Select ✕ on a thumbnail to remove it from the strip.

Build the sheet

Drag an image from the strip onto the sheet, or tap one to place it at the center. Drag images on the sheet to move them. Dragging a corner handle sizes and rotates the image; rotation snaps near right angles. Tapping an image on the sheet shows these chips:

• Photo tools: Opens the Photo tools card on that image, to crop it, straighten it, or cut parts away. See below.
• To front / To back: Moves it in front of or behind the images that overlap it.
• ✕: Deletes the image from the sheet.

The header has Help (with Tap for hints; see Getting around ) and the layout dropdown (Loose, 4 pockets, or 16 pockets). Loose lets you move, size, and rotate freely. Grid layouts (pockets) snap; dragging an image snaps it to the edges of the nearest quarter or sixteenth of the sheet. Two fingers on a snapped image size and move it inside its pocket. Two fingers anywhere else, including on a Loose image, zoom the view (up to 4×). One finger on empty space of a zoomed sheet moves the view. ⌖ resets the view.

← Make a pattern sheet

HelpLoose ▾✓ Done

Photo toolsTo frontTo back✕

VideoPhotosCameraYour figs

Photo tools

Photo tools opens a card of that name on the tapped image. It works on that image only, so it has no ← back to the photo sources. Help in its title bar has Tap for hints.

• Frame it | Warp it: Crops the image or straightens it, as in Make it yours and Warp it .
• Under Frame it, three rows of tools set the parts to keep and the parts to cut away. Cut-away parts turn see-through.
  • Cut away: Tap a color on the image; that color region is cut away. Magic tap: Tap a color; that color region stays and the rest turns transparent. Tap again to keep more. The dropdown beside them (Less, Normal, More) sets the color range for one tap.
  • Lasso: Draw a loop around the part to keep; the rest turns transparent. Brush: Brush over the parts to keep. Eraser: Brush over the parts to cut away. The dropdown between them sets the brush size (Small, Medium, Big).
  • Flip: Swaps the kept and cut-away parts. ↩ Undo cut and ↪ Redo cut step through the cuts. ↩ Bring it back restores all cut-away parts.
• While Magic tap, Lasso, Brush, or Eraser is on, the cut-away parts show faintly, so you can brush or tap them back.
• Look ▾: Sets a tint.

Select Put it on the sheet to put the image back as it is now. It keeps its middle, rotation, and pocket; a cropped image keeps its remaining area in the same place on the sheet. ✕ or a tap outside the card leaves the image as it was. The strip keeps the original.

Save and use it

Select Done to make the sheet. The app flattens the layout into a 1024x1024 image, see-through where there’s no image. It saves the image to the Your pattern sheets shelf in the photo import window, numbered in order (e.g., Sheet 1, Sheet 2), with the note Sheet 1 saved to pattern sheets. The strip keeps its images for the next sheet, until the app is closed. An empty sheet isn’t saved.

Pattern sheets work like imported images. Selecting a sheet from the shelf starts the Make it yours steps (Frame it, Warp it, Use photo) to place one area on a fig or a pattern canvas. On the photo table a sheet starts on Keep the paint, so its see-through space stamps nothing and the paint under it stays. Sheets on the shelf have a download button (saving a PNG file, or opening the share sheet on iPad and Android) and a delete button (✕; tap twice to confirm).