[Award Winner] Meshon's Cobblestone Streets tutorial

[ChickPea]

This looks fantastic! I'm using Gimp and Inkscape, so I'm not sure if it'll 'translate' but when I've got time, I'll definitely be giving it a go.

[Meshon]

This looks fantastic! I'm using Gimp and Inkscape, so I'm not sure if it'll 'translate' but when I've got time, I'll definitely be giving it a go.

I guess in Inkscape the appropriate technique is called "Pattern Along Path" and, according to what I've read, the .svg files I included in the download should give you what you need to get it working.

Good luck!
Meshon

[ChickPea]

I guess in Inkscape the appropriate technique is called "Pattern Along Path" and, according to what I've read, the .svg files I included in the download should give you what you need to get it working.

Good luck!
Meshon

I don't think 'Pattern along Path' is quite the right tool (despite it's name). I think that's for bending objects to the shape of a path, rather than filling them.

I've written out below how to use your cobblestones in Inkscape. It's really simple and fairly obvious, but if you aren't familiar with Inkscape it will hopefully help. I haven't included steps to explain the creation of cobblestones, because the SVG file provided is fantastic and it's impossible to anticipate what people might want if this doesn't suit them. However, the steps in Inkscape aren't much different from what's outlined in the tutorial for Illustrator.

1. Get the files from the link Meshon provided in Comment number one, and unzip the file. Once unzipped, open the streetBrush.svg file in Inkscape.
2. Initially, all the different cobblestone styles are grouped, so click on the shape once to select it, then press Control+Shift+G to ungroup (or just go to the Object menu and choose Ungroup)
3. You should probably re-group just the style you want to use (I'm not certain if grouping is strictly necessary, but hey it worked for me.) To do this, hold down the mouse and draw a selection box round the one you want, and press Control+G (or go to the Object menu then 'Group'). Once grouped, you can make the cobbles shape bigger or smaller if required.
4. Once your cobbles shape is grouped and sized correctly, click it once to make sure it's selected, then go to the Object menu, scroll down to 'Pattern', then select 'Object to Pattern' from the flyout menu.
5. Next, create the shape or path that you want to fill with cobblestones. Can't help with this. Only you know what you need!
6. Once you've finished, make sure your shape/line is selected, then go to the Fill and Stroke dialogue box. If you've got a shape you want filled, click on the Fill tab. If it's just a line or stroke, click on the Stroke Paint tab. At the top of the tab, there's a little row of boxes (e.g. Solid Fill, Gradient Fill etc.) Along near the end is Pattern Fill (it's got a pattern of little white diamonds on a blue background in my version.) Click this and Inkscape will show a drop down menu of built-in patterns as well as the ones you've created yourself (which have oh-so-helpful names like 'pattern9899'). If you haven't created any other patterns in the file, there will only be one listed above the built-in styles. Otherwise, the last pattern you created usually goes to the bottom of the self-created list, but still above the built-in styles.
7. Select your pattern in the drop down list and your shape should fill. And that's it!

So, that's what I did for Inkscape, which is the easy part of the tutorial. I'll take a look in a day or two at the Photoshop part and see if I can figure it out in Gimp.

Thanks again for a great tutorial!