I know many users find it far simpler to take the finished image to photoshop and snapart a texture on to the image. I personally feel that one should do whatever is best and easiest to get the effect that one wants.
That said within SA there is a very interesting and rather simple way to create a non tiling full sheet custom texture.
First it helps to understand that programs like snapart or painter are creating their texture by tiling a bit mask that guides a gradient light imop.
SA has a very flexible gradient lighting imop of its own with 16 variations on 8 basic processes. More interestingly the imop is structured so that color source and the image operation source can be separate. Further, in this operation we have all the usual SA composite methods. This means one can configure the imop so that the operation is reading a layer while the color is coming from the canvas and that this combination can be composited to the existing layer in anyway we might need.
OK so what?
Well, this means that we can use an image from layer 1 for example to create a "surface texture" in layer 2. The brilliance of this is that the "texture" in layer one can be created by any SA preset or operation you might choose. Thus full canvas application without tiling. The user can create a custom preset or use any of the existing presets (the paint with patterns might be a good place to start). In this way one can develop a personalized texture far more satisfying that the canned tiling of PS plugins without having to dig too deep into the guts of SA.
Here is how.
1) create your image. -- how ever you like, but if you have do it via multiple layers then reduce these to a single layer. you can either flatten the image or use the current view as new layer command.
2) create a new layer. paint this layer with a eye to the pattern or texture of the strokes(again a good place to start might be the paint with patter presets)
3) enter the imop mode select gradient lighting.
Set up the gradient lighting imop so that the color source is the canvas and the ip_source is the layer on which you have just created a "texture" set the process to shift lighting. set the mix to 45% set composite to .. start with replace (adjust as you experiment)
4) return to the layer of the "flattened" image to which you wish to add a texture--turn off view all.
run the imop.
voila you have a custom texture on your image.
I am attaching a PASeq that you can use as a template. The preset requires that you have (at least) 2 layers in your session. This preset presumes that the "texture" layer is in layer 1 ( you can either adjust the preset or move your texture layer to layer one). The attached PASeq uses an autopaint liquid brush to create the texture layer. You can of course use any paint, imop msg or texture synth method.
Have fun
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attached is the imop stripped out of the PASeq. Also attached is a zip file of some paper textures. There are or course thousands of paper textures available for download on the web. Using an image file does not solve the tiling or scaling issues as nicely as painting your own texture will but it may be quicker.
to use the preset: load the desired texture into layer one,
load your target image to the canvas and click run.addtexture.zip
paperimages folder.zip
Lindenwatercolorpaper1.jpg.zip
1. Opened a new layer (layer 2)
2. Opened a source image on layer 2- this source being the paper texture
3. Going to ImOp gradient lighting and putting IP source as layer 2 plus setting process to shift Lighting
I can now import any texture (after making the resolution the same as my original painted image) and nicely adjust the effect.
You might want to explain how to do this as a Paseq (including how you get the Paseq into SA4)
Also, you mention "paint with pattern presets" - where or what are those ?
Thanks again
Very happy that you managed to work out how to do this on your own.
The Preset Imop "add texture" which is attached to the above post can be put into the imop preset folder on your disk. The attached preset has the "texture" layer set to layer one, and is configured to shift lighting with a 35.9% mix. I will say it is worth exploring the other possibilities (shadow lighting etc.,), they each will give some interesting results.
So using the "add texture" preset it would be normal to put the texture layer into layer one, but as you point out it is easy to adjust the ip_source layer to point to any layer that you might want to act as the source. One can create a Paseq simply by turning on history recording while you do the steps you enumerated above. Export the recorded history and you have a working Paseq.
Though since the operational process really is just importing a "texture" image and running the imop preset there may be advantages to not reducing it to a Paseq which would lock in the source and target layers.
The pre-recorded Paseq at the top of this post "2layertexturepas" is a PASeq file after downloading and unzipping the file should be placed in the PASeq folder inside the presets folder in your SA folder. there is a tip that explains folders in SA < here
I am not quite certain that I understand what you mean by (after making the resolution the same as my original painted image) as SA is going to make any image you import the same resolution on the canvas. Perhaps you are meaning that you are scaling the texture image suit your taste, which of course is a great Idea.
Now that you have mastered this method you might look again at the related possibility of creating your own image in the "texture" layer. The Paseq "2layertexturepas" is just one example of how this can be done.
Essentially though you have properly understood the concept already: Put or create an image to be used for texture then composite it with the target image.
The Paint with Pattern presets are found in the paint preset folders: Patterns, Pattern effects and Pattern Pens. I wish that I could point you more directly but about a month ago I re-organized all my presets into more unitary categories so that for example all of the pattern presets are in a single folder for me.
I do remember that the Patterns folder is inside the collections 2.0 folder. I imagine that you can find all of them with Spotlight.
cheers
Have fun Painting