To do a weave pattern, start by opening a new file, about 20 pixelswide by 40 long, 16 million colors with a white background. Actually, theonly important thing is that the shape be rectangular. You can start thinneror wider, depending on the effect that you want to achieve. Using yourMagnifying Glass, zoom in a bit. Next use the Area Selection tool to selecta rectangle that covers about the center third of your graphic. Use yourFlood Fill tool (with the Fill Style set to Solid Color) to color thisarea with any shade you like. Deselect the area (Selections: Select None.)
 
 
 

Now click on the Magic Wand and select the upper white rectangle.Set your background color to black and choose the Flood Fill tool again.Thistime set the Fill Style to Linear Gradient. In the Options menu, set theDirection to 0 degrees and the Blend Mode to Normal. When you click onthe top section, you should get a gradient that fades to black at the top.Deselect your area (Selections: Select None) and switch your backgroundand foreground colors by clicking on the doubleheaded arrow connectingthe background and foreground boxes in your color pallette. Use the MagicWand to select the lower white rectangle and repeat the Flood Fill. Deselect. Your image should resemble the one shown below. This is a singlestrip of ribbon from which we will assemble our weave.
 
 
 
 

Copy your piece of ribbon to the clipboard (Edit: Copy) and thenopen a new file. This New file should be larger than you want your finalweave pattern to be. Give yourself lots of room. 300 x 300 or greater iswhat I would recommend, with 16 million colors and a white background.Before you start pasting, create a new layer to work on (Layers: New. Accept the Defaults.) Now paste your ribbon into the middle somewhere (Edit,Paste: As a New Selection.) Repeat the paste process again, but this timerotate the pasted image by 90 degrees (Image: Rotate. Check the 90 degreesbox and make sure that the All Layers Box is Unchecked.) Positionthe rotated ribbon against the right side of the first, exactly in themiddle.
 
 
 
 

Repeat the process outlined above until you have 4 pieces assembledas shown below. Try to be sure of the allignment of your pieces. The areain the center should be perfectly square. Turn on your Gridlines of youneed additional guidance (View: Grid.) This set of four pieces is our newbuilding block.
 
 
 
 

Trace a rectangle around your graphic with the Area Selection tooland copy it to the clipboard. Paste this back into the graphic (Edit: Paste)to extend the weave.
 
 
 
 

Repeat the process until you have filled a large enough are for yourpurposes. Even if the weave isn't perfect, it still looks great.The tiny imperfections add to its character.
 
 
 
 

To change the color between the ribons, simply select the backgroundlayer in the Layers. Pallette or Menu, and Flood Fill with the color ofyour choice.
 
 
 
 

Careful selection and cropping readily produces a seamless tile forfills or webpage backgrounds.
 
 
 
 
 

The best advantage to this technique is that you can use multi-coloredribbons in your weave. Simply create a small pattern that you like andcrop or resize it to make a ribbon-sized graphic. To create the shadows,create a second blank graphic of the same size, and using a medium grayas your color, fashion a ribbon section as outlined above. Now paste yourcolorful graphic atop the gray ribbon as a new layer (Edit, Paste: As NewLayer.) Go to the layer Pallette or Menu, and change the Blend Mode ofthe new layer to Overlay. (Layers: Properties. In the Pop-up Menu, changethe Blend Mode to Overlay.)
 
 
 
 
 
 

After creating your ribbon, simply assemble your new weave as before.Now let's see EyeCandy do that!