Creating Repeat Patterns: Blending Units of Repetition

Shared patterns that illustrate blending »

Mirror symmetries naturally produce patterns without visible divisions between repeated units. For other symmetries, it is possible to create seamless patterns by blending (melding together) neighboring units.

As a point of reference, blending is useful for creating conversational, naturalistic, figurative, floral, geometric, and many other types of designs. In SymmetryMill, you can control blending by choosing the amount of blending and its type, and then apply additional effects to the blending boundaries.

If a pattern’s symmetry allows different degrees of blending in the horizontal and vertical directions, you will be able to use both Blend H and Blend V sliders in the Parameters panel. Otherwise, simply set the value of the horizontal blending and SymmetryMill will automatically choose an appropriate amount for the vertical blending, depending on symmetry type.

Note: Both horizontal and vertical blending are disabled for symmetries that involve two mirrors and, therefore, achieve seamless patterns without blending.

Furthermore, using the Blend Mode popup menu, you can choose among the following types of blending:

• Normal (Normal, Average, Enhanced Average, and Dissolve)
• Darken (Darken, Darker Color, Multiply, Soft Color Burn, Color Burn, Inverse Color Burn, and Linear Burn)
• Lighten (Lighten, Lighter Color, Screen, Soft Color Dodge, Color Dodge, Inverse Color Dodge, and Linear Dodge (Add))
• Contrast (Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light, Vivid Light, Linear Light, Pin Light, and Hard Mix)
• Reflect (Reflect, Glow, Freeze, Heat, and Phoenix)
• Cancellation (Difference, Negate, Exclude, Subtract, Stamp, and Erase)
• Composite (Hue, Saturation, Color, and Luminosity)

Shared patterns created using different blend modes »

As you will see, there are no "good" or "bad" blend modes, but they all can be useful depending on your source image, unit boundaries, and design choices.