ENHANCED in SymmetryMill 3
SymmetryMill's Pattern Explorer gives you a broad overview of patterns that you can create
from your source image. To start the Explorer, click the Start Explorer button in the
middle of the Pattern window or choose Tools > Start Explorer.
Hover the mouse pointer over the Pattern window to show the Start Explorer button.
While the Explorer is running, SymmetryMill creates one pattern after another, each time with different
settings. Parameters are chosen automatically from within their respective
most commonly used ranges so that relatively substantial changes are typically followed by
smaller ones, giving you both a wide selection of patterns and a sense of how the patterns can
be tweaked further.
Exploration continues until you click the Stop Explorer button or choose Tools > Stop Explorer.
Hover the mouse pointer over the Pattern window while the Explorer is running to show the Stop Explorer button.
The intermediate stages of the Explorer history accumulate in the Explorer Track,
which is shown when the Explorer stops. To browse the history, click within the Explorer track
or press the Left or Right arrows on the keyboard.
Hold down the Shift key and press the Left or Right arrow to jump by bigger steps.
Press the Space key on the keyboard to re-run the Explorer history starting from any selected step.
Note: The Explorer track is not intended for long-term storage. It can be
automatically cleared when you edit the pattern, as well as on other occasions.
Since the Explorer track is volatile, you should always save patterns that you like—or
patterns that you wish to refine—as
snapshots.
That will let you reproduce the selected patterns and work on them at a later time.
Use the
Export dialog to save the entire Explorer history
in sequentially numbered image files or a single video file.
Settings used by the Explorer are stored in the
Explorer Preferences dialog. To open
the dialog, click the
Explorer Preferences button
in the Pattern window toolbar..
By default, the Explorer alters all the pattern parameters, scales the control path, and
moves it around the source image area, giving you a very broad variety of patterns. However,
you can also explore only one facet (or several facets) of pattern making. Once you deselect
a checkbox in the
Explore section, SymmetryMill will try to preserve your current
setting for that parameter as much as possible while changing the other parameters. For
instance, if you deselect the Filters checkbox, the Explorer will create patterns using only
the currently selected
source image filters (or no filters,
if none are selected in the
Filters panel).
You can run the Explorer for both static source images and videos. When you browse the Explorer
track for a video source file, SymmetryMill moves the player head to the exact point on the video timeline
at which the pattern was recorded.
