Module

Patterns

Tile the plane, then break it

Lessons

Video

1h 55m

Your progress

Teacher

Mara Ellison

( Overview )

You will learn

Tiling · Truchet · Neighbour rules · Seamless repeats

You will finish with

A seamless repeat for print

Grids, truchet tiles, neighbour rules and seamless repeats, with a limited palette that prints well.

What this module covers

Pattern is rule-making. We start with repeat, offset and rotate, then let each tile look at its neighbours before it decides what to be.

The project is a seamless repeat, exported at print resolution, in a palette of three colours.

( Lessons )

Every lesson in this module.

The first two lessons of every module are free to watch. Each one opens in the Lab when you finish.

05.1

Repeat, offset, rotate

The three moves behind every wallpaper.

Free preview

min

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05.2

Truchet tiles

Two quarter-circles and a coin flip.

Rendered live from the module’s own sketch. Your version will look different, which is the point.

( Try it now )

Change a number from the course.

Three lessons from across the course, running live. Drag any yellow value.

01-6-flow-field.js

// 01.6 Flow fields: every line follows the noise
const scale  =0.0028  // how far you zoom into the noise
const turns  =1.60  // how hard the lines curl
const lines  =2200  // how many lines to draw
const steps  =70  // how long each line runs
const weight =0.8  // stroke width in px
for (let i = 0; i < lines; i++) {
  let [x, y] = randomPoint()
  for (let s = 0; s < steps; s++) {
    const a = noise(x * scale, y * scale) * TAU * turns
    lineTo(x += cos(a), y += sin(a))
  }
  stroke(chalk, weight)
}

canvas 1:1seed 007drawing 0%

↔ Drag any yellow number. The drawing starts over.

( Your teacher for this module )

The first time a loop you wrote draws something you did not expect, you are hooked. My job is to get you there by lesson three.

Mara Ellison

Lead instructor

Mara has made generative prints and installations for twelve years, including a 40-metre wall for a Lisbon metro station. She writes the Lab lessons and marks every cohort project herself.

( Next module )

Patterns

Tile the plane, then break it

A seamless repeat for print

Grids, truchet tiles, neighbour rules and seamless repeats, with a limited palette that prints well.

What this module covers

Every lesson in this module.

Repeat, offset, rotate

→

Truchet tiles

→

Rules for neighbours

→

Wave function collapse, lite

→

Colour in a limited palette

→

Seamless repeats

→

Project: a print repeat

→

A seamless repeat for print

Change a number from the course.

The first time a loop you wrote draws something you did not expect, you are hooked. My job is to get you there by lesson three.

Sound

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