Minbar Pattern build

[ZooHead]

Using Cheetah 3Ds Splines to make a mathematically correct Islamic pattern based on historical examples.

Thanks to Chris Heath for teaching me about making proper Islamic geometric patterns.
And for leading me to Mohamad Aljanabi at the Islamic Geometric Pattern School.

The background Plane is unnecessary and is only needed for the tutorial.
After it's all assembled, use the Insert Point command to add points
wherever you need them so you can snap to them later.

 

[ZooHead]

To make the actual pattern, use Create Spline and click near each place you want a point.
Then use Snap to Component to snap each point into place. To add a new spline segment
that is not connected to previous Spline, but is part of the same Spline object. Make sure the
Spline object is selected and click on New Spline in the Create Spline panel, then start clicking.

To make things a little more interesting, I broke the pattern down to another level of symmetry.
I was wondering if I could figure out how to apply a Symmetry Modifier diagonally.
I may have done something like that before, but I couldn't remember how I did it.

 

[ZooHead]

The magic tool for diagonal Symmetry is to use two Transform Modifiers.

The first one rotates the object 45 degrees and then
the next Modifiers will act upon it in the transformed state.
The second Transform Modifier, returns the object to the original position.

 

[ZooHead]

This setup makes it easy to make many spline variations and switch between them.

This is variation 4 explored by Chris Heath.

 

[ZooHead]

Here's a video of how to do it.

 

[Chris Heath]

Thanks so much for this tutorial Eric. It's going to take me a bit of time to unpack it all step by step. This may well be the easiest way to create these patterns in Cheetah 3D.

 

[ZooHead]

That's great, I'm glad it was helpful.

Here's how to merge the Line Splines into one object to make using the ruler tool much easier.
Because normally you would have to select each object and then use the Ruler Tool,
and then select the next object and then the ruler tool again, it can be a bit tedious.

 

[ZooHead]

To be able to build a pattern quickly and see it unfold is great,
but to be able to experiment with variations like this is amazing.

Here I move one point to get two totally different patterns.

 

[ZooHead]

Of course this doesn't mean all patterns are correct, such as the last of the previous patterns.

 

[Chris Heath]

Yeah, it’s rewarding to see new patterns unfold when the proportions are correct. There are some rules to validate patterns. All shapes in all patterns must have at least one line of symmetry (there are exceptions that require a keen eye to understand why) . For four-fold patterns, angles must be multiples of 22.5 degrees. The animation was a bit fast, but at first glance, some of the angles in the last example may not be 22.5, 45, etc

If you get into creating more complex star patterns, the maximum number of petals around the star is 16; any more than this, and the shapes start to distort. Three-way intersections can be present, but are considered weak. Four-way intersections are considered to be the norm (strong), especially if you are weaving intersecting lines above and below each other.

I’m still rebuilding my pattern (multiple times) to streamline my workflow and to record all my steps, so I don’t forget all the ins and outs of exporting from Affinity Designer, importing into Cheetah and applying all the steps in the right order to achieve pixel-perfection in the final render. Once I have got the hang of it, I’ll film it from start to finish. Many months can pass between cheetah sessions, and I can forget a lot of Cheetah’s methods or work.

 

[ZooHead]

For four-fold patterns, angles must be multiples of 22.5 degrees. The animation was a bit fast, but at first glance, some of the angles in the last example may not be 22.5, 45, etc

That's why I posted "Of course this doesn't mean all patterns are correct, such as the last of the previous patterns."
It very easy to make nice looking patterns that are not correct. I look forward to learning more and trying some six fold patterns.

 

[Chris Heath]

Using Cheetah 3Ds Splines to make a mathematically correct Islamic pattern based on historical examples....

I finally got around to building the grid step by step by following your gif tutorial.

Your guide has been invaluable, and I learned so much about laying out a geometric pattern on a plane, sizing and snapping lines and circles accurately.

Rotating the circles for snapping purposes is genius. I never would have figured that out on my own.

Setting some of the circle sizes was done using calculations based on the square root of two rather than measuring, which was fine and I could enter values to four decimal places.

For the vertical, diagonal and horizontal splines, I labelled the first one of each accordingly, then it was just a matter of copying and pasting these and moving and snapping their points to the other grid components. Likewise, the circles are all copies of the first circle, resized and snapped in place.

Thanks again Eric for all your help and for sharing the tutorial.

Now it's onto the next stage of building the pattern.

 

[ZooHead]

I'm so glad you found it useful. You set me on a path to learn to respect the old ways again with Mohamad Aljanabi.

 

[Chris Heath]

And again, I learned a lot of new tips on sweeps, transforms and symmetry. I put the sweep into a particle array to repeat it. Thanks again for simplifying this whole process.