Working with Tessellation Mosaics

A tessellation is a type of mosaic that uses non-rectangular tiles. Tessellation tiles are subject to the same rules as the rectangular mosaic tiles.

The Make Tessellation feature works by dividing the canvas into polygonal shapes, which become the mosaic tiles. The polygons themselves are sets of points, connected by line segments. You can control the number of points and their distribution. You can also specify how the points are connected.

A tessellation mosaic uses non-rectangular tiles.

After choosing the Make Tessellation feature, the polygons appear as mosaic tiles, are given the primary color, and are surrounded by the grout lines described in the Make Mosaic dialog box.

You can use the tools in the Make Mosaic dialog box to remove tiles and change their color. However, you can't re-apply tiles.

To create a tessellation

1. Open a new document.
2. Choose Canvas menu > Make Mosaic.
3. In the Make Mosaic dialog box, choose Dimensions from the Settings menu.
4. Adjust the Grout slider to describe the thickness you want for the grout lines, and select a grout color.
5. Click Done to exit the Make Mosaic dialog box.
6. Choose Canvas menu > Make Tessellation.
7. Do one of the following:

• Click or drag in the document to create points. Repeat to add more points. Corel Painter connects the points to form the polygons.
• In the Make Tessellation dialog box, choose one of the commands from the Options pop-up menu. You can add 500 points randomly, evenly spaced, or based on a clone source document.

8. Choose a tessellation tile shape from the Display pop-up menu. Corel Painter forms polygons by connecting the points according to the Display type.

You can choose from one of three display options:

• Triangles
• Cracks
• Pieces

9. If you want to clear all points, choose Reset from the Options pop-up menu.

You can base your Tessellation on Triangles, Cracks or Pieces.

Corel Painter converts the polygons to mosaic tiles, then renders the mosaic image to the canvas.

• Adding points based on a clone source is a powerful option. The 500 points are distributed according to the luminance of the clone source. Lighter regions receive a greater density of points and, so, smaller polygons.
• The number of points appears in the corner of the Make Tessellation dialog box.

• Repeat a command from the Add Points menu to create more points. You can alternate between dragging and using an add-points command. The points accumulate.
• You might want to convert a regular image to a tessellation. If so, set up the image as the clone source. Enable the Clone Color option on the Colors palette. Then make the tessellation.

A finished tessellation resembles stained glass.

To add points using strokes

1. Open a new document.
2. Choose Canvas menu > Make Mosaic.
3. In the Make Mosaic dialog box, choose Dimensions from the Settings pop-up menu.
4. Adjust the Grout slider to describe the thickness you want for the grout lines, and select a grout color.
5. Click Done to exit the Make Mosaic dialog box.
6. Choose Canvas menu > Make Tessellation.
7. In the Make Tessellation dialog box, choose Add 500 Evenly Spaced Points from the Options pop-up menu.
8. Create a shape by making strokes in the document.

The points along the stroke will have increased density.

Adding points in the shape of a letter by stroking. The letters appear as a swath of smaller polygons.

• You can continue stroking to add higher concentrations of polygons in very specific areas. This way, you can create specific patterns or shapes.
• It is possible to create a huge number of points. More points mean more polygons, which increase the time it takes to convert to a mosaic. Keep this in mind to avoid overwhelming your system.

Coloring Tessellations

After the tessellation appears as a mosaic, you can open the Make Mosaic dialog box and modify the tile colors using the Change Tile Color tool.

When you create a tessellation with the current color and the grout color set to black, and choose Make Mosaic, the image appears totally black. Don't worry-it's not empty. With the Change Tile Color tool, you can set the primary color to a bright color, and stroke in the document. Colored, tessellated tiles appear beneath your stroke. You can also base the color on the color in a clone source if you enable Clone Color on the Colors palette.

Once you have a tessellation, you can use Make Mosaic from the Canvas menu to paint on the tiles.

Advanced Settings for Tessellations

The following commands for tessellations are available from the Options pop-up menu in the Make Mosaic dialog box:

• Reset Mosaic - removes all tiles from the document, leaving only the grout color
• Re-Render Mosaic - re-creates the mosaic from the grout color and the tile object information
• Render Tiles into Mask - places the tile shapes in a new channel

The other mosaic commands relate to creating tiles, so they don't apply to tessellations.