Braid Patterns
Braid patterns are clump shapes designed to be used with the Clump Operator to create procedural braids. Instead of a clump pulling hairs into a simple tuft, a braid pattern defines a repeating, interwoven shape that the clump follows, so you can build braids without modeling them by hand.
How braid patterns work
A braid pattern is applied through the Clump operator: the clump uses the pattern to determine how its hairs are arranged, producing the characteristic over-and-under weave of a braid along the clump's length. Because it is procedural, the braid updates as the underlying hair and clumps change.
Choosing a pattern
A clump's pattern is set per knot with the Clump Patterns tool, one of the clump tools on the Clump tab of the toolbar. The Pattern gallery pictures each pattern; pick one to give it to the selected clumps at the edit position:
- Custom - a pattern of your own, see below.
- Word - strands braided in any order you type as a braid word, see below.
- Rope - stems twisted around each other.
- French and Dutch - three-strand plaits, the Dutch one with the stems crossing under instead of over.
- Side - a looser two-sided weave.
- Ornatrix - a four-strand weave.
- Word presets - fifteen named braid words of three or four strands, from Wrapped to Fishtail, braiding in orders the patterns above do not. Hover one to see its word.
- None - no pattern, the clump keeps its own shape.
Pattern Properties (Position Along Stem, Frequency, Phase, Thickness, Stem Count, Rotation, Blending) move the edit position and adjust the pattern there. Stem Count sets how many stems the Rope, French, Dutch and Side patterns have; the other patterns have their own.
Word patterns
A Word pattern is a braid word: the crossings of the strands, in order, separated by spaces. Crossing k swaps the strands in slots k and k + 1, counting from the left. A positive number passes the left strand over the right one, a negative number passes it under. The word repeats along the clump, and the highest slot it crosses sets the number of strands. For example, 1 -2 is the three-strand plait of the French pattern and 1 2 -3 -2 is a four-strand fishtail.
Picking Word starts from 1 -2. Edit the word in the Pattern Text box; hover the box for a reminder of the format. Picking one of the word presets gives the selected clumps its word, which can then be edited the same way.
Custom patterns
Picking Custom starts from the pattern that was there before. Its text, as the Ornatrix Braid Designer writes it, can be edited in the Pattern Text box of the Custom Pattern group (hover it for the format and an example), and "Open in the Braid Designer..." opens it on the web to design further; copy the result back into the text box.
A Custom pattern can also be fitted to a picture of a braid. Describe a braid in the From Picture box, then press Enter to search the web for pictures or Shift+Enter (the AI button) to generate them, or browse to a picture of your own. Picking a picture traces the braid in it and gives the selected clumps a pattern with the matching strand count, crossings and proportions. It works best with a single braid against a plain background. Press Escape in the box to clear it and its results.
Related
- Clump Operator - braid patterns are applied through clumping.
- Curl Operator - add waviness to braided or unbraided hair.