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childofpluto
Participant
June 27, 2017
Answered

How to rotate a texture in different live paint groups inside one object?

  • June 27, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 4359 views

Heya!

I haven't been able to find an existing answer, so here is my problem.

I have a series of shapes that I need filled with a pattern; I also need the pattern to be scaled and rotated to be more or less parallel to the edge (see the rightmost section of image attached); the contour of the whole shape is one object, with divider lines added. It is separated into three live paint groups (left, middle two, right). I've filled the right section first, and immediately rotated and scaled the texture (via rotate and scale menus). I then proceeded to fill the remaining two sections; however now I can't rotate or scale them individually, the pattern within the entire shape moves.

I've tried selecting the anchor points surrounding a section, using live paint select. I suppose I can break it into individual shapes, but I wonder if there is a more elegant solution. Thanks!

Correct answer Katie Houghton

After you live paint the patterns, expand the live paint group. Then isolate the pattern and rtransform just the pattern. When you double click on a transform tool you have the option just to transform the pattern. Also. while using the transform tool hold the tilde key will just transform the pattern.

3 replies

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Tbizz
Participant
April 24, 2025

I came across this post when trying to find how to rotate a crosshatch pattern swatch.

If you have very complex illustrations, you can create a square and fill it with your fill pattern outside of the Livepaint layer. Then use the rotate feature on that filled square and only rotate the fill. Now you can use the dropper tool to copy that fill and it'll include the pattern's rotation.

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Katie HoughtonCorrect answer
Inspiring
June 27, 2017

After you live paint the patterns, expand the live paint group. Then isolate the pattern and rtransform just the pattern. When you double click on a transform tool you have the option just to transform the pattern. Also. while using the transform tool hold the tilde key will just transform the pattern.

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    DougKatz9966516
    Inspiring
    June 27, 2017

    I seem to be able to rotate patterns at custom degrees in individual shapes within a Live Paint group. I don't need to expand the group first. I tested with the tilde key but imagine the Rotate and Transform dialogs would work equally well. I'm using AICC 21.1.0 with Sierra 10.12.5. What am I missing?

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    DougKatz9966516
    Inspiring
    June 27, 2017

    Apologies. Rotations are successful for me only on original shapes within a Live Paint group (i.e., the shapes selected when Live Paint is invoked), not shapes newly created by the Live Paint command.

    I suspect this is true because, even within a Live Paint group, original shapes can be selected with the direct selection tool, and the rotate tool can then be used. With Live Paint-created shapes, only the Live Paint selection tool can select them. Once selected this way, neither the rotate tool nor the transform panel are active.

    Does this make sense?

    rcraighead
    rcraighead
    Legend
    June 27, 2017

    The only way I know of to control the pattern rotation in separate Live Paint shapes is to assign unique Graphic Styles to each shape. Fill a separate shape with the fill pattern and rotate ONLY the pattern, saving each rotation angle as a separate Graphic Style. Then assign the appropriate Style to each Live Paint shape.

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    childofplutoAuthor
    Participant
    June 27, 2017

    Cool, thanks! It's a little work intensive for my purposes, but great tip! Thank you.

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