Trying to create a seamless pattern braid brush without seams.

[Neerlc]

Hello,

I've been trying to create a seamless pattern braid brush in black and white as well as with color fills and a dark outline. However, I can't figure out how to do so without having seams appear between sections.  Maybe it's something simple that I'm overlooking.  Any advice would be welcome!

Thanks,

Janeen

[Monika Gause]

Illustrator uses an unfilled/unstroked rectangle in the background of your artwork for the repeat.

So whatever you do, put that behind your design. The design can be larger than the rectangle. In order to get rid of those lines: use an open path and then stroke it (so that this line simply is not there).

[Neerlc]

Thanks so much for your advice!  In order to get rid of the lines, do you mean I need to use the pen tool to redraw the braid sections?   

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

No you don't. But you have to get rid of the vertical lines.

It will work best when you make a repeat like this:

But it can also work when you do it like this (with the invisible rectangle):

You'll just have to be more careful.

[Neerlc]

Hello again,

Thank you!  I was able to fix the issue with your help 🙂

After creating a few pattern braid brushes I noticed that when the stroke is any larger than 1 pt initally, the braid pattern misaligns...

Is there a way I can fix that as I would like the stroke to be 2 pts.

Thanks,

Janeen

[Monika Gause]

You should generally be able to create that, but it might not be possible to apply a different stroke weight afterwards. So you will need to check the repeat and adjust the paths if needed.

Also: while it is possible to have livestrokes inside a brush, the documentation does advise you to convert strokes to shapes before creating a brush. Brushes with live strokes do behave surprisingly on occasion.

[Neerlc]

Ok, yes I didn't explain my issue properly.  Before I expanded the stroke I made it thicker (around 2pt) so that after it is expanded I'd have a thicker outline shape. 

Also should I be expanding the stroke only or both the fill and the stroke?  Does it matter?

[Monika Gause]

You can't expand the fill (unless there is some special effect or gradient or something applied)

[Neerlc]

Thanks so much!  Finally got it 🙂