PatternGenerator is a Java Swing application that generates two kinds of graphical pattern as static images and animations.

Pattern 1

Pattern 1 is an interference pattern with point sources that can have different virtual shapes (circles, ellipses or regular polygons) and several kinds of symmetry.

Pattern 2

Pattern 2 isn't easily classified: it could be described as a set of non-intersecting polygonal paths drawn on an invisible equilateral triangular grid. Does that help?

The patterns are generated algorithmically from a set of parameters that include some ranges of values from which a single value is randomly selected. You can get an idea of the sort of images that the application can generate by looking at some examples. As you'll see, both kinds of pattern have a characteristic form; unkind people might even say that they're just the same thing repeated over and over again, with a few variations. But is that such a bad thing? After all, the same could be said of the abstract works of Piet Mondrian or Mark Rothko. 😉

Links

• Source code
• Manual  (Single HTML file)
  (JavaScript must be enabled in your browser in order to generate the manual's table of contents.)
• Screenshot of PatternGenerator

Examples of patterns

• Static images  (12 images)
  (The sets of parameters from which the images were generated can be found here.)
• Animation of Pattern 1, example 1  (video)
  (If the quality of the video stream is poor, download the WebM file and view it locally.)
• Animation of Pattern 1, example 2  (video)
  (If the quality of the video stream is poor, download the WebM file and view it locally.)

Licence

• The contents of the uk.blankaspect.patterngenerator package (including resources) may be used under the terms of version 3 of the GNU General Public License.
• All other contents of the blankaspect/patternGenerator repository may be used under the terms of the MIT License.