Shape (Triangulation Tessellation) Assignment

The Assignment 

Create a tessellated shape from a equilateral triangle 

and then use the shape in a 11 x 14 inch composition layout.

The Key to My Tessellated Heart

I themed this composition in honor of Valentines Day.
I began my design for this composition in AutoCAD with a equilateral triangle that pointed down.

 I manipulated the left side of the triangle to form half of a heart.  I then manipulated the right side of the triangle so that it would fit the left side.  This allowed the shape to fit together in 6 a piece polar array centered on the bottom point of the triangle.  I then made a copy of the shape, rotated it 180 degrees, formed it to the top of the original shape and removed the overlap.   At this point I had a shape that was tessellated on all three sides.  I then added the protruding key to the left and tessellated the right side to fit.  (Sounds simple doesn't it!)

I scaled the final shape up to fit a 11 x 14 inch sheet of paper.  I then used the original sized shape to fill in the interior of the large shape by tessellating it through out.  With the design finished in AutoCAD, I then exported the design to an .eps file and opened it in Adobe Photoshop.  Using the paint bucket fill tool I added the six shades of red in the appropriate sections.  Last I saved the file as a .jpg image and uploaded to this blog.

Comments
Although this assignment might sound easy, I struggled with it quite a bit at first.
I originally started the design with  Adobe Photoshop.   Having little experience with the program I found it quite nerve racking.  It works differently then AutoCAD for which I am use to.  After fooling around with the program for awhile I have started to get a better understanding on how and when to use it.
AutoCAD is a vector based program and Adobe Photoshop is a raster based program.  Vector based drawings use mathematical equations to form their images while raster uses individual pixels.  They both have pros and cons depending on what type of image you are trying to create or manipulate.  I found that using vector software allows for easier control when editing lines and scaling.  The raster software then allows for refined editing of the color and texture by manipulating the pixels of the image.  Vector based software is excellent for precise clean design and raster in turn, is great for final presentation.