UI Screenshots

View the screenshots below to see what the settings for this function look like within the Randomill panel.

Overview & Description

Oscillation is the idea of bouncing back and forth between two things over time. For example, a sound wave oscillates between troughs and crests. In this case, Randomill can be used to iterate over multiple objects in a selection and scale them by a value that bounces between two numbers of your choice.

Example Settings and Result:

For example, lets say you have 10 squares lined up next to each other with the leftmost square being the top object in the layer stack. If you oscillate the scale of this set of squares from 40% to 160% over 3 steps, you would get this result:

Square 01: Scaled by 40%
Square 02: Scaled by 80%
Square 03: Scaled by 120%
Square 04: Scaled by 160%
Square 05: Scaled by 120%
Square 06: Scaled by 80%
Square 07: Scaled by 40%
Square 08: Scaled by 80%
Square 09: Scaled by 120%
Square 10: Scaled by 160%

The first square was scaled by the From value, and took 3 Steps to get to the To value. Another 3 steps were needed to get back to the From value.

Usage in Adobe Illustrator & Sample Art

Oscillating various properties of objects is great when working with dense, uniform object groups. For instance, a grid of squares can have their scales modified in an oscillatory manner to create really interesting wave like effects. Combined with other Randomill functions like color shifting or opacity oscillation, the scale oscillation function can be a great addition to your creative toolbox.

A small amorphous blob that's colored with a gradient that transitions from blue to orange as it goes from left to right.

Coral (Before)

Functions: Duplication (Count) + Scale (Oscillate) + Position (Shift) + Rotation (Oscillate)

A blue an orange colored guilloche-like design with overlapping shapes in a complex arrangement.

Coral (After)

This design was created by duplicating the initial object in place hundreds of times, and then oscillating the rotation and scale of those objects between two values over a large number of steps. Each object was also slightly moved downwards with the Position (Shift) function.

Related Functions