Creating a honeycomb pattern in Illustrator can be very tedious, not to mention painful if edits need to be made later. This process can be automated by applying a series of effects to a single hexagon. Some methods are more efficient than others.
TIMELINE
0:00 – Introduction
- How to create a hexagon in Illustrator
- Hexagon used in this lesson…
– Width: 92.376 px
– Height: 80px
1:27 – Honeycomb built with 3 effects
- Effect #1
Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform
– Move Horizontal: 77px
– Move Vertical: 45px
– Copies: 1
- Effect #2
Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform
– Move Vertical: 90px
– Copies: 8
- Effect #3
Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform
– Move Horizontal: 154px
– Copies: 4
7:33 – Honeycomb built with 2 effects
- Effect #1
Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform
– Move Horizontal: 77px
– Move Vertical: 45px
– Reflect X: Yes
– Copies: 17
- Effect #2
Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform
– Move Horizontal: 154px
– Copies: 4