Illustrator - how to create a Pattern Brush that overlaps itself?

Question

I'd like to create a brush of some kind in Adobe Illustrator that I can use to create the effect of a monster truck tire-track in the mud.

I'm close to what I want but I cannot get the pattern to be more "dense".

Generally speaking a typical monster truck tire has a tread pattern of two straight lines angled almost like a chevron, but not quite touching in the middle of the wheel. I have made a simple group of two black paths grouped together...

This is almost perfect but I want to double the amount of "chevrons" for any given distance along the path (you can see 6 chevrons in the red path here, but I wanted at least 12 chevrons ideally). This would mean that the pattern brush overlaps itself by 50% but I cannot figure out a way to do that.

The scale slider in the Pattern Brush config menu bottoms out at 0% and I think I'd need -50% to make this work.

Is there a way to force Illustrator to draw double the number of red chevrons, effectively overlapping the brush on itself?

(Note: I'm only interested in slow, smooth, sweeping strokes. This doesn't have to work for 90 degree sharp turns)

Answer 1

Instead of a pattern brush, you could create a scatter brush. With a scatter brush, you can precisely control the spacing between the chevrons. Be sure to set "Rotation relative to:" as "path".

Answer 2

For your needs the scatter brush suggestion may work. Be aware though that scatter brushes place each instance independently, You won't get the "skewing" and "distortion" on curves the same way a pattern brush distorts. So, it really depends upon the desired artwork.

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Adjust the defining rectangle for the pattern.

• Drag the Pattern Brush artwork to the artboard.
• Select the defining (hollow) rectangle and change its width.
• Select this new art and its hollow rectangle, hold down the Option/Alt key and drag it to the Brushes Panel on top of the existing brush artwork. When you see a thick black outline on the brush in the panel, then let go.

This replaces the existing brush definition with the new art.

The more narrow rectangle will cause anything outside it to "bleed" into the next iteration of the pattern, or "overlap".

Here's an animation in AICC 2017 showing the steps outlined above.

or....

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Adjust the pattern.

If you want more chevrons, create the pattern with the proper amount. One instance of a pattern is often not sufficient.