Illustrator: How do I fix this inner corner issue with my custom pattern brush?

Question

I've been trying to make this fairly simple knot however I cannot seem to make the inner corners no matter what I do. I tried everything, here's what happens:

There's that weird gap. God only knows how many tutorials I've seen and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, as you can see the brush works great for closed objects but those inner corners...

The auto sliced one is technically okay but it squishes everything around it. I even tried adding just that corner but illustrator always included the huge gaps. I'm definitely doing something wrong and my sleep deprivation isn't helping. I'm using Ai CC 2019. What do I do?

Answer 1

Pattern Brush corner creation can be a long, detailed process (as well as frustrating).

I can't offer any specific steps for your specific artwork without having access to the artwork itself.

However, here's what I do....

Take the existing brush and apply it to a path so that all corners/sides are used - similar to your first image above.

Drag the Brush artwork from the Brush Panel to the artboard (even if you already have the art on the artboard.)

This is done so that you can see how the "hollow" rectangles are defining the brush pieces. If you are experiencing gaps or misalignments on corners, you need to see this hollow rectangle to adjust the artwork.

From here, it's a matter of going in and adjusting specific corner artwork so that alignment or that rectangle is correctly placed. Then drag the corrected artwork, holding down the Option/Alt key, back to the Brush Panel and drop it on top of the piece you've corrected.

Check the path with the brush applied to it.... repeat adjustments....

That's the basic process. It may only take one minor manual adjustment. However, some brushes may take a few hours of repeating the adjustments.

And for the record, inside corners seem to be the toughest.

Answer 2

I realize this thread is really old, but I thought I would answer this question for anyone else who encounters it.

You can make the inner corner using what you made for the outer corner. Simply take the outer corner objects, rotate them 90 degrees, and then flip them vertically.

You will notice it now looks the same as before you rotated it. I know it's weird but that's how you do it. Now select the objects, hold down the alt/option key, and drag and drop them into the inner corner slot in your brush panel.